#im kidding but im figuring out that like chapter end title drop thing

[flamboyant-king]

Page -1 of We Grow as We Go. I am immediately removed from Webtoon.

[avaisnerdytoo]

RICK AND MORTY SEASON 7 FINALE

*I TYPED THIS WHEN IT CAME OUT AND NEVER POSTED IT CAUSE PERFECTIONISM IM SORRY BUT IT'S KINDA COOL ALTHOUGH ITS BEEN LOW KEY SAID ALREADY

Read Chapter Titles for Easy navigation:

There is a lot to unpack, I want to cover some character insights, some connections to philosophical concepts I found neat, and some implications I feel the show gives regarding future seasons!

I'll write a lot, so I recommend reading the chapter titles to see if something catches your eye, I understand why you may be less interested in reading a whole thing.

Let's jump in.

BRIEF INTRODUCTION:

This has the foundations to be one of my favorite episodes they have ever made. It is like a therapy session made an episode.

I feel this single-handedly pays for the lack of Morty we saw in other sections of the season.

I think even with most of it being a simulation, the episode still has a lot to say about other characters too. Even if it was all through Morty.

Nevertheless I won't drop the fact that this is an episode of Morty, where his mind, his feelings, and his unconscious are the narrators, which means that the way it speaks of Rick may not be quite accurate, but I'll get there*

Cause I do think the writers are still consistent with Rick for a good portion*

MORTY'S DEFENSIVE LAYERS: short chapter

Dr. Wong once pointed out that the whole Smith family uses rationality to avoid emotion (a fact I sometimes really identify with btw), and this is best shown here, where the layers of Morty's ability to resist the simulation and to place protective barriers over what he feels, is a lot stronger than we realize.

You coooould argue that's simply the way the hole works, but I personally interpreted it as more...

I think we are being told that Morty has also learned (if not mastered) the ability to build the same protective walls as the rest of the family, however his ability to defeat the simulation is also not to be understated, especially if only like 3 people have survived it in years.

RICK AND DIANE (WHAT IS A REAL DIANE LIKE?): Short to Medium Chapter*

It is made clear that this representation of their relationship is not to be taken at face value, but I somewhat doubt the writers are interested in truly making Diane a part of the show. I hope I am proven wrong, but if I assume this is one of the very few instances of her we will see, then I am willing to take a leap and assume some of what we saw, could make sense within their relationship.

Diane was shown as fun, decisive, adventurous and challenging, to me, she showed a lot of Summer traits, which fits right in line with Rick's observations of her.

On the opposite end, I do think there is a big layer of Morty's own bias regarding how he'd assume someone capable of keeping up with Rick's style of character should be, and with the rest of the episode in mind, it is of no surprise he followed them across the main montage.

I feel Diane was an enabler to Rick, I doubt young Rick could be described as pathetic though, more like responsible. And Diane would probably be as well, but I do see a scenario where someone that grabs Rick's attention and respect has the resourcefulness of Summer and the courage to jump into action.

MORTY IS ALONE ALONE, A-FREAKING-LONE + an observation for Evil Morty* Long Chapter*

We know this already of course, Morty is a kid neglected by his parents pretty much, not out of malice but out of immaturity and naivety. The bond between Summer and Morty is good, and has improved, but I do not think there is a world (nor there should be), where Summer should take care of Morty more than how a sister can. (In another dimension bro would be a strong candidate to get Fairly Odd Parents)

This evidently leaves Rick as the only figure in his life with any room to provide protection, love, advice and all the things adults should do.

Which is a very shitty deal... Because Rick is far from equipped at any of these.

His experience, even in the crazy sci-fi multiverse he lives in feels very real, I consider Morty as the most complex character, and he was designed from the start to be the closest thing we -as the audience - can have to a surrogate.

It hurts to see him so adrift, of realizing day by day that there are a lot of challenges he will have to conquer alone, we know he can, but it doesn't mean it is nice to have to do so. (I may be half projecting here though cause I big time identified with him here).

It is clear Morty is really holding back to the scary world out there, he wants Rick to protect him, he wants to be looked after, he wants what we all do, to be loved and heard. Acceptance is necessary for growth, and at this moment, it is clear Morty believes no one will be there for him. (Hopefully that is proven wrong but more of that below).

I think I may now understand what Evil Morty argued when he sympathized with Rick over achieving his goal of ending Rick Prime, and still feeling unsatisfied. (that's a theory*).

MORTY'S PERCEPTION OF RICK

+ the struggles of adapting to a changing family member or friend

+ will it have an impact on the next Season?

Long chapter

Actions speak louder than words, but words matter too, and when those necessary actions come sparingly, expecting anything from the person who's bringing you conflict becomes harder.

That's the best way I can describe how Morty feels about Rick, I'm sure he values that time in Season 2 when Rick sacrificed himself for him, but there are also hundreds of variations of that event where Rick belittled Morty, and that has pretty much been the pattern since then, there are objectively worse things Rick has done than good ones...

It's unfortunate this is all Morty has, he clearly genuinely loves Rick, but I feel this episode, if followed upon through the Canon is a big eye opening for Morty.

This whole episode was a therapy session, like any process, it has to be explored through analysis, brought to the conscious mind, and peeled slowly across the stages of grief...

...

Actually, this episode was more like an Ayahuasca Trip, because it surfaced key aspects of Morty's psyche and feelings, but it only did that, unlike therapy which would keep exploring them to find how to coexist/diffuse.

There is soooo much left on the table, and the worst part is that I think this realization is incompatible with who Rick is becoming, which is reallyyyy unfortunate timing.

But completely understandable, and arguably real, on Morty's part, I feel they are being set up to be on distinct emotional paths which WILL require Rick to take more direct action.

If the idea that your closest family member can shatter the illusion of reality by saying that which you want to hear... Fuuuuck

If you ever watched Lucifer (the TV Show) there's a similar moment there that reminds me to this 🤔

SIMULATION THEORY MADE FUNNY, BUT STILL VEEEERY REAL

not character exploration just a comment on the episode

As a small comment one of my favorite tropes explored in the episode is the whole looped, "Are we out of the hole yet?", because that is the very foundation of the paradox of simulation theory, they technically explored it back in Season one, but the weight of it felt more significant here.

If you're told you live in a simulation, and then given the option to escape, all Matrix style, you don't become Neo, you instead become eternally unaware of when you're in the real world, you aren't shown the truth, it shatters your perceptions completely.

It's not that kind of show of course, but imagine the weight of experiencing, in this case, growing up, going to college, possibly losing a family member (with the worrying lack of Jerry in those scenes), getting a job, forming a life that is ripped away...

I love the running gag at this point of this occurring... The Roy Game, The Vat Of Acid Episode, The Beth and Space Beth Lesbian Simulator (my fav), and now this.

Only this one is given that weight though, even Morty begins to wonder whether he was just outright born there...

---

NO WAY I WAS DONE ALL THIS TIME

I'm sorry I didn't post this when I typed it, I had more ideas and I wanted more photos but I maxed out what I could use and my perfectionism got the better of me.

Hope there is still something here for you all 🥺🥺🥺😖

[linkspooky]

hey, can you share your thoughts and opinions on dazai osamu's no longer human?(just the book and not in connection with bsd) i read it, i liked it, but i couldnt really relate to it. so im wondering if i should read the setting sun or not. what do you think abt this book?

I don’t think books really need to be relatable to be impactful, but context can help you understand it. In general my advice is the best way to understand a book is to read more books like it. Always, read more books. 

Sure, I can write a repsonse to the text though. The book, not the anime. (Ignore the picture of Dazai, he’s just there to look cute.)

The biggest and most important idea in No Longer Human (Ningen Shikakku).  The most literal translation of the title being  (人間失格)  "Disqualified From Being Human. I bring this up, because use of the character in the title has specific meaning.

人 (hito) : human, person 人間 (ningen): human Generally speaking, 人 is used for people, while 人間 is used for humans as a taxonomic classification. 

Much like English, the fact that a person is a human is usually a given, because in our world, we call those who are humane “people,” and only humans can be humane. Just like you wouldn’t usually count humans with “three humans” and say “three people” instead, the usual way to count three humans in Japanese would also be 三人 instead of 三人間.  “Human society” is 人間社会, etc.

Or to shorten  人 (hito) : human, person 人間 (ningen): human, biological.

So, there’s an extra nuannce there in the translation. The title of the book uses “ningen” as in the sense of taxonomical classification. So, it’s like saying “disqualified from being considered as a part of the human species.” 

I go this far in my intro because most consider Dazai’s work to be a response to Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, (he name drops both Dostoevsky and the novel itself). Both of these novels portray society as a whole as an antagonistic force to one individual, who is considered an outsider to that same society. There’s a lot of similarities between the protagonists, both Raksolnikov and Yozo are terminally ill, show signs of mental illness, and both are characters who show incredible self-awareness and moments of self reflection while at the same time being unable to connect to the feelings or identify with the people around them in any healthy way. 

To connect back to my little rant on the translation of the title though, what could disqualify a person from being considered a human being? Well, they could commit a crime for instance. Then they’d be classified as a crimminal. 

Both protagonists of both novels are crimminals in a sense. However, that’s about where the similarities end. NLH is centrally about the main characters egoism. Society matters so little in NLH, society is just something that hangs ominously in the background to the outsider. 

Now there’s another novel by Dostoevsky that similiarly is recorded in a journal format, and is mainly about the main characters Ego.  Notes from Underground is considered to be one of Dos’s first existentialist novels. Existentialism (to oversimplify) in a sense of what does existing in this world mean? 

That’s why I say the central conflict is not with society itself, but rather within the character’s own head. The outsiders of society only exist within their own heads. Their main challenge is not to grapple with society, morality and law like Raskolnikov but rather to figure out what is inside their own heads and what they live for. 

Which is why the protagonists of both novels are terrible egoists. Their main personality trait is their egocentrism, or rather their inability or unwillingness to try to see or understand the feelings or experiences of others. They are first person narrators who only see the world from their own point of view, but they are not objectve narrators. The only thing they can see, the only thing they can relate to, the only thing they can convey is their feelings to the reader. 

F. Scott Fitzgerald writes a similiar novel from a similiar point of view in This Side of Paraidse, which shows the journey of one young man born into a rich family who grows up to not only lose the love of his life, but also to squander all his fortunes at the end of the story. However, Fitzgerald drops all pretense on what the story is about. The chapter titles are things like, the romantic egoist, the egoist considers, narcissus off duty, all the way to the egoist becomes a personage. 

The book ends like this. 

He stretched out his arms to the crystalline, radiant sky.

“I know myself,” he cried, “but that is all.” 

It’s an egoists journey to developing a personality. To way oversimplify again, ego is yourself that exists in your own head, personage is what you show to others. At the end of This Side of Paradise, the main character gains himself, while at the end of NLH the protagonist loses himself. It’s the same journey but in reverse, it’s a net loss, it’s tragic. 

NLH, This Side of Paradise, and Notes from the Underground are all about egoists who are aware of their own feelings, but aren’t aware of the feelings of others. They’re all ridiculously self absorbed individuals. That’s actually, like, the unreliable narrator trick of the novel. 

Yozo is sympathetic yes, he’s an outsider to society, but at the same time Yozo is not the helpless, miserable victim he portrays himself as. He is not the victim to a cruel society, one he comes from a place of privilege and two he becomes a perpetrator. Hence, the whole... crime and punishment allusions. It’s this added complexity to Yozo that’s what makes the book as brilliant as it is. Yozo is someone who is both victim and perpetrator, but he only sees himself as a victim and the story he tells paints him exclusively as a victim. 

But Yozo’s central problem isn’t society its himself. His conflict and greatest obstacle is always his own ego. The reason we read the book biographically, is because we see him grow up, or rather fail to grow up. As a kid he is sympathetic, as an adult he’s a pretty serial user of people. 

Yozo constantly asks for sympathy, but at the same time he’s not really one to sympathize with others. When he tries to commit suicide with a woman, he reports these events with no remorse at all. 

I removed my coat andput it in the same spot.

We entered the water together.

She died. I was saved. 

He seems real broken up about it. 

That’s also a pattern that repeats again and again with Yozo. If you want to see the real nature of Yozo’s character you should see how he treats both women and children. They exist to make him happy, to soothe his misery, and when they don’t he leaves them. 

Like, out of context. What does this sound like. 

What a holy thing uncorrupted virginity is, I thought. 

I had never slept with a virgin, a girl younger than myself. I’d marry her.

The few times we do meet outside characters we see that Yozo is someone referred to as a crimminal, but refers to himself as a victim. 

“Don’t be cheeky now, I for one have never been tied up like a common crimminal the way you have.” 

I was taken aback. Horiki at heart did not treat me like a fully human being.

If you read No Longer Human as a response to Crime and Punishment, you could even read the many women that Yozo falls into flings with and then promptly abandons as a response to Raskolnikov and Sonya. For Yozo, each woman he meets is his Sonya, they are meant to redeem him and bring him peace, and whn they don’t he leaves. Yozo someone missing the point that, Raskolnikov loved Sonya because he sympathized with her circumstances and suffering while Yozo really only ever cares about his own suffering. 

To bring the discussion back to Notes from the Underground. It’s a story divided into two parts, that really doesn’t work without the second part of the story. In the first part, as we are just fed the main character’s thoughts he looks like some kind of revolutionary philosopher. Then in the second we follow the character though a day in his life and he’s just sort of... socially awkward. He’s not some brilliant thinker, he’s just an outsider who can’t connect with others, like Yozo. The second part is necessary to underwrite the first because in the first part of the journal he looks like a champion, and in the second he’s just pathetic. He’s just some guy. Notes from the Underground also has one of my favorite lines in all of fiction. 

"They won't let me ... I can't be good!" I managed to articulate; then I went to the sofa, fell on it face downwards, and sobbed on it for a quarter of an hour in genuine hysterics. She came close to me, put her arms round me and stayed motionless in that position.

The protagonist encounters a young prostitute name Liza, he tries to save her at first, but then turns around and starts to treat her terribly and has a mental breakdown in front of her that ends in this line. She finds him pitiable, and comforts him in that moment. 

However, after this moment of comfort he then he goes back to treating her terribly once more. He yells at her, and she grows tired of him. He pays her and she leaves and that’s the end of that relationship. 

See it’s a moment that’s simultaneously, a moment of human connection, but also it shows how the protagonist regards other people and why he can’t connect to them. If you only use other people to comfort your loneliness, you’re going to end up alone either way. The same way the Narrator uses Liza, Yozo chronically uses women. 

However, at the same time. 

“They won’t let me... I can’t be good.” 

Is what I consider the most striking lines in all of fiction. It is both an avoidance or responsibility, and at the same time an utterance of the baisc human desire to be good. It's always everyone else's fault, the problem is with other people. Yet both Narrator, and Yozo want to be good people, they want to connect with others. 

Yozo and the Narrator are crimminals. They are bad people. (A person who has committed a crime isn’t necessarily a bad person but..) However, being a crimminal does not disqualify you as a human being. They are still people who are suffering. The secondary goal of a novel like Crime and Punishment is to show St. Petersburg as a city where everyone is human, and everyone suffers, good and bad people alike. Yozo and the Narrator are miserable, and there’s humanity in that misery. You don’t have to even connect to their feelings, isn’t it bad to see a person suffering? Doesn’t that elicit an emotional response because nobody wants to see other people suffering and in pain. That’s the basic humanity in these characters. Yozo and Narrator aren’t inhuman. They’re just like... normal people. They are anxious, avoidant. They are terminally insecure. They’re socially awkward. They understand themselves better than other people. Those are all just normal human sentiments shared by everyone, it’s just Yozo and Narrator are so egocentric they act like they’re the only people in the world.

Yet the same, just like the moment Liza sympathized with a man who treated her terribly and only saw her as a prostitute, people still sympathize with miserable people and want to ease the suffering of others. That’s why Dazai writes stories for miserable people.

I am writing a tired story for young readers,

not because I want to be different,

or because I am unconcerned with young readers’ tastes.

I write it rather because I know it will please them.

Young readers are tired and old themselves these days,

and my story can bring them no discomfort and no surprises.

It is a story for those who have lost hope.

                                                                       (Osamu Dazai, Of Women)

[rigginsstreet]

JULIA’S FICS MASTERLIST

so it’s my wifes ( @fredheads ) birthday and im a flop who doesnt have her birthday fic ready (it’ll be done... before the end of the month. absolutely should not take that long but thats the only definite timeline i have lmao) SO to celebrate, i think you all should read her fics and leave nice comments because it’s what she deserves :)

MULTI CHAPTER (unfinished)

She's The One (fem!fredsythe)

Just Like Heaven (fredsythe, alice - fred escapes the Sisters au)

talk about a dream, try to make it real (fredsythe, gladys - college au)

quiet mercy (fredsythe - the OG fred & the sisters of quiet mercy fic)

Papa (fred and artie exploration)

wanna be your backdoor man (fredsythe - h*rny neighbor antics)

With a Girl Like You (fred and gladys friendship)

all our costliest treasures (baby fredsythe at christmas julia i would like to see more... its your birthday i should not be requesting things my apologies)

but your kids are gonna love it (archie and jughead - back to the future au i never saw that movie so i cant say for sure but they do time travel so that checks out to me)

Riverdale High's Last Annual Father-Daughter Winter Fling (fred takes veronica to the father/daughter dance because hiram is in jail =/ )

i say the phrases that keep it all going (different takes of fred fp archie and jughead dying in each others arms julia where is the fredsythe one... just asking)

MULTI CHAPTER (finished [according to ao3])

wouldn't it be good (ensemble - everyones paired up and has to raise an egg)

love is like a heat wave (fredsythe summertime antics)

burnt toffee (halice - working at an icecream shop, falling in love, v cute)

if only in my dreams (penelope lies about having a boyfriend)

let nothing you dismay (alice cooper fixing christmas)

there's a blue light in my best friend's room (hal and fred bonding hour)

The Trials of Cheerleading (or, "Throwing In The Megaphone") (the parentdale bible just read it and forget anything else anyone [ras] has ever told you)

fred andrews adopts a gang (bet you cant tell what this is about)

from the rich to the poor they are mostly unkind (i think this is a sweet pea centric fic?? julia really has something for everyone but dont expect her to do this again)

fp's adventures in domesticity (fp taking care of the andrews household while fred recovers from getting blasted in the chest)

Oblivion (all the times fred has experienced god)

west of memphis (jarchie post 107 thats all i can tell you idk)

ONE SHOT

Wherever you go i'll be with you (fp and archie - a timeline after freds death)

that's as close as i'll get to loving you (fremary - fred asks mary out)

i'm only good at being bad, bad (gladys hating her deadbeat husband <3)

and all the miles in between (fp and tom on the bus to basic training)

excerpts from the same party (freds interactions...at a party... the title is pretty self explanatory but who doesnt love a party fic ammirite ladiez)

don't you know these days you pay for everything (fred, fp, mary - i remember this being fp playing wingman to get fred and mary together cuz he likes mary better than hermione.... read more to find out if im right)

tying faith between our teeth (fredsythe - au where fp goes to college and doesnt ruin his life)

and they were roommates (fredsythe - another college au)

The Construction Tree (jarchie - idk what this is about i dont read kid fics im sorry... but julias a bomb ass writer so im sure the jarchies will love it anyway)

flowers grow through cement (fred gaining weight and feeling insecure)

night creatures call and the dead start to walk in their masquerade (HALLOWEEN FREDSYTHE BABYYYY!)

get me a prescription for that one perfect touch (fredsythe sick fic)

i don't know where else i can go (more hal and fred bonding hour)

everybody's got a hungry heart (fredsythe sexy time with food... that sounds weird.... listen either youre into it or youre not)

not so typical love song (fp and mary bonding hour)

all the redemption i can offer (fremary after the shooting... im pretty sure... listen i have a bad brain i cant remember things just read it)

Simply Irresistible (fred is a ho)

took the words (right out of my mouth) (four times fred and fp say ‘i love you’)

if you wanna get it done you gotta do it yourself (fp and mary loving fred... who is a ho)

people livin' in competition (more fp/fred/mary nonsense with fp gay pining what a good triangle i would have liked to seen it...)

buy me a ticket on the last train home tonight (mary works at youth crisis hotline and fred calls in)

that's what they say when we're together (halram post high school au)

a good old fashioned romance (hiram flaunting his wealth instead of displaying emotions)

you don't know what (you) got (fred has great friends even though hes a bit of a putz)

watch your weight (more fredsythe food shenanigans)

Valuable Lessons Learned On The Tilt-A-Whirl, or "Babe, You Ought To Quit This Scene Too" (alice hermione fred and fp go to the fair)

what once was (jughead and the andrews after freds shooting)

you must remember this (i have no recollection of what this is about but it sounds jughead centric)

takes guts to be gentle and kind (idk what this is either lmfao but i know julia saved moose and midge in it... idk midge but good for her [granted this also takes place after 202 so keep that in mind])

FP Jones and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad House Party (or, "Nothing Good Ever Happens At One Of These") (oh i remember this one.... mmmm. title tells you all really)

and so please help them with your youth ( ‘fred teaches archie to walk. archie returns the favor’)

andrews & son (more fred and archie post 201)

Blueberry Pie (fredsythe - my review of this fic is just me clutching my chest saying ‘oh god, oh fuck’)

never drill for oil on a city street (part 1 of mary working at a youth crisis hotline and fred calling in and i should put this above the other fic but like... you can figure out one and two on your own i believe in you)

The Perils of Faking Illness (or, “two times Fred Andrews faked sick to get out of class and one time he actually needed a hospital”) (read the title)

healing, in three parts (fred fp archie and jughead attempt a roadtrip)

all along the watchtower (#fredandrewsisriverdale)

guess that we were too much of the same kind (fred getting visitors in the hospital)

sometimes wonder what's beneath the mess you've become (fred and alice bonding hour)

nice day for a white wedding (fredsythe hospital times babyyyy!)

