#in my head they were playing Geometry Dash

[luimagines]

Can i request a thing where modern!reader teaches the chain about rhythm games?

-🍄

Yes.

Masterlist

Content under the cut!

"You have to hold it for longer." You explain gently.

"This too hard!"

"Because you keep doing it wrong." Legend snorts. "Let me try."

"Let him finish."

Another bad score. Another embarrassing defeat.

"This game sucks." Wild growls, tossing your device back to you.

"You have to listen to the music other wise you're going to struggle with it anyway." You roll your eyes and restart the game.

"Let me try!" Wind cries happily, wanting to snatch the device out of your hands before you can set up an easier level.

"No way! I said I was next!" Legend tries to block the young boy. You however, are doing your best to not get trampled.

Time passes without much comment, only sparing your small group with a disinterested glance before walking away.

You get an idea.

"Hey Old Man! Wanna give it a try?" You stand quickly, wanting to catch him before he decides to "run away" from the chaos you're not creating.

You see him sigh internally before turning to you, deciding to humor you. "What is it?"

"I have a rhythm game I've been trying to master." You grin with hidden delight. "Try it. It's easy."

"Lies!" Wild calls from the distance.

Time raises a cool eyebrow. For a moment you think that he's not going to do anything about it and leave you to your devices.... But he holds his hand out.

You grin and hand him the device. You teach him the way the game works ad soon everyone huddles around to watch him try and take out the level. He keeps getting higher and higher, beating boss after boss.

Everyone is enthralled with watching him.

It takes fifteen minute before he finally gets bested by one of the harder levels and hands it back to you with an unimpressed face. "It's alright."

"Alright?!" Legend all but screams. "That was incredible! How did you keep going?!"

Time shrugs and stands. "It wasn't difficult."

Four has to physically restrain Wild from throwing an apple at Time's head. Twilight and Warrior are trying to fight Legend for a turn on the game next while you're back to setting the little character back to the lower levels.

Sky continues to watch but doesn't seem to interested in giving it a try.

You grin towards Time and tilt your head. "He's not wrong. For someone who's never come close to this kind of game, you're really good at it. Got any story to explain why that is?"

"Maybe." Time shrugs.

You wait for him to elaborate.

Time smirks and walks away.

"WHAT?! Nothing!?? Not even a crumb!?"

[wonysugar]

Heyyy this is my first time requesting something

Imagine gamergf! Sakura, who is always gaming and doesn’t gives attention to reader, so one day reader sneaks into sakura’s gaming room and kneels in front of her, kkura doesn’t even notices her presence until she feels how now her pussy is exposed, reader who starts to eat her out while she’s playing, begging reader to stop overstimulating her

cw: somnophilia, cnc (boundaries discussed beforehand ofc), bondage and overstimming (so begging!)

sakura was exhausted as fuck... originally just getting on her computer and playing geometry dash to pass the time but having it being quickly turned into an intense gaming session, as per usual, her eyes glued to the screen until like what.. two am at this point? btw doing allat while only wearing a tank top and panties because let her live anyways moving on

she just cannot for the life of her pass this godforsaken level and she's sick of it; being an incredibly competitive person, she couldn't bare backing down. she was gonna pass that level, even if it took the whole night.

you, on the other hand, have been trying to get her attention throughout the whole day. look, you loved your girlfriend, she was loving, caring, everything you could possibly want. but one thing you knew she wasn't good with; giving you attention whenever she was focused on something else. if you tried texting her, she wouldn't even see the notif. if you tried coming in her room and starting a conversation, she would give back short responses. it was difficult, if not impossible.

long story short, you were incredibly needy, and you were ready to do anything to get her to pay attention to you.

the discouraging words "attempt 1553" displaying on her screen as it lit up the dark room that she was in, her eyes fighting what felt like an invisible force that was desperately trying to close them shut. throwing her head back, she sighed exasperatedly, almost dozing off. a small break wouldn't hurt, she told herself.

yeah no, no matter how hard she tried fighting her own drowsiness, the chair was so comfy, she couldn't help but eventually give up and close her eyes. she was eepy, if you will.

and eep did she do!

what she didn't know, though, is that she was sooo incredibly tired that she didn't even notice you walking into her room and strapping her to her chair. poor bby was just sooo tired and unaware. :((

when she went to rub her eyes, she quickly realized that her hands were restrained, she noticed you under her desk and immediately looked lost, what were you doing there? suddenly, she felt the slight vibration in between her legs, already giving her sleepy brain somewhat of an idea "mmh.. love..? w-what are you doing—"

"i'm gonna untie one of your hands so you can play and win this level, okay? if you don't, i'm not letting you cum, as simple as that. also, i unplugged your headphones; i wanna make sure you won’t be lying when you'll say that you won."

"couldn't we have just— mmh— done this in bed..?" she asks, stumbling on her words as she tried to keep her eyes open.

you scoffed at her words, mocking her "do you really think i'd go to this length if you actually paid attention to me throughout the day? you seemed soo committed to passing this level, i can't just take that away from you, can i?"

she furrowed her eyebrows in guilt as she looked down at you, avoiding your gaze once her eyes started tearing up. was it the drowsiness, the sudden culpability she felt when she figured out why you were doing this, or the pleasure her clit was throbbing for?

she didn't know, she felt like she didn't know anything at that moment.

you took away the vibrator to pull down her only piece of lower clothing, her underwear. upon taking it off, you watched as the slick of her cunt stuck to the fabric of her panties, smirking at the sight. looking up at her and noticing her hard nipples through her thin tanktop. she was barely even awake and she was already this needy for you?

"slut." you spit out, making her whine in the process.

after untying one of her hands, the rest of the night turns into you pressing your favorite vibrator against her clit as you ate her out, hearing her desperate moans and cries of pleasure mixed with the, quite frankly, unserious geometry dash music coming from her speakers as she desperately tried winning. and whenever her noises got louder and her breathing got heavier? you simply took away all the sensation from her, denying her orgasm as you made her twitch with anticipation as she whined..

and the need to constantly remind her, "keep your eyes on the screen and hand on the keyboard, i'm not gonna keep repeating myself, sakura." whenever she pathetically begged you to let her cum, staring at you as tears fell from her eyes, she was just so desperate to cum :((

eventually, after like, 3 hours, she managed to pass the level. holding onto your promise, you untied her limbs and ate her out, licking all of her folds and sucking on her clit until she finished all over your tongue and lips, gripping your head and pushing you closer to her wet core. you were certain that your neighbors would have a word with you the next day the way she was screaming out your name, blabbering sleepy nonsense as she came undone under your touch :((

long story short, she slept incredibly well after you carried her to bed that night. <3

[joonie7007]

I’m literally in love with silent hill and it concepts movies and games and music… and and and and and and and and and and andbshaksndbsnsn I . LOVE . SILENT . HILL

I especially loved it when Coryxkenshin would use it in any games that get creepy or something aka desert nightmare ( I think I don’t remember ^^;; / little nightmares/ geometry dash ♥️🗣️🗣️

I wish I could play the games but I don’t know how to ( I bought a ps4 to play games just for it to sit on my closet/ AND MY LIL BROTHER NOT HELPING ME HOW TO USE THE CONTROLLER) it’s the fact that pisses me off was that I had a psp when I was younger and my mom pawned it to buy herself some high heels when she had like 50 rotting inside her closet;-; / it makes me so maddd even tho I would only listened to music on there 💀💀😭😭GRRRRR

OH also seeing someone explain like how they were made? Or the ideas of creating those characters LIKE DAYUMMM 😦😦😦😧😧😧

Also when I watched the movies PEAKKK the fact that they only made 2 MOVIES

ALSO SLAYYY QUEEEENSSSS 🤩🤩🤩♥️♥️‼️‼️‼️// WHEN I FIRST SAW I WAS AYOOO ANDREA FROM THE WALKING DEAD THEY COULDVE MADE MOREEEE ESPECIALLYTAGT IT WAS SO GOOD VISUALLY AND CRAP OMYGAHHH >_<

AND SNOTHER THING IS THAT WHY DID THEY TOOK PYRAMID HEAD OUT OF DEAD BY DAYLIGHT MOBILE COUNT YOUR MFJVS DAYS

And in Chicago the weather feeling like it too sheesh mfs all over tt “ in my restless dreams …” MFS UNLOCKING OTHER PEAK DIMENSION SPOTS … MAJESTICAL AHHH PLACES 🗣️🗣️

[tuesdayswithlbe]

Dear Reader,

Middle schoolers should not be allowed to do anything. They should be equipped with safety glasses and hard hats before venturing outside, with no patch of sticky, clammy skin left exposed.  Along with allergies, warnings such as “tendency for violence” or “enjoys repeatedly slamming doors” should be printed in red letters under their nametags. I vote we create new summer camp legislation. No middle schooler should enter the bathroom without signing a waiver.

            You may respond to this with the gentle nostalgia of someone who has never worked as a camp counselor. “But you were a middle schooler once!” You might protest. Untrue, my family and I decided to skip this time of life for the benefit of all.

Much like Jesus, it took me moments to grow in wisdom and stature from child to quiet adult. The analogy does not extend as far as the “favor with God and men” part. God continued to send me confusing signals, and most of the men in my life at that time threw markers at me and gesticulated in German. I did speak German (eventually), but I didn’t speak “Man.” I once showed up to class during the World Cup. Sitting in the empty classroom, I waited out the prescribed 15 minutes for a teacher, classmate, or anyone to show up. After I convinced myself that a selective rapture of German music students (maybe just the good ones) had occurred, I saw a blur of black, red, and gold rush by the window as students in fan gear paraded across campus.

So, in my childhood wisdom, I skipped the phenomenon of American middle school and entered right into the meat of life: doubt, video games, and capitalism. The college thing didn’t really pan out, but the summer camp job remained steady.

Do you think Jesus ever mourned the fact that he outgrew his parents? I outgrew their health insurance at age 26. Which seems like a good time in life to figure yourself out. New address, new credit card number, new health insurance. All the trappings of a true adult. But I’ll tell you the first time you drive to the emergency room, all you can think about is your parents. You revert to a child, asking: where do I park? Do I sit here? Can you help me? Maybe unconsciously I remembered the very first time my birthday had been printed on a hospital bracelet. The very first occurrence of the day that would become the rest of my life. My social science teacher was right: hospitals are institutions of birth and death. We shut all that stuff in one place, but when you return there too early, in the in-between time, all the liminal sounds and devices seem wrong. And when something seems wrong, you look for your parents.

This isn’t a thought process I came up with at the hospital, but some deep reminiscence of my socialized brain: optimistically projecting meaning onto every encounter. In the moment, I actually mused on the stupidity of middle schoolers.

Somewhere in between “parent” and “eldritch creature” is the camp counselor. So, let me wrap this ramble back to the original story I wanted to get across to you: which is that middle schoolers should be wrapped in bubble wrap, then stored, counted, and supervised like laboratory samples. Because the safety lecture given before the kids began their community service cleanup project was not enough, and I had a bloody, rusty nail in my pocket to prove it.

I texted my boss that unfortunately, I needed to use my phone for reasons related to the emergency, and could not call the kiddo’s parents to explain the situation. Let’s be honest: I don’t have the ability to explain any situation. My excuse was not a lie: my phone was in use, by a grumpy middle school boy with his bandaged foot propped on a chair playing “Geometry Dash.” He tilted the screen and handed it behind his head to me.

“Can you beat this level?”

            Recently I’ve adopted a new sleep schedule. I fall asleep around 10:00 PM, contained under a weighted blanket and sleep mask, my Night Phone spitting rain noises through its damaged speaker. When I wake up, usually around 2:00 AM (my body has been surprisingly consistent about this), I drift downstairs to check emails on my Day Phone and make a cup of tea. I have a peaceful hour of productivity before going back to sleep until noon.

 Last night, I decided to take my tea outside and observe the stars. By stars, I mean the twinkling movement of lights and traffic that centralize into constellations on the city outskirts.

            It’s 2:09 AM. But the man who lives below me is out on his balcony, staring, staring, like he’s going to predict the future from traffic patterns. I wonder what he’s looking at before I remember he can’t see. I apologize, internally, because this is one of those apologies that would make things worse if spoken. “Sorry sir, I forgot you were blind.”

            It’s dark and I can’t make out the railing in front of me, but he can, hand reaching forward for a second before he finds the chipped metal bar. I walk forward too, feeling until I find the railing. That stuff is solid, man. This is what we should make the containment cells for middle school summer campers out of. Although I’d be worried about their concussive properties. I can hear it now: the clang of someone’s head against the metal barrier, and the offended yelp. Then the stuttered wail for Mom or Dad.

[fadebolt]

It's honestly pretty hard to say that for certain.

The obvious answer would be a 'yes', as the vast majority of boss fights in video games do tend to have music, and this applies to basically every game genre that I could think of. Like, if I were to make a list of off the top of my head, about 10 games that have boss fights, I guarantee that music would be present in every single one of the examples (though there are a few games that I can think of, where you have the default music that always plays, and it doesn't change when you're dealing with a boss, so there's that).

However, Sliver of Straw is a bit different, as her fight isn't really a 'fight', but more of a dodging test, where you die if you fail even once. And I frankly don't know if music would fit there, as I've can't recall many boss fights that are structured like this. (There's likely a bunch of them out there, but I mostly play strategy games that wouldn't be compatible with this sort of design. And honestly, I'd say that Rain World isn't compatible with it, either)

But this idea of having to do basically flawless movement/dodging for a couple minutes, with one mistake leading to you dying, and all your progress being lost… in a way, it kind of reminds me of Geometry Dash - a game about perfectly timed inputs, that match banger songs. However, the difference between Geometry Dash and Challenge 70, is that one is fully consistent, while the other is not. GD works with music so well, because the player has one input button they need to press at very specific intervals, allowing the level and music design to work in tandem with each other.

Meanwhile, Challenge 70 has sections with RNG, and requires complex usage of 7 different buttons to beat (at least without mods, on default settings). Not only is it basically impossible to make a rythm-based dodging game out of that, but music could even potentially make the challenge worse - by making it more difficult for the players to concentrate on the dodging, while also becoming rather irritating after they failed for the umpteenth time. Let's be fair here, if the devs actually decided to put a song here, it would have probably been ruined for many people. Still, there are plenty of workarounds, such as putting in a different piece of music onto each of the different sections of the challenge. Or just simply putting in an amazing track, that would actually have the opposite effect, and instead encourage people to keep trying (a strategy that has actually sort of worked for other games in the past, so yeah).

Overall, while I'm not 100% certain if it would be the right choice, I'm still leaning towards a 'yes', despite everything. Though whether or not this is a correct decision would depend entirely on what the devs would actually make us listen to, during the challenge. But I'd have enough faith in the DLC's devs to give us something good.

poll suggestion: Do you think Challenge 70 should have had music? I always wondered why it didn't .

[roscgcld]

This shit is about to hurt so please read with caution because I'm on my feels and my period which makes me a little crybaby...

Okay like I'm eating peaches and also studying geometry but... Dad!Nanami consumes my brain so much, it's the only thing I can think of!

Dad!Nanami whose voice is shaking so much and is at the verge of crying contrary to what everyone sees him as, when he sees you and his little baby girl.( I don't care what anyone says, I will always imagine that Nanami would be the girl father and an amazing one🥺🥰)

Dad!Nanami who never lets go of her and looks at her amazed. She is the copy of him, the eyes, the hair, the nose everything! Fortunately though, she at least have your personality.

Dad!Nanami who makes Gojo his daughter's godfather even though he acts like he hates him. But he respects Gojo so much and knows that if something were to happen to him, he would take care of his wife and daughter.

Gojo calling his goddaughter, his little kikufuku mochi and teaches her to hate the higher ups and gives her a little speech while she looks at him as if he grew another head and lightly slaps his nose with sparkling eyes. Gojo whines to Nanami that he is the one who encourages her to do that and even if Nanami is silent, we all know that this is true.

You know the tradition in which they put a few objects in front of the baby and the little cinnamon roll chooses one? Nanami's girl doesn't even hesitate, she doesn't care about the objects in front of her, she immediately goes to her papa's sword and touches it.

Everyone is delighted and kinda amused at the look on bot Nanami's and your's faces. Gojo exclaims that he is gonna have a little student from now on while Nanami is threating him. He puts her daughter away from the blade and hides it so that she can choose a normal thing for her career because he doesn't want his little girl to choose being a sorcerer. But this time she crawls to him while he is sitting on the ground and sits at his lap, pulling his tie as if to say that "No matter what, I wanna be like you."

Dad!Nanami being overwhelmed by her love for him but he truly despises the idea. He doesn't want her  to face the harshness of this world, doesn't want her to fight for her life not knowing when she could die because of a curse... He excuses himself for some time and in the meantime they try one more time and she goes to Maki and try to get her hands on her little blade while she freaks the hell out.

Dad!Nanami who will never forget the first time she walks and the first time she starts to see the curses. They are both at the the same day, she is waiting in front of the door since his arrival time came and yes, she knows his work schedule by heart 🤩 This is the reason why Nanami absolutely hates over-time because he knows that his little one will be waiting in front of the doos to be the first to greet him. He always disliked it and he hates it.

As soon as he walks through the door, his daughter clings onto his pants and looks up at him and he feels like his whole stress has been lifted. He goes to kitchen and kiss you and gives her to you but she also wants her father to be here so she flails but when she sees that he still keeps going, she lets out a high "Papa!" and gets out of your grasp and after a while, she stands on her wobbly feet and starts to have have her steps. This makes both you and him stop and gape at her. She is pretty happy that she now has both of her parents' attention😎

That night, Nanami goes to bed the happiest but both of you doesn't know that it is gonna be interrupted. In the middle of the night, his girl lets out a very high and scared wail, screaming for her papa and neither you nor Nanami ever got out of the bed that fast. Nanami immediately grabs his blade and dashes to her room only to find that a curse entered her room even though there were tailsmans around her room. His daughter is in rhe corner while the curse was slowly inching closer but before that Nanami kills it without mercy. When she sees you, she grips your shirt so hard while crying and saying that there was a big and hairy monster.

Dad!Nanami who accepts that his daughter can see the things he absolutely despises and explains to her the world they live in. After some time though, when he was certain that she would cry again, she asks a simple question. " Do you think I'd take after you and save the world?" in her own little baby language and Nanami, for the first time is astonished and amazed enough so much so that he couldn't speak. But his girl is playing with the hem of her PJs with embrassment but Nanami suddenly pulls her to his chest and squeezes her so much while muttering "I love you"s to her.

Spoiler Alert....( We all know where this is going but I jave another set of headcanons where he is alive because I will never accept that he died....🤧😭)

Dad!Nanami who is full of regrets because he will never be able to see his girl graduate, be an amazing young woman who inspires other, have a significant other. He would never be able to walk her down the aisle, never would be able to drive her to school, never hear her voice get higher when she talks about her parents.

Dad!Nanami who is full of sadness because he couldn't keep his promise to you. His promise of giving you a long and blessed life and family, his promise of going to Malaysia with you and his girl. His promise to cherish and love you each and every day till the day you both die. He regrets not saying you "I love you." before this mission. He knows that you are still fighging and for this mere reason her tries to do the same but he has no power. He has no other choice rather than trusting you two with Itadori and Gojo.

You knew when exactly he died. You knew because when he died, your heart stopped for a moment too. You couldn't stop the tears and the strong wail that passed your lips while collapsing, thinking what were you gonna say to your girl.

Itadori is the one who told you his last words, he wanted you out of this life, he wanted both of you to live and maybe it was selfish but you agreed. It was hard to explain it to your girl but suprisingly she said that he will never actually leave you to alone and that he will be watching over you both while hugging you.

