#like the fact it was posted 34 minutes ago

[sweetestcaptainhughes]

Another prime example John lives on Instagram but refuses to participate himself.

[esggs]

“It’s just… it’s been 16 years since…” Yuuji finds it difficult to put it into words.. “... since he last saw Divine Dog White…” 

[when your kids inherit the Ten Shadows, Megumi Fushiguro gets to meet a long lost fluffy friend again]

[1.5k words   |   fluff, angst, hurt/comfort, post-canon   |   part of Obeisance to The Arrow universe]

“Hito, Kiko, don’t.” Noritoshi glares at the twins who have been caught red handed trying to ride atop the pair of dogs. In fact, it’s the 4th time they’ve been caught. They refuse to stop trying. “Just sit, okay? Just sit down for a bit. Let dad make his call.”

Noritoshi Kamo is tired. Truly, soulfully, tired. His day began at 5 am today, because you had to go to work earlier than usual, and are still not back yet. Handling 4 kids and their own separate timetables all day, while working as a teacher for Jujutsu High… at 34, he’s not old, but goddamn does his body ache like it is. And now, when he was looking forward to putting the kids to bed and waiting for you to come back and uncork this good vintage and maybe wear that nice lingerie you bought last week and be asleep by 10 pm, when tonight was supposed to go like all other nights, he’s got a huge fucking emergency on his hands. Not that he can show it, of course, in front of the kids. 

“C’mon, pick up, pick up. Asahito! I swear, if I see you– Tsukiko! Tsukiko, hands where I can see them! Good, okay, now sit down and count till 100.” Noritoshi is doing his level best to maintain any semblance of calmness. It isn’t working. Naomi and Chihiro, the older two kids, are terrified. Their usually monk-calm dad is frantically calling people, while his Flowing Red Scale is on, as are two discs of Slicing Exorcisms, ready to strike at the slightest provocation. Not at them, of course, but still. The twins, Hito and Kiko, are too young to realise the gravity of the situation. 

Click. Finally.

“Hey Noritoshi, it’s me, Yuuji. Megumi’s driving right now.”

“Yuuji!” Damn, Yuuji thinks, the man seems out of breath. “Give the phone to Megumi, quick.”

‘But he’s driving, we were playing basketball and now we’re coming ba–”

“Put it on speaker then! Yuuji, it’s urgent.”

“Huh? Wait.” Yuuji puts him on speakerphone and gasps. “Oh my God, is y/n pregnant again?”

“What?” 

“Damn, that’s your fifth one.” Yuuji chuckles. “You must really like being a dad.” 

“It’s not–”

“Five is a lot though –”

“MEGUMI!” Noritoshi shouts out. “Are you there?”

“Yeah” Megumi leans towards the phone that Yuuji is holding out. “Congrats, Noritoshi.”

“Oh, Megumi, thank God.” Noritoshi’s voice is palpably more stable. “y/n isn’t pregnant. The twins’ cursed technique showed up, about 5 minutes ago. Megumi, they have the Ten Shadows.”

Megumi almost crashes the car.

—------- 

“Noritoshi, love, I’m here!” You’ve run all the way from the parked car to your drawing room. It’s bursting with people: Noritoshi (battle-ready), Naomi and Chihiro (hiding behind their dad), Yuuji (fascinated), Megumi (teaching the twins to release the large black dog that’s running amok amid your fragile china-display and Edo era vases), and your little twins (actually listening to their uncle, surprisingly). 

“Mom!” “y/n!” “Honey!” 

Half an hour ago, you had been working on a new telecom venture when your assistant rushed in, claiming an urgent call from your husband: “Love, it’s the twins, Hito and Kiko- cursed technique- unstable control- dinner- Ten Shadows!” It takes a while for you to piece together the information, but when you do, you turn pale as death. 

The twins inherited the Ten Shadows? Together? They share one cursed technique? They share the fucking Ten Shadows?

—------- 

The black divine dog was sent back, thanks to Uncle Megumi Fushiguro. “The other one was already gone when we got here.” Megumi says, leaning back as everyone sits in peace around the low tea-table on the ground. Yuuji is playing cards with the boys, Tsukiko sits in Megumi’s lap, steadily stealing extra cookies from the table, and Naomi is quietly talking to her dad. “They summoned the Divine Dogs by accident, don’t punish them for it, okay?”

“I know.” Noritoshi sighs. “I didn’t even know two Ten Shadows users could exist at the same time.”

“It’s very rare.” Megumi replies. “But rare things are common nowadays.” Since the Culling Games. Since it all got messed up. 16 years ago. 

“It’s so dangerous for a 6 year old to have the power to accidentally summon Mahoraga. Megumi-chan, what did you do at that age?” You still haven’t kicked the habit of calling him Megumi-chan, even though he grumbles about it a lot, especially since the twins are starting to call him that too.

“Well, I had Gojo-sensei to show me the basics, and then I figured it out myself. But I was a very different 6 year old than Hito and Kiko.” He looks down at Tsukiko who’s trying to hide her growing bundle of cookie-loot. “Maybe it’d be safer if I stay with the kids for a bit…”

The kids are delighted to hear this, of course, Uncle Megumi who lets them get away with anything, and buys them whatever they want, he’s their favourite. (Uncle Yuuji is very hurt by this proclamation).

“Yeah, that’d be great, Megumi-chan. Thanks.” You yawn. 

“Say, Hito, Kiko!” Yuuji says. “You called both the dogs? Can you call them again?”

“Now, Itadori?” Noritoshi is still wary. When he first saw the dogs, he almost killed them on the spot, thinking that someone had sent them there to hurt his kids. It had taken a second for light to enter his head: Ah, these are my children’s shikigami. They inherited the Ten Shadows…. Oh my God- my kids inherited the Ten Shadows. “Take the yard outside then, not in here.”

Except for Megumi and the twins, who are working on calling the dogs in the middle of the yard, all of you stand in the veranda. Noritoshi’s Flowing Red Scale is on, ready, just in case.

“It’s just… it’s been 16 years since…” Yuuji finds it difficult to put it into words.. “... since he last saw Divine Dog White… back at the detention center....” 

The shadows under the twins have definitely started to hollow out choppily. Megumi shouts out words of encouragement, telling them to “steady, keep steady!”, while you can tell that Noritoshi is growing more agitated by the second. The volatile control over their shared cursed technique seems to shift between the twins randomly. The shadows underneath, like turbulent sea-water, split.

Megumi Fushiguro is no stranger to loss. It’s a fact of his life. He hardened his heart to this a long time ago, he's bid his good-byes properly in private. He’s done his due mourning when Divine Dog White died over a decade and a half ago. 

Why does his throat feel tighter? Hito and Kiko are making the huge dogs shake hands with a delighted Yuuji. Why does he remember the damp walls of that old apartment, where his dad left him and Tsumiki? Why does he remember Tsumiki’s laugh when the white dog, invisible to her, tripped her as she walked? Those snowy walks with Gojo-sensei, when he brought all three of them mochi, and an extra one for the dog? Those tired midnights in Jujutsu High when the dog curled around him in his sleep? Nobara and Yuuji, back in their teenage years, begging him to summon his precious dog? Nobara who still remains 16 in his memories. Gojo-sensei. Tsumiki. The White Dog. 

If anyone notices a tear stuck in Megumi’s lashes, they don’t mention it. They let him sit on the grass, keeping watch. The overprotective parents have loosened up, allowing Naomi and Chihiro to pet the dogs too. It’s nice, he thinks, everyone getting to enjoy a night like this. It doesn’t come by often. These small moments like playing with the dogs, eating meals together, hanging clothes to dry, taking walks in the setting sun, these are privileges they've earned with blood. Families, especially happy ones, are rare; Megumi’s proud that you and Noritoshi have managed to create one. As for him, he’s content sitting on grass and watching. 

“Megumi-chan, come play!” Tsukiko beckons him. “Shiro, go jump on him.”

“Shiro, no–” But these aren't Megumi’s shikigami, they don’t listen to a word he says. He’s immediately tackled on the soft ground by the weight of the white furball, who’s wagging his tail and licking him all over, as excited as the kids to be summoned. They even smell the same, Megumi remembers. Still, mine had softer fur. 

Naomi valiantly comes to his rescue. Noritoshi offers him some tea before bed. Him and Yuuji are staying the night, you’ve declared, and keeping watch over the twins. Despite all the loss he’s endured his whole nightmare of a life, at the end of the day, there’s still a family he’s part of. There’s still hope, there’s still love, there’s still soft white dogs. 

—------- 

The battle is over: all 4 kids have been put to bed. Yuuji whistles softly, complaining that Hito wheedled five stories and three lullabies out of him. That reminds him: “y/n, you know when Noritoshi called us, he seemed so stressed, I thought that you were pre-” but Noritoshi whacks him on the head before he gets to finish. Megumi isn’t done entertaining the twins yet. 

a/n: timeline wise, this work is set faaar in the future, when the Kamos have returned to and established themselves in Japan. Regardless of the merger, the amount of cursed energy cultivated from the Culling Games have GOT to have fucked up effects on the kids born afterwards, like the remains of nuclear bombs. Naomi is the oldest kid at 13, Chihiro is 10 and the twins are both 6. reader would be 30, noritoshi 34, yuuji 32, and megumi 31. if it was unclear, Asahito and Tsukiko are nicknamed Hito & Kiko

[thisgirlisonfayeeer]

BAU!Reader Instagram (Pt. II)

note: aaahh!! thank you for the love for my first post! I'm quite fond of the instagram format posts so here's more 🥹🫶🏼

______________________________________

mrshotch

BAU Jet

Liked by ahotchner, emprentiss and 24 others

mrshotch my team favorites ❤️

bbgirlgarcia I miss my kisses @/derekmorgan! 🥺

derekmorgan @/bbgirlgarcia almost home babygirl 😘

mrshotchner i left my phone for 5 minutes @/derekmorgan!! 😤 you two look cute though won't delete

jjlamontagne @/mrshotch right???

derekmorgan @/mrshotch 😇

emprentiss awww yuck i know for a fact I'm @/mrshotch's favorite

mrshotch @/emprentiss yes you are and I already miss you so much!!

ahotchner @/mrshotch not your husband?

mrshotch @/ahotchner you're also my boss so no 😁

derekmorgan smells like trouble in paradise 🫢

2 days ago

——————————

mrshotch

Banff

Liked by dave.rossi, dralexblake and 124 others

mrshotch 30 degrees out here yet somehow I feel hot 🥵 how did i get so lucky @/ahotchner 😍

dave.rossi good to see you kids enjoying your vacation

derekmorgan damn @/ahotchner 🔥🔥

emprentiss your camera might be broken how did @/ahotchner look this good?

ahotchner @/emprentiss 🙄

bbgirlgarcia 😮 our boss!! used!! an emoji!!

4 weeks ago

——————————

mrshotch

Liked by ahotchner, bbgirlgarcia and 34 others

mrshotch I asked him if he'd still love me if I was a worm, we had a long argument about it, and now we're good ☺️ love you @/ahotchner 💕

ahotchner I still don't know why you'd be a worm, but I'll love you the same sweetheart

bbgirlgarcia GOD I SHIP YOU TWO SO BAD 🥰🥰

doctorreid But that's not even a worm. That's a millipede which are arthropods under class diplopoda. Millipedes have legs which you can see right there. They have an exoskeleton whereas worms don't have them. Fun fact, millipedes are actually some of the oldest creatures to live on land.

emprentiss why did I even read all of this

doctorreid also what worm would you even be @/mrshotch? there are lots of worms which are classified under three main phyla: Platyhelminthes, Nematoda, and Annelida. I think Hotch will love you if you were an earthworm. But if you were a tapeworm or ringworm or any other parasitic worm, I don't think so.

derekmorgan @/doctorreid🤦🏾‍♂️🤦🏾‍♂️

mrshotch @/doctorreid🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️

jjlamontagne @/doctorreid🤦🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️

5 weeks ago

——————————

mrshotch

Liked by ahotchner, emprentiss and 63 others

mrshotch 3rd valentine's with the boss/husband 💕

mrshotch thank you @/bbgirlcarcia for hooking me up on the cute pen 🤗

bbgirlgarcia @/mrshotch just give us more hotch babies asap!

mrshotch @/bbgirlcarcia on it 😉

emprentiss @/mrshotch ew too much information

derekmorgan @/mrshotch ew too much information

emprentiss @/derekmorgan jinx u owe me a soda

ahotchner I love you, sweetheart

mrshotch @/ahotchner I love you too, bub 😘💕

7 weeks ago

[snowdice]

Big Bang Editing Story [Day 122]

I started writing this fic while editing my Big Bang story years ago, but am going to continue doing it for other things now that Kill Dear is out. I will write and publish 100 words of the story every time I finish doing whatever task I’m doing. If you’d like to block these proceedings, please feel free to block the tag ‘proofread stories.’ I will reblog this post with the parts of the story I do today. Edited chapters are linked; everything else I’ve done so far is under the cut.

My Master Post Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11 Part 12 Part 13 Part 14 Part 15 Part 16 Part 17 Part 18 Part 19 Part 20 Part 21 Part 22 Part 23 Part 24 Part 25 Part 26 Part 27 Part 28 Part 29 Part 30 Part 31 Part 32 Part 33 Part 34 Part 35 Part 36 Part 37 Part 38 Part 39 Part 40 Part 41 Part 42 Part 43 Part 44 Part 45 Part 46 Part 47 Part 48 Part 49 Part 50 Part 51 Part 52 Part 53 Part 54

Not going to do much this morning because I only have an hour or so. I may do more later today however.

Chapter 55 (Logan)

Virgil was beginning to be able to read some of the common instructions in magic books, but Logan still made sure to read out the instructions to him at least twice before setting him loose. He’d started to jot down notes to himself about things, though these notes were not words, but various symbols that only made sense to the boy himself.

Logan had asked about their meaning at one point and received an answer that, while earnest, was unintelligible. The symbols were mostly just pictures of things to represent certain steps in spell casting, but they were filtered through Virgil’s rudimentary penmanship and often bizarre perception of the world.

Though, despite the fact that Logan could not often decipher his chicken scratch, it did seem to help him produce more and more quality charms even as Logan began to introduce more complicated processes to make them. He was a very good student even if he didn’t have the best foundation for learning.

“I add lavender for the next step, right?” Virgil asked, his finger on a word in Logan’s magic book.

“That is correct,” Logan confirmed.

Virgil looked back at the book and mouthed the word ‘lavender’ to himself before turning back to his potion. He grabbed a few sprigs of lavender and threw them into the cauldron.

The liquid popped and bubbled violently, but Virgil didn’t flinch as he once would have, prepared for it now.

After the lavender, Logan knew that it would have to simmer for 5 minutes. Virgil looked down at the boiling liquid, contemplating it for a long moment.

“Can I soak a knife in it?” he asked.

“What?” Logan asked.

“Can I soak a knife in the potion once it’s done?”

“In that potion?” Logan clarified. “In the emergency hand warmer potion?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“I think a hot knife would be useful,” Virgil said.

“For what?”

Virgil shrugged. “Cooking food on the road,” he said, “burning wood, stabbing someone and immediately cauterizing the wound.”

“That is… not a standard use for this potion,” Logan said.

Virgil titled his head at him. “Would it work though?”

“Well, I don’t know,” Logan contemplated. “Perhaps. The potion can cause burns if one uses too much of it or if it is used without an appropriate layer between it and the skin. If one were to pick a knife with enough surface area and let it soak long enough, it could in theory get hot enough to do as desired. Hmm…” he thought about it. “There would perhaps be the problem of the potion not sticking to the knife very long as it is intended to soak into fabric. However, cardamom could solve that issue as long as it doesn’t interact with any other ingredients. Let me see that spell.”

Virgil stepped out of his way so he could study the page. “Yes,” Logan said after scanning through all of the ingredients. “I think cardamom would work for something like that. Let me go find some.”

He turned to walk towards where he kept his supplies of potion ingredients. Virgil followed on his heals.

“Can we use a serrated knife?”

“Oh, that’s a good idea, Virgil,” Logan said, nodding as he searched through the cupboard that should hold the coriander. “The knife being serrated would help keep the potion stuck to the blade after many uses and would increase the surface area.”

“That was certainly my intention,” Virgil said smoothly. There was something odd about the tone that had Logan turning and blinking at him. Virgil just smiled at him innocently and Logan turned back to the cabinet finally locating the cardamom.

“So how are we going to use that?” Virgil asked.

“We’ll put it in right before the last step and let it sit for about 3 minutes,” Logan said. “If it doesn’t quite work, we may need to make another batch. There are options other than cardamom, but that’s the first idea that comes to mind and it’s a lot simpler if it works.”

He continued to speak of the many other options they could try as they returned to the caldron as well as how they could test the hot knife. It was already about time for the next step and Virgil did it without interrupting Logan’s rant.

Virgil listened to his suggestions with interest all while still making sure the potion he was making was progressing well.

Logan did eventually take over to finish the potion with the revised steps he’d come up with and they ended up with a potion that looked perfect except it was a few shades darker than the one they’d originally been planning to make.

“Well, it looks good,” Logan declared. “We will need to acquire a knife to test its effectiveness, however.”

“There are a few good ones in the kitchen,” Virgil pointed out. “I especially like the one 10 inch one with the black and white handle.”

“You have been eyeing up the kitchen knives?” Logan asked.

Virgil rolled his eyes as though that was not a perfectly reasonable question to ask him. “We should steal that one,” Virgil said.

“Do you think we’ll be able to sneak past Ms. Heart to steal a knife from her kitchen?” Logan asked.

“We can’t,” Virgil said. The ‘but I can’ was implied.

Logan almost didn’t believe him… and then he remembered the water pouch incident. “It’s the dinner rush,” Logan said. “We should probably wait for a bit.”

Virgil was shaking his head. “The dinner rush is the best time,” he said. “Everyone will be distracted, and all of the knives will be out and in prime stealing position.”

“And if Patton’s mother catches us messing around in her kitchen during her busiest time of day, she will have Father ground us for a week.”

