#like yeah! that’s it that’s the thing i��ve been trying to figure out how to say!!

[lyraeon]

A while back I learned something important from my therapist, and since I was trying to recount it anyway to share with a friend, I thought I would bring it to y'all as well.

We have all had at least one of those days where we've stayed up way too late doing something fun but we just don't want to stop doing it. Logically I figured that's just because "well yeah I don't want to stop, I have to go to sleep then to work and those suck compared to it."

Except then that starts happening often and you feel bad about always staying up every night, but then you feel worse and get more stressed because you know you're doing something you're "not supposed to", but because you're more stressed you want more fun time... endless cycle.

But as I was talking about it all and told her I thought I was self-sacrificing, the therapist had a very useful question for me:

"How do you normally know it's time to stop having fun? Like you know it's time to finish work because your shift's over, you know it's time to stop doing the dishes when they're all done or the washer's full, what is your signal to stop having fun?"

And I had to search for a while to answer.

"When the activity is done" - okay sure, but many games and books and series, or doing your own creative thing, "done" may take days upon days or even be non-existent.

"When I had to pass the controller" - obvious and easy one! If you knew you had a finite turn then the defined end is readily there, and you're also prepared for it! But requires pre-arranging the limits.

"When I got in trouble for it" - ding ding ding, we found the big problem.

When you grow up with "fun" being a forbidden activity you're only allowed to do after everything else is done to 100% perfection, then you learn to sneak it in where you can fit it. And you need that shit, seriously - you cannot get through life without some source of enjoyment, some tiny glimmer of joy among the tedium.

Many of us learned to read under the covers, or to play our gameboy in the bathroom and hide it under the sink, or that we could get away with running around the backyard for another 20 minutes if we just learned which intonation of "come inside" was the actual trouble line, or whatever other ways to cram in as much joy as we could before the hammer came down, for whatever severity that meant in your house.

And so that feeling of "I shouldn't be doing this, I'm going to get caught, but if I'm going to get in trouble anyway I might as well get as much out of this as I can" becomes part of what you expect to feel when you're having fun. And you only know how to stop having fun when you feel that way when you get in trouble for it - and in absence of anyone else controlling your behavior, that means the bad guy becomes either whatever task pops up to remind you responsibilities exist, or your significant other pointing out it's really late and they wish you'd come to bed, or your boss yelling at you for being tired all the time... or it becomes you.

If you don't learn that fun isn't a forbidden activity, if you stay stuck in the mindset that it's something you have to cram in in secret and hide that you're even doing? It becomes so so easy to hate the voice of reason in your head that's trying to encourage moderation and we're going to regret this tomorrow.

And that escalates. You keep being too tired the next day. You keep feeling even worse when you sit down to enjoy yourself the next night because now you're already tired, so stress gets to you faster, and now you feel guilty about how late you're staying up so you're not really enjoying playing your game or scrolling Tumblr or whatever anymore, you're just nervously glancing at the clock, "have I spent too long yet? How much longer can I do this before I get in trouble?"

Even though now you're in your 20s or 30s and it's been a decade since the last time anyone else told you it was bed time.

Learning that you're allowed to have fun isn't easy; guilt and shame are emotions that run very, very deep. And neither is learning to have a healthier relationship with saying "okay, that's enough for today".

For one, you have to stop threatening yourself. "Tomorrow is gonna suck" and "You're going to regret this" and "we're going to get in trouble at work" don't work. You already feel bad, you already know it's gonna suck, so why wouldn't you try to cram in one more hour now while it's not the day that's going to suck yet? Punishment is not incentive.

Because by now you're in a situation where sleep is a horrifying punishment that ends any fun, but you're not enjoying your fun anyway because you're tired all the time on top of feeling ashamed for doing something fun, and you're spending the entire time beating yourself up for being an idiot with no self control who can't even handle going to bed on time like a normal human being...

etc etc etc.

You will hear a lot of people give advice on how to get rid of the idea of having to "earn" sleep or fun or happiness by doing "enough" other things. To learn to accept that just being alive is enough reason to "deserve" to do those things. That will work for some people, but for others it just ends up one more thing to scold yourself about, especially when you're already in the habit not of denying yourself entirely but instead of doing it and feeling guilty the whole time.

But learning to set limits ahead of time, so that you're not anticipating some unknown time that a nebulous authority figure is going to finally have their horror monster timer run out and leap out at you but instead know when and what to expect? Holy shit it helped.

Don't get me wrong, it hella felt like depriving myself at first, like I was being grounded, and I looked at my phone beeping saying it was bedtime quite often and got annoyed.

But then I stopped treating fun as something that had to wait until the end of the day and everything else had to be done first. It is way easier to stare down sleep and go "I don't need you", especially if you have any kind of insomnia making the idea of being in bed a dreadful one on top of it. It is harder to say that about dinner, or calling a friend, or walking the dog. Plus then the day isn't over yet, so giving up on your fun isn't also accepting that as the defining moment of the end of your day!

So you have to start practicing looking for places to squeeze in a little more fun - "I've got an hour before dinner, that's perfect to make some tea and watch two episodes." "My favorite youtuber just put up a new video, why don't I take a break to watch it before I finish this homework?" "I need to go grocery shopping tomorrow anyway, and if I leave an hour early I could go kick around the bookstore first."

And once you do, fun starts to feel less shameful.

Don't get me wrong, if your issues run deep enough it still does sometimes. But when you get to have these moments of joy that you don't feel the need to hide or apologize for and where punishment isn't part of the routine, then fun stops feeling like something you have to dig your claws into for fear of having it taken away from you once someone catches you with it. And that means that finishing a level and glancing over at the clock is something you do because it actually managed to click a satisfaction switch in your head and you wondered if it was a good note to end on for now, instead of something you do with your breath held and the berating words already cycling in your mind.

I am not offering this advice expecting it to work for everyone or be easy or anything like that. I am someone with Depression, ADHD, and pretty severe PTSD sharing a technique that one therapist told me that really happened to click for and help me specifically, in case it might help someone else be a little nicer to themselves today, too.

[rafeslittlevixen]

OBX SEASON 4 RANT

SPOILERS AHEAD

This is just my opinion on how this played out, so lets get into it

Rafe and Sofia: I love both of them (Drew and Fiona) but, the storyline is straight up a fanfic, they took the most common fanfic of Rafe and said "yeah, lets do that his redemption arc". I do think Sofia is great for him, does he deserves her? absolutely no. He was so far beyond redemption the only way he could´ve had it was by going to jail or dying, just like Ward did. They were adorable, don´t get me wrong, that version of Rafe was amazing and I know he was trying to change for her and be a better man, and have what Ward had. But I don´t think he actually loved her, he cares about her, she was what he thought was perfect for him, what Ward would want, but then again, Rafe does not know what love actually is, he cares about her in a way he has never cared about anyone, but I do think it was just for the looks and what would people say. As for Sofia, she cares about him, I would say she is really close to loving him, but if she truly loved him she would have never sold him out to Hollis and Groff. If she had truly loved him she would´ve told him about it when he proposed, I know she kinda didn´t let her, but come on, she had to know it was gonna come back to bite her in the ass. So idk, do I think they made a cute couple? yes, but it was bound to happen.

Pope and Cleo: That was the dumbest decision he has ever made, I get that he wanted to protect JJ cause that´s his brother, but come one everyone know you don´t attack a cop. I think its a bit unrealistic that he got away by enlisting, but also I think if that was the only option it is gonna be great for him. I do think Pope has let go a little through the seasons and I love it, but I think that was out of character for him. Cleo, my baby; she IS a though cookie, she´s been kinda on her own her whole life, I do think she would have figured it out but she did not have too. Pope is, in my opinion, the stable thing she needs. Also, him killing the guy who killed Terrance was also out of character but it made sense and also the reaction he had. Do i think it´s gonna haunt him for life? yes. OH AND THE NO GOODBYES CLUB???? adorable, i love them and their little clubs, they ate this season.

Sarah and John B: I knew she was gonna be pregnant, but the fact that the Pates didn´t let her mention she had a choice, does not sit well with me. John B being terrified of becoming his dad was so good, it gave him a complexity and that makes you see a character growth. Also John B being so protective of Sarah was so adorable, the way he looked at her when they were looking for that apple for her to eat in Morocco was adorable. ALSO SARAH BEING BABY ABOUT NOT BEING ABLE TO MARRY HIM WHEN SHE WANTED WAS SO CUTE, I LOVED IT. I also wanna thank Cline and Chase, because they do care about this characters and their relationship. Jarah would have sufferd so much if they had not remain professionals.

Pogues and Rafe: The way he safe them???? I get it he wanted his 400k back but also so out of character for him? I loved it but also i know they dont trust him and thats completely fair, but also, after that scene, you guys know which one, thats not the way to make him part of the core.

Sarah and Rafe: my babies, the whole season both of them have been wanting to talk about everything or at least they wanted each other back. I do think both of them would work together to get back Wheezie cause wtf is that that she´s with Rose??? I never actually thought she adopted them. Rafe just wants his family back, or whatever he´s got left from it. I think that after finding out what a backstabbing bitch Sofia is, (Fiona yo te amo hermana, pero Sofia si está bien wey) he was terrified of also trusting the Pogues and thats why he acted the way he did after Sarah saved him, but also finally listening to Sarah and what actually happened in El Dorado and what she told him about being the only family they have left? I do think he is gonna be better and he is gonna be protective of Sarah now, because he knows its only the three of them and he does not wanna lose any more people. Drew and Cline carrying the show yet again.

JJ and Kie: what a fucking mess this two are, the body dobles while being just sitting down near each other in Morocco? The handshake when he was leaving with Groff? They had a great chemistry during season one, the slow burn they were building and how he was pinning after her and he had to watch her be with John B and Pope? He slowly opening up to her? He going crazy when she was kidnapped in Barbados? The reunion after she escaped with Rafe? Saving her from Kitty Oaks? I don´t know what went wrong, but the fact that in most of their scenes they looked fucking uncomfortable makes me sad. She knows she loved him, she was trying to distract herself from him because he was so tough at the beginning, it just makes me fucking sad the way it all ended. Also, no shame to Bailey but I cried more during that scene than she did.

JJ and his parents: where do I begin? He deserves so much better, he deserved a happy ending. I think they also ran with the theory of JJ not being a pogue, but just because they took Rafe´s fanfic they thought that it would be too obvious if they made him a Cameron. He had such a rough life, if this had not happened he would still be JJ, he was so out of character the second part, and I get it. They tried to make us hate him for the way he was acting, but just as he and Kie knew they would not do what Groff was telling them, we know JJ. But also, he was a loved baby, Larissa loved him so much and he had a family. I know everything would be so different if she wasn´t murdered, but if she was able to leave fucking Groff and being with Luke, I do think JJ would´ve found his way to John B and Pope eventually. He would also probably already been friends with Kie and Sarah, and maybe the just maybe he would not have been an ass to the pogues. I do think Luke cared about him, but the resentment toward Groff and taking care of a child who was not even his made Luke that way; but also he probably only cared about him because he liked Larissa, so he felt that he needed to care about JJ for Larissa to care. Fucking Groff, he made Ward and Big John look like parents of the year. I know he only probably had JJ to keep up with appearances but the fact that he played him like a fucking violin??? I know there are a shit ton of mess up things in this show, but that one takes the cake. HE COULD´VE WALKED AWAY WITH THE DAMN CROWN, JJ GAVE IT TO HIM TO SAFE THE FUCKING LOVE OF HIS LIFE AND HE STABBED THE SHIT OUT OF HIM JUST BECAUSE??? no, that´s fucked up.

Idk, if JJ died because someone did not wanted to be in the show anymore I think that speaks volumes in terms of how the set works. The fact that they had to kill the fucking glue of the group and both of the actors involved on the onscreen couple could not act professional to keep it going is crazy to me. If you were on the whole Nina and Ian debacle back in the day, you know how bad this things can get, but the fact that we have a real ex couple remaining professional after a public break up and having their onscreen couple getting married and having a kid speaks on the level of professionalism those two had. I´m more pissed for how JJ was handle than Rudy leaving the show, we all saw it coming, and I do think we all went into the season with the feeling JJ was gonna die but we also had hope of being wrong. I´m so sorry JJ, you deserved so much better that what was written for you, and how the actor who played you handle things.

[jades-typurriter]

Cherry Pops Under The Hood

This piece was my half of an art trade with @ricecreamart back in November 2023, starring her cast of OCs. She also did all the illustrations for this after the fact—if you're as much of a fan of plushie and mechanical stuff as I am (which, if you're one of my followers, there's a good chance), you should have a look at her work!!

The apartment was filled with all its usual signs of activity. The air inside was chilly—this deep into fall, the leaves had long since fallen and winter was beginning to butt in early. Ada hadn’t actually had to run her cooling fans in a long while, since it was cold enough even inside that her processors could be passively cooled, but she set them on low anyway. Her employers, Cherry and Nutmeg, appreciated any little bit of heat they could get, even the paltry amount that her system kicked out when she was just going about her business.

The two of them were seated at the kitchen table, snouts basking in the rising steam above their drinks. Ada relished in the mingling scents of Nutmeg’s tea and Cherry’s hot chocolate, and listened as the two of them bickered and bantered. Also as usual, Cherry was on the back foot in their flirty little playfight. Ada glanced over and saw all the tells that she was gonna be the first to get flustered: her eyes narrowed to help keep her face steady, her stubborn smile as though she was taking all of Nutmeg’s pokes and innuendos in good humor.

She smiled to herself and continued through the room, carrying a fresh load of laundry (and trying her best not to bury her face in the warm, soft fabric, another favorite new sensation of hers). She walked carefully—some component in her leg had failed recently, and the bundle of clothes was obscuring the ground in front of her feet. Though she tried to keep her gait straight, she could hear her own footsteps falling unevenly, heavy under her metal frame in spite of her padded exterior: thump-pmfsshh, thump-pmfsshh, thump-pmfsshh. One of Cherry’s ears flicked toward her and, grateful for the opportunity to retreat from Nutmeg’s teasing, she piped up.