And true to her words, she inherited his technique and wanted to learn how to use it so that she can be like her Papa. Only remains that was found were his blade, his ring and a part of his tie. She proudly uses his blade and has the part of his tie in a necklace while you wear both of the wedding rings.

And again, true to her words Nanami was watching over her with his friend Haibara. He was telling him what s strong girl she was and Nanami was only able to nod his head while tears were slipping from his eyes, muttering a single apology with a little threat as if she can hear. "Don't you dare die, little clover." And at that moment, she suddenly looks up to sky and promises to both of you that she will live. Right at this moment, Nanami realises that the bond you three have can never be broken and he can only pray that he will have you as his wife and his girl as his daughter in his next lives one more time...

jjk spoilers ahead!

....I am on my period too so now I am crying? Like I shed a few tears ?????? How dare you do this to me?????

I-

I swear - some of yall deserve to write more than my dumbass does. LOOK AT THIS AMAZINGNESS THAT IS A NANAMI ANGST???

[clanwarrior-tumbly]

Bob & B(l)ob| FNF x Reader

A/N: Just a thing I wanted to write bc I got Bob and Bob/Bosip brainrot on the mind :) Also I did my best to clarify which Bob is speaking/being described so apologies if it's still confusing for some.

Also, although Bob Takeover week is an alternate timeline I tried fitting this into the canon timeline where they battle BF after the whole takeover ordeal.

Summary: Reader is a good friend of Bob (Onslaught), Amor, Bob, and Bosip. They can travel between the real world and FNF universe. But after learning of the trouble the blob caused in the Takeover week of the VS Bob & Bosip mod, they enter the game once more to sort things out and clear up some misunderstandings.

......

"Oh give me a break.."

"What's wrong? Are Bob and Bosip okay?"

Amor stopped clicking around the laptop screen as he sighed and leaned back in his chair, looking to you. "I dunno, I can't find them anywhere in this mod. One moment Bob was rap-battling some blob character also called Bob. Then the next moment it crashes during the cutscene and they like..completely vanished. Bosip's not responding to any of my messages about the game, either."

When he mentioned the blob character, your eyes lit up. "Oh! I know that other Bob."

"You do?"

"Yeah, I met him in his original mod. He's broken the game before so...I suspect he's the reason those two are missing."

"...now I feel really bad for sticking them in this game without their knowledge. They thought they were going to Minecraft." He sweatdropped, nervously smiling as he booted up the game again. "Well if you can go in and see what's up, that'd be great. Sorry you gotta fix my mistake because...I honestly have no clue what happened to them."

"It's all good." You chuckled. "He can be unpredictable but I know him best. I'll get your boys back."

"Thanks, [y/n].

..........

Once you entered the game, it took you a while to find your blob-shaped friend in the park. You asked around with no apparent luck, and you began to worry that Bob somehow moved on from this mod.

It was unusual for Ron not to be here either, though you did see a red stain on the road-

"Yo."

You turned around upon hearing the voice and saw Bob in front of you, wearing a disguise of the missing Bob, complete with a blue wig that barely fit over his head. And instead of a blue B on his sweater, there was the word "gloopie".

As amused as you were upon seeing this, you just folded your arms over your chest, looking down at him with a frown. "Alright, fess up."

"Wut?"

"Don't play dumb. Where's the other Bob and Bosip? Amor's worried sick about what happened to them and I suspect you're involved."

He frowned back at you. "That cube-looking bitch beat me in a rap battle."

"And that's a reason to kidnap them both and pretend to be him?"

"....yes?"

"No." You sighed, before looking around. "Where's Ron, by the way?"

"Dead but "in a cool way"," he mocked the folderhead. "He got ran over. Man you should've seen his guts all over the road-"

"I'd rather not. Just...tell me where you took them or I'm getting Opheebop."

Your threat made Bob's eyes widen in horror. While he was scary on his own, nothing terrified him more than invoking the wrath of his girlfriend. So he finally gave in, his disguise dissolving into black goop that was reabsorbed into his body.

And he disgruntledly teleported you both into a dark building, which had a single dim lightbulb hanging from the ceiling. It took you a minute to adjust to the darkness, but eventually you heard muffled cries of confusion and panic nearby.

"Mmmh?!!!"

"Mmmhff!!!!"

Looking to the source, you were horrified to see Bob and Bosip were on the floor, their hands tied by rope with tape across their mouths. "What the--oh god hang on, guys." You ran over and knelt down to untie them, ripping the tape off as well.

And here you were, afraid that they've been killed. Amor definitely would've been upset if that were the case. There were a lot of dangers in the games they traveled in, and unfortunately nothing warned them of the blob's evil powers.

The moment you freed them, Bob saw the blob-Bob and screamed, clinging to you tightly. "K-Keep that thing away from me!!" He cried. "I don't know what it wants or why it kidnapped us but--!!"

"Bob..it's alright. We're safe now thanks to you." Bosip smiled at you, before looking back at the blob with discomfort. "But uh..do you know this guy by any chance? Seems it brought you here willingly."

"Oh he's a friend of mine from the mod Bob's Onslaught. His name is also..Bob and...uh--Bob? Bob, please calm down." You had a hard time explaining with the blue-haired male babbling nonsense in your ear. But you just sighed. "I'm really ashamed of you."

Suddenly he shut up and looked at you with teary eyes. "Wh-What?"

"No, no. I didn't mean you. I meant him." You pointed at the blob who was standing there awkwardly. "He's got a penchant for killing people who insult him or beat him in rap battles. He takes shit way too personally."

"No I don't."

"Ah, so he speaks." Bosip mused. "But in our defense, he challenged us first without knowing what we were capable of."

"Yeah!" Blue-haired Bob spoke up, still hugging you but with a less constricting grip now. "I take pride in my amazing vocals and I wasn't about to let some silly knockoff Dre-"

You immediately slapped a hand over his mouth to silence him, giving him a stern glare. "Don't ever call him that unless you want absolute death."

His eyes widened with fear, but he nodded in understanding and you removed your hand. Then he let go of you. "A-Alright. Thanks for saving us. Now can we go? This place gives me the creeps."

Nodding, you looked to the blob Bob. He sighed and willingly teleported everyone out of the building, putting you all back in the middle of the park.

In that same moment, Bosip's phone blew up with frantic texts from Amor, and he reassured his creator they were alright. Then he talked about how, according to those texts, they had to beat a guy named Boyfriend in a rap-battle to escape the game.

While Bob pondered over who would name their own kid "Boyfriend", you and the other Bob decided to take your leave, bidding farewell to the Geometry Dash duo.

"[Y/n]?"

"Yeah?"

"...you like that Bob more?"

You stopped in your tracks and looked down at him, shaking your head. "Nonsense. I've known you since forever. No other Bob in this universe will take your place as my best friend."

Even so, he was still pouting. "Seems you like hugging him more.."

"Oh..is that what this is all about? If you wanted a hug you could've just said so." Kneeling down, you hugged the blob and picked him up, grinning. "You know, your cosplay of him was neat. But...maybe try not to kidnap people you wanna cosplay next time, alright?"

"Fine." He grumbled, though he felt a little better knowing he was your favorite Bob.

Not that he'll ever admit it, but his jealousy was a major reason he decided to kidnap them in the first place.

[wish-that-i-was-buckys-girl]

For dayton can you write being childhood best friends with him and you've always been there at his races and one day your running late so you don't get to see him before for his pep talk. And his race goes horribly and eventually when he sees you he gets angry and you get in to a argument. But eventually he makes it up to you.

A/N: Alright, here’s my first go at writing for Dayton White! I watched Logan Lucky and absolutely adored it. Dayton does not get the love he deserves! I decided Im going to make this at least a two parter, potentially spanning into one or two more. I really want to dive into the past with these two! This will focus more on their relationship growing up, while the second (and potentially third) part will contain more of the angst. Once again if I don’t write for a Seb character you like, just ask and I’ll try and gain access to it! I hope you guys enjoy. I also really hate to do this, but I recently quit my job due to a toxic work environment. Here is my ko-fi, if you can donate that would be cool, but if you can’t no pressure!!! Love you all ❤️

https://ko-fi.com/kyleey01

Pairings: Dayton White x Fem!Reader

Warnings: Fluff, no proofreading (I’ll get to it)

Word Count: 2.5k

You’re Always There Part 1

Your earliest memory of Dayton was meeting him at Memorial Park in your hometown. You were both 5 years old, new to the world outside of your home. It was the day before Kindergarten, and both of your parents wanted you to make new friends before the first day of school. Hopefully meeting someone in your class, they felt you wouldn’t be as scared being truly away from them for the first time. You only had a single mom, and she did everything for you that she could, even taking you to the park after her long day at work. Dayton had both parents, making it easier for him to let go and meet new people. His home was “complete” by societal standards.

“Mommy I don’t wanna go play on the slide. I wanna go home and play dinosaurs with you” you said looking up at your mother.

She kneeled down to look you in the eye, holding her shining gaze with yours looking both serious and concerned, “Honey, you know you go to school tomorrow. This is your chance to go meet someone new, maybe even have a friend when you go into school tomorrow.”

You were extremely hesitant. You loved your momma, and she loved you more than anything. You had friends on your street that you liked to play with, but your mom was never far away, only a quick yell and she would be there. This was different. She had told you she wasn’t going to be there if you needed her, and that you would have to wait until school was over to see her again. You cried for two days straight after you had the “school” talk. What were you going to do without your mom? She was your superhero, your friend, and the best mother in the whole wide world. You didn’t need anyone else. That’s what you thought, at least. Until you met Dayton.

“Go on chickadee, go make some friends. You’re a big girl now who can build pyramids with blocks and cut out dinosaurs with scissors, you can do anything” your mother said with a smile.

This was all you needed to muster up the courage to conquer the slide. You nodded at your mom and ran off towards the wooden playground. They really should’ve made these things plastic, with splinters and bee stings being common afflictions of being on the playground, but it didn’t matter to you. It was fun all the same.

You began to climb the steps of the huge castle, making your way through drawbridges and holes through the wood to get to the slide. There were two other little girls there, a little older than you, maybe seven. You mustered up a quiet “hi” but they didn’t hear you, already screaming and running off in a different direction. Just when your hopes of making a friend had been dashed, you heard another voice from behind you.

“Hi. What’s your name?”

A boy of brunette hair and ocean blue eyes was staring at you expectantly. You weren’t expecting anyone to respond except those girls, so you were timid at first. You opened your mouth to speak several times but nothing came out. You started to become overwhelmed, tears welling up in your eyes.

The boy noticed, looking at you confused. He had only asked you your name. However, his momma always said if someone was crying, you fix it.

“It’s okay, you don’t have to tell me your name. Do you need a hug?”

All you could do was nod, strangely opening up to this welcoming boy. He smiled and brought you in for a tiny hug. He wants gentle, kind of rough actually as he swayed you back and forth with energy. He pulled away, hoping you had felt better. You did.

“I’m Dayton” he said, smiling at you.

You smiled back, with tear stains still on your cheek.

“I’m Y/N”

“Y/N, it looks like you need another hug” Dayton gave you another hug, holding you until he stopped hearing the faint sniffle that escaped your body every so often.

You pulled away, nodding to indicate you were alright now.

“You wanna go down the slide? My mommy is probably wondering where I am” Dayton asked innocently.

You nodded, relief washing over you that someone wanted to be your friend

“That sounds awesome.”

_______________________________________________

From that day forward, you and Dayton were attached at the hip. Elementary school had been a breeze. Thankfully, Dayton was in your class your first year. Although it didn’t stay that way, you would always find time to meet and play during recess. Recess time turned into meeting after school, and meeting after school extended into high school.

Dayton began racing during freshman year. Your school offered a racing club which allowed students to meet after school and go to various tracks in the state to see what it was like to race. You and Dayton had always gone Go-Kart driving on the weekends, but you never thought it would turn into anything serious. Dayton, however, has found his passion. He started building his own race car after school sophomore year, and even asked if you would come over to help. You knew absolutely nothing about building a race car, but Dayton wanted you to be there and that’s all that mattered.

“Y’know I know nothing about building a damn car right? Do YOU even know anything about building a car?” you posed to Dayton in an almost accusatory tone.

“As a matter of fact, Y/N, I have been studying how to build this ��damn car’ for over a year now, so why don’t you put a little respect on Francine’s name?”

“Well, Dayton, I suggest you begin studying geometry before you fail the quarter. And you named the thing already? Is it your lover or you car?”

“It’s both” he gave you a weird wink, one on the left, and then another on the right in secession.

“You are absolutely gross, White. I can’t believe I ever agreed to go down that slide with you when we were five. It was probably all apart of your evil plan to keep me from being someone else’s best friend just so I could build this car with you” you rolled your eyes as you sat on the hood of his family car.

“God you’re so right. You caught me. Our entire friendship has been a sham, and it all led up to this moment. And now that I finally have you where I want you...” he said with a low growl, planting both of his hands on either side of you as you sat on the hood of his car.

“I’m gonna get ya!” He said tickling your sides

You shrieked, absolutely taken aback that his hands were all over you.

God, his hands were all over you.

Alright, maybe he is cute, but there was no way you two would ever date. You came to that conclusion a long time ago. Your crush developed in the 6th grade, which is absolutely astounding considering middle schoolers are anything but normal. Even in the most awkward stage of life Dayton still managed to be charming and cute as ever. You were determined to tell him, but he would never shut up about Stacey Waterson. You hated her with every fiber of your being. What was wrong with you after all? You had it all, at least that’s what your mom said. You were decently pretty, immensely funny, and his best friend. You shared everything together. What more could he want? Well, the answer to that question would be Stacey Waterson. He wanted her, and not you.

You came back to from the tickling after laughing for what seemed like minutes. Your sides were hurting from contracting your ab muscles for too long. You pushed Dayton off of you playfully, but he pounced back on you, pinning your arms above your head.

“Say the password and I’ll let you go” he stared you down, being absolutely serious.

However, you wanted to double check.

“You can’t be serious” you retorted back, completely flustered due to the situation you were currently in on top of the incessant tickling that occurred just moments before.

“Oh, I’m serious. Say the password and I’ll let you go!” He said with a huge smile on his face.

“Jesus Christ, let me go you dick” you said while struggling to get up.

Dayton made a loud buzzing sound in your face.

“Try again!”

“Dayton come on let me up!”

Dayton made another loud buzzing sound in your face.

“Come on Y/N, just one little word and this can all go away. All you gotta do is say..”

“Goddamnit Dayton, chicken! Chicken for fuck’s sake” you said waiting for his response.

Dayton made another loud buzzing sound in your face.

“I’m sorry, that’s the old password. There’s a new password” he smiled at you, knowing this was ridiculous.

You finally mustered up the strength to push him off of you.

“What do you mean the password has changed!”

The password “chicken” has been used in every single scenario since you first let. For whatever reason, You and Dayton found that word hilarious when you were at a birthday party in the third grade. It was Danny Henry’s 8th birthday, and of course it was chicken themed. Every child gets infatuated with a new thing every year. Danny happened to live on a farm, and all year he wouldn’t stop talking about getting a pet chicken. You all wore chicken hats, there were chicken plates, a chicken cake. There was even a “Pin the Beak on the Chicken” game which, if you do say so yourself, was way more entertaining than “Pin the Tail on the Donkey.” You and Dayton lost it by the time your mom picked you up from the party, absolutely hysterical in the backseat. Ever since then, it was your secret password for everything.

“I was thinking we should change stuff up. Make up a new password, it has been seven years since we thought of one.”

“Oh yeah? And what is this new life changing password that is soooo good that our childhood memory is being brushed under the rug?” you question.

Dayton had an almost hurt look on his face, but he proposed the new password to you anyways. 

“I thought the new password could be Francine. Y’know, I just think this is another great milestone in our friendship, working on this car and all. This day is really important to me and I’m glad you’re here” he said with sincerity.

You didn’t know what to say. This day did mean a lot to him, and your friendship overall. 

You nodded in agreement. 

“Alright, the new password is Francine. However, I will still be accepting chicken as a password in the future.”

Dayton smiled one of the biggest smiles you had ever seen.

“Deal. Now, let’s get this car on the road. We have a lot of work to do if I’m gonna be ready for my first ever official race next Saturday.”

______________________________________________

Race day was here. You woke up early next Saturday morning and drove over to Dayton’s house to pick him up to go to the race track. Dayton’s dad was taking his race car down in their trailer, but you and Dayton wanted to head to your special place before the race. It was eight o’clock in the morning and Dayton had until noon to get to the race track. 

Ever since the 6th grade, you and Dayton would walk to this rock in the woods after school to talk about your day. Your mom got home at seven every night, so you only had four hours to do something before she got home and realized you were “missing.” You talked about everything on that rock, and that rock was also where you realized you had the biggest crush on someone since your infatuation with Paul Rudd in “Clueless.”

You pulled up in your beat up Dodge Intrepid, newly sporting your license. You grabbed some granola bars and bottles of orange juice to enjoy while sitting on the rock.

You both sat down on ground, leaning up against the thing. You both sighed and enjoyed the crisp cool morning air. Finally, you broke the silence.

“You nervous for today?”

Dayton looked down between his legs while chewing on his granola bar.

“I am absolutely terrified. I mean, what if I mess up?”

You laughed a little.

He looked at you with confusion.

“What’s so funny?” 

You shook your head.

“it’s your first are Dayton. It’s okay to be nervous and even mess up. At the end of the day, everyone is going to be proud of you. We’ll all tell you how great you did because we know how much you care about this. You’ll do amazing.”

He smiled, almost not expecting such kind words to come from your mouth.

“You’re something else Y/N, ya know that?”

“Oh yeah? Stacey Waterson is something else too I bet” you said half jokingly, half serious.

He rolled his eyes. 

“Who gives a fuck about Stacey Waterson when I have a girl like you to cheer me on and surprisingly gives the best pep talks.”

“Well the way I see it she was the one who got the invitation to prom, not little old me who will be spending that Saturday night in my basement playing my PlayStation.” 

He shook his head again.

“I never asked Stacey to prom.”

You suddenly shifted to look at him square in the face.

“What?”

“I said, I didn't ask Stacey to prom.”

You were dumbfounded. He told you he was absolutely determined to take her. What had changed?

“W-Why? Why didn’t you ask her?”

He kept smiling and shaking his head.

“God Y/N, for being one of the smartest girls I have ever met you really can be dumb sometimes.”

“Excuse you, Dayton White, I happen to be taking AP U.S History, Honors Biology, and-”

That’s when you thought heaven had fell down from the skies and landed right on that rock.

Dayton had leaned in and kissed you. God, why did he have to be so charming?

He slowly took your lip into his mouth and gently sucked on it. You reciprocated by taking his top lip into your mouth and began moving your mouth with his. Time had stopped. It felt like you had molded into one person, enjoying the sensation of each other’s lips. 

He finally pulled away, looking you dead in the eyes.

“Do you understand now?”

You nodded, still stunned by his actions.

“I think we better go. I wanna see this handsome boy I kissed win his first race.”

[makeusfreefromthisfandom]

Pillow Fights (iwatobi)

A/n: enjoy some fluffy (literally) cuteness💓

Haru

Your footsteps quickly came to a halt as soft pellets of water made contact with your skin

Looking up at the darkening sky, you sighed, bracing yourself for the cold rain

“Just stay here for the night.”

Haru was right behind you, watching as the rain came trickling down, gradually turning into heavy downpour

You glanced back at the boy who refused to meet your gaze, already heading back inside

“You’ll catch a cold.”