“Then we just won’t get caught,” Virgil said.

“I’m not sure if it’s that simple,” Logan said with a frown.

“You can stay here if you want,” Virgil offered. “I’ll just go by myself.”

“No, I’ll come too,” Logan relented, though he did still have some reservations about the idea.

He let Virgil lead him towards the main dining hall. By now, Virgil knew the kitchens and dining hall very well.

“Stay here,” he said. They were in a hallway a few feet down from the staff entrance to the main kitchen. “I’m going to do some reconnaissance.”

“What type of reconnaissance?” Logan asked, but Virgil had already vanished before his very eyes. With a blink, Logan looked up and saw a dark figure disappear onto a balcony overhead.

Well, Logan really had no choice but to wait there for him. It wasn’t like he could follow him. He could hear the clatter of silverware on plates from the dining hall down the corridor as he impatiently waited. It only took Virgil a bit over five minutes to return. He dropped suddenly from above and landed in front of Logan in a crouch.

“Well?” Logan asked, letting a bit of irritation into his tone so Virgil knew he was displeased. Virgil did not seem to care.

“Got it,” Virgil said with a wide grin, brandishing a large kitchen knife.

Logan flinched back at the unexpected sight of a weapon.

“You said you were doing reconnaissance!” he sputtered. “Not…” he trailed off remembering that while they weren’t in eyesight of anyone right now, they could be in earshot of someone. He lowered his tone, “stealing the knife already.”

“I was doing reconnaissance,” Virgil said with a shrug, “and then I used the information gathered by that reconnaissance to steal a knife.”

Logan narrowed his eyes at him.

Virgil just smiled. “You would have gotten in my way.”

“I would not have,” Logan insisted.

“How many times has Patton’s mom caught you stealing food from the kitchens in the past?” he asked.

Logan pursed his lips. “That is Patton’s doing,” he said.

“Sure,” Virgil said with an eyeroll. “I’ll have you prove it some other day, but for now,” he twirled the knife around in a way that made Logan cringe even though he did seem to have an expert handle over it. “We have a knife.”

“Right,” Logan agreed with a nod. “We should continue the experiment.”

Virgil stored the knife away… somewhere on his person, and they snuck back to Logan’s rooms.

When Virgil handed over the knife, Logan did have to admit it was a perfect specimen for their project: long and saw-like with a heatproof handle.

Logan carefully set it in a shallow dish and proceeded to pour the potion they’d made onto it. They let it sit for a little under half an hour before carefully pulling it out of the concoction with tongs and letting it airdry. Meanwhile, Virgil suggested they set up a testing area with various old sheets and clothing. They’d even found and decorated an armor stand with an old suit that Logan particularly disliked.

“Well,” Logan said once he’d tapped the handle and had not gotten burned by the potion. “I think we can test it now.” For safety, he made Virgil put on thick heatproof gloves before handing him the knife.

“So how do I make it work?” Virgil asked.

“The original potion works through light friction,” Logan said.

“So just start stabbing things?”

Logan went to respond, but before he could, Virgil had already twisted around and sliced through one of the sheets hanging in Logan’s potion room. There was a sizzling noise as the knife cut through the sheet like it was tissue paper leaving two aflame halves flapping about.

Logan leapt forward to tear the pieces of sheet down and the two of them stomped on the flames to put out the fire.

“It’s perfect,” Virgil said with a grin once the charred remains of the sheet were extinguished.

“It does seem to work as intended,” Logan agreed.

“Let’s do it again,” Virgil said.

“Er, well, perhaps we shouldn’t…,” Logan started, but Virgil had already set his eyes on the armor stand they’d set up. That suddenly seemed like not such a good idea to Logan.

He stabbed the armor stand viciously. It went up in violent flames. Logan’s eyes widened as the blaze only seemed to get bigger as Virgil drew back the knife.

Virgil did not seem to share Logan’s worry as he turned and stabbed another piece of hanging clothing, setting it ablaze as well.

“Virgil, no! You’re going to burn the room down!” Logan yelped.

The armor stand, at that very moment, decided to fall to the ground. They had, perhaps, not set the testing area up as well as they should have because it fell directly onto one of Logan’s rugs and set that on fire as well.

“Oops,” Virgil said, eyes wide.

Above the sound of crackling fire, Logan heard a tapping on the door between his bedroom and work room. It opened slightly after a moment and Logan’s father’s voice called out as he was sticking his head into the room, “Um, what do you mean Virgil… is burning the room down!”

The moment Logan’s father fully processed the presence of the flames, he was bursting into the room. He at least remembered that there was a fire extinguishing powder stocked in Logan’s work room even though that fact had slipped Logan’s mind in the chaos. (Perhaps Logan should have thought to set it out when they were testing a fire knife, but Logan would just add that to his growing list of regrets.)

The king managed to put all of the fires out within 30 seconds of poking his head through the door, but the fire left in his eyes when he turned to look at them afterwards was perhaps more dangerous.

Virgil slowly hid the knife behind his back. It was probably a bit late for that.

“What were the two of you doing in here?” the king asked.

“Nothing,” Logan said. Virgil shot him a look that told Logan what the boy thought about his lying abilities.

Logan’s father put his hands on his hips. “‘Nothing’ set the rug on fire?”

“We may have been doing a small experiment,” Logan said.

“What experiment?” the king asked.

“…I do not wish to say.”

“Logan.”

“Virgil wanted a fire knife.”

“A what?”

Virgil frowned over at Logan. “Your resistance to interrogation techniques is deplorable.”

Father turned to look at Virgil and obviously spotted the fact that Virgil was holding something behind his back.

“Give it here,” Father said, though his tone was a bit gentler with Virgil than it had been with Logan.

Virgil debated it for a moment, but then offered over the knife with a pout on his face. Father gingerly took it and the fire-resistant gloves from him. “Where did the two of you even get this knife?”

“You can’t tell her,” Logan said.

“You stole a knife from the kitchens?!” the king asked.

“We borrowed it,” Logan said.

“Can it be used for cooking anymore?”

“…Well.”

“In the intended manner.”

“No.”

“Then you stole it.”

Logan just frowned and looked away.

“I’m going to go put this in a secure location,” Father said, grimacing at the fire knife in his hands. “No more experiments for you two for a month. I’ll sic Patton on you.”

With that, he picked up what was left of the fire extinguishing powder (just in case) and turned to exit the room.

“Well,” Logan said once he was gone. “That was irresponsible.”

“I could steal it back from him.”

“N-no don’t do that.”

“I definitely could though,” Virgil said.

“I did not hear you say that,” Logan said, putting his hands over his ears. “I am not responsible for any more of your actions in this matter. I am going to the library.”

He walked out of the room then and Virgil followed him to the upstairs library. He said nothing more about the fire knife, but Logan would be a fool to suppose he forgot about it.

Chapter 56 (Thomas)

“Good day for a picnic,” Helen commented as she handed over the basket Thomas had requested from her a few days before. He was taking Logan, Patton, and Virgil to the cliffs today and it was perfect weather for it. Spring was truly here, which meant that those of Thomas’s duties that had laid dormant over the harsh winter were about to start up again.

The world had been on pause for a bit considering no armies or agents from any kingdom could get through the snow the last few months, but the concerns of last fall were showing their heads once again.

Thomas had just gotten word a day ago that the queen of Lamir had routed out a second assassin hiding in her ranks over the winter. The assassin had been sent shortly after it was made clear that the queen wouldn’t bow down after the assassination of her mother. Luckily, the assassin sent for Queen Cecil had not managed to complete her mission during the winter months.

While there had been no similar attempt on Prijaznia soil, Thomas couldn’t help but feel it was only a matter of time now that the snow had melted. They were already working on increasing security in the coming weeks and, though it was doubtful an assassin had managed to hide in the castle all winter without revealing themselves, they’d be closely scrutinizing all of the newer staff members.

It would be a stressful time in the coming months, which is why, despite everything Thomas needed to do, he was still going to take his son and his son’s friends on a picnic today. Logan had already started taking on royal duties as of late, but he still hadn’t taken them all on quite yet. Considering this was last summer before Logan was of age, they should at least try to take advantage of it where they could. Patton was a year younger, but the sentiment held for him as well.

Then there was Virgil. Despite their best efforts, they still didn’t know enough about Virgil, but Thomas was fairly sure he’d never had a summer to enjoy until now.

“Thanks for prepping lunch for us,” Thomas said to Helen with a smile.

“No problem,” she said waving them off. “I put in some of Virgil’s favorites.”

“Great,” Thomas said. “Do you know where the kids are?”

“Patton said they were going to go pet the cats, so I’d guess they’re in the gardens.”

Thomas thanked her again and told her to have a good day before exiting the kitchen. There was a nearby door that led straight towards the part of the gardens Patton and Logan had always favored. He figured they’d either still be around there or they would have wandered towards the stables by now knowing that they’d be taking horses to the cliffs.

So, he decided to simply walk the normal path from the door to the stable, hoping to find them.

His prediction ended up being hilariously correct. They were indeed on the path Thomas had chosen. It was clear they (or at least Logan) were attempting to make it to the stable. However, as was typical, a portion of the party had been waylaid by whimsy.

Logan was standing further down the path, arms crossed and frowning as he watched his friends. Patton and Virgil were surrounded by cats. Patton was sitting down, holding two of them in his lap and watching Virgil’s legs being swarmed by the rest of them, maybe two dozen in total.

Virgil looked confused, but not unhappy about the presence of so many cats. He was leaning down to try to pet them all.

Logan met Thomas’s eyes as he approached and waved a frustrated hand at the two of them. Logan couldn’t help but smile.

“Virgil fed one of them,” Logan complained as though he wanted Thomas to somehow go into the past and prevent this crime.

Patton and Virgil looked over at Thomas, noticing him when Logan addressed him.

“You’re going to make Princess Marisol jealous,” Thomas said. Logan frowned at Thomas as he used the ‘Princess’ label for the cat.

“Princess Marisol decided not to come,” Virgil said with a shrug. He continued to pet one of the cats.

“She’s probably sleeping on my pillow,” Logan said, sounding grumpy.

Thomas just chuckled. Princess Marisol was technically Logan’s cat, at least that’s what the kids said, and she did spend much of her time in the royal rooms. However, she was very clearly actually Virgil’s cat. Virgil just spent a lot of time in the royal wing as well.

In fact, Thomas still didn’t know where Virgil was supposed to be sleeping. He and Mr. Deknis had actually tried to tail him a couple of times, but he always ended up sleeping in Logan’s room those nights.

Knowing Virgil, he might just sleep in the walls. Though that still did not answer the question of where his parents or guardians were. They still had not figured it out. Thomas would assume he was an orphan who’d snuck onto castle grounds for safety, but Virgil had told Mr. Deknis during their first meeting that he was supposed to be in the castle, and it had not been a lie.

Then again, it had slowly become apparent that Virgil was good at dodging the multrum’s powers. It was starting to seem more likely that he’d somehow inserted a second meaning into his answer to Mr. Deknis that night than he somehow had some ghost guardian no one was able to locate working in the castle.

“She deserves the pillow more than you,” Virgil said, bringing Thomas’s thoughts back to the situation at hand. The look of audacity on Logan’s face made Thomas chuckle.

Thomas cut in before it could become a fight. “I could get Princess Marisol a pillow, so she doesn’t sleep on yours. Or we can get you a new pillow if you’d prefer, Logan.”

“It’s not about the pillow for her,” Logan argued. “It’s about her inflated sense of superiority.”

“She deserves it,” Virgil declared. Thomas could tell he was just trying to rile Logan up, and Thomas was sure Logan knew it too, but still his son reacted exactly in the way Virgil wanted him to.

“You have enabled and encouraged this behavior from the start!” Logan seethed.

“She’s a Princess.”

“She is not a princess!”

Patton shook his head while squeezing the cats in his arms, completely used to this behavior at this point. He ran a chin idly over one of the cat’s heads while watching the argument.

“We’re never going to make it to the picnic at this rate,” Thomas said to him, “and after your mother made all of this wonderful food.”

“You’re the dad,” Patton said. “Make them stop.”

And, of course, Patton did just mean that he was Logan’s dad with that statement. However, when he glanced back up at the silly argument still going on between his son and the cat covered boy on the ground, it did almost look like a fight between siblings.

Especially with the dark hair and stubborn but mischievous look in Virgil’s eyes, Thomas could almost imagine the boy being his own child.

He shook away the thoughts and glanced at the picnic basket in his hand.

“We do have a lot of food in this basket,” Thomas said, pitching his voice up so that Logan (and more importantly) Virgil would hear them clearly.

Virgil immediately turned to look at him, abandoning all interest in antagonizing Logan to look at the basket curiously.

Thomas was never sure if he should be amused or worried about how food motivated Virgil often was.

“What’s in the basket?” Virgil asked.

“I’m not sure,” Thomas said. “Patton’s mom made it. We’ll just have to see once we get to the picnic area.”

Virgil nodded in understanding and began to gently scoot all of the cats out of his lap. Logan rolled his eyes, but didn’t seem inclined to continue the argument he’d been dragged into. Virgil and Patton got to their feet and they continued on their way towards the stables.

The horses Thomas had requested be prepared for their trip were already in saddles, though the stable hand who had been handling Mr. Apples seemed a bit dirtier and more exhausted than the rest.

The stable hand seemed as happy to hand Mr. Apples over to Virgil as Virgil was to have Mr. Apples handed over to him. Thomas received Bella with a smile and Logan and Patton got their own horses as well.

The Cliffs were about half an hour's ride from the main castle. There was a mostly well-maintained path to it, though it was easy to get lost if one didn’t know the way. Mr. Apples knew the way perhaps better than Thomas himself and seemed annoyed by the fact that Thomas was trying to lead the way.

Virgil and Thomas ended up side-by-side whenever the path allowed it to placate him.

He still marveled at how willing Mr. Apples was to let Virgil ride him, especially when he tossed his head in Thomas’s direction, a horse’s equivalent of giving Thomas a stink-eye.

“Are you excited for the picnic?” Thomas asked the boy beside him.

Virgil glanced over at him and nodded.

“I am too,” Thomas said. “It’s always beautiful this time of year. I’m glad I could find the time to take you all there this year.”

“Are you very busy?” Virgil asked curiously.

“I am king,” Thomas reminded, “and now that the world isn’t snowed in anymore things will be busy.”

“With the war?” Virgil asked.

Thomas paused for a few seconds. “Yes,” he confirmed. “With the war, but you don’t need to worry about that.”

“Why shouldn’t I?” Virgil asked.

“You’re just a kid,” Thomas said.

“I’m 14,” Virgil said.

Thomas glanced at him. “Exactly,” he said, “a kid, and luckily, you’re in a place that can afford you the luxury of being one.”

“What do you mean?”

“The war has been mainly fought on Mocnejsi soil in recent years. Our boarders have held strong against invasions. Unless something goes horribly wrong suddenly, it would take a long time for the main conflict to get here. The only real threat in the castle would be assassins sent after me personally.”

“Right,” Virgil said. There was an awkward pause in conversation before he spoke again. “You’re winning the war then?” he asked.

“Something could always happen,” Thomas said, “but for the most part, yes, we have quite the advantage right now.”

“Oh,” Virgil said.

Thomas shook his head as they were coming up to a narrowing of the path. “Anyway, today is a day to not think about war. Today we’re going to have a lovely picnic and do some bird watching.”

“Right,” Virgil agreed from behind Thomas as Bella took the lead (to Mr. Apples discontent.)

When the path widened again, Thomas did his best to direct the topic to lighter subjects and soon they made it to The Cliffs.

Chapter 57 (Virgil)

Virgil had never been to a picnic. At least, that’s what Patton had informed him when Virgil had described his past experiences of eating outdoors. Logan had agreed even though he’d admitted that the definition of “picnic” was only eating a pre-packaged meal outdoors which Virgil had done plenty of times.

From what Virgil could tell, the main difference was just how much stuff one brought to a picnic.

In addition to the basket full of food (that Virgil still hadn’t gotten to look in yet), the king had brought a large soft quilt that he had Logan and Virgil spread out on the ground for them all to sit on.

Patton and Logan had also packed some things themselves to bring along. Logan had brought along a book to read, and Patton had brought along a board game (thankfully not checkers but something Virgil did not recognize). Virgil hadn’t brought anything (except for the fire knife he was definitely not supposed to have and was definitely not letting the king see) because he hadn’t known he was supposed to bring things. He wouldn’t have known what to bring anyway.

The blanket was soft and a much better alternative to sitting on the ground, especially because, while there was grass at the top of The Cliffs, there were also a good number of rocks.

The king set the picnic basket in the middle of the blanket once it was spread out and then lowered himself down to sit on one side. Patton quickly followed him, already fiddling with some of his board game pieces, though he wasn’t setting it up yet. Virgil highly doubted that Logan was going to be allowed to read his book unless Patton eventually got bored of the game.

However, they would, hopefully, be allowed to make use of the basket the king had brought along.

Virgil followed the king and Patton’s lead and got to his knees on the blanket across the picnic basket from the king. He peered at the basket curiously.

He didn’t quite know what picnic food was, but Patton had told them they’d be getting ‘picnic food’ and he was very curious about what that meant.

King Thomas smiled at him. “Let’s see what Patton’s mom packed us, huh?” He reached for the basket and flipped it open as Logan sat next to Virgil. “There is a lot more food than usual in here,” the king said, sounding amused. “Let’s see.”

He began to pull out packaged food and glanced in each package to identify it before setting it out.

“We have a few types of mini sandwiches,” he said, putting them down, “and some pasta salad.” He set down the bowl.

“We also have… er something else.” He showed it to Logan.

“They’re hot cauliflower bites,” Logan said instantly upon seeing them. Virgil perked up in excitement. That was one of his favorite foods.

“Ah,” King Thomas said, but shrugged and set it down. “We also have two desserts apparently: cookies and mini apple pies. That last one’s a bit extra for a picnic.”

“They’re very good,” Virgil said happily.