“Hey, are you good, Ada? It sounds like one of your legs is dragging.”

“Yeah, uh…” she mumbled, her brows furrowing. “That’s a bit worse than I thought it was, actually… Here, lemme just set this down.” She dumped the clothes onto a nearby chair and, once again watching her step, ambled over to the table.

“‘ve you been having this problem long?” Cherry asked, resting her arm over the back of her chair to better face the housekeeper.

“You didn’t have to come in if you weren’t feeling well, you know,” Nutmeg added, setting her drink aside.

“Oh, I know, I just,” Ada hemmed, “I already have an appointment with the engineers that built this body for me, and y’know, they’re pretty busy… I figured, as long as I could watch where I was going, it wouldn’t be that much of a problem in the meantime.”

“Do you mind if I ask what’s wrong?” Cherry tilted her head. Ada had seen the expression before, on the number of occasions where she’d watched her fixing things up for other people—there was concern layered over it, but her interest was piqued.

“I think it’s a severed cable, the one that leads from my central nervous system to my knee. Or, maybe disconnected. I hope it’s not severed, uh. It could always be replaced, but it’d be much more of a hassle to have the whole cord unfastened and removed, and, y’know, it’s better to just not get damaged in the first place. Uh—”

“Do you want me to take a look at that for you?”

“Um.” Ada hesitated. Her fans, subtly, spun up. She hadn’t been examined by anybody besides the doctors and mechanics that had put her in her new body. For how many times they checked and double-checked her, from tip to tail and from paw to prow, that she’d be used to having someone poking around in her body, but… The last check-up had been months and months ago, before they were confident they could let her live on her own after the transition.

Plus, they were doctors, and it would feel… it would feel very different to have her friend get so close to her. Other than a doctor, it would actually be the first time anyone had gotten so close. But she had spent a good deal of time with Cherry since moving here, and she’d seen firsthand how good she was with her tools… Her fans spun yet faster; it occurred to her that they were becoming audible. Nutmeg’s eyes flicked between the two of them, which Cherry didn’t notice, but made Ada realize how long she’d been trying to think of what to say.

“Sure?” Okay, maybe she should have spent longer thinking about it. Nutmeg’s eyebrow jumped a full inch. “BUT, uh, c-ould we maybe? Do that in private? It feels a little… I don’t know, embarrassing. To have to strip and everything.”

“Oh, well, yeah. I mean, I wouldn’t ask you to get naked in the middle of the living room! C’mon, we can just do it in the den, you already know where my setup is.” She hopped out of her chair and, casually as anything, sauntered over to the den to wait for Ada to strip down to bare metal for her. Ada glanced back at Nutmeg; the wry smile she wore when she’d been pushing Cherry’s buttons was halfway back on her face—or maybe just half-concealed.

“You’ll be in good paws, sweetie,” she assured Ada, doing absolutely nothing to settle her nerves. Her wires. Whatever. “Do you need me to help you walk over there?”

“N-no, that’ll be—I’ll be fine, I just have to be careful. But thank you! Thank you, um,” she stuttered, eventually opting to just follow Cherry after realizing she wasn’t going to get any less awkward under the tanuki’s gaze. When she walked into the den, Cherry glanced over her shoulder.

“Just go ahead and get comfortable up here,” she said, patting a spot on the table. As she went back to rooting through toolboxes, she continued. “You said it was your knee, right? So you shouldn’t actually have to strip down. I promise I’m not gonna, like, look up your skirt.”

“Well, no, but—It’s not the c-clothes I’m worried about—well, I guess I’m worried about the clothes, too, um. Okay, just, you’ll see.” She turned away from Cherry—not that she was even looking. Gosh, why did this worry her so much?—and bent down to reach under her skirt. She fumbled for a moment before her paw found a zipper; she pulled gently, working it around the circumference of her hip joint, and began to roll down the now-freed fabric casing that sat over her metal frame. When it was about halfway down her calf, leaving her thigh and knee bare, she padded over next to Cherry and sat down on the table.

“Alright, are you—oh,” Cherry interrupted herself, finally looking over from her tools and seeing the exposed mechanisms. “Ohhh, I see, okay. My bad,” she apologized, rubbing the back of her neck. “When you said you had to strip, I thought you meant… your clothes. I forgot the fuzzy bits are separate, haha.”

“Oh, t-thats, totally fine,” Ada managed, unable to look Cherry in the eyes.

“I think I just, consider it… like, it’s your face, right? It’s like if you were trying to think of my skin as a separate entity from the rest of me. When I think of ‘Ada’, that’s just, what you look like.” Ada finally turned her head, just about at eye level with Cherry from her seated position. Their eyes lingered on each other for a moment; Cherry’s expression was still somewhat sheepish after the little misunderstanding, and something flickered behind Ada’s eyes that approached doubtfulness. Disbelief. Then a little smile broke on her face, and there was something very soft in them instead, softer even than her plush exterior. 

“That… means a lot to hear, actually,” she half-whispered, her eyes drifting downward. “Sometimes I still have to remind myself of it, but you’re right. This is me. It’s just, it’s almost a pleasant surprise every time I re-realize it, y’know? Like it’s too good to be true.”

“Oh, god, do I understand that,” Cherry chuckled, shoulders relaxing in the mercifully-broken tension. But hey,” she said, drawing their eyes back together. “you kinda get used to it after a while. Not in a way where it stops being fun, though!. Like, you still wake up some days, and it’s like it’s Christmas, but it doesn’t shock you like you’d lost track of the date, right? You still get to be you—it’s still awesome every time you remember ‘dude, this is your life now’—but you don’t forget that you’re you in the meantime. Y’know?”

“I can imagine. I get closer every day, I think. Physical… snags, like this one, remind me a lot of how things were before, but… I guess I have you for that now, right?”

“Right!” Cherry slapped a fist down into her open palm. “We’re gonna get you good as new in no time. You ready?”

“I-I think I am! Uh—” she stammered, pressing down her skirt between her legs. “Okay, now I’m ready!” Cherry giggled, then looked at her lap and back up at her.

“...Do your clothes even come off?”

“Sure! If. You take the rest of me off, too.” They stared at each other for another half a breath and cracked up again. That’s bedside fuckin’ manner, babey!! Cherry was doing a kickass job at this robot doctor thing already. She kneeled down, still giggling, to get a closer look at the laggy limb.

“Woooahh,” she mused, face-to-face with Ada’s bare knee. Her eyes were wide and sparkling like the robot had shone a little red laser dot on the floor in front of her. “Oh my god, Ada. I know we were just talking about how cool it is to be you, like, with a capital B and Y, but you really are an amazing piece of work!” She gushed for a minute straight about the suspension, a thick spring coiled around Ada’s stand-in for a tibia and fibula, which Cherry could see extending down the remainder of her leg underneath the metal sheath and the remaining fabric cover; that was to say nothing of the hydraulic struts that extended behind and above her knee, powering her locomotion.

“I kind of don’t want to touch anything there… at least, not if we can help it. I’m not gonna say I couldn’t do it—I’m pretty good, y’know,” she added with a flicked ear and a raised eyebrow. “Buuut, it’d definitely be more complicated to fix than a connection issue would, so let’s look around for that first, right?”

“Sure, sure. It should be higher up in my thigh. Thhhhhhat panel,” she recalled after some deliberation, pointing to a plate of metal on the inside of her leg, “should come off.” Cherry produced a screwdriver from her pool of tools and dutifully levered the compartment open, finding… well, it was much cleaner than she’d expected.

“Huh. I guess I gotta give ‘em points for wire management? I can see a couple other big cables running through here, but they’re all on the other side. This one seems to be the only one that runs to the upper leg. Kinda seems like putting all your eggs in one basket, though… If something happens with this wire, poof! There goes your whole thigh.”

“Just like now,” Ada sighed.

“Why would they do it like that?”

“It’s supposed to be like the femoral artery,” she huffed. “If you ask me, the human body is the last thing to be taking design inspiration from, but the engineers liked how tidy it was, and the doctors thought I was complicated enough as it was. They agreed that mirroring the bigger anatomical landmarks would make it so a non-specialist doctor could at least try to treat me.”

“Who the hell studies medicine and engineering?” Cherry muttered, peering further down into Ada’s chassis. “I can see it all the way to the end, though. Like, with a plug and everything still attached. It must’ve just come loose, so all I gotta do is—”

“NyaaAAAA—” Ada squealed. Her paws flew to her mouth; her fans revved full-force. Cherry’s claw had barely grazed the cable, but it felt like she had just rubbed her paw all the way along the inside of her thigh.

“Ah!! Did that hurt? Are you okay?” She looked up at Ada and saw the flustered expression half-hidden behind her paws. She felt a rush of air from the opening to the inside of Ada’s furry casing and realized that she was burning up. “...Oh.”

“I-I’m. Yeah, f-fine,” the mortified android managed, squeezing her eyes shut. “It was just, um. Sensitive. Sorry.”

“Oh, no, it’s no problem!! I should’ve looked a little bit more before leaping, I guess. I’m just,” she finished, bowing her own head again to hide the blush spreading across her own cheeks, “glad you’re alright. Lemme try it with some pliers instead—I’ll be more gentle this time.” She fished out a needle-nosed pair and, gripping the bundle of wire just beneath the plug, slowly finagled it into the socket.

Cherry instructed Ada to flex her knee; she could, just fine. She asked her to extend it, and she did, no problem! She rolled her ankle around next, even though it wasn’t originally the problem, just to make sure Cherry hadn’t accidentally knocked anything else loose while she was down there. She slowly snapped the panel back into place—this time, Ada had braced herself, and though she couldn’t look Cherry in the eye while she was working down there, she barely made a peep this time. They finally emerged from the den, Cherry holding the door open so Ada could make sure she could get around without difficulty again, and were met with Nutmeg eyeing the two of them over her mug.

“Did something go wrong?” She asked, voice full of exaggerated concern—after all, Ada was walking just fine.

“In my workshop?" Cherry gloated. "C'mon. It was just a loose cable. You’ll make sure not to flex your leg too far in the future, right, Ada?”

“Right!”

“Oh, good!” Nutmeg continued. “So, if you didn’t make a mistake in there, I assume you meant to make her squeak like that?” she asked, taking a slow sip of her tea and staring Cherry dead in the eye.

“Y’know,” she forced out, putting her best poker face back on. “I think I’m gonna take Ada to the park, just to put her through her paces. Doesn’t that sound nice, Ada?”

“Huh? I wasn’t done cleani—”

“Awesome! We’ll be back in a bit, Meg,” she growled, nearly shoving the girl out the door in front of her.

It wasn’t long before Cherry realized that she’d escaped from Nutmeg’s coolheaded quips without thinking to take a sweater—she’d jumped out of the fridge and into the freezer, with the way the weather had been recently. Ada offered to turn her fans up, and Cherry stayed nice and close to her (which was very, very easy, with how soft her exterior was). While the two of them walked laps to keep their servos warm and their blood circulating, they talked about all kinds of things. A simple “you mentioned ‘how things were before’” turned into swapping backstories: how Cherry got into tinkering with machines, how Ada got into a machine.

Of course, they had plenty of common ground, from the realization that things could be different, and the freedom that came with it, to the malaise that it had freed them from. Cherry managed to keep things light; like she’d said earlier, things only went uphill from the start of journies like theirs, and she was rarely without a crack that would break the gloom of a bad memory. It got dark faster than they expected, but it had more to do with how much fun they were having together than the shortening days. When it got too cold for Cherry to stand staying out any longer, the two of them walked back to the front door of her apartment building.

“Y’know,” she said when they arrived, “you didn’t have to walk me all the way home. It’s almost like the end of a date, or something.”

“What, with how much you and Nutmeg flirt while I’m around? It couldn’t be!” She froze; and Cherry felt the air around her begin to thaw. “Wait, could it be? Cherry, was this supposed to be a date??”

“I was just kidding, bestie, you don’t have to go critical on me. Usually, you get up under a girl’s skirt at the end of a date, right?”

“C-c’mon!” she cried, screwing her eyes shut again. “It wasn’t like that!!”

“I know, I know!” Cherry laughed. “Hey, c’mon. I promise it’s not like it’s gonna be weird or anything. Doctor-patient confidentiality, or whatever, right? But hey,” she said more softly, reaching for Ada’s paw. She paused before touching her, waiting for her to nod in confirmation before just going and grabbing things, this time. “We could make it a date, next time! If you want, anyway.”

“U-um. Yeah. Yeah!” There was a growing, fully snow-free circle spreading from Ada’s feet, at this point. “T-that would be, it’d be awesome! I would love that!!”

“Great! You know the door’s always open for you, bestie. See you soon?”

“I’m already scheduled to come over again in a few days!!”

“Sooner? I’m on my way to face the music. I was definitely losing to Nutmeg earlier. If you bail me out before she literally pushes me up against the wall, we can call it even for helping you out today.” Ada’s brow furrowed, a little concerned.

“She’s not… literally pushing you around, right?”

“Oh, no! I’m constantly asking for it. Literally, most of the time. I wouldn’t even complain if she did it tonight, but like… it’s the principle. I gotta save face after getting dressed-down in front of a guess like that, y’know?”

“Well, that makes two of us getting exposed in front of our friends, right? At least you aren’t alone.”

“Ha! Sorry again about that. But hey, maybe we can do that on purpose next time too, right?” She could see Ada freezing up again, and blew her a kiss goodbye to save her the trouble of finding her words again, ducking back inside; she could hear the air whooshing around outside all the way until she got back to the elevator.

plus a little bit of an epilogue for you =^w^=

I hope you enjoyed!! The transgender plushie robot catgirl is very near and dear to my heart. I know, I know, total shock. If you're interested in more of my writing you can have a look here and here. And please check Robin out too!! She's crazy talented and is the one who came up with Ada in the first place so

[kraro-school-life]

✦ 2. 1. 25 ✦📓✦ Thursday ✦ 19 days to exams ✦

It´s not looking good. I should have known that the good feeling wouldn´t last long, but now I like actually feel anxious about my exams. And what do I do when I feel lost? I plan. And plan. And journal. - Because I really need to figure out what the right thing to do is here.