While the two of you laid your futons, something had caught your eye, causing the corner of your lips to twitch up in a sly smile

You subtly reached for the man’s bare sides, his back towards you and unaware of the moments to come

“(Y/n) what are you-” Haru suddenly loses his composure, hunching over, control fleeting

The sound of his tiny giggles, so free and pure, left you in a momentary trance but only encouraged you more as you leaned in, Haru seeking refuge with only a pillow in his hand to shield him from your touch

It wasn’t exactly clear on who or what initiated the act, but soon your hands had also found themselves ahold of a pillow

“Y-y/n!! S-stop!” Haru, trying hard to catch his breath, eventually decided to fight back

The two of you, in the midst of laughter and pillows, gave out, falling to the floor and dazed by the overhead fan

As your breath studied, you realized the empty feeling in your stomach

“...I think I’m hungry.”

“There’s m-”

“Don’t say it.”

Makoto

“Awww baby, you didn’t have to do all this!”

A tray of your favorite snacks, drinks, and take out, gently placed near the lining of many pillows and throws, futons, and blankets

“It’s no big deal really, I was just excited to see you.” Makoto smiled, reassuring you with a chaste kiss on your forehead

Mamma Tachibana be raising him right

Settling down, Makoto raised the edge of the blanket, inviting you into his warmth

You gladly obliged, snuggling in close and welcoming his soft scent

It was nice to unwind after a long day~

However this was short lived as, unbeknownst to you, a set of twins had been scheming behind the frames of the kitchen wall, fluffy pillows clutched in their tiny hands

On the count of three, Ren and Ran smirked at each other, before dashing into the living room, where you and Makoto had been having a moment, and crashed

Before you knew it, pillows and throws were being flung into the air

“Ah! Ren! Ran! Stahh-Ahhh! The large man was tackled, getting caught under the ambush

You cheekily joined in, grabbing the pillow that was begging your back

“Not you too (y/n)-chan!”

The three of you showed no mercy, ganging up on poor Makoto

It was when you three pulled back did you realize your big mistake

Makoto face had gone dark, before suddenly pulling out his own pillow from behind and slowly advancing towards you

“All right...get back here you three...” your eyes widened as you stepped back, holding up a small cushion as your mere defense

Before you can turn around and bolt, a pillow is hurled at you, barely missing your shoulder as you duck and fling the tiny cushion at his knees

“It’s on (y/n)!”

Soon it’s a ruckus, all of you dashing around the room, whacking each other with pillows and throws.

You take this chance to slip away into a hallway, a mistake on your part as you were now cornered, catching a glimpse of a broad and tall shadow.

Your eyes widen and before you can react, you’re feet are no longer touching the ground as your lifted into the air

“H-hey! Makoto! Put me down!”

“Sorry,” placing tiny kisses all down your nape and shoulder

“Ewwww come on Ran.”

Nagisa

“Aww already!”

There’s no way you came over for a sleepover to actually sleep??

“Come onnnn!” Nagisa nagged you, whining and rolling over, wrapping himself like a little burrito to catch your attention

However, after a long week of constantly working, you wanted nothing more than to catch up on your much missed nights of sleep, which is why when you felt fingers poking your cheek, you furrowed your brows in annoyance and felt for the nearest object

In your case, a pillow

Oh what have you done

One things leads to another and now the two of you are at opposite sides of the room, with your own forts and flying fluffy projectiles

“This...is...what...you get for ruining my sleep!”

“Ahhh!”

Wake the whole neighborhood up typa beat

Ends with both you and Nagisa passed out on the floor

Rei

“Ugh Rei if I look at one more circle I’m gonna die!” My people who took geometry know the pain

You dramatically extend your arms, leaning back and falling off your chair with your tongue stuck out.

“(Y/n)-san” Rei sighed, rubbing his temples. You two had been sitting at his desk for hours now trying to understand the whole concept of circles with its lines, angles, secants, tangents, and a whole bunch of other bull you didn’t get

Stop trying Rei, they’re not going to get it

“Hmm by the way Rei...you still call me ‘san’” You sat up from your position, deep in thought

Rei arched an eyebrow at you, “well yes, it’s more formal and-”

“Call me ‘chan’” you looked at him blankly

“I-I” Rei stammered, his blush deepening by the second

You grabbed a pillow and lightly smacked his leg

“chan.”

“S-stop playing around! We need to finish-”

“chan!” You said again, whacking the pillow this time with a bit more force

“(Y/n)!”

Whack

“Alright...if that’s how you want to play...” Rei shifted his glasses up his nose, a mischievous smirk playing on his lips

He quickly snatched a nearby pillow, slowly advancing towards you, already mapping out and calculating your next moves

Ahem things quickly advance and the whole house becomes a -war zone-

Ends with you just giving Rei his victory as he laughs triumphantly, posing on piles of pillows and blankets, it’s only then he realizes the extensive mess of both of your actions

You pitch in, placing the pillows back in their designated spots and folding extra sheets and blankets before crashing onto his mattress

“We didn’t even get to finish that problem did we?”

“Sorry...” you mumbled, burying yourself in his chest, “I’m so...tired...can we try again tom...orrow...”

Rei chuckled, relishing your peaceful state and soft breaths

“Of course...(y/n)-chan”~

Taglist: @starbornecentral @enai-jigoku @allieturs @syrenblubs (let me know if you would like to be added or removed!)

[pickalilywrites]

it’s my first fic since i started my job ❤ i hope you enjoy ^^

..........

You and Me at the End of the World 

Falbi. SF8 AU. 

11194 words. 

Read on Ao3!

»»————- April 3, 2026 ————-««

Falco wakes, a sigh escaping his lips. He feels an incredible weariness in his bones as if he had run a marathon yesterday even though he hasn’t really had PE in a month. He hasn’t had PE since his teacher had run off just like everyone else did when they heard that an asteroid was hurtling towards the earth and set to destroy life as everyone knew it. Everyone Falco knew just up and left their jobs and homes to pursue their dreams: his classmates dropped out of school to become idols or viral TikTokers, the mailman stopped delivering mail to Falco’s house and decided to fly to every place in the world he had always wanted to visit, and even the principal of Falco’s school had resigned but not before advising all of the students to drop out of school because it was useless now that they were all about to die. 

Many people had taken the principal’s advice, but not Falco. He still goes to school on the weekdays and spends the weekend completing homework assignments that will never be graded. A few students had visited the school even after the principal had closed the school down, but they had stopped coming after they saw how many of their peers had dropped out and saw how even the teachers didn’t bother coming back. 

It doesn’t bother Falco that he goes to school every morning and studies in an empty classroom all day or that he has to fish out study plans from the notebooks his teachers left behind just to give himself something to do. His parents have asked him why he bothers going to school when all of his classmates have pretty much given up, but Falco really doesn’t have an answer. If he had to say anything, it’s probably that he doesn’t have anything in particular that he wants to do. 

Falco acknowledges that he’s never been incredibly ambitious like some of his classmates have been. His talents are unspectacular. He knows that he’s neither athletic nor smart. He’s always been average. He never studied too hard because he knew he’d never get the highest score in the class and he never exerted himself too much in PE because there was always someone stronger or faster than him. It isn’t something that ever bothered him, and he’s grown to accept that part of himself. 

He doesn’t have any special interests either. Sure, Falco enjoys playing video games and playing sports like any kid his age, but he can’t see himself wasting the rest of his days on them. Some of his classmates even asked him to join them. Falco has had multiple offers: join a band as a bassist even though he’s never touched a bass guitar in his life, become a part of a dance crew despite his coordination being awful at best, start a video channel pulling off different stunts and tricks to gain a little bit of spotlight before they all died, among others. He declined all of them in the end, preferring to be alone, and even now Falco doesn’t regret his decision. He’s content being a normal kid living out the rest of his tedious life as monotonously as he always did.

His parents live quite normally too except for the fact that they quit their jobs like everybody else did when news of the asteroid came out. Rather than return to their jobs every morning, his parents go out on long walks together, often visiting places from their younger days. They usually leave long before Falco wakes, but his mother is always sure to leave out a freshly made breakfast for Falco and his older brother Colt. 

Colt hasn’t made any drastic changes to his lifestyle, not like some other people his age. He, too, dropped out of school like many of his peers and Falco’s classmates, but he usually spends his time visiting internet cafés or playing baseball with his friends. The elder brother once curiously asked Falco why he bothered going to school and the younger just simply shrugged. Colt never bothered to ask again, and Falco was fine with that. 

Falco rolls out of bed and heads to the bathroom to brush his teeth as he normally does. His hair looks like a mess. Since news of the upcoming apocalypse, people either care excessively about their appearance or they don’t care about it at all. Considering his circumstances, Falco should probably fall in the latter category, but he fixes his bed head all the same, patting down the cowlicks and running a comb through his hair to get rid of all the tangles. 

After washing his face and getting dressed in his school uniform, Falco wanders into the kitchen where his breakfast is waiting for him. On the stove sits a pan with fluffy scrambled eggs mixed with little bits of crispy, dark spinach leaves, and sweet gruyère. Falco twists the knob on the stove with a sharp click before popping bread into the toaster. As he waits for the eggs to warm up, he fixes himself a glass of orange juice. 

Falco ends up splitting the eggs in half, leaving a portion for Colt whenever he decides to roll out of bed. He sits at the kitchen island by himself, munching on some generously buttered toast in between bites of egg. It’s a much fancier breakfast than his mother used to make. Scrambled eggs were usually plain except for a dash of salt and pepper, but his mother has become more experimental with her cooking now that the end of the world is evident. It’s a good change, Falco thinks as the blend of savory bacon and salted eggs melt onto his tongue. It probably would have been nice if his mother had decided to be more adventurous with her cooking beforehand, but it’s not as if having regrets about this can change the past so Falco just eats the rest of his breakfast before dumping his plate in the sink and calling out to his brother that he’ll be heading to school. He doesn’t even wait for a response from Colt before heading out the door. 

Ever since news of the asteroid, Falco has begun seeing very interesting people on his way to school. Some of them are familiar to him. Others he’s never seen before in his life. They’re not all strange, of course. Sometimes there are just kids running up and down the road kicking a soccer ball or couples holding hands as they take a morning stroll. But there are more than a few eccentrics on Falco’s way to school. 

Lately, there have been people claiming to be superheroes. They have superpowers, they insist. Some will rush up to strangers on the street and show off their powers, but Falco has never seen any proof of their alleged superhuman talents. 

Some people post videos online demonstrating their special gifts. Falco has seen a handful of them, mostly because his friend Zofia keeps sending them to him every few days when she finds them particularly funny. He finds them mildly intriguing, although he’s fairly certain that most (if not all) of the videos are either staged or edited to look real. He’s never been fully convinced by any of them. 

On this particular walk to school, Falco passes by a person who claims to be able to create seismic shifts and another person who she can talk to animals. Neither person is particularly believable. Falco only gives a passing glance when the first person begins to demonstrate their powers by spinning in a circle and letting out a low groan that begins to grow into a loud shriek. The earth, Falco notices, does not shake. He’s even less interested when the animal girl starts shouting post-apocalyptic prophecies about how giant bugs will inherit the earth once the dust has settled on the earth after the asteroid impact. 

Falco reaches the school gate and pulls it open himself because there isn’t a teacher there to welcome him like there used to be. He leaves it open to save trouble for anyone who ends up coming after him, although he highly doubts anyone will be joining him. He walks across the courtyard where some of his former schoolmates play soccer, looking at them briefly but not bothering to bid them good morning. When he gets to the building, he pulls open the door and steps inside. The sound of his shoes against the speckled tile echo across the empty hallways as he makes his way to his classroom. 

As usual, it’s empty. Falco could probably sit anywhere he wants, but he ends up at his old desk, the second seat in the third row from the right. He sits down with a thud and lets his backpack fall off his shoulder. He pulls out his notebook and looks at today’s lesson that he copied from his homeroom teacher’s planner earlier last month: geometry, English, social studies, art, and science. 

Falco dutifully completes his assignments for the day. He even double-checks his answers once he’s done. Maybe he’ll look over the answer key after school if he feels like it. He spends his break staring at the window at the kids playing ball in the field or playing pranks on each other in the quad. He doesn’t make any attempt to join them. 

At 2:15, Falco packs his things. He puts away his pens and pencils neatly in his case, zips up his backpack, and slings his bag over his shoulder. As he walks to the door of the classroom, he thinks he imagines footsteps running down the hall. It makes him wonder if the impending apocalypse is making him go mad because he can’t imagine why anyone would be here when the world is going to end in a week. When he pulls open the door, he sees his friend Zofia about to reach for the door. 

“Oh, good,” Zofia pants. She bends over, hands on her knees as she tries to catch her breath. Ashy blonde locks are falling out of her ponytail. “I was afraid I missed you. You weren’t replying to any of my texts.” 

“We’re not allowed to use our phones in school,” Falco says as he looks down at her. 

Zofia looks up, an expression of mild disbelief on her face. “Geez, I can’t believe you’re still doing this.” She straightens up and sighs. “Our teachers probably appreciated what a goody-two-shoes you were back when they actually cared about their jobs, but I assure you that they don’t care at all now that the world is about to end.” 

Falco rolls his eyes and walks past Zofia. He can hear her following him from the extra footsteps that accompany his. “What do you need? I thought you were busy trying to pet ‘every dog in the world’ or whatever before the asteroid strikes.” 

Zofia’s arm links with Falco’s and she flashes a cheesy smile at him. “I realized it was impossible so I settled for petting ‘as many dogs as possible.’ I’m pretty satisfied with my work, so I’ve decided on pursuing something else.” She doesn’t immediately follow up with what it is she’s working on, and Falco knows she’s absolutely itching for him to ask. 

“... What is it?” Falco asks. 

“I’m glad you asked!” Zofia says, tugging him closer to her. She pulls her phone out of her pocket and flips through it for a bit before finding what she wants to show Falco. On her screen is a long post on one of the message boards their classmates post on. “There’s this girl. She’s totally crazy.” 

A glance at the phone screen confirms Zofia’s words. It’s a post that looks like it’s been circulating through message boards of different middle schools in their area. The original poster is someone named Gabi Braun, aged 14, and she attends Liberio Middle School across the city. Her post is a call for all people with superpowers to contact her so that they can save the world together. 

Falco looks at Zofia and wrinkles his nose. “And you’re showing me this because …?” 

“Because she’s absolutely crazy, but she’s interesting,” Zofia replies as she pockets her phone. She smiles at Falco. “Let’s go visit her.” 

“What? No!” Falco says. He yanks his arm away from Zofia. “You said she was nuts! Why would we look for her?” 

“Because the world is ending in a few days, so we might as well do something stupid,” Zofia replies. She links her arm around Falco’s again and pouts, batting her eyelashes up at him. “Come on, aren’t you the least bit curious? There’s a girl our age who thinks she can save the world if she gathers enough nutjobs who think they have superpowers.” 

Falco isn’t curious at all. “I have homework,” he says to Zofia, which he knows is the wrong answer. Although Zofia hasn’t tried to convince Falco to stop going to school like the rest of their peers, she has been pretty vocal about how stupid she thinks Falco is for living the end of his life so mundanely. 

“You also have a friend,” Zofia says. She begins to tug at him after every other word, trying to get him to follow her. “A friend you care about deeply and don’t want to see hurt if she ends up walking into some creep’s trap.” 

“Then why are you going at all if you know it might be dangerous?” Falco mutters, but he knows Zofia’s right. His normal school life consists of him going straight home after classes and doing his homework, but it occasionally includes him reluctantly following Zofia sometimes to make sure she doesn’t get into too much trouble. He’s not too surprised when he ends up walking with Zofia to the meeting place the poster mentioned in their message. 

Normally, Falco and Zofia would have taken the bus into the city, but it’s difficult to flag down a bus. The schedules are erratic at best and oftentimes buses don’t show up on schedule at all. It is the end of the world, after all. 

It’s a curious thing, seeing the city at the end of the world. It’s a little bit like how the movies portray it, but not at all like the movies at the same time. Cars fill the street while drivers honk their horns and shout at each other to hurry up because they don’t want to spend their last days on earth stuck in traffic. The doors and windows of so many shops and buildings are smashed in and their contents gone. If people aren’t running around and screaming at each other on the street, they’re walking around like it’s a normal day save for the fact that they’re all looking for the next thing they want to do before they die. 

“I’d suggest going to the mall downtown or something later, but it’s probably ransacked like everywhere else,” Zofia says with a wistful sigh. 

“We could have just gone to the arcade in our town,” Falco mutters. The internet café and the arcade in their town is a mess because none of the gamers there bother to clean up their trash anymore, but at least there are still computers there and nobody has hauled off the arcade machines. 

The two wander about the city and linger near the subway station entrance the message board poster had mentioned. There are people going up and down the stairs to the subways and some kids skating around and doing tricks on their skateboards. Adults pass by hurriedly with their phone stuck to one ear, rushing to make plans with someone on the other end because they have limited time left. It feels like Zofia and Falco are just standing frozen in time while the world rushes around them. 

“Who do you think it is?” Zofia whispers in Falco’s ear. 

Falco scans the scene, his eyes quickly flitting over anyone that didn’t look like a middle schooler. He doesn’t think it would be any of the skateboarders, so he glances over them too. Whoever this Gabi Braun is, she doesn’t have any interest in anything aside from saving the world with her impossible idea. She must be looking for people just like he and Zofia are looking for her. 

Finally, his eyes land on a girl their age with a stern expression on her face. Her dark eyebrows are knitted together and she turns her head from side to side every few seconds as she scans the subway station, her brown hair whipping from side to side. She leans against the railing near the subway entrance, her arms folded across her chest. Somehow, she looks familiar, but Falco doesn’t know why. 

“Her,” Falco says. He raises his hand and points to her only to realize it’s rude and quickly lets his hand fall to his side. He’s about to jerk his head over in the girl’s direction, but Zofia has already seen who he was pointing to and starts dragging him over. 

“Excuse me,” Zofia says, catching the girl’s attention. The girl’s gaze is intense, her brown eyes scrutinizing the two of them, but Zofia doesn’t shrink away from the girl like Falco does. Instead, Zofia holds out a hand cordially and gives the girl a friendly smile. “You’re Gabi Braun, right? I’m Zofia, and this is my friend Falco. We saw your message reposted on our school forum and wanted to help you.” 

The girl looks at them suspiciously but takes Zofia’s hand, shaking it reluctantly. “You really want to help?” Her eyes flit towards Falco, who looks down immediately. “Why do you want to help me?” 

“Hmm,” Zofia hums and tilts her head to the side. “Because the end of the world isn’t something I’m particularly looking forward to.” She looks over at Falco and, with a grin, elbows him playfully in the ribs. “And this guy doesn’t have anything better to do, so I had him come along.” 

“What were you doing before?” Gabi asks curiously.

Falco purses his lips. It’s not that he’s ashamed about how he’s spending his last days. Living plainly is a far better choice than some people have made. Apparently, some people decided that murder was something they needed to check off their bucket list. If you ask Falco, he thinks being a normal student is far better than being a last-minute murderer. Still, it’s not something he wants to say out loud to a stranger. 

He kicks at the sidewalk and mumbles, “Just … homework and stuff.” 

To his surprise, Gabi doesn’t ridicule him or ask why. She simply nods as if this is a perfectly normal way for someone to spend their last days. She doesn’t ask them any more questions, somehow satisfied with Falco’s answer. She’s already digging around in her back for something and pulls a laptop out of her bag. 

“I’m still waiting for people to show up, but I wouldn’t be surprised if nobody ends up showing,” Gabi says, gesturing for the two of them to sit beside her. Her tone doesn’t sound disappointed at all. In fact, she sounds rather like she expected this to happen. 