The Unexpected Perks of Feminist Activism (or, "Fingertip Rules") (fred gets fucked in a skirt by fp thats all you need to know)

Any Way You Want It (reggie x moose idk what it is but if you like them here you go)

fun, fun, fun (till her daddy takes the t-bird away) (beach antics! freds a menace but fp loves him anyway...)

hands over the ears of my heart (fred and hermione share a bed but platonically)

the apocalypse comes sooner than you think (fredsythemione antics)

small as a world and large as alone (a series of drabbles about archie jughead and fred post 104)

do a good turn daily (archie x reggie post 103)

seven minutes in heaven (archie and reggie picked for 7 minutes in heaven)

tell me every terrible thing you ever did (archie drops jughead off after the pep rally)

[gaydiekane]

THIS IS MY FIRST TIME DOING A CUT SO IF IT DOESNT WORK IM SO SORRY IM CLOGGING UR FEED ANYWAYS-

before we start~~

greyson- ahhh yeah they/them pronouns but originally greyson used he/him so if you see any stray he/hims that i forgot to change please lmk (comment with the sentence or smth it'd be greatly appreciated)

link to chapter 1

i do not own any of the characters or settings from the riordanverse, all rights go to richard russell riordan. i also don't own perry the platypus, that goes to dan povenmire

finally, this is only my current draft, so when this whole thing is done and completed this chapter could be entirely different. i'm also a cHiLd so my writing isn't that good please bear w me 💀 i also suck at titles if u have any other ideas lmk 💀💀

anywaysssss..

The Currently Unnamed Fic

Chapter 2 - i think this is now named An Intro to New Life but im not 100% sure?

The boy led me down the hill and to the Kansas house. There was a man and a few other people playing a card game. I mean, I thought they were people, but they looked like goat boys. Something was nagging at me in the back of my mind, like something about this was familiar, but I couldn't figure it out.

"Mr. D," the kid said, "we have a new camper. And- hold up," he turned to me, "what are your pronouns?"

"She/her."

He turned back to Mr. D. "She's fifteen!"

Mr. D placed his cards face down on the table. "Fifteen? Whoever your parent is is awfully stupid."

Some useful information, I suppose. And, parent? My mom said she was bad at math in school, and my dad. . .

"My mom mentioned something about my dad when she dropped me off here," I said.

"Well, you're not one of mine," Mr. D said, and averted his attention back to the game. "Owen-"

"Oliver."

"-would you mind showing her around?"

"Oh, I would love to, but," the kid, Oliver, flashed the book he was reading, "I've got some reading to do. And I'm also redirecting mortals, so. . . . Catch ya later," he said walking away.

"He could've just said he didn't want to," Mr. D said under his breath (but still loud enough for everyone to hear). "Uh, Garrett Smith! Can you show around the new kid?" he asked to the nearest kid in the strawberry field.

The kid looked around my age, maybe a bit older. They had curly strawberry blond hair and tan skin like they spent almost all of their time outside. "Sure thing, just let me put this-"

"Nonsense, Sandra over there will take care of whatever it is." Mr. D interrupted. "I've got a card game to finish, so if you would please, George Salazar, show around, er, what's your name?" He turned to me.

"Elizabeth Herman," I answered. "I go by Ellie, though."

"Yes, show Lizzy Henderson around."

"On it Mr. D," the kid said. I didn't trust that their name was Garrett Smith or George Salazar.

I left the table and met the kid at the bottom of the stairs. They greeted me with a bright smile. "Hey, I'm Greyson Summit," they said. "I wish I were George Salazar. Oh, to be on Broadway, instead picking strawberries for the god of wine," they said dreamily.

I returned a smile. "I'm Ellie. Nice to meet you."

"Oh, and don't worry," Greyson added, "you don't have to bow down to Mr. D. He doesn't do much."

I nodded my head. Like Perry the Platypus, I thought. "Why would I need to bow down to him?" I asked.

"Oh, right, I should explain," Greyson said. "That's Dionysus, the god of wine and all that. You said your mom said something about your dad, right? I'm assuming she meant he's a god too."

I felt like I had been hit by a brick. I probably was at some point if I didn't remember basic stuff from sixth grade English, but that's not the point.

"Wait, I think I've read about this place," I said.

Greyson got a confused look on their face. "Like, in The Lightning Thief?" I nodded my head. "Woah." They laughed. "Not to be dramatic, but you should probably be dead. Let's head to the east."

Greyson began walking off towards what I assumed was the east, leaving me the opposite of "no thoughts, head empty."

I ran to catch up with them.

"By the time we're done it should be time for lunch, then I'll show you the other side after," they were saying.

"Sounds like a plan," I said.

We made our way along the creek towards the east woods. Greyson wasn't the best tour guide. We would pass by something and they'd randomly point out what it was. At least it wasn't a safari. I nearly giggled at the thought.

"Volleyball court. Art's and crafts. Hermes kids doing. . . something. Oh no, there's fire again."

I watched as a couple kids tried to stomp out a small flame in the grass.

"Again?" I asked.

"Yeah," said Greyson. "Come on."

They tried to strike up small talk. Unfortunately, both of us were quite bad at making conversation. Maybe it was best we weren't as good at striking things up as those Hermes kids.

I tried thinking of some icebreakers and introduction questions while we walked around.

"What are your pronouns?" I asked.

"They/them," Greyson said. "I'm genderfluid, but it's easier to use they/them pronouns than correcting people all the time. But if it really bothers me sometime I'll correct you, just a heads up."

"Cool. Thanks for letting me know."

More silence.

"Your pronouns are she/her, right?" they asked.

I nodded.

"So. . . where are you from?" Greyson asked after a bit more silence.

"Arizona," I answered.

"Oh, cool," they responded.

More silence.

"Where are you from?" I asked.

"Kansas."

Out of all the new and crazy info I'd gotten that day, that one won first place by far. "But I thought Kansas didn't exist?"

"What?"

I shrugged.

We made it to the rock wall. The heat emitting from it reminded me of Arizona summers. A girl dropped down nearby where we were standing.

"Beat ya!" she shouted up. She looked over at us. "Oh, hey Greyson. Who's this?"

The girl was short. Well, maybe short to me, I'm 5'8". She was maybe 5'4"? (Is that short?) She had dark brown skin and vitiligo. She also had brown eyes and dark brown coily hair.

"This is Ellie," Greyson said. "Do you think Kansas exists?"

She blinked. "What?"

"Do you think Kansas exists?" Greyson repeated.

"Yes, of course," the girl answered.

"Even before you met me?" they asked.

She paused, before answering, "Well, I hadn't given it much thought before."

"Damn, alright," Greyson said. "Ellie, this is Leila."

"Nice to meet you," I said.

Another girl dropped down from the wall. She had black hair with a split dye that was hot pink. Her hair was steaming, and her tan skin looked blistered in a couple spots. "You cheated!" She pointed at Leila accusingly.

"How do you cheat at a rock wall?" I asked.

"How can you think Kansas doesn't exist?!" Greyson asked me.

"Hold up, you didn't think Kansas existed?" the new girl asked me. "Wait, who are you?"

"I'm Ellie," I answered.

"Cool, I'm Chleo," she said. "Anyways, you thought Kansas didn't exist?"

"I thought it was made up for the plot of the Wizard of Oz!" I said. They all just looked at me. "How many people have you met that are from Kansas? What has ever happened in Kansas? What exists there?" I asked.

"Well, I know Greyson. . . ." Chleo said.

"The National World War I Museum is in Kansas City!" Greyson claimed. We all just stared at them. They put their hands up defensively.

"So. . . how do you cheat at rock wall climbing?" I asked again, hoping to drop the subject of Kansas.

"Oh I'm a daughter of Hecate," Leila said. She snapped her fingers and her and Chleo had switched places as Chleo went to rest her arm on Leila's shoulder. "The mist is easy to manipulate for me." She shrugged, ignoring Chleo on the ground.

"You bitch!" Chleo exclaimed from the floor. "Which also means, she cheated," Chleo said, getting up.

"No, I just used my resources!" said Leila. "They tell us to do that."

A horn sounded in the distance. "Come on Ellie, we have to line up for lunch," Greyson said. "We can go with the Hermes cabin, since they're here." He glanced above my head before walking towards a forming line of kids with mischievous looks on their faces, like I was told I had.

"Who's your godly parent?" I asked Greyson.

"My dad's Apollo," they said quietly. "We're not really supposed to talk in lines but lots of people do anyways."

We walked in silence to the dining pavilion. We went over the creek, passed by a huge arena, an archery range, the cabins. I knew there wouldn't be much left for Greyson to show me after lunch, but I knew continuing to let them show me around was better than to be friendless.

I was handed a plate of food and sat on the end of table eleven next to a kid with curly light brown hair and hazel eyes. He looked older than me.

"Oh, hey newbie!" he said. "I'm Austin."

"I'm Ellie," I said. "Nice to meet you Austin."

"Nice to meet you too Ellie," he said. "I'm the head of cabin eleven and one of the camp counselors this year. It doesn't matter too much, but I suppose it's good to know. Come on newbie, it's our turn at the fire." We all got up and walked over to the big bronze brazier in the middle of the pavilion.

I watched as Austin pushed a portion of his plate into the fire. "Hermes," he said.

I pushed a portion of brisket into the flames. "Hermes?" I said, though it came out as more of a question. Austin laughed and shook his head, and we went back to table eleven.

Back at the table I talked a bit more with Austin. He told me he has a twin sister, Kaite, and how he's from Michigan and moved to New Jersey a few years ago. He's turning nineteen this October and is really into crafting because he grew up doing it with his mother as a kid.

"What did you mean it didn't matter that you're head of cabin eleven?" I asked.

"Not that part, the part about being camp counselor," he said. "Camp counselors and cabin counselors are different. We call cabin counselors cabin heads to avoid confusion, but you'll hear both. Cabin heads just make sure none of their siblings are being absolutely stupid and lead them to their activities. Prep for inspection, all that. Camp counselors are more of like, the older sibling to everyone, they're all cabin heads, they do inspection, stuff like that. Kinda take charge. They're the people you go to if you need something. Some cabins have more than one counselor, by the way."

"What about Chiron?" I asked.

"Well, you'd go to him for super important stuff, like emergencies. A serious injury, an attack. Mr. D, well, just, never go D with an emergency. He'll most likely do nothing. Actually, he's good to go to if you have any questions regarding sexuality or gender identity." He paused for a moment, before continuing, "Camp leadership! Right!

"So once Percy and Annabeth -- you know who they are? -- Coolio, once they left everyone realized they forgot how to run the camp because they did everything and wars and all that jazz. Instead of trying to remember, they made new over-complicated systems to run the place. They work though. Until the older heroes came back. A couple summers ago the older campers came back to teach here." He pointed to the director's table. Along with Mr. D, I saw a few other adults chatting and eating. "Ever since they came back, us camp counselors have been kinda demoted. No one comes to us much anymore. Granted, they do know more, but it kinda sucks being demoted. Some of the cabin heads get replaced by the adults too, if they have an adult sibling here. But since they teach they're not around much for their cabin. It doesn't make too much sense." He shook his head.

"Maybe it's just that awkward telling a twenty year old what to do," I suggested. "Who are all the camp councelors?"

"There's me, Emma from the Aphrodite cabin, Ricky from the Apollo cabin, and Asia from the Iris cabin," Austin answered.

"You see? I just came to you for a question, you're not useless!" My words of encouragement didn't seem to make him all too much better. Though, I was never too good at encouraging others.

"I guess," he said. "That reminds me, after lunch is over I need to get you a copy of the Camp Half-Blood Confidential. And a shirt."

"The what now?"

"Years ago, after the last war, they were talking about what they would change about camp and all that, and Nico said the orientation video, which only he had seen. Everyone ended up watching it and they decided, 'Woah, this is terrible!' So they wrote a book."

They did what now? "That's stupid," I said. Who would write an important informational book for kids with dyslexia to read?

Austin looked at me questioningly. "What do-" He was cut off by a loud voice from elsewhere in the pavilion.

"Alright everyone," Mr. D stood up for announcements, "we have a new camper. Everyone say hi to Lizzy Henderson." There was a bit of hesitant applause before someone else from the director's table stood up.

"Maybe we should let her introduce herself," she said, giving a quick glare to Mr. D. He muttered something about how he did a fine job before the woman continued. Her gray eyes scanned the tables for the new face. "If you want to stand up so we can all see you..."

The blonde lady began to reminded me of a middle school English teacher. And I don't know how she didn't notice me, I was the only one not in bright orange. I should've stuck out like a sore thumb.

I stood and her eyes fell on me. Her smile wavered and she said something I couldn't make out to the man next to her, whose back was still facing me. She looked up again and continued, her smile returned. "How about you tell us your name, your age, and where you're from?" she asked.

Most eyes were on me, which bugged me because now I didn't know where to look. I decided to try keeping my eyes on the woman. "I'm Ellie Herman, I'm from Arizona, and I'm fifteen," I said.

I heard a few people start whispering around me. The lady furrowed her brows and looked back down at the man next to her, who then turned around to look at me. I noticed the man's black hair and sea green eyes, along with a nasty scar under his right eye, the same way I had imagined Luke's while reading the books. Then it hit me. The woman talking to me was Annabeth Chase, like, the Annabeth Chase.

"Do you know who your godly parent is yet?" Annabeth asked, sounding almost hopeful.

I shook my head. "No."

After a moment her smile returned. "Well, we're glad to have you here, Ellie." Annabeth turned to the rest of the campers. "Everyone welcome Ellie Herman, undetermined."

[oh-theatre]

Objection!: Chapter 13

Chapter title:  A Spooky First

A/n:  Oh look! I'm not dead! And thank god that uh I planned this to come out on Halloween! I've never been so happy! In other news, I LOVE PATTON SANDERS AND THERE IS NOTHING I WOULDNT DO FOR HIM. Also, Character asks are always open and for people asking yes you can do art for this (I've gotten some asks, and IM HONORED SO IF YOU WANT OH MY PLEASE DO) Don't forget to leave me some comments!! They make my day!! And Happy Halloween!! 

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words: 4300

summary: After Romans unfortunate incident, the gang still has to prepare for Halloween

pairings: Eventual logicality, eventual prinxiety, platonic demus, romantic remile

warnings: swearing, blood, hospital, passing out/fainting, poison mention

Ao3 Link  

“Excuse me, would you like some Xanax? Because you are freaking out and it is freaking me out and we are all freaking the fuck out” Virgil claps, Logan turns to him huffing annoyed.

“Language!” Patton exclaims softly, they face him now the same expression plastering their face.

“Patton!” They groan in unison, he shrinks away, his eyes darting towards Romans empty bed.

“Sorry” He mumbles. He makes his way carefully towards the bed, sitting on the remains. He can hear the pair arguing behind him.

“You're telling me? To not freak out? That's like your brand!” Logan retorts, Patton clutches the bed knowing that that will only spark more of a debate. One Patton would rather not be apart of. “I'm mister can't keep my pants on and freaks out over every little thing” Logan mocks, the lawyer had never seemed so childish

“My brand? Oh, I'm sorry that I'm not ‘mister cold and frozen twenty-four-seven!’” Virgil responds, Logan scoffs. Patton shuts his eyes, feeling like a child again, except he can't escape the arguing parents, he has to get them under control. “No wonder Patton doesn't like you!” Welp there it is, Patton stands now. Now Virgil knew that wasn't true, but it sure would hurt, and that was his only aim.

“Oh I'm sorry, ‘mister oblivious towards Romans feelings’” Logan rushes, praying Patton had not heard the last part. Luckily, Logan had the same agenda, they were upset. Although by the look on Virgil's face, it didn't matter, they had really dug deep.

“Enough! Both of you!” Patton intervenes, quite angrily forcing himself between the pair. He faces Virgil first “You, will apologize to Logan about those awful things. And you will calm down, we are all very worried ok? Roman is our friend and the last thing we need to do right now is argue, understood?” He wiggles his finger in Virgil's face, the frozen detective nods.

“Yes Patton” he whispers, a little too afraid to speak. Now it's Logan's turn, Patton spins on his heel, Logan prepares himself.

“And you will apologize to Virgil, you were just as mean! He is allowed to be worried! Our friend is lying in an operation room alone, and we have no idea what's going on!” Patton takes a deep breath, steadying himself “Got it?” He questions sternly, feeling trapped between his own kids. Except they were grown adults.

“Got it” Logan mumbles shamefully. He had to admit, Patton was very good at conflict resolving. And a little scary. They bow their heads, preferring not to meet the lawyer's eyes, waiting for something to shift.

“Good, I'm going to go and get some coffee, you two” he glares “Are going to fix this and be nice to one another, you're friends, don't forget that” He reminds, Logan and Virgil glance up, locking regretful eyes. “And Lo?” Logan snaps his head towards him “I like you very much” He confirms before promptly leaving the room. Virgil notices the blush immediately, he wonders if Patton knows how much that meant.

“I am...sorry Virgil” Logan begins, going first to rid himself of the jumbled ideas in his mind. “You have every right to be worried about Roman, I shouldn't have snapped” He admits, now feeling the effects of his previous words. “And I shouldn't have said...that about your..brand” He quotes, using his fingers to mimic an air quote. Virgil holds his breath, exhaling only when Logan's shoulders fall.

“Guess it's my turn” he jokes, chuckling dryly. Logan nods, avoiding anything. “I'm sorry dude, you're just worried and I think that just freaked me out a bit cause...you're never worried” Virgil rubs his arm, squeezing it to make sure he's actually there. “And it's fine, my anxiety is usually better than…” He shrugs knowingly, Logan purses his lips.

“You have been doing better lately” Logan notes, recalling the techniques Virgil had utilized.

“I have yeah thanks” He smiles, the pace picks up, there's just one thing neither want to address. A word spoken makes it real. “Ok I'm just going to say it, I'm so sorry about what I said...about you being...and Patton and…” he's rambling now, apologies are never easy. Logan winces, Patton's face standing in the doorway, promising, assuring that he likes Logan. As if the lawyer is so desperate for confirmation. “You're not-”

“Let's not do this, shall we?” Logan interjects. His face reserved once more, Virgil curses himself, so close. “I apologize, and you apologize and that is that” He finalizes, Virgil decides not to push, too exhausted for round two. Thankfully the door opens once more, introducing a new topic. Patton returns, smiling and bright as ever, instantly Logan softens, his face morphs ever so slightly. Virgil wishes he could put Patton's energy, his essence in a bottle or something and just bring it out whenever Logan was tense, annoyed or… just needed some light.

“All happy in here?” He asks cautiously, handing the pair coffee. They share one last look before agreeing to nod, saving themselves and the hopeful figure more distress.  “Yay,” He celebrates weakly, the matter of Roman still fresh in the air. As if on cue, the door slides open once more, a familiar doctor enters. You can hear the trio seize their breath.

“Judge Reial did very well during surgery” He assures, the collective sigh of relief quite audible. “They are finishing him up before rolling him back here…” Patton smiles, the doctor coughs unsure “However, I would like to...discuss what we found...during his operation” He explains, Virgil's internal alert system goes off, his eyes shift.

“What? What did you find?” He requests, wanting the information more than anything.

“I cant...well...I have to wait for the police” Patton's heart drops, tightening his grip around the coffee cup. Virgil wastes no time pulling out his badge, shoving it in the fearful doctors' face.

“No waiting required, what did you find?” He tries again, the doctors swallows, leading Virgil out of earshot.

“We believe…” He glances back at the worried lawyers “That Judge Reial was...poisoned”

~~~

“Alright kiddos, let's just settle in” Emile advises, herding the trio into the cushioned seats of a nearby diner. Remus hopped in first bouncing until he found the perfect spot, Damian followed reluctantly taking a seat next to his new friend, Valerie sat politely at the end next to Emile.

“Mister pickle can I have some fries?” Remus wonders, showing the item on the menu to Emile, his small fingers tremble as he tries to sustain the giant menu.

“Of course, but you have to get something of sustenance as well” He informs, Remus cocks his head, his little brows raise in confusion. Emile smiles weary, not sure how to continue.

“Little kids Em, you gotta use your little kid speak” Remy teases as he joins the group, kissing Emile on the head before sitting opposite him, next to Damian. The little boy waves politely receiving a ruffle of the hair in return. “You gotta eat something else with your fries little man” Remus sighs, hearing this before, Emile averts his eyes.

“Can I have chicken nuggets and fries please?” He decides, growing impatient already. Remy considers it, stroking his chin.

“Only, if you get some carrots” He offers “Take it or leave, final offer” Remus folds his arms, pouting. “Deal or no deal mister Hart?” It almost felt odd addressing anyone other than Patton as that.

“Deal!” Remus exclaims, shaking Remy's hand quite ferociously. “What are you getting?” He turns, asking Damian who is still perusing the menu.

“Mmm I don't know, Papi usually helps me” He comments, Emile pulls out his phone in remembrance, shooting a quick text to Virgil. The kids continue their conversation, finishing their orders and moving onto their colors. Damian and Remus collaborate on a drawing, using purple, yellow, green and blue to create a wonderful world. Valerie sits pleasantly chatting away with Emile, talking about her day. Remy watches, the kids so...oblivious to everything. And Emile so...happy and relaxed. Remy had to wonder what was really going on in his partner's head, he hates to admit it but sometimes it was hard to read Emile.

“Rem? Everything alright?” Emile cautions from across the table, Valerie joins her brother in his activity adding spruce of red to the mix.

“Yeah...I just-”

“Hold on, sorry, I'm getting a text” Emile checks his phone, his eyes tracing the text, Remy watches the reflection in his glasses. “Oh!” He chimes, he looks to the kids who turn their focus towards the bright figure. The twins find it comforting how much he reminds them of their dad. “We gotta eat quick! Your dad is expecting you home soon!” He tells them, Damian pouts returning to his drawing.

What about my dad?

~~~

“I feel bad for leaving Roman” Patton laments, returning home Logan by his side. He helps his fellow lawyer hang up his coat, before inviting him towards the living room. “Would you like a cup of tea? Coffee?” Patton offers from the kitchen through the window that connects to the living room.