“And we also have.” King Thomas paused, looking confused. “Chicken alfredo?”

“Yes!” Virgil said.

“Why do we have chicken alfredo for a picnic?”

“It’s a Virgil picnic,” Logan groaned. “She packed us a Virgil picnic.”

“Hey, at least momma sent us something too,” Patton said.

“I think I’ll stick to sandwiches for today,” King Thomas said. He looked at Patton and Logan. “Do either of you want…?”

“No,” Logan said. Patton shook his head.

The king nodded and offered the entire covered bowl of chicken alfredo to Virgil. “Here, this one’s yours,” he said.

“Really?” Virgil asked tentatively. It wasn’t exactly strange for people here to offer him food, and he’d expected and anticipated getting to eat on this venture, but the king of the country offering him an entire bowl of his favorite food was something else.

“It’s not really my idea of a picnic food and you seem excited for it,” King Thomas said with a warm smile, still holding it out.

Virgil took it reverently. Despite the time it had taken to get to the cliffs, the bottom of the container was still warm. Virgil assumed it was one of the heating spells the kitchen sometimes used.

“Thanks,” Virgil said, setting it in his lap.

“Of course, Virgil,” the king said.

The bowl was enough for four people to have a little bit, but for one person it was a lot. Still, Virgil was offered a little of every other food in the picnic basket (and he ate a good number of the hot cauliflower bites).

“Where do you put all of that?” the king asked when Virgil finished polishing off the chicken alfredo bowl.

Everyone else seemed to have finished eating long before Virgil, though Patton still had a small plate of grapes, and he occasionally popped one in his mouth. King Thomas was currently setting up the board game they’d brought on the blanket between all of them.

Virgil shrugged in answer to his question. “It’s good,” he said, “and I don’t want to waste any of it.”

“You know we can just take the leftovers back to the castle and eat them later,” King Thomas said. “You don’t have to eat it all now.”

Virgil just shrugged again, watching as the king set out a group of 8 figures on the board.

“Here, which character do you want to be?” the king asked Virgil, gesturing at the group of figures. Virgil had not noticed the figures were different at first glance. They were all copper colored and about the size of his thumb, but they had slightly different shapes. He squinted at them each carefully, finding they all looked like people, but with different clothing. Some worse pants and some skirts, a few had hats, and one was even carrying a book.

After a few moments, he pointed at one that looked like it had vines wrapped around its arms and was wearing a floppy hat that almost covered its eyes.

“That’s the druid,” King Thomas told him with a grin. “Good choice, and luckily not one that anyone usually fights over.” He glanced at Logan who didn’t react to his father’s gaze. He just plucked the figure clutching the book off the board for himself.

Patton and the king picked pieces for themselves. Patton picked one with an apron that kind of reminded Virgil of his mom and the king picked one that was in a suit of armor before putting the other 4 figures away.

Unlike checkers, this game wasn’t just for two people, and so no one had to sit watching people play while bored out of their mind.

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They played a practice round so Virgil could figure out how the game worked, though honestly it wasn’t that complicated, so it wasn’t really necessary.

The theme of the game was all about stealing. They were supposed to steal special tokens from other players as well as characters in the game and the first person with 20 tokens won.

The other three players argued that stealing was not the point and not the main mechanism of the game, but considering Virgil was consistently winning the entire time, he would argue they were just playing it wrong. He managed to collect 20 tokens before anyone else. In second place at this time was Logan with 9 tokens.

Logan insisted on continuing to play the game to determine 2nd and 3rd place, so Virgil ended up watching them play for a bit. Virgil didn’t mind sitting and watching other people play this game, mostly because he still had the joy of victory running in his veins.

Thomas was definitely going to lose, he noted. He kept wasting his money feeding the nonplayer characters who lived on his lands. Virgil didn’t mention this faulty strategy to him in case Virgil ever played him again.

When Logan took too long thinking about his next move, Virgil took in their surroundings.

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He’d been a bit too distracted by the prospect of food and then trying to understand (and then win) the game to truly take in The Cliffs. They were settled a good distance away from the cliffside but Virgil could still see how quickly the edge dropped off. He couldn’t see the large river he was told was at its base from where he was sitting, but he did see a few of the promised wild birds (including doves) flying around. The king had promised they’d bird watch for a bit, and Virgil figured that would happen after the game was over.

A cool spring breeze brushed across Virgil’s face, and he put his hand in his hoodie pockets to warm them. Instead, his fingers hit something icy cold.

For a moment, he didn’t remember what it was. The crescent shape of it was familiar when he put his hand over it, but he had never felt it cold before.

It was the protection charm: the first charm Virgil had ever made with Logan so many months ago. It was meant to ward off small threats as well as warn you about larger threats by changing temperature…

It had always been warm.

“What?” Patton asked, having noticed Virgil suddenly tense. Virgil, despite how he drilled into his friend’s heads to stay alert had gone soft. He’d let himself be distracted by a full belly and warm blankets and fun games.

He didn’t answer Patton. He filtered the other boy’s worried face out as well as Logan’s face as he glanced at him and the king’s still focused on the game for now. He filtered out the picnic blanket and smell of food still lingering in the air and the vine covered figure set in the middle of the board on the winner’s space. He filtered out the sound of the breeze and the breath of his companions and the distant chirping of birds.

And he heard a whoosh.

[cressthebest]

Art Heist, Baby! thoughts pt. 14

we’re nearing the end yall and i’m getting HELLA nervous. five chapters left. and reg is gonna die. i’m not ready

chapter 34:

1. the mulciber swap went perfect. still nervous though

2. the heist is almost over. and they’re all splitting up to go places. i don’t think i can handle this

3. god, it’s the lucius swap. i don’t think it’s gonna go well. i’m so worried

4. “Regulus cleared his throat. “I just want to say that it had been a privilege and an honour to conduct this heist with all of you. Each of you are brilliant individuals and I couldn’t have asked for a better team.”” sobbing so badly rn. horrifically sobbing. oh my god. the death must be this chapter. it feels all like a final goodbye, and it probably is for reg

5. reg wants to fix his relationship with sirius over a hundred cups of coffee. that sounds so nice

6. reg is looking forward to attending sirius and remus’ wedding! and he’s surprised that sirius wants him there. this. this all feels so foreboding

7. god. they’re face to face with tom riddle. this isn’t gonna end well. i can feel it

8. it was a set up. all reg gets to say is “james run” and then there’s bullets. i almost don’t want to read the rest of the chapter. i don’t even think i’m gonna cry. just quiet resignation. i will be fine. i fucking called it last post tho, saying it would be tom riddles fault.

9. oh gosh. reg is dying right there on the floor, blood pooling in his lungs and he’s telling james not to be scared

10. i was a fool. of course i’m sobbing. i sent my freind a two minute long voice recording while sobbing about how sad i was over the death. they can confirm, though i’m not asking them to

11. reg gives james his ring. oh fuck

12. dying by tom riddles’ hands. drowning in his own blood. of course he dies by drowning

13. on another note, i’m sure that james’ gun kink is very much gone

14. “It wasn’t the amount of blood that had accumulated all over the floor that convinced James that Regulus was dead.

Or the fact that Regulus had stopped the gurgling and wheezing noises several minutes ago as he drifted into cruel stillness.

It wasn’t Barty’s tear stained and blood splattered face. Or Evan’s desperate attempts to shake Regulus awake. It wasn’t even Peter’s sorrowful look upon checking for a pulse. Or his frantic attempts to do CPR anyway.

It was Sirius’ agonised wails as he pleaded and called out to a God he never believed in to spare his brother. To bring him back. “I just got him back,” Sirius screamed. “I just got him back. Please. Don’t do this. Please bring him back. I just got him back.””

this fucking fic i swear to god

15. everyone else is dead, thanks to evan and barty. for once, i agree with their unhinged. it was a slaughter of men on the other side, and i am glad. they are dead, and they don’t even deserve it. they deserve a life of torture for what they did. thank fucking god they’re dead tho. it makes me rest easy

they were supposed to get a house with green or red shutters and get married and travel the world and make tea and orange muffins and snog in art museums and visit their freinds and be happy and in love and never live a mundane life cause they’re rich and together. but NO. it has to all get ruined

im not okay, thank you for asking. i will never be okay, thank you for asking. i never want to be okay again, stop asking.

[kisses-from-crows]

Crossed Wires - Campbell Bain - Ch. 5

Pairing: Radio Host!Campbell Bain/Popstar!femReader

Summary: After the media fiasco from the day before, Campbell just wants to go to work and forget about it. But nothing is ever that easy.

Genre: enemies to lovers, slow burn, modern au, reader insert, forced proximity, misunderstandings, fluff, hurt/comfort

Word Count: 2,882

Warnings: Swearing, Daddy Issues

Chapter 5: Digging a hole

Beginning | Previous | Next

E!: Do we hear wedding bells? Rodger Del Ray Jr., future CEO of DreamLight Records, has announced his engagement to actress-turned-singer Penelope Taylor after a year of dating. Congratulations to the happy couple!

Posted: 2 weeks ago

Sunlight streamed through Campbell Bain’s bedroom window, spraying little rainbows across the wall as it got caught in the prism hanging from his window. It had been a gift sent to him by Rosalie about two Christmases ago. The light shining in his eyes gently forced him awake. He yawned and stretched out his unusually sore body. He rolled over and buried his face into the pillow.

Similar shuffling noises came from the unusually warm phone that sat unplugged beside him. He blinked a few times to clear the blurriness from his eyes. After a few failed attempts at reading, he finally made out the words on the screen:

ITS THE DEVIL’S HENCHMAN; DINNAE ANSWER IT

Time Elapsed – 10 Hours 34 Minutes 25 Seconds

Campbell stared at his own confused reflection in his phone screen for several long seconds as his sleep-addled brain struggled to catch up with reality. In that time, Y/N groaned tiredly on the other end. Y/N… Phone… Morning? What was that? Ah, it was reality, right on time to smack him upside the head with a steel chair.

He never hung up last night. She never hung up last night. They never… well you get the point. He shot out of bed instantly, as though a fire had been lit underneath him, scrambling away from the phone like it was a ticking time bomb.

Campbell paced anxiously around his bed, floorboards squeaking beneath him as he planned his next move. Maybe he could just hang up the phone and she would never realize how long the call was. Who checks their call logs anyway? But, what if the sound of him ending the call woke her up? And then she would know. Even worse than that, she would know that he knew. And then the world would end, obviously.

The sounds of Campbell’s stomach growling drowned out the irrational argument he was having alone in his head. Maybe, just maybe, he wasn’t exactly thinking straight. With a deep breath and a clenched fist, he ended the call. He waited with bated breath, staring at the black screen sitting ominously on the bed.

When a large cartoon anvil didn’t drop from the sky and crush him through the floor, he figured he was safe. Hopefully, she wouldn’t notice, and they could go on as if nothing had happened. Well, nothing had happened really. They just fell asleep on a call, that’s all. It doesn’t mean anything. They had a long day and accidentally fell asleep. On the phone. Together.

There was a distinct thud beneath him. Likely his downstairs neighbor hitting the ceiling with her broom, not so subtly telling him to stop pacing. This was a common occurrence.

It was a completely innocuous thing, falling asleep on the phone like that. But Campbell couldn’t quite shake the odd feeling in his stomach… probably just indigestion. Right, that made the most sense. Never mind the fact that it was the best night's sleep he’d had in months. He bent down to the floor and knocked twice to acknowledge his neighbor’s complaint. Sore legs carried him unwillingly to the kitchen for some slightly burnt toast and coffee.

Eddie always said Campbell drinking coffee was like giving cocaine to a toddler. Which Campbell found amusing if not slightly insulting. But a cup of coffee in the morning was obligatory now. He had developed the habit during his first year in New York. Back when he had his very first show in the States. It was a show he co-hosted in a small station, filling in the 2 a.m. to 5 a.m. time slot. Just a throwaway assignment designed to fill the dead air, but to Campbell that show meant everything. It meant he had finally made it. It meant that of all the time and energy he had poured into the radio station back at St. Jude’s was worth the heartache. Hell, it even meant his father was wrong about him.

Campbell wondered if his dad knew just how successful he had become. Or if Campbell’s name had become as unspeakable in that house as his bipolar disorder. Or his ‘condition’ as they called it. The moment he announced his plan to move to the State, his father decided he was on his own.

“Don’t come crying to me and yer ma when this daft scheme of yers goes up in flames.” had been his father’s exact words if he remembered correctly. And he did. The words had seared themselves to the inside of his skull. The point of no return.

To say Campbell had missed his father would be a lie. But that didn’t stop him from wishing things could be different. To hear from his father that Campbell knew what he was doing all along. That he was proud of him. Campbell knew it was a dream, something akin to wishing on stars. He was never going to get that satisfaction, but it didn’t matter. He’d made his own family, made his own way in the world. Sometimes blood was simply that… blood.

It had been far too long since he’d called Eddie McKenna. Campbell made a mental note to give him a call soon. He filled it away in his brain along with all the other things he was likely to forget.

He munched on his lightly blackened and over buttered toast, grabbing his phone to scroll absentmindedly until it was time for work. The hope had been that the mindless serotonin machine that was social media would distract him from the fiasco with Y/N yesterday and the phone call incident this morning. Instead, he was confronted with an onslaught of tabloids speculating on the nature of their relationship and discovered that he had become a meme.

The picture of a rather panicked Campbell peering over the side of a building had caught the interest of many young people with big imaginations. Who had started photoshopping Campbell into random places: teacups, airplanes, space, peeking over the edge of the trenches in a World War I photograph. You name it, he was there. “Campbell Bain in places he shouldn’t be.” They called it.

While seeing himself plastered across time and space was a particular type of disturbing, he had to admit, some of them were pretty funny. Someone had quite alarmingly edited him into a guillotine. ‘Y/N would like this one.’ The thought passed as quickly as it came, slipped right through the grasp of his consciousness like a leaf in the wind.

Campbell finished up his breakfast and got dressed for work. Over the last 2-3 years, he had worked hard to secure the prime-time spot for the station. From 2pm to 6pm every weekday, Campbell Bain had his own radio show. Comforting the huddled masses stuck in rush hour traffic.

In a flash, he was out the door, bundled up in a comfortable hoodie with his chunky headphones covering his ears. Music blasting, he made his way to the subway. A part of him missed the simplicity of the old Glasgow railway but there was just something about the hustle of New York that agreed with him. At least, that’s what he would’ve said three years ago. These days, it was beginning to wear on him.

Campbell Bain had become a household name years ago. Around the time Y/N and Campbell had their fourth interview together. That had been the most vicious of them all, not counting their very last interview before Y/N’s disappearance. He could picture the second it all went to hell like it was yesterday.

He had delivered some jab about her lyrics being generic and expected. The moment the mood shifted from school-yard taunts to an all-out war was palpable. Y/N cocked her head to the side and narrowed her eyes. Under her piercing gaze, Campbell had never felt so exposed. Her eyes scanning his being as if assessing his greatest weaknesses like the Terminator. Before she even opened her mouth, he knew he was going to regret whatever it was that he just said. With a wicked grin, she delivered a blow that hit him right between the gaps in his armor, and he just lost it. That night when he went home, he stared at his ceiling without blinking. The harsh conversation playing over and over in his head. It wasn’t the first time in those seven years that Campbell couldn’t recognize himself. Nor was it wasn’t the last.

Lost in the flow of the music and his own mind, Campbell nearly missed his stop. He squeezed past tourists and commuters alike, against the human current flooding into the overcrowded subway car. As he stepped onto the busy sidewalk above ground, he marveled at the skyscrapers towering above him. Only a few short years ago, all these buildings felt so much taller. Stone giants, so shiny and full of promise. Now they just felt like walls closing in on him.

Campbell pushed his way through the revolving doors of the radio station. The interior had changed a lot since DreamLight Records had bought the station, just a year after Campbell had signed a contract with them. Nearly eight years ago now. It wasn’t so bad at first, working for them. But slowly over time, things got more and more strict. All these different rules about dress code and what music they could play. He didn’t care much for being told what to do. So, he made himself utterly indispensable, the biggest name to grace what was once a small station. Now he could pretty much do anything he wanted. Well, almost anything.

Campbell got settled in his cushy leather chair with his mug of coffee and looked over the available catalog for the day. It was a list of artists all signed under DreamLight Records. Around year three, DreamLight’s CEO, Rodger Del Ray Sr., announced that the station could only play music written, produced, owned, or approved by the DreamLight Record label. They claimed it was to “promote their brand”. Campbell thought it was a load of shite, but they signed his paychecks, so he kept quiet… mostly. Well, quiet for him at least.

He took a long swig from his Bugs Bunny mug as he picked out a few of his favorites to start out the day, deciding to sort through the rest as he went along. Campbell worked best in a flow state, planning it all out just wasn’t his style. The tech guys outside the sound booth held up five fingers. Five seconds until he was live. He cleared his throat and chugged some water, best to keep the instrument clear.

5… 4... 3… 2… 1. “HELLLLLOOOOOO AND WELCOMEEEEE. If yae are just tuning in, yae are right on time for the Loony Tunes show with Campbell Bain. I am your designated loony for this afternoon, Campbell Bain.” He fell into the character like a second skin. It was a part of him. At least it had been, once upon a time. Now it just felt like a costume. The grandiose announcer thriving off the undivided attention of the general public.

Campbell played his first few queued up songs and began wracking his brain over what to play next. Deft fingers flitted over the song choices till they came to a pause at a familiar name. F/N L/N… it was a track from her third album. As much as he loathed to admit it, he actually quite liked this particular tune. Something about the way the drum kicks and cymbal sizzles emphasized the emotion in her voice made his chest go tight. He used to listen to it alone in his room and think about his father. All the rage he felt, all the disappointment, the yearning he had for his father’s approval even to this day. But that was a secret he planned to take to the grave. And when he met Fergus wherever he was going, his lips would remain sealed.