Zofia sits on one side of Gabi, peering curiously over the brunette’s shoulder as she types away. Falco wants to sit beside Zofia. It would be more comfortable than sitting next to a stranger, but he would have difficulty seeing the screen. Reluctantly, he takes a seat next to Gabi. 

“I’ve been looking at videos,” Gabi tells them. “People have been submitting them after seeing my message on the school forums.” 

“Is there anyone particularly interesting to you?” Zofia asks. 

“Not really,” Gabi says. She opens up a folder on her screen and a video file pops up. She presses Play. “Technology lets you edit anything into videos now. Some of these powers look super fake, but I still have to take a chance in case they do have powers and are interested in saving the world, right?” 

The three watch the video play out. There’s a man on the screen claiming to have pyrokinesis. He’s wide-eyed and staring at the camera, holding out his hands with his palms to the ceiling. His explanation of his powers is similar to everyone else who has posted these kinds of videos on social media: he was just born with them and never bothered to reveal them until now for fear of being ostracized. 

The flame doesn’t ignite right away. It’s a flicker — a spark, really —  that grows into the smallest flame. The fire is hardly the size of the man’s fingertip, but he looks delighted just the same. The three children watching are not as thrilled. 

“You really think this guy can save the world?” Zofia asks, raising her eyebrow. 

“I don’t think this guy can save anyone,” Gabi replies. She’s so brutally honest that it would be funny if they weren’t discussing the fate of the world. “But I’m taking whatever help I can get at this point.” 

They spend the rest of that afternoon looking through applications. Most of them are just internet trolls and Gabi has to roll her eyes more than once before closing out the applicant’s video. There are a few promising candidates Gabi moves to a separate folder but only when Falco and Zofia also agree that the person might be worth looking into. They go through written applications too, often filtering out any CVs that aren’t descriptive enough and sometimes those that are too descriptive and more fitted to some sci-fi character description than an actual person. Gabi calls a few numbers from the short list of people that the three all agreed on, but nobody ever picks up. Nobody shows up either. Still, Gabi doesn’t seem to be discouraged. 

“Why are you doing this?” Falco asks at one point while they’re watching a video of a man who claims he can read people’s thoughts. 

“Hm?” Gabi says, looking away from the video. 

“Just … this whole thing,” Falco says and vaguely waves at the screen. “You know it too. This might not work, so why even bother trying to save the world?”

Gabi frowns and her eyebrows knit together like she doesn’t quite understand Falco’s question. “Well, what else would I be doing?” 

Falco doesn’t respond because, well, he doesn’t have an answer. It’s not like he knows what to do with the rest of his life either. If Zofia hadn’t convinced him to come here, he’d just be at home with his head stuck in a textbook. Even if it’s useless, whatever Gabi is doing is far more interesting. 

»»————- April 4, 2026 ————-««

Falco’s parents drop him off at the edge of the city. His mother had wanted to drop him off closer to his destination point, but Falco assured her that it wasn’t necessary. Besides, there were a lot of weirdos in the city, he reasoned, especially now that the apocalypse was coming. She reluctantly allowed him to be dropped off at the edge of the city, but not before giving him a can of pepper spray and a baseball bat in case he ran into anybody cruel enough to mug a middle schooler. 

He doesn’t have any trouble meeting Gabi at the library they agreed to meet at. Zofia isn’t there with him after deciding this morning that saving the world wasn’t what she wanted to spend her last moments doing. She did, however, request that Falco send Gabi her best wishes, which Falco promised to pass along. 

The two of them sit on the tenth floor of the library at a table by the window. The library isn’t exactly empty, but it’s not exactly filled up either. There are a few other visitors in the library with them. Some are seated at tables or couches, but others choose to sit between bookshelves, folding up their legs so that people can walk around if they need to get through. Hardly anyone pays attention to Falco and Gabi. They’re too busy flipping furiously through their books, eyes scanning the pages in seconds, as they try to finish their reading list before the world ends. 

While Gabi watches more videos of superpowered applicants while Falco gathers books on powers that interest them: pyrokinesis, psychokinesis, time travel, to name a few. As he gathers research articles, he also stumbles across the section of the library dedicated to outer space and celestial bodies and decides to grab a few books on asteroids and meteors as well. There’s a slim chance that they might help, but Falco might as well try. 

Gabi doesn’t talk much to Falco, too engrossed in her research to hold a conversation with him. He doesn’t talk much to her either. He does, on occasion, glance up at her to observe her progress, but she always seems to be staring at the screen with the same dissatisfied frown on her face. Every once in a while Gabi will lean over and ask Falco about whether or not a certain candidate looks promising, but his answer is almost always no and she goes back to staring at her screen. 

At noon, the two take their lunch break. Gabi hadn’t brought anything. She tells Falco she was planning on just grabbing something from the snack machine near the elevators. The library remains one of the few places that was relatively untouched by thieves and vandals because not many people think “let’s rob the library” when they hear that the world is ending. Because Falco’s mother has a tendency to overpack his lunches, Falco decides to split his meal with Gabi. He figures that a sandwich is far better than whatever half-filled bag of chips Gabi would end up grabbing from the vending machine. 

Falco munches on his katsu sandwich. It’s a favorite of his: two slices of pillowy milk bread with a thick cut of juicy pork cutlet covered in crispy bread crumbs wedged in between. A little butter and mustard give the sandwich a little bitterness that makes the tip of his tongue tingle and savory tonkatsu sauce drizzled over the thinly sliced cabbage underneath the katsu complete the simple but scrumptious sandwich. 

He looks over to see if Gabi is enjoying her food as much as he is, but she’s scarfing it down so quickly that he isn’t sure she’s even taking the time to taste it. In between bites, she’s scrolling through her laptop with greasy fingers, frowning. A glance at the notebook beside her tells Falco that Gabi hasn’t found many promising candidates. 

“Do you really think this is going to work?” Falco asks. He’s halfway done with his lunch but Gabi is a bite away from finishing hers.

Gabi shrugs. She doesn’t look up as she answers. “I don’t know. It’s worth a shot, right?” She scrolls a bit more before she pauses, her fingers hovering above the touchpad. Her eyes flicker over to Falco so suddenly that he nearly drops his sandwich. Gabi narrows her eyes at him suspiciously, her attention entirely on the boy. Her gaze is intense and she scoots to the edge of her seat, leaning in towards Falco. “You’re awfully skeptical about this plan for someone who’s trying to save the world.” 

Falco gulps, trying not to shy away from her intense gaze. If he were a turtle, he’d be curled back in his shell right now. “I just want to make sure we’re not wasting our time,” he mumbles. 

“Falco, do you not believe that people can have superpowers?” Gabi asks.

Falco is about to shake his head and say that that’s not the case but before he can Gabi settles back into her seat, arms folded across her chest, and announces, “I have a superpower.” She says it quite loudly, loudly enough for her voice to be heard across the entire floor, but people are too preoccupied with their reading to pay much attention to her although a few readers do shoot her a dirty look for being so loud. 

Falco is not quite sure what he expected Gabi to say, but it wasn’t that. He sits there awkwardly, sandwich still half-finished in his hands. After a moment, he asks, “Er, what is it?” 

Gabi pops the last bit of her sandwich in her mouth and wipes her fingers on her jeans. After she chews and swallows, she leans towards Falco once more and gives him an impish grin. “I can read people’s minds. Telepathy,” she tells him. She doesn’t wait for him to ask for a demonstration. 

Gabi puts one hand on Falco’s chest and stares deeply into his eyes. Falco’s heart is beating wildly in his chest. If by some miracle Gabi doesn’t hear it, Falco’s certain that she’ll be able to feel it underneath her fingertips. She doesn’t say anything about it, though, just continues to stare at him with those intense brown eyes of hers as she reads every single thought racing through his mind right now, like how he’s never been quite this close to anyone, how he’s never had his heart beat quite this fast, or how he thinks he might just die right here right now before the asteroid even hits. 

Suddenly, Gabi’s face breaks into a smile and she pulls her hand away, Falco’s chest feeling achingly empty now. Gabi is laughing now, but Falco doesn’t have any idea why. 

“God, I didn’t think you’d believe me,” she laughs. She’s laughing so hard that it’s difficult to make out what she’s saying. “I didn’t think you’d believe me, but you really did. You’re really gullible, aren’t you?” 

Falco blinks, confused for a minute as he tries to process what just happened. “You … can’t read minds?” he says a beat too late. 

“No, god, but you thought I did,” Gabi laughs. 

“Then what’s your power?” 

Gabi’s still giggling as she answers. “Something else. It’s not important. I’ll tell you if it ends up being useful.” 

She’s laughing. She’s still laughing. It’s a laugh that comes from her stomach and has her clutching her sides. People are glaring because it’s disrupting the peace, and Falco feels like he should tell her to stop but he finds that he doesn’t want to. He doesn’t even mind that she’s laughing at him. He just likes the sound of it. 

»»————- April 5, 2026 ————-««

They sit with a pack of chocolate-covered biscuits shaped like little bamboo shoots between them. While Falco eats them one at a time, usually popping one in his mouth after he’s read a few pages of whatever book he’s reading, Gabi shovels them into her mouth by the handful without even looking. They’ve gone through their fifth pack of the little chocolate biscuits and it’s not even noon yet. 

“Do you think you can do it?” Falco asks at some point. 

“Save the world?” Gabi asks. She sucks her thumb, trying to get the chocolate off. Falco nods and Gabi says, “Well, who else if not me?” 

“Literally anyone else,” Falco replies because, well, they’re only kids. 

“Right, and just die young, dumb, and stupid like every other kid our age,” Gabi says with a roll of her eyes. “No thanks. I’d rather have died trying to do something. Besides, it’s not as if the adults are having that much luck either.” 

Gabi slides her laptop over so that Falco can see the screen. On it, a video plays of a rocket shooting into space. The caption on the bottom reads “NASA Space Missile Failure.” Falco vaguely recalls hearing about the missile launch earlier this morning. The scientists were excited about it, hoping that the missile would collide with the oncoming asteroid and shatter it into smaller pieces that would burn up in the atmosphere, but it seems like they had been excited for nothing. Apparently, they had miscalculated the trajectory of the missile and it would miss the asteroid completely. 

“That sucks,” Falco says finally. He’s not exactly sure how he feels about the news. He should probably feel disappointed, but he feels the same way he did a month ago when he heard the world was ending: perfectly indifferent. 

Gabi shrugs. “Armin said it wouldn’t work. He said their calculations were off,” she says. She glances at Falco and adds, “Armin’s a genius. He’s my mentor’s husband.” 

“A genius? Is that his superpower?” Falco asks. If Gabi knows someone who’s a literal genius, he doesn’t see why they’re doing all this work. Shouldn’t this genius, whoever he is, have all the answers? 

Gabi thinks for a minute, her lips pressed into a thin line. “I’m not sure. My mentor just says Armin’s a genius, but he’s way too humble to admit it,” Gabi finally answers. She frowns, leaning forward with her elbow on the table and her chin in her hand. “He can’t help us though. He’s busy tending to his fish.” 

Falco isn’t certain he’s heard her right. “His fish?” he repeats. 

“Yeah. He’s a marine biologist. He likes to have some fish at home,” Gabi explains like it’s the most normal thing in the world to take care of your fish when the world is about to end. “He says it calms him down to see them swim around.” 

Falco is still trying to wrap his head around all of this — Gabi and her willingness to save the world, the genius she just spoke of who just wants to take care of his fish, and the asteroid hurtling towards the earth. He doesn’t understand any of it. “So it’s okay for you, a kid, to try and save the world while a literal genius is taking care of fish at his house instead of trying to prevent the apocalypse?” 

Gabi blinks. “Yes,” she replies as if there could be no other answer. “Because it’s what I want to do. And it’s what he wants to do. Why should we be doing anything different?” 

“But shouldn’t you be doing, I don’t know, kid things?” Falco asks. He’s starting to feel a little frustrated talking to her. This isn’t what she should be doing at all. This isn’t what they should be doing. They should be enjoying the last few days they have together. They should be playing games at the arcade, or wandering around the empty mall, or eating snacks at the park, not … whatever this is. 

“Maybe. Probably. But I don’t want to,” Gabi says. She turns the laptop back and starts typing away. “I don’t like the idea of doing something just because the world is ending. I’ve always done what I wanted, so I don’t have any regrets. This is the only thing I want to do now.” 

It’s more than Falco can say. Like Gabi, he doesn’t have anything he wants to do, but then he’s never really ever wanted to do anything. All his life he’s been floating from place to place and participating in whatever was expected of kids his age: attending school, joining a sports team, learning an instrument. He didn’t care about any of it. He doesn’t have any regrets about it, but he does feel a sudden wave of admiration for Gabi. She’s saving the world now because she feels like it, but she could just as easily leave this task for another if something else strikes her fancy. Falco wants to know what it feels like to pursue something so impulsively. 

He wants to want things. He wants to be with Gabi. He wants to help her save the world. 

“Is there something you want to do before the world ends?” Gabi asks. She’s just asking to be polite. Her eyes are already glued to the screen of her laptop, her face turned away from him. “You don’t seem to be as into the whole ‘save the world’ thing as I am.” 

Falco shrugs even though she’s not watching. “I don’t mind it.” Falco could leave it at that. He doesn’t have to say anything else, but he does. “There isn’t really else I want to do anyway,” he tells her, but it’s a lie.

He wants to hold her hand. 

»»————- April 6, 2026 ————-««

Falco has never looked forward to anything as much as the researching sessions he has with Gabi. He’s never really looked forward to anything before, actually, and he’s not sure why being surrounded by books and looking at (mostly) fake superhero videos with Gabi appeals to him so much. 

He likes a lot of things about the way Gabi works. She’s quiet and focused, eyebrows knitted as she decides whether or not to call another applicant that probably won’t pick up. She never gets discouraged even though things don’t look promising. They’ve probably called dozens of people and only a third have actually responded. Most of them turned out to be trolls, which isn’t surprising considering they were taking submissions from strangers on the internet, but Gabi still carries on. Maybe it’s Gabi’s passion and stubbornness that has drawn Falco to her, but it feels like it’s more than that too. 

He feels, in a way, like Gabi completes him. Before he met her, he was wandering aimlessly. Now he doesn’t know what he’d do without her. Staying at home and studying seems unbearable when the option of being with Gabi exists. 

Falco isn’t sure how Gabi feels about him. He doesn’t even know if she has any feelings towards him — if she likes him, hates him, or just feels completely indifferent. At any rate, she doesn’t seem to mind spending her last few days on earth with him, and that makes him feel a little better about the world ending. Occasionally, he thinks about how Gabi probably wouldn’t notice if he stopped coming to help her. Well, she might notice, but Falco doesn’t think Gabi would change her routine. She’d just continue saving the world with or without his help. 

“Don’t you think it’s weird?” Falco asks at one point. Gabi looks at him with a raised eyebrow and he elaborates “We hardly know each other and we’re just here … saving the world together.” 

Gabi frowns, a thoughtful look on her face. “I don’t think it’s weird,” she says to Falco, and he feels his heart flutter in his chest. “A lot of weird stuff has happened because it’s the end of the world and we just happened to meet each other. If a total weirdo had showed up instead of you, then maybe I would be saving the world with them and we never would have met.” She doesn’t seem to mind the thought of working with a total weirdo in place of Falco. 

Falco slumps in his seat, deflated, but Gabi doesn’t seem to notice. 

“I’m glad it was you though,” Gabi continues. 

Falco lifts his head. “Really?” He scoots closer in his seat, curious. “Why?” 

Gabi twirls her pen between her fingers, looking upward as she thinks. After a moment, she shrugs. “I don’t know,” she answers. “It just feels better knowing I’m working with someone. It’s better than working alone, I guess. I might feel the same way even if it were someone else, but I also might not. Still, I’m glad it’s you.” 

It doesn’t really mean anything. Like she said, it could have been some other kid who ended up answering Gabi’s post and helping her with her impossible quest to save the world. It could have been some other person sitting with her and looking up useless articles on asteroids and meteorites. It could have been someone else having this conversation with her. But, Falco reminds himself, it wasn’t. It’s him sitting beside her, eating snacks and discussing the end of the world. It probably isn’t fate that they met, but it kind of feels like it is. 

»»————- April 7, 2026 ————-««

Tired of the same snacks from his pantry, Falco decides to try the café on the first-floor of the library for some new things to eat. He had asked Gabi what she wanted and she told him to just get her anything. 

The first floor café is relatively well-stocked for the end of the world, but maybe it’s because bookworms prefer literature to satiate their appetites rather than food. 

The display case, usually filled with dessert sandwiches with slices of strawberries and kiwi and slathered with whipped cream, is cleaned out, but the shelves behind the cash register are still stocked with different kinds of chips and candies. Falco scans the shelves, looking for his favorites: baked potato chips covered in rich butter, little rice crackers flavored with soy sauce and red pepper flakes, and chocolate cookies in the shape of tiny hamburgers. 

Falco stares, for the longest time, at the other snacks and wonders what Gabi would like, if she has a preference for anything. Maybe he should have paid more attention when they were eating together to see if she ever seemed to gravitate to certain foods he brought or commented on any of the snacks they ate together, but he can’t recall anything. He feels stupid for not noticing, but he also doesn’t want to keep Gabi waiting and ends up grabbing whatever grabs his attention. 

He arrives at their designated research table, huffing from the flights of stairs he had to climb. Falco deposits the snacks rather ungracefully in front of Gabi, letting them fall out of his hands and onto the table. Gabi looks up from the noise, her eyebrows raised, but she smiles when she sees that it’s him and Falco’s heart flutters almost painfully in his chest. 

“These are yours,” Falco says, shoving Gabi’s share of the snacks towards her. 

“Thanks.” Gabi picks up a snack with a gray cartoon cat on the wrapper. It’s a puffed corn stick. Pizza-flavored, the wrapper says. She opens it with a grin. “How did you know these were my favorite?” she asks. 

“I … I don’t know,” Falco says. “Must have been a lucky guess.” 

But it doesn’t feel like it. 

It feels like he knew, from the beginning, what she had wanted. It’s like he had let his instincts take over when he had randomly chosen snacks for Gabi and somehow selected her favorite ones. It was as easy as picking food for someone he had known for his whole life, which is impossible because he hadn’t even known Gabi a week ago. Maybe, then, he had known Gabi in a past life and that’s how he happened to pick her favorites. Or maybe they really are fated to be together and knowing things like her favorite food are just second nature to him. The latter two explanations are almost impossible and yet so much more likely than the first explanation. He doesn’t know how to explain it though, not without seeming crazy, so he doesn’t say anything. 

»»————- April 8, 2026 ————-««

Tomorrow is the end of the world and they are no closer to saving everyone from the asteroid hurtling towards the earth than they were yesterday. In fact, they are no closer to saving the world than they were a week ago when this effort began or even a month ago when they had first found out the world was going to be destroyed. Their attempt to prevent the world’s end was futile and their effort today will probably be equally useless. Still, here they are on the tenth floor of the library doing the same thing they did yesterday. 

The sun is about to set and it’s almost time for them to head home. Falco wonders if they’ll be here tomorrow spending their last moments at the library when the world ends or if Gabi will call it quits and suggest they spend their last day without each other. He’s too afraid to ask. 

They pack up silently, Gabi slipping her notebooks and laptop into her bag as Falco arranges the books into neat stacks on the slim chance that they’ll return tomorrow. Falco notices that Gabi packs the same way she always does — quickly, dumping everything into her backpack as if she doesn’t care if they get damaged — and it stings a little bit that she doesn’t pack a little slower this time like he does just so that he can spend a few seconds more with her. Maybe he shouldn’t be so disappointed because it’s obvious she doesn’t care for him more than she would care for a coworker or a classmate she was randomly paired with to complete an assignment. 