“Tea is adequate” He responds examining the newly hung decorations, little pumpkins strewn around each carved. It was quite easy to tell which ones Patton made and which ones the twins did. Logan finishes his observations, sitting at the kitchen counter watching Patton work.

“One cup of tea!” He exclaims, placing the beverage in front of Logan. The lawyer smiles at Patton, thanking him with a nod. “Do you think V is alright?” Patton fiddles with the sugar packets laying in front of him, trying hard not to reach for his phone. He hadn't wanted to leave Virgil and Roman but it was Halloween night. Logan watches carefully,

“I think…” He starts slowly, taking Patton's hand so he stops. “That Virgil will be ok and that you…” Patton looks up, meeting Logans' eyes, only now can they see just how tired they are. “Need to focus on tonight, its good for you, a distraction. Plus, Roman needs his rest and you and Virgil need a break” Logan explains, Patton nods thankfully. The door creaks open, two scurrying feet rush in followed by a disheveled Emile.

“Papa!” “Dada!” The twins shout in unison running directly into their father's arms. Patton was noticeably happier as they made contact. They instantly began rambling about their day as Patton leads them to their room to change, Emile takes a moment to breathe.

“Heya Logan!” He greets finally noticing the lawyer, Logan turns his focus from the spot where Patton had left towards Emile. “Whatcha doing here?” He asks serving himself some tea, Logan had to wonder how many times everyone had been to Patton's house to feel comfortable enough to do as they please.

“I was invited for Halloween” he responds, Emile's smile glistens. “Where is detective Nyx, might I ask?” he references the empty spot next to the doctor.

“He’s dropping off Damian at Virgil's house” Emile clarifies, Logan nods finishing his drink. He makes his way around counter washing his dish in the sink, Patton returns a moment later.

“Well, they are off getting ready! They are much too excited for this” Patton proclaims, Emile giggles delighted for the twins. “Thank you so much for dropping them off” Patton turns to Emile, the doctor waves it off grateful to spend time with the twins.

“It was nothing, you know how much I love them” Emile admits, Patton laughs softly giving his friend a farewell hug before watching him depart. The twins emerge after a moment, Valerie first spinning around as she shows off her outfit. Logan has to commend Patton, his handiwork on the clothes was astounding. She wore a poofy top with a red sash around her, slowly going out into a short skirt with leggings. She had a fake and very dull sword by her side, and a tiara lay perfectly on her head.

“Beware! It is I! Princess warrior Valerie!” She announces swinging her sword around. Patton claps, laughing delightfully. She jumps into his arms, hugging his neck. “Thank you, papa!” She says nuzzling herself comfortably into his arms.

“Of course angel face,” Patton says kissing her on the forehead before releasing her to play. She takes a swing at Logan, he tilts his head confused but understands after a while ‘falling’ off his chair. Valerie giggles, covering her mouth as she does so. Patton sighs content, shooting a grateful glance towards the lawyer, hoping the dim lights covered his blush. Luckily he wouldn't have to know seeing as Remus joins the group soon after.

“Behold!” He pauses turning to Logan “Is that the right word?” He wonders, Logan nods proudly that Remus even listened to the man's ramblings sometimes. He resumes his position showing off his own royal outfit. The green was prominent, meshing beautifully with the dark black. As opposed to Valerie's outfit, he was messier and fluffier. He waddled around the room, showing off his outfit. Quickly tackled by his sister as the pair engage in a mock fight, careful with one another.

“Kiddos!” Patton stops them checking the time. “Ready to go?” He asks, the twins share a glance before turning back to their father and nodding ecstatically. Patton chuckles turning to the table where he left a witch hut, putting it on carefully. Logan genuinely thought that Patton couldn't get any…

“Cuter! I'm cuter!” Remus claims, he pudges his face, pursing his lips “Look!” Patton sweeps the boy off his feet, placing him comfortably in his arms.

“You're both adorable” He reassures, Remus grins holding his trick-or-treating bag steadily. Logan takes this as his cue to collect Valerie, she wastes no time jumping into his arms, causing an ‘umph’ to escape him.

“I...concur” Logan adds as Valerie stares at him with nothing but joy. They were really cute, Logan wasn't one to deny that.

“Remember we’re going to go for a little bit and then meet up with Virgil and Damian, go with them for a little while and then come home and-” The twins are ready. Disappointment should not have been what Logan felt at the mention of meeting up with Virgil.

“Movies!” Remus exclaims, squirming in his dad's arms.

“Candy!” Valerie adds, Logan chuckles at their antics. Patton nods, he leaves a bowl of candy outside with a neatly handwritten sign with the message ‘Take two! From me to you!’, he leaves the string lights on and locks the door.

“Alright, here we go” He smiles, the bustling street full of kids chattering excitedly to collect candy. Logan has to wonder what is so enticing about walking around for hours, on foot, bothering the neighbors for an unhealthy amount of sugar.

“Down! Down!” The twins chant wanting to be one with the others, Patton sighs looking around before hesitantly setting Remus down keeping a delicate grasp on his small hand. Logan follows suit holding on to Valerie's hand for safety. The twins jump and bounce around as they walk, finally deciding on a house. Remus, with a lift from Patton, rings the doorbell. They wait practically vibrating as the owner comes to the door.

“Trick or treat!” They exclaim together, holding out their custom made bags, as the door swings open. Logan and Patton smile politely at the woman as she fills up the bag, complimenting their outfits and wishing them well on their journey. The rest of the night goes similarly, the twins go from house to house filling up on candy. Slowly the quartet falls into a routine, the kids are allowed to wander freely as long as they don't go too far and Logan gets a moment to breathe.

“Having fun?” Patton inquires, his eyes fixated on the skipping twins who sing a sweet tune ahead of them. Logan sighs, the night was cool but not too bad. Patton, with the addition of his witch hat, was wrapped up cozily in a grey coat. Logan wore a darker coat, longer as well.

“I am having an enjoyable time Patton” He assures, it's quite obvious to tell Pattons nervous. But logan wasn't lying, sure there were moments where he felt uneasy or out of his comfort zone but it was enjoyable. Not having to think about the case or murders. He wonders if Patton knows how amazing it is he gets to experience this, Logan himself never got to do Halloween but this was the twins first time. Something they would remember forever and Logan got to be apart of that.

“That's good, I'm glad you're here” He admits, Logan's face feels hot almost immediately. Patton releases a quick, shaky breath, rubbing his shoulders in a fast motion. “I hope they are bundled up enough, its really quite cold” He expresses, the twins seem fine. With the amount of clothes, Patton made sure they wore, and the amount of heat they circulate by running around proves that. He blows warm air into his hands, wishing he had brought gloves.

“Here,” Logan says taking Patton's arm and linking it with his. It could be debated whether it was for more...self-indulgent reasons but Logan's body heat (As proven by research, he swears) would transfer towards Patton. He expects some kind of retaliation or resistance but Patton adjusts comfortably. Neither could tell whether the redness present on their face was due to the weather....or… ”Better?” Logan asks distracting himself from his thoughts.