Below is a lenghty breakdown of everything for my exams:

Yeah I´m gonna just ramble and hope something good comes out of it. Why I gotta post this on the internet? Good question, idk (I don´t have my 'serious stuff' journal with me and I don´t like mixing my journals up)

No escaping this anymore you little prick (me):

I deleted Instagram and Youtube. I noticed that I (when I felt defeated) escaped to yt a lot, and that wasted me a lot of time. In the moment it feels nessecary, like I will literally break down if I don´t take a break, and it was an easy quick escape. I´ve come to the realisation that I literally don´t have time for that anymore. I will try to maybe do a round on the block outside for 10 minutes and come back. Sounds and is stupid, but it helped today. Worth trying.

Physics:

I did the first physics mock exam and bro tears came to my eyes at the end. It was really difficult but not in the normal way? There was only one question I really had no clue about but the rest were just little things that didn´t work out so I got stuck. I wasted half an hour trying to solve a question because I just forgot that the electric charge of a proton IS OF COURSE JUST A SIMPLE +e. I needed double the expected time to try and even find a point where I could start some of the questions… Anyway. Let´s try to identify my problems (there is a lot);

I don´t fully know the derivations by heart and I should (to not lose time trying to remember)

I have to know what they mean IN DETAIL

I lack knowledge about things; like I know how they function, but I have to think about why that is - but I have to be able to aptly explain things, fast

How do I think is the best way to study for that?

TRULY learn the formulas and derivations by heart - Anki flashcards EVERY DAY

Go through every topic AGAIN, and do additional research. Take notes while doing so. Basically make another summary, but with all the explanations you need.

Try doing 1-2 more practice exams

Note: It is hard. It´s really tempting to just skip things praying they won´t be on the exam but do I really want to risk it? No, I don´t. The problem lies in the details, so that is what I need to have down.

Math:

I procrastinate math the hardest. I hate it. Because I trick myself into thinking that I know how to do it. BUT THAT´S NOT THE POINT. I KNOW how to do it, the problem is I need to know it FAST. The teacher even said that there is no time to think about what you have to do. You need to read the question ONCE and know what to do. And the way to do that is practice. I haven´t been practicing. I feel so bad, like I totally thought I was gonna do it, but I let myself down and... I just feel terrible. I hate myself at the moment. Okay, off track; what I want to do:

Know what and how to do by heart (for things I know will be asked) - Anki flashcards (still need to make them), review every day

Do Aussagen über Ableitungsfunktionen durch Skizzen, because I got everything wrong last time.

Practice to prepare for unusual things. Every day. I desperately need to get some math practice. I am begging myself to practice. (I may do a list to help w/ that)

Note: I am losing my mind

Economics:

Maybe the easiest of them all? But takes the most time. I tried thinking about alternative study methods that may take less time, but it really is the best option.

Do that huge fucking summary but write it down by hand. And After you did a page memorise it. And write in full. I basically mimic what I´ll do on the exam. And that is yap as much as possible, but on topic ofc.

Have real life examples for stuff, it helps out a lot

Look on old exams if there are any questions you would struggle with and fill the gaps

Check if you really have everything...

And now to the subjects I don´t worry (that much) about:

German:

review the books again, memorise the authors and years, not much to add here

Polish:

REVIEW the books (all the books TT) again, like watch 5 different summaries and drill the details in your head because holy shit (no explention)

review the theory again and memorise- I´m NOT repeating last year

Art:

I am so grateful for art <3333 the only subject I actually enjoy doing and I know for a fact I´m gettig a good grade in :) Too bad it takes so much time away from my week before all the other exams (because we have to have the plan ready by then), only for the actual exam to be the last one 2 weeks later :/

Oh yeah maybe think about the mediums you should use

Timewise:

for the love of god I need to wake up earlier. I feel like I need so much more sleep than everyone else but I think opting for 8 instead of 11 would be good (especially on the weekends).

I unfortunately will have to study all big 3 (Phy, math, eco) simultaneously to be done in time, so no time to lose here (I mean I already deleted yt, so)

timeplan for weekdays

I feel better now:

I think this helped soothe my worries a bit. At the end of the day I know that I will somehow pull this off, even if I don´t get the perfect grade it´s not the end of the world. And I am lucky that I don´t have to worry about failing anything. I also want to still take time for one more thing: journalling and going outside. I have a feeling that I will need it more than ever during the next month.

Wow. It´s great that I have this outlet, really.

I hope that I will walk out of the exam hall and all 6 times be at least a little satisfied. I hope to make myself proud.

~ ♦️

[dark-l-angel]

Hii! So like...im not sure how this works, its my first request but i ve been thinking about this ideea about Dick Grayson how has to marry reader (how in my head universe she s lile Tony Stark s daughter) and neither of them likes this so is more like enemies to lovers kinda thing.

So yeah....thats my dumb ideea. Kisses 😘😆

i love this idea actually 🤔..

It was a quiet evening in Gotham, the city's usual hustle and bustle slightly muffled under the weight of an impending storm. Inside Wayne Manor, the lavish home felt even more imposing tonight. A grand, opulent space, filled with family portraits, but there was something else in the air—a tension, thick and palpable.

"Tonight is the night," Bruce had said earlier, his voice stern as always. "It’s non-negotiable."

You didn’t know exactly how you got here. One moment, you were at a charity event for your father’s latest philanthropic venture, and the next, you were in Gotham, standing in front of a man you had never really gotten along with—Dick Grayson.

The man who had been Batman’s sidekick. The one you had always been told was reliable, honorable, and a bit too serious for his own good. And now, you were supposed to marry him.

You weren’t quite sure what had led to this arrangement. Your father and Bruce Wayne had been friends for years, and it seemed this was some sort of business deal that they had cooked up—one that involved you and Dick.

It wasn’t that you didn’t like Dick. No, it was more that you didn’t like being told what to do, especially when it came to something as personal as marriage. You were Tony Stark’s daughter, after all. You had never been the type to settle down. But now, you were supposed to marry this man—this guy you didn’t know beyond his public persona.

"You must be kidding me," you muttered, standing in front of the fireplace in the art room, staring at the crackling flames. "I didn’t sign up for this."

Dick Grayson’s voice broke through your thoughts. “Neither did I” he said coolly, his tone dripping with annoyance.

You turned to see him standing by the door, leaning against the frame, arms crossed, his jaw clenched. His costume—his Nightwing persona—was long gone, replaced by a well-tailored suit, but that only added to the absurdity of it all. The mask was off, but there was still that lingering aura of mystery, the shadow of the vigilante he used to be.

You rolled your eyes. "Great, so we’re in agreement, then? This whole thing is ridiculous."

"You think I want this? This... arranged marriage nonsense?" His words were edged with frustration, but there was something else too—a hint of vulnerability you hadn’t expected. "My entire life has been planned for me. And now this". There was a pause, a heavy silence between you both. He wasn’t wrong. You both were children of legacy—forced into roles you didn’t necessarily want.

"Then why are we doing it?" you asked, your voice quiet now. "What’s the point?"

He stepped closer, the heat of his body just enough to make you shift your gaze to him. "Maybe we don't have a choice" he replied, his voice softer now, a little less hostile.

There was something in his eyes, something that made your breath catch for just a moment. It wasn’t the fire of animosity anymore—it was something deeper, something unspoken. But you weren’t ready to acknowledge it. Not yet. You turned your back, walking toward the window and looking out at the rain as it started to pour.

“You don't even know me," you said, almost to yourself. "How can we do this? How can we pretend?"

His footsteps followed you. "I don't know. But maybe we’ll figure it out, one day at a time".

You didn't have an answer. You weren’t ready to face the truth, the possibility that maybe there was something there—something more than just the contract. But before you could turn away, you felt his presence close behind you.

“Let’s make a deal..” Dick said suddenly, his voice low and firm. “We don’t have to like each other. But we can try to get along for the sake of everyone else in this damn room”.

You raised an eyebrow. "You think we can pull that off?"

Dick smirked "we're both good at pretending.. so why don't you think we can get over this?" He laughed.. you couldn't help the warm feeling in your stomach.

A small laugh escaped your lips, and for a brief moment, it felt like you were back to your old self—the independent woman who didn't need anyone to tell her what to do. But as Dick’s fingers brushed the back of your hand, it startled you.

The touch was electric. Almost too electric. You turned to face him, your heart skipping a beat.

"I don’t want to pretend with you anymore" Dick said quietly, his voice now filled with something you hadn’t expected: sincerity. "Not after tonight."

Your breath caught, but before you could say anything, he was kissing you—tentative at first, as if he wasn’t sure you’d want it. But when you kissed him back, your hands reaching up to his shoulders, the kiss deepened. You could feel the raw chemistry between you, the underlying tension that had been there from the start.

When he pulled away, both of you were breathless. His forehead rested against yours, eyes searching yours as if to make sure this was real.

"I never expected this," you whispered, your hands sliding down to his chest.

Dick smiled, a soft, genuine smile that made your heart flutter in your chest. "Neither did I..".

But somewhere deep inside, you both knew this wasn’t the end. This was just the beginning. Imagine slow dancing after this kiss 🫠💓 as time freeze and u both getting lost in ur own little world ❤️ OMFG 🤧💕.

A Few Months Later

The marriage had happened, as much as neither of you had truly wanted it. But over time, the cold walls between you had started to crack. What had once been an arrangement for political gain slowly transformed into something more complex, more emotional.

One late evening, as you and Dick stood on the balcony of Wayne Manor, overlooking the city, you turned to him, the night sky dotted with stars above you, the moonlight shine on his blue ocean eyes..

“We’ve been at this for a while now,” you said softly. “I guess I owe you an apology.”

Dick raised an eyebrow. "For what?"

"For being a jerk,” you admitted. “For thinking we could never make this work. I was wrong."

He laughed quietly. “We both were”.

You moved closer to him, the distance between you gone in an instant. The playful banter had turned into something more serious, something you were both learning to navigate. The kisses had turned deeper, the touches more lingering, and the emotions more intense.

"I don’t know what this is, but it’s the best mistake I ever made" Dick said, his hands cupping your face, his thumbs gently brushing over your skin.

And for the first time, you didn't feel trapped. You didn’t feel like this was a contract anymore. It was real, something you could feel in every heartbeat, in every moment that you shared.

"You were never a mistake," you whispered before kissing him again, this time with all the passion you’d both been holding back for so long.

And as Gotham rumbled beneath you, you realized that sometimes, life had a funny way of bringing you exactly where you were supposed to be—even if you didn’t know it at the time.

[juchily]

Yellowjackets (+ relationships) as song lyrics

(most if not all of it is rock ithink) and italics are being rlly weird so please excuse irregularities with that

Ve: tragic angst JackieShauna (Snackie), my beloved. Drug refs

Yellowjackets

"In a crooked little town They were lost and never found Fallen leaves, fallen leaves Fallen leaves on the ground" - Billy Talent's "Fallen Leaves"

"From chagrin I've been released Paint me in a portrait sans The fig leaves, fig leaves And I will not be concerned Or ignore the things I yearn My hunger is the rule I cannot overturn" - Dirt Poor Robin's "Enchanté"

"We are the angry and the desperate The hungry, and the cold We're the ones who kept quiet And always did what we were told" - Rise Against's "Prayer of the Refugee"

Literal all of "'Shia Labeouf' Live' by Rob Cantor

Natalie Scatorccio

"I've got a new low All fifty two cards in a row I see now that I won't let go No I won't let go

Well who am I? A cold shoulder left to cry You feel bad, well so do I Yeah so do I" - Middle Class Rut's "New Low"

"Did I try, did I try to make amends? To live and die or did I really just pretend? Nightmare's talking as I'm sleepwalking And I can't stop thinking" - Bad Wolves's "If Tomorrow Never Comes"

Lottie Matthews

"You can't breathe until you choke You gotta laugh when you're the joke There's nothing like a funeral to make you feel alive

Just open your eyes Just open your eyes And see that life is beautiful. Will you swear on your life, That no one will cry at my funeral?" - Sixx:A.M.'s "Life Is Beautiful"

"I raised myself My legs were weak I prayed my mind be good to me

An awful noise Filled the air I heard a scream in the woods somewhere

...