Falco is silently pining when Gabi speaks, startling him. 

“So, the world ends tomorrow,” she says easily. It’s like she’s talking about the weather. “Are you satisfied with how you spent your last days? No regrets?” 

They’re two questions that seem related, but Falco’s answers for them are very different. 

He is satisfied with how he spent his last days. The past week perhaps isn’t as spectacular by other people’s standards. Falco didn’t go bungee jumping or skydiving or deepsea divings like some of his peers. Some people would argue that the way he spent his last few days was as boring as the way he spent the past month, although Falco would argue that it was infinitely better because he had Gabi. He’s convinced that however he chose to spend his last days, as long as they were with Gabi, he would be happy. He could even watch the grass grow with Gabi and he’d be completely content. So, yes, he’s completely satisfied with how he spent his last few days, but he has many regrets. 

He regrets not meeting Gabi earlier. He regrets not being able to spend more than a week with her. He regrets not doing things with her that kids their age should be doing: playing soccer in the field, catching butterflies by the river and letting them go, and hanging out at the arcade and beating their high scores. But most of all, he regrets feeling this way about Gabi and not being able to tell her. 

Falco doesn’t answer her question. Instead, he asks, “Do you?” 

“No,” Gabi replies with a smile and it makes Falco feel a little better about the ache in his chest. 

»»————- April 9, 2026 ————-««

Falco doesn’t expect Gabi to call him the next day. Before bidding each other goodbye yesterday, Gabi suggested they not see each other again. 

“You should spend the day with your family or something,” Gabi said to him. “Your parents probably want to spend their last day with their kids. I’ll just do this by myself. And, you know, thanks for everything.” 

He had wanted to tell her that it was fine if they spent their last day together. He spent his whole life with his parents. He should at least spend one more day with Gabi if this is his last one, but he bit his tongue and said goodbye to her with the fakest smile before turning on his heel and walking as quickly as he could to where his mom would pick him up.

Falco was lying on his bed staring at the ceiling when Gabi called and told him to meet him at the bottom of the hill near the outskirts of his town. She said her mentor was coming back today and that they could visit her to see if there was still a possibility of saving the world. Falco didn’t even question her or ask if they really have any hope after their days of research lead to nothing. He just leapt out of bed, told his parents he would be out and that he loved them, and biked up to the hills where Gabi asked to meet him. 

When he gets there, Gabi is already waiting for him, bundled in a navy peacoat and a gray scarf tied loosely around her neck. Her face breaks out in a grin when she sees him and she waves a gloved hand to greet him. 

“How did you get here so fast?” Falco huffs once he finally reaches her. The hill gets too steep for him to bike, so he gets off his bicycle and walks with Gabi beside him. 

“My uncle Reiner drove me here,” Gabi replies, shoving her hands in her pockets. She rolls her eyes, but her mouth twitches with a smile. “He says he wanted to spend a little more time with his favorite niece before she becomes famous for saving the world.” 

“You really think we’re gonna do it?” Falco asks. 

Gabi shrugs. “I think if my mentor thinks so, we probably have a good chance.” 

They arrive at the mentor’s house at the top of the hill. It’s small, more like a tiny cabin than an actual house. When Gabi knocks, they’re greeted by a blond man with big blue eyes. The man smiles when he sees Gabi, pushing his tortoiseshell glasses up the bridge of his nose. 

“Hello, Gabi. I guess Mikasa told you she’d be coming back today,” the man says. He looks over Falco. “Hello. You must be Gabi’s friend Falco. I’m Armin.” The man offers a hand for Falco to shake. 

Falco nods, wondering why the man’s name sounds so familiar. It’s only when he’s shaken the man’s hand that he remembers Gabi had mentioned Armin a few days ago when they were researching in the library. He’s the genius that likes to spend his days taking care of fish. 

Falco follows Gabi when the man invites them into the cabin. Falco’s a little taken aback at how simple the interior is. The living room is small and the kitchen is smaller with only the essentials. There isn’t even a microwave. 

“Sit down,” Armin says, gesturing at the dining table in the middle of the room. He heads towards the kitchen cabinets where he takes out three mugs. “I’ll make tea for us while we wait for Mikasa.” 

“Can we see your fish later, Armin?” Gabi asks. She’s already settled down in a chair, kicking her legs back and forth. It’s clear that she feels at home here. When she notices that Falco hasn’t taken a seat yet, she gestures for him to sit down at the seat closest to her. To Armin, she continues, “I was telling Falco about you and he was curious about what a genius would be up to at the end of the world if he wasn’t trying to prevent the apocalypse.” 

Armin chuckles. “Do you like fish, Falco?” he asks. He smiles when Falco makes a surprised noise, an answer stuck in his throat. “Sure, we can take a look a little later.” 

Over apple tarts and tea, Gabi and Armin fill Falco in on Mikasa. She’s Armin’s wife, Gabi’s mentor, and the key to saving the world. Mikasa has a superpower, Gabi explains, that allows her to identify other people with superpowers and what those powers are. She helps people utilize their powers, but she took off for a month when the end of the world was announced to gather people with powers that might prevent the asteroid from crashing into the earth. 

“Did Mikasa tell you if she met any promising people?” Gabi asks. She’s licked her plate clean and cinnamon sticks to her lips. 

Armin shakes his head, a resigned smile on his face. “Unfortunately, no. She said all the candidates she met didn’t have any sort of useful power, but who knows? Maybe she’ll meet someone on the way here that can stop the meteor.” 

“Ah, it’s a meteor now?” Falco asks, sitting up in his seat. 

“It’s been one for a while,” Armin says. He glances out the window for a second. It’s not blue like it was when Falco woke up this morning. It’s orange now., not like a sunrise but more like someone has set the sky on fire. “We should be able to see it soon. The estimated time of impact is soon if I recall correctly. Hopefully, we get to see Mikasa soon.” His eyebrows are knitted together in concern, but Gabi looks just as unbothered as ever. 

“I’m sure she’ll be back soon,” Gabi says. She collects her empty plate as well as Falco and Armin’s before depositing them in the sink. It’s an awfully normal thing to do considering the fact that the dirty dishes won’t matter when the earth is destroyed. She lets them soak in the sink and then turns to Armin. “Can we go see your fish now? Falco hasn’t seen them yet.” 

“Sure,” Armin says with a smile. He gets up from the table and gestures for Falco to follow him. “Let’s go see the fish.” 

Armin leads the children to a side room. Inside is a large glass fish tank with so many plants, shells, and rocks that Falco doesn’t see the fish at first. He and Gabi crouch beside the tank, their faces not quite touching the glass. Falco can see neon fish the size of his pinky darting back and forth between plants. He spots a miniature catfish the size of his thumb hiding behind a rock while a school of ten or so black and white striped fish zips around the 50-gallon tank. There are many more fish that Falco spots, lots of which he doesn’t know the name of but Armin patiently points them all out and tells Falco both the scientific and the common names of each fish and their habits. It’s clear that he loves it, taking care of the fish and looking after them, and Falco thinks he understands a little bit why Armin has chosen to spend the rest of the world like this. Occasionally, Gabi pipes in with whatever she remembers about each fish, usually their behavioral patterns she’s noticed when she’s visited, and Armin always grins whenever she speaks. 

The three don’t notice when Mikasa arrives. They’re too busy staring at the fish swimming back and forth in the tank without a care in the world. The fish can’t grasp the fact that the world is ending. After all, their world only consists of the four glass walls that encase them and anything outside doesn’t concern them. It’s only when the door to the room opens and Mikasa steps in that the three realize that she’s returned. The fish, however, just keep swimming. 

“That’s a nice way to spend the end of the world,” Mikasa comments. She has a tired smile on her face. She wears a soft cream-colored turtleneck, a long black coat hanging over her arm. “I see Gabi has joined us. As has her friend.” The woman nods at Falco. 

“H-hello,” Falco stammers. He’s not sure what he was expecting Mikasa to look like. Perhaps like a woman with all the answers, someone who looked like she had seen the world, but she doesn’t. She just looks like any other woman, maybe a little more tired than other women, but still just a normal person. She doesn’t look like she has an amazing superpower, but then again neither does Gabi nor any of the potential candidates that claimed to have powers. “I’m Falco.” 

“Ah, yes,” Mikasa says with a nod. “Gabi mentioned you before. I’m Mikasa, her mentor.” She drapes her coat over a nearby chair and walks over to join the three of them beside the fish tank. 

“Did you find anyone?” Gabi asks. She looks out towards the living room, craning her neck to see if Mikasa had brought someone they didn’t notice. 

“No, nobody that could save the world, if that’s what you’re asking,” Mikasa sighs, shoulder slumped. “Although, I did run into a guy who was convinced that the only way to save the world was to destroy it. I got away from him as quickly as possible.” 

“Probably a smart decision,” Armin says with a nod, and Mikasa smiles in reply. 

“Well, shall we go watch the end of the world together?” Mikasa asks, putting an arm around Gabi. She looks around at the others. “I heard it was going to be quite spectacular. Like a meteor show in the middle of the day.” Her eyes settle on Falco and her smile begins to falter. Her brows knit together and she opens her mouth as if she’s about to say something. 

Armin notices the change in her demeanor and looks back and forth between Falco and Mikasa. “What’s wrong? Are you …?” It seems like something clicks in his head and he quickly turns to Falco. With a hand on the boy’s shoulder, Armin asks quickly, “Falco, do you have a power you haven’t told us about?” 

The question startles Falco and he jerks away from Armin’s hand in surprise. “I … I don’t know,” he says, stumbling over his words. He’s never felt like he had any kind of superpower. He’s never shown any sign of being special. He’s always just been … normal. 

“You … do you not know?” Mikasa asks, her eyebrows raised. She looks at Gabi. “Falco can save the world.” 

It’s too much for Falco to take in when the world is about to end so soon. He has too many questions like: What power is he supposed to have? How come he didn’t know about it before? Is there still time to save everyone or is it too late? He opens his mouth to ask, not knowing which one will come out of his mouth first, when he feels a comforting hand on his elbow. Falco looks over to see Gabi standing beside him, somehow calm despite this revelation. 

“What’s his power, Mikasa?” 

“He can travel back in time,” Mikasa says, still staring at Falco with her intense gaze. “Under the event of an unexpected death like, say, getting hit by an asteroid, he can go back in time and prevent it from happening. But only if he remembers that it will happen in the first place.” Her eyes flicker towards Gabi for some reason. 

“What … what does that mean ‘only if I remember’?” Falco asks Gabi. 

Gabi’s biting down on her lip, expression contemplative. Finally, she tells Falco, “My power is that I’m unforgettable. If you reset your time after the meteor hits, usually you won't remember what happened, but you will if I use my power. You’d be able to remember me and everything we’ve done together. If you go back in time, maybe you can find a way to save the world because you’ll know what to expect.” 

“Then … then that’s good news!” He doesn’t know why everyone around him isn’t jumping up and down in excitement right now. They’ve found a way to save the world. If not this time, then the next time or the time after that. “Isn’t this good news?” 

“I mean, it is,” Gabi says. She doesn’t sound as confident as she usually does. Instead, she’s hesitant, almost shy. Falco doesn’t think he’s ever seen Gabi shy before. She’s looking at the floor now, kicking at the hardwood floor with her sock-clad feet. “It’s just that … I have to make you fall in love with me to make you remember me.” 

Falco’s mouth falls open and no words come out. 

“It’s not like it’s hard,” Gabi says almost hurriedly, more because she’s embarrassed than in a rush to save the world. She’s shed off her embarrassment and assumed her usual confident demeanor. “I’m very lovable, you know. It’s just …” Her voice trails off again. 

“She has to seal it with a kiss,” Mikasa finishes, and Falco can see why Gabi was so embarrassed. His cheeks redden just from the thought of kissing Gabi. Mikasa adds rather apologetically, “It’s just the way it works, her power. She needs to kiss you.” 

“Only if you’re okay with it, of course,” Gabi adds. She’s still avoiding his gaze, her eyes on the floor. “I’m fine if you’d rather not. You might just be stuck in the loop all by yourself. It’d be a little less painful since you won’t remember each time but still -” 

“I’m okay with it,” Falco says. 

Gabi looks up, surprised. “You are?” 

“Yeah,” Falco says. “I’m … I’m fine with it. Let’s save the world. Together. That’s what our entire plan was, right?” 

“Yeah. Yeah,” Gabi repeats and she smiles. It’s different from how she’s smiled at him before. It’s a little bit bashful, a little bit excited. It looks nice on her, Falco thinks, and he’s so distracted that he’s surprised when he realizes she’s holding his hand. 

Mikasa tugs at the elbow of Armin’s cardigan and the blond man nods. Taking Mikasa’s hand, he turns to the kids and says, “We’ll be out there just to give you two some privacy. Hopefully, we’ll see each other again soon.” 

The door shuts softly behind the two adults. Falco doesn’t know if they wait in the living room or if they’ve gone outside to admire the sky. From the window, Falco can see that the sky has changed from a burnt orange to an explosion of different colors: shades of violet, pink, blue, and yellow all together almost like a watercolor painting. There are streaks of white in the sky. It’s like a meteor shower in the middle of the day just as Mikasa had said. 

When he turns to Gabi, she’s looking at him with her hand still holding his. She’s chewing on the inside of her cheek, but she smiles when she sees he’s looking at her. 

“Are you still up for it?” Gabi asks. 

“Y-yeah,” Falco says, his voice cracking. He feels his face flush, but he likes the sound of Gabi’s giggle even if he’s the one she’s laughing at. He licks his lips nervously and leans in just the tiniest bit. “Is … is it okay if I kiss you?” 

Gabi bites her lip and nods. She leans in too and Falco takes it as his cue to close his eyes and close the gap. 

He doesn’t know what to expect from this kiss. Maybe warm lips pressing against his while his heart threatens to beat out of his chest. Maybe Gabi’s hands gripping his arms while his hands hover awkwardly around his waist. Maybe the world ending and, when his eyes open, Falco waking to thoughts of Gabi and how to find her next. But none of this happens. Instead, Gabi puts her hands on his shoulder and pushes him gently but firmly away. 

“I can’t do it,” Gabi says. 

“Wha-?” 

“I can’t do it,” Gabi repeats with a shake of her head. She looks upset, but Falco doesn’t know why. He wonders what it is he did to offend her. Maybe she doesn’t want to kiss him. Maybe she finds him repulsive and doesn’t want to kiss him even if it means saving the world. Falco thinks this would be the case if Gabi didn’t look so apologetic. “I can’t kiss you. Not like this.” 

“What do you mean?” Falco asks, panicked. He takes a glance at the window. Outside, the meteors in the sky look brighter. It’s like a million stars are falling to the earth. It’s only a matter of time before the world ends. He doesn’t know why Gabi is doing this. 

“I don’t want to kiss you just to save the world and I don’t want you to kiss me for the same reason,” Gabi says, taking a step away from him. She shakes her head, tears pricking her eyes. “I want you to kiss me because you like me, not because you have some responsibility to save the earth so … so find me again and kiss me. Find me again and tell me you like me and kiss me hard. And then … and then we can save the world.” 

But he wants to kiss her now. He wants to kiss her because he likes her. He wants to kiss her because the world is ending. He wants to kiss her even if the world isn’t ending. He wants to tell her that, but he doesn’t have the words. 

Ever since Mikasa had revealed Falco’s power, everything has suddenly made sense to him. Falco understands now why his life felt so empty before he met Gabi and why he never felt the desire to do anything. He knows why he was so drawn to her when they first met that day in the city and why he felt like she completed him. It’s because they were meant to meet each other, meant to be together, meant to save the world. 

Falco wants to kiss her so badly. He wants to hold Gabi’s face in his hands and put his lips on hers and kiss her until the world ends and when he wakes up again he’ll find her and kiss her again and again and again. He wants to tell her he likes her now and that he’ll like her again. He wants to tell her that he’d like her even if the world weren’t about to end, but he doesn’t. He doesn’t get to tell her anything. 

A bright light flashes from the window. All Falco sees is Gabi and then white, and then nothing. 

»»————- March 9, 2026 ————-««

Falco wakes up and rolls out of bed. He brushes his teeth in the bathroom and brushes out his hair before blearily heading down the stairs where his mom is making breakfast. His father hasn’t left for work yet, he notices, which is rather strange. His mother hasn’t finished making breakfast yet and his brother isn’t dressed for school. He stares at them, wondering why they’re acting so odd. It takes them a moment to realize he’s there. 

“The world is ending next month,” his mother tells him. She points at the TV screen that Falco’s father is staring at. On it flashes a picture of an asteroid hurtling towards the earth. The little banner underneath the picture says it’s far too big to burn up in the atmosphere. Scientists have no hope of human survival. 

“If I knew, I would have slept in,” Colt mumbles. 

His family looks shocked by the news, but Falco doesn’t feel anything. He grabs a banana from the fruit bowl in the kitchen and starts to head out the door. 

“Wait, where are you going?” Colt asks him. 

Falco pauses by the door. “I don’t know,” he says after a moment. He’s not sure what to do now that the world is ending. There isn’t anything in particular that he wants to do. “I’ll go to school, I guess.” 

He leaves after assuring his parents that it’s fine, that he really doesn’t mind going to school because he isn’t sure what else to do. He stops by his mailbox and looks up at the sky. It’s clear and blue, no asteroid in sight. 

He takes a deep breath and then releases it. It sounds like a sigh. 

[welcometomy20s]

January 10th, 2021

Action Button Review

Review

Tim Rogers reminds me of Hank Green. They are about the same age, they look about the same age which is a combination of young and old that feel eternal. They also have the same length of experience in writing in online spaces, interest in Japanese media, and apparently have Crohn’s disease? In summary, he might be the closest equivalent to Dave Green that exists in the real world. Well, I guess Dave Green is not apt, as Dave Green is not special in a way, while Tim Rogers is special, but his speciality comes from his failures rather than his counterparts' success.

Tim Rogers is a hypothetical Green brother who did not decide to publish that book. He’s a hypothetical Green brother who went to Japan instead of Alabama or Florida. Whose project crashed and burned rather than a surprise success. He’s forged in fire while the Green brothers are eroded by water. Both are wonderful people, but with a different ground of intensity and differing wealth of wisdom.

I encountered this series because I found a twitter post about a six hour review of Tokimeki Memorial, and a white middle-aged man talking about a dating sim for six hours with laudatory blurbs would always pique my interest, but since I didn’t know the guy, I went ahead and looked if he made other videos, and found he has four other review that were all about three hours or more. Now I knew that I had to watch all the reviews to prepare myself for this six hour review of Tokimeki Memorial.

Now, I wasn’t a stranger to three hour reviews of video games. I watched Joseph Anderson, Raycevick, Whitelight, matthewmatosis, and Noah Gervais-Caldwell. In fact, in the comments below Action Button Reviews, many people talked about a comparison to Noah Gervais-Caldwell (and Brian David Gilbert) and that was quite funny since I actually watched a recent Noah Gervais-Caldwell video.

His first two reviews were perfunctory, him opening himself up and trying out new things and polishing his review style, as he went through the Final Fantasy VII remake and The Last of Us. While I watched The Last of Us, I distinctly remembered and contrasted Noah’s The Last of Us Part 2 review with Tim Roger’s The Last of Us review. I liked Tim Roger’s defense of interactive movies (although he denies it!) contrasted with more cynical but ultimately positive connotation in Noah’s review. And Noah’s thesis pairs nicely with Tim’s observation that Ellie was the main protagonist all along. That fact makes Part 2 much more understandable, even the bad parts.