“Better” Patton clutches tighter, yawning as they continue.

~~~

“Dee? I'm home!” Virgil calls out setting his things down. A moment later two figures appear, Damian, all dressed up in his wizard cloak and hat, waving around a little wand. Remy appearing behind him. “Well look at you!” Virgil admires kneeling down as his son comes pummeling towards him, wrapping his arms around his dad's neck and hugging him.

“I'm ready! I'm ready!” He dances around, Remy chuckles watching him go.

“Alright alright, how was your day?” He asks taking a coat off the rack. Remy sits at the table, pulling out his phone, no doubt sending a text to Emile.

“I had so much fun! Papi, I made a friend! And then we went out to eat! And then we came here! And I played with goo!” Damian explains, Virgil has to wonder if he already has sugar in him, the boy was never this...hyper.

“You made a friend? That's so good, I'm very proud of you” He encourages grabbing Damian's treat bag, his squiggly name inscribed under the inside flap should it ever get lost. Damian nods, trying his best to drag Virgil to the door, revving to go. “Hold on” Virgil laughs, he walks over to Remy. “Thank you so much for dropping him off” He acknowledges, Remy shakes his head waving it off

“Dude anytime, as much as I would love to stick around I gotta go, Emile and I have plans” He smiles coyly, Virgil swats his arm frowning. “Not that you weirdo, I mean actual plans” He corrects, Virgil sighs. “See ya” He dismisses himself, hugging Damian goodbye as he goes.

“Okey! Time to go” Damian decides, Virgil shakes his head chuckling, no point in delaying. He shuts the house down, putting a bowl outside with candy before starting on the street, a very tugging Damian in his hand.

“Where to first?” He asks his son, Damian points forward with no specific target in mind. Virgil shrugs and follows his son to the first house. Damian had done this last year and considered himself an expert, bouncing from house to house, until finally, they were to meet up with the others.

“Papi...carry” Damian requests, his small hands grabbing towards his dad. Virgil smiles sweetly picking him up, they walk slowly back towards the meeting spot. Virgil would have been worried about missing them but the sounds of shrieking were a pretty good clue. Emerging from a darker street Virgil walks up to them.

“Hey” He greets, Patton swivels around taking Logan with him, as Patton unlinks himself to say hello to Damian, Virgil gives Logan some much-deserved shift eyes. Receiving a glare in return. “How's the night going?” He asks handing Damian to Patton, the little boy seemingly found some extra energy. The twins join the group hugging Virgil's legs as hello, he ruffles their hair, picking up Valerie who seems more adamant to say hello.

“Good! The neighborhood is really bustling tonight” Patton replies, allowing Damian to fiddle with his glasses. Remus pouts feeling a little too short, Patton nudges Logan hopeful. Logan nods offering his own arms to Remus whos mood improves as he takes his place in Logan's grasp. Following Damian's example, he removes Logan's glasses playing with them.

“Look! I look like uncle Patton!” Damian shows, the glasses practically falling off his face. Remus giggles placing Logan's own specs on his face, Logan isn't sure whether his heart can take anymore, or if he's upset.

“I look like LoLo!” Remus decides, it's safe to say, Virgil and Patton couldn't contain their laughter. More than embarrassed, Logan takes his glasses back, desiring to see once more. Damian, bless his little hands, tries his best to place pattons glasses back on the lawyer's face, succeeding only slightly. He fixes them, smiling tightly at the little boy.

“Alright, where to next?” Patton queries. Virgil turns his focus from playing with Valerie towards Patton.

“I don't know, why don't we ask LoLo?” Virgil teases, Logan groans knowing he won't be living that down.

“I'm going home if you continue with your mockery” Logan informs. Patton smiles sweetly watching the pair. Virgil and Logan continue their exchange walking ahead, Patton follows with a sleepy Damian in hand. He releases a breath, he had tried so hard but he missed Roman. He missed the way he entertained the kids, he missed his smile, his booming voice, he missed his friend. He catches up taking his place next to Logan, his energy dulls now, he's exhausted and it finally caught up to him.

“How about a few more houses? And then we settle in for the night?” Virgil proposes, Patton yawns nodding lazily. The kids, as much as they want to have the energy to continue, enjoy the prospect of cuddling on the couch. Virgil examines the trio before laughing his words “Or maybe we just head home” He decides. And so they did, returning to Patton's home after a while. Logan, Virgil, and Patton set the now napping kids on the couch, placing a blanket over them. Patton removes the now empty candy bowl, locking the house as he returns.

“Guess they tired themselves out” Patton comments, Virgil nods stroking Damian's head from behind the couch. Logan sits on the other side, he's not sure how it happened but Remus and Valerie had found their place huddled up with Logan and he was not going to move and risk them waking up. Patton finishes cleaning up, sorting the candies into respective jars labeled for each kid. Once finished, he joins the other two in the living room, stopping himself at the sight of Logan adjusting the blanket so it fits atop both twins. He goes over leaning slightly. “You don't have to do that” He whispers, Logan shakes his head softly.

“It's alright, wouldn't want to wake them up” He lies, honestly he is quite comfortable and the image laid out in front of him is not a sore sight. Patton fights the urge to squeal and hug Logan, instead he nods making his way towards Virgil.

“Hey” Virgil greets, his voice low as he watches Damian's little breaths, his chest puffing in and out as he sleeps.

“You wanna spend the night here? I wouldn't want you to have to drive home at this hour” Patton offers, Virgil ponders for a moment, his own anxieties of intruding overlooked by pure exhaustion.

“Yeah but only if you're totally ok with it” Virgil ensures, Patton nods immediately leaving to set up the guest bedroom. Virgil cradles Damian to go and help, closing the door quietly behind him. “So...Logan staying over?” Virgil raises his voice no, not too much as to not wake his son.

“Oh! Well I don’t want to bother him and honestly, the twins love him and I don't mind having him around so...I suppose” Patton babbles, carefully crafting the bed for the pair. Virgil groans softly, Patton cocks his head.

“Oh come on Pat, go for it!” He enunciates, Patton shakes his head, face riddled with confusion. “With Logan! It's been four years...and longer technically” Virgil glares, Patton stops his grip tightening on the bedsheets, he takes a breath shutting his eyes.

“I don't want to...go through it again” He pauses sitting down, Virgil softens taking a seat next to him. “I know it's silly but...what if Logan...is exactly like Liam?” His voice is so low now, his words seize into a fearful whisper. “I just can't do that again” He slumps his shoulders rubbing furiously at his eyes, his glasses lifting as he does so, clinging to the tiniest ear.

“Logan would...never do that” Virgil hopes, he wants to say something to Patton but how does he know? In all honesty, he doesn't want to see Patton go through that again. Virgil watched Patton suffer silently for years, he knows ...hopes that Logan would never do the same but even the idea…

“I know…” He starts, he shakes his head, a squirmed breath “I know, let's just forget about it” He says standing quickly.

“Patton”

“No it's fine” he refuses to meet Virgil's eyes “I'm fine”

[oleanderblume]

Unrelated but OMYGOD. My clown series reached 1k reads on wattpad.

Which isn't super awesome because its only due to the sheer quantity of chapters I have but I need to rave and spoil it cause I'm super excited about what I'm planning and no one i care to tell gives a shit so I'm dumping it into the void that is tumblr.

So. Im writing a book series called Caring For Your Clown. Its about this trans kid named Oliver and he is sort of an asshole.

Well not sort of, he is an asshole. But a RELATABLE asshole.

The story sort of drops you in 6 months after the mysterious and tragic (and traumatic) death of his mother Marie, who was a scientist alongside her husband and Oliver's step father Jon at a lab that specializes in physics mainly.

They were working on a machine with an unstable particle that caused a..tear so to speak, in the fabric of dimensional space and she got torn into tiny little bits. :3

But apparently before this occurred, Marie was in contact with an alien race called clowns 🤡 (really they are interdimensional traveling amoebas that take the shape of humanoid clowns lol)

One of which pops up in Oliver's life completely unexpectedly for no foreseeable reason and her name is Dindet and she is absolutely precious.

Basically its a saga and each book ranges in about 30k to 50k words. The first book centers around Oliver learning about this weird alien houseguest and also the immediate fallout of the death of his mom because surprise surprise! His biological dad who is a terrible abusive fucktard rolls back into his life with the intent to take custody of Oliver and that is no good!

The entire arch Oliver's goes through is literally the title of the series. Basically learning to be caring and compassionate while ALSO dealing with grief and interdimensional shenanigans.

One of the things I found really fun (it was unintentionally done but now I like it so its intentional now.) Is that each book roughly represents the 5 stages of grief.

As the first one is anger. Oliver is mostly passed the fuck off that this dumb alien clown sauntered into his life and thought it would be neat to CARE about him like he was a PERSON with FEELINGS. Irrationally angry, because he blames her for the loss of his mom (i mean so does his dad who goes through the stages of grief slightly slower than Oliver does) and uses her as a personal emotional punching bag until he realizes that SHE got his bio dad to concede his appeal for custody via literally stalking him and making him so paranoid that he was deemed an unfit parent >:3

All the while too, as the main focus is on the two characters of Oliver and Dindet, there is a background plot leading up to the second, third, and fourth (possibly up to 6 books) of the clown authorities looking for Dindet. And also the checkovs gun that is his neighbor.

The second book is mostly erring in the bargaining side of the coin for Oliver while Jon goes through his stage of anger. Oliver learns more about Dindet but doesn't quite trust her as she is clearly hiding information and KNOWS his mom. But she won't talk. Meanwhile, his neighbor working on a completely different project gets his hands on some clown matter and goes apeshit with it to build his energy machine.

We also learned more about the type of person Dindet is, which is naive and caring but also incredibly self destructive and reckless. By far a major people pleaser with huge self love issues. While Oliver is more of a "i don't give a shit what you think" though its more a facade he puts on to protect himself from rejection :/ he is far more comfortable in his own skin but external factors can make him freak out a little and he is terrible at talking to people.

It culminates when the project Jon solicited Dindet's assistance in is wreck by her own hands and Oliver's growth completely backtracks to the point that he finally manages to get our clown to leave (only for her to be clownknapped by his whole ass fucking neighbor to be used as the conduit to his energy machine)

And yeh, Ols almost immediately regrets his actions (though at first its more denial that she actually left) especially when he catches his neighbor using her as fuel for his machine to the point that all her fucking matter is completely burned away via electrical current! >:3

THEN Oliver gets to the depression arch >:3 (i haven't written this part yet so its up in the air atm)

Basically, with his mom dead and now the only person who could reasonably be considered his friend ALSO Basically dead, Ols falls into this really bad streak of just walking backward in his grief. Anger, denial, bargaining, the whole shebang. But THIS time the lab and the government AND the secret clown police are all in cahoots to cover up what happened at the lab and to do that they need to get rid of Ols and his dad to allow their plot to work. (Will be revealed later)

So throughout the first two books I've been alluding to the leader of the clowns via Dindet's ostensible paranoia and their name is Smile. They have underlings though and one is named Poppy. So the clowns get into the lab and convince Jon to send his son to a treatment facility for therapy under the thin veil that it will protect them from the repercussions of the machine. Oliver is not to upset about this though because he has been to therapy before from his past with his bio dad.

Except obviously the clowns don't want to actually help anyone. Their goal is to wear my boy down until he ready to die because- did I mention this was middle grade??

Anyways. This particular book I want to develop my potential romance between Douglass (Oliver's kid neighbor) and Ols and also deconstruct Oliver's personality via flashbacks that parallel the events in the story so we understand why he reacts the way he does to things and also i think it would be neat that the clowns technically succeed in their plan to draw out Dindet the wanted criminal by using the person she cares most about against her. By making him want to die!!

Then! For the next book, I'm planning on having more clown infiltration, more bonding between my children and romance between my boys because oooohhh boy am I gonna have fun tearing everyone apart when the real fucking deal Smile shows up and fucks shit up. Smile is my main villian and a veru fun and manipulative one at that. She uses Oliver to get to Dindet and eventually catches the both of them, revealing clowns to the entire world right before snatching them back to the home base the Cornucopia.

This is where we learn all the information we have been wanting and building up to about Dindet >:3

She is a criminal because she has Essentially tied a doomed universe to the Cornucopia in a never ending time loop because she is so heckin big that every time that universe is torn apart, she jumps back in time and DIES in order to recreate it. (She's the big bang yo)

That isn't the only reason though. Oliver comes to learn that his mom was FRIENDS with Smile. And Smile was the one who tore her apart in the machine scattering her subconscious in the literally timeless Cornucopia (time doesn't exist there so aging, death, anything like that is completely halted) and MARIE who has been half alive and omnipotent this whole fucking time has been trapped in the Cornucopia unable to see her family or child but fully able to see a know the infinitesimal inevitability of the destruction of his universe. So what does she do? She PULLS DINDET PUT OF THE ABYSS AND TELLS HER TO GO BE FRIENDS WITH HER KID TO KEEP THE TIME LOOP GOING.

And this has happened before. Like this book series is literally ONE (1) version of events that have been stacking up on top of eachother for millenia. The reason Dindet shows up in the first place is because she can partially see these past loops and the remnants of her love for Oliver keeps her coming back YO.

But while all this lovely information is being shared, Dindet is in clown jail and Oliver is treated as a pet to Smile. He tries to stage a break out and fails and what does Smile do? She turns him into a got damn monkey!

And uses him as literal fucking bait to a starving Dindet in order to justify her sentence (which is obviously death)

It almost works too, if it weren't for the fact that these two kids are BEST FRIENDS NOW and would legit die AND kill for eachother, Dindet pushes Oliver out of the Cornucopia (he is still a monkey boy btw) into his universe which inadvertently scatters him.

(A human person can enter the Cornucopia but if they leave, their molecular structure will destabilize in a slow and painful way until they literally are nothing left so that sucks)

This is where I want the next book to start tbh. Now back at home without his friend, as. A. Monkey. Oliver find that his entire home town is under lock down and strict control by the clowns who have now infiltrated the government and are putting plans forth to rebuild the SAME MACHINE his dad and Dindet built to bring about the destruction of the universe. (They want to do this because if they prevent Dindet from jumping back in time, they can end the time loop and get on with their lives)

So ols has to essemble a rag tag crew of Douglass and some other classmates and figure out that all the goop floating around belongs to Dindet (bruh. She is the size of the universe like. There is a lot of her to go around) and they can technically use it as gateways into other dimensions to gather an arsenal of GIANT BABY ANIMALS AND SQUIRREL BIRD CATS AND DRAWN TO LIFE ANYTHINGS so they can try to 1. Bring back our clown gal who is the key to fixing this and 2. Take on the now heavily fortified lab in order to get Olivers and Douglass's dads back.

All the while my boy is slowly dying >:3

Eventually, Oliver finds a way to get Dindet back but its at a cost :/ he tricks Smile into turning our clown organic to prevent her from being able to control any of her matter whatsoever and the cost of it is that Smile is VERY bad at making humans, so she basically traps Dindet in a catatonic meat sack that doesn't have half the organs it needs to function properly :/

To make her not be organic anymore they gotta uh..kill the tumor that is an organic half body (which yes, does have nerve endings) which eventually allows Dindet to be 100% clown again.

They break into the lab, but its basically too late. Reality is fractured and the multiverse is imploding in on itself and in the midst of all of this, Ols and Dindet are careening through the vacuum of an entirely empty space, dying of starvation and scattering and the only option left is to jump back in time to start the loop over again.

It is heartfelt and it is good and pure and the last moments they share together perfectly bring this loop together because in the VERY FIRST BOOK Oliver asks why Dindet came and she says "you asked me to."

And their last moments together he asks her to come back for him. Like I CANNOT yall!!

But that isn't the end. Yet.

The real end is after they die and the universe begins and a single hand pushes through the stars and pulls out a little orange bean. And it's Marie, pulling Dindet put of the Abyss this universe that is so intrinsically tied to the Cornucopia that it literally creates all the fucking clowns.

Its not supposed to be destroyed. And the reason eveeything falls into place so perfectly and things always go the same way is because ita already been seen and already been narrated. By Marie.

The WHOLE ASS SERIES IS IN THIRD PERSON OMNISCIENT BUT ITS ACTUALLY NOT. Its first person. Narrated by Marie.

Dindet knows Marie because she pulled her out of the Cornucopia. Clowns exist because Dindet was told by Oliver that she was and looked like a clown. The entire ass UNIVERSE exists because Oliver and Dindet are the fucking building blocks of life.

All of Olivers character actions and growth and eventual love (platonic) for Dindet shape their futures and all of it started because a mom was so concerned and guilty about leaving her kid in such a time of need that she would rather start the world over than see him suffer.

So..themes.

Throughout the series there are heavy HEAVY parallels between Dindet and Marie (partly because Dindet is a parrot and almost all her actions and reactions mimmick things that she has seen and the first person she met who wasn't out to kill her was Marie) but also because Dindet is the conduit through which Marie vicariously lives out the rest of Oliver's fleeting life with him.

There is even a point where Oliver genuinely questions whether or not Dindet actually IS his mom (she isn't obviously)

One of the themes I really love about this series is that compassion, unconditional love and care is deserving to even the most obstinant. Oliver isn't easy to love. He actively makes it very hard for anyone who could be a peer (even his own dad sometimes) to care about him. He constantly pushes people away to safeguard himself from potential harm and it takes three fucking books ROUGHLY 200,000 words to get this boy to understand what unconditional love can do.

How it can help with the grieving process, and help you become a more compassionate person toward others.

And also how your actions affect others!!

Like i said, Dindet is a parrot, she can read your mind (if she wanted to) but what she sees she incorporates into her own thoughts and as a reflection, Olivers harsh words and actions, even the most simple kind are recorded and even amplified. He is MEAN to Dindet. He makes fun of her often and gets angry with her and calls her stupid and she internalizes that immediately and it has an immediate affect on how she views herself. Oliver doesn't even think of this as something that happens until much later in the story! And gradually he grows past it and becomes more considerate and affirming toward Dindet and Douglass as a result.

And the way things matter. Oh. Every little detail matters in this story up to seemingly inconsequential continuity errors! Foreshadowing is everywhere from the first fucking sentence to the last because the things the characters do and say to eachother are simultaneously current and in the past all at once and no one knows which is which.

Someone got hurt? There are consequences, even unforseen ones. Dindet loses her hat. It is the most precious thing she owns and is a huge comfort item for her. Oliver asked where she got it? A friend gave it to her.

OLIVER MAKES HER A NEW HAT AFTER SHE LOSES IT. He is the FRIEND that gave it to her.

Almost everything in this story has parallels and consequences and twists and turns and outcomes that are wildly unpredictable (up until now because I've just spoiled the entire fucking plot but who cares!!)

Like...this is my baby. I care SO MUCH about this story and the characters in it that when I think about certain scenes I legitimately start crying.

I can't wait to publish the first book yall. I'm planning on publishing it either through a publisher or self publish, and maybe make a comic even? Idk. I just i really think people would like my dumb absurd story about clowns and I wish i could just spout about it 24/7...it breaks my heart that no one will listen.

[bleufrost]

Frozen Embers || Chapter Two

Loki x reader

Series Preview/General Story Guide

Warnings: swearing, very conflicted emotions, some violence but nothing bad

Series summary: Growing up under the guidance of S.H.I.E.L.D, you were trained from the moment you could walk to be a good agent. You were everything you needed to be, but the emotions and empathy that ran through your blood tainted all of your hard work. One day, you are given the chance to prove yourself by being assigned to the cell of Loki, the god of mischief. Quickly, icy walls begin to melt as you both realize that your time together is bringing forth a mix of flame and frost that can only end in chaos.

Original request by: @procrastinatinglikeabitch

Masterlist

A/N: MY HIATUS DIDNT LAST THAT LONG!! YAY! im trying not to let myself wallow too much because i feel like laying in bed all day just makes me sadder, so lets try to write instead haha

and here we have chapter twooo! after this it gets a lot more...interesting. as always, i hope you guys enjoy, and love you all!

As you walk over to the training deck to meet Fury, your mind can't help but turn over the events that had just transpired. Loki had acted so nonchalant as you left, if not for the vocalization of his desire to see you again, you would have thought him to be indifferent about the entire situation. 

But he had called out to you. He had made it very clear that seeing you again was not only something he would endure, but also something that he wanted. It made your heart beat rapidly in your chest and brought a smile to your face. You weren’t foolish enough to believe that the words meant anything, the way in which he had spoken them promised nothing but a craving to simply not be alone, yet you were still somewhat giddy. 

"I hope to hell that smile isn't a result of you meeting that psychotic motherfucker." You quickly replace the look on your face with one of annoyance and roll your eyes at Fury. "That's real mature, sir. Maybe I'm smiling because I get to see your pretty face." 

Fury chuckles but you instantly regret the banter when you see him look up. "Barton! Smartass here wants to act like a punk, I was going to have her train with one of the new cadets, but why don’t we have her work with you again instead?” Fury smiles at you, giving you a mock salute as he heads for the door. You groan and get ready for another ass kicking at the hands of your favorite archer.

***********************

As your head slams against the mat for the seemingly hundredth time that afternoon, Clint comes once again to reach a hand out to you and pull you up. You give him your hand, but this time you let all your weight drop as he moves to pull. For almost anyone else, that would’ve ended in him falling to the mat beside you; Clint wasn’t anyone else though. He gives you a disapproving look, but quickly softens when he sees how genuinely exhausted you are. 

“You alright kid?” You lift your knees up, resting your arms against the tops of them as you let out a long sigh. Clint takes that as his cue, and gently takes a seat beside you.

“I met Loki today.” He becomes visibly uncomfortable at the mention of the god’s name, rightfully so considering the things he had endured at the mercy of Loki. 

“I don’t know why they’re sending you in to do that kind of stuff. You’re too young to be dealing with things like that.”

“Well, I have to prove myself somehow, right? I’m just not sure how smoothly this will go.” Clint places a hand on your knee and squeezes gently. “If it gets bumpy, I’m right here.” You offer Clint a smile before pushing yourself up and reaching your hand out to help lift him too. 

That night you couldn’t sleep. Every time your eyes fell shut, you saw the mischievous god smiling before you. That same feeling of uncertainty settled in the pit of your stomach as you pondered over whether you should run to or from the god. All the warning signs, every instinct you had been taught, gut feelings and red flags; none of it mattered. You always chose to run to him and that should have been a huge signal to abort, but you couldn’t. 

Or maybe you just didn’t want to.

In the morning you were barely able to register waking up because you couldn’t remember falling asleep in the first place. 

You took extra care in the bathroom after leaving your bed; something you didn’t want to admit to. For some reason your hand reached for the perfume you had for special occasions. He wouldn’t be able to smell you through the walls of the cell, so why do it? You put on another black protocol outfit, but this time it was one you felt confident in; one you felt irresistible in. You don’t even fully realize you had done any of that until you finally snap out of it. 

Standing in front of the heavy metal door once more, you slide your key in just like yesterday. Your heeled boots click against the cold tile just as they did last time, but this time you don’t waver or try to stop the noise. You want him to know you’re coming. 

Loki had spent the entire day thinking about you. It was in no way something he found any pride in, in fact he was nearly humiliated by just how much of his time had been consumed by thoughts of you. He was trying to justify it in his mind; you were the first being he had come in contact with for quite some time, there was nothing special about you specifically. He would have been just as relieved to see the man of iron as he was to see you. Deep down though, he knew this wasn’t the case. 

There had been something about you that sparked his curiosity. You were an agent, that he knew. What he could not for the life of him understand is how you could be so wide eyed and innocent. You were so gentle, so kind hearted, so delicately human. In this case though, Loki felt that being so was not a downfall. On you, humanity was radiant and he was desperate to interact with you more. 

He would get that wish very soon.

"Loki?" Your voice rang through the hall as you stared at the god, trying to call his attention. Loki grinned, but you didn't take notice as he wiped the smile from his face before turning away from the wall to face you.