He queued up the song before his brain even recognized what his hands were doing. Campbell’s eyes widened as he watched the track go into the lineup of songs. He scrambled to fix his mistake, mouse clicking furiously. But it was too late. With nothing else to play, the channel began broadcasting a 4-year-old deep cut from Y/N’s third album. Campbell swore silently and slid dramatically from his chair onto the floor. This was not good.

Of all the ridiculously dumb things he could’ve done, this had to be one of the stupidest. If the media frenzy over their near escape yesterday had been bonfire, Campbell had just thrown gallon of gasoline on it. Plus a few fireworks for good measure.

As Campbell laid curled up under his desk, the beginning chords of the song floated through the air. He felt sick to his stomach. This was disaster. Even worse, it was downright embarrassing, he had a certain reputation to uphold after all. Maybe if he just hid down here for a while, his slip of a finger and the consequences that would soon follow might just disappear. His phone buzzed in his pocket, it’s from the tech crew. The message read: ???.

Campbell crawled out from under the desk, limbs getting tangled in the wires of the headphones. After nearly faceplanting in the well-worn carpet he managed to right himself on top of his chair with all the grace of a newborn giraffe. An awkward thumbs up to the guys on the mixer and he pretended to go on as usual. As if nothing had happened.

The song picked up around the second chorus bringing in loud baselines and a few subtle strings over top of it. The build of the instrumentals matched the intensity of her vocals as she sang about feeling alone in a crowded room and being desperate for the approval of those who could never see her. The lyrics were vague enough to be widely relatable but still cut deep. In a few measures, Campbell’s favorite part of the song was coming. The music reached a fever pitch before ending abruptly as if the entire band ceased to exist when they were giving it their all just moments before. The end left the listener feeling like they had the rug ripped out from under them. It suited the tone of the song so well.

So, maybe Campbell liked this song a little. His head bobbed to the beat of its own accord. Okay, more than a little. But after 6 studio albums she was bound to create one song he liked. Even a broken clock was right twice a day.

Campbell let the music fade out and hoped the mistake would pass without acknowledgement from the press. As 4 o’clock rolled around, it was time for requests. Loony Tunes had an hour-long segment where listeners could compete to request a song.

With every call and every right answer, Campbell was bombarded with question after question about Y/N. What were they doing together yesterday? Is she releasing a new album? Are you guys dating? Why did you play a Y/N song? Is that a secret message? Why were you two on a roof?

Mind you, Campbell Bain can bullshit with the best of them. Lie his way out of a hole in the ground. But at this moment, he had no explanation. Not one single line concocted to get him out of this mess. Because the truth was, he didn’t know the answers either. Questions swirled around his head; he was more confused now than he was before. It seemed his meeting with Y/N had only brought more questions. It had also unfortunately chucked him like a rag doll straight into the rumor mill.

Another buzz emitted from his phone from a contact labelled: Boss Baby. Oh god, it was Rodger Del Ray Jr., Y/N’s former fiancé. The text cryptically read: “You’re dead, Bain.”

Well, that much was clear already. Anxiety boiled over in the pit of his stomach and wrapped a hand around his throat. He had to find a way out of this. Maybe he should reach out and tell Y/N the interview was off. He wanted no part of whatever mess he’d found himself in. But even as he tried to convince himself that it wasn’t too late to walk away, curiosity gnawed at him like a dog with a bone.

As the last half an hour of the show rolled around, Campbell decided to take matters into his own hands. He pulled his phone out of the back pocket of his jeans. It was full of notifications, endless links to new articles claiming to have the inside scoop on Y/N’s new Scottish beau. The memory of waking up next to her on the phone flooded his overactive mind as he pulled up her contact. Passively, he wondered if he should change her name in his phone. He typed up and deleted ten different messages before settling on:

“We need to talk.”

A breath later, a buzz.

“I couldn’t agree more.”

_________________________________________________

Next Chapter

A/N: sorry this is more of a filler this week, everybody at work got sick so i was working a lot more than i expected. i promise next week we’ll get some good drama in there. also i don’t know why it didn’t occur to me when i wanted to write a popstar!au that eventually i would have to make up fake music. don’t worry i’m not gonna try to write a song that would be a disaster. just gonna stick to describing the vibe lol. - Ducky

[drawsdenfiles]

Isn’t Trump in the Epstein files approx. 70 times? Also didn’t he pay off that woman with money from his own business? How can you trust a man like that to run a country?

This is a really, really long one you guys. I'm trying to seriously address all these points anon's making, because I think they're really good ones... but that being said, this post is really freaking long.

Seriously, before reading it, you should just scroll to see how far it goes. Maybe not the longest post ever on tumblr, for sure, but wow. I surprised myself. Maybe get a snack before you start reading.

Warning: I will be discussing the Epstein case as well as the hush money trials, so if there are aspects about those two things that disturb you, I'd suggest maybe skipping this one until you feel you're ready.

Okay, here we go.

Isn't Trump in the Epstein files approx. 70 times?

So, okay, I unfortunately don't know too much about the Epstein stuff, only because I started really paying attention to things back in 2023(after October), and the big, big Epstein stuff came out sometime in... 2019? Maybe 2018? How disgusting is all of that, by the way, how freaking sick.

For the first time, I started really looking into this Epstein thing because you brought it up(thank you for that), and I found an interesting article on The Washington Post that was published... Wow, July 11th! From the time of me answering this question, that's literally just 4 days ago.

I also took a minute to look up whether the Washington Post tends to lean left or right(you should do this with every news source you look at), and it appears they tend to lean left. Also, it appears their fact checkers tend to lean left as well, so that's something to keep in mind. I didn't know fact checkers were allowed to lean on either side, but apparently that's a thing. Ew.

So, that being said, the fact that the Washington Post tends to lean left should make this article all the more fascinating to you. They seem to lean one way and yet, here's some passages straight out of the article that actually defend against the alleged connections between Trump and Epstein:

... But Donald Trump’s name never appears anywhere in the transcripts. That hasn’t stopped Democrats — perhaps seeking to distract from President Biden’s travails — from suggesting on social media that there’s a disturbing connection between the former president and a sex predator. Some social media posts have claimed that Trump was mentioned in a draft indictment released last week, but that’s false. Only 2006 grand jury testimony was released."

... Trump has acknowledged that he and Epstein were in the same Palm Beach social circle decades ago. But their relations appeared to have ended by the time Epstein’s legal troubles began.

...the relationship soured in 2004 after the two men battled over acquiring a choice Palm Beach property, an oceanfront mansion called Maison de l’Amitie. Trump won the auction, and phone records — the call logs Lieu referenced — indicate that the two men did not communicate after that. Two weeks after the auction, Palm Beach police received a tip that young women were seen coming and going from Epstein’s home — which led to the grand jury investigation.

It just goes on and on and I think this article addresses a lot of the questions/concerns you might have about the alleged link between Trump and Epstein. Here's the article. I think it's a pretty solid read... Again, I'm skeptical of everything I read, but I liked that this source apparently leans left, and yet says Trump isn't the guy people on tumblr/twitter/instagram seem to say he is.

Also, didn't he pay off the woman with money from his own business?

Okay, so you're bringing up the hush money trials. That's totally fair, because yes, Trump was found guilty on all 34 counts. Since I already brought up the Washington Post, here's an article from them that talks about all of this stuff- the evidence provided and the other people who were involved. I am... still so new to researching this stuff, but that is a big case and here's how I feel about it:

I just... I don't really care. Is that bad? Sure, fine, but it's the truth. This isn't me blindly following Trump, this is me saying that I find it suspicious that they waited until the election year to prosecute him, and that there are some things he's involved with that I just don't find to be that significant.

It's kind of like how they keep saying "Jan. 6th is as bad as 9/11!" when it really wasn't. Look at the videos, the loss of life, and the international reactions of each event, and tell me without the anon feature on, that Jan. 6th was as bad as 9/11. Anyway, sorry, I got distracted. I just find it icky that they waited until the big election year to prosecute him.

Like okay, he was found guilty, but there's a reason why millions and millions of people still want to vote for him. I mean, doesn't it feel like election interference, or is it really just me? And how many other politicians have icky stuff like this that- if they ever decided to do what Trump's doing- could be used against them to keep them from campaigning?

First there was the Russian collusion thing, then we had this huge federal prosecution thing, and then the debate, and now the assassination attempt... Ugh, say what you want about July 13th, but there's a lot of questions I would like to have answered about that. I mean, it had literally just happened and reaction not only on tumblr, but on the media/news sources we're supposed to trust, was crazy. Just crazy. Not to mention that some things during the assassination attempt... they just don't make sense. Let me know if you want me to talk more about that, but understand that it's all still really, really fresh. I'm just someone asking questions, that's all.

Ugh, sorry. I got distracted again. Anyway, the 34 felonies just aren't that important to me when placed next to all of the crazy stuff we're seeing not only in America, but around the world. If that makes me a bad person, well... meh. I'm just impressed that nothing seems to stop this guy from continuing his campaign, not even a freaking bullet through his freaking ear. Jesus.

How can you trust a man like that to run a country?

I didn't always trust him. Actually, I never really even cared about him, but I trusted the people in my life who supported him and who were upset by the nonsense. Whether it's the people who are close to me irl or the people I've found on youtube since starting down this path after October, I think they're making a lot of sense compared to the the people who... Ugh. God, I don't know if I should get into that right now. I don't want to point fingers unless I'm asked to, so I'll keep this about my feelings for Trump.

I think partly why I trust him to lead the country now, is because I started looking into all the mean stuff almost 100% of the media are saying about him. I started listening to the speeches they were referencing, like the one where Trump said to "Get over it." Has anyone actually listened to that speech? because I personally found it to be really genuine and really sad. I'm having the hardest time in the world trying to locate a link for you to watch that speech, but if you're able to find it- please tell me so that I can include it in this post.

It was a really sad speech. He basically said to the victims of... I'm so sorry, I can't quite remember, but these people are suffering and they lost loved ones in what I'm pretty sure was a shooting... and Trump gives this speech and he tells these victims something along the lines of, "This was a tragic event and you're going to be stuck in this place for a long time. The rest of us have to move on and get over it, so we're going to do that, but we'll still be with you here as we move forward."

It just... It broke my heart. Seriously, if you can find it, tell me. I'd love to link it. It's been so buried by the assassination attempt that I'm having a really hard time looking for it.

Man...

Your question reminds me of the time I took a "Race/Gender Representation in Media" class(I can talk more about that experience if you want, but maybe later) and the teacher spent a lot of time teaching us that not only are we all racist, but we also couldn't trust the media. Did anyone else take these classes and had to write papers on these things? It's been a few years, but I remember having to make a power point about the media.

This one lesson went something along the lines of, "Did you know that all major news media all around the world is owned by six companies???" Which is... uh. Kind of true, if you look into it... and if you were told that and you were disturbed by it, good! Now take a minute and ask yourself why almost 100% of the media seems to be pushing the same thing at every turn, and why it's almost always anti-Trump. Almost. The times when they're kind of nice to Trump are the times when I'm REALLY wondering what's going on behind the scenes, hahaha. Like, uhhhh... You compared him to Hitler a month ago and now you're being nice? Hahaha.

Oh, what's the latest thing they're pushing right now? Project 2025? I swear that's a total red herring and I'm not asking you to believe me, but I am asking you to think about why they're all suddenly talking about it. Why did it first seem to explode on reddit and now, why is it all over the news media and the social media, as well as why is it all these high-ranking government officials seem to be talking about during the insane senate hearings that are going on right now. Seriously, please. If you're going to hate me for supporting Trump, then I'm going to tell you to think about a couple of things here and there.

Oh, by the way, I also happened to take that class on the year Trump was first elected. WOW, what a thing to see. I swear, I really got the feeling that the teacher was encouraging her students to fear for their lives after that. It was a lot like what you're seeing people posting now- "Be careful! Now that Trump survived and is their martyr, the right is going to be meaner than ever!" Fear mongering. The term you're looking for is fear mongering.

It's all just so wild. I'm losing a lot of sleep over all this, but... honestly, I think it's worth it.

Jeez, see? I warned you it was going to be a big post. There's a lot to talk about and I want to talk about it in a way that people can understand. I want to give you these sources that I found and I also want to be as real as I can be. The "I don't care about the 34 felonies" thing can totally be used against me, but... I don't know, I'm over it.

I'd just like the opportunity to vote for a presidential candidate in a fair election this November. That's it. If I have to know literally everything about this guy in order to defend my vote for him to the people who are grieving about the fact that the bullet missed, fine. It is what it is.

If you made it this far, WOW!!!!!!!! Thank you for reading what I had to say about all this stuff! I hope I didn't make too many spelling mistakes, haha. I'm an artist, not a writer!

[shinyhappysims]

Onyeka Family Update #2

All the Oneyka kids are finally married, so I think now is a good time for another update.

As a treat, this update will be from Adaeze’s POV, because we love to hear from a fellow snarker. Long post ahead because I probably won’t be doing this for the Onyeka fam again and I want to give a semblance of a conclusion to some of their stories.

My parents Bre (66) and Chukwuma (69) Onyeka are living their golden years in Henford-on-Bagley. I would say they tried their best at raising us but I’m not so sure I believe that. My parents and I don’t talk much, which is more than okay by me. They’ve forgiven me for the whole “secretly applied to college, snuck out and took a bus an hour away and never came back” thing. It’s the fact that literally everything else I’ve done after feels like a personal attack on them and everything they taught me. That’s more their problem than mine, to be honest.

The oldest Nnadi (39) is married to Miguel (39). They have a staggering quiver of 13 arrows: Gideon (21), Ephraim (19), Shoshanna(17), Bartholomew (14), Abigail (12), Obadiah (10), Keturah (8), Solomon (6), Tirzah (5), Maranatha (4), Galilee (3), Naphtali (1), Ebenezer (0). Yes, I definitely knew all the names of my sister’s kids off the top of my head and didn’t stalk her Simstagram and write down the names just a few minutes before this. Nnadi is obnoxious. I’m not mincing my words because she’s never had the grace to do so with me. She’s literally the person people talk about when they say they don’t like Christians. But that’s amazing for her. She can claim persecution for her beliefs. My parents are so proud that they made her a perfect little doormat for Jesus. All of her kids so far seem to be the same way. Glory be, I guess.

Kelechi (38) and Sandrine (41) are the Pastor and 1st lady of Calvary Baptist Church in Brindleton Bay. They have 4 children: Faith (16), Daniel (9), Noah (7), and Grace (5). They are, in my opinion, true Christians. Kelechi always has been supportive of me and my siblings that aren’t the way my parents dreamed. As a pastor, he tries his hardest to give objective answers and uses the bible to support his advice, which has led to his popularity as a mentor. Calvary’s population has nearly doubled in his time as pastor. Kelechi and Sandrine were not intending to have such a large gap between Faith and Daniel. Their marriage was very strained in the first few years and they thought having another child would be the fix. Unfortunately, Sandrine had a battle with cancer. Luckily it was caught in the early stages and she pulled through, but the way Kelechi treated her during that time strengthened their relationship and they had more children because they actually loved each other now. If anyone deserves that happy ending, it’s them.

My twin and favorite sibling Chidi (36) is in an open domestic partnership with the lovely Sade (37). They live in San Myshuno and have no kids, and probably never will. Chidi is an attorney and Sade is an artist. For awhile, Chidi flew under the radar and didn’t make too many waves but that changed about 5 years ago. I think it was a combination of turning 30 and meeting Sade that made him want to stop trying to appease our parents and just live the way he wanted. Chidi is no longer a Christian. He wanted to stay one at first but the more he deconstructed, the more he realized it wasn’t a fit for him.

It’s me, Adaeze (36)! The Onyeka family failure—not at all. My parents just wish I was. When my husband Raj (38) isn’t being an absolute dreamboat he’s an art restoration specialist at the Simsonian Museum here in Newcrest. We have the coolest little girl named Kali (6) and I haven’t told anyone yet, but we have a second baby on the way! My parents have never met Kali and I don’t plan on letting them. Growing up is hard enough when you don’t have your own grandparents trying to drag you into a cult.

My sister Isioma (34) and her husband Anwar (36) are living their best lives in Del Sol Valley. They have 5 kids and are expecting number 6 anyday now: Imani (11), Aaliyah (9), Malik (8), and twins Layla and Rahim (4). Isioma has somehow mastered the balance between impressing Mom and Dad and doing whatever she wants. As much as I love her, there are just some things that I can’t talk to Isioma about. She’s nowhere near as bad as Nnadi, but I don’t think she realizes just how close minded she still is. She’s slowly getting better though.

(hi it’s kwanjai please ignore that Layla’s hair glitched black and the twin’s diapers aren’t changed it’s been a long day and I refuse to take this pic again lmao)

Jachike (32) lives in Windenburg with his wife Maisie (29). They have 7 children: Renata (9), Beaumont (7), Irving (6), Gwendolyn (5), Cordelia (2), Anneliese (1) and Hans (0). I’m fully convinced that they only got married because they were horny for each other and now they don’t know what to do except keep fucking and having more kids. They don’t really seem well matched in my opinion either. Growing up, Jachike was a down to earth, guy next door type, and Maisie just seems extremely out of touch. I mean… she named a child Hans. Maisie also mentioned she only wanted 8 kids, but she’s got a lot of child bearing years left, so I have no clue what her plan is.

Nnadi Jr. Ifeanyi (29) is married to Nolan (40) and is the proud mother of 6 children: Jordan (8), Lorelai (6), Connor (5), Thomas (4), Alanna (2), and Natasha (0). The only difference between Ifeanyi and Nnadi is that Ifeanyi follows the bible’s command for women to be quiet. All that hate just simmers on the inside. The average person would be rightfully weirded out by her and her husband’s age gap, but Ifeanyi wears it with pride. She thinks it’s a testament to her maturity and meekness. No, bestie… you were groomed. Anyways, my money is on her to have the most kids out of all of us.