How many years I know I'll bear I found something in the woods somewhere" - Hozier's "In The Woods Somewhere"

Misty Quigley

"'Cause you don't talk to the water boy And there's so much you could learn But you don't wanna know You will not back up an inch ever That's why you will not survive" - Spoon's "The Underdog"

Shauna Shipman

"Strawberry lipgloss, oh, it's wasted On this dumb boy who likes the chase

But why am I so angry in the first place? Why am I hurting?" - Nxdia's "She Likes a Boy"

Jackie Taylor

"Maybe you were wrong and I was right I don't care, won't you stay another night? I just need some time to be myself I couldn't say "I need you" on that night When you left and I lost all track of time I just want you close so I can feel you Can you feel me? Mmm" - Prateek Kuhad's "Co2"

Taissa Turner

"This is unbecoming of me It's like my own reflection's not what it used to be Tryna figure out where I missed I'll never find the answer, it's just the way it is" - Saint Asonia's "So What"

Van Palmer

"I'm on fire" - Pitbull's "Fireball"

Laura Lee

"Early days and sleepless nights Death and resurrection, life My body is a sacred note Sung between the flesh and hope My dirt transformed within a breath Before I took a single step I'm looking forward to the day When life can grow without decay" - half·alive's "creature"

Travis Martinez

"'Cause so badly I wanna go outside. (Such a lovely day) But everyone knows that a man ain't suppose to cry, listen. I gotta cry 'cause cryin' eases the pain, oh yeah. People this hurt I feel inside, words can never explain. I just wish it would rain. (Oh, how I wish that it would rain)" - The Temptations's "I Wish It Would Rain"

Jackie x Shauna

"I've been cold in the crypt But not as the cold as the words across your lips You'll be sorry baby some day When you reach across the bed where my body used to lay" - Three Days Grace's "Chalk Outline"

""Come on in, boy" said the skeletons Sitting by her closet door Dirty secrets, empty memories And broken hearts across the floor I was knocked out, heels over head So you dragged me by my feet To a ghost town, where you buried me No wonder no one heard my screams

Love's so alive, but it died in it's sleep And now that it's dead I live in your head And I will haunt your fucking dreams" - Set It Off's "The Haunting"

Taissa x Van

"Well, I'm not the world's most passionate guy But when I looked in her eyes, well, I almost fell for my Lola Lo-Lo-Lo-Lo-Lola Lo-Lo-Lo-Lo-Lola" - The Kinks's "Lola"

"Believe me you really don't have to worry I only wanna make you happy and if you say "hey go away" I will But I think better still I'd better stay around and love you Do you think I have a case let me ask you to your face Do you think you love me?" - The Partridge Family's "I Think I Love You"

Lottie x Laura Lee

"Maybe in another life I could find you there Pulled away before your time I can't deal, it's so unfair" - The Offspring's "Gone Away"

Lottie x Nat

"Tell me who you are Your father has forsaken you Left you with those scars My hope is that you'll make it through Hate must never win Even when we're worlds apart Your love is not a sin Even if it's hard" - Falling In Reverse's "Coming Home"

Travis x Nat

"I am still dreaming of your face Hungry and hollow for all the things you took away I don't wanna be your good time I don't wanna be your fall-back crutch anymore" - Everclear's "Santa Monica"

Laura Lee x Nat

"I thought love was only true in fairy tales Meant for someone else but not for me Love was out to get me, that's the way it seemed Disappointment haunted all my dreams

And then I saw her face Now I'm a believer" - Smash Mouth's "I'm A Believer"

Jackie x Nat

"I just feel so out of place Well, except for when you're near me When you're gone, I'm like a plant with no root Or a song that's on mute Don't you dare call it cute! You should fear me!" - Kaden MacKay's "Your Stupid Face"

Adult TaiNat

"Maybe you should just fall And leave the world and lose it all And if that's what you need To finally see I'll be with you through it all

Bring on the pills, roll the dollar bill Medicating will never heal Relapse, rehab, repeat Always thinking about the me, me, me

Self-destruct, spiral down Until your want becomes your need Please get up like I know you can Or forever love the fall" - Nothing More's "Jenny"

Adult MistNat

"Nothing in the world that I do means a thing without you I'm just half alive in my struggle to survive without you" - Frank Sinatra's "My Way Of Life"

This has been sitting in my draft for like, a week now, and I needed to get it outta there, reblog with songs/song lyrics you think fits a Yellowjackets character -🦎

[teddybearsandspaceships]

I started taking notes about Cleo´s Hermitcraft stream from 7.6.2024, the one where Doc killed Cleo´s pig, back in June but ran out of steam about an hour in. By now the Twitch VOD is gone but it´s not been uploaded to Youtube (yet? fingers crossed), so I figured I´d just post what I have before I forget about it. Large parts showed up in videos but not all of it.

Cleo gifts Joe 8 diamond blocks, with over a stack of diamond blocks still in their ender chest, and explains that they´ve been trying to spend them shopping but then people shout at them for clearing out their stock

Cleo doesn´t want anyone to give them their firstborn child. It would not go well so let´s just not.

Foreshadowing: Cleo is going to work on their massive hole, but without a beacon. If Ren comes on, Ren can do a beacon. Two minutes later Ren logs on: “You called?” “OMW”

“The right amount of evil and the right amount of compassion, that´s me.”

Loving Ren is not mandatory, it´s just a thing that happens. Some people are very difficult to have a bad word to say against, “trust me I´ve tried.”

Ren arrives splattered on the ground.

Doc announced his visit with attempted anvil murder. He´s investigating a crime! Someone took deepslate diamond ore from one of his ores and replaced it with normal deepslate! Cleo is innocent but thinks it´s quite funny.

Suspects: Cleo suspects Etho. Doc and Ren agree Etho wouldn´t touch another man´s redstone, he knows boundaries. Cleo: “Etho knows boundaries, sure, sure, sure he does, mhm.”

Cleo says the only time they´re visiting Doc´s redstone is when he´s wronged them and they´re bringing a water bucket. (foreshadowing.)

Ren suspects Joe. Doc says he trusts Ren too much, while Cleo is always up to some shenanigans, but he should be on her good side because of the rainbow beacon. Cleo says that doesn´t mean she wouldn´t mess with him, but agrees, she wouldn´t do it unprovoked. (foreshadowing.)

Xisuma was on the server earlier, but Doc is convinced he couldn´t hurt a fly. Pearl was also on, but “she joined the redstone people now, she respects redstone.” Doc has no quarrel with False either. It´s coming down to the usual suspects, like Cub.

Doc is unhappy the people from Buttcrack Mountain are making a volcano because Doc announced he wanted to make a volcano weeks ago. Cleo knows nothing about this. This is proof Cleo doesn´t watch Doc´s videos. Doc´s videos are so long though.

More theorizing: it could have been Scar! Or Jevin, but he´s already pulled off an impressive prank this week.

Cleo: “Okay, all I´m saying is, neither of you can come at me for being overdramatic about anything after this.” Doc: “What do you mean, overdramatic? Cleo. Do you like this pig over there?” Doc walks over to Cleo´s pig sitting in a boat at the bottom of the massive hole. “Yes.” “Do you have any personal attachment to it?” “I mean, yes.” Doc walks over and MURDERS the pig with one swing of his sword!

Ren: *awkward laugh* wow…

Doc: “How did that feel.”

Cleo: “It feels like you´ve just earned my ire… and I need a water bucket. Okay! Ren, you´ve got iron, right?”

Doc: “Stop. I just wanted to…”

Cleo: Nonononononono, you started this, you started this Doc, I need iron or a water bucket.

Doc: Don´t, don´t, don´t…

Cleo, high-pitched: Or you´re gonna do what, you´re gonna kill my pig? Are you gonna kill my pig? Is that what you´re gonna do, or what?

Doc: Yeah well no, I just wanted to demonstrate how it feels to lose something that means something to you!

Ren: I´m just gonna… *slowly backs away*

Doc says the pig didn´t even have a name. “Look, you can have it back,” and he gives Cleo the porkchops. Cleo starts hitting him with a sword: “You´re gonna die, you´re gonna die, you are absolutely a hundred percent gonna die. You killed my pig, you don´t go after my pets!”

Doc keeps defending himself that it didn´t have a name and asks Cleo to stop killing him, and offers an even better pig. Cleo is mad and emphasizes that they even told him they had an emotional attachment, and Doc can´t bring the pig back, this pig that was launched into hell and survived. [Sidenote, I was shocked watching this live and again watching it for the second time. Cleo sounded genuinely mad, especially that Doc doesn´t even seem to realize what he did wrong, and for good reason tbh.]

Cleo: “I need a bucket of water. Oh I´m not even gonna go for the rainbow beacon, I´m going to your base with a bucket of water, this is fine.”

Doc: “No you shouldn´t.”

Cleo: Or what?! Or what?!

Doc: “I don´t think it´s an appropriate reaction to kill[ing] a pig to destroy weeks of work.” Offers a better pig again.

Cleo: “You need to learn that actions have consequences. I warned you.” They did warn Doc that he´d have to really annoy them for them to go to his base with a water bucket. Doc says he couldn´t have known that killing a nameless pig would be that. Cleo: Does it need a name to matter? Does anything need a name to matter?

Doc says again that he just wanted Cleo to understand the pain of someone messing with his redstone.

Cleo: Yes, now I understand the pain, but now I need revenge, Doc.

Doc offers that Cleo can kill his donkey.

Cleo: I want to destroy something that you love. Doc: I love that donkey. Cleo: Not enough, Doc. Not enough. You don´t love that donkey enough for it to matter.

Doc keeps digging himself deeper, saying he didn´t realize the pig was important, even though Cleo literally told him so. Finally: “I´m really sorry, I didn´t think it would be such a big deal. Um. Please don´t destroy my redstone.” Cleo: “I won´t today.” Doc: How can I make it up to you.

Cleo asks people to clip this because “I´m gonna have to do some stuff to make people understand why this is appropriate, what I´m gonna do.”

Doc says he was in emotional turmoil. Cleo: “Tell it to the judge. We´re gonna go take this to Bdubs.”

Ren: first trial! (He´s come back in the meantime and is building a beacon in the background.)

Doc asks for no retaliation until the ruling. Afterwards, it depends on the ruling. Cleo: “I need to speak to Bdubs, is what you´re telling me.” Doc: “No interfering with the judiciary.” Cleo: “That´s my son you´re talking about.” Doc: …wait, he´s my brother. Does that mean you´re my mother? Cleo: Absolutely not, would never.

Doc: Ren is like this child when the parents are fighting.

Doc: I´m really sorry, Cleo. Cleo: “it´s okay, don´t worry about it. But I´m gonna take it to the judge, and I´m gonna have a water bucket in preparation.” Doc gives Cleo sixteen anvils as a sign of peace (two from earlier.) Ren says he thinks diamonds are only appropriate. Cleo agrees, even though they have enough diamonds. Ren thinks a hundred diamond deepslate ore blocks would look really good in this hole. Cleo agrees. Doc checks, but he only has thirty left. Cleo tells him not to worry about it.

Doc laments his fate. “Next thing you know, I´m gonna blow up the server.” Cleo: “It wouldn´t be the first time Doc, it won´t be the last.” Doc: “Hey, I never blew up the server… anyways….” And leaves.

Cleo says it got their theater kid vibe going. “I enjoyed that, that was fun.” After Ren left: “That was cathartic. *laughs* What is going on in my life that this is my job.” Shortly afterwards: “How do I get into these situations, I genuinely – I don´t know.”

Chat shenanigans! Doc apologizes again, says he was in emotional distress. Joe says Doc is the picture of mental health. Doc says he will pick Joe as his lawyer. “he will kill it with a powerpoint presentation.” Joe doesn´t know what Doc did yet but it´s part of the intake interview. Cleo will represent herself. Doc says he has screenshots but will need eye witnesses. He blames the redstone thief. Cleo point out they didn´t do that. Doc claims self defense. Cleo points out they weren´t attacking him, and neither was the pig. Doc: “the pig looked at me funny” Cleo: “bucket of water is looking mighty tempting” To their chat: he´s going to talk himself into a bucket of water, he needs to learn to take an L.

Ren tries to plead the 5th. (Cleo says it´s going to be hurtful telling Ren he´s not on trial, he won´t know how to cope.) Doc in chat: “ren, as my husband, you can refuse to speak, all good” Ren: “perfect!”

Aaand this is as far as I got, about 56 minutes in. I remember someone (False?) saying “Happy Pride!” in chat, and then they went over to Skizz´ and Cleo hired Skizz as their lawyer and Scar also showed up. The “Ren and Doc are married” bit came up again in several streams in the next few weeks, but funnily enough was only mentioned in a single video, one of Skizz´. The result of these shenanigans were the trial and Doc´s skyblock adventures, which was fantastic. Doc and Cleo have long since made up.

[boopernatural]

could you write a light hearted fic where Joel breaks his ankle and Ellie starts hovering bc she is trying to take care of him but also he's a stubborn bitch who still tries to do things while injured.

“-ve got it!” Joel snaps, shoving through the front door as Ellie trails right on his heels. She’s been glued to him ever since he’d left the clinic with his crutches, watching him like a hawk, demanding he take it easy. He doesn’t know what’s gotten into the kid, why she’s all of a sudden such a damn hawk, but it’s gettin’ on his goddamn nerves.

“You have a broken ankle,” she deadpans, “you’re lucky I didn’t tell Tommy to strap you to a bed at the clinic and just keep you there. You’re a fucking headache.”

“I’m a headache?” he demands as she closes the front door and sets his hunting bag down beside it.

“Yeah you jackass. Your bone is broken. Just sit the fuck down and let me handle shit.” Ellie shoves him lightly toward the couch, insistent, and he obliges. If nothing more, to shut her up for five minutes.

With a pained exhale, he lowers himself to the couch, wincing. He’s too goddamn old for shit like this; the nurse on call at Jackson’s clinic had said it would probably take longer than usual for his body to recover, considering his age and wear and tear. That hadn’t exactly delighted him.

The last thing he wants to do is make Ellie take care of him, again. He still has nightmares about it- hazy and unfocused blurs of memories, fragmented and cold. A stiff, stained mattress on a basement floor, pain so intense that he began to not even feel it after a while, numb limbs and a constant throb in his body. He remembers hearing bits and pieces of her voice; she talked to him the whole time, quiet and concerned and terrified. He’d never felt so helpless, leaving her to save his life, putting her own in so much jeopardy.

He can’t stand the thought of her feeling like she has to do it again. Even here, in the quiet safety of Jackson’s walls, he can’t let her be his protector. That ain’t how this is supposed to work.

“Here.” Ellie’s at his side again, holding out a small vial of medication they’d given him at the clinic. Supposed to help relax him so he doesn’t move too much or get too stiff. They hope it helps the pain too, but most things are homemade salves and tinctures these days, so it’s often a guess.

“M’fine,” he argues.

Ellie scowls. “Joel, take the fucking drugs. They told us you have to.”

“Kid, I’m alright, okay? I’m gonna sit here for a second and then start on that laundry.”

���You’re- no the fuck you’re not!”

“You don’t have to take care of me,” he insists, hoping to reassure her.

“Yes the fuck I do your ankle is broken!” Ellie exhales with frustration and sets the vial down in front of him on the coffee table. “I’m going to finish cleaning up in the kitchen. Don’t touch the laundry.”

Joel glowers in her direction. He ain’t sure when exactly the kid got it in her head that she can tell him what to do, but she’s sorely mistaken on that.

Grunting in pain, Joel shoves himself to his feet, fingers flexed around the crutch. His movement is shaky, weak, but he manages to get himself standing upright. All he has to do is make it up the stairs, grab the laundry, and he’s golden.

Hell, he leveled a hospital full of armed guards by himself. This ain’t nothin’.

Each step hurts, though it’s bearable. He makes it toward the first step and finds his way up. One. Two. Three. He just has to keep going and he’ll be fine. Four. Five.