"Pet, you've returned." Walking toward you nearly silently, his face took on the familiar mischievous look that you had already grown to recognize. You could tell immediately that he was going to take any opportunity he could to be condescending or make you feel the necessity to leave, so you decided early on that you wouldn't give him the chance.

"I brought something. It's obviously not going to be as entertaining as I'm sure you're used to, but I thought you might enjoy it nonetheless." Smiling, you sat cross legged on the floor in front of him. 

Loki stayed standing for a moment, his mischief laced demeanor slowly transforming to one of curiosity as he pondered over whether or not to trust what you had brought him. 

You took notice of his hesitancy, and brought your bag out to open in front of you. Pulling out two books, you laid them down for him to see, smiling gently up at him to encourage him to take a closer look and, perhaps, trust you. The god still seemed unsure, but he finally leaned down to see what you had taken the time to bring.

"Hamlet…" His fingers reached out to trace the glass by each title as he read their names aloud. "...Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus…" 

His eyes were filled with questioning as he finally looked back up to you. "What am I to do with these? I cannot take them inside of my cell." Suddenly you got nervous as you wondered if offering to read to a god was truly a childish act. Your stomach filled with worry and subtle regret that nearly closed around your throat before you cleared it of the unmistakable fear and spoke up.

"I was thinking we could read together, or at least I could read to you for a while. It's...difficult to trust someone new at first and I don't expect you to want to speak to me right away. I know I wouldn't want to if I were in your position. I figured, hearing someone else's story can be a bit more comforting than sharing your own, at least for now." Your cheeks took on a pink tint as you mustered the courage to look him in the eye and grew self conscious of the rambling mess that had flown from your lips. 

"Do all humans speak so much when they are nervous?" Looking down quickly, the twist of your gut could be felt again as your embarrassment grew. "I'm sorry." The light sound of amusement startled you, and Loki stayed leaning down still and laughing; at you most likely. You had the urge to leave, but just as you moved to turn away from him Loki sat down in front of you and smiled, this one was different though, it felt oddly sincere. 

"Don't apologize. It's oddly endearing to see one act so unabashedly human." Loki reached his hands up and spread them out to indicate the two books. "Now, pet. Which story would you prefer to start with?" 

Nearly four hours later, the two of you were still there reading from Mary Shelley's classic story. Your bodies had shifted several times, at first keeping that distance between you. As the hours flew by though, you both found yourselves sat with your sides pressed against the glass next to each other. It almost felt like the layer that separated your bodies wasn't there at times, but it was and it would permanently remain so. 

You shouldn't want it to be gone, it was there to protect you. It was there to ensure he could never hurt you. That he could never grab you, or touch you, or hold you. 

You needed to stop thinking like that. It wasn't safe, he wasn't safe; right? 

"Pet, you've grown quiet." His voice startled you out of your thoughts and suddenly you realized just how close you two had become. You sat up suddenly and shut the book, doing everything in your power to not alert Loki to the fact that your heart was thumping loudly in your chest. Your hands shook slightly and you wrung them together to hide the telltale sign of nervousness. 

"Sorry, I think I'm feeling a little tired. I'll be back soon okay?" You tried your best to put on the most convincing smile you could and watched as he nodded slowly. He didn't believe that you were completely alright, but he also was not about to beg you to stay...at least not out loud. 

"Alright, rest up little one. I will await your return with every fiber of my being." It was a shock to hear him say that, and your face unfortunately let it show as he quickly turned away and went to busy himself with something else within his cell. 

Did he really just admit that he was waiting for you to come back? That he wanted you to come back to him? Of course he had said a similar thing the first time you met, but this time it felt far more profound, far more personal. Your head was a mess as you left the holding area and made your way back to your room. 

***********************

Once again, your mind raced with concerns and confusion all night. You had only just met the god and still felt so tightly bound to him, it wasn't natural. There had to be some sort of explanation for what was happening. He had mind controlled Clint before, he could be doing the same to you, right? No. He had held the power of the Tesseract then and no longer wielded such power now. 

In that case, it must be your own fatal flaw. You were a disgrace for a S.H.I.E.L.D agent because your empathy ran too high and too untamed. Now was no different and you had to learn to control your emotions if you were ever going to figure out the god and report your findings to the agency. You wanted to understand him...but did you really want to betray him? 

Unbeknownst to you, your fearful conflict was shared in the mind and heart of Loki himself as he paced within his holding cell. He had allowed it to slip that he awaited your return to him in a far more intimate way than he should have allowed, and that made him feel utterly humiliated. He was a god and you were nothing but a puny human, but even he could not deny that your lack of anger or restraint in allowing yourself to be open and understanding toward him was enchanting. It comforted him to know someone so gentle could care for him. But you didn’t care for him, did you? 

The general panic and unease that was shared between you both seemed to transcend any wall or cage that kept you from each other. Neither one of you were able to share any communication as you lay in your bed and he in his cell, yet there was a connection that caused you both to understand you weren't alone.

It was all in one a comfort and an unwavering cause for alarm to know that you held such a strong connection to someone you had nearly just met. As much as you tried to fight it off, It was undeniable that a flame was ignited, and fires like these only proved to grow with every attempt to extinguish them.

_______________________

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[how-to-survive-a-factory-tour]

How to Survive a Factory Tour - Chapter 9

A Sanders Sides / Charlie and the Chocolate Factory FanFiction

PREVIOUS

—————

“What the heck are those?” My curiosity is sparked by the unusual sight, and I stand, walking over to the river bank. There, on the other side, stands a person. But they don’t look like a normal person… Not at all...

“What are you looking at?” Roman asks as he, Patton and Virgil come and stand by me. I point across the river to where the strange person is picking sweets from a bush.

“Woah, it’s a little person!” Patton gasps. “They’re so small…”

“Somehow even smaller than you, Logan. Didn’t know that was possible.” I shove Roman’s arm at this comment. “Ow, hey, I was kidding!”

We continue to watch the unusual person work. As time goes by, we notice more and more around the room, all harvesting various sweets and chocolates. They are most peculiar… They’re all about the size of a large doll. No higher than my knee. Ethan comes over and joins us after a bit, curious as to what we’re all staring at. Then Wonka comes over. “Ah, I see you found the Oompa Loompas!”

“The what?” Roman turns to him.

“Oompa Loompas. They’re my workers. They come from a country called Loompaland, and island just off Madagascar-“

“There’s no such place,” I cut over.

“Yes there is.”

“Mr Wonka, I got an A** in my geography GCSE-“

“Then you’ll know all about it. And, oh, what a terrible country it is.”

Wonka proceeds to tell us all about this supposed ‘Loompaland’. Apparently, he went there to discover new flavours for sweets, but he instead found the Oompa Loompas. They were starving, and were often the prey of (likely fictional) creatures called ‘Hornswogglers’, ‘Snozzwangers’ and ‘Wangdoodles’. So, Wonka helped them by offering them work in his factory in exchange for cocoa beans. They agreed and here they are.

If this completely absurd story is true, the connotations to the slave trade are too prominent to ignore. The Oompa Loompas were even shipped to America on a boat, packed together. Unfortunately, I am unable to inquire about this as Virgil speaks up.

“They were mentioned in the book… The whole story of how you got them is described exactly the same… Mr Wonka, how much of the book about the original tour is true?”

“It’s 100% factual.”

“Bullshit. There’s no way all that could happen in real life.”

“Indeed it can, my boy, and indeed it did. Augustus Gloop fell in this very river, and got sucked up those very pipes. The pipes lead to all the different rooms in the factory where chocolate is required. All the chocolate comes from here so that it is mixed by waterfall. It’s very important it is, as that’s what makes it so light and delicious.”

Virgil still doesn’t seem convinced. “But Violet… there’s no way she-”

“True.”

“Veruca never could have-”

“True.”

“But Mike-”

“True.”

Virgil’s silent for a moment. “... What about Charlie? At the end of the book, he wins the factory and he and his family move in. If it’s true, then where is he?”

Wonka doesn’t respond. But his face… he looks almost solemn. Only for a second, however, before his bright demeanour returns. “Oh, look! Here she comes!”

“Here who comes?” Roman asks.

Wonka points to a tunnel on the wall that the river flows through. Cutting through the melted chocolate is a large pink Viking-style boat. “Our transportation to the next room!”

Figuring I shouldn’t cross-contaminate food items between rooms, I take the gum I had been chewing out my mouth and stick it to a tree as the boat pulls up. Patton sees me and puts down the large gummy bear he had been eating.

The boat comes to a stop by the bank where we are all standing. Oompa Loompas are sat in rows, five per oar. As they all look at us, they all start laughing and giggling.

“What do they find so humorous?” I ask.

“It’s probably nothing,” Wonka shrugs. “They’re always joking and laughing about things. Now, come on, hop in!”

Wonka sits at the back of the boat, Roman and Virgil sit in the row in front of him, while Patton, myself and Ethan sit in the row in front of them.

“Onward! Set a course for… Hmm, where would you all like to go?”

“Ooh, is there a room with cookies and cakes?” Patton asks, legs swinging excitedly.

“I know just the place. Set a course for Dessert Island!”

The Oompa Loompas push the boat away from the bank, and start rowing us down the river.

“Here.” I turn and see Wonka has five cups and is scooping up cups of melted chocolate from the river, before he hands them to each of us. We all thank him, and I take a small sip. My sweet tooth takes over my knowledge that chocolate is very unhealthy, and I drink the rest in a few more gulps.

I hear a giggle beside me. “Lo, you got it all round your mouth.” Patton lifts the sleeve of the hoodie tied over his shoulders and wipes my mouth with it.

“Thank you, Patton…”

“No problem, Lo!”

I hear Roman whisper “I ship it” to Virgil behind me. What does that mean? He’s shipping an item of his from home to his hotel room, I’m guessing. In which case, his grammar was deplorable.

My thoughts are pulled away from Roman’s lack of literary skills when Patton lets out a content sigh. “This is nice, huh? Just drifting gently along a river…”

“Yes,” I agree. “It is rather relaxing.”

And, I can only assume, romantic. Would this be a good time to take Roman’s advice and try and confess my feelings to Patton?

I take a deep breath. Here we are, this is it. I just need to tell him how I feel and hope he reciprocates…

“Patton?”

“Yeah, Lo?”

“Um, there’s something I need to-“

“Dark tunnel incoming!” Ethan’s voice calls, cutting me off. We all turn to see we’re heading right towards a pitch black tunnel.

“Faster!” Wonka calls, and as we near the tunnel, we start to speed up. Then, as we enter, there’s a jolt, and suddenly we’re moving faster than a car on the motorway. I can only assume the Oompa Loompas are rowing quicker than should be humanly possible, as it’s too dark to see anything.

“How can they see where we’re going?!” Virgil calls.

“There’s no knowing where they’re going!” Wonka replies, hooting with laughter.

“There’s no earthly way of knowing

Which direction they are going!

There’s no knowing where they’re rowing,

Or which way they river’s flowing!

Not a speck of light is showing,

So the danger must be growing,

For the rowers keep on rowing,

And they’re certainly not showing

Any signs that they are slowing!”

“Well, this is great. Our tour leader’s gone crazy,” Virgil says.

“I haven’t gone crazy! Oh, by the way, hold on tight!”

“Hold on ti-?” My question’s cut off as we suddenly plummet, my voice being replaced with a scream. Luckily, my scream is dwarfed by Roman, who lets out a screech so loud I worry Virgil was deafened.

As we dart down, my hands hold the bench of the boat in a death grip, and I feel a pair of arms wrap around my waist.

“Switch on the lights!” Wonka yells, and suddenly the tunnel is flooded with bright coloured lights. I look down to see Patton is the one holding onto him, and my face heats up.

But then, with a loud splash, we reach the bottom of the drop, straightening up and slowing down.

Patton opens his eyes that had been closed tightly in fear, and looks up at me. He immediately lets go and leans back. “Oh, I-I’m sorry! I, uh… I just got scared I was gonna fall out…”

“It’s, um, it’s quite alright, Patton…”

We continue to gently flow along, the current carrying us past many doors with different room titles. One of them catches my eye and sparks my curiosity.

“What’s the ‘Inventing Room’?”

“That is where all my new and unfinished inventions are created and completed. If you’d like, we can head there after Dessert Island.”

“Don’t you mean ‘desert’?” Roman asks. “You keep pronouncing it wrong.”

“I know what I said,” is Wonka’s only response.

We float on for a couple more minutes, when Patton giggles.

“What is it?” I ask.

“Oh, it’s nothing. It’s just the lights, they’re making us all look different colours,” Patton explains, currently doused in yellow light. “You’re this bright reddy-purple.”

And he looks gorgeous, like he’s bathed in sunlight...

No! Shut up, gay thoughts, now isn’t the time! That flume killed the romantic mood, the moment’s over.

The boat starts to slow and veer closer to the wall. It comes to a complete stop outside of a door.

Wonka steps out and the rest of us follow. Once we’re all on dry land, he turns and opens the door labelled ‘Dessert Island’.

—————

NEXT

Taglist: @i-have-n0-idea-what-im-d0ing @clone-number-1 @pumpkinminette @why-should-i-tell-youu2

[justheretobreakthings]

Welcome to the Family - Chapter 5

(Previous Chapter)

Word Count: 2,723 (Total Word Count: 11,961) Read on AO3

Story Summary: Lance had been excited about his family taking in a foster kid, eager to get to meet his brand new little brother or sister, who would surely adore and idolize their super cool Big Brother Lance. What he got instead was a sullen, quiet, temperamental teenage housemate with a criminal record and a disastrous haircut.

Pidge: How would you like to play some terrible Xbox games Hunk and I picked up at the flea market for 50 cents each?

Lance: im not sure i would like that at all

Pidge: Too late.

The doorbell rang mere seconds after Lance received the last text, and he groaned at prospect of having to move from his comfortable bed, but managed to suck it up and drag himself down the stairs and open the door to see Pidge and Hunk at the front stoop, the familiar car of Pidge’s older brother Matt already backing out of the driveway. “Whatever happened to you letting me know you’re on your way before you actually arrive?” Lance asked.

“It was a spur of the moment thing,” Pidge said with a shrug. “Besides, I went to all that trouble to rig up the backwards compatibility on your Xbox, of course I’m gonna use it.” She held up the little stack of games in her hand.

Lance stepped aside and allowed the two of them in. “Why were you shopping for video games at a flea market, of all places?”

“We weren’t,” Hunk answered. “Matt took us to go hunting for parts for that new battlebot Pidge and I have been working on, and we just stumbled across them.”

“And we thought, well, we should get Lance in on the fun,” Pidge finished as she set the games on the coffee table. “Feel flattered. Go ahead, you pick one to start.”

Lance tilted his head to look over the low-res images and strangely-drawn cover art of the games, all with titles he had never heard of - Dreadnite, Rise of Vengeance, Snowboard Havoc, Moonrace, Dark Alert. “These all look terrible,” he said.

“Well, duh,” Pidge said. “You don’t buy a video game for fifty cents and expect quality.”

“Fair point. Okay, I pick…” Lance closed his eyes, twirled his finger in the air, and jabbed one of the games at random. “Moonrace. What is this, a racing game?”

“I dunno, maybe?” Pidge said.

“I’ll set it up!” Hunk said, snatching the game from the table.

Pidge kicked her shoes off and flopped down onto the couch. “All right, now that we’ve got that taken care of, time for the burning question: where is he?”

“Where is who?” Lance asked.

“Waldo,” Pidge replied, rolling her eyes. “Who do you think? Where’s Keith? I wanna meet your new emo brother.”

Lance raised a brow. “Oh, is that why you guys decided to drop by? Just to see Keith? And here I thought you actually wanted to spend time with me. I’m hurt.”

“Quit hiding him, McClain.”

Lance plopped himself down onto the couch beside her. “Sorry to disappoint, but he’s not here right now.”

“Aw, what?” said Hunk, looking up from where he was kneeling by the console in front of the TV. “So we came all this way for nothing?”

“My feelings. They’re wounded.”

“Yeah, yeah, we’re thrilled to be graced by your awesome presence too, Lance,” Pidge said. “Seriously, though, we wanna meet him.”

“Mamá took him to the school to get his schedule figured out or something,” said Lance. “And then I think she was gonna take him back-to-school shopping too.” He shrugged. “They’ve been gone for a few hours now already. Don’t know how much longer they’re gonna be.”

“Well, at least we’ve got something to do while we wait,” Hunk said as the opening menu appeared on the TV screen and he stood up. The game menu displayed an option of either one- or two-player mode, and Hunk turned to the others, one controller in each hand. “Looks like two players max for this one. Who wants the other one?”

“Dibs,” said Pidge. “Toss it here.”

“Excuse you,” Lance snapped. “This is my house.”

“But it’s my game.”

“Or you could both take one and I’ll sit out this round,” Hunk suggested.

“What, like mature adults?” Pidge said. “Sounds boring, but okay. Toss it here.”

Hunk passed a controller to each of them and plunked down to sit cross-legged in front of the couch and watch. Pidge sank down into couch cushions, bringing her legs around to drape over Hunk’s shoulders as if he were her personal ottoman.

It turned out that Lance’s assumption was correct: it was a racing game, and a buggy one at that. Three races in, Lance ended up having to set his controller down and wait for Pidge and the other computer players to finish the race without him, as his own Mooncar had somehow morphed through a rock wall and gotten irretrievably stuck during the first lap. “So,” he said, nudging Hunk in his decision to make conversation to pass the time. “Battlebot?”

“For robotics club at school,” Hunk said. “Pidge and I want to get a head start on ours.”

“I didn’t realize you actually got to make the robots fight!” Lance said. “I thought they just, like, did chores or something.”

“We don’t make them fight,” Pidge said, not taking her eyes from the game. “They do things like throw discs and walk on balance beams and stuff.”

“Oh,” Lance said, shoulders deflated. “That’s… less cool. The ‘battlebot’ name was misleading.”

“That’s not what they’re officially called,” said Hunk. “That’s just what Pidge calls them.”

“You would know this if you actually joined the club,” Pidge said. “We need more underclassmen.”

Lance shook his head. “Told you already, schedule conflict with swimming.”

“I call bullshit,” Pidge said. “Matt’s president this year and he’s still got time for soccer.”

“Soccer and swim have different schedules,” Lance said. “Sorry, Pidge, you’re not getting me into your club.”

“You’re going to regret that decision once the robots turn on humanity and you don’t know how to deprogram them.”

“Hunk will protect me, right, Hunk?” Lance asked.

“If I must,” Hunk said. “Maybe we can try and convince Keith to join robotics when he gets back.”

Pidge perked up. “There we go, that’s an idea! We’ll get to him before any other clubs get a chance!”

“Eh, I wouldn’t get your hopes up,” Lance said. “Keith doesn’t really seem like the club-joining type.”

Hunk raised a brow. “How come?”

“Because he’s not exactly social,” Lance answered. “In the time he’s been here he only ever comes downstairs for meals and barely says a word to any of the rest of us during them. The rest of the time, he’s just holed up in his room, quiet as a mouse.”

Hunk shrugged. “He only showed up, what, two days ago? Probably just still being shy.”

“Hunk, there’s shy, and then there’s straight-up asocial. I mean, you’re not exactly the most outgoing guy in the world, but if you moved in with a group of people, you would hold an actual conversation with them by day two, right?”

“I wouldn’t,” Pidge said.

“Yes you would,” Lance huffed. “And it’s not like we haven’t made an effort, you know? We try to chat with him and stuff, but he just stares at his food and mumbles little one-word answers and shuts us out.” He sighed. “Of all the foster brothers Mamá could have picked for me, she goes with the one who doesn’t even want to be here.”

“Still bitter about not getting the happy hyper eight-year-old you dreamed of, huh?” Pidge muttered.

“I’m not bitter,” Lance said.

“You are so bitter,” Pidge said. “Besides, it’s not like your parents just picked him out of a catalogue or anything. I’m pretty sure when you apply to become a foster parent, if you don’t already have a specific kid you’re planning to foster in mind, the state gets to pick one for you. Or, something like that, anyway. And what are your parents gonna do, go ‘oh, no thanks, this one’s too quiet, we’ll pass’? Dick move.”

“I’m not saying I wanted them to do that or anything. I’m just - I dunno, frustrated, I guess.”

“Eh, give it time,” Hunk said. “You’re a lot to get used to, and it’s only been a couple of days. Patience is a virtue.”

“Since when did I care about being virtuous?” Lance said.

“Don’t know what you mean, you’ve always seemed like a pillar of virtue to me,” Pidge said flatly. She picked up Lance’s controller and dropped it back into hands. “Okay, next race is up. Try to not hit every single crater this time, it’s no fun playing with a player two if you don’t put up an actual challenge.”

“It’s not me who sucks, it’s the game,” Lance said.

“It’s a poor craftsman who blames his tools, Lance,” said Hunk.

“I am this close to kicking you both out of my house,” Lance muttered before settling back into couch and moving his concentration to the TV screen.

They passed the next race mostly in peace and quiet, and went another round before getting bored and switching to Dark Alert, which turned out to be a fairly generic side scrolling beat-’em-up game. It was about ten minutes into the game, with Hunk at the controller, that the knob of the front door finally turned to welcome Lance’s mother and new brother back into the house.

Lance lifted his hand in greeting as they entered, his mother carrying two shopping bags in each hand and Keith hugging a new backpack to his chest. His mom smiled back, but Keith didn’t even look his way, instead staring at Hunk before darting his eyes toward Pidge. He stepped back, brow furrowed.

“This is Hunk and Pidge,” Lance said, answering Keith’s unspoken question and gesturing to each of them in turn. “Friends from school.”

“Oh, you’ll have to get used to seeing those two around,” his mother said to Keith. “They and Lance are something of a package deal. Good to see you guys.”

“You too, Señora McClain,” Pidge said, although her eyes were fixed firmly on Keith. Hunk paused the video game and turned in their direction as well. “So,” Pidge continued. “You must be the famous Keith that Lance has told us so much about?”

“Pidge,” Lance groaned as Keith narrowed his eyes toward Lance in suspicion. “It’s not like I was gossiping about you or anything,” he assured Keith. “Just, you know, telling them I had a new foster brother who moved in. Nothing bad.” Okay, that was a bit of a white lie, but what Keith didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him.

Keith must have accepted it, though, because he nodded slowly and mumbled a hasty “hi” to Pidge. Hunk, in his turn, smiled widely at him and waved. “If you’re not busy, you wanna come join us? We’re running through some new games. Well, they’re old games, actually, but they’re new to us. Still have three here we haven’t touched yet, you can be the first to give it a go. Oh, I probably should have asked first, you like video games?”

Keith stared at him for a couple of seconds before shrugging, and Lance raised a brow at Hunk. If they had been doubting at all that Keith was as untalkative as he had claimed, here was the supporting evidence. Hunk must have at least started to pick up on Keith’s stony vibe already, though, because he’d babbled a bit just then. Hunk always babbled when he felt awkward.

“So is that a yes or no to joining us?” Pidge asked.

“No thank you,” Keith said.

Pidge shrugged. “Probably for the best. These games kinda suck. I’ll ask again when we bring over something decent.”

“You two ready for the school year?” Lance’s mother asked. Pidge and Hunk both nodded and made sounds of assent before she turned back to Keith and said, “They’re both going to be sophomores as well, so you guys might be having some classes together. I’m sure they’ll be happy to help you out with anything you need to help get settled into your new school, same as Lance. Isn’t that right?”

“Of course, Señora McClain!” Hunk said with an enthusiastic nod at the same time as Pidge responded with a flat, “Sure.”

“There you have it,” she said with a satisfied nod. “By the way, Lance, whatever happened to those old clothes of Marco’s I gave you to go through and pick out? I wanted to let Keith have a look at the ones you didn’t pick, see if there’s anything he likes. Lord knows, he barely brought along enough clothes to last him a week.” Keith tightened his grip on his backpack and dropped his gaze to his feet.

“I put them back in the attic,” Lance answered. “Marco has terrible taste in clothes. Keith can have all of them.”

“You didn’t want any of them?” his mother asked. “With all the money you spend on clothes, you really didn’t want any new outfits for free?”

“Hey, it’s not like I’m blowing my allowance on designer labels or anything,” Lance said. “I just don’t want to be seen in public in the sad remains of Marco’s grunge phase.”

His mother shook her head. “Well, at least they’re not going to waste now. Come on, Keith, I’ll show you the clothes. I promise, they’re perfectly fine; Lance is just picky.”

Keith nodded and hurried to follow, and the two of them made their way upstairs and out of sight. Lance watched them go before turning back and nudging Hunk. “Okay, you can unpause it now.”

“Well, I don’t know what you were complaining about,” Pidge said. “He seemed great.”

“What are you talking about?” Lance asked. “He barely said two words to you.”

“Yeah, that’s why he seemed great. Breath of fresh air after years with you.” Lance picked up one of the couch pillows and smacked her on the head with it.

“He wasn’t really emo, was he,” Hunk said. “I mean, he had the dark colors, but I think emo involves more accessorizing.”

“Okay, yeah, I kinda meant emo more as a vibe, you know?” said Lance. “Like, introverted and angry-sad. And he’s got the hair for it, and the face.”

“What, ‘cause of the scar or something?” Pidge asked.

“I meant, like, the facial expressions,” Lance said. “But, sure, that too.”