Ifeanyi’s much cooler twin sister Onyinye (29) is married to Joseph (29) and they have 1 daughter, Nwanneka (1). Growing up I became really close to Onyinye. When I moved out I felt like I was leaving behind my child. Onyinye is like me in a lot of ways: science career, having kids on our own terms, only ones with hot husbands. The only difference is she’s still a Christian. I’m proud she was still able to find the loving aspects of that religion, even though I wasn’t. I also love that she doubled down on her emo phase. I remember our mom used to force her and Ifeanyi to dress alike in sickeningly pink bows and huge, frilly dresses.

Lotanna (27) lives in a sad beige house in Henford-on-Bagley with his sad beige wife Tori (27) and their sad beige children Brixten (2) and Trigg (0). Lotanna is the sibling I’m most wary of. He seems normal on the surface, especially now that he’s married to picture perfect Tori, but then he opens his mouth and the foulest statement you’ve ever heard pops out. He’s never evolved passed edgy Simeddit thread humor, except now it’s not humor, he legitimately thinks that way. I seriously feel bad for his future daughters.

Sochima (26) has been married to Ciaran (28) for just under a year. I’ve never met Ciaran in person. He seems like the average guy we grew up with, which would be horrifying for me, but a dream for Sochima. Surprised that we haven’t gotten a pregnancy announcement from them yet. I would’ve put her up there with Nnadi and Ifeanyi in terms of the number of babies she would pop out. Wonder what’s going on there.

[blueskiesandwindchimes]

Ups and Downs

It's hard to believe it has been two weeks since the last time I posted anything. Time flies when your whole family seems to be going through something at the same time.

So first, my sister H, the one I am closest to, has decided to leave her husband. Long story short, he's a piece of crap that no one in the family has ever liked. For the last six years they've been together, he has tried his best to isolate her from her entire family, having her move a good 40 minutes away from the rest of us, and making us feel uncomfortable to come and visit her. He has put down her self-confidence in hopes of making her a stay at home housewife by withholding praise and compliments when she's gotten a promotion at her job.

Three years ago, she caught him trying to cheat on her, messaging different women on FB trying to meet up with them. She stayed with him anyway. It all came to a head two weeks ago when he told her out of the blue that his sister and brother in law invited him to go to Japan with them in April and he was going. H called me upset and telling me that when she got upset that she hadn't been invited, he got indignant that she was upset, citing that H never invites him on our family trips.

We haven't had any family trips since before they were married five years ago. H has gone on a few trips herself, hoping that her husband would want to go with her, and each time he declined to go citing that he had too much work to do. When she called that night, I told her she could come stay with me and my husband and she did. Once at my house, she also revealed to me that he had lied to her before they got married, telling her he wanted kids, then once they were married he told her he had never wanted a family. Since that night, she has been staying with our mom. She says her husband has not tried to ask her to come back home at all, and she is heartbroken over it.

Two days after she moved into our mom's house, her dad, my stepdad, who has been married to our mom for 34 years, told our our mom he had signed a lease for an apartment and was moving out. Last weekend, he did just that. Now for context, about a month ago, our mom had, WE THOUGHT, decided to FINALLY leave HIM. Again, long story short, he was physically and mentally abusive to me my whole life. They got married when I was five. She put up with his BS my whole life and allowed him to hurt me. Anyway, a month ago, she had told him she wanted a divorce and he agreed he was fine with that. They've been living like roommates for the last 20 years at least anyway. Then mom changed her mind, telling H that she was just a big chicken. Fast forward a month and now my stepdad decided to make the move anyway. I've been mainly keeping up with the family drama through H, staying physically far away from it all. From what I was told, mom was pissed initially that my stepdad had been the one to leave her. Whatever.

Then last week at work, I spent a whole day preparing professional notes to send to the lawyer of one of my clients at the request of my client. I've been seeing this client since 2021, so it was a lot of notes which was very frustrating. It just made for a stressful week overall.

But it's all done now and this next week should be better. In fact, I should have some good news Tuesday afternoon or early Wednesday to share! So I guess be looking forward to that.

[blocksruinedme]

I posted a SmallEtho podfic!

It's only 9:34 long! It's embedded on the ao3 page so you can listen right there if you like!

If you're not familiar with podfic, it's like audiobooks for fanfic. I've been listening to podfic for over a decade. I always wanted to record podfic, but hated my voice. Then I started reading to kids more and realized I could hate my voice less when I was reciting, so I forced myself to just start recording anyway. (I don't love my voice, but exposure therapy does wonders.) I said I'd do one a month in 2022, and I did, until August and then.... the blocks got me!

Then I found out about @end-otw-racism, where one things you can do is put out a short work with "End Racism in the OTW" in the title, to raise awareness for the fact that it has been almost three years since the OTW promised to come up with a plan about racism on ao3. I don't know how to address these problems, but I do know I'm not okay with the OTW just never mentioning it again! Read more here!

So here's a podfic of my cute sappy little fic about Joel wanting to kiss Etho soooooo much. Truly the fluffiest thing I've written. If people enjoy it, I might do more! Really I'll be happy if five people who didn't hear it in progress give it a listen. You can get me 20% of the way there!

This is actually my second mcyt podfic, because I recorded one of @toasted-cricket's fics with them before I was actually into the fandom! It's even shorter, only six minutes, and both me and cricket read it! Multivoice! It's 3rd Life & Last Life, about Grian killing his darlings. (It's not technically explicitly shippy but it's pretty scar/grian and grian/mumbo to me.)

We did a ton of takes and I'm pretty happy with it! (Though the word "squeeze" will never be the same to me again)

(Hey if you're even a little curious... give one of them 90 seconds, I dare you. I already caused my beta-listener to decide they liked podfic after all...)

Reminder, if you want to hear more about @end-otw-racism and how could can help call for accountability for what they promised three years ago, read more here! I love ao3, and the values of the OTW are really fundamental to who I am, but they have to do better.

[nickgerlich]

0 To 5 Billion

Twenty-five years ago, the number was 0. No, it wasn’t the temperature, in either Fahrenheit or Celsius. It wasn’t the inflation rate or the interest rate. It wasn’t the number of EVs that had been sold.

Nope, it was the number of people on social media. It simply did not exist. But data released earlier this year show just how much of a force it has become, because there are now slightly more than five billion people worldwide on social media, or 62.3% of the world’s population. It may not be Ferrari-like acceleration, but it is still pretty impressive.

The typical user spends 2h23m per day on 6.7 platforms. Of course, your mileage may vary, but those are the averages. Among Android users, they spend 34 hours per month on TikTok and 28 hours per month on YouTube.

And you wonder where all of your time went.

Overall, Instagram takes top honors as favorite platform, toppling WhatsApp, a popular platform everywhere but the US. Overall, we spend 6h40m a day online doing one thing or another. Based on my weekly screen time report that pops onto my phone every Sunday morning, I am above average.

All of this time has to come out of other things, since we are still kind of locked in at 24 hours available each day. Television watching is in decline, losing another 17 minutes last year. I suspect it is also coming out of interpersonal time, productive time at work, and leisure activities. Sure, we might figure out how to juggle things (how many of you keep a social app open on your computer while at work?), but let’s face it: You’re probably not dedicating quality time to either.

And since marketers go where the eyeballs are, digital ad spend grew by 10% last year to $720 billion. Social media ad spending was $207 billion.

So what does this say about us as a people? A lot. It says that we have changed considerably in a quarter of a century, that no matter how much we may naysay social media specifically, or this digital lifestyle more generally, we have embraced it all nonetheless.

Social media has become the way that people connect and reconnect. Yes, some people use it as a substitute for F2F interactions. Like it or not, this is how we do it, and in the developed world, it has become the de facto means of communication. When was the last time you sent a greeting card of any kind, such as birthday, holidays, anniversary, etc.? Do you even call people these days? My calling log grows more sparse with each passing year. Do you no longer feel the need to attend reunions and similar social gatherings, because you already know what your old pals have been doing thanks to their posts?

We get our news online. We find our entertainment online. We shop online. We get our recipes online. There’s not much we don’t get online. And the implication to marketers is clear as the world approaches digital totality: you either join the tidal shift in redirected advertising dollars, or run the risk of completely losing relevance.

But as we continue the transition, we must be cognizant of the fact that old-school methods of advertising, notably mass communication on broadcast or print media vehicles, is probably a waste of time and money. A shotgun approach to advertising means spending massive sums to spray messages in the general direction of people, hoping that you actually reach some of the people you really want. We can do much better now with targeted advertising. It behooves us to understand the users of each platform, and then utilizing all of the tools available, go after specific people. The audience of many has been replaced by the audience of one.

I know that this creeps out some people, as we have discussed multiple times. But as we approach the end of this course, we need to step back and try to see the bigger picture. This is where we are. Digital marketing commands an ever growing portion of all marketing activities, and I suspect that, while old-school methods may never go away completely, it will be the gorilla in the living room.

Discussion topics like this may summon comparisons to Black Mirror, the Jetsons, The Matrix, and numerous other pop culture touchstones. Those may very well have been prophetic; we just didn’t realize it at the time. If you are uncomfortable with change, you’re in for a rough ride ahead. I don’t see this crazy train slowing down any time soon.

I do hope that my students will ponder these stats, but more importantly think about what it all means. Things have changed even in just the three months we have been journeying together. It may not feel like much, but when you turn to look over your shoulder, you can see just how far we have come, not just in 2024, but in the last 25 years.

That little speck you see in the distance is where we were. We can’t go back there, and to try is futile. Zero may have been quaint, but we’re at five billion now and growing. What you do with that reality is up to you.

Dr “The End Is Near” Gerlich

Audio Blog

[zealiketea]

ask game BARRAGE 0 13 15 26 32 & 33 34 & 35 37 42 43 44 44 again

0. (height) havent been measured in years and dont have the resources to do so currently so i will estimate 5' 9" to 5' 11" because i am just a bit shorter than a 6' friend of mine

13. (turn ons) physically possible turn ons: large quantities of physical affection, whispering sexies in my ear, the idea of clicker training (havent gone through it yet) physically impossible: vore

15: (fav movie) probs both spiderverse films or puss in boots 2 or del toros pinnocchio or the lego movie (lego batman gets an honorable mention) (nimona mightve been here if id actually watched it yet oopsies)

26. (pet peeve) when a customer is being served by someone but i dont know so i go up to them and greet them but instead of saying "oh no im alright you can go serve someone else" they make two entire people start doing shit for them which can be absolutely detrimental especially when we have other people waiting please for the love of FUCKING GOD DONT HOG CUSTOMER SERVICE (recency bias, this happened earlier today)

32. (words that upset me) singular words dont particularly upset me so i cant easily think of stuff i havent repressed

33. (words that i enjoy) this post really hit me, and i highlighted the things that i relate to specifically. that last paragraph especially spoke directly to me as someone who resents my old violent outbursts.

34. (whats attractive about girls) everything

35. (whats attractive about boys) not much but femboys and twinks get me acting up

37. (insecurity) what my friends actually think of me

42. (what i last ate) uhh The Melbourne Rock Candy Aniseed Bo Peep Traditional Recipe hard candy and a bowl of nachos

43. (first attractive person i think of) nondescript hyperfeminine figure (tho with some thought im p down bad for futaba like. ranga neet girl?? sign me UP)

44. (random fun fact) The Penguins of Madagascar: Operation Plushie Rescue for the Leapster Explorer has DLC content that is currently lost media, simply because i havent released it to the public yet

44. (again) like over a year ago now i tried beating a geometry dash level called I Dont Wanna Go, died at 98%, and never touched the level again. I have done the same with Biru, but Biru is 5 minutes long

[anothermansjeans]

I posted 1,566 times in 2022

910 posts created (58%)

656 posts reblogged (42%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@anothermansjeans

@openheart12

@writingquillsandpainpills

@meganskane

@samuel-de-champagne-problems

I tagged 1,221 of my posts in 2022

Only 22% of my posts had no tags

#anne marie shut up pls :) - 549 posts

#anne marie answers - 214 posts

#tw rose - 92 posts

#i can be me without queue - 51 posts

#my beefy moofy contact chewing love bug - 46 posts

#my beefy moofy love bug - 35 posts

#harry styles - 34 posts

#anne marie plays wordle - 34 posts

#ask game - 31 posts

#anne marie plays taylordle - 29 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#like you’re allowed to have your opinions— trust me i have mine— but if it’s something that’s legitimately just mean dont fucking go around

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

L O L can you do 1&2 with spencer reid? 2 literally made me laugh out loud

fun fact: when i made prompt #2 it was originally the basis of a concept i had for another one shot that i never wrote LMAO so thank you for requesting it!!

pairing: spencer reid x gn!reader

masterlist | wc: .6k | prompt list

++

You and Spencer had been sprawled on his bed, staring at one another with smiles plastering your faces. Nights like these were your favorite. You’d go on a date, get back to one of your places, and have the most passionate night before admiring each other and falling asleep.

Tonight though, your mind wasn’t ready for sleep right away.

You thought about how you met at a bar six months ago, how you’ve been dating for four of those six months, and how no matter how much time has passed, you felt nothing but love for him.

Unknowingly to you, the expressions on your face were very telling, and you didn’t have to say a word for Spencer to see the amount of love that was coming from you, and as much as his heart jumped at the thought of you loving him the same way he so desperately loves you, he was scared.

He was scared that he’d break your heart. He was scared that his baggage will affect you just as much as it affects him. He was scared that once you said those words that couldn’t be taken away so easily, that once you put your heart on the line, he was going to be the one inevitably making you put your guard up. So, as soon as he saw the deep breath you took, and the way your lips formed the forbidden three word, eight letter sentence, his eyes widened in panic.

“I lo—”

His hand shot up in a stop motion, “wait, before you love me…”

Your jaw dropped open at the sudden outburst, and you gave a small nod, “o…kay?”

“I’m a mess. My life is a mess. My head is a complete mess and I just wanted you to know that before you decided to actually say it… I know we’ve been together for some time but I just… yeah.”

Spencer didn’t know what reaction he was expecting from you, but it sure as hell wasn’t laughter. After a minute he began to deflate, obvious rejection on his face, but as soon as you caught it, you abruptly stopped.

“Spencer, I’m laughing because I don’t think I’ve ever loved anyone this much.” His furrowed brows and tilted head caused you to let out a sigh and trace his jawline. “Sweetie, I know you’re a mess. That’s actually one of the biggest things I love about you. Your job is horrid and I couldn’t imagine doing what you do, so embrace that mess, because that mess helped save so many lives.”

“Okay, you're allowed to love me now.”

A chuckle left your lips, “that’s all it took? I had to acknowledge that you’re a complete mess of a human being?”

His soft laughter filled the silence once you were done speaking, and he grabbed onto the hand that had been on his jaw. “Yes, actually. You didn’t just brush it off or try to say that I wasn’t. No one’s ever done that.”

“That’s good to know. Anytime you need me to call you out like that, let me know.”

He just about completely ignored the words from your mouth for a moment as he looked at you with the most mesmerizing smile. “I absolutely love you too, by the way.”

“I know…” his raised eyebrow prompted you to continue. “You didn’t want me putting my love out on the line without fully knowing what I was getting into. You weren’t selfish. That’s all the proof I need.”

“You could become a profiler with those observation skills.”

Once again, a laugh erupted from your chest. “I think I’ll save that to the very smart man next to me.”

The two of you shared another laugh before going in for one last kiss— a kiss that felt like a promise for so many things to come of this relationship— a kiss that made the both of you know that Spencer Reid’s life, mess and all, would do nothing but make your love stronger, never weaker.

++

permanent tag list: @wandasylvie @averyhotchner @ssa-m-187 @nomajdetective @pastelbabygirl19 @cacoetheswriting @nyx2021 @openheart12

spencer x reader: @sultrypotter @goose-eats-god

want to be added to a list? tag list form

115 notes - Posted March 1, 2022

#4

“I have this problem. I don’t want to feel things for you but at the same I have this need to be near you 24/7.” with spence and fem or gn!reader please 🥺

pairing: spencer reid x gn!reader

masterlist | wc: .6k | prompt list

++

Everything was going wrong. Absolutely, irrevocably, wrong. When you joined the BAU, you planned to focus on nothing but work— sure, you could be friends with your coworkers, but you refused to go into “best friend” territory.

And oh, how much better this would all be if it was just “best friend” territory that you found yourself stumbling into… no, this was worse. You were… feeling things? For your coworker? For Spencer Reid?

You think back to where it began; a case in Washington required you and Spencer to go undercover together as a couple. It was actually something you were looking forward to. Spencer was kind and smart and you knew any time you worked with him the job would get done. You think it was the close proximity that made your stomach the home to multiple butterflies. Or it could’ve been the way he made sure you were always safe, putting you first. Or maybe it was the way he would occasionally make a small joke to calm any nerves you had and you couldn’t help but actually laugh because… well, because you found him to be one of the funniest people you’ve met.

So yeah, you were screwed.

Because of these feelings and thoughts and overall fondness you suddenly found in him, you decided avoidance was the best option. If you didn’t talk to him or left at any opportunity when he entered a room, it would be easy to try and get over whatever you’re feeling. Or so you thought.

Apparently subtlety wasn’t your strong suit, and everyone could see right through you. Because of this, Hotch very clearly assigned you and Spencer to work on the geographical profile together, leaving the two of you alone for multiple uncomfortable hours.

There wasn’t much noise going on in the room as you both looked over files, marking on the map every now and then, only the occasional shuffle coming from Spencer when he would shift in his seat. About 30 minutes in though, you heard the clearing of this throat before he spoke up for the first time.

“Have I done anything… uh, anything to you? Because it seems as though there’s a problem between us and I promise if I did something it wasn’t intentional. I just—”

“Reid,” you began, cutting him off and causing him to actually look at you, “we don’t have a problem. I do. I um, I have this problem. I don’t want to feel things for you but at the same I have this need to be near you 24/7. So I just… thought that by not being near you, it would… go away.”

“You… feel things for me?”

“Let’s not make it a big thing, okay?” You bit on your bottom lip, looking back down at the paper in front of you until his voice caused you to once again look his way.