Fuck-

His ankle gives out and he topples over, scrambling to catch himself before his head smashes into the landing. He somehow manages to break his fall on his shoulder, which sends a ricochet of pain through his body, leaving him strewn out on the steps.

“Joel?” Ellie’s voice calls out in alarm, and before he can figure out a more appeasing way to present himself, she rounds the corner.

“Oh. For fucks sake.” Her hands are on her hips, looking up at him with disdain in her big eyes. She’s shaking her head before he even begins speaking.

“Listen, I-“

“You are so annoying.” Ellie scolds. “Seriously dude, I’m leaving you like this. I told you to stay put.”

He shoots her a glare. “Good. I can get myself up.”

That ain’t likely, but he’d rather dig himself out of this hole than drag her into it with him.

“Oh my god why are you so fucking stubborn?”

Joel’s teeth grit together. “I ain’t stubborn Ellie, I just don’t need your help.”

“Yeah, you’re doing great, half-dead on this staircase.”

With a patient inhale, he replies, “I miscalculated. It happens.”

“Miscalculated. You’re the worst.” She shakes her head again. “Obviously I’m gonna help you up, stupid.” She begins ascending the staircase toward him.

“No!” Joel surprises even himself with the ferocity of his shout, stopping her in her tracks. She looks at him with disbelief written across her face.

“What the fuck?” Ellie demands.

“I-I don’t need you to take care of me,” he stammers, “I’ve got it, kid. It ain’t your job.”

“Joel,” she says patiently, “is that why you’ve been…so annoying? You think you’re like burdening me, or something?”

Her voice is soft, surprisingly gentle for his usually rough kid. He can see the understanding in her eyes, the sympathy.

With a resolute sigh, he responds, “I know how hard it was on you, everything that happened in Colorado-”

Ellie flinches.

“-and I made a promise that you’d never ever have to be in that spot again.” Joel glances down at his ankle with disgust. “I’m not breakin’ my promise.”

For a moment, she studies him, her expression unreadable and ambivalent. She takes her time with whatever quiet debate she’s working on, before exhaling slowly.

“Man, I get it. That was fucked up, back in Colorado. But…it wasn’t your fault, okay? You gotta stop blaming yourself. Shit happened and we dealt with it, both of us. Don’t forget you came chasing after me with a hole in your stomach, dude.”

Joel winces at the memory, eyes still cast down, unable to meet her gaze.

“We’re here to move forward,” she says in a determined, if not a little shaky, voice. “We’re in this together, just like always. That means we look out for one another. Both of us. Let me help you down.”

Giving him no opportunity to argue, Ellie steps up and grabs him under the armpits. With no warning, she heaves him upright with a groan of effort, giving him enough leeway to grab the banister. Together, they right him with his crutches, and she begins walking him down the steps.

With him situated on the sofa, Ellie holds out the vial of medicine. “I’m not asking, I’m telling. Take this shit or I’ll drug your food with it. Believe me.”

Joel believes her. He downs the bitter tasting mix and sits back against the cushions, feeling vulnerable and raw.

“Listen up,” Ellie says, “you’ve looked out for me for the past year. You’ve protected me and taken care of me, given me everything I needed.“

“That’s my job,” he insists.

“Don’t interrupt me, man! It’s my job to look after you too. We’re…we’re like family now, right?”

He doesn’t miss the slight uncertainty in her words at the end. As quickly as he can, he soothes it.

“Yes, of course.”

“Alright then. Stop bitching, sit your crusty old ass down, and let me do the laundry.”

“Crusty?” he demands.

“Yeah, you broke that thing on day two of your overnight patrol. Crusty.” She turns on her heel and heads back for the kitchen, shouting, “I’m making dinner! Hope you like toast!”

“Long as you don’t burn it again!”

“Literally no promises!”

Joel can’t help the smile tugging at his lips as she goes, even though the thought of sitting down while his kid cooks him a meal makes his skin crawl. He reckons she has a point, at the end of the day.

They are family.

[andyfire122]

Fictober24 day 8 "Are we happy?"

“Are we happy?”

Once again, Ves has the habit of saying things out loud, but only in their room on the massive. Even the few times they were sure their minds had merged, it was only for a moment. Their thoughts always ended up back to how they were.

A controller was connected to the Pak and it let their old game sessions continue.

What’s with the questions now?

She just paused the game when Zes's voice rang in her head. Sometimes she still missed hearing her best friend talk. "Just something Dre said. I know you let me take over that chat. Don't know what the other version of you did that got him rilled up though."

I don't understand it either but that isn't the problem right now.

"Yeah, I know. It's just...life has been kinda better. He said to be happy. Just you of all people know how hard that is some days." They both were trying. They said they would try. It's just a little harder some days to be completely ok."

No one should be the same as they were. Though I think this has been good for us. There is no danger here and we have time to just figure out things. V..I already decided the day I woke up and found out I was attached to your body.

She sighed. “I could look but I prefer you tell me.”

You need someone so I'm not going anywhere. My purpose has changed to help you. As you said. Soul bound to my pak and to you now. Not that I fully understand a lot of how that works…

“Am I trapping you though?” she asked. “I know how hurt you were when you woke up.”

We both were. Though I get why we are like this. The times I swear we merged never last that long..neither of us like being alone.

She did feel a bit better when two Pak legs just draped over her shoulders. Like her partner was doing her own way to try this comforting thing. "It's just how we want after all."

No one else chooses how they should be.

[variousqueerthings]

im watching a danish 1918 silent film called "himmelskibet" (the sky ship/spaceship) and it's interesting from several perspectives

for one, i enjoy the idea that these people have the notion of going to space and build a spaceship (an incredibly charming spaceship) in 2 years and it works! lifts ve-e-e-e-r-y slowly out of the atmosphere over the course of several days

for two, they're going to mars. which in 1918 reads differently im sure, than in 2024 and the rich colonialism wet dream -- also because in this movie mars is in fact populated, so it's actually not colonialist in the way it might have been x amount of years later in space-exploration cinema and the martians are depicted as being far more civilised (and also more... back-to-the-earth, we'll get to all of That) than earthlings, which is interesting

for three, they build the spaceship and point it towards mars, but don't have the tools to gauge how long it'll take to actually get there -- they calculate a presumed date before they leave, but whilst on the spaceship just have no idea where they are? this isn't deep, it's just funny to me

point the fourth. mars is populated. it's populated by a bunch of very human-looking aliens, because it's 1918 and the only difference between us and aliens is that the aliens are fruitarian hippies who all wear long robes (yeah, i can buy that) who have overcome everything bad that humanity currently is. the message is a hopeful one, with the lead martian saying "what we are, you will become"

the martian society is presented as a utopia. they're fruitarians, they've got no crime, no violence, and in what feels like some of the most long-lasting of political ideas, when the astronauts bring violence with them, they are made to think about it, but not punished (and there's some christian repent vibes to it, but it's not too egregious as to not work as concept -- the movie as a whole is very christian in feel though) and the protagonist considers how evil it is to throw people into prisons on earth. there's also a whole thing about embracing/celebrating death, rather than fearing it, which i wanna roll around in my head for a bit

but... the film tries very hard to juxtapose this utopian ideal with earth, however can't figure out how to make that work in imagery, or even put its finger on what is actually wrong with earth society that violence abounds in the first place (you'd think there might be some wwi imagery in there, but no, not a one -- its way of "showing violence" is random young well-dressed people on the street assaulting an elderly man and laughing, or smoking and dancing, or implied sex before marriage...)

all the scientists/leaders on mars are men, while the women... idk, frolic in beautiful dresses (there are a couple of interesting women in this, but they're not The Thinkers, they're The Feelers). they're all white and christian (if, danish christians rather than american christians). they're all thin and able-bodied and "beautiful." there's a scene where the women dance "a chastity dance." it begs the eternal question of "wait is this actually portraying a white supremacist eugenics cult?" WHICH is not what the movie wants to say, it very much wants to say something about anti-violence idealism as the future for humanity, it's like. got its heart in the right place, even if the final messaging is "we take this woman from a higher culture and within her lie the seeds for a superior earth," which hmm.. yeah. ive. ive heard things like that said before. not about a martian

it's interesting what kind of shorthand we have for storytelling. how the people making this movie undoubtedly were trying to think of the most visually effective way of conveying utopia, and how that imagery is mainly used today to make a viewer go "uh oh" to the extent that i almost briefly wondered if there was going to be another shoe about to drop, even though the movie hadn't been going in that direction at all

very much enjoyed it on the whole though. a moment in time. a very very early scifi film. ye olde danish text

And the most important thing.

Behold A Spaceship:

[tokuvivor]

Duckverse June Week 5: Movie Day

Home stretch, baby!!! I sincerely apologize for how late this is, but here you go! I give you…

Movies I Missed on the Moon

It was an exceedingly rainy morning in Duckburg. Breakfast had just finished, and Huey, Dewey, and Louie were sitting at the bar, trying to figure out what to do.

“We could watch the rain outside,” suggested Louie.

“Nah,” responded Dewey. “I want to actually do something.”

“Well, the weather hasn’t given us many options, clearly,” reasoned Huey.

Just then, Della came in. “Hey, boys,” she greeted. “What are you guys still doing in here?”

“Oh, hey, Mom,” replied Dewey. “We’re trying to figure out what to do today, but we’re not getting anywhere.”

“Yeah, this weather sucks,” concurred Louie.

Della gasped. “Where did you hear that word?” she questioned.

“Mom, you literally say it all the time,” replied the green-clad triplet.

“Oh, yeah,” Della realized in a somewhat subdued tone. “Anyway,” she continued, clapping her hands together, “I think I have an idea of something the four of us can do together!”

“Oh?” asked Huey.

“Yep,” Della responded. She fished around in one of the pockets on her jacket, until she pulled out a tiny piece of paper. She unfolded it, revealing its true size, and showed it to the boys.

“What the-?” began Louie.

“‘Movies I Missed on the Moon’?” read Dewey.

“Wow,” finished Huey.

“Basically,” Della explained, “for all the catching-up I’ve done since I returned from the moon a couple years ago, there are still things I haven’t gotten around to yet, what with adventuring and flying and Woodchucking and all that good stuff. So, I decided to make a list of movies that came out while I was on the moon, and since the weather’s crappy today, I thought the four of us could do it together, as sort of a bonding activity.”

“I love that idea, Mom,” agreed Huey.

“Perfect!“ interjected Dewey.

“Alright, let’s do it,” finished Louie.

“Woo!” cheered Della. “We’ll need snacks, though. And some Pep. And we’ll need to decide what exactly we’re going to watch today.”

“Whoa, whoa, Mom!” Huey exclaimed, resting his hand on Della’s. “Take it easy. We can figure this out.”

“Sorry,” Della responded. “Just got a little too amped up there.”

“I know that feeling, Mom,” Dewey piped up.

“So what are we waiting for?” Della continued. “Let’s Dell-ve into this!”

‘Right, there’s still two of them,’ Louie thought, slightly annoyed.

Soon enough, the four ducks were gathered in the den. Della had put on some popcorn for her and her boys to share. Louie had procured some Pep. Dewey had found some assorted candy. And Huey had queued up their first movie of the day.

“Mental Max: Road of Rage!” Della exclaimed. “I love the whole dystopian future concept. I was obsessed with the first three movies as a teen, so I was super excited when I found out they made a fourth while I was gone.”

“They’re gonna release a fifth soon, too!” chirped Dewey.

“Isn’t five a bit excessive, though?” wondered Louie.

Della put on a thoughtful face. “Iiiiit…really depends, I’d say,” she replied. “Sequelitis exists, but there are certain factors that play into the success of the movie, like frequency, cast status, and how good the writing is.”

“Not wrong,” Huey offered. “Uncle Donald took us to see a throwback screening of The World Before Time, and it was great, but thirteen sequels? Now that I would call excessive.”

“Plus,” added Dewey, “most of the voices were provided by kids, so they’d inevitably grow out of the roles at some point. If they used adult actors for those, the voices would’ve been more consistent from movie to movie.”

“They’d have to know how to sound like kids, though,” Louie replied. “Or else it’d just sound weird, seeing a kid on screen, he opens his mouth, and it’s a 40-something dude.”

“Okay, yeah, yeah,” Della brushed off. “Now let’s watch this thing!”

“Whoa.”

That was all Della really had to initially say about the movie.

“That was so cool!” exclaimed Dewey. “It felt like one of our adventures.”

“For all that developmental hell it went through, I’d say it delivered,” Della continued, snapping out of her trance.

“How long had they been planning it?” Huey asked.

“Heck, at least since I was a teen,” admitted Della. “But a lot of outside stuff pushed it back.”

“Oh, god, like the original Max,” groaned Louie. “That guy’s a nutjob.”

“The new Max did a good job, though,” Dewey reasoned. “Okay, so what’s next, Mom?”

“Zombieland,” Della replied.

“Nice,” Louie approved. “I still can’t believe they got Bill Murray to play himself for that one.”

“I loved his ‘Take That’ moment towards Garfield,” added Dewey.

“Yeah, I remember that one. That was not his finest moment,” Della criticized.

“It’s an interesting premise,” admitted Huey. “Let’s get it rolling. Louie, could you please pass the Danish Shrimp?”

“That was so much fun!” exclaimed Della. “Yeah, a zombie apocalypse wouldn’t be an optimal world to live in, but I think we could pull that off. We all have adventure experience, I’m a good fighter, Huey has all his Woodchuck experience, Dewey’s savvy, and Louie, you could get your hands on a lot of supplies.”

“You’ve got a point, Mom,” Huey replied. “I think we’d fair well enough in a zombie apocalypse, but you know who’d be really good in an apocalyptic situation? The girls.”

“Ooh, you’re right,” Dewey agreed. “They already throw themselves into crazy situations at least on a weekly basis, so they’d own it.”

“I’ve honestly lost count of how many different weapons Webby has in her possession,” Louie added.

“However many it is, I’d like to bet I’ve got more!” Della challenged.

“I’ll pass that along to Webby,” Huey replied dryly. “Anyway, what’s next?”