When I finished watch his first two reviews, I went ahead and also watched several of Tim’s videos on Kotaku, which were slightly shorter, the longest being just over an hour, which is a review of the best games in 1994, and does contain a short segment about Tokimeki Memorial, which his six hour review was my destination. To put in context, Tokimeki Memorial was #3. #1 was Earthbound, #2 was Final Fantasy VI, and #4 was Super Metroid. And I just watched a playthrough of Super Metroid basically on a whim, because it’s a monumental and a great game to play and watch.

And while the segment of the games that I knew to be great and monumental in my absorption of knowing video games was deeply personal and rightly claimed its stake that it deserved its spot, his segment of Tokimeki Memorial never got there. It was almost as if he was deliberately hiding behind something. In the end of 1994 review, Tim pitched an idea about a three hour Earthbound review, which probably was Tim’s idea of floating a departure from Kotaku, which would happen two months later, and I wonder if he was trying to deliberately throw a curveball by making a video of Tokimeki Memorial instead of the promised Earthbound review. This may be a far leap, I admit.

I went back and watched the video about Doom. It was much better in quality and in darkness. I was reminded of Film Crit Hulk’s writing of The World’s End and James Bond, another very long essay that was deeply personal and chapter for easier consumption. Few commenters noticed that Tim Rogers was just doing a dramatic reading of his written reviews on Kotaku and Action Button dot net, and how they liked that approach, and I found myself liking that approach as well. You might believe a video review needs more than just reading an essay out loud, but just the act of reading an essay out loud in the correct intonation and inflection adds ton to experience. And Tim Rogers sounds like he has decades worth of experience to present a dramatic reading of his essay very effectively, much like Hank Green.

I continued scaling the mountain to my goal. I went through his review of Pac-Man and was delighted by his reading of Namco games, and was impressed by the opening sequence, and just generally enjoyed it. I was getting excited to set a day aside and let the six hour review of Tokimeki Memorial watch over me and reduce me to dust.

And it sure did. That six hours was a harrowing experience. What Tim Rogers is best at is telling a story, and so to go through a let’s play was a wish I never made, fulfilled. In the end, I was left with nothing and everything. It was like finishing a really good book.

I wanted to watch it again, then again I never wanted to watch it again. It was almost a traumatic experience. Tim talked about there being endless variation of love, and the love Tim Rogers went through was not the fluffy yet melancholic one that I craved, but one akin to a devotion of an eldritch god. Love made in justification for one’s efforts in attending and maintaining a relationship. A love stronger than most kinds of love, but most draining and taxing as well. Tim Roger’s synopsis of Tennis Monster reminded me of Asking for It by Louise O’Neill, which is also about empathizing a quite hateable character because we kind of have to. Apparently one person knows the full plot because Tim Rogers rambled on about it as he was couch surfing in his house, and unbelieve as it usually is, I fully trust that the commenter is telling the truth.

I was like a heroin addict, who really wanted a different hit, like talking to friends or hiking, my mother wanted me to go hiking with her, and I didn’t because, after the pandemic started, all I wanted to be was inside. Outside felt diseased. The air outside felt contaminated to me, hard to breathe. I was stuck in this place.

Tim Rogers is an exceptional figure. He seems to be a movie protagonist, he reminds me of The Librarian, played by Noah Wyle. Tim has eidetic memory, as he has access every single autobiographical memory formed, but not other types of memory. We know that those types of memory are different because of people like Tim and people who are opposite of Tim, someone who has no memories of autobiographical memory but otherwise fine. These people tend to have very few emotions and have a hard time deciding things. Lack of emotions is correlated with difficulty in decision making.

So Tim is the opposite of that, Tim is full of emotions, complex emotions and he can make decisions and carry it out in a snap. He would be good at school, and he was, but he would be too focused on his grandeur to be under some authority, which is how he became who he was. His anti-authoritarian nature rings throughout his reviews, highlight the general Generation X vibe that Tim exudes but also the modern socialistic movement of Generation Z, which adds to this odd mix of old and new.

Not only does Tim have eidetic memory and intense work ethic that he never seems to move away from, therefore making a three hour video masterpiece at a clip that seems unbelievable for a seasoned viewer, he also has exceptional skills in fast math and language, he seems to be at least familiar with dozens of languages, and of course Tim’s experience is bounded by his decade of living in Japan.

I think this is why Tim naturally gravitates towards video games. When Tim says ‘welcome to video games’ there’s a natural supposition that Tim Rogers is the protagonist of video games, and I think he is. Tim wants to be in video games, because he needs to be in video games, instead of some almighty god cruelly deciding to plop him into a real life. He should be an video game adaptation of The Librarian and go on world-spanning adventure and romance impossibly beautiful girls instead of toiling the grime of what real life portends to. His life is dramatic, but impossibly mundane as well. It’s a simulacrum of a movie or a video game, which is pretty cool on its own.

But of course Tim Rogers isn’t the only part of Action Button Reviews. In the ensuing five videos, Tim Rogers tries to do something. Video games are a wide net. There is so much to video games, something like Gone Home and Geometry Dash are included alongside Wolfenstein The New Colossus and Farmville. What makes a video game? Actually, the more interesting question is, why do we have the term ‘video games’? Why do we put all of this mess into a single category, as if there is some throughline.

Tim Rogers starts to do that. Tim Rogers boldly states that things like Doom and Tokimeki Memorial are intimately connected to each other. And that all video games are in conversation with each other, through deep and complex meta-narratives. Tim Rogers is a cartographer, trying to map out how video games are made whole.

I’ve always strived to be that kind of a cartographer, to showcase the weave of reality, of connecting two seemingly unconnected parts, and showing to a profound implication both existing, instead of one or the other. If you don’t know, I have been trying to write something out of my current obsession with Virtual YouTubers, and mostly Hololive, and while I think I stumbled upon the six hour video review of Tokimeki Memorial outside of my interest in virtual YouTubers, this video, as I expected in the back of my head, gave me plenty of thoughts about Hololive. Its rumination of cyberpunk and idol culture is so directly connected with the peculiarities of Hololive that I was quite astounded.

From the very beginning, I wonder how Tim Rogers thinks about Hololive, especially after he has done that six hour review. I’m sure he will have a lot of interesting thoughts about the prospect. I want to get in contact with him, maybe work under him. But then I don’t want to hang out with him. I want to be near him as he talks to a crowd at a party, but I don’t feel safe to be near him when there’s less than ten people nearby. I think below ten, I would be swept in some danger that I won’t be prepared for.

Tim Rogers and Action Button Review is a fascinating review series and if you have the time, I suggest you should take the journey. It’s well worth it, just to get a different perspective on video games and the world around it.

[oureuphoria]

Worst of You - JJK 05

You meet him under horrible circumstances but that doesn’t stop you from developing a very abnormal and completely unsolicited crush on your local hot police officer™. Too bad you have a bitch of a best friend, anxiety and an inability to learn from your mistakes which cripples your chances to be with the man of your literal dreams. Oh, and he has a lifetime’s worth of emotional baggage at 23.

Or

“I’m not leaving until you tell me what’s wrong.” “Cool, I’ll let everyone know that you’re moving in then.”

Genre: fluff, angst, comedy

Pairing: officer!jungkook X  collegestudent!reader

Word count: 2,521

Note: If you don’t imagine that vine of the kid taking a sip of his mother alcohol when Y/N takes a sip of the wine then I will be very disappointed. 

| 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 |

It was 3:15 and Jungkook was nowhere to be seen. You decided to play a game to distract yourself but you (ironically) lost track of time prompting you to completely miss Jungkook’s arrival which prompted him to watch you curse at geometry dash for a good 7 minutes. He cleared his throat to get your attention which startled you, enough so to have you fumble your phone to the ground with a loud bang that had a couple of people looking your way.

“So, where’s my congratulations cake?” You asked while simultaneously checking your phone for blemishes. Fortunately, the screen wasn’t cracked, unlike your cool moments ago. “The best I can do is a muffin, take it or leave it.” You giggled in response but the sound mellowed down into a soft silence. It wasn’t awkward at first but you quickly got fidgety under his stare.

“So I needed at least 90% to maintain my 4.0 GPA but I got 89.9% and my professor refuses to round it. Can you arrest him for that?” The question may have sounded playful but you were in no way kidding. One more slip up and you could kiss your scholarship goodbye. “No. Y/N, 89% is great, don’t stress.” You nodded with a forced smile that Jungkook hadn’t noticed (or if he did, he didn’t comment on it) and for that you were grateful.

“Look, I know this is kind of sudden but I need a favour?” You hummed in reply, gesturing for him to continue. “Do you think you could baby sit my kids.” You dropped your phone again in shock and Jungkook facepalmed in shame. “My brother’s kids! Not mine, I don’t have kids.” He reached for your phone while you did and your hands touched for what could be described as a split second. You - being the melodramatic pre-teen that you are - had to suppress the urge to squeal at the very minor touch.

“How old are they?” You loved kids (aged 3-9) but babies scared you and you wanted absolutely nothing to do with them. “My niece is 7 and my nephew is 4.” “I can babysit them but are you sure your brother won’t mind?” Jungkook winced at the mention of his brother. He was quiet for a moment before he started shaking his head disapprovingly. “We just won’t tell him.” His fear was almost comical and you would’ve laughed if you weren’t afraid the sound would break him.

“They’ll be in good hands. Trust me.” And he did, he just hoped his older brother would too. “So, when am I babysitting them?” “This Friday, if that’s okay? They’re staying with me for the weekend but I have a work dinner scheduled that night so if you could occupy them from around 6-10 that’d be great.” You gave him a thumbs up in approval, mouth full of strawberry cheesecake. “Thank’s Y/N. I owe you.”  

You didn’t mean to leave your roommate in the dark about the two children that would be occupying your dorm for a few hours but the entire ordeal slipped your mind. In fact, when Jungkook showed up on Friday, you had been completely unprepared. “Oh, hello…” You waved at the kids who moved to hide behind their uncles legs - an act you remember doing before you were too big to hide behind people. Once your eyes had trailed down though, your focus shifted to Jungkook’s gorgeous thighs and your thoughts took a sharp 180. He was clad in black trousers and a slightly unbuttoned dress shirt and to say you weren’t practically drooling over him would be a lie.

“Okay, Luna take care of your brother. Alan, don’t break anything.” He lectured them cutely and you wondered how he ever managed to yell at hardened criminals with that soft face but you’d seen him mad and he definitely wasn’t a force to be reckoned with. The children nodded dutifully and you couldn’t help but smile. They were so small and cute and you were quickly finding yourself becoming quite excited to hang out with them.

“They both haven’t had dinner yet but you can feed them anything, Luna is really well behaved but she can be a bit sassy. Alan has an issue with grabbing random things but if he gets too out of hand just give him his iPad in his bag, he’ll know what to do. Okay, thank you so much. I have to go, bye!” Jungkook spoke so fast that you almost questioned if he spoke at all. You turned to the kids with a sheepish smile and a simple question to break the tension. “So, who want’s to play Just Dance?”

After a night of G-rated video games, McDonald’s and a very self-indulgent amount of baby Yoda, both kids were finally asleep on your couch and Alex had just gotten home. “Hey, who are the kids?” She quietly set her keys down before walking to the kitchen to get a glass of water, her eyes trained on the mini people draped over your couch. “They’re kids I’m babysitting; for a friend.” She nodded absentmindedly and you assumed from her quiet demeanour that something was off. You decided to ignore it. “So, um, we have a dorm inspection in a month. You should probably clean your room.” She waved you off with a nod and a flick of the wrist while she made her way to her room. You sighed and looked at the sleeping kids. “She’s not going to clean her room is she?” You whispered to particularly no one.

It was around 11pm when Jungkook eventually showed up. He scooped both of the sleeping kids into his arms and bid you farewell without a second to spare. The apartment suddenly felt empty and a nagging headache began to become apparent.

You let yourself fall back onto the couch with a huff, this was the life you were destined for. You were everyone’s second choice. The back-up plan, the plan B. You were a constant in a world that was continuously changing and yet you weren’t even a good one. You couldn’t dwell over your uselessness for long though. You had a paper to write and feelings for Jungkook that you needed to get over.

Unfortunately for you, Alex was upset and when Alex is upset she does some pretty reckless things. Like, calling her ex-boyfriend, for example who is now not so quietly comforting her in the only way he knew how. The Jimin way that always - without fail - keeps you awake for far longer than you anticipated.

You walked into your morning class the following day with a giant cup of coffee and a pair of sunglasses to hide the pain that glowed in your baggy eyes. You couldn’t keep the glasses on during the class though and just as you took them off, Jimin rushed to make a snarky comment.

“You look like death today.” “I blame your high pitched moaning, daddy.” Jimin might’ve been aroused by your use of his (not-so) secret kink but you looked like you wanted him dead and the venom dripping from your voice proved it. “At least I’m getting laid.” You rolled your eyes and decided to not press further. The two of you could argue till the end of time and in that moment you just needed to focus until the end of the class.

After 96 dreadful minutes of your human anatomy teacher’s droning, you managed to make it out of the class alive but not without catching the attention of William who was now chasing you down no matter how hard you avoided his gaze. “Hey, Y/N.” You smiled forcefully and hoped that your exhausted exterior didn’t come off as bitchy - but that was a stretch. “The officer told me that the attacker had no motive for doing what they did, so don’t worry, they’re not out for you or anything.” William smiled, laughing a little at the joke you seriously didn’t mean to crack. Did you even make a joke? You needed sleep, and fast.

The rest of the day went pretty much the same. You continued plaguing your college campus like a cast member of the walking dead with barely any purpose and motivation. Because the world hated you, you didn’t get home until 6pm and your exhaustion pretty much decided you’d be skipping lunch and dinner for whatever semblance of sleep you could get.

You were in the midst of brushing your teeth through the dull ache of your tiredness (because dental hygiene is important, you’re not scared of the dentist), when there was a knock on your door. You assumed it was Alex who had a history for forgetting her keys but when you opened the door, clad in iron man themed pyjamas, you were met with Jungkook who was visibly, not Alex.

You might’ve asked something like why he was here or how he got through the building door but your toothbrush was still in your mouth and the situation was getting awkward. “Get dressed, I’m taking you to dinner.” You gave him a weird look as you held your hand out to ask him to wait. You rushed to the bathroom to finish brushing your teeth before returning to the door which Jungkook was leaning on to tell him, “but I brushed my teeth.”

Jungkook scoffed at your excuse with both astonishment and annoyance. “It’s 6pm.” He retorted while his eyes skimmed your very small dorm to sit on your even smaller chair. “I wasn’t planning on eating!” He waved you off before taking out his phone. “Go get dressed so I can repay you for the babysitting.” You gave him a small glare, although you were hungry, you were more tired and all you wanted to do was sleep. “Couldn’t you have just given me $20 like any other person?” Jungkook doesn’t move his stare off his phone while he replies. “Where’s the fun in that? Now go get changed.”

You stuck your tongue out at him (even though you knew he couldn’t see it) before stomping off to your room to change into something more appropriate. Judging by Jungkook’s choice of fancy attire, this was probably going to be some fancy restaurant where you couldn’t pronounce anything and everything cost more than your rent so you decided to wear a light pink dress. You didn’t spend that long getting ready, in fact 90% of the time you were trying to fit all of your necessities into a tiny (impractical) purse because it was the fanciest thing you owned.

“You seriously wore a dress with sneakers?” Sure, expecting a compliment or a simple wow, Y/N may have been a little delusional but you certainly were not expecting him to insult your precious pink Fila disruptors. You didn’t reply as you trudged behind him with a scowl on your face.

“Where are we going, anyway?” You asked with a voice laced with annoyance as you stepped into his terrifyingly fancy car. You didn’t even want to know how much that thing costs to insure. He didn’t answer your question which you found pretty rude but the glare on his face stifled any complaint you were going to make. You watched Jungkook drive which would’ve been a lot more innocent if he wasn’t smirking every 3 minutes and annoying you even more.

The entire drive was composed of awkward silence and unanswered questions before he eventually he pulled into  bright driveway before getting out handing his keys to the man who ran the valet service.

Wait, valet service?

“This looks expensive, honestly I would’ve been fine with the $20.” You whispered to Jungkook before you walked inside but all he did was chuckle. “Y/N, it’s fine, it’s just a restaurant.” That, was a blatant lie. It was one of the most renowned Italian restaurants in New York and it was incredibly hard to get into but of course you didn’t know that so you were up for a pleasant surprise once you opened the menu.

“Oh shit, this is no-price-on-the-menu fancy.” You whispered to no one in particular but Jungkook picked up on the incoherent sound. “What?” “Nothing!” You quickly squeaked out. You were not going to let a simple menu intimidate you. Unfortunately, the entire thing was in Italian and you failed all the language classes that you took in high school.

“Order whatever you want, yeah?” Jungkook was hoping you weren’t intimidated by the prices but unbeknownst to him, that was the last of your concerns. You nodded slowly; too focused on trying to comprehend what the menu said. “You know what, I’ll just get whatever you get.” Jungkook looked at you with masked concern that you wouldn’t have been able to notice if not for his revealing eyes.  “Why? Do you not like Italian?” “No, it’s not that. I just don’t know what’s good here so, I trust you.” You lied straight through your teeth with a cunning smile that even had you fooled. Jungkook nodded and didn’t say much more. “Well, I usually get the steak.” You could feel the panic settling in. You hated steak - with a passion.

“I lied, I don’t know how to read this menu at all.” You blurted out before he could call the waiter and braced yourself for his degrading laugh. He did laugh but you were thankful for his guidance after. He explained pretty much the entire menu to you before you decided on getting some kind of pasta.

After Jungkook had ordered, (you’d rather stay out ordering food unless it’s completely necessary) another waiter followed quickly after and asked if you wanted any wine. Jungkook nodded but the waiter assumed it was for the both of you so he poured you a glass as well. You watched Jungkook’s eyes widen in fear when he noticed but before he could say anything the waiter was on his way. You looked at the glass with obvious fascination that Jungkook was positive on shutting down.

“Y/N if you drink that I will literally arrest you right here." “Yikes, okay, I’m sorry.” Your apology was sarcastic but he relaxed nonetheless; a mistake, on his part, because you were immediately picking up the glass to take a sip anyway. “Y/N!” You didn’t hear Jungkook berating you over the deafening scream of your tongue as the disgusting liquid went down your throat. “That was horrible, how can you drink that?” You spoke through your coughing fit while Jungkook carefully removed the glass from your grasp, calling a waiter over to take it away and bring back a coke instead. “You’re an idiot and now a convicted felon.”

You gave him a sheepish smile in return. “I was curious…” He shook his head in disapproval but didn’t press further; he found it hard to stay angry at you. You spent the rest of the night trying to make him laugh with your really (subjectively) funny dad jokes. He didn’t laugh but you blamed it on his dead sense of humour which Jungkook thought was a reasonable excuse.

“Y/N.” You cocked your head up to look at him with a frustrated expression. Who knew pasta was so hard to eat? “What?” You tried to say though it came out muffled as you tried to eat. “It’s sad watching you eat.” “It’s not my fault the pasta is so slippery!” He grabbed the fork out of your hand and effortlessly spun the pasta around your fork. You scoffed in astonishment but Jungkook decided to ignore your frustration. “Open.” You felt like a toddler, Jungkook (a grown man) was feeding you (an allegedly grown woman) pasta because you couldn’t figure out how the mechanism worked.

After you finished eating, the room was engulfed with an awkward silence. The distant voices and the clatter of cutlery filled the void although it wasn’t nearly enough. “So, you up for dessert?” You shook your head quickly, you were so exhausted you could’ve sleep right on the uncomfortable chair. “I’m too full.” Jungkook nodded and asked a waiter for the bill. You curiously tried to take a peek at the total but Jungkook snatched the bill towards him before you had the chance. “Think of it as payment for taking care of my niece and nephew.” It seemed like a little too much for just babysitting but you knew there was no point in arguing with him.