“No wonder you’re not crazy about him,” Pidge continued, smirking. “New kid in school, broody and mysterious, good-looking and with a face scar to boot? He’s gonna be stealing all your dates.”

“What are you on about?”

“That was one of the things you were worried about, right? New foster brother taking all the dateable people for himself?”

Lance rolled his eyes. “First of all, a face scar would make a person less likely to attract admirers, not more.”

“Actually, I’m with Pidge on that one,” Hunk said. “Apparently people go nuts for face scars.”

“Yeah, like, Matt’s friend Shiro?” Pidge said. “Guys are falling all over themselves for him, and let’s not pretend the scar’s not at least a factor.”

“Okay, but that’s a special case. Shiro’s - ”

“And apparently people just swoon over the Phantom of the Opera,” Hunk added.

“And there’s Prince Zuko,” said Pidge.

“Inigo Montoya.”

“Harry Potter.”

“Deathstroke.”

“That lion from The Lion King 2.”

“You’re reaching,” Lance groaned. “And bottom line, he is not going to steal my dates. Hell, for all we know, maybe he doesn’t even date at all. Maybe he’s another Pidge.”

Pidge perked up, eyes suddenly bright with curiosity. “You think? That’d be awesome!”

“Should we ask?” said Hunk.

“No, Hunk,” Lance sighed. “Leave it.”

Pidge huffed out a laugh before slumping back into her previous posture on the couch. “Well, whatever the case. He didn’t seem so bad. Just quiet. I say give it time. I was quiet too when I first moved up to your grade, and look at me now.”

“Ah, the good old days,” Lance said wistfully. “Yes, I remember.”

“It’s like you want me to punch you,” Pidge huffed, giving him a shove. “But seriously, my money’s on it being nerves. I’m sure he’s not so bad.”

“Give it time,” Hunk said with a nod. “Patience.”

“Whatever,” Lance said, shrugging. He folded his arms and turned his eyes back to the game on the screen. “So when we switching controllers again, huh? I haven’t had a turn in like half an hour.”

“Patience, Lance,” Pidge said sagely.

“You guys suck.”

[ibitchytimemachine]

I haven't been reading fanfic as much lately due to some real life BS and I have been working extra hard on a piece for the @vegebulocracy mini bang! If you don't know what it is, you can check out my review of the Big Bang fics by clicking here, or you can check out the FAQ for the VBO Mini Bang by Clicking here. (once the fics drop, I will voraciously consume them and write up an overview for y'all!)

Now, with that out of the way, ON TO THE REVIEW. There will, as always, be Spoilers below the cut! 

The first thing that stands out to me is the world building of this story. The palace feels like a real place. It is huge and even though (through POV) we are only privy to a small slice of the space, it feels vast. The exploration of the races is really interesting to me. I really am nerdy when it comes to this type of thing, and the variety of humanoid races in the piece is fantastic. There isn't just one or two races that are explored, and the writer is really smart how they introduce and develop the important characters. Also interesting are the dynamics between Vegeta and his Father, and the Saiyan race and the Colds/other races (Im not gonna get into this in the review, but its an interesting dynamic set up that I want to see explored more). 

So diving in a little deeper. Humans are practically extinct, but Saiyan males are like uber attracted to the women AND the Human-Saiyan hybrids are good match. The Saiyans like humans so much, that most of the human men are killed and one of the only ones left, Yamcha is being forced to impregnate as many of the female left as many time as possible. The way that the writer treats Yamcha is fantastic. I am granted not a huge Yamcha fan, but through the story events, you just can not hate him. He is being molded by his circumstances, and boy howdy Yamcha’s circumstances are pretty fucking terrible. Can I say how much I love the fact that in this society a hybrid is not looked down upon? Like whoa racial acceptance and diversity FTW! Now there have definitely been hints at the fate of acceptance of our Prince Trunks, but that is a problem for pretty far off.. maybe.  

God I hate how much of a hoe Vegeta is. He fucks so many different women, and there is legit a plot bunny that literally explores the palace brothel and its treatment of the whores the Prince is down with/what he likes and doesn't (random tangent - like whoa, this flashback with his father and the princess who kisses him, damn - I thin I would be fucked up too Veggie, but I still have issue with who you have turned out to be). I think that you are supposed to have a love hate relationship with him, because one second he is acting incredibly out of character (for him) and lovey dovey and the next he is verbally/physically or emotionally abusing poor Bulma. While I understand WHY Vegeta is written this way, I low-key hate him. Two instances where I LOATHE him stick out to me, the first being when he fucks a chick while he forces Bulma to lay in bed with them and watch him (the subtext of him not being able to enjoy himself without watching/being near Bulma is interesting though) and then the next morning when he sexually assaults her for a little hand-gooing is just yuck. I will say that I think that if/when Bulma gets her head out of her ass SHE will be the link Veggie needs to finally stand up to and defeat his asshole father. 

He does end up having to save and protect her a whole hell of a lot. Bulma is take from her home really kind of young, so she doesn't have the technological genius going for her in this story (and can I say I think this is an interesting exploration of how she would have developed away from her planet and in this hostile environment) and in fact she is dumb as shit. Like teasing the princess of a warrior race, who is supposed to be getting pregnant by Vegeta due to a treaty the two planets have set up, hello Bulma, WAR is in the races name - leave the crazy royal alone. Also wandering around LOOKING FOR THE DUNGEONS?! Whiskey Tango Foxtrot woman! You legit brought that shit upon yourself. Also what kind of terrible servant mother fucking FALLS ASLEEP in their masters beds? Like before he starts making her do it (a trope that I gotta say I hate to love) this stupid woman is CONSTANTLY FALLING ASLEEP IN VEGETAS BED. and then she is all like “no, I know I am being super disrespectful to you, and I know that you really want to do stuff with me, but I am gonna give you the worst bluebells of your life” like thank you @lightphyre for not having his outright rape her, which I unfortunately think would be very much in character for him in this story. anyway can we talk about the moment that made me think “imma write a review for this story?” So Bulma had just saved ChiChi from Yamcha (OMG Goku is a teacher to little kids? like this is him as the good dad to Gohan I know he can be - its far enough off but I just see all the fluffy moments in my head- love the treatment of Goku here) and Vegeta sees the danger IMMEDIATELY and has to drag Bulma away (come on Queen B, you are WAY smarter than you are being in this story, even without living with your parents and getting all the expensive education) then Vegeta, without prompting or even explaining what he is doing JUST MOTHER FUCKING TEACHES HER HOW TO GET OUT OF BASIC HOLDS. This was the moment that I was like... ok so maybe I only 90 percent hate him. He is mean as hell to her here, but like, she's a fucking idiot and needs him to be straight to the point, this also is the turning point for their relationship dynamic (he's still an ass, but what are you gonna do?) and leads to a mother fucking confusing, but kind of (in its own way) sweet moment between the two. This happens in Chapter 9, so if you don't read anything else, go read that shit... here Imma link the chapter for you... RIGHT HERE.

This shit is a low burn... Like Damn. I thought that Drought was killing me getting to the point (another great read I have linked the title for you), but like... even with all the kissing and the sexual assault and the consensual jacking off, its still leaving you just utterly frustrated. Like remember when I said Bulma was a fucking moron? She won't fuck Vegeta (even though she REALLY FUCKING WANTS TO) because she is a virgin (I get that part) but she wants to “be with” the father of her kids. But she mother fucking knows that she is about to be raped in front of like the whole Planet’s Elite forces to make more Human ladies for them to pound. She knows that literally no one she could be with will be faithful to her (although, I gotta be honest, I legit think if she would put out to Veggie, he would put the breaks on the Whores quite a bit - if not all together) She knows that she is in the best position she can be in, she knows her fate completely, and she is still not taking what she wants by the reins and saying, hey I am in this shitty situation, Why not do something that I want to for once and take a little control of my life? Like she's scared and weak here and I am not a fan of this particular characterization of her. I think she is too flawed. Do I still love her? Well yeah. I mean I hate Vegeta here too, but I think that it is nice that these characters have been made so flawed (and lets be real, the reasons behind their flaws are explained nicely) and they don't get together and instantly all their flaws are gone. It makes to story so much more real feeling. Its authentic how fucked up these two people are, and it keeps the reader reading. Shit I started this story last night around 10pm, and couldn't sleep until I ran out of story to read. Then I let for two hours and HAD to vomit all my feeling out on this blog. So that should say something about the quality of this story. 

Two quick criticisms. The first is I am not sure if there is a beta, and if there is, he or she is not doing their job very well. There are a lot of spelling errors, and it is obvious where the writer had issues figuring out exactly what they wanted to say, because a string of thought will begin, and then the writer will double back and try again. so you will have one sentence with two beginnings. Its just really raw, almost like reading one of my reviews - where I type the way I would talk or how I am thinking. There is quite a bit of refined writing, and the world is amazing, but there are plenty of spots that need a polish that comes with a careful beta. It’s really easy to miss these types of issues without one, which makes me think that the writer is indeed without one. The second is that the story starts with this exposition dump that is entirely necessary for the story, but is just freaking painful to read. Like I almost didn't read the story at all because I began reading the first chapter three or four times and it is just boring. You don't care at the beginning of the story, and it is hard to read this kind of thing without giving a fuck about what is happening. I will say that it is all plot relevant and important, HOWEVER I do think that the writer has peppered this information throughout the story really well, and the information would have been more easily digested AND interesting to the reader if we had gotten into the story instantly. I might go as far to say that all of the information in the exposition MIGHT be unneeded as we get so much of the information from the exposition throughout the characters thoughts, reactions and actions. 

Anyway - this story is fantastic. If you are looking for a really richly planned UNIVERSE and a dark AU that explores characters in a really interesting way, then you should give this story a shot. There are some pretty big triggers in it, if you couldn't guess from the discussion above, so if some of these things bother you, maybe stay clear of the story. I do indeed recommend this story though. Its well written (problems aside), well planned, full of plot bunnies that hopefully get resolved (Im looking at you War princess) and authentic. It has all the elements you need for a long running and successful story, and if my caffeine IV is anything to go by - it is completely binge-worthy! 

If you liked this review, after you check out this fic, head over to my A03 and check my stuff out too!

[blatherkatt]

Title: The Mockingbird of Whitestone [Critical Role]

Chapter 3: A Very Close Call 

Summary: Twenty years later, Vox Machina–or as much of it as can get to Whitestone at the time–reunite. It’s not their first time doing so, and they don’t plan on it being the last. It should just be another reunion.

But something completely unexpected throws everything into chaos, and leaves Vex’ahlia struggling with emotions she’d thought buried, and Percy trying to piece together the fragments of a very confusing puzzle.

Canon pairings, focusing on Perc’ahlia; warnings for minor blood in a later chapter and a whole lot of ruminating on a canonical major character death.

Author’s Note: The blood starts being a thing in this chapter; the tags on Ao3 will probably be updated to “canon typical violence” starting here, albeit that might be a little overboard but i mean better safe than sorry. also im so sorry this took so long but in my defense this chapter kicked my butt its a behemoth

Rating: T

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The next day dawned bright and beautiful, full of sunlight and birdsong and a gentle breeze. What should have been a perfect day for the Spring Renewal festival was quickly soured, however, by a visibly exhausted guard dejectedly relaying the news that they still had no idea where the goblins were.

There’d been a very tense early morning meeting with the town leaders and some particularly concerned visitors about what to do, one which Vex had felt particularly twitchy all through.She wasn’t alone in that much, at least; she could see various shades of nerves and anticipation across faces all around her, even hours later as she carefully patrolled the streets, the kids (all of whom save for Crispin had insisted on going out to the festival) staying close as they’d promised to (for now at least) and Trinket in his full armor bringing up the rear, ever watchful.

The light but tangible weight of Fenthras in her hand was a small comfort as she waited for the other shoe to drop. This time, at least, she’d not be caught off guard.

The day trudged on, each hour with nothing new making her feel more anxious. Her rounds and the whims of the excited kids had brought their group to the street outside the temple of Erathis, where she gave them permission to step away from her side for a while to play some of the games that had been set up along the sides of the road there, so long as they all stayed together and kept Trinket with them.

She leaned herself up against the corner of a building, outwardly resting but inwardly on the highest of alert. Gods damn the blasted goblins, this was supposed to be a time to have some fun after the long winter, not—not all this.

Worst of all, her thoughts kept straying back to that first encounter, and how easily she’d let herself think that—really, it was ridiculous, twenty years went by and the first time a vaguely sneaky stranger showed up, she immediately got her hopes up that somehow he’d be back and everything would go back to a normal that wasn’t normal anymore. It was, she was…

She really wished the damn goblins would just attack already. At least then she could take out her frustration doing something productive, instead of being stuck here just waiting.

All the while, as she thought, her eyes scanned the sparse crowd. Not as many folks were on this road, as most of the attractions would be in the main square, but it was about noon and even out here there was significant enough activity. Off to one side she spotted the three tabaxi from the day before, the one with tufted ears attracting quite a few eyes as he juggled and cajoled; the rust-colored one sat behind with their cart, his body slouched but his single eye and both ears on constant watch. A couple guards were gently escorting a drunken (judging by how heavily he leaned on the guards for support) beggar off of the steps of the temple. A farmer holding a pitchfork and keeping a watch of his own nodded to Vex as her gaze passed over him, whilst two children, likely his own, cheered as they won a prize from a ring-tossing game.

Even with her senses on high alert, however, a human still seemed to almost melt out of the shadows. On a reflex, she jerked to grab an arrow, but relaxed on seeing that it was only Kynan.

He cleared his throat with a nervous smile, still a touch hesitant after all these years.

“Sorry, I’m a bit on edge,” Vex said, taking another moment to quickly scan for her children. They were crowded around a game of some sort, with Tiffany, too short to see over the counter, pouting and demanding to be told what was happening. All safe for now.

“S’alright,” Kynan said. Then, growing more serious, he said, “Anything happened out here?”

Vex shook her head. “It’s all been about as quiet as it can be, during a festival,” she said. “I don’t like it. Anything to report on your end?”

In the two decades that had passed, Kynan had proved himself time and again as very capable, elevated to the council as of five years ago, in charge of law enforcement and wartime movements. He’d been very much on top of things in this particular conflict, for all the frustrations that had come up.

Kynan shrugged. “Nothing violent,” he said, “But there’s been reports of thefts and a few people claiming to have spotted something.”

Vex tapped her fingers restlessly against Fenthras. “Any patterns to the thefts? The first goblin was raiding our larder, after all.”

“Not really. The odd coin here and there, a necklace, a child’s doll. Strangest things to have gone missing is probably a bunch of perfume, but other than that, nothing I’d think worth raising any real alarms over.”

Vex raised an eyebrow. “I think we can safely say that one’s just some thief. What would goblins want with a bunch of perfume?” she asked, dubious. “What would they want with cooking herbs?” Kynan shot back. “Ugh, you sound like Percy,” she said, rolling her eyes. “And the sightings? What’s come out of those?”

“Not so much goblins for sure,” he said, shifting his weight. “People are jumpy. We’ve been taking every report seriously, but every time it’s turned out to be someone in a green shirt, or a blanket hung out to dry that someone spotted out of the corner of their eye. Old Jenkins reported that he saw a bunch of them at his trash last night, but that turned out to be a bunch of bears and a badger, which, uh, was pretty weird, but it wasn’t the goblins.”

Vex blinked. “Well, at least we finally worked out what it is that he keeps seeing, I guess. The poor man’s always claiming some monsters are lurking around his house at night.”  

“Tiff?” Crispin’s half-panicked voice rang out over the crowd. Vex stiffened. “Tiffany!! Tiff, you’re supposed to stay close, where are—did anyone see where Tiffany went? I swear I only looked away for a second—” She could see him, drawing Arthur near him, looking frantically around and grabbing at someone’s shirt, could see Trinket rearing up on his hind legs to better see over everyone’s heads.

It was probably fine, Tiffany wandered off sometimes, but now was the worst time to be doing so, gods. She didn’t blame Crispin for a second, not with four siblings to keep an eye on at once, but—fuck it, time to worry about that later, she exchanged a wordless nod with Kynan and stepped forward, looking around herself as Kynan melted into the crowd himself to search for the toddler.

As seconds ticked by, and the little girl didn’t appear, Vex could feel panic welling up inside her, heard it matched by Crispin’s increasingly hoarse shouts. Where was she, where was she, where—There! One of the passerby moved, and Vex spotted her daughter’s dress, saw Tiffany talking to a small, cloaked figure.

One with tattered green ears.

Her hand found an arrow in her quiver on pure instinct. In that same, slowed-down moment, she saw the goblin turn, spot her with those giant, animal eyes, and jerk forward toward Tiffany, reaching out with those terrible clawed fingers toward her daughter—

The arrow was pulled taught against Fenthras’s string as easy as breathing, and with the familiar woosh of wind, sang forward, aimed to take the goblin right through its chest. Time seemed to restart, sound roaring back in as Tiffany wailed, and Vex wasn’t sure if her arrow struck true. Someone screamed, and as the crowd all reacted at once to the goblin’s appearance, someone ran into Vex’s line of sight again as she tried to push forward. She spotted the goblin thrashing in the grip of the vines of the brambleshot, saw Tiffany on the ground, sitting up, howling, saw the goblin somehow manage to wrench itself free of the restraining grip and dash down the alley just as Vex finally got to her daughter.

Fuck the goblin, she’d catch up to it later.

“Tiffany, are you okay? I got you, I got you sweetie, come here,” she said, scooping the crying child into her arms. There didn’t look to be any wounds, thank Sarenrae, she didn’t look to be hurt anywhere, no doubt she was just startled by the shock of getting attacked like that. She’d have the little beast’s hide for this, how dare it lay a hand on her daughter, how dare it invade her city!

Trinket thundered up behind her, nudging her back with his nose as she held Tiffany close, shaking with an intense terror and fury. The bear’s touch brought her back into now.

“Thank you, Trinket,” she said, softly, and then, louder, standing, she pointed down the alley, still hugging Tiffany tightly to her. “It went down that way! Go after it, I’ll be right behind you!”

The bear grunted and raced off after his quarry. For the time being, however, she pulled back. Kynan and a guard were carefully guiding anyone unwilling or unable to fight into the temple of Erathis. She saw Leo, Trissa, and Arthur herded inside, but Crispin was hanging back, still calling out for his sister.  

Vex darted over, shoving Tiffany into his arms—she was still crying, but she was alive, that was what mattered, she didn’t look wounded, no time to freeze right now—and pushed him towards the temple entrance. “Go, get inside, now!” she barked, before running after Trinket.

The trail was easy to follow, she noted with a grim satisfaction; she’d definitely landed a very good hit on the goblin, and a line of blood droplets clearly marked out where it had gone. The trail weaved back and forth, at one point evidently crashing into a corner; here, more blood had splashed down, too, and Vex spotted the back half of her arrow. No doubt the goblin had tried to remove it, and only managed to snap it in half.

Rounding a few more corners, she found Trinket urgently pawing at a wall. Near its base was a cluster of droplets large enough to almost constitute a puddle, and on the wall itself, a few telltale four-fingered handprints were visible on a drainpipe. Vex looked up just in time to see a tail disappear over the roof.

“Good job, Trinket,” she said, and then set about quickly climbing up herself, Trinket boosting her up as best he could.

The goblin was there, cowering by a chimney and hastily wrapping something around the arrowhead, which Vex could see poking out of its shoulder. It heard her climb up, and with a yelp, disappeared around the chimney just as Vex managed to fire off another shot, the arrow shattering against the stone. She swore, and gave chase as the creature dropped off the other side of the roof, somehow catching itself one-handed on a window ledge to slow its fall.

With a whistle, Vex directed Trinket to round the building while she scaled her own way down. The blood trail had been lessened significantly by whatever fabric the goblin had found, but Trinket had its scent now, there’d be no getting away this time. she’d teach the little beast to lay a claw on her daughter—

She didn’t consciously register that the trail was leading right toward the main square until she spotted the Sun Tree. Was there a bigger attack happening there? What else was happening? She couldn’t hear any sounds of a struggle from that direction. She’d lost sight of the blasted goblin, too; she could see people calmly going about their business, could see Percy talking to what must have been a group of visitors looking nervous.

Too late, she spotted the goblin streaking out of the shadows and straight for the big cluster of people talking to Percy. Vex shouted out a warning, but it was quickly drowned out by screams as the group split apart in a panic. People were fighting to get away, raising a small cloud of dust low to the ground, and stampeding in all directions. The chaos was too much for even Vex’s keen eyes to pierce, and by the time everyone had dispersed enough for her to get a good view, the goblin was nowhere to be seen.

Furious, Vex gestured for Trinket to come with her as she raced in—not that she really needed to, the bear was hard on her heels. “Track it,” she said to Trinket, and then, to the crowd, “Which way did it go? Did anyone see?”

“It poured something on the ground as it passed,” she heard Percy say, somewhere behind her, “I didn’t catch which way it ran, but what did—”

Trinket gave a pained bellow and shuffled backwards, pawing at his nose. As he did, as she turned, the smell hit her nose too; a clashing combination of powerful smells, largely floral and all incredibly strong. Unbidden, the memory sprang to mind of Kynan, just before, mentioning reports of stolen perfume, and realized—somehow, the blasted goblin must have been smart enough to realize it could be tracked by scent, and had worked out a way to make a, a scent bomb of sorts; the smell must have been so strong as to almost physically hurt to poor trinket, and with it scattered everywhere from the onslaught of rushing feet as that crowd had split apart in a panic, that overwhelming smell would be everywhere…

There’d be no tracking it after this. Poor Trinket wasn’t going to be in a condition to be tracking anything after this sensory overload.

It had gotten away again, the little bastard!

The scream that tore out of Vex’s throat at this realization was wholly involuntary. Not that she made any attempt to stop it—she swore, and raged, and tore at her hair, a useless font of angry energy with nothing to direct herself against until a pair of arms locked around her. It took her a moment to recognize them—Percy, trying to calm her.

“Vex, Vex, it’s gone, we can’t get distracted running around after just one, we have to brace to protect civilians from the main attack,” he said, his arms tight around her as she struggled. “It might be trying to lead you into a trap, just let it run!”

“It almost got Tiffany,” she gasped, and heard him take a sharp breath himself. “It nearly took Tiffany, Percy, I saw it try to grab her—I’ll fucking kill them, gods damn them, they almost—”

“Oh, Gods,” he said, hoarse. “Is she—?”

“Crispin’s got her, it didn’t get her, but it was so close, Percy,” and she felt the anger fading into horrified tears, and hated herself for how powerless she was to stop them.

“Fuck,” Percy whispered.

The temple to Erathis was a chaotic hive of anxiety. Townsfolk and visitors alike crowded around some of the city leaders, all talking over each other in hysterics and demanding answers. Off by Trinket, as far out of the way as they could get, the kids (minus Tiffany) were talking amongst themselves, looking various shades of excited, bored, and, in Crispin’s face, pensive. Percy, for his part, was trying to help with this, but trying to calm down a horde of anxious townsfolk was hard enough without also trying to soothe a distressed toddler. Maybe it was for the best after all that Vex had insisted on rejoining the hunt for the creature; Percy’d been concerned and argued against it, with how distraught she’d been, but at this point, being left behind was starting to feel like the more stressful option. It took nearly two hours of himself, Cassandra, Keyleth, and some of the priests repeating themselves to regain some semblance of calm. No, we don’t know where they are, yes, we’ve got all the guards and a good number of volunteers out searching, no, no one’s been reported missing yet.

(And what a close call that was—Gods, they’d almost lost Tiffany.)

Keyleth ducked out for a moment, saying she wanted to ask if the Sun Tree knew anything, and Percy, still juggling three very persistent worriers and a fussy child, just waved her off without really listening. He really wished Pike were here; she wasn’t a city leader anymore than Keyleth was, but she was so very good at making people feel more at ease. But she’d joined in the chase, along with Grog and Scanlan, of course. Trinket was the only other member of Vox Machina to stay behind, and that was on account of nursing an apparent headache.