Della’s eyes went wide. “That,” she said quietly.

“Are you sure?” Louie asked.

“It won’t hit too close to ho-“ Dewey began.

“I don’t care,” Della assured. “I need to see how Matt Dalmatian does it.”

The Martian was probably the best choice yet.

The four of them watched in awe as Matt Dalmatian’s character was able to keep himself alive on Mars. Though it did make Della have one regret.

‘Shit, I wish I could’ve cultivated my own food,’ she thought. ‘At least then, I wouldn’t have had to survive solely on that blasted Oxy-Chew. Though it did help me survive that long on the moon. Oh, who am I kidding? It’s hard enough for me to grow food here on Earth. I should really ask Donnie for some pointers.’

By the time the movie ended, Della was feeling a wide range of emotions. Her boys noticed it, too.

“What’d you think, Mom?” Huey asked.

Della’s eyes were red with tears. “I-I don’t think I’ve ever related to any movie as much as I’ve related to that one,” she admitted. “I bet the guy who wrote the book never would have guessed that this gal was lost in space, just like Watney.”

Huey nodded thoughtfully. “I really admired his resourcefulness,” he added.

“I kinda feel bad, though,” Dewey continued.

“Why’s that, Dew?” Della wondered.

“It’s like, he was stuck in space for, what, a year and-a-half? And at least he was able to get in contact with NASA eventually,” Dewey explained. “You were stuck in space for much longer, and we didn’t even realize you were still out there, trying to get back home to us.”

Huey and Louie looked at him, slightly concerned.

“Ah-no offense, Mom.”

“None taken. I’ve kinda gotten used to the whole isolation thing in hindsight, anyway,” Della replied. “That movie really reminded me just how good I have it. To get home in one—well, two—pieces. To be able to finally see you boys in person after 11 years. To live to tell the tale. I’d say this movie was definitely worth it.”

“We love you, Mom,” Louie responded.

“Aww, I love you boys, too,” Della smiled, as they wrapped her in a hug.

“So, what we got next?” quizzed Dewey.

“Okay, you boys are gonna be mad at me for this, but I was kinda thinking Bridesmaids.”

“Eh, I don’t care,” Louie admitted. “I’ve heard good things about that one, anyway.”

“It can be a bit low-brow at times,” Huey added. “But they seemed to have made very good calls in terms of the actresses.”

“And Webby’s already showed me plenty of chick flicks in the past,” Dewey confessed.

“Fair enough. Let’s start it up, then,” declared Della. “After we find more Pep.”

“On it,” Louie shot back.

Overall, what looked to be a dull, rainy day on paper turned out to be really enjoyable for Della, Huey, Dewey, and Louie. Della was able to knock some late 2000s-2010s movies off her to-watch list, and she was able to do it with three of the most important people in her life. And to her, that was worth everything that she went through in the past. Almost like she was Matt Dalmatian.

[ohwell-itsme-but-danganronpa]

Alternative Chapters 3 & 4 of v3

Cute idea for how to promote a friend's AU: airing how I made them cry with my suggestions when they asked for ideas

Read Vespertin-y's Clockwise talent swap AU https://vespertin-y.tumblr.com/post/721299444787740672/clockwise-talentswap-lore-pt-1

Ves: ack. what do i dooooo for the ch3 motive i cant just use the necronomicon again can i

that depends, who do you want to act on a motive?

Sini: Kirumi or Gonta would probably make good chapter 3 culprits in my opinion

Ves: kirumi is the ch1 killer. gonta...oooh i haven't decided how to handle the survivor/adventurer thing with him yet. maybe survivor but it's for surviving the wilderness instead of dr??? ough i ought to get rid of himiko at some point for tenko angst purposes

Himiko could be the collateral second kill of ch3

Ves: yeah…maybe she just walked in on body hiding shenanigans? ohhhh tenko would be SO mad YOU KILL HER ALMOST-GIRLFRIEND AND NOT EVEN FOR A GOOD REASON THE AUDACITY

just what I had in mind

Sini: That cute moment between her and Gonta at the end of chapter 3? Yeah, forget that here

Ves: i think that i will let artist kiyo throttle anthropologist mugi with a garotte wire. as a treat. revenge for a past life i quite LIKE anthropologist mugi but what can ya do

Sini: Keep it to two victims and two culprits >: )

Ves: wouldn't gonta be SO fun as a survived killer though…hmm i am going to make all of kokichi's favorite people into murderers and bully him into not viewing the world so black and white

Sini: Your bestie is a murderer? Well, he’s still alive. What you gonna do about that? What do you think of that, huh?

Ves: your bestie is a murderer so is ur boyfriend HITS U WITH NUANCE STICK

okay, so Kiyo kills Tsumugi, perhaps frames Himiko like he tried to in canon, and Gonta accidentally kills her in a confrontation?

either early in the investigation, or Himiko first found the body and was seen running away by Gonta (aka Hyioko being the main suspect in ch2 of sdr2 type beat)

Gonta doesn't mean to hurt anyone, but. He's stronger than he thinks and Himiko was freaking out since to her, he might as well have been the killer, she hasn't seen anyone else out and about either so she'd try to get away from him

so it'd be just like knocking out Shuichi in canon, except, well.

Ves: that's so SAD fuckkk gonta :((((( tenko would lose. her. mind.

still rotating the possibilities of what Kiyo's in-game motive could be, I want to say that it's still a crime of passion, Tsumugi does piss him off with something

Ves: making him lose control of his own strength like that is the meanest thing ive ever heard. i might change it to him accidentally chasing himiko somewhere dangerous bc that's SO sad ACK I ALREADY DID THE ACCIDENTAL TRIPPING MURDER IN CH2 THOUGH WAILS yeag i haven't quite figured kiyo out yet… i think strangulation works better with a premeditated crime, what with him coming up behind her…but the clay cutting wire WAS just sitting around in his lab. hrm. mb she angie's herself by coming across him plotting a crime, that seems like the easiest option and i do want moogi to be an observer-type character, always watching in the background

maybe she gets too nosy not really on accident, too much accidents around here she ends up knowing too much not a plan, but a secret, a motive to get out, personal, and she wants the tea, it's scorching hot, you're going to burn yourself, Tsumugi

snhdfghf yeah…got too silly [pensive emoji] she just wanted to knowwww she's a little Too fascinated by people and with someone with as many secrets as korekiyo that is Not a friendly trait oh maybe that's the motive!! secrets, like in thh ch2

Ch4

so the deaths are ch1: Maki, Kirumi ch2: Ryoma, Miu ch3: Tsumugi, Korekiyo, Himiko ch4:??? ch5: Angie, Shuichi ch6: Kaito plot armour: Kiibo, Tenko, Kokichi

Kaede and Rantaro, is it fate? the only other option is Gonta

Ves: AH FUCK HOW DID I DO THAT BY ACCIDENT

congratulations

I mean, you could Sakura Gonta since he's definitely not doing fine

but Kaede doing nothing for the whole game is a little ooc, girlie takes the matters in her own hands

boy's not coping after ch3 either way

Ves: i was looking through my past randomizers and found a ch5 where kaede kills himiko after being tricked into thinking she's the mastermind…i could move that up to ch4. but why himiko..

Himiko's dead already tho

Ves: idk i haven't committed to that yet,,tricking kaede into thinking rantarou is the mastermind feels. cliche

what if she thinks Gonta is the mastermind since he got away with murder

Ves: what kind of fucking machine would bbygirl have to build to take out GONTA poisonous insects???

she's just setting up a trap still, a wrong person could walk in it, she sets it up at Gonta's lab but Rantaro walks in for something

Ves: NOT AGAIN [sob emoji] THAT'S SO FUNNY ACTUALLY SHSL UNLUCKY RANTAROU REAL

yes, she releases something venomous in his lab, little buggie just wanders off

or it does get Gonta, cause. He would be so devastated when he finds out that he was the one supposed to die. Literally so much worse for him than dying

Ves: HOW DID THIS WHOLE THING TURN INTO GONTA BULLYING I CAN'T HAVE HIM ACCIDENTALLY KILL SOMEONE AND HAVE SOMEONE ELSE DIE IN HIS PLACE THAT'S OBSCENE my poor son [sob emoji]

back to Sakura arc, he finds out about the attempt without anybody getting hurt

Ves: i'll figure it out in the shower probably update: i took a shower and didn't figure it out [pensive emoji]

Sini: Maybe keep the idea of Gonta killing Himiko and Kaede killing Gonta, and then have Rantaro die because he broke the rules in some way? You could pull a Mukuro on him

I got another idea too, what if Rantaro kills Kaede if you were to use the card key motive again, what if he gets ahold of it, frustrated just like others with Angie insisting they just don't use it and stay there forever when it could be an exit or used to reveal mastermind's identity, so he steals it from her and finds out about the end of the world, so he snaps, "we should have died with everyone" kind of thing, Kaede is the easiest target to start with (if Himiko is already out) since she's weaker than him and trusting (unlike Ouma)

Sini: What if….You mixed the two? Like, Kaede is the one in Rantaro’s place, whose character throughout the game has been kind of regressing as time has gone on. Growing more pessimistic and untrusting. She would also be eager to know if the key could reveal the mastermind’s identity in any way, since she’s been looking for them since day one and growing more paranoid and bitter about it. Once the key card motive is revealed, she steals it from Angie and parallels Gonta in that she believes the others should all die. She could still kill Gonta because she finds him suspicious, and if he’s not, then he’s actually a pretty easy target to lure. She also might want to kill him because she believes it’s what he deserves after what he did (in that case, the character regression would be very real). Or, she could go full Gonta, and believe killing Gonta is best because he was the nicest of the group and has already gone through sm pain that he deserves to die first/not through execution. I feel like Kaede would definitely be the type to take the burden of living if she had to

having more time in the game Kaede's whole preaching cooperation and trust would slowly crumble away, seeing how in canon she was trying to reassure herself as much as the others at the start and failed to, coming to conclusion that she needs to do something herself, that Shuichi's plan is not enough, that she's not going to hope Kaito's group comes up with something. Here she had time to simmer in it and get so much worse

and I'd love to see that, let her run out of positive things to say, hang outs to distract herself with, mantras to fall asleep to and hopes that all of that was a bad dream. She can't keep waiting for something to happen and then the next thing that happens is another murder instead of the awaited rescue, to get out she is going to make it happen

guess, she was wrong when she got there, maybe you can't trust people, maybe they're all out for blood, maybe somebody else is already planning her demise

Sini: Yeah…. And there’s no point. The world is destroyed There’s no home to go back to She might as well take a chance at killing the one person she can suspect as the mastermind

she regressed so far that she reached the pg Kaede mindset, no faith in humanity, they're all capable of murder, perhaps they're there because they deserve it

Sini: YES! If even Gonta can kill…Nobody is safe. Nobody can be trusted She kills him with the poisonous bug, but the others wouldn’t know that until ways into the trial. They might think it’s classic poison. Calling back to canon chapter 4 with the poison left on the seat. Both are diversions

if they all die, then there will be no more humanity, no more cruelty, betrayal after betrayal, it'll be over

Kaede humming "no children" by mountain goats while picking out a poison to plant on the crime scene

Sini: Imagine for a moment Kaito is framed, again? Cause he’s the ultimate detective, the poison might’ve came from his lab

Sini: Also, this would hurt Kokichi sm. He’s already been questioning himself with the reveal of Gonta being the second culprit. He’s alive and he doesn’t know if he can even look at him anymore… His feelings on the matter conflicting with one another. And then to later find that he’s dead? O O F

framing Kaito is a good idea, but also what if she staged it as a suicide, really take Kokichi out of investigation with a gut punch imagine he said some shit to Gonta after the 3rd trial he'd blame himself

Sini: So I was thinking with this that maybe Rantaro doesn’t vote for Kaede in chapter 4 because if the world is really destroyed, then his sisters (if still lost in this au) are most certainly dead. However, I don’t think he would do that unless he was 100% certain that the world was destroyed. He’d have to see it for himself to truly believe, as he has his doubts on the legitimacy of all this. So what if in chapter 5, if they all see the outside world and later become depressed, TW Rantaro actually commits to killing himself? He’d do it in front of everyone so that there is no case to solve. The guilt and grief he’d feel….He’d see no point in living anymore. He might even feel guilty for not being able to be useful in preventing the murders or doing more to uncover the truth. He’d consider himself a failure in every way. Maybe he does so through breaking another rule? Again, typical Mukuro, but just done on purpose

no 4th survivor, huh

Ves, reading up after leaving for a bit:

well first of all i think im never leaving you to babysit an au again. second of all AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA kaedeee :((( also rantarou :((((( also gonta :((((((- you did not leave anyone untouched huh

Sini: HEY! IT’S UP TO YOU! Rantaro doesn’t have to die, that’s just if you want to keep the survivor count the same as in canon

Ves: i think im gonna up the survivor count…maybe by making ch3 a single murder? nnnn. kaede killing gonta is sounding real good though Sini: She could still do so, just maybe it’s as simple as Gonta is an easy target and he’s the nicest so he should be spared an awful death

Ves: NSHJDBGHSGDD….she said fuck ALL YALL except for you gonta you're an angel and we're all glad you're here- i think abt the gonta&himiko scene where he asks how he can help and she tells him he radiates so much mana he can just stand there and it'll help her simply Having A Gonta Around does wonders for magic

Sini: IT DOES But man, that just reminds me how sad Gonta killing Himiko is If you make it where just Korekiyo is the culprit, maybe have him kill Himiko instead. That way we can have the Tenmiko angst, just reverse. Also, we’d get Tsumugi as a survivor, which I think has potential. Let Tsumugi have a character arc!

that would made ch4 weaker, but ig that would mean Himiko getting Angie'd since he only had a motive to kill Tsumugi?

Ves: i think maybe. do something to make gonta think of it as his fault even if he didn't directly off someone

but think about Kokichi's character arc

Ves: AH FUCK I FOROT ABT THAT maybe he kills kiyo???? no execution on a technicality bc kiyo killed first,,

then he'd get executed cause monokuma wouldn't have anyone else to execute? Like Celeste?