The entire car ride was quiet. You were too busy trying to conjure up the courage to ask Jungkook out (properly) and Jungkook was too busy trying not to crash the car. The moment his car was in front of your building, you blurted out the question before you could stop yourself. “Jungkook, can I ask you a question?” He was a taken aback by the abrupt question but he nodded nonetheless.

“I um… I like you, a lot and I just don’t want to get my hopes up and expect anything from you because that’s unfair and of course I don’t expect anything now I just…” You trailed off once you realised you had been rambling but  Jungkook didn’t seem to notice. His expression seemed entirely indifferent and you wondered if you had even confessed at all.

The silence was getting incredibly uncomfortable so you tried to diffuse the situation you had unwillingly created. “It’s fine if you don’t! It’s just a crush. I’ll get over it eventually so really-” Halfway through your rambling, Jungkook crashed his lips onto yours and you froze. Now, you’ve been kissed before, but never like this and the lack of warning shocked you enough to have you accidentally bite the poor man’s lip. “Ow. What the fuck Y/N?” You began apologising profusely while he held his lip and though the mood was definitely ruined, he couldn’t help but laugh.

“I’m sorry! Are you okay?" “I’m fine. Goodnight Y/N.” You were about to leave the car before you quickly turned around and gave him a quick peck on the cheek, then you hurriedly screamed ‘thank you’ and sprinted into your dorm building. Jungkook drove away with his heart heavy and his mind racing. He may have just ruined his entire plan.You on the other hand just realised you never got an answer.

[girlcalledtasha]

Something Weird Happened Today

We wandered down the Labyrinth many hours. Rosalind and I discussed what even was this place.  She didn't know much. She never planned to come down here.  All she really knew is that this was a physical place that existed beneath the city.  She knew this was the Labyrinth that lead to the nine circles.  What lay within the circles she did not know.

Through the cold walls of the Labyrinth we could hear the creature stalking. Occasionally Virgil would lead us to another dead end where we would wait for the creature to pass again, and we would catch a glimpse its terrifying form, before Virgil would lead us onwards once more.

Now and then we could hear Dante calling to us. He hasn't lost ground. I could tell Rosalind was scared. I'm not sure why she chose to help me.

Eventually we found ourselves in a round room surrounded by mirrors. There was no entrance or exit to this room. It was as if we stumbled into it through the geometry of another dimension we could not reach by choice. There was no way out of it now.  I'd seen a place like this before; at the fairground of the cultist campsite. The room of mirrors reflecting infinitely that had trapped me before. I placed my hand against the glass of one of the mirrors. It was cold and solid and our reflections were clearly seen on the other side of it.  Our reflections repeated as they bounced between the mirrors far off into the distance before fading into darkness. Between the recursive reflections I could see the shadow of the beast prowling.

"Nine mirrors," Rosalind said as she sat upon the flagstone floor. I looked around. She was right.

Virgil had stopped leading. This was clearly the destination. I placed him on the floor and went to sit by Rosalind. We were exhausted, hungry and thirsty. We stared into the mirrors watching the reflection of the three headed beast roaming between them.

I checked Facebook to see if anyone had responded to our last post. Five thumbs up. Five heart reacts. A few comments like "Brilliant!" and "So exciting!" and "You should turn these stories into a podcast!"

I sighed. "I don't think help is coming."

Rosalind shook her head. "Abandon all hope, neighbour."

I nodded. "Indeed."

"There you are." A familiar voice came from behind us. We saw an occultist emerge from the darkness between our reflections. We jumped back to our feet and faced him.

"Dante," croaked Rosalind.

"Hello, Rosalinnnd. And who is this with you?" He asked, turning to me. "Virgil," he commanded, extending an open hand. "Come to me. I am your master now." I could see his other hand held an ornate dagger.

I shook my head and slid Virgil forward along the floor with my foot. "I'm Tasha. This is Virgil."

Virgil blinked. Dante looked down at the eye stalk, and back up at me. He snarled and charged at Rosalind, crashing her against one of the mirrors, causing it to crack. Dante pressed his dagger against her throat.

"What game are you playing, Rosalinnnd?" She struggled against him and I tried to pull him off but we were too weak from hunger. He threw me off like I weighed nothing. "We've been playing cat and mouse long enough. I DO NOT. HAVE PATIENCE. FOR GAMES!"

"GET OFF OF HER!" I yelled, and got back on my feet.

Above Rosalind’s head, a set of enormous black jaws emerged from the cracked glass. Dante froze. The beast panted heavily, its breath formed clouds in the damp air that circled around them. Rosalind locked eyes with me. She opened her mouth to say something and the great jaws lowered around her head and removed it from her. Only her body remained, slumped against the broken glass. The beast carried her head off deep into the mirror's reflection until it was gone.

"Rosalind…” I whimpered. “No."  This was all my fault.

Dante huffed. "No matter. One of you is Virgil. Now. Lead me to The Editor."

"You killed Rosalind!" I screamed, tears raining down my cheeks.

He grabbed me. "This is not how this story was meant to go. You will lead me to The Editor or we can both die here in Limbo."

"I don't know what that means!" I screamed, thrashing against him. He briefly lost his footing and knocked Virgil over.

"You..." his words were cut short as a dark shadow leapt from the mirror and ripped his head from his torso. The beast swallowed it whole and turned to me with ravenous fury in its eyes. My time was up. I thought about what I could have done differently. What an idiot I was. I should have figured this out. It was all so obvious now. I should have left the hole well alone. I should never have taken that sprout.

I picked up Virgil and faced the beast, ready to accept my fate. Over its shoulder, within one of the mirrors, Rosalind was silently pounding her fist on the glass, wordlessly yelling at me.

"Rosalind..."

The beast leapt and my world went dark.

I was in a room. It was about 10 foot square but its edges were hard to define. It repeated on all sides, just like in the mirror room. There was no ceiling. I could see a sky high above me unlike any I’d seen before. It was made of undulating flesh covered in membranous villi that swayed as if in a soft breeze. It was quiet. In the centre of the room was a simple wooden chair that repeated along with the room. Its feet were black with rot creeping up the legs.

I was sat in the chair. I was looking at myself sat in the chair. And I repeated along with the chair along with the room indefinitely in all directions.

I was sitting still in the chair. My eyes and mouth wide open. Arms limp at my side and neck craned backwards so that I was staring up at the hungry sky.

Virgil was with me, staring towards the next room. I walked to the next room. I was there too. In the chair. Staring up. Never blinking. Breathless.

I walked to the next room. And the next. And the next.

I walked for what felt like days. It was hard to tell. There was no day or night. Time moves strangely in the Circle. There was only the room I stood in and the echoing path ahead.

Ahead of me was a different chair. I walked towards it. I wasn't sitting in this chair. It was Dante. Sat in the same position I was in. Rosalind was there too. Looking over Dante as I did.

His flesh was dry. Desiccated. Brittle skin wrapped around his bones like paper. His eyes, staring upward, sunk into his skull as two shallow pits.

He coughed. The flesh of his lips cracked and they began to move.

"Rosalind... Tasha... I have been... waiting... for this moment..." His neck creaked upright and his head dropped down. "... for millennia..." His eyes closed as he continued. "He takes our past. He takes our present. He leaves us with our future. An endless future. Alone. In silence. In perpetual stasis. Never changing. Eons of nothing. In time, even thoughts fall silent. All we have, all we are, is anticipation of the nothing that is to come."

Rosalind and I looked at each other.

"Who is He?" I asked.

"The Editor!" he coughed. "There is only endless time in His circle. And fear. We see forward. Into the infinite and empty void. We see how empty it is. And we fear every hollow second that is to come. We suffer.

“But I was blessed by Him. I, I could see a moment in time that was to come. 3000 years into the void. One unlike all the others. I was blessed with this moment to bring you a choice. How I’ve longed for this moment. But soon… even this precious moment shall pass. Then there will be nothing. This will be your fate too. You will wander. In time, your flesh will grow weary. It will abandon you, as all things will. Eventually, you will sit a while. And you will not get up."

"You said there was a choice," I told him.

"Be His apostle on Earth. Or be devoured by your future here."

"Why us?" asked Rosalind.

"You are storytellers. As are all preachers."

"I mean... I post a bit on Facebook and Reddit."

"Yes. Yes. He follows your Reddit account."

"Then he never up votes."

"What is your choice?" He asked, pointing towards two empty wooden chairs in the next room. "Fear The Editor, or... sit with me for a while."

“What do you think?” I asked Rosalind. “You know more about this stuff than me.”

Rosalind thought for a moment. “This is hardly a choice.”

I nodded and took Rosalind's hand.

"We fear The Editor."

The rooms were gone. Instead we were standing in what looked like a derelict subway station. The tracks appeared as though they had been rusting for decades. On the platform there was an old rotten tram car. The air was saturated with damp and the smell of mould.

"What just happened?" I asked Rosalind. She looked as confused as I. “Are we back in the Labyrinth?”

"I think... we just made a deal with the devil. Ahh!" She grabbed her head in pain and I covered my ears as we were surrounded by a din of static. "The Editor! I meant deal with The Editor!" The din died down.

"Sounds about right," I replied, my ears still ringing. "So what are we supposed to do? Go out on the streets and tell stories?"

"I dunno.” replied Rosalind. “We could do a podcast?"

An old grey cat dashed from between our legs into the tram and an old grey man appeared at the driver's window.

"You getting in or not?" he asked, like we'd been keeping him waiting. I shrugged at Rosalind and we got on board.

"Don't I know you from somewhere?" I asked the tram driver.

"Unlikely," he scoffed as he lit a cigarette. His name badge labelled him as Charon.

"Hey yeah! You're the guy who dropped his wallet near Leeds Market!"

"Eh?" grunted Charon.

"I have something of yours." I pulled the wallet I found out of my bag and handed it to him. His eyes lit up.

"My cig money!" he grabbed it and rummaged through.

"It's all there," I assured him.

He tipped his cap to me. "Well, ta very much, love. Let's get you back to Leeds."

The tram bell rang twice, and the wheels excruciatingly squealed into motion on the old rusted tracks.

"We could start a podcast," Rosalind continued.

"Hmm?"

"A podcast for telling stories and convincing people to fear The Editor."

"Ohhh, like that queer creepypasta idea we had. What would we call it though?"

"Horror Queers?" she suggested.

I got out my phone. "Taken."

"Frigay the Thirteenth? "

"Also taken."

"Queer Horror Cult? "

"Dammit. All the good names are taken."

"Queerpypasta?"

"That has to be taken. Oh, wait. That's free. I like it. Queerpypasta."

"Rolls off the tongue doesn't it?"

"Queeeeerppyyyyypasta."

"Queerrrrrrrpy..."

So something weird happened this weekend. We were chased into hell by a lunatic cultist and now I guess we're starting a podcast?

#somethingweirdhappenedtoday

[transboygenius]

Season 4 promo

After overcoming some abuse, anxiety, and depression issues, I FINALLY have it finished.

Three months ago, a huge ceremony took place for the graduation of Lindbergh's fifth grade students. All children were dressed in caps and gowns, receiving their diploma one by one. Cindy earned an academic award along with her diploma. Fortunately, for Jimmy, he earned quite some more, which made him fall over with all that weight. Cindy looked over to him in envy, while Nick helped him pick up some of those awards. Miss Fowl was crying tears of freedom, for she was finally free from Sheen's shenanigans. While the ceremony was still going on, Jimmy gave an inspirational speech about what he learned. Not just about geometry, history, or science, but socialization, and how it changed him. He even gave a sincere shoutout to Nick.

Cindy watched in all bitterness. She was upset. Was it because Jimmy managed to outdo her achievements? Yes. Was it because she still misses him in her life? Also yes. She still loves him, but she is also jealous of him. Why can't she just be one of those? Despite that her and Jimmy vowed to each other that they would be friends instead, she could never move on from him. Ever since him and Nick escaped fron the medieval century, he has redeemed himself from his arrogant and egotistic ways, putting friendship before science. Cindy doesn't get it. She has tried for months to bring him into common sense, even tried beating it out of him, and he does it for some kid he used to have minimal interactions with.

Not only that, but they also became really close friends after that time warp trip. Something about their relationship really made Cindy feel envious. They're always happy with each other, as well as supportive. Even when they find something either of them disagree on, they still search for a way to cooperate. Also, the way Jimmy's always bedazzled by Nick brings her with a lot of questions. Why doesn't he ever look at me like that? Compared to his friendship with Carl and Sheen, he definitely had some "weird" subtext going on with Nick. Cindy lost two goals in this year. While in her gloomy state, her mother began to comfort her. Or at least that's what she thought.

"Oh, don't let the agony of defeat weigh you down, Cynthia! This is only the beginning! That big headed whippy dip may have won the battle, but I guarantee you will win the war! We'll just have to try HARDER this time! I'll help you, and make sure you stay on track!" "Gee. Thanks, Mom. I really appreciate that." "Anything to bring the Vortex image up!"

...........................

It was another fun summer vacation for children, especially for Jimmy and his gang, along with Nick. Sometimes they would go off into far adventures. Sometimes Jimmy would give a new experiment to present. Sometimes they would do normal summer activities such as going to the beach, or Retroland. Or sometimes they would lie around at home all day like couch potatoes. Nick has never had such a productive summer before! He was so happy, he even did his chores whenever he was told to. Well, occasionally. While everyone was making the most of their vacation, Cindy would continue researching and studying until her brain melts.

Most of Nick's summer days were spent with Jimmy, because of course. He spent some time with Libby, since they surprisingly had a lot in common. He at least put his best to hang out with Carl. Even though Nick doesn't consider Sheen much as a friend, Sheen can't help but get a little clingy over a new amigop. Just for Jimmy, he tolerated all of his actions, even when he starts to infodump about how much he knows about Ultralord. When Nick feels he isn't doing a good job being pal-friendly to Jimmy's two comrades, he cooks them up lunch, takes special recipe requests, and gave free cooking lessons. He'd cook for Libby too, only to test out new vegetarian recipes. The only member of the squad Nick interacted with the least would be Cindy.

After three months of summer, it eventually went down to a bummer. When the first back-to-school commercial airs, every child is met with horror. Speaking of which, on the third of August, it was time to face a new beginning. Goodbye Elementary School, and hello to Middle School. Nick was gazing into the mirror, grooming his curtain cut with care. Although he's not popular anymore, keeping his own hair perfect has become a habbit to him. He also decided to try a new casual, comfortable wardrobe: white long sleeved shirt, blue t-shirt over it, teared loose jeans, and purple converse. The ring around his neck never left him. After he finished admiring his own reflection, he took his backpack and ran towards the door.

"Nick, would you like me to drive you there?" Shouted his mom from another room. "It's cool, Mom! I'll just take my scooter!" Replied Nick. "Well, you better not be late on your first day! Love you, honey!" “Love you too, Mom."

.....................

So on the scooter ride to school, he met with a few friends on the way. Libby and Cindy took the bus, but he only waved to Libby. Sheen was passing by in his dad's car, constantly trying to get Nick's attention while Nick did his best to ignore him. Then came Bolbi on a unicyc- Wait a minute, he's not a friend. Lastly, up in the sky, there was Jimmy in his hovercar, greeting Nick from above. Then there was Carl in the backseat, catching the breeze in his face, then a splattered bug. All of the squad met at the front entrance of Gelaway's Middle School. Even though summer was over, some were eagar to move to a new school level where they'll no longer be regarded as little kids.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhh... Can't believe we're in middle school now! The place where practices to being a teenager begins! Pretty soon we'll be driving in our parents' cars, and attending R-rated movies!" Cooed Libby. "I can't wait to wear body jewelry!" Said Carl. "Sooooooooo, looks like this is a new stage in our growing life. It feels like only yesterday we were doing show 'n tell, and macaroni art. Now there's... ...here. Wow." Spoke Nick.

Jimmy gave his tall buddy a light nudge on the shoulder, then grinned at him. 

"Shall we... ...go inside now?" Asked Jimmy. “YES, LET'S GO INSIDE NOW! I've been surrounded by babies for too long! PEAK OF ADULTHOOD, HERE I COME!" Shouted Sheen, then dashed on ahead.

The rest of the gang followed behind. When they made it inside, it felt like opening a door to a whole new world. The inside was full of older and maturer kids, all in a different multicultural range. Most of them were just fooling around on their phones. Libby had her eyes on a couple of teens playing music and then dancing to it. Sheen had his eyes on a couple of dudes having a casual conversation about science fiction. Carl had his eyes on... ...a Llama Lovers club? Nick had his eyes on something that made him wanna act fast. He quickly hid behind a really tall, blocky kid while the gang continued to chat amongst themselves.

A trio walked down the hall, in an intimating fashion. The lead of the trio was a blonde boy who wore fingerless gloves, a snapback, baggy pants, sneakers, and a t-shirt that had a ravenous spike collared bulldog on it. Not to mention he had a (fake) tattoo on his left arm that read "Beast." He appeared to look the most intimating, and seemed to be at Nick's height. The kid on his left was a lanky boy, who wore a red and yellow tank top, with matching shorts, plain white sneakers, and his hair was braided. He was the tallest, and looked like a friendly kid at heart. The last one was a short redhead with a fringe hairstyle. He wore a blue sweatshirt, long jeans, and a pair of crocs. The boy was the shortest of the bunch, but still a little taller than Jimmy, and he looked like he was trying way too hard to be intimating.

The three happened to be approaching the gang, and then the short one tripped.

"AARON!" Shouted the blonde lead. “Uh, uh- Sorry, chief!" The redhead soon got back up to his feet.

The front blonde kid then snapped his fingers to get everyone's attention. As he did, he gazed down upon Jimmy.

"Well, looks like we have some new fish in this joint! Hey squirt, you must be Neutron!" “Uhhhh... The pleasure is-" “I'm not done talking yet, nerd! *AHEM*"

The blonde grabbed Jimmy by his hair, and lifted him up to make direct eye contact.

"You and I will be getting to know each other very well."

He then released and just dropped Jimmy, leaving his soft served ice cream hair now out of shape. The gang just stood in silence as they waited for this blonde kid to say something else.

"What? I'm done talking!" Said the blonde. “Who are you jerks, anyways?" Asked Cindy. "Ah, I'm glad you asked, doll! They call me 'Tony!' You BETTER remember that! You are prohibited to call me anything else besides 'Tony!' Understand, huh?" "Chief?" Asked the short redhead. "YOU WERE EVEN LISTENING- Oh. Whaddya want, Aaron?” “I thought you were done talking.” “UGHHHH-“ “And don’t we get an introduction?" "*Sigh* And this is my crew, Mike and Aaron. Call them anything you want, I'm sure they don't mind." "I'm Mike, btw." The tall kid declared. "Coooool! A real school gang! Do you guys have a super cool gang name??" Asked Sheen. “Of course we do, needle-neck! Otherwise we wouldn't be a gang! It may sound simple, but it still manages to strike fear into the weaks' hearts. We call ourselves: Tony Mike n Aaron!" "Oh. Well, it sure is easy to remember." "Dang straight! And you better not forget! As for you, nerd. I'll be seeing you around soon."

With business now done, Tony turned the opposite direction and walked away. Mike fixed Jimmy's hair before catching up with Tony. Aaron just continued to stare at the squad aggressively, trying not to give away a blink. Eventually, he had to stop when Tony called him up. As soon as they were gone, Nick came out of hiding, and got back in place like he never left. And it's a good thing the gang hasn't noticed, otherwise he'd make himself look like a wuss. He was in no mood to deal with those three right now. 