Mercifully, Cassandra ducked in and gently lifted Tiffany out of Percy’s arms, allowing him to spend a few minutes focusing on reassuring the last few stragglers. The rest had settled down into groups clustered about the pews, or had formed larger bands for the sake of safety in numbers before heading off to inns or homes. A sense of unease remained, but at least it was a quiet unease instead of the chaos of before.

(He still kept an eye on Tiffany, even knowing she’d be perfectly safe with Cassandra. Even hearing about how close she’d come to being taken had left him shaken. He couldn’t imagine what Vex must be going through, having seen it happen.)

Finally, sending the last of the worrying folk on their way, he sat down on one of the few empty pews and took a moment to catch his breath and collect his thoughts. Hopefully, the searchers were making some sort of progress—it should not have been this difficult to track down and deal with a bunch of bloody goblins, for heaven’s sake.

The trick that one had used to deter Trinket fascinated him, despite how worried he felt. Somehow, the creature had known to concoct a scent powerful enough to cover up just about everything, and then to drop that scent right where a huge crowd of panicking people would spread it out very quickly, creating a sort of…olfactory smoke screen, and overloading the bear’s nose, to boot. That was a level of thinking he was not used to goblins being capable of.

…Actually, that just made the whole mess more worrying. Trinket had only tracked down the one scout, yesterday, just for one brief instance, but that was enough apparently for the goblins to prepare ways to shake him off, and so quickly, too. Maybe that was why they were proving so hard to find; perhaps Whitestone had been unfortunate enough to attract a particularly shrewd set of goblins.

It’d be right about average for this city’s luck, really. Ugh.

He was shaken from his thoughts by someone plunking into the pew next to him—Keyleth, with the same more laid-back air she always seemed to have after her…conversations with the Sun Tree.

“Did you learn anything new?” he asked.

“Um. No.” Keyleth ran a hand awkwardly through her hair. “He said he didn’t know anything, because he’s a tree. I mean, he did notice a goblin running around a few times, apparently, but only ever one at a time? Which I’m feeling pretty vindicated about, but I guess that doesn’t technically prove that there’s only ever been one goblin, but, still.”

Percy ran a hand through his hair. “Would it know if they were hiding nearby?”

Keyleth pulled a face. “Um. Probably? Maybe? He’s not super observant, honestly. But he definitely would know if a bunch of goblins passed through the main square at any point, and it seems like that hasn’t happened, so.” Then, looking at Percy’s face, she added, “I’m really sorry, Percy, I wish I could help with this more.”

He shook his head. “No, it’s—everyone’s doing their best, it’s no one’s fault if there’s a few dead end leads. You were a huge help calming people down, anyway. We’re all frustrated and scared, is all. Thank you for trying.”

“What about Tiff?” Keyleth asked. “Have you been able to calm her down enough to get anything out of her?”

Percy was taken aback for a moment, and looked back towards Tiffany, still quiet in her brother’s arms. “She stopped crying finally, but I haven’t tried talking to her about it, no. I hadn’t really thought to. Keyleth, she’s three. She probably didn’t really understand what was happening.”

“Yeah, but it’s still worth a shot, right?” said Keyleth. “I didn’t really think the Sun Tree was gonna know much either, and, I mean, he didn’t, but it won’t hurt to try. If she’s too scared to talk about it we won’t press her.”

“Fair enough.”

Tiffany was still sniffling when Percy took her back from Cassandra’s arms, but had stopped crying at last for the most part. As Percy held her and sat down, she rubbed one tiny fist over an eye and hiccuped. There were some mostly dried droplets of blood across the front of her dress, he noticed, but he had no doubt she’d been looked over very thoroughly and found uninjured. It must have been the goblin’s.

He took a deep breath to steady himself at the thought of how close that had been, and forced a gentle smile. “How are—are you feeling better, Tiff, dear? I know that must have been really scary.”

Tiffany nodded emphatically. “It was!!” she said, eyes wide. “I was jus’ talking to a, the shadow person I seed yesterday a few times, an’ they, an’ all the sudden they pushed me, an’ there were vines, and they were bleeding, an, an’ Mama was scared too!”

Percy blinked, confused for a moment. Right, Tiffany was young enough that perhaps she didn’t realize that the goblin had been dangerous. The arrow had likely frightened her more than her actual attacker. “Right, well, in the future you should…maybe be a bit more cautious about going over to people you don’t know when they call you over.”

“They didn’t do that, tho,” Tiffany sniffled. “They were just sorta hiding over by the wagon. But they—I saw them take a teapot, yesterday, an’ Mama said that, um, that we’d tell the shadow person that it’s not, it’s not nice to take teapots!! So I went to tell them that.”

“That was really dangerous, Tiffany,” said Keyleth, leaning over.

“Why?”

“Because it was…” Keyleth chewed her lip. “Do you know what a goblin is, Tiffany?”

Tiffany nodded. “They’re, um, there’s some in the stories Papa reads to me.” Before Keyleth or Percy could respond, though, Tiffany continued, “But, but they’re always mean an’ stupid, an’ the shadow person didn’t seem either of those things! They were just, um. They were really…um. They didn’t even notice me until I talked to them, and they, and they weren’t even interested in what I said about the teapot or anything, they kept looking all over the place instead! An’ they barely even said anything about the teapot, they just said a buncha other stuff.”

Keyleth tilted her head, but said nothing beyond a quiet, “Huh.”

Percy could think of a few reasons for the goblin to be distracted, and none of them were particularly good, but…perhaps they could work out more as to what the actual intentions of the invaders were, since Tiffany seemed so eager to talk about what had happened. Maybe he could get more of a bead on what sort of plan required goblins to steal herbs and, evidently, a teapot. Hesitantly, he asked, “What did the…the shadow person say to you?”

Tiffany sniffled, and seemed to think for a moment. “Um. They asked if, if I saw a…a weird man.”

That was…entirely unexpected. “…Did they? That’s…What do you mean by weird, Tiff?”

“Um. They said, um, a guy in a…a guy wif a coat, an’, an’ he was messy, they said, an’ that he talked funny.”

Percy looked across at Keyleth, who looked every bit as confused as he felt.

“Did they say why they were looking for this man?”

Tiffany shook her head. “Um! They also said the weird man was on the, was in front of the temple, but he was gone now! They wanted to know if I saw where he went, an’ I didn’t, an’ I said so.”

“And then did the go-the shadow person ask you to lead them to him, or anything?” Keyleth said, sitting down next to Percy. It was exactly what Percy’d been meaning to ask next. It’d make the most sense—maybe the whole thing about some man was a ruse to draw the child away from the watchful eyes of the many armed adults in the area.

“Nuh-uh,” said Tiffany. “They just sorta made a sad noise an’ then they, they said I shouldn’t talk to strangers wifout my parents around.” Percy couldn’t help but slowly turn to make eye contact with Keyleth as the toddler continued on, “An’ I said that my momma was real close so it was okay, an’ they said no it wasn’t, I shouldn’t be talking to them without a, um, an adult I trust, knowing that I’m talking to them. An’ then they asked where mama was, an’ looked around, and then they pushed me!!”

That was…Hm.

“…I mean. That’s. They weren’t wrong about all that, actually, that’s…very good advice, and I’m very conflicted about the fact that—you’re sure that’s what they said, Tiff?” Percy said, feeling completely lost.

Tiffany gave a single, adamant nod. “Yeah!! An’ then they got hit by an arrow, an’ I got real scared, an’ everyone started screaming!” She sniffled. “Why’d they push me like that? We were jus’ talking, an’, an’ they seemed nice!”

“It was…it was trying to grab you,” Percy said, but the words felt…wrong in his mouth, now. Suddenly, the puzzle pieces didn’t make sense. The gears that had looked to fit perfectly were entirely the wrong size, and it was entirely possible that what he’d thought to be a screw was instead a nail. What…what were they dealing with, here?

Keyleth shook her head. “I don’t know, Percy, this is getting weird…” She chewed her lip for a moment, and then, quietly, trying to keep Tiffany from hearing, she asked, “Is it—she is little, maybe she’s remembering wrong?”

“It wouldn’t be like her to make something like this up,” Percy whispered back. “Leo or Trissa at her age, certainly, and in a few days she may have a very embellished version of things, but right after things happen, she tends to be pretty honest.”

“It didn’t feel like a grab,” Tiffany pouted. “It felt like a push. I fell down on my butt afterwards an’ it hurt a lot.”

Percy tried to imagine the scene with the new information. Tried to fit it in with what he knew about goblins, and kept hitting walls. It didn’t fit. So, then, maybe…

He tried looking at it again, but this time, instead of thinking of the individual as a typical goblin invader, he tried just…thinking about their actions in the context of a normal person. And in that context, things started to make sense. They’d been going about their business when a very chatty, particularly bold toddler had demanded their attention. And then they’d…well, he still couldn’t quite make sense of looking for some strange man, but at the very least it told him that Tiffany’s shadow person had something on their mind.

The advice about strangers made a lot more sense, this way; they were very much busy and distracted and likely didn’t have time to be talking to a small child. They’d told her off a bit, and then looked around for the child’s parents. Perfectly normal behavior for someone who wasn’t seeking to kidnap and devour any small child they could get their hands on.

And then…

“So you told this person that Mama was near?” Percy said, to be sure. Tiffany nodded. “And then they looked around to find her…”

…And would have seen an arrow pointed in their direction, wouldn’t they. Ha. Now he was starting to see how the gears were meant to fit together.

It was a bit of a crazy theory, probably. But the truth was, so far, no one had really been attacked, except for perhaps Trinket a couple of times, and both were justifiably self defense. If Tiffany was right in her understanding of what had happened today, then…

“Keyleth,” Percy said slowly, “You don’t suppose it might have been trying to push Tiffany out of the way?”

“Of what?” Keyleth asked, but before he could answer, another commotion broke out. The goblin hunters were back, it seemed. And judging by the grim looks on their faces, they’d been unsuccessful again.

He ought to have been worried by that, but in the moment, his mind was buzzing. He felt at once like he’d worked out the shape of the thing and like he knew less than ever—there were so many pieces that were missing, ones that he didn’t even know how to START with, but even so, it was an explanation that felt like it fit. He needed to tell Vex, she’d be thrilled to hear there was some sort of lead on all this.

Somehow, Keyleth managed to get ahead of him, getting caught up in the knot of people forming around Vox Machina. Percy, with Tiffany still in his arms, couldn’t break through the crowd, but after a couple minutes of worried folk clamouring for news and Grog’s voice booming out his disappointment above it all, he saw Vex push her way out of the throng and make a beeline towards him.

The rest of the kids, who’d been off in a corner with Trinket, ran up as well, gathering in close as Vex took Tiffany from Percy and held her tight to her chest. There was a heartbreaking tension around her face, accompanied by the kind of exhaustion that comes only from great stretches of stress.  

“Did you beat the bad guys, Mama?” Arthur demanded, tugging on Vex’s tunic. Before she could respond, Trissa and Leo both tried to shout over each, asking for details just as loudly.

Crispin had been unusually quiet and withdrawn for quite some time, and now, whatever dam had been holding him back finally broke, the boy nearly in tears as his voice shook. “Mom, I’m so sorry,” he said, frantic, “I was—Trissa and Arthur were arguing, and Leo kept screaming that he was hungry, and I think Trinket was distracted by something else, and I—I’m so sorry, there was so much, I swear I only let her out of my sight for a couple minutes!”

“Kids, stop—Hold on just a second, please!” Vex chided the three middle children. One arm still firmly holding onto Tiffany, Vex stretched out a hand and gently but firmly made Crispin look at her. “Darling, listen to me,” she said, “You didn’t do anything wrong here, alright? A lot happened very quickly, I’m not angry and this isn’t your fault.”

“I’ll try and pay more attention next time, I swear—”

“You did your best,” Percy said, drawing Crispin in close and pressing a kiss to his temple. “Tiffany’s alive, and she isn’t hurt, it’s alright.”

“Yeah, but did you kill them?” Leo piped up.

“No, damn them,” Vex spat. “Couldn’t find hide nor hair of the little—ugh.”

“Aw, what?” Trissa complained. Crispin somehow managed to look even more distressed.

Percy, sensing a potential storm brewing if the conversation continued as it was—Trissa and Crispin would get into an argument over just about anything these days, with Leo egging the former on, and that was the last thing they needed right now—quickly stepped in. “Alright, kids, your mother and I need to talk privately for a moment. You can hear more about how things went later,” he continued over the loud whines of complaint from Arthur, Leo, and Trissa. “For now, just—One of you take Tiff and just…wait over by Trinket, won’t you?”

Thankfully, they did as they were told, albeit with a lot more complaining from most of them. Crispin took Tiffany with a nod, and helped push the rest to follow Percy’s instructions. As they left, Percy heard Trissa say, “You don’t have to be such a goodie two-shoes about it, Crispin,” and let out a deep sigh.

“I’m really starting to worry, Percy,” Vex said, falling heavily back onto a nearby pew and burying half her face in one hand. “The goblins have somehow managed to completely disappear, they shouldn’t be able to just up and vanish like this, and I hate not knowing where or when they’re going to turn up next! By some miracle, no one appears to have been hurt or killed yet, but it’s only a matter of time.”

“Maybe not,” said Percy, sitting next to her. She turned a tired eye towards him. “Keyleth and I talked to Tiffany about what happened, and it’s got me thinking. I know it’s a bit out there, but honestly, what she described didn’t feel like an invader at all, so much as just another visitor to the festival. She certainly never felt that she was in any danger—”

“Percy,” said Vex, but Percy didn’t stop.

“And, if anything, it sounded like the goblin was trying to push her out of danger rather than attack her. And if that’s the case, then it would follow that we may not be in danger at all, that we’re actually dealing with a, a harmless group of goblins. Which would go a very long way in explaining a lot of the weirdness that’s been—”

“Percival!”

Any further elaboration he might have had lined up died in his throat when faced with the hardness in Vex’s eyes. “I’d say that you can’t be serious, but I’d sincerely hate to think you’d make such a thoughtless joke in a time like this,” she said. “They’re goblins, Percival, of course we’re in danger! One of them tried to take our daughter!”

Some other eyes in the temple were looking at them, he noticed out of the corner of his eye. They weren’t quite in a full on shouting match, but Vex wasn’t trying to be quiet, either. He swallowed. “I mean, Tiffany was very sure that—”

“Tiffany is three years old!” Vex hissed. “She probably didn’t understand what was happening! You can’t go basing an entire insane theory on the word of a toddler!” She pressed her face into her hand again. “Gods, Percival, not everything is some bloody puzzle that needs working out, sometimes things just are what they seem on face value! People’s lives are at stake and we can’t afford to risk calling off our defenses based on a complete fantasy!”

“Well, but, I…”

“Well, why don’t you fight them, then, Mr. I Know How To Use A Big Pointy Stick?”

“Yeah, you’re the one with sword lessons, why don’t you use them, you big chicken?”

Vex and Percy’s heads both turned towards their kids at the rising sounds of Trissa and Leo’s voices. Gods, if they were egging on Crispin again—yep, sure enough, Crispin and Trissa had their eyes locked, Leo at her back adding on to whatever she said.

“There’s a world of difference between sparring with Aunt Cass or whatever guard’s on break and being in an actual fight, Trissa!” Crispin shot back.

“Oh, like you’d know,” Trissa said, rolling her eyes. “I don’t know even know how you’re my brother, sometimes. How’d Mom and Dad have such a big coward?”

“You want me to end up like our uncle?!” Crispin snapped, and Percy felt Vex tense beside him. “Or did you forget about what happened to him? Our parents weren’t living out some fantasy in a book, they were fighting for their fucking lives, and two of them didn’t survive!”

“Mom and Dad did!” Leo said.

“No they fucking didn’t, they just got lucky and were able to come back!”

Percy swore under his breath and got out of his seat, heading toward the kids. He could feel Vex doing the same.

“They all died, the whole group, at least once!” Crispin went on, “I’m pretty sure Mom and Dad both went down twice! And resurrection ceremonies aren’t a guarantee! I’m pretty sure they were just really fucking lucky—I know you know this, Trissa, you can’t just ignore it! All of them, Mom, Dad, fuck, something even managed to kill Grog, and they were all well fucking trained fighters, what the hell are we supposed to do?!”

Arthur started to wail.

“Stop it right now!” Vex said, getting ahead of Percy and planting herself right in the middle of the three arguing children. Percy knelt down and drew Arthur close to him. Tiffany didn’t look like she’d really understand any of what had been said, thankfully—they’d been careful to wait until each kid was old enough to handle it before telling them certain parts of the stories of Vox Machina’s exploits, and neither of the two youngest had been let in on the details Crispin had just laid out.

Judging by the stricken look on his face, Crispin was well aware of his mistake. The boy stammered an apology, but Vex waved it off and turned toward Trissa and Leo.

“Your brother’s right about one thing, neither of you two are anywhere near ready for a real fight,” Vex said, “Especially if you can’t even recognize that this is not the time or place to be fighting amongst yourselves.”

“But Mom, Crispin—”

“Is trying to protect you, like a good brother, and I’ll not have you antagonizing him over it.”

“We can—” Leo piped up.

“No. We’re going home.” A cry of complaint started, but was instantly cut short by a single look from Vex. “All you’ve accomplished with this is scaring your little brother, and you’re going to march back quietly and really think about what you’ve done, do you understand?”

Arthur, at least, was calming down into sniffles rather than outright sobbing. Percy kept trying to soothe the boy, unable to bring himself to look at Vex until he felt her hand on his shoulder.

“Did you hear me, Percy?” she said, her voice softer than it had been, but not much. “I’m taking the kids and Trinket back up. Are you staying down here?”

Percy swallowed. “Um, yes, I think I…there’s so much to do, you know.”

“I’m not angry at you, you understand that, right?” she said. “I just…I’d love for everything to secretly be fine, too, Percy, but it’s just not feasible. I know what I saw.”

“…Of course,” he said, standing. “Travel safe, all of you. I’ll see you tonight.”

He kissed his wife on the cheek, and stood by, quietly reeling as the rest of his family walked away.

It was funny how many things one could find to do when they were definitely procrastinating. Percy managed to busy himself until the sun had begun to set, helping out with arranging things, answering questions, doing whatever he could think of to keep busy. But as the last few people started heading to beds, and guards started up the first of the evening patrols that had been agreed upon for the time being, Percy begrudgingly had to accept that it was probably time to head home.

He’d thought that maybe his theory was a bit far fetched, sure, but he’d not been ready to be so thoroughly shut down for it. Normally that only happened when he was being dangerously stupid, which—well, alright, the town was in danger, fair.

Maybe it really was overly optimistic. It would be so much easier if this was all just a misunderstanding.

“Hey, Percy!” Keyleth’s voice right behind him nearly made him stumble, so sudden did it seem. “What’s up? I’ve been trying to get your attention for like half a minute,” she said, moving up to keep pace with him.

“Sorry, I’m just…distracted, I suppose.”

“…By the argument with Vex?” Keyleth said, and Percy winced. “Sorry,” she added. “Don’t mean to, um, rub dirt in the wound or anything, I just—things seemed tense.”

“It’s…my fault, probably,” he said. “She’s got every right to be stressed out, anyway. It’s been a bloody stressful day.”

“Yeah.”

A comfortable, if slightly awkward silence stretched between them for a few moments, as they walked. Eventually, Keyleth broke it by asking, “Hey, what were you saying before, anyway?”

“Hm?”

“When we were talking to Tiffany,” Keyleth said. “You were about to say something, and then we got interrupted. It’s been bugging me all day!”

“Oh, it was—I—it was nothing, Keyleth,” he said, hurriedly.

“It didn’t sound like something,” she pressed. “It sounded like you were onto something! Come on, what was it?”

“A lot of wishful thinking, apparently,” Percy mumbled.

“About what? Come on, this whole thing’s super weird.”

“You’ll laugh.”

“Promise I won’t?”

Percy looked sideways at her. She had that earnest look about her that was so very Keyleth, the one that meant she wasn’t going to give up on this. He sighed.

“Alright, alright, fine. I had a…theory, of sorts, that was forming. One which Vex very quickly pointed out the holes in,” he said, taking off his glasses for a moment to nervously clean them.

“Oh?” Yeah, he should’ve known that dropping that hint wouldn’t stop her from pushing on.

“It’s…I was thinking at the time that maybe the goblin pushed Tiffany because it saw the arrow pointed at the both of them and wanted to get her out of the way,” he said, feeling a fool for even saying it aloud again. He slipped his glasses back on, adjusted them on his nose, looking away from Keyleth as he continued, “And following from that, that maybe we’re not dealing with anything malicious. Which is…”

“Makes sense to me,” said Keyleth. “I’m not seeing the problem here, yet.”

Percy felt his jaw drop as his head involuntarily snapped to look at her.

Nope, no humor to her expression, just more of that sincerity.

“That’d explain what it said about strangers, too, actually,” Keyleth said, “because if it cared enough about her safety to try and push her out of the way, it’d wanna make sure she’s with her parents, too, right? Yeah! Yeah, that makes a lot of sense! Plus, no one’s gotten hurt at all, yet, and with this many vulnerable people here that’s super weird!”

“I—but—Keyleth, the idea of an entire tribe of goblins randomly showing up who just happen to be quite possibly the one single tribe of nonviolent goblins is—it’s patently ridiculous!” he stammered. Yet, at the same time, part of him felt vindicated—Keyleth may have been a bit foolish at times, but she was far from stupid, and their years traveling together had brought her much more down to earth. If she thought that he might be on to something…

“I mean, with the stuff we’ve all seen together, friendly goblins doesn’t sound all that weird,” she said with a grin. “But, consider this: maybe it’s not a whole tribe!”

“…Oh?”

“Sun Tree’s only ever seen one, I’ve only ever seen one, has anyone so far reported seeing more than one at a time? I mean, like, any reports that we’ve been able to confirm? I know there’s been a ton of false alarms, but. Actual, for sure sightings.”

“…Now that you mention it, no, not to my knowledge,” Percy said, feeling the gears start turning again.

Keyleth’s smile widened. “Right! And I really was searching the whole city yesterday, too, so I had a really wide view! It might be that it’s just the one that’s here, and it’s a nice one on its own, right? I didn’t get a good look at it the second time, but do you think it might be the same one?”

“I…didn’t get a good look at the one from today,” Percy said. “It ran by very quickly. Although…that in itself might be a sign it’s the same one. The one Vex found in the storeroom was very fast.”

“Okay, so, there’s your theory!” Keyleth said, bouncing on her feet a bit. “We’re just dealing with one goblin on its own that might not want to hurt anyone!”

“Which still doesn’t answer what it is doing here,” Percy said. “We’ve possibly explained what it hasn’t done, and that’s a start. But no matter how I go about it, I haven’t been able to make everything it has done make sense.”

“So maybe next time we see it we just try talking to it?” said Keyleth. “Although that…might be harder now. Vex apparently shot it with Fenthras.”

Percy winced. “Oh, Gods,” he said, “no wonder the thing tore past like a bat out of hell, then.”

“Speaking of Vex, though, it’s super weird that she got mad at you for suggesting this,” said Keyleth.

Percy shrugged. “I don’t know, Keyleth,” he said, “she’s really very certain that she saw the goblin attack our daughter. I’d be pretty peeved in her shoes, too. Honestly, I’m not even entirely convinced that she was wrong. There’s no real proof for this, it’s just one possible explanation. It may well be that we’ve only seen a couple scouts.”

“I guess,” said Keyleth, frowning, “But normally I feel like she’d…consider it.”

Percy stopped. Keyleth followed suit, looking at him intently as he thought. “Now that you mention it, she really didn’t even hear me out all the way. I’d hardly started explaining when she just…shut me down.” His own frown deepened. “She didn’t want to talk about the possibility of the goblins being unusual yesterday, either, and I’d not even considered that they might not be attacking at that point. You…you don’t suppose there’s something wrong, do you?”

Keyleth chewed her thumbnail for a moment. “She has been acting kinda weird since she saw the goblin,” she said.

“I…just attributed that to stress over the situation.” Percy folded his arms.

“Yeah, but I mean, even for that, she’s been…off.”

“Hm. I’ll…I might try talking to her, tomorrow, if I can,” he said. Then he allowed himself a smile. “Regardless, thank you for…taking me seriously on this, I suppose.”

She beamed. “No problem!” she said. “We probably shouldn’t bring this up with the others until we’ve got a little more proof, though, huh? Vex might, uh, not be the only one who reacts…badly…to the suggestion.”

“Scanlan.”

“I’m talking about Scanlan, yes.”

[babblingfishes]

Another FroodPad Update

(I’m sending an email instead of tagging people about this one because the majority of you guys have changed urls.)

For anyone who used the original FroodPad (PiratenPad) teamsite for fic writing, the host is taking down the site next month.

As before with the Mozilla alternative, I have backups of most of the text.

Here’s what I do not have:

Backups of locked pads

Chat logs

Authors / authorship colors

Time slider histories

If you want any of those, you’ll need to grab them yourself asap! If you’ve forgotten a password, the quickest way to grab my attention is to let me know via the tumblr messager (or my Discord, if you have it) and I can help you.

As for the actual text of the pads, I have these saved! I can send them to you whenever you like. Under the cut is a VERY lengthy list of the pad titles I have backups of. I can also do a text search if you need.