“I don’t necessarily see it as a problem.” The lifting of your eyebrow prompted him to continue. “I mean, I too want to be near you, and I’m also feeling… things, but it’s not a problem for me. Quite the opposite, actually.”

Your face flushed at his confession, and you sat up straighter. This really wasn’t in your plan when you joined the BAU, but now thinking about it more— the idea that Spencer feels the same thing for you as you do for him… it didn’t… feel too bad. “Okay, um, well maybe one day, you can take me out and… help me see that this really isn’t a problem…”

As soon as the words left your mouth, Spencer quickly nodded his head. Now, with a heat rising on both of your faces, you each went back to work in silence, but this time it wasn’t uncomfortable, and you couldn’t help but wonder what was in store for you after this case.

++

permanent tag list: @wandasylvie @averyhotchner @ssa-m-187 @nomajdetective @pastelbabygirl19 @cacoetheswriting @nyx2021 @openheart12

spencer x reader: @sultrypotter @goose-eats-god

want to be added to a list? tag list form

123 notes - Posted February 27, 2022

#3

“i don’t want to bother you. seriously, it’s all just… it’s a lot.”

thank you for sending one!!

pairing: spencer reid x gn!reader

content warning: mentions of maeve plot line, mentions of stalker (relating to case)

wc: .9k | masterlist | enemies to lovers prompts

++

Spencer was having a really bad day. Well, not just day, more like week. The current case the team had been gifted with revolved around a stalking situation involving a young brunette, and the motive clearly being jealousy. To say it was hitting a little too close to home for him was an understatement. Not only was the case making him a wreck, but you, the newer-but-not-so-new agent had been down his neck all week as well, clearly sensing his bad attitude.

When you first joined the team, Spencer thought the two of you would get on well, but then when he was mid-ramble, giving statistics and leading up to a big discovery in your first case, you cut him off, beating him to the punch (you swore it wasn’t intentional and the words just slipped out of your mouth from pure excitement over the finding, but he didn’t really believe it, being one to get cut off a lot). So since that day, he was nothing but short with you, and if he had to work with you for periods of time longer than five minutes, he quickly became agitated.

Now, in the current case with the way you would send him worried glances, the agitation was there, but it was quickly turning into defeat— tired from the constant nagging in his brain about his past and how similar it felt right now. He was alone in the precinct’s conference room, head down with his palms pressing into his eyes, willing himself to get over it and focus on the file in front of him when you poked your head in the room.

“Um, hey, Spencer.”

The sound of your voice caused a sigh to slip his lips and he sat up, turning towards you with an unamused look. “What? What do you want?”

Whenever Spencer acted this way towards you, there was alway this fire that would start in the pit of your stomach, and you wanted nothing more than to serve right back what he originally dished out. But you never did. You never did because despite the way he could have an attitude to your disliking, you saw the Spencer that would brightly talk to Penelope, or the Spencer that would endure Morgan’s teasing, or even the Spencer that looked after Henry and showed nothing but love for the kid. However, that didn’t stop the eye rolling or scoffs you’d let out, making sure he knew you were aware of the blatantly rude behavior— there was only so much you could take.

You took a timid step into the room before closing the door behind you, and you crossed your arms over your body, “I was just checking up on you. You’ve been on your own a lot”.

He could see the sincerity in your eyes, and he didn’t know whether he hated or appreciated it. “I- it’s uh, it’s nothing. I’m fine.”

“Spencer, you’re clearly not okay. I know I’m probably the last person you want to talk to about this, but I can tell something’s up. I mean, you’ve been so in your head during this case that you’ve barely said one snarky remark towards me.”

At that, he let out a scoff. You were right. Despite the feeling of annoyance he’s felt from your glances the whole time, he hasn’t actually said anything to you regarding them. Taking a moment to himself, he spoke quietly, “I don’t want to bother you. Seriously, it’s all just… it’s a lot.”

You ended up taking the seat next to him, relishing in the way he softly spoke to you— noting that this was probably the second time since you’ve known him that he’s used this tone with you. “It’s not a bother if I’m asking. We’re a team and… no matter what you may think of me, I care about your well-being.”

Spencer then decided that he not only appreciated the sincerity he caught earlier, but loved it.

“Um, a- a couple years ago, I had this… woman, Maeve. Now that I’m saying it I honestly don’t really know what we were, but I loved her, she also had a stalker who was jealous. Wanted what she had— what we had, I guess.” He paused for a moment to look up at you, and noticed unshed tears ready to fall onto your cheeks, “the current victim, um, she resembles Maeve a little bit, and with the way things ended with her I just—” Spencer had cut himself off before he could get too choked up, but at the same moment you threw your arms around his shoulders, squeezing him in a tight hug.

“I’m so sorry”, your voice full of sympathy, “about Maeve and for hugging you without asking… I just thought you needed it.”

He let out a short laugh and sniffled, wrapping his arms around your waist and squeezing you back. “No, no. I did need it. Thank you.”

The two of you stayed there for another moment before splitting apart. “So, do you want me to leave you alone now”, you asked with humor in your voice while wiping your cheeks, and then leaning over to swipe a lone tear that fell below Spencer’s eye.

He was shocked for a second before clearing his throat, “um, no, I uh, I actually have an idea on how to find the unsub but I think it would be easier to talk through my theory with you before deciding if it’s the best option.”

Giving him a smile, you nodded your head and pulled the file that was in front of him over to you. Spencer just watched the way your eyes scanned the paper for a moment, feeling his heartbeat race a bit. Something between the two of you clicked, and he wasn’t quite sure what it was, but that something made him feel good— happy.

++

permanent tag list: @athenaofathens @averyhotchner @ssa-m-187 @nomajdetective @pastelbabygirl19 @cacoetheswriting @nyx2021 @openheart12

spencer x reader: @sultrypotter @goose-eats-god

want to be added? tag list form

153 notes - Posted February 9, 2022

#2

from the friends to lovers prompt list, “do you think they feel the same?” and “Have you ever thought about…us? Y’know, as an…item?” are two sentences that Spencer Reid would definitely say out loud the awkward dork

ohh yes, love awkward dorky spencer!!

pairing: spencer reid x gn!reader

prompt list || wc: .6k

++

“Do you think they feel the same?”

The abrupt question came from Spencer as he, Penelope, and Emily all stood around the coffee machine. His eyes had been set on you the whole time they had been over there, watching as you went through multiple files.

“Did you just… admit to liking Y/N?” Penelope’s question was laced with hope, looking between him and where you sat.

“Well, I…” a sigh escaped his lips, “I figured everyone except for Y/N knew… so why not just ask the question I’ve been wanting to know for a long time.”

There was a silent moment between the three of them… too silent, and when Spencer looked over at the pair, the shock was evident on their faces.

“…what?”

Shaking themselves out of their current state, Penelope’s lips turned upward into the hopeful smile that was previously on her face. “Honestly, Spencer, I’m surprised you haven’t—”

“I think you should be the one to ask them.” Emily’s bluntness caused Penelope’s mouth to shut.

“R-really?” he looked between the two watching them nod in encouragement. “I’m uh, not really sure.”

“Reid, the only way you’ll get answers to your questions is if you ask the right people. The right person for your question just so happens to be Y/N.”

It took him another moment to really consider it. This was you they were talking about. The person who accepted Spencer for who he was since his first day at the BAU. The person who always volunteers to go see foreign films with him. The person he fell in love with because, well, because life seemed to want to throw that cliche at him— him falling in love with his best friend. But Emily was right. Logically speaking, if you want a question answered truthfully, you have to ask the person who actually knows the answer. You were that person.

He got up without saying another word, and made his way over to you, and the moment you sensed his presence, you looked up at him with a smile. “Hey, Spence.”

“Hey.”

“Are we still on for tonight? I’ll make sure to bring over any snacks you want.”

Oh yeah, the two of you were supposed to watch movies at his place. Spencer really hoped the next couple of minutes wouldn’t make it too awkward to the point where that didn’t happen.

“Yeah, yeah. I was uh,” he looked around the bullpen, seeing everyone minding their own business— well, except for Emily and Penelope that is— “I was thinking, and was wondering something…”

“Wondering something” you questioned, closing whatever file you have opened so that your full attention was on him.

“Yeah it’s just… have you ever, uh, have you ever thought about… us? Y’know, as an… item?”

With your elbows perched on your desk, you rested your chin on your hands, “Spencer?”

“Mhmm?” He suddenly wanted to look anywhere but at you.

“I have most certainly thought about it. I think about it quite a lot.”

Now he was looking at you. Eyes wide and jaw dropped, he was speechless.

“So,” you began after a reasonable amount of quietness between the two of you, “does that… make you wanna ask any other questions?”

He quickly nodded his head before a blush appeared on his cheeks, and he cleared his throat. “Would you like to go on a date with me? Tonight! We can still watch movies like we planned, but I can order dinner and we can talk beforehand and generally, it can be more… intimate than any other movie night. I want to make it special.”

The smile on your face was one he was familiar with, only this time it looked ten times brighter. “That sounds like an amazing night. I would love to, Spence.”

See the full post

257 notes - Posted January 31, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

karma

pairing: Aaron Hotchner x fem!reader (she/her pronouns)

warnings: none!

word count: 946

a/n: it’s been 84 years… but ANYWAY… miss taylor swift has infiltrated my mind once again and i just had to a fic inspired by karma because it’s one of my favorite songs on midnights! im sorry if it’s a little rushed (its currently 1:16 a.m when i write this but i am also excited about it)! i also apologize for any mistakes!

inspiration: karma by taylor swift

masterlist

++

Aaron Hotchner has been through a lot. Between being stabbed, hearing his ex-wife being murdered, being blown up, and having to go into witness protection with his kid, you would think he would be a cynical man, but recently that’s changed. He now believes in karma.

It was a year after leaving witness protection when he had his first dose of good karma. He took Jack to a bakery after school and the woman behind the counter offered them each a free cookie since it was the “bakery’s birthday”. It was trivial, he knows, but the way the woman’s eyes lit up when both him and Jack praised the treat made him feel good. It was a feeling that was always fleeting in the past, but this feeling seemed to stay.

It stayed because the next week when he took Jack to the same bakery, the same woman was standing at the counter and had an even brighter smile when she saw them. This time, the visit went a little differently. After he and Jack had gotten their baked goods for the day and started to head out, he stopped at the sound of her voice calling out to him.

“Sir, you left your card!”

He didn’t have time to walk back up to the counter, because she was making her way up to him, and the moment her hand slightly touched his, he swore his body was shocked with one of the most intense feelings.

And he knew she felt it too, her eyes said it all.

“Um… h-have a nice day…?” She trailed off, not knowing his name.

“Aaron”, he responded, giving her a nod. “You too…”

She stared into his eyes for a moment longer before leaving her trance due to the sound of the be above the door ringing. “Y/N.”

“Y/N… have a nice day Y/N.”

That was his second dose of good karma.

The third time karma was in his favor happened a lot sooner than anyone would ever expect. He was alone the next time he went into the bakery— Jack having an after school activity— and when he saw Y/N at the counter she looked more nervous than happy to see him.

“Hi!” Her voice was pitchy, and she fiddled with her fingers as he got closer. “No uh… Your son— I’m assuming— isn’t with you today?”

“No, no. Jack had a school thing. I still wanted to pick something up for him, though.” And then they continued their routine— talking about the specials, picking out two to three treats, paying for it, and saying goodbye. The only difference was… Aaron stayed a minute longer.

She told him to have a nice day, he said the same, but he stood there, standing at the counter, wanting to stay in her presence just a moment longer. He didn’t know how weird it looked until after they stared each down for a good minute, proceeded by her clearing her throat.

“Is there um, anything else… that I can help you with?”

“No… no.” He tried to stay stoic, but he saw her face slightly fall, and he felt something in his stomach make the same movement.

“Okay, well you probably have someone waiting for you—”

“Actually, there is something.” He cut her off, knowing exactly what she had been implying, but he didn’t want her thinking that. “I want to take you out. On a date.”

It was impulsive, and Aaron Hotchner didn’t do impulsive. Until that moment apparently.

She looked shocked at first, but a delicate smile danced on her lips seconds later, and she grabbed a napkin, writing her number down and giving it to him. He used it almost immediately when he got home.

They had gone on several dates after that. So many that they were officially together, and the next step was to tell Jack, which coincidentally was Aaron’s fourth strike of karma.

See the full post

441 notes - Posted October 24, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[snowdice]

Big Bang Editing Story [Day 123]

I started writing this fic while editing my Big Bang story years ago, but am going to continue doing it for other things now that Kill Dear is out. I will write and publish 100 words of the story every time I finish doing whatever task I’m doing. If you’d like to block these proceedings, please feel free to block the tag ‘proofread stories.’ I will reblog this post with the parts of the story I do today. Edited chapters are linked; everything else I’ve done so far is under the cut.

My Master Post Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11 Part 12 Part 13 Part 14 Part 15 Part 16 Part 17 Part 18 Part 19 Part 20 Part 21 Part 22 Part 23 Part 24 Part 25 Part 26 Part 27 Part 28 Part 29 Part 30 Part 31 Part 32 Part 33 Part 34 Part 35 Part 36 Part 37 Part 38 Part 39 Part 40 Part 41 Part 42 Part 43 Part 44 Part 45 Part 46 Part 47 Part 48 Part 49 Part 50 Part 51 Part 52 Part 53 Part 54

There won't be much of this today honestly lol. I have no motivation.

Chapter 55 (Logan)

Virgil was beginning to be able to read some of the common instructions in magic books, but Logan still made sure to read out the instructions to him at least twice before setting him loose. He’d started to jot down notes to himself about things, though these notes were not words, but various symbols that only made sense to the boy himself.

Logan had asked about their meaning at one point and received an answer that, while earnest, was unintelligible. The symbols were mostly just pictures of things to represent certain steps in spell casting, but they were filtered through Virgil’s rudimentary penmanship and often bizarre perception of the world.

Though, despite the fact that Logan could not often decipher his chicken scratch, it did seem to help him produce more and more quality charms even as Logan began to introduce more complicated processes to make them. He was a very good student even if he didn’t have the best foundation for learning.

“I add lavender for the next step, right?” Virgil asked, his finger on a word in Logan’s magic book.

“That is correct,” Logan confirmed.

Virgil looked back at the book and mouthed the word ‘lavender’ to himself before turning back to his potion. He grabbed a few sprigs of lavender and threw them into the cauldron.

The liquid popped and bubbled violently, but Virgil didn’t flinch as he once would have, prepared for it now.

After the lavender, Logan knew that it would have to simmer for 5 minutes. Virgil looked down at the boiling liquid, contemplating it for a long moment.

“Can I soak a knife in it?” he asked.

“What?” Logan asked.

“Can I soak a knife in the potion once it’s done?”

“In that potion?” Logan clarified. “In the emergency hand warmer potion?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“I think a hot knife would be useful,” Virgil said.

“For what?”

Virgil shrugged. “Cooking food on the road,” he said, “burning wood, stabbing someone and immediately cauterizing the wound.”

“That is… not a standard use for this potion,” Logan said.

Virgil titled his head at him. “Would it work though?”

“Well, I don’t know,” Logan contemplated. “Perhaps. The potion can cause burns if one uses too much of it or if it is used without an appropriate layer between it and the skin. If one were to pick a knife with enough surface area and let it soak long enough, it could in theory get hot enough to do as desired. Hmm…” he thought about it. “There would perhaps be the problem of the potion not sticking to the knife very long as it is intended to soak into fabric. However, cardamom could solve that issue as long as it doesn’t interact with any other ingredients. Let me see that spell.”

Virgil stepped out of his way so he could study the page. “Yes,” Logan said after scanning through all of the ingredients. “I think cardamom would work for something like that. Let me go find some.”

He turned to walk towards where he kept his supplies of potion ingredients. Virgil followed on his heals.

“Can we use a serrated knife?”

“Oh, that’s a good idea, Virgil,” Logan said, nodding as he searched through the cupboard that should hold the coriander. “The knife being serrated would help keep the potion stuck to the blade after many uses and would increase the surface area.”

“That was certainly my intention,” Virgil said smoothly. There was something odd about the tone that had Logan turning and blinking at him. Virgil just smiled at him innocently and Logan turned back to the cabinet finally locating the cardamom.

“So how are we going to use that?” Virgil asked.

“We’ll put it in right before the last step and let it sit for about 3 minutes,” Logan said. “If it doesn’t quite work, we may need to make another batch. There are options other than cardamom, but that’s the first idea that comes to mind and it’s a lot simpler if it works.”

He continued to speak of the many other options they could try as they returned to the caldron as well as how they could test the hot knife. It was already about time for the next step and Virgil did it without interrupting Logan’s rant.

Virgil listened to his suggestions with interest all while still making sure the potion he was making was progressing well.

Logan did eventually take over to finish the potion with the revised steps he’d come up with and they ended up with a potion that looked perfect except it was a few shades darker than the one they’d originally been planning to make.

“Well, it looks good,” Logan declared. “We will need to acquire a knife to test its effectiveness, however.”

“There are a few good ones in the kitchen,” Virgil pointed out. “I especially like the one 10 inch one with the black and white handle.”

“You have been eyeing up the kitchen knives?” Logan asked.

Virgil rolled his eyes as though that was not a perfectly reasonable question to ask him. “We should steal that one,” Virgil said.

“Do you think we’ll be able to sneak past Ms. Heart to steal a knife from her kitchen?” Logan asked.

“We can’t,” Virgil said. The ‘but I can’ was implied.

Logan almost didn’t believe him… and then he remembered the water pouch incident. “It’s the dinner rush,” Logan said. “We should probably wait for a bit.”

Virgil was shaking his head. “The dinner rush is the best time,” he said. “Everyone will be distracted, and all of the knives will be out and in prime stealing position.”

“And if Patton’s mother catches us messing around in her kitchen during her busiest time of day, she will have Father ground us for a week.”

“Then we just won’t get caught,” Virgil said.

“I’m not sure if it’s that simple,” Logan said with a frown.