Ves: there wasn't the first come first serve rule in that game though "Rule #15: If two different murders by different murderers occur at the same time, only the one whose victim was found first will be the blackened." do i have to HIDE kiyo then?? what vague wording

and in ndrv3, Monokuma only introduced the rule in ch3, knowing what happened to sow distrust but Gonta wouldn't want to get away with murder, so he wouldn't hide the body

Ves: but i also wanted to have more survivors :[

Sini: Mind you, Kokichi can still have that moment to himself cause Shuichi exists. But Gonta being a killer could do wonders for his character as well. If you have it where Kiyo kills Himiko and Gonta kills Kiyo, then it’s very likely Gonta could still get executed cause he’s the only culprit left alive.

then stick the the og idea, you can save Rantaro instead of Tsumugi

Ves: so like. himiko runs away from the crime scene, gonta tries to catch her, breaks her spine like a rabbit at the vet?

nothing's going to have the same impact, this is good because it's Gonta and she isn't even the culprit and he doesn't get executed

this is what hits the spot for character arcs for Tenko, Kokichi and Kaede (her last fucking nail) and anything else would be softening the blow, that's no what DR is about, hit them with the hammers

Ves: you're right and i hate it ○|￣|_ kokichi doesn't make up with gonta bc of his own pride and then gonta FUCKING DIES, and that feeds nicely into his forgiveness for shuuichi…i see the vision

(edited by Ves)

and to finish it off, my take on the Themes in the AU:

what an interesting theme for the entire season it paints, the power struggle, having people who try to define and control you, use you for entertainment vs the abused, overcoming, getting from under the shoe SWINGING, finding ways to be their own person. Tenko's crisis would fit in nicely, and have parallels with Kaede's arc downwards. They both start as leader types that might come over a little bit too strong, Tenko loses faith in herself, Kaede loses faith in people, Tenko gives up on leading and falls in step with others, Kaede gives up on others and starts acting on her own, behind their backs. Kaede wants to make the decision for everyone that life's no longer worth it. Angie wants to decide what's best for everyone. Kaito wants to decide their lives, treating them like puppets. But their lives are their own. And true leadership is guidance, not force. Shuichi is the tragic example, showing how important having community is to be able to stand a chance against abusive authority. well, for M1-U it might be more dying on her own terms at best, would be cool if she self-destructed after getting hauled-off to the execution of found a way to make the execution go differently than Monokuma intended

Sini: Shuichi had access to community but couldn't truly be a part of it due to how Kaito controlled him. You could maybe contrast that with Kokichi who goes through a positive arc of letting people in and teaming up with others more. Him representing what a good leader could look like

it was too little, too late for Shuichi

Sini: OOOOO! YEAH! That's perfect! She died doing her own thing and by her own hands OH SHIT! That's actually really poetic. Cause in canon, Kaito is the one who died on his own and not by Monokuma's hands. Now he's the villain who got beat by his own alternative actions

Ves: haha loser get thematically reversed

[fanficfish]

why i love Honkai Star Rail as a visually impaired gamer

Yeah, that new game. So, SPOILERS!

I have quite the visual impairment. Quick movement? SUdden changes in lighting? Badly-marked stairs? Heck no! But I'm still an avid gamer, and I"ve played both Genshin and Star Rail. And I can say I enjoy Star Rail much more. Not because of the lore- well, okay. I'm here because of the cool space train. But I like the lore for both. It's more....of other things. So I'll cover that here, and if you're also a handicapped gamer (or even if you aren't) LMK your thoughts.

Also, I"m a PC gamer. I use a mouse and keyboard. Both with too many buttons.

(totally not self-promo but I'm planning to stream it sometime on my Twitch, "Fintastica", if anyone's interested-)

anyway here we go !

Navigation is clear. I never liked how Genshin Impact had like. A whole giant map. Like, I know it was way mroe open-world, but it was kinda annoying trying to find myself sometimes. My friends can attest to how horrible I was at navigation. With Star Rail, the locations are split into zones and there's even teleportation points that you don't have to do a whole thing to unlock literally everywhere. Places you need to go for missions are marked on the map too, though I think that was also a thing in Genshin? You can also see if you collected all the treasure chests in a zon, by type no less. The maps are vague enough that you still have to explore to find stuff, like the Among Us maps, but I think that works out really rwell, less cluttered. There's a few different maps too. I'll give it a 10/10.

Battling. In Genshin Impact, you kind of...just have to know what moves you're doing and have faith the characters are doign them as planned. While real-time strategy is great and all, it doesn't really work if you often can't tell what the characters are doing (fast movements, again.). In Star Rail, the battling is turn-based. It's a bit of a switch at first, but it's actually really great especially if you've already had experience with that kind of thing. You can see everything, from the enemy's stats to your own, and see when a character is about to be targeted for a loit of damage or what buffs/debuffs they're getting. THere's autobattle and douglespeed modes, too, for faster gameplay. I will say that the moves can be a bit bright, like with the Ultimates (I usually have to close my eeyes for those) but overall I'd say it's been a very easy experience. And no weird button combos- it's all done with a mouse! 8/10 but that might change since the company said they're workign on a fix for the bright lights.

Character leveling / enhancing. Might be because I've played Genshin, but it was very easy to figure out. Character has battle experience level, like with most RPGs, character has item that enhances their abilities that in turn can be upgraded with items and the in-game currency, character has two different "skill trees" (that''s what I'm calling them) that can give boosts to their skills and stuff, and items used from inventory can help give buffs of certain kinds. I haven't gotten to relics yet though, so we'll see what happens with that. So 9/10

Overall game screen. One I actually figured out where stuff was, it was really smooth sailing. Phone, mission board, and tutorial tips in one corner. Stuff to collect mission/daily/whatever rewards, the inventory, character and team selection, and wapr (how you get more new items and characters, Genshin's WIshes equivalant) on the other side with character switches/team lineup not far below. The phone has everything from friends to game settings, and you can also change game some settings in battle. I much prefer pressing a key to activate my mouse and then go around clicking things then having to remember which button on my keyboard opens the Paimon menu. I haven't played Genshin in a while, so I don't remember exactly where everythign was, but I definitely remember having the wiki page open with the list of controls. Probably 8/10, because for a little while I was abit confused on where things were but that's probably just me not realizing that a phone icon means....the phone.

Overall world exploration. Part 2 of the navigation from earlier. Controls make sense (WASD to move, right click to sprint), left click to attack or you can press alt and click some buttons). Items you can take have a tiny icon over them to indicate, be it a hand or a marking when you get close. I definitely like interacting with the closets and trashcans. You can see characters talking (speech bubbles) and then get closer to listen in furthur. Just like with Genshin, everything feels so pretty and awesome, so that's a bonus. But I do miss being able to jump. 9/10.

Lore. According to the TV Troopes page, there's a mention of there not being an option to fastforward dialogue. It's nto too much of a deal though since a lot of the time you'll get invested and want to know more about the world. THere's stuff you can read, and if you need to skip a cutscreen after having to redo a storyline battle you can just fast-forward over it! Very handy. The lore is so cool, and I also love this little feature that lets you hear the voicelines for the characters in this databank on the Express. And you can still explore around, so while you do have to follow more of a storyline it retains the Genshin freedom of exploration.

And that's all I really have for now. A lot of stuff is taken from Genshin, so if you're familiar with that, it'll be a breeze! Might not be as easy if you're new to miHoyo games but it seems pretty intuitive. I really like it so far, my only real complaints would be the ultrabright ultimate moves and the fact that Arlan is the only dark-skinned character (and most of the girl have short skirts, but let's be honest, that was expected wasn't it?). And there's Pom-Pom who's basicaly Paimon, but doesn't hold the entire menu or whatever in their (he? The characters used they for them so I will too-) paws.

oh also warning: your cahracter is naturally a little horny and definitely cracked their head while doing one of the early boss battles. It's the Traveler from Genshin, but slightly more chaotic.

anyways that's my take on it, hope that helps if you're considering getting the game :) aight I'm back to grinding calyxes and debating if I should pull some more characters.

(might update later. Also please remember this is ALL my personal opinion)

part two

[thetinylittlespider]

Tearing Up: Season 1

Chapter 9: Curiosity at rescue

CW: Mature language, dehumanization.

A.N: Finally we got into the good part! Not gonna give details ofc, but the worst has finally passed. UwU

For now...

The night at the city was something that I've never looked forward to. But during the rain, the whole idea of walking aimlessly was a bit more attractive. People usually stayed at home, and the authorities let their guard down since there was no people to threat or scare. A perfect time to focus on myself without worrying about anything.

That...would've been the case this night...If it were not for what I found. Something that made me stop like if my feet were stuck to the concrete of the ground. It laid there, motionless, but still breathing...

ーWhat th-...What are you?ー I was completely frozen...Never in my life have I ever seen something so...Small.

"Way to end the end the night, Emma..."

I've heard about fairies before, they went extinct a few years ago, when the hunt for magic by the government got increased. But the more I looked into the creature, the less it looked like a fairy, it had no wings.

I crouched to get a better look of it, it was wearing a full bodysuit, it was orange like those of a prisoner. But how is it possible that a prisoner can be stored this small? I have no idea. The body of the creature was mostly covered in mud, and its hair was a mess. Along with some traces of...Blood? Of his own perhaps?

Before doing anything else, I reach my hand to the little figure on the pavement, and poked him with my index finger, just to pull my entire hand away in a second...I just wanted to test if it was dangerous, if it attacked me in response. But it only gasped for air once more as the water level increased thanks to the rain. It was too tired to even move anymore...Poor thing.

I scooped it up from that little puddle, carrying it carefully between my hands. Where its cold body remained unresponsive, but the tiny movements on its chest was enough to confirm it still had a pulse. Gosh...I didn't knew what was this, or how such a thing found itself on such state, how did it managed to come all this way here? Why come out?

Questions with no answer, if I called the authorities, it was likely that they would start experiments or outright kill the creature...I knew. Maybe the best idea...for the moment, would ve taking it home, see if it recovers. Yeah...That sounds way better...

3 hours later...

I placed the creature over the nighstand in my bedroom, I was not sure of what kind of food this thing liked...so a piece of bread and a cap of water would have to do the trick...if it wakes up that is. For the moment, cleaning the body a little bit was the best I could do, at least I got rid of the mud covering half of its face...Heh, with a better look, the tiny creature was actually cute, like a little sleeping beauty. Unfortunately, this state was probably produced by everything but something nice.

Shit...What if it panics? Should I place something on top of it? A cup? Maybe use tape on the torso? I didn't thought about this well...Damn.

And before I could manage to find a way, or an object to prevent any rash attempts to escape, the tiny figure opened its eyes, I could see the little head of the creature moving, looking around, scanning the entire room with confusion and then, eyes widening...Not making a move...

ーH-Hey!ー I said while lifting a hand in a friendly manner...it remains in silence. ーJust...don't move, I'm not sure if you are hurt or...ー It darted out of the nighstand...it just rushed towards an edge and jumped off. Was I actually that frightening!?

Regardless of that I couldn't let that thing get away and get hurt! Not that it was actually a way out, both my door and windows were closed, so I just had to catch it before an accident happens...

ーAre you trying to get yourself killed!?ー I said almost jumping towards the side of the nighstand...hands ready to safe the creature from falling...but it never touched my palms...it was sticking to the side of the nightstand...his back and palms firmly touching the wood. Scared...Chest moving fast due to quick breathing, and watery eyes holding back tears of despair...

"Please...D-Dont hurt me, I'll go back to the cage j-just don't shoot me!."

I was out of words...it could actually talk...and, begged for mercy? Cage? Shooting!?

Just what did I just found out there? Or...now that it seems to have a brain...Who?

ーI'm not going to hurt you...You fainted on the street, and I tried to take care of you.ー I said softly, slowly getting closer, trying to position myself in a way that could be easy to catch him now that he stayed stick to the nightstand. How could he do it? Another question for when the moment calls for calm.

He seemed nervous, he locked his eyes on me, desperate, confused, his face alone told me that for him it was strange that someone could show some type of nice gesture, such as helping. If he was not human, then what were his views on humanity? Who were trying to hurt him? Or..."cage"...he got imprisoned, at least once.

ーC-care?ー He said for a second, before moving a hand and pressing on his stomach...His face shifted to that one of slight annoyance. Was he...ーH-Hungry...ー

Yeah...Exactly what I expected.

ーI have some bread...on the top of the nightstand, water too...Ehm, so, you might wanna go up...Could you let me just...ー He gave me a confused look again, but this time after I mentioned the bread...He even tilted his head a little bit, as he didn't knew what it was. Of course another thing I should've expected...

When he started crawling on the wood structure, he kept facing me, like if I was ready to try something against him... but it fascinated me the ease in which he moved...Did he had some sort of sticky body? I doubted it, or else I would've felt it when I brought him home. He also didn't seem to have claws...He seemed pretty much human in my eyes, just...a little, tiny human.

My excitement to ask what he was exactly came to a stop as soon as he grunted, apparently the hunger was getting to him, he lost his grip and slipped the wooden structure. We both released a little yelp at the moment, my heart almost fearing a fall like that could hurt him...So I placed my open palm below him, quickly preventing him from spending more time on a free fall.

ーWoah! A-are you okay there buddy?ー Besides a fast and intense breathing, along with a shaky body that laid its back on the palm of my hand...He didn't seemed to be hurt in any way by the fall, and for that I gave a sigh of relief. At least he didn't try and jump off again.

It was weird...when I carried him for the first time he was motionless, unconscious...Now, he was breathing, shaking...Placing his little hands on my palms, and I could sense every single and minuscule movement on them...It gave me little tickles, but this was the worst time to overreact to those things...last thing I wanted to do was scare him more.

Slowly, I stood up, and I gently rested the hand were I carried him over the top of the nightstand again. Waiting for him to move towards the food. But his little body remained on my palm.

ーIs that...Bread?ー He asked curious, pointing a the piece of bread that I left for him and looking up to me, I just gave him a smile and a nod to answer...And that was enough confirmation for him to run towards the food, smell it like a wild animal...and then give it a bite, that turned into multiple. He did look like he was starving for a while.