"Uhhhh, Jimmy. Shouldn't we be collecting our schedules?" Nick tried to change the subject. "Huh? Oh YEAH! C'mon, team! We don't wanna make a bad impression by being tardy on our first day!" 

.........................

Homeroom was with English class. The teacher was a man who looked like he hasn't gotten enough sleep, and talked in a stoic monotone voice. His expression was blank.

"Welcome, class. My name is Mr. Nite. Here we will be learning the art of literature English and how it will build up your doctoral level. Also for other stuff that's very important in the future, bluhblubbluhbluh. Now, can each student stand up from their desk one at a time, and present themselves to me?" “Salutations! My name is Cynthia Vort-" "That will do for now. Thank you all for giving me the chance to know each and every one of you. Now, to start the day, please turn to page 13 in the textbook in front of you. We will be going through Sonata For Harp And Bicycle. When you are finished, there are questions you shall answer at the end of the story. You are also proposed to write a five paragraph summary for Sonata For Harp And Bicycle. We will be reviewing the story tomorrow, write an essay report on the author's background, taking notes on what you learned, and then comes the big test on Friday. Begin now."

Mr. Nite slumped his head down on his desk to take a nap. All the students hesitated for a moment, before opening their textbooks. First day of middle school, and already their week is busy. Well, first day of school is not supposed to be a party. Carl and Sheen went through at least one page. They both started to get a migraine from all the big fancy vocabulary they're never used to, not even when hanging around with Jimmy for years. 

.............................

The other classes were just as bizarre and stressful. In music class, the teacher was a grown man with a purple dyed mohawk, visor sunglasses, and other stereotypical attire from the 1980s, also talking in outdated slang. His name was Mr. Beatz. He played his guitar, loud enough to sting the students' ears, and break windows. Libby seemed to be the only one taking a liking to him. They're first assignment was to recreate they're own cover of Do Re Me. He didn't feel like starting with something simple, since "That's so early 2000s." 

In home economics class, the teacher was a plain lady who wore chef attire. She also appeared to act like two characters in one. One minute, she's a sweet housewife gently instructing the basics to culinary skills, then the next she turns into a strict food teacher with the cooking arts of a five-star chef, also bearing a British accent. Her name was Mrs. Rosemerry. Their first assignment was to fix up something without a recipe. Lucky for Nick, he could easily survive.

In P.E. class, their coach was some buff, toned women. Right before anyone could introduce themselves, she blew on her whistle and started the first assignment: Run fifty laps around the field. Anyone who gives up, or pukes, has to do a hundred pushups. Her name was Ms. Barbell, by the way.

............................

Everyone became quite exhausted from this long first day. They didn't expect middle school to be quite a challenge. Then again, nobody said growing up was easy. To add insult to injury, all of them had homework. Homework on the first day. Feels like being punished for no reason. Thank goodness lunch has arrived. The squad took their trays and waited in line to be served. Nick, however, brought his own lunch, but he made sure to reserve a table for his friends. Then, Carl and Sheen came in contact with the lunch lady. She looked nothing like a stereotypical lunch lady. In fact, this dollface sweetheart looked like someone who walked out of their dreams. The two boys couldn't help but gaze upon her remarkable beauty. They eventually snapped out of it when she scooped some unidentified glop onto their trays. She was attractive, but not her cooking.

The squad all sat at the table Nick held for them. None of them ate. They just stared at the mystery glop on their trays. Carl gave a taste. It was so revolting, even he couldn't work it down. Libby felt there was meat products cooked into the stuff, so she refused to touch it. Nick, about the only kid at the table who packed something edible, looked at the poor, hungry boy genius. Caring for his best friend, he offered him half of his lunch on a napkin. Then, he started getting hungry stares from Carl and Sheen. He knew that giving Jimmy some of his own lunch would give them the wrong idea that he's just giving out free eats, but he would never let the little guy starve like that. They were drooling down on the table, begging Nick with big, gapping eyes.

"Please, Nick. I gotta keep my blood sugar up." Whined Sheen. "(You say that like it's a bad thing)"

Nick wasn't feeling any sorry for them, but the only way they'd leave him alone is that he gives them what they want. So, he put out his lunchbox and told them to take a little. The two boys helped themselves, feasting greedily like a bunch of animals. After they were done, they wiped off their faces clean with napkins, then slid the lunchbox back to Nick. There was nothing left for him but an empty milk bottle, which had a big mark bitten out of it.

"Thank you very much! Now how am I gonna keep my blood sugar up?" Said frustrated Nick. "Hey, lighten your mood, gang! Sure, the classes are pushy, the teachers are looney, and the food here stinks! Quite literally, too. But, at least there's some good to come out of this!" Exclaimed Sheen. "Like WHAT?” "Recess! GERONIMO!"

Sheen flew towards the door that's suppose to lead to the playground. He crashed with a loud thud, then Jimmy came up to point out the the print on the door says “Pull.” Unfortunately, all he found were students lounging outside; Enjoying their packed lunches, gossiping with each other, reading, or being on their phones and tablets.

"Whoops! This isn't the playground!"

All the outside students overheard Sheen's statement. Some got up from their sitting positions to give him a taste of reality.

"Sounds like you're new around here." "Sorry, we don't have any of that 'little kid' stuff anymore." "No teeter-totter, no slides, no monkey bars, *Sighs* no swings." "Welcome to phase one of growing up. ...sir."

Now this has gone too far. First all this work, no edible nourishment, and now they can't have the one escapism that helped them pull through elementary school.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

The others then met with Sheen outside, surprised themselves to find no recess playground. Just big kids doing "big kid" things. Sheen crawled on his knees and begged to Jimmy.

"Jimmy, could you invent something that would shrink down ages? The peak of adulthood is scary!" "C'mon now, Sheen. An age reversal process isn't gonna fix anything."

Nick then separated the Ultralord fanboy from his short friend, giving him some comfort.

"Don't worry about that, little bud. Sure, this first year has gone through a rocky start, and it'll probably get much worse in the future, but... ...with all our effort, we'll make it through together." "Thanks, Nick. Although, that doesn't seem to make me feel any better." "Oh, buck up, will ya?"

Nick then pulled Jimmy close to him as they decided to find some spot to longue outside, which made Jimmy just blush a bit. And from his tall friend's cheesy motivational speech, he wonders what he's implying when he mentioned "we'll" and "together." Together as in the whole squad as a group, or together as just him and Nick as a pair. Cindy, following behind, watched with indifference on Jimmy and Nick's closeness.

[ferretbitexo-fic-den]

Coming Home pt. 1

Sequel-ish to Long Distance because my girl's visiting here for three weeks in less than 48 hours ♥️.

Guess who's happy?!

Warnings: An ecstatic author and me being Virgil in this.

.

Being stuck on a plane for five hours, sleep-deprived and extremely annoyed at all the other passengers on the plane made Janus wonder why he was so agitated to board the plane in the first place.

It probably wasn’t a good idea to take the trip very sleep-deprived and literally three hours after taking his final exams.

Yet, in reality, he wasn’t exhausted, or even a bit tired at all. He waited 165 days for this, and 20 minutes more ‘til the plane lands had been the longest 20 minutes he’d ever experience.

…

“Can we go any slower?” Virgil groans from the backseat of Roman’s Innova with Remus in the passenger side.

“Listen Emo Nightmare, I’m not going to jail just because you’re too anxious to wait for 5 minutes. Let me drive below speed limit or you’re driving.” Roman said not taking bus eyes off the road.

“Oh come on, Prince Delusional, we both know the only thing stopping you from crashing your way to the airport is Patton’s breakup threat.” Virgil scoffed, unable to keep his leg from kicking Remus’ seat.

Said breakup threat was that if Roman broke any laws while Patton was away, he’d have to leave Roman (which Patton definitely intends to keep).

“Virge! Chill! In about half an hour, your Jekyll’s dick is all your to feast on.” Remus said, lowering his sun visor.

“Dude…” Roman mumbled. He lowered his own sun visor and turned the cool up

“Remus, never talk again.” Virgil commented, still kicking Remus’ seat. Playing with the loose threads on his jeans

…

“Janus, it’ll be fine!” Patton says, playing geometry dash on his phone. “Virgil won’t mind you being a tad bit late, if the plane does somehow land late.”

“Which isn’t exactly a likely scenario, Janus. I do wish you would stop sighing every thirteen seconds.” Logan said, sitting behind Patton, reading his copy of Huckleberry Finn.

“Oh, please! Do tell me to calm down when I am absolutely not trying my hardest to takeover the cockpit.” Janus remarked sarcastically, to which Logan hits Janus’s head with his book. “Ow!”

“Dang it! So close!” Patton sighed. Then he left the game and tapped on his camera icon.

“Logan, lean over!” Patton said, cueing a selfie. As per usual, it had an adorable cat filter.

Logan leans over, and so does Janus. Logan’s smile was just a slight curl with a twinkle in his eyes, ready to come home. Patton looks ever so ecstatic and bubbly. Ethan is struggling to keep his eyes on the screen, as if any second something could go wrong and the plane would…

No, not when they’re so close to home.

…

The Innova stops outside the airport. Virgil clutches on to his stress ball and squeezes it anxiously. His nails had been bitten down. He sits down on the bench between the twins who were aggressively playing Tetris together. Ten more minutes until the plane lands and Virgil’s getting restless.

Well, even more restless, if that were even possible. All that time apart, waiting to hold each other again, hearing each other’s voice without a plastic feel of their headphones and just downright waking up to each other was something they both had been longing for. Soon enough, he'd be whole again.

9 more minutes….

..

TAGLIST❤

@shadowjag

@wigsnatchedhoteltrivago

@notall2gether

@i-love-my-dark-strange-sons

@phantom-moonfire

@lostonehero

@awkward-child-of-satan

@gigitheimposter

@ashtonbby2

@lokiamorstuffs

Tell me if you wanna be added or removed!❤

[bendywackyadventures]

BATIM SOL AU School Daze Chap.4

Guess who's back! Back with Bendy stories!

So yeah I took a hiatus from Bendy stories due to the Bendy drama that happened back in October, and it was good to take a long break so I can refresh and work on other stories during that time. However, I miss writing the adventures of Bendy, Henry and the rest of the JDS crew so I knew the beginning of the year was a wonderful time to get back into writing these stories.

Yes, I'm off from hiatus so Bendy stories are back in business!

It was morning, the first morning to Alice and Bendy’s first day of school. Bendy was in his room gathering all the things he needed for his first day. The demon was nervous for his first day having a string of “what if’s” fill his mind. Bendy wanted to make a good impression on his classmates and teacher; no pranks, no jokes, just a simple and normal demon going to school like everyone else. The demon heard a knock on the door and turned, “Come in.” He said.

Henry and Linda opened the door with Henry having something behind his back. “Ready for your first day of school, Bendy?” Linda asked.

Bendy nodded. “Ready; yes.” The demon frowned. “Nervous; definitely.” 

Henry chuckled. “Don’t worry. Everything will be fine.” Bendy didn’t believe it and looked down. Henry frowned and looked back at what he was hiding behind his back. “Linda and I got something for you.” Henry revealed the gift behind his back.

Bendy’s eyes widen seeing the wrapped gift. “What is it?” He asked taking the box.

“Open it and find out.” Linda said.

Bendy unwrapped the box and was in awe at what was inside. It was a light brown vest and striped pants for him to wear for school. “Henry, Linda...I don’t know what to say?” He asked.

“Thank you would be nice.” Henry replied giving a smile. Bendy looked up from his gift and hugged his creator tight. Henry smiled and hugged his little toon back. The two let go and Bendy looked at his new clothes.

“Can I wear this?” Bendy asked.

“Sure.”

Bendy smiled and with one quick spin put his new clothes on. He smiled as his new clothes fit perfectly on him. “Look at my the stylish ink demon around! Heading off to school!” He announced. Bendy grabbed his stuff and dashed out the door. 

Henry and Linda laughed seeing they cured Bendy’s first day of school jitters. Now it was time to check on Alice to see how she was feeling.

Unlike Bendy earlier, Alice was calm going to school. She was in front of her mirror brushing her hair to look her best for her day at school. When she was done Alice took one look at herself seeing how well dressed and hair styled she was for her first day of school. Alice grabbed her backpack and ran passed her parents.

“Bye Dad! Bye Mom! See you after school!” Alice yelled as she left the house in a flash.

Henry and Linda got themselves together and saw their two little toons off to school. “They grow up so fast.” Linda whispered. 

“They sure do.” Henry agreed.

Alice arrived at her school, Walt Fletcher high school. She was amazed at how big the school was and saw many kids entering inside. Alice was nervous taking her first step into her new school wondering how her new classmates would think of her. With a deep breath and a smile she walked inside the school ready to start her day.

“Class.” The principal started. “We have a new kid joining us today.” Alice stood in front of her 1st period class nervously. The class stared at her horns and how different she was from all of them. Alice gulped feeling the tension from her class. “This is Alice Stein make her feel welcome.” The principal left and the teacher stepped in.

“Alright Alice, now we just need to find a seat for you.” The teacher, Mrs. Shannon came to the angel. She looked around the room to find a seat for her new student.

“Mrs. Shannon! There’s a seat right here!” Alice’s eyes widen hearing a familiar voice. Alice smiled seeing Danni again. Danni was a young girl she met at the park when Bendy ran off a while ago. Danni smiled back as she waved over to her and the teacher.

Mrs. Shannon smiled. “Thank you Daniella.” Danni frowned hearing her full name. “Alice you can sit over there.” Alice nodded and sat down next to Danni.

Danni smiled seeing Alice again. “Hey angel. Welcome to high school.” Alice smiled and high fived the girl she met not too long ago at the park.

“Thanks.” Alice said. She faced the teacher and listened in on the lessons they were learning today. “This isn’t bad.” Alice thought. “I wonder how Bendy is doing on his first day?”

“BENDY!” The class shouted. At Bendy’s school everyone knew who Bendy was to the teacher’s surprise. The class ran up to him and gave him a hug. Bendy laughed seeing all his friends hugging him making him feel really welcome. The teacher, Miss. Harper was surprised this is who Bendy was a little demon. 

“So your Bendy. I heard about you from my kids.” Miss. Harper. Bendy nodded. “Well Bendy you can sit wherever you want, and have someone help you learn what their doing.” She explained.

Connie raised her hand. “Bendy can sit next to me, Miss. Harper!” She beamed holding Bendy’s hand. 

Miss. Harper smiled. “Okay Connie.” Connie smiled and took Bendy to her table along with Marie and Tommy. Right now it was free time in class, so kids got to work on whatever they want. Bendy looked around and saw many of the neighborhood kids in his class. All of them except for one. 

“Connie, where’s your brother?” Bendy asked.

Connie stopped coloring and looked at the demon. “He’s in another classroom. This year we’re in separate classrooms.” She explained in a low whisper. 

“Oh..” Bendy replied. 

“Don’t worry. We’ll see him during lunch.” Connie reassured him. Bendy smiled knowing lunch and recess would be fun as the kids will all play together. “You want to color?” Connie asked as she took out a coloring book page for Bendy.

Bendy smiled. “Sure.” Connie smiled and handed Bendy a coloring page for the demon to work on. The demon grabbed some crayons that were on the table and colored with his friends. As he colored he started to think about how Alice was doing at her school.

Back at Alice’s high school, many of her classmates in her other classes were impressed by her skills. In Math she was able to answer a geometry question no one else was able to get. The math teacher was impressed with Alice’s intelligence. 

What the class or anyone didn’t know was Alice was able to school herself during her time at the studio. She read off of old box and notes left by workers like Grant, Sammy, and Norman where she was able to learn a few things.

Even in PE, Alice was able to show some athletic skills. That was just in her character, having the ability of doing anything; sports, singing, you name it Alice has it!

“Nice job, Angel!” Danni said running by giving her new friend a high five.

“Thanks.” Alice replied. Alice and Danni were sharing a laugh as a young boy from the boys PE looked on giving a lovely sight.

“Isn’t she beautiful?” The boy asked. The boy’s friend went over to his lovestruck friend smiling like an idiot towards Alice.

“The new girl?” The friend asked. The friend looked at the girls PE and saw Alice talking with her new friends. “She looks like every other pretty girl in this school.” He commented.

The boy looked at his friend in disbelief. “She isn’t like any other girl in this school! She’s a goddess!” He beamed. The boy’s friend rolled his eyes and walked away leaving his friend to keep staring at Alice.

Alice took notice of the boy staring at her and tapped Danni’s shoulder. “Who is that staring at me?” Alice asked.

Danni turned and saw her friend staring at Alice till the kid got hit in the head with a ball. “That’s Bryan. He’s one of my friends.” She explained. “He’s into lots of cute girls, and your on his list.” Danni added giving a smug look to her friend. Alice giggled blushing as well, she was surprised someone has a crush on her.

After PE was over as well as a few more classes lunch finally came. Danni took Alice to a table where Bryan was waiting for them. “Well glad you brought the newest cutie to our school.” Bryan flirted. Alice rolled her eyes and sat down with her new friends. Alice enjoyed talking with her new friends and looked around seeing everyone talking and eating lunch together. It reminded the angel so much of the studio in the past where break time was lively and not tense or quiet like it was later in life.

Soon Alice had her sights on a girl sitting alone at lunch. Her hair was a bright ginger color with a flower headband on, and she wore a long pale green dress. Alice recognized that girl as her classmate in Math class. She never got her name as no one told her who she was.

“Danni, who is that?” Alice asked.

Danni, drinking her juice looked at who Alice was asking about and stopped drinking to answer her friend. “That’s Lauren Albright. She’s distant towards everyone after what happened last year.” She explained.

“What happened last year?” Alice asked again.

Before Danni could answer, Bryan answered for her as three girls walked into the lunch room leaving everyone to stop what their doing. “Them.” Bryan pointed out.

Alice looked and saw the three girls walk into the lunch room. Two of the girls had blonde hair while the third girl had black hair tied into a ponytail. Danni grabbed her hat and placed it on top of Alice’s head. 

“Don’t let them notice you.” Danni warned. Alice nodded and kept her head down as the girls walked by. Alice turned and saw the kids still waiting in line for their lunches move out of the way so the girls could get there’s. Once they got their lunches they left the lunch room giving everyone a sigh of relief.

Alice removed the hat and handed it back to Danni. “Ok who were they?” She asked.

“They call themselves the Lockets.” Bryan replied. “Pretty, popular, and mean girls who know secrets of everyone and would tell the entire school if you cross them.” He explained.

“They’ve been ruining their classmates lives since Kindergarten.” Danni added. 

Alice gulped knowing these were the mean girls Henry and Linda warned her about before she started school. She knew from experience not to cross mean girls, though only one from her life was mean, but three sounded like a challenge. “Is that what happened with Lauren?” Alice asked.

Danni nodded. “Oh yeah. She was part of their little posse last year, and when she left the Lockets told the entire school her secret.” She explained. “It broke her so badly that she distanced herself from everyone, even though it wasn’t that bad.”

Alice looked back at Lauren and saw her put away her lunch and walking away from the lunch room. She felt bad for the girl and wished she could do something to help her feel better. The angel had to think of a plan to help break Lauren from her shell.

~~~~~~~~~~~

A few things to let you guys know Yes the outfit Bendy is given is the same one he’s going to wear in Dark Revival. I don’t know how Dark Revival will play off in SOL AU, but I just had to reference it before the game drops. Once the game is out I’ll see how it will tie in to SOL AU

A headcanon I had about Alice is that Joey planned for her to be like the Barbie of the JDS world/ 1930’s a little angel who can do/be anything.