!!HEY GUYS -- WRITER PROFILES *Goat scream* 2SPOOKY 2c Stories 365 days of Rabbit No! A Very Frood Pad Christmas An attempt to organize chaos And the Band Plays On Annie got her gun Ask Walter Kids BADLY SINNING BRAINTHUNDERING Best Ship Around Broken little pieces CC 4 editing Care Cat!Steve. Don't ask. Cat's sehr whichtig grad portfolio stuff Catori's Little Pad ^^ Cheeroko: ES Drabbles And Possible Story Cheeroko: Elder Scrolls Brainstorming Cheeroko: Fanficing Fanfics since ... Today? Cheeroko: Has Started Yet Another AU Cheeroko: Rabbit Appreciation Pad (Aka, SPG Pad) Cheeroko: Walter Manor Cheeroko: What Should I call this? [{Original Fic}] Cheeroko: You Know What? I'm Just Going To Use This Pad For My Gender Stuff Christmas List Come keep French Company! Please? Configuration (new-new CC and biocore planning) Counter Nonsense Crazy Community Fanfiction Crazy Community Fanfiction II Crazy SPG Collab Thing 2.0 DANGER 5 SOLVE THE GREATEST CRIME OF ALL Derelict (spoilers yo) Derelict 23 and other stuff Derelict Chapter 20 Derelict Chapter 24 Derelict Chapter 25 Derelict Chapter 25 for real this time Derelict Dragon Dreads Derelict Take 73 Derpy-Nuns Don't come here unless Fish is whining at you Don't look Dr. Babblefish's Quest to Only Become Moderately More Insane Dragon Lurve Elephants and Nachos Everyone Writing Everything FRANKENPAPPY Fantastic Mister Vox Fish Does Terrible Things Fish Fanfictions Salgexicon Now Fish and Serif attempt a role play thing. Fish and its monospaced text Fish has an F in evil Fish is Sailing a Ship Fish is a terrible person. Fish is just rambling Fish writes things about other fandoms Fish's Awkward Nonfandom Headcanons Fish's Lupin Drabbles Fish's Magical Tragical Guide to Not Writing Mary Sues Fish's OC Boat Fish's Originalish Pad Fish's Plots and Characters French Rambles French Writes Stony French is a Poet Froodpad Rules and Instructions Further proof we're all insane Futureverse G-Mans and Watering Cans GW2 Cav stuff Ghost! Ghostfacers! Hangout pad Happy Little Family Happy Little Family Notes Here ye go, Redacted Heyo, Achgfd Homestead-Ch.1 How to be nice in RP I blame everyone but me I figure at this rate I should just make a Weird SPG Dreams pad I have no idea what im working on I never tire, I serve I- I- I- LOVE ROBBIE DARREN IT IS A SMUT POWERED BLANKET MY GOOT SAR Ice Cream and Knit Bow Ties Imma figure this thing out by posting prompt responses Improb In Which Pappy Dies In Which Reed Becomes a Robot In Which Steve Drops Bass In Which There is an Abandoned Lab In which robots become metaphors for Autism Spectrum stuff Laying Down The Law Here MATURE REPLY MBG Tumblr Planning   MERRY HOLIDAYMAS YOU WEIRDOS! MWFGOH Notes MY FRIEND MATT WHERE YOU AT May B. we Feta get outta here May B. we Feta get outta here pt2 Muppet Baby Giraffe Fics Myth fanfiction maybe??? NOBODY PANIC (MICHAEL GOT THE D) Neoma's Writes Not Actually a Funeral Not!Derelict Nuns could use help writing a comedy piece for English Nuns does a research paper on GAY GODS Nuns fools around with a hero's journey Nuns hunts for the Holy Grail (and a good essay grade) OC ADVENTURE!! OFF Musingses OOPS Oedipus Script Old Money On the wings of steam One of the Fanmily Original stuff is harder than we anticipated PSILENCE WILL FALL Pappy Pad 2 Pappy Rabbit Old (Still needed though!) Pen & Kari's Pad of Fairytale Badassery Philosophy Notes Pokemanz SPG Post-Derelict Headcanons Princey and Leeland's Walter People Pad Princey definitely isn't using this pad for homework anymore Princey is the best right Leilani right Princey tries Original Stuff Princey wanted to write OC stuff too Princey's self-indulgent stuff Princeyfic (An Accident of the Smallest Kind final chapter) Princeyfic: An Accident of the Smallest Kind Princeyfic: Basically nothing but a mermaid OC Princeyfic: Canoe Catastrophe Pronz Psi does homework and other stuff Psi does homework occasionally Psi gets his shit together Psi is in pain. Also class. Psi jacks Cat's characters Psi plans the Derelict!Verse RP blog early because he's bored Psi reads Marsupial Psi takes out dysphoria on The Spine Psi tries for "canon" SPG Psi writes Cabin Pressure stuff Psi writes a thing about an author Psi's Headcanon Psi's Kazooland OCs??? Psi's class notes Psi's class notes and HatchWorth stuff Psilent's Hatchworth Feels Psilent's Pscribblings Psilent's Pstuff Psunny's Muppet Babby Stuff Public pad 2: 2 public 2 pad Pun and Psi Make a Porno Punny: Ask Index Punny: Broken little pieces Punny: Crack Fic ideas Punny: Ficlets Punny: HLF Th teen years Punny: Happy Little Family Punny: Justice Giraffes Punny: Major fics Punny: Rainbow! The Spine Punny: Trying to figure out how the hell Super spg works RABBIT NO RABBIT NO 2: electric boogaloo Rabbit writes fanfic Relish's Ramblings Reverse Pre Mid Life Crisis 3000 Rex and Captain. Rover! SICK ROBOTS. (Princey and Leeland) SIMNANIGANS SO I may have discovered aquabats and it may have given me some muse SPG/Avengers cross over collab-fic SS kills a lot of young women SS: Aftertheendverse SS: Aggressively writes happy fanfiction SS: Amnesia Home Pad SS: Amnesia Revisions SS: Amnesia!Spine Headcanoning SS: Ancient Mariner SS: Angsty Poetry xP SS: Annie/V SS: Dragon!Steve SS: Genderbends because of reasons SS: Just our positronic electronic harmonic SS: Michael wants the D(erelict!Steve's dick) SS: Michael wants the D(erelict!Steve) #2 SS: More Spine/OC junk SS: Okay actually writing Amnesia now SS: Poems by Peter VI SS: Possible Natalia 'Verse SS: Private Party SS: Ratchet and pumpkin SS: Spine/OC SS: Spine/OC #2 SS: Spine/OC #3 SS: The Only Constant SS: The Way Home SS: hoamwork Satyr Adventure script Secret Santa (Sign-ups closed, Santas have been assigned!) Serif needs to kill something apparently Serif's Dump Pad Serif's Dump Pad 2 Seth only starts things and never finishes them Sewing Stitches SisterofaFish's Pad So much craft poisoning Something Wicked This Way Comes Space-Opera Spoons' Stuff Goes Here Stalking Information Steve has Joined Your Party! THIS IS WHERE THE PARTIES AT TIME TO SCARE THE BABIES Tango's Reason Why The Case of the Quest of the Missing Coffee The Mythos Mythos The Rake This is a public pad because Fish is bored This is utter crap Thunder Charge Title! Too Many Thoughts Untitled 180 Untitled 217 Untitled 314 Untitled 322 Untitled 323 Untitled 324 Verse Fable...or something like that WE GON WRITE FLUFF WE LAV U HRUP WRITER PROFILES We write Mirrormask fics now. Mirrormask is cool. Well look what the cat dragged back in World Building You know what, ignore Nuns a surprise in every pad and no one was ever happy the end awkward monsters/spg campfire song song cat used to write hannafic class notes copper conduction 3: REVELATIONS copper conduction p. 4 death lullaby ye everybody look down fear and loathing in san diego half-baked hatchworth stuff hesitantly works on new chapter how rabbit got his groove back 2 i leik ur silileh lteile hat incdrop - frisk incwrites it's sort of like hellraiser except not lemarchand's fic oh heck there's a plot one time ruffy wrote angst original sexy awesomeness possibly part of Two Birds One Stone possibly not psi is the batman psi's original story (caution may contain robots) ((totally contains robots)) psi's presentation that's due in six hours ruffy's writing a thing schoolwork and such (go away) shit so many fics so little time so much writers block sometimes i doubt your commitment to sparkle motion the end. the fucking crying game the future doesn't love you the wit and wisdom of spg woo lets write pirates woo

[thepringlesofblood]

ok i have a semi-decent success rate with using this site like a scrying pool to try and find things i can’t quite remember so here’s another

in 4th grade, my teacher read us a book, chapter by chapter, over the whole school year. I do not remember the name of the book. I do not remember the names of any of the characters, or the author.

what i do remember is what the cover looked like, most of the major plot points, and that it blew my 4th grade mind. it was an awesome book i’ve been looking for it ever since to see if it’s actually as good as I remember it being or if I was just ten. 

so if any of this rings a bell to you and you remember the book please god tell me the name of it bc it has been plagueing me for literally over a decade

(under the cut bc its a long description)

The main plot was that a kid was hiking in a canyon/gorge and fell into a complex underground cave system and got trapped there. as he’s going around trying to figure out a way out he meets a guy who’s been trapped down there for years, a sort of eccentric doc brown type, who teaches him how to survive. the detail I remember most specifically is that they survive by eating prawns that live in all these underground pools, and bc its pitch-black in the caves they make light by making oil out of these prawns and then lighting the prawn oil on fire? anyway them just surviving is the main plot of the book, and the eccentric guy dropping weird cave wisdom on the kid, there might have been a subplot where a mining company was going to blow stuff up? but there might not have been. I think at the end when the kid escapes the guy goes back into the caves and lives there but I could be wrong. the general vibe was my side of the mountain meets 127 hours, leaning heavily towards my side of the mountain.

i don’t remember names specifically, but I think that the kid’s name started with L or had an L in it. I’d guess “Ledger” if i had to guess. when I’ve tried to dredge this memory up before I’ve guess that the title was something like “ledger’s peak” or “ledger’s gorge” or just the name of the gorge it takes place in like ‘sunset gorge’ or ‘spencer gorge’ or something like that

and I remember what the cover looked like - it was a close up of a pair of red converse sneakers from above, the tips of the shoes were peeking over the edge of a cliff that looked into a gorge of jagged grey and white rock with a river, mountains fill up the whole horizon, the sky was super super light, almost white, with the title in red letters, comic sans if I had to guess. here’s the general gist (please do not make fun of my shitty ms paint drawing)

it would have to have been published at the very least before 2011, probably earlier. it wasn’t super long, like novel length, and the genre was definitely the sort of Young Reader genre that like the percy jackson books belong to, the 8-12 audience, since the main kid was i think 11, maybe older.

most of this is mutable or changeable or possible that I remembered wrong, the only things i’m entirely certain of are:

the time period - before 2011 at least, probably earlier.

the prawns. it’s stupid, but for some reason the detail my brain latched onto is that they ate cave prawns/crayfish/shrimp and turned them into oil and lit fires with it.

the general structure of boy falls into caves, boy meets guy who’s been down there for longer, they work together to survive and escape

the cover, more specifically red converse sneakers on the cover. again, i don’t make the rules of what details my brain latches onto. it could’ve been a reprint or a second edition so this really doesn’t help much except as a confirmation

im well aware this might not be anything. but fucks sake i loved that book. im always into that my side of the mountain shit. lmk if you know this book

[nctsukashii-archive-blog]

🔥🔥🔥 Gimme ur unpopular v3 opinions

I’m dropping real ass fire here.topics: UNPOPULAR V3 OPINONS- Akamatsu and her behaviors that go ignored.- Chapter 6 Trial + Masterminds.- Favortism in the V3 RP community.

shit i used my only fire meme since i thought only one person would send me anything lol. rip my fine ass to shreds fam.But thank you! More general things besides Hoshi here lol, but I hope you’re entertained anyways by my screeching. Have fun reading!

- AKAMATSU AND THE SHIT SHE DO THAT NO ONE APPARENTLY CARES ABOUT BESIDES ME WHICH MAKES ME SALTIER THAN A GODDAMN MCDONALDS FRENCH FRIES CONTAINER.Okay, so you might be asking yourself: Bepsi what the fuck are you talking about? And let me gladly explain.So guys, apparently this needs to be fucking said, but Akamatsu isn’t a fucking saint. She’s not a precious angel, and she does have some problems that should be addressed more. Because it doesn’t fly for other characters? Why should it for her?1) Her Attempted Murder.“but Bepsi it was to stop the mastermind” and yes, I get you to an extent. Like yes, it’s good she wanted to stop someone from killing her friends, but fucking hell murder is not okay?? Hoshi’s murder isn’t okay, Toujou’s murder isn’t okay, Gokuhara’s murder isn’t okay- what gives Akamatsu this strange right of passage that lets her be exempt from the fact that she fucking straight up tried to kill someone. Even if it wasn’t her, and the fact that she was falsely executed leads to a different barrel of problems, in chapter 1 I’m supposed to believe she’s the killer. And in chapter 2 onwards apparently im supposed to herald Akamatu’s last words like she’s fucking Jesus or something. Like it’s great she said something encouraging! But shit she’s not the fucking patron saint of the saishu academy holy shit. “but Bepsi that’s only an in game thing!” oh ho ho motherfucker no it ain’t people are out there that think that Akamatsu was “totally guilt free and fine for attempting to murder someone” like bitch if Hoshi can murder the mafia (who mind you, do shit like drug cartels and kidnapping teenage girls as young as 16 to become forced prostitutes and do WAY more than just leave a bunch of teenagers in a building to murder each other) and he can go to prison and have it acknowledged it’s a bad thing then Akamatsu attempting to murder someone is just as bad, even if it was supposed to be the mastermind.2) Her Sexual / Perverted Comments At Girls.This one might get me shit on for it, but it’s unpopular for a reason. I find some of the comments Akamatsu says to the girls really kinda creepy and gross; like especially the ones with Shirogane. Like, it’s cool you think she’s hot but god ‘there’s just this sexy allure about you’ is not really something you say? Especially to someone’s face. “but Bepsi it’s cuz she’s a lesbian!” yeah and threatening to lift up Shirogane’s skirt in front of Saihara’s suddenly okay? That’s still not acceptable behavior, no matter if Shirogane is the mastermind or if she’s apathetic to her underwear being shown to a boy. It’s not okay!! You don’t fucking do that shit to anyone!!! It’s gross!! It’s creepy!!! It’s wrong!!! And you especially don’t use it as a fucking threat to get someone to do something for you.And I want people to acknowledge it!!Not all her comments are so sexually charged, like the Chabashira ones are just plain adorable really, but she does say and attempt to threaten with stuff that no one should really get away with. And it should be mentioned that there is flirtatious behavior that goes too far into creepy territory, and it certainly passes for me. Saihara straight up calls her something like “a perverted old man” in the Japanese version too if I remember correctly. So yeah. Akamatsu’s not a Saint. this is a PSA.

2) I LOVE THE CHAPTER 6 TRIAL AND WISH MORE PEOPLE USED THAT IN THEIR MASTERMIND AU’S.Like, oh my god. So many people comment it’s apparently “unpopular” to like the final trial in V3 but I’ve seen so much more hate for it than love. And that’s why it’s here in my list.Because I fucking love the V3 6th trial. Yes, there are faults with it. You learn the bullshit that Akamatsu was falsely executed, and you spend WAAAY too fucking long on “Junko” and “Hope’s Peak” to ever be acceptable, and the epilogue kinda ruins the thematic potency it holds, but the entire second half of it is some of the best writing in recent years for something for me. It’s a love letter to the DR community. It’s Kodaka essentially taking the piss out on himself in the best way he possibly could: by literally making DR itself the villain. Shirogane is a fun mastermind that’s the best idea for a fangan in a real game I’ve ever seen, and she’s more fun than Junko because she’s NOT Junko no matter how hard she TRIES to be Junko- but damn is it fun to see her try. It’s got the audience comments, the takedown of the themes we’ve gotten used to for so long, stupid memes that are really funny to me with the DR titles, the previous characters making comebacks even in just costume form which makes Shirogane even better to me, some of monokuma’s best writing and a really fucking excellent theme and moral in it; it’s everything that I wanted from the game to really make me consider it pretty fucking good for its story and it kinda sucks to see it lambasted as often as it is.which brings me to the second half of this lil tangent: Masterminds.Keep in mind, that the Gopher Project was Shirogane’s idea, or at least... the idea she had to go with for this season. In a mastermind AU, you can write the inner story off of whatever you think would make it more entertaining and appropriate for your muse. Make it some hardcore weird ass story about fake ‘training && character building by isolating kids from an apocalypse’ for MM!Momota, or some pretend world where everyone DOES have a false crime given to them along with their talents in an actual prison school for MM!Hoshi, or MM!Harukawa making them hard pressed a lot more on murder and betrayal like some DISTRUST level shit- go fucking nuts! and use that chapter 6 reveal to your advantage!!!How does a Mastermind behave differently if they know it’s a world of their design? How do they think of their classmates while knowing everything is fictional? Are they ecstatic that they could be revealed? Are they scared? Are the murders scripted in a certain order? Is it freehanded? Does the mastermind stay in a character? Or are they just themselves filling out a role with minimum effort? All these are questions you can ask yourself that don’t even need the PRE3 Headcanons to imagine them to be. THEN you can start shoving that stuff in.Have fun basically, and utilize the ending more. It’s criminally underrated.

3) BIASES AND FAVORITISM IN THE V3 RP COMMUNITY. Alright, this one might look like I’m trying to pick fights, but hear me out on this one. There is a general favoritism for certain characters, in this community.You can’t even argue with me on this one. I wanna make a fucking bet with you. Pick a muse that’s really popular, like Saihara, and then pick another muse that’s not so popular, like Chabashira or Hoshi. Now make a blog for the both of them. In a week, I fucking bet the Saihara blog will have over 100 followers, and the Hoshi or Chabashira blog will barely have 20-30 if you’re not using close friends to fill that follower count. Look at me, I’ve been in this RP community for over a year, and in my 2 blogs (as this is the remake of a previous one) I have not cracked 100 followers on EITHER of them!! That’s fucking right, would you believe it? I’m at 90 followers right now, and that’s been like that for 3 months. You wanna know what’s really fucking disheartening? Hearing from friends how a new Ouma blog cracks over 100 followers in one fucking week. That shit fucking hurts, because I know it’s because he’s popular and Hoshi’s not, but it doesn’t make it sting any fucking less when I have to hear about it since I’ve had to fucking struggle tooth and nail for my 90 over months of writing to prove that I can fucking write well. It sucks. It really fucking sucks and I hate it a lot but I deal with it anyways because I love writing Hoshi.You all know which muses are popular in this community: it doesn’t take a fucking supergenius to figure it out. And people can tell about other biases too, like with ships or with just character preferences. I see it on my dash, and I’m sure you can see it on yours too. 

Now don’t go twisting my words here. I’m not saying you can’t have favorites when RPing, or certain things you want to RP, or muses you like more compared to others from the cast or you can’t have biases when you RP. I’d be a fucking hypocrite if I said that, and I wouldn’t dare to. But if you have a bias, at least make it at least a little less obvious. Before picking up another thread with a character you really really like, think about what you haven’t done yet. If you want to write a popular muse, go right the fuck ahead. I won’t stop you! I love seeing this community get new people or new muses.But at the very VERY least, try to think about the less popular muses too. Think about the less popular ships. Think about others with muses that aren’t hitting the top 10′s in the V3 popularity poll that struggle to get interactions with more than one character per fucking day.This is a PSA to the whole V3 community. Mic fucking dropped. Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.

[kaywinette]

Storytime

Clementine gets sick and has to stay in bed, and to make sure Clementine doesnt do anything stupid, Javi stays with her. @protectcabba2k requested some Javier and Clem bonding time and this is what I came up with! Its not the best but my excuse is that i got no sleep lastnight! Im really sorry if its not what you wanted, but I hope you enjoy it!

The last time Clementine was this sick, she had trudged through a blizzard for days, fallen into a frozen lake, then had to again trudge through the snow for who knows how much longer. Currently, she was freezing under a thick jacket and two blankets, and ultimately bedridden. Kate had Eleanor come over earlier to check up on Clem, and it turns out she just has a normal cold.

"It's really nothing to worry about. As long as she stays in bed she should be fine in a couple of days. Maybe even tomorrow if she gets enough rest." Eleanor shrugs in the doorway to Javis apartment.

"Thanks, Elle, we'll see what we can do," Kate smiles before waving goodbye to their friend. Once the door is closed she turns to Javi. "Okay, I think we both know that there no way Clementine will stay in her bed if she's here alone. Maybe I can skip my work for the day to stay with her?" Kate offers, but immediately Javi shakes his head.

"No...I can stay with her, I've taken responsibility for her, so I'll watch over her for the day." Javi smiles, and Kate just rolls her eyes.

"You're making it sound like she's a puppy you found on the streets." She laughs, "Okay fine. Just make sure to keep her fed and watered." Kate teases. She leans in to press her lips to Javis cheek. "I'll send Gabe up later to check in on you two. See you."

The apartment is silent for a few minutes after Kate leaves, and Javi thinks of what his parents use to do when he or David got the cold as kids. Recalling his Ma's soup recipe that was supposed to cure any illness in seconds, Javi moved to the kitchen. Meanwhile, Clementine was still suffering in her room. She eyed the book on the nightstand next to Gabes bed, which was across from hers. He read it every night and never seemed to get tired of it. Clementines curiosity was just about to burst at the seams. She had been wanting to ask him to read some of it to her for the longest time now, but could never build up the courage.

Slowly, she pushes herself out from all of her covers, suffling over to Gabes side of the room. She's about to pick up the book when Javi knocks on the door to her shared room. Not wanting to get scolded for being up, Clementine quickly retreats to her bed and under her covers again.

"Come in," She calls weakly to the man, who then slowly walks in.

"Heya Clem, how're you feeling?" He asks, giving the teen a smile as he walks over, holding a bowl and spoon in one hand.

"I dunno. Stuffy I guess?" Clementine shrugs, her voice a little nasally from her blocked nose.

"Yeah, you sound stuffy." Javi sends a grin, which gets a glare in response. "But hey, I made you some soup," He then holds out the bowl, and Clementine slowly takes hold of it, not wanting to spill it anywhere.

"Thanks," He actually gets a smile from the sick girl. He's about to leave the room again, but he's stopped. Clementine had reached out and grabbed him gently by his sleeve to get his attention. She opens her mouth, but seems to second guess herself. Javi watches her eyes dart between him and something on Gabes nightstand. Slowly, Javi looks over and sees Gabes book that he had carried around with him for years.

When Clementine notices that Javi figured out what she was looking at, she cringes. She has never been good at being subtle.

"Did you want to read this? I'm sure Gabe wouldn't mind, he's read this over and over again for years." Javi explains as he goes to pick up the book, flipping it over to read the title. He makes his way back over to Clems side of the room, holding the book out to her. The girl hesitates though, keeping her hands on the bowl in her lap.

"I...I want to, but I can't." The girl says with a sigh of defeat after a few moments. Javi cocks a brow at the teen, looking between her and the book like she had done moments ago.

"Clem, Gabe would gladly let you borrow the book. I'm sure he won't get upset if you read it without asking." Javi almost rolls his eyes at the girls apparent stubbornness. Clementine holds back a groan because of course Javi wouldn't get it.

"No... I mean... Javi I literally can't read it." Clementine basically whispers the end, and Javi faulters, his hand dropping to his side as he puts two and two together. The way Clem always asks someone else to read AJ his bedtime stories and the way Clem would stare at the posters for mandatory New Frontier meets for too long before turning away to find someone who knew what was going on.

"You never learned how to read?" Javi suddenly blurts out, and Clementines face flushes in embarrassment.

"I learned how to read a little!" The teen protests before faltering, "I just...kinda forgot? Its weird," She frowns, leaning back against a wall. "When I turned eleven, my old friend found a book for me, like for a birthday gift. And when I tried to read it, nothing made sense to me, like it was a different language. I guess because reading isn't exactly needed for survival, my brain just got rid of the ability." Clementine weakly explains.

Javi slowly sits next to the sick teen, who was clearly upset by the fact that she didnt knows how to read. A part of him felt warm and happy at her explanation, not because he's excited that she doesn't know how to read, obviously, but because she's sharing private information with him, which she rarely ever does. All he knows about her past is that shes been with multiple groups, and all have ended in sorrow. So the fact that she's opening up to him makes him feel like she's accepting the fact that she's a part of his family now, whether she likes it or not. Slowly he starts to turn the book over in his grip before he comes to an idea.

"I can read it to you if you want? And I can help you learn?" He offers, giving a cautious smile, which she slowly, but surely returns.

"Yeah...I'd like that," Clem responds, and Javi gets comfortable.

He moves to sit shoulder to shoulder with the teen, the book in his lap where they could both see the words, and he starts to read to her. He reads a whole chapter before its Clems turn to read aloud.

She struggles quite a bit at first, squinting at and trying to sound out words, and she often has to let Javi read them aloud to her. She then repeats a word multiple times to get used to it before moving on, only to repeat the system again on a new word. Shes surprised that Javi wasn't getting annoyed at her, in fact, he seemed to be enjoying it! Eventually, she finishes the page and leans back with exhaust.

"Cant you just read it all to me. I'm sick." She says, pulling a pout, and Javi can't believe his ears.

"Did you really just pull the sick card on me?" He asks in surprise, but she continues to pout at him, bringing a hand up to rub her neck.

"Also, can you go get me some water, my throat is dry. And an extra blanket, ooh and if we have any, some headache medicine, I think your voice is really starting to make my head hurt," She continues on, the pout fading into an amused grin at the adult's annoyance. "Please...I'm sick," She's trying to hold back a grin now as Javi stands up.

"You can be a real pain in the ass," He grumbles, taking the empty soup bowl from her lap. He goes to grab all the things Clementine asked for, but when he comes back, he's surprised to find the girl passed out and drooling on her pillow.He cants help but laugh, his annoyance fading as he sets the water bottle and pain pills down on her nightstand before covering her with the extra blanket he brought.

He makes sure to take her hat off for her, setting that on the pillow next to her head. And Javi can't help but brush some dirty hair out of her face.

"I hope you feel better soon Clem," The adult gives a smile at the sleeping teen before he makes his way to leave her room. He hears shuffling on the bed and turns to see that Clementine had turned to lay on her side, her back now facing him, but he can still hear what she has to say.

"You're a pretty good guardian Javi, thanks." She mumbles tiredly in her half asleep-half awake state.

"And you're a pretty good kid Clem," Javi responds, even though he's positive the girl's already asleep.