“You can stay here if you want,” Virgil offered. “I’ll just go by myself.”

“No, I’ll come too,” Logan relented, though he did still have some reservations about the idea.

He let Virgil lead him towards the main dining hall. By now, Virgil knew the kitchens and dining hall very well.

“Stay here,” he said. They were in a hallway a few feet down from the staff entrance to the main kitchen. “I’m going to do some reconnaissance.”

“What type of reconnaissance?” Logan asked, but Virgil had already vanished before his very eyes. With a blink, Logan looked up and saw a dark figure disappear onto a balcony overhead.

Well, Logan really had no choice but to wait there for him. It wasn’t like he could follow him. He could hear the clatter of silverware on plates from the dining hall down the corridor as he impatiently waited. It only took Virgil a bit over five minutes to return. He dropped suddenly from above and landed in front of Logan in a crouch.

“Well?” Logan asked, letting a bit of irritation into his tone so Virgil knew he was displeased. Virgil did not seem to care.

“Got it,” Virgil said with a wide grin, brandishing a large kitchen knife.

Logan flinched back at the unexpected sight of a weapon.

“You said you were doing reconnaissance!” he sputtered. “Not…” he trailed off remembering that while they weren’t in eyesight of anyone right now, they could be in earshot of someone. He lowered his tone, “stealing the knife already.”

“I was doing reconnaissance,” Virgil said with a shrug, “and then I used the information gathered by that reconnaissance to steal a knife.”

Logan narrowed his eyes at him.

Virgil just smiled. “You would have gotten in my way.”

“I would not have,” Logan insisted.

“How many times has Patton’s mom caught you stealing food from the kitchens in the past?” he asked.

Logan pursed his lips. “That is Patton’s doing,” he said.

“Sure,” Virgil said with an eyeroll. “I’ll have you prove it some other day, but for now,” he twirled the knife around in a way that made Logan cringe even though he did seem to have an expert handle over it. “We have a knife.”

“Right,” Logan agreed with a nod. “We should continue the experiment.”

Virgil stored the knife away… somewhere on his person, and they snuck back to Logan’s rooms.

When Virgil handed over the knife, Logan did have to admit it was a perfect specimen for their project: long and saw-like with a heatproof handle.

Logan carefully set it in a shallow dish and proceeded to pour the potion they’d made onto it. They let it sit for a little under half an hour before carefully pulling it out of the concoction with tongs and letting it airdry. Meanwhile, Virgil suggested they set up a testing area with various old sheets and clothing. They’d even found and decorated an armor stand with an old suit that Logan particularly disliked.

“Well,” Logan said once he’d tapped the handle and had not gotten burned by the potion. “I think we can test it now.” For safety, he made Virgil put on thick heatproof gloves before handing him the knife.

“So how do I make it work?” Virgil asked.

“The original potion works through light friction,” Logan said.

“So just start stabbing things?”

Logan went to respond, but before he could, Virgil had already twisted around and sliced through one of the sheets hanging in Logan’s potion room. There was a sizzling noise as the knife cut through the sheet like it was tissue paper leaving two aflame halves flapping about.

Logan leapt forward to tear the pieces of sheet down and the two of them stomped on the flames to put out the fire.

“It’s perfect,” Virgil said with a grin once the charred remains of the sheet were extinguished.

“It does seem to work as intended,” Logan agreed.

“Let’s do it again,” Virgil said.

“Er, well, perhaps we shouldn’t…,” Logan started, but Virgil had already set his eyes on the armor stand they’d set up. That suddenly seemed like not such a good idea to Logan.

He stabbed the armor stand viciously. It went up in violent flames. Logan’s eyes widened as the blaze only seemed to get bigger as Virgil drew back the knife.

Virgil did not seem to share Logan’s worry as he turned and stabbed another piece of hanging clothing, setting it ablaze as well.

“Virgil, no! You’re going to burn the room down!” Logan yelped.

The armor stand, at that very moment, decided to fall to the ground. They had, perhaps, not set the testing area up as well as they should have because it fell directly onto one of Logan’s rugs and set that on fire as well.

“Oops,” Virgil said, eyes wide.

Above the sound of crackling fire, Logan heard a tapping on the door between his bedroom and work room. It opened slightly after a moment and Logan’s father’s voice called out as he was sticking his head into the room, “Um, what do you mean Virgil… is burning the room down!”

The moment Logan’s father fully processed the presence of the flames, he was bursting into the room. He at least remembered that there was a fire extinguishing powder stocked in Logan’s work room even though that fact had slipped Logan’s mind in the chaos. (Perhaps Logan should have thought to set it out when they were testing a fire knife, but Logan would just add that to his growing list of regrets.)

The king managed to put all of the fires out within 30 seconds of poking his head through the door, but the fire left in his eyes when he turned to look at them afterwards was perhaps more dangerous.

Virgil slowly hid the knife behind his back. It was probably a bit late for that.

“What were the two of you doing in here?” the king asked.

“Nothing,” Logan said. Virgil shot him a look that told Logan what the boy thought about his lying abilities.

Logan’s father put his hands on his hips. “‘Nothing’ set the rug on fire?”

“We may have been doing a small experiment,” Logan said.

“What experiment?” the king asked.

“…I do not wish to say.”

“Logan.”

“Virgil wanted a fire knife.”

“A what?”

Virgil frowned over at Logan. “Your resistance to interrogation techniques is deplorable.”

Father turned to look at Virgil and obviously spotted the fact that Virgil was holding something behind his back.

“Give it here,” Father said, though his tone was a bit gentler with Virgil than it had been with Logan.

Virgil debated it for a moment, but then offered over the knife with a pout on his face. Father gingerly took it and the fire-resistant gloves from him. “Where did the two of you even get this knife?”

“You can’t tell her,” Logan said.

“You stole a knife from the kitchens?!” the king asked.

“We borrowed it,” Logan said.

“Can it be used for cooking anymore?”

“…Well.”

“In the intended manner.”

“No.”

“Then you stole it.”

Logan just frowned and looked away.

“I’m going to go put this in a secure location,” Father said, grimacing at the fire knife in his hands. “No more experiments for you two for a month. I’ll sic Patton on you.”

With that, he picked up what was left of the fire extinguishing powder (just in case) and turned to exit the room.

“Well,” Logan said once he was gone. “That was irresponsible.”

“I could steal it back from him.”

“N-no don’t do that.”

“I definitely could though,” Virgil said.

“I did not hear you say that,” Logan said, putting his hands over his ears. “I am not responsible for any more of your actions in this matter. I am going to the library.”

He walked out of the room then and Virgil followed him to the upstairs library. He said nothing more about the fire knife, but Logan would be a fool to suppose he forgot about it.

Chapter 56 (Thomas)

“Good day for a picnic,” Helen commented as she handed over the basket Thomas had requested from her a few days before. He was taking Logan, Patton, and Virgil to the cliffs today and it was perfect weather for it. Spring was truly here, which meant that those of Thomas’s duties that had laid dormant over the harsh winter were about to start up again.

The world had been on pause for a bit considering no armies or agents from any kingdom could get through the snow the last few months, but the concerns of last fall were showing their heads once again.

Thomas had just gotten word a day ago that the queen of Lamir had routed out a second assassin hiding in her ranks over the winter. The assassin had been sent shortly after it was made clear that the queen wouldn’t bow down after the assassination of her mother. Luckily, the assassin sent for Queen Cecil had not managed to complete her mission during the winter months.

While there had been no similar attempt on Prijaznia soil, Thomas couldn’t help but feel it was only a matter of time now that the snow had melted. They were already working on increasing security in the coming weeks and, though it was doubtful an assassin had managed to hide in the castle all winter without revealing themselves, they’d be closely scrutinizing all of the newer staff members.

It would be a stressful time in the coming months, which is why, despite everything Thomas needed to do, he was still going to take his son and his son’s friends on a picnic today. Logan had already started taking on royal duties as of late, but he still hadn’t taken them all on quite yet. Considering this was last summer before Logan was of age, they should at least try to take advantage of it where they could. Patton was a year younger, but the sentiment held for him as well.

Then there was Virgil. Despite their best efforts, they still didn’t know enough about Virgil, but Thomas was fairly sure he’d never had a summer to enjoy until now.

“Thanks for prepping lunch for us,” Thomas said to Helen with a smile.

“No problem,” she said waving them off. “I put in some of Virgil’s favorites.”

“Great,” Thomas said. “Do you know where the kids are?”

“Patton said they were going to go pet the cats, so I’d guess they’re in the gardens.”

Thomas thanked her again and told her to have a good day before exiting the kitchen. There was a nearby door that led straight towards the part of the gardens Patton and Logan had always favored. He figured they’d either still be around there or they would have wandered towards the stables by now knowing that they’d be taking horses to the cliffs.

So, he decided to simply walk the normal path from the door to the stable, hoping to find them.

His prediction ended up being hilariously correct. They were indeed on the path Thomas had chosen. It was clear they (or at least Logan) were attempting to make it to the stable. However, as was typical, a portion of the party had been waylaid by whimsy.

Logan was standing further down the path, arms crossed and frowning as he watched his friends. Patton and Virgil were surrounded by cats. Patton was sitting down, holding two of them in his lap and watching Virgil’s legs being swarmed by the rest of them, maybe two dozen in total.

Virgil looked confused, but not unhappy about the presence of so many cats. He was leaning down to try to pet them all.

Logan met Thomas’s eyes as he approached and waved a frustrated hand at the two of them. Logan couldn’t help but smile.

“Virgil fed one of them,” Logan complained as though he wanted Thomas to somehow go into the past and prevent this crime.

Patton and Virgil looked over at Thomas, noticing him when Logan addressed him.

“You’re going to make Princess Marisol jealous,” Thomas said. Logan frowned at Thomas as he used the ‘Princess’ label for the cat.

“Princess Marisol decided not to come,” Virgil said with a shrug. He continued to pet one of the cats.

“She’s probably sleeping on my pillow,” Logan said, sounding grumpy.

Thomas just chuckled. Princess Marisol was technically Logan’s cat, at least that’s what the kids said, and she did spend much of her time in the royal rooms. However, she was very clearly actually Virgil’s cat. Virgil just spent a lot of time in the royal wing as well.

In fact, Thomas still didn’t know where Virgil was supposed to be sleeping. He and Mr. Deknis had actually tried to tail him a couple of times, but he always ended up sleeping in Logan’s room those nights.

Knowing Virgil, he might just sleep in the walls. Though that still did not answer the question of where his parents or guardians were. They still had not figured it out. Thomas would assume he was an orphan who’d snuck onto castle grounds for safety, but Virgil had told Mr. Deknis during their first meeting that he was supposed to be in the castle, and it had not been a lie.

Then again, it had slowly become apparent that Virgil was good at dodging the multrum’s powers. It was starting to seem more likely that he’d somehow inserted a second meaning into his answer to Mr. Deknis that night than he somehow had some ghost guardian no one was able to locate working in the castle.

“She deserves the pillow more than you,” Virgil said, bringing Thomas’s thoughts back to the situation at hand. The look of audacity on Logan’s face made Thomas chuckle.

Thomas cut in before it could become a fight. “I could get Princess Marisol a pillow, so she doesn’t sleep on yours. Or we can get you a new pillow if you’d prefer, Logan.”

“It’s not about the pillow for her,” Logan argued. “It’s about her inflated sense of superiority.”

“She deserves it,” Virgil declared. Thomas could tell he was just trying to rile Logan up, and Thomas was sure Logan knew it too, but still his son reacted exactly in the way Virgil wanted him to.

“You have enabled and encouraged this behavior from the start!” Logan seethed.

“She’s a Princess.”

“She is not a princess!”

Patton shook his head while squeezing the cats in his arms, completely used to this behavior at this point. He ran a chin idly over one of the cat’s heads while watching the argument.

“We’re never going to make it to the picnic at this rate,” Thomas said to him, “and after your mother made all of this wonderful food.”

“You’re the dad,” Patton said. “Make them stop.”

And, of course, Patton did just mean that he was Logan’s dad with that statement. However, when he glanced back up at the silly argument still going on between his son and the cat covered boy on the ground, it did almost look like a fight between siblings.

Especially with the dark hair and stubborn but mischievous look in Virgil’s eyes, Thomas could almost imagine the boy being his own child.

He shook away the thoughts and glanced at the picnic basket in his hand.

“We do have a lot of food in this basket,” Thomas said, pitching his voice up so that Logan (and more importantly) Virgil would hear them clearly.

Virgil immediately turned to look at him, abandoning all interest in antagonizing Logan to look at the basket curiously.

Thomas was never sure if he should be amused or worried about how food motivated Virgil often was.

“What’s in the basket?” Virgil asked.

“I’m not sure,” Thomas said. “Patton’s mom made it. We’ll just have to see once we get to the picnic area.”

Virgil nodded in understanding and began to gently scoot all of the cats out of his lap. Logan rolled his eyes, but didn’t seem inclined to continue the argument he’d been dragged into. Virgil and Patton got to their feet and they continued on their way towards the stables.

The horses Thomas had requested be prepared for their trip were already in saddles, though the stable hand who had been handling Mr. Apples seemed a bit dirtier and more exhausted than the rest.

The stable hand seemed as happy to hand Mr. Apples over to Virgil as Virgil was to have Mr. Apples handed over to him. Thomas received Bella with a smile and Logan and Patton got their own horses as well.

The Cliffs were about half an hour's ride from the main castle. There was a mostly well-maintained path to it, though it was easy to get lost if one didn’t know the way. Mr. Apples knew the way perhaps better than Thomas himself and seemed annoyed by the fact that Thomas was trying to lead the way.

Virgil and Thomas ended up side-by-side whenever the path allowed it to placate him.

He still marveled at how willing Mr. Apples was to let Virgil ride him, especially when he tossed his head in Thomas’s direction, a horse’s equivalent of giving Thomas a stink-eye.

“Are you excited for the picnic?” Thomas asked the boy beside him.

Virgil glanced over at him and nodded.

“I am too,” Thomas said. “It’s always beautiful this time of year. I’m glad I could find the time to take you all there this year.”

“Are you very busy?” Virgil asked curiously.

“I am king,” Thomas reminded, “and now that the world isn’t snowed in anymore things will be busy.”

“With the war?” Virgil asked.

Thomas paused for a few seconds. “Yes,” he confirmed. “With the war, but you don’t need to worry about that.”

“Why shouldn’t I?” Virgil asked.

“You’re just a kid,” Thomas said.

“I’m 14,” Virgil said.

Thomas glanced at him. “Exactly,” he said, “a kid, and luckily, you’re in a place that can afford you the luxury of being one.”

“What do you mean?”

“The war has been mainly fought on Mocnejsi soil in recent years. Our boarders have held strong against invasions. Unless something goes horribly wrong suddenly, it would take a long time for the main conflict to get here. The only real threat in the castle would be assassins sent after me personally.”

“Right,” Virgil said. There was an awkward pause in conversation before he spoke again. “You’re winning the war then?” he asked.

“Something could always happen,” Thomas said, “but for the most part, yes, we have quite the advantage right now.”

“Oh,” Virgil said.

Thomas shook his head as they were coming up to a narrowing of the path. “Anyway, today is a day to not think about war. Today we’re going to have a lovely picnic and do some bird watching.”

“Right,” Virgil agreed from behind Thomas as Bella took the lead (to Mr. Apples discontent.)

When the path widened again, Thomas did his best to direct the topic to lighter subjects and soon they made it to The Cliffs.

Chapter 57 (Virgil)

Virgil had never been to a picnic. At least, that’s what Patton had informed him when Virgil had described his past experiences of eating outdoors. Logan had agreed even though he’d admitted that the definition of “picnic” was only eating a pre-packaged meal outdoors which Virgil had done plenty of times.

From what Virgil could tell, the main difference was just how much stuff one brought to a picnic.

In addition to the basket full of food (that Virgil still hadn’t gotten to look in yet), the king had brought a large soft quilt that he had Logan and Virgil spread out on the ground for them all to sit on.

Patton and Logan had also packed some things themselves to bring along. Logan had brought along a book to read, and Patton had brought along a board game (thankfully not checkers but something Virgil did not recognize). Virgil hadn’t brought anything (except for the fire knife he was definitely not supposed to have and was definitely not letting the king see) because he hadn’t known he was supposed to bring things. He wouldn’t have known what to bring anyway.

The blanket was soft and a much better alternative to sitting on the ground, especially because, while there was grass at the top of The Cliffs, there were also a good number of rocks.

The king set the picnic basket in the middle of the blanket once it was spread out and then lowered himself down to sit on one side. Patton quickly followed him, already fiddling with some of his board game pieces, though he wasn’t setting it up yet. Virgil highly doubted that Logan was going to be allowed to read his book unless Patton eventually got bored of the game.

However, they would, hopefully, be allowed to make use of the basket the king had brought along.

Virgil followed the king and Patton’s lead and got to his knees on the blanket across the picnic basket from the king. He peered at the basket curiously.

He didn’t quite know what picnic food was, but Patton had told them they’d be getting ‘picnic food’ and he was very curious about what that meant.

King Thomas smiled at him. “Let’s see what Patton’s mom packed us, huh?” He reached for the basket and flipped it open as Logan sat next to Virgil. “There is a lot more food than usual in here,” the king said, sounding amused. “Let’s see.”

He began to pull out packaged food and glanced in each package to identify it before setting it out.

“We have a few types of mini sandwiches,” he said, putting them down, “and some pasta salad.” He set down the bowl.

“We also have… er something else.” He showed it to Logan.

“They’re hot cauliflower bites,” Logan said instantly upon seeing them. Virgil perked up in excitement. That was one of his favorite foods.

“Ah,” King Thomas said, but shrugged and set it down. “We also have two desserts apparently: cookies and mini apple pies. That last one’s a bit extra for a picnic.”

“They’re very good,” Virgil said happily.

“And we also have.” King Thomas paused, looking confused. “Chicken alfredo?”

“Yes!” Virgil said.

“Why do we have chicken alfredo for a picnic?”