It took him a few minutes to eat the whole piece of bread, little bites that began as quick and chaotic as those of a piranha now got order, became slower, and he seemed more composed by the time. I did also managed to see some sharp teeth while he had some bites...Those were fangs, similar to those of a vampire...

ーThank you...Sorry I was...Jumpy earlier. I just...It's been a rough month.ー He said while taking in a deep breath, he seemed far more agile with his words too. And to be completely honest, it was better than having him talk like a scared caveman. But ... WOOW ... I did not expect THIS. ーYou are human...aren't you?ー The question seemed a bit obvious, but it wouldn't hurt to answer...And it was also a great chance to present myself! Get to know him and what he was!

ーYeah! I'm a human! My name is Emma Blackwood! I would love to know what ar-I mean, I would love to get to know you!ー I can't believe I almost fucked that up, I picked him up out of curiosity, anomalies are not usual anymore...And our "glorious leader" wants to erase any chance of other anomalous entities existing in his perfect kingdom of concrete and metal. I wasn't about to lose my chance to meet something so fascinating, hand him to the government and let him die! But I also had to remember this thing...this person, was aware of the situations around him...at least for the most part. I could not treat him like an object or a mindless entity.

ーHuh...That's...Interesting.ー That was all? No introduction? Rude! And he just...did he just placed his face on the water cap!? Okay...fair, he is probably thirsty. And for the looks of his messy hair, and the state I found him...Plus the mention of cages, he might have been imprisoned, his clothing also said so. Maybe manners were the last of his concerns.

But I refused to stay there in hopes that he remembers how to introduce himself, I might have to force him a little bit, right? We can call it a "guidance" into regular interactions, and for the looks of it, he needs it.

ーAnd you are?ー I asked with an inviting tone, I had to force the conversation on him...

ーMe?ー Don't point at yourself, of course I mean you! You are the only besides me in the room!

I give him another confirmation nod. He remains quiet for a second as a few tiny drops of water fall from his face.

ーI am number 9.ー Short...Soft spoken. Hurt. Why he had a number instead of a name? ーIs that your name? 9?ー

He looked at me, eyes wide open, shaking again, this time playing with hiw own hands...nervous, for what he may have taken as disappointment.

ーC-Complete designation is KU-M9...ー That was worst...was that a code? If he was an anomaly, and he was captured...why did he required a uniform? Why they didn't kill him? Fuck, more questions.

ーOkay, let's go for something easier...What are you? You are clearly not human...Are you related to fairies?ー Those creatures went exist after being hunted down a few years ago, I would not be surprised if a few handful of them remained alive...

ーNo...sorry...I am no fairy. I-I actually don't know what I amー That sends the fairy theory out of the window...But not even himself knew what he was. If he knew the same as me regarding his nature, we had a problem. ーCould you tell me what happened to you? What were you doing on the streets alone?ー

At least this could lead to somewhere...So far, I had a creature who could climb surfaces like a bug, with no idea of what he was or how did he functioned...And with enough evidence to be looked out for by government authorities.

But...Again, he didn't seem dangerous, he was more scared of me when he woke up than I would ever be of his true nature...Whatever it was. And if humans were the cause of his troubles, I could get why he acted so defensive, his first instinct was escaping, not fighting.

He took seat in the middle of the nightstand, as I just wanted to be close to hear his answer...I kneeled to get a close look at him, but as soon as my body got closer, he flinch...He had let me close before, but now he was scared again? Maybe it has to do with the explanation...I had to respect his space for now...understand what was going on in his head.

ーSorry...Sorry, I won't get closer...Please, do tell me what happened.ー

[to be continued...]

[ase-trollplays]

Laughter for Allmah

-- battleaxeRose [BR] began trolling violetEnigma [VE] -- BR: <| ✿kay |> BR: <| S✿ |> BR: <| ✿n a scale ✿f ✿ne t✿ ten, h✿w upset w✿uld y✿u be if I didn't c✿me by t✿night? |> VE: ~*Eleven.*~ BR: <| Ah. |> BR: <| And if I was g✿ne f✿r like... tw✿ weeks, but we talked ✿n tr✿llian every night t✿ make up f✿r it? |> VE: ~*Twelve.*~ BR: <| Is that a hard twelve, ✿r can I maybe get a little bit ✿f f✿rgiveness since we'd still talk t✿ each ✿ther? |> VE: ~*That is me being forgiving. I was going to say fifteen.*~ BR: <| AH. |> VE: ~*What is this about? Is this Nenemi's doing? Is she still telling you to abandon me?*~ BR: <| N✿. |> BR: <| I mean, she is, but she d✿esn't have anything t✿ d✿ with this. |> BR: <| I fucked up dying my hair, and I have t✿ give it ab✿ut tw✿ weeks bef✿re I try again ✿r I c✿uld damage it w✿rse and make it fall ✿ut. |> VE: ~*I don't care how stupid you look. I want to _see_ you.*~ VE: ~*Your visits are literally the only thing I have to look forward to in my life. It may only be two weeks for you, but that might as well be sweeps for me.*~ VE: ~*You have friends. You have a matesprit. You have freedom, and good health, and a life. I only have you.*~ BR: <| Yeah... |> BR: <| ✿kay, I'm ✿n my way. Just |> BR: <| Pr✿mise y✿u're n✿t g✿ing t✿ laugh at my shitty hair. |> VE: ~*Anything for you.*~ VE: ~*I'll see you soon. <>*~ BR: <| Y✿u kn✿w it. <> |> -- battleaxeRose [BR] ceased trolling violetEnigma [VE] --

"AHAHAHAhahahahaha!!! What the fuuhahahahahaha!!"

"Come on, you promised you wouldn't!"

Vastel buried his deeply blushing face in his beanie, which he used to hide his monstrosity of a dye job on his way to Allmah's hive. His shoulder-length hair was a terrible patchwork of bleach blonde, neon pink, and pumpkin orange. Allmah, had she not had her walker to support her, would have been in a heap on the floor as uncontrolled laughter spilled out of her.

"It's not that funny! You're gonna trigger a seizure or something if you keep laughing like that," the five-and-a-half sweep old whined at her as diluted violet tears started forming in the corners of her eyes, and her laughter started turning into wheezing. With a roll of his eyes he stuffed his hair back under his beanie and began ushering her to the couch.

"Pffahahaha! Ahahaha! What were you eve-- Hahahahaha! Even trying to do!?" the seven-sweep old managed to ask as she tried to choke back her laughing and took a seat.

"It was supposed to look like flames," Vastel grumbled in embarrassment and folded his ears back, causing his earrings to jingle slightly. It was another two minutes before Allmah could finally speak without being interrupted by giggles, and she leaned against he couch limply.

"Oh my God. Oh my God, your hair looks so fucking dumb," she teased between deep breaths. Vastel frowned and pulled down on the sides of his beanie as though he was trying to hide in it. The jade in his cheeks and the tips of his ears finally started to fade now that she exhausted herself laughing at him. "And you're seriously not going to fix it for two weeks?"

"Like I said, if I fuck with it too much too soon, it could break and fall out."

"That would actually be an improvement. Bald can't possibly look any worse."

Vastel sulked and pouted as his embarrassment transitioned to genuine hurt at her comments. Allmah stared at him for a moment or two before sighing and forcing herself to sit up.

"Honestly, I'm jealous. I have to keep my hair short because I can't take care of it when it's long."

"Couldn't your nurses help you with that?"

"Pfff, they don't even like doing the things they're required to help with. Why be bothered with maintaining my hair for me when it's easier to just keep cutting it all off when it gets 'too long.'"

"How about this: When I figure out how to do this dying thing without looking like shit, I'll dye your hair something really cool. Just because you can't have it long doesn't mean it has to look boring," he proposed with a grin. Allmah raised an eyebrow at the proposition before rolling her eyes with a smile.

"Sure, okay. If I'm still alive by then, I want my hair purple," she said and reached her hand out to him. He wasted no time in taking it in one of his own, and his hair was all but forgotten as they spent the next hour holding hands and talking.

[ben10ocfanfic]

Tale of 10 chapter 6

1. The group of boys Continued to ride. Jesse Took a very deep breath. He looked at the scene around him and took note of the damages to the rv. Admittedly it wasnt as bad as it could be considering what happened.

2. It still didnt make Dj feel any better apon seeing one of his oldest freinds looking so distraught. This RV was Jesses home. He worked since he was 15 for this truck. He almost dropped out junior year to keep his job.

3. Dj walked over to his old freind."If theres anything i can do please tell me jess." Jesse just smiled." I love this thing. But thats all it is brother just a thing. Id rather lose it then you guys."

4. In silent agreement Rick an josè nodded there heads."yeah an besides we can always help fix it." José said cheerfully. Jesse raised a brow."you know how to replace a dashboard broken windshelid an numrous holes along the back?"

5. Jose chuckled nervously "well we can always watch you do it." Jess rolled his eyes." Thats what I thought now lets figure this out" jess pointed at Dj.

6. Two hours later. Progress had been slow. Rick had been trying to focus on how Djs biology worked. Honestly he had no clue." My best guess is you're currently some sort of alien. "

7. Everyone sorta just looked at him confused."how did you come up with that one Sherlock?" José asked sarcastically. Rick sighed." Well, those robot things seemed to come from space. An im guessing they were after you since I dont see any other reason to attack."

8.while not satifyed the boys accepted it as jesse started tapping hard on the hourglass symbol." Jess you good dude?"Dj asked. Jess didnt awnser right away but spoke after a minute or two."I think you should be able to push this down but it looks stuck."

9. Dj nodded before thinking for a moment. He then started repeatedly smacking the symbol. After a few minutes a red flash blinded everyone before everyone saw the form of Dj.

10. Dj looked down observing his body. Everything seemed normal even his cloths were back untill he look as his wrist. There on his wrist was a green an black watch. The frimliar hour glass symbol was also present. However parts of the watch looked damaged.

11. The hourglass symbol had a noticeable crack although its was faint an didn't distort the symbol. Some parts looked to have exposed wiring. As if the covering had been removed. But most noticble part was that something was effecting the skin around Djs arm. Little, thick, green, square ,like lines. It almost looked like a tattoo of some sort.

12. It made Dj feel uncomfortable. He immediately reach for it. Attempting to rip it off him. He struggled for a minute before his face went pale. Rick then noticed djs face as jose an jesse inspected the rest of djs body for any injuries. "Hey buddy uh whats wrong?" Rick asked as Dj stared at him.

13. Jose an Jesse were now concerned as well. "Hola hermano ¿estás bien? Estamos preocupados por ti. ...Te ves pálido" José questioned. Jesse shook his freind slightly trying to get him to react.

14. Finally he spoke. "Its stuck." The boys all go quiet. "Its fused to MY FUCKING SKIN!!!!" Dj started to scream while waving his arm wildly while the boys try to calm him.

15. After nearly an hour of panicked screaming the boys gather around Dj. At this point the boys had been trying to remove the watch using various tools most of witch were broken. The boys were now trying something new

16."Guys this is a bad idea." Said Dj as jose attached jummper cables to the watch. Rick an Jesse looked back at there freind an shrugged. "Its fine our plan is solid" Rick then chimed in. "Its this or the hacksaw.". Dj gulped. "Hey dont worry man I got only one arm an im fine."

17. " I still don't like this I dont care what happens to me but what if you guys get hurt trying to hack this thing.!" Jesse just laughed. "Dont worry besides were not hacking anything were gonna use ricks laptop to create a electrical feedback loop. Witch will hopefully cause a system overload loop to shut down whats restraining you."

18. Dj an jose give him a blank stare. Rick sighs an face palm. "Doctor redneck here is trying to fry the watch." The two nod. "Yeah frying the alien watch still sounds like a bad idea. I just don't want my best freinds getting vaporized. " dj said before he sighed." But I can't really stop you from helping."

19."Dam right now lets fry some bacon!" Yelled jesse as he started. The computer humed to life along with the watch. Jose and ruck kept a hand around each clamp incase the needed to stop.

20. Dj tryed his best to stay calm. Jose smiled "see essay were good nothing can go wrong." Rick jesse an dj gave him a stink eye as the watcu started to glow. "You just had to say it." Said dj. Jesses panicked an started to press the keys quickly. "Shit! Get thoses off him! Now!"

21. without hesitation the boys started to pull hard but soon found the clamps were stuck."Guys forget me run!" Jose pulled harded the vain in his arm showing. " HELL NO. Were brothers amigo! We wont leave you behind!"

22. Rick strained as well pulling with both hands. "It will be a cold day in hell before we abadon- whats happing to our hands?" In response José looked down at his hand an noticed it was turning a dark green while ricks were turning black.

23. They looked to jesse who held up two unnaturally white hands before a green light took over there vision. A Shockwave of green energy erupted from the watch an knocked them unconscious.

24. Meanwhile far off in space on the planet Galvin prime.

25.A small 3 inch gray alien in green robes tinkered away. He have a smirk on his face as the small machine came to life. It looked like a mechanical spider. "Theses new drones should make repairs easier. Of course this is only a prototype."

26.As the alien admired his work another alien rushed in yelling nonsense as he tryed to get the others attention. This alien wore a lab coat with large oversized googles.

27. The first alien sighed. "Darwin please I know taking the role as my new assistant has gotten you nervous but I cant understand you. Witch is saying something as I know over 12000 different languages. At least breathe"

28. The alien took a deep breathe. "My apologies first thinker asmuth. But its happened. The omnitrix is back online. An I think it done something to earth."

29. Dawrin handed a tablet to asmuth. The first thinker sighed." It seems the past is catching up with us. It looks like someone tryed overloading the omnitrix but only cuased it to release a wave of dna across the planet. This is very bad. I must seek audience with the guardians of Oa an gain permission to one again return to earth.

30. Darwin gulped. "First thinker they banned you from returning after the incident. " asmuth chuckled "its only an incident if i did something on accident. Whatever the case earth is in grave danger. I only hope the new guardian is as worthy as Tennyson. May his gods watch over him. Because i doubt were the only ones who took notice."