“It’s a Virgil picnic,” Logan groaned. “She packed us a Virgil picnic.”

“Hey, at least momma sent us something too,” Patton said.

“I think I’ll stick to sandwiches for today,” King Thomas said. He looked at Patton and Logan. “Do either of you want…?”

“No,” Logan said. Patton shook his head.

The king nodded and offered the entire covered bowl of chicken alfredo to Virgil. “Here, this one’s yours,” he said.

“Really?” Virgil asked tentatively. It wasn’t exactly strange for people here to offer him food, and he’d expected and anticipated getting to eat on this venture, but the king of the country offering him an entire bowl of his favorite food was something else.

“It’s not really my idea of a picnic food and you seem excited for it,” King Thomas said with a warm smile, still holding it out.

Virgil took it reverently. Despite the time it had taken to get to the cliffs, the bottom of the container was still warm. Virgil assumed it was one of the heating spells the kitchen sometimes used.

“Thanks,” Virgil said, setting it in his lap.

“Of course, Virgil,” the king said.

The bowl was enough for four people to have a little bit, but for one person it was a lot. Still, Virgil was offered a little of every other food in the picnic basket (and he ate a good number of the hot cauliflower bites).

“Where do you put all of that?” the king asked when Virgil finished polishing off the chicken alfredo bowl.

Everyone else seemed to have finished eating long before Virgil, though Patton still had a small plate of grapes, and he occasionally popped one in his mouth. King Thomas was currently setting up the board game they’d brought on the blanket between all of them.

Virgil shrugged in answer to his question. “It’s good,” he said, “and I don’t want to waste any of it.”

“You know we can just take the leftovers back to the castle and eat them later,” King Thomas said. “You don’t have to eat it all now.”

Virgil just shrugged again, watching as the king set out a group of 8 figures on the board.

“Here, which character do you want to be?” the king asked Virgil, gesturing at the group of figures. Virgil had not noticed the figures were different at first glance. They were all copper colored and about the size of his thumb, but they had slightly different shapes. He squinted at them each carefully, finding they all looked like people, but with different clothing. Some worse pants and some skirts, a few had hats, and one was even carrying a book.

After a few moments, he pointed at one that looked like it had vines wrapped around its arms and was wearing a floppy hat that almost covered its eyes.

“That’s the druid,” King Thomas told him with a grin. “Good choice, and luckily not one that anyone usually fights over.” He glanced at Logan who didn’t react to his father’s gaze. He just plucked the figure clutching the book off the board for himself.

Patton and the king picked pieces for themselves. Patton picked one with an apron that kind of reminded Virgil of his mom and the king picked one that was in a suit of armor before putting the other 4 figures away.

Unlike checkers, this game wasn’t just for two people, and so no one had to sit watching people play while bored out of their mind.

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They played a practice round so Virgil could figure out how the game worked, though honestly it wasn’t that complicated, so it wasn’t really necessary.

The theme of the game was all about stealing. They were supposed to steal special tokens from other players as well as characters in the game and the first person with 20 tokens won.

The other three players argued that stealing was not the point and not the main mechanism of the game, but considering Virgil was consistently winning the entire time, he would argue they were just playing it wrong. He managed to collect 20 tokens before anyone else. In second place at this time was Logan with 9 tokens.

Logan insisted on continuing to play the game to determine 2nd and 3rd place, so Virgil ended up watching them play for a bit. Virgil didn’t mind sitting and watching other people play this game, mostly because he still had the joy of victory running in his veins.

Thomas was definitely going to lose, he noted. He kept wasting his money feeding the nonplayer characters who lived on his lands. Virgil didn’t mention this faulty strategy to him in case Virgil ever played him again.

When Logan took too long thinking about his next move, Virgil took in their surroundings.

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He’d been a bit too distracted by the prospect of food and then trying to understand (and then win) the game to truly take in The Cliffs. They were settled a good distance away from the cliffside but Virgil could still see how quickly the edge dropped off. He couldn’t see the large river he was told was at its base from where he was sitting, but he did see a few of the promised wild birds (including doves) flying around. The king had promised they’d bird watch for a bit, and Virgil figured that would happen after the game was over.

A cool spring breeze brushed across Virgil’s face, and he put his hand in his hoodie pockets to warm them. Instead, his fingers hit something icy cold.

For a moment, he didn’t remember what it was. The crescent shape of it was familiar when he put his hand over it, but he had never felt it cold before.

It was the protection charm: the first charm Virgil had ever made with Logan so many months ago. It was meant to ward off small threats as well as warn you about larger threats by changing temperature…

It had always been warm.

“What?” Patton asked, having noticed Virgil suddenly tense. Virgil, despite how he drilled into his friend’s heads to stay alert had gone soft. He’d let himself be distracted by a full belly and warm blankets and fun games.

He didn’t answer Patton. He filtered the other boy’s worried face out as well as Logan’s face as he glanced at him and the king’s still focused on the game for now. He filtered out the picnic blanket and smell of food still lingering in the air and the vine covered figure set in the middle of the board on the winner’s space. He filtered out the sound of the breeze and the breath of his companions and the distant chirping of birds.

And he heard a whoosh.

Chapter 58 (Patton)

If Patton hadn’t already been looking, he probably wouldn’t have had any idea what happened.

Everything had been fine. Virgil had been sitting cross legged, idly watching the conclusion of the game they’d been playing when his posture had suddenly changed. Patton had looked over at him only to see an expression on his face he didn’t recognize, but it didn’t seem good.

“What?” Patton had asked, but the question didn’t seem to register to Virgil.

Logan had glanced up confused and also noticed Virgil’s face. He’d just opened his mouth to also ask what was going on when chaos descended.

Virgil was suddenly moving, crashing into King Thomas who hadn’t even looked up to see something was wrong at that point. Patton realized after the fact that Virgil had swiped up the board of the game they’d been playing as he jumped over it, the pieces previously stacked on it scattering all over the blanket. There were three thumps as some things hit the thick board, imbedding themselves into the surface.

When Virgil discarded the board in favor of the picnic basket, Patton saw there were small darts in it oozing a dark black liquid. The parts of the board they touched were dissolving, the grass under the new holes beginning to wilt rapidly.

Logan seemed to notice the oozing liquid the same moment Patton did and was quicker to realize what it was. He grabbed Patton’s arm and yanked him away from the board so hard he almost dislocated Patton’s shoulder, not that Patton was too worried about that. He scrambled away from it when he realized what it must be himself.

He could hear the sound of glassware smashing above them. Logan and Patton had rolled off the blanket in their quest to get away from the smoldering, melting board and apparently Virgil had pulled the picnic blanket fully over the king at some point.

Virgil himself was now gone from where he’d been the last time Patton had looked and it took him a moment to figure out where the boy had gone. The person who had been shooting poisoned darts at them had been drawn out of the wooded area they’d been hiding in by Virgil’s attacks.

They were cloaked in dark green from head to toe, explaining why they’d been difficult to spot when they were in the woods. Whoever they were, they were significantly larger than Virgil, possibly an actual adult or almost adult assassin, but they were also clearly a long distant fighter. They had not been expecting resistance let alone resistance in the form of a so quick he was almost a blur fellow assassin.

They had a bow strapped to their back, but they hadn’t had a chance to get it. Instead, they were trying to fight Virgil off with an arrow they’d managed to draw from their quiver. Virgil, meanwhile was lunging at them with a broken piece of plate in one hand and the picnic basket in the other.

Virgil dodged out of the way of the arrow striking towards his arm, though Patton didn’t think it was because he was afraid of getting scratched by an arrow, but because it may also be poisoned tipped.

Virgil was distracted by dodging for long enough that the older assassin managed to hit him in the face with the arm not holding the arrow.

He went down, but he took the older assassin with him, sweeping their legs out from under them. Patton hadn’t noticed (his mind working too slow for how fast they were moving) but they were on a slight incline. They went rolling in a tangle of arms and legs towards the edge of the cliff and skidded to a stop only a few feet away.

Virgil ended up on top, his piece of broken plate in his hands. He moved to slash it across the other assassin’s throat and managed to draw blood, but the assassin’s fist came out to shove at Virgil’s chest at just the right moment, causing the strike to veer off course and slice across the assassin’s cheek instead.

Virgil jerked to the side to avoid a second strike to the chest and went back for another slash. The other assassin rolled to the side as he did and the plate only managed to nick their ear. The point of the motion hadn’t been to dodge, however. They were lunging for the arrow they’d dropped a few feet away while they’d rolled. They grabbed it with their right hand and in the same motion stabbed back behind them towards Virgil.

Virgil rolled to avoid the hit, already slashing up with his plate as the assassin turned back towards him.

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He didn’t hit them this time but his swipe managed to stop them from stabbing him when they tried again. They shoved themselves back to avoid Virgil’s swing, putting a bit of distance between them. Both of them managed to make it to their feet during the momentary reprieve, but both also stayed crouched, eyeing each other.

They both lunged towards each other at the same time. The assassin went for a stab to Virgil’s neck with the arrow, but Virgil was already ducking down. This time, he wasn’t going for a kill shot. He grabbed the assassin’s wrist and at the same time drove his piece of plate into the assassin’s arm, slicing down from the elbow to wrist. The assassin spoke for the first time, cursing in a language Patton didn’t recognize as they were forced to drop their arrow.

Virgil took a moment to kick the arrow away from the assassin and it ended up falling off the cliff.

However, this pause gave the assassin enough time to regroup. Despite their arm bleeding profusely, they still decided to use it to backhand Virgil across the face viciously, leaving a long line of their own blood across his face.

Virgil lunged back forward, but the assassin was able to get a leg between them, kicking Virgil squarely in the chest and sending him flying back a few feet parallel to the cliff’s edge.

The assassin went to grab their bow and another arrow from the quiver still strapped to their shoulder.

Virgil, however, apparently went for another weapon too and he was much faster with a knife than any archer. A knife appeared in his hand, having been strapped to his ankle and was embedded into the assassin’s chest before they could even full remove an arrow from their quiver.

The assassin promptly burst into flames, fire catching their clothes (and from the smell of it their skin) ablaze. Panicked and dying, they stumbled two steps to the side. They stepped directly off the cliff.

There was a second of silence. They heard the sound of the body hitting the ground far below and then the flap of wings and screeching as birds below fled from the startling sound (and possible soon to be forest fire).

…

“Uh, Virgil?” King Thomas said. He had managed to get the blanket off his head at some point. When, Patton didn’t know, but seeing any of it was probably enough.

Oopsie.

[crookshanks23]

Season 1, Episode 34: Dedicated Involved Loving Fathers

(Note: This is a long one y'all. I ended up typing out all of my thoughts on this one)

Favorite Moment: The entire phone call with Beth May.

General Thoughts:

All right: because I'm really curious, I want to sit and log my feelings as I listen to this. As I mentioned in my previous post, this is the one episode that I've not been able to relisten to because it set me off the first time I heard it. I was listening to the podcast in the car, because I was doing a lot of commuting, and I was so confused by this episode that I exited out of the episode a couple of different times, sure that I had accidentally skipped an episode. And that confusion has just really put me off from this episode. Looking back on the episode, it's very clever, from what I can remember of it, but it bothered me so much. Maybe it's because I was driving, and so instead of just being a fun time, it became this huge distraction.

So, what I remember of this episode, is that there is a fight with bounty hunters and somehow they end up riding on a bunch of animals. And there are some shenanigans with Dennis. But that's it. Most of the details of this episode are not in my brain anymore.

So here we go, let's see how I feel about this one on my second go-around. (By the way, I finished episode 33 over a week ago, have hit play on this episode three times, and have been unable to listen to it. But now it's time. I'm going to do this.)

This intro is very dumb, but very funny. And I love a good "flip to side two" joke. It makes my old millennial heart happy.

The whole table talk and Dad fact portion does a great job of integrating Ashley naturally. So flawless it threw me.

Grant's nickname is shooter? Oh no. The context of that now is unfortunately not a funny baby poop joke. Oof.

Again, so nonchalant in with the Dennis stuff. And I didn't realize that he was also a rogue. No wonder Ron doesn't like him.

His anchor is at the librarium decepticus? That's so smart.

Thanks Ron, for saying all the things I felt listening to this the first time.

Okay, enjoying the episode so far. Doing a quick check-in on how I'm feeling. Maybe it's just me and this horrible bias I have against this episode, but it feels different. It's still enjoyable and I'm still smiling while I'm listening, but it's more that I'm enjoying the heat between Ron and Dennis. I don't know, this is a weird experience.

Ron fell on to his dagger? There's definitely some shenanigans happening here. Accident? I think not!

Poor Grant. Why give him an axe? I had forgotten about all of the additional trauma that happens to this boy in this episode.

Dennis has always been Paeden's favorite? Ugh. Feels awful. Poor Darryl.

Ron doing what Dennis does is great.

RIP jug. It was a cool, useful item.

I'm just happy to be here. Ok, that was flawless. Hats off to Ashley for that one.

So much shade being thrown towards Ron AND Beth. I don't like it. But I like it.

The energy. Is so weird.

It's not bad, for a combat episode. But doesn't feel like how they do combat. More like how actual combat goes in a DnD game.

Okay, another feelings check in. I really do love the Ron anti-Dennis heat. It is very funny.

So we're now 30 minutes from the end of the episode, and the combat is over. And I have no idea what is left because I don't remember anything else from this episode.

Ok, the entire Beth May phone call is hysterical.

Love that Erin hates Dennis too. Oh wait. Nope. She's playing hard to get. That is pretty funny.

Mr. Mustache meets Terry! And Terry finally believes Ron!

Dennis brings up Scam... And reveals himself as Mark. Glenn's line of "Mark- what did you do with Dennis?" Very funny. He's revealed and then disappears.

And there's some planning and apologizing and that's it. I did it!

And next time, we get to what I consider the official start of Arc 2. Let's go get some anchors!

[slonekaru]

I posted 6,258 times in 2022

268 posts created (4%)

5,990 posts reblogged (96%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@crazzzedope

@scarefox

@spicyvampire

@smittenskitten

@rocktheholygrail

I tagged 4,100 of my posts in 2022

Only 34% of my posts had no tags

#love in the air - 552 posts

#kinnporsche - 463 posts

#payurain - 298 posts

#boss chaikamon - 293 posts

#noeul nuttarat - 282 posts

#vegaspete - 258 posts

#zhang zhehan - 254 posts

#build jakapan - 221 posts

#bounprem - 221 posts

#between us the series - 207 posts

Longest Tag: 136 characters

#i like to think in the boc kp universe since leather cuffs weren't used at the safe house they are vegas/petes choice for sexy fun times

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

You know I've seen a few posts on Porsche bring Pete to the bar so Vegas can speak to him. How this was the wrong thing to do, or how he's fallen into the moral grey area of being in the mafia as he is only thinking about himself and getting the info he wants from Vegas, but not thinking or caring about Petes' feelings/mental state.

But you know what, I'm going to give this one to Porsche. No doubt some people will disagree but I honestly thought Porsche added 2 plus 2 and actually got 4. And lets face it that is a miracle in itself with this series unless your name is Tankhun!

Why do I feel this way when others don't?

Porsche knows Pete's been with the minor family, despite Pete's denial. He also knows Vegas penchant for torture, that there is the first connection. He knows Vegas did this to Pete since Pete has turned up in the state he has.

And the way I read it he was watching Pete struggle with his emotions in that bathtub and recoginsed something in them. Because it wasn't that long ago Porsche was struggling with his own emotions when they were waring inside of him about the fact Kinn had sexually assaulted him when he was drugged vs the fact he was actually attracted to Kinn and did want something to happen, he just wasn't ready.

Also Porsche is completely familiar with Vegas's tactics by now, he knows Vegas uses emotional and sexual manipulation. Porsche was on the receiving end of that and he got a first-hand look at the outcome of it via Tawan. So it's not far-fetched that he makes connection 2, something emotional/sexual happened between Vegas and Pete.

How did him and Kinn move forward? Well, they talked it out. Sure they had to be handcuffed together and go trapsing through the woods, but that is how he settled his emotions and it wouldn't surprise me that in his mind Pete needs the same thing.

Cue a call between him and Vegas and Vegas 'requesting' to see Pete. Because that is the phrasing he used as Porsche was walking away from Vegas in the back alley of Hum, he had a request.

Porsche could have easily not brought Pete, he could have easily stuck to Petes' side and not allowed Vegas a chance to get near him. But as he said it was down to Vegas from there. And Pete is still a bodyguard and capable of defending himself (after all he was carrying and pulled the gun on Vegas).

Maybe Porsche decided this was the time for Pete to get that opportunity in a safe environment, where he could walk away if he didn't want to talk and it is away from the rest of the main family where Pete is trying to hide what happened to him.

And let's face it Porsche was right because Pete needed a genuine apology from Vegas, which he got. It's then up to him if he wants to accept.

So in summary it seemed like Porsche was hella perceptive and understanding of Petes' feelings. He actually cared a lot about helping Pete and is just worried about his friend.

208 notes - Posted July 3, 2022

#4

You know I thought this was innocent at first but then my brain went 'wait a minute!'

Is Noeul making a joke/alluding to the sex scene?!?!?! And Peat damn well knows it as well!

266 notes - Posted September 28, 2022

#3

I can't believe Payu rocked up to Rains

Talked himself into the house

Got Rain half naked right under his moms nose

Charmed Rains mother over dinner

Made out with Rain in his childhood bedroom right under his moms nose again!

Somehow acquired Rains moms phone number while doing all the above

Called Rains mom to request Rain come over for a booty call!!!!

And got away with it all!

The Balls on this man! Capital B!

361 notes - Posted September 15, 2022

#2

No one: So Slone what were you doing when you found out the Queen had died?

Me: Watching a bratty baby sub getting railed for the first time by his newly acquired Dom. Why, what about you?

430 notes - Posted September 8, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Like I love the fact that out of all that has been happening in Kinnporsche there is a big chunk of the fandom obsessed with this guy

850 notes - Posted June 19, 2022

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