#liked the place day 1 but so messy even for a raider

[shatinn]

Fallout 4 - build - Fizztop 'home plate' (wip tidy up)

mod in use : https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/33176

[thosch3i]

Hi hi! So the lost tombs and chronology all super confuse me. So tlt2 ended on a cliffhanger that was not resolved by tlt3 which is ultimate note, but now there is another tlt3 that I am guessing is made by the same studio as tlt2 (but not UN) that actually follows tlt2? And it has the same WPZ as tlt2 (but sadly different WX, ZQL though I’m sure these guys are great). You seem to know what you’re talking about so I’m hoping you can help!

UN also ended on a cliff hanger so I’m wondering if they’ll get a sequel from their studio that comes before tomb of the sea.

ahhh hello anon! yes ahaha the dmbj dramas are certainly very confusing--because they keep switching the screenwriters/entire production team between dramas. huanrui did tlt1 (2015), tlt2 (2019), and the sequel to tlt2 (2021). they're also technically the production company for un (2020), but linghe did like all the directing/casting/writing so its significantly different in tone and quality from the other dramas huanrui produced. npss (dmbj author) did sha hai (2018) and tltr (2020), with sha hai being in collab with linghe, so you can see lots of parallels with un and shared cast. (gonna add that i dont know much about the m9 because that’s not what im personally interested in, so i’m only going by stories with wu xie & the iron triangle.)

unfortunately, the dramas pretty have no continuity as a result of all the weird shit and multiple studios doing different dramas and messy stuff going on behind the scenes. the author's production company currently has all the rights back for filming future dramas, which is......imo, a good thing for book fans who love the author but a 😬 thing for book fans who like the original story more than what the author is now doing with it. I'll uh avoid saying too much opinion stuff though so no more on that 😅

that aside! yes 云顶天宫 “explore with the note” part 2......is the direct sequel to tlt2 and done by the same studio. unfortunately the writers are different and im not sure how much of the production team is the same either. idk how much you know about the novels so brief summary here--for the chinese version, the main story has 9 parts split among 8 books (though the official eng tls have each part being a different book) with some important content being as follows:

official eng title “cavern of blood zombies” (first time wx goes into a tomb, first t3j meeting)

official eng title “angry sea, hidden sands” (xisha seabed tomb, introduce a-ning)

official eng title “bronze tree of death” (bronze tree in qinling, wx & lao yang solo adventure)

official eng title “palace of doom” (heavenly palace on the clouds, introduce bronze gate)

official eng title “deadly desert winds” (golmud, introduce hei xiazi, desert, rainforest, tamutuo)

official eng title “graveyard of a queen” (the rest of that arc, wu sanxing & xie lianhuan reveal, jade meteorite, amnesiac xiaoge and escape, sanshu vanishes for good--also i think the official eng tl covers a couple chapters of the beginning of the next part too)

阴山古楼 (searching for xiaoge’s memories in banai, miluotuo cave, i think introduction of wu erbai)

邛笼石影 (auction/hotel iron triangle fight, introduce xiao hua & xiuxiu, wx & xh on the mountains alone while pz & xg go with granny huo)

finale (rescue from zhang family mansion, changbai mountain goodbye, 10 years promise)

after the main story are the main sequels:

zang hai hua (tibetan sea flower; unfinished & abandoned) covers wu xie a few years after xiaoge has entered the gate, searching to understand xiaoge’s past

sha hai (tomb of the sea; unfinished & abandoned) covers wu xie’s plan to wipe out the wang family, after zhh

chongqi (reunion: the sound of the providence) covers wu xie’s lung disease and how he recovers from that, set after they pick up xiaoge again from the bronze gate. thunder city and everything.

灯海寻尸&万山极夜 (still updating on wechat) don’t worry about this one since it’s still a WIP lol

btw between sha hai and chongqi there’s also ten years later (a short story) that covers how wu xie and pangzi pick up xiaoge from the bronze gate and take him home

the dramas Do Not Connect To Each Other At All, which the exception of tlt2 & tlt2 pt2 somewhat, but they go in this order:

盗墓笔记 / the lost tomb 1 (2015): covers part 1 but with major OCs and filler, and includes the auction scene from part 8 for some reason, so introduces xiao hua early.

怒海潜沙&秦岭神树 / the lost tomb 2 (2019) technically “explore with the note”: covers parts 2 & 3 but with major OCs and filler, introduces xiao hua & xiuxiu (and hei xiazi briefly) early. last couple episodes also cover the beginning of part 4. not a direct sequel to tlt1 despite being done by the same studio.

云顶天宫 / heavenly palace on the clouds (2021) technically also “explore with the note”: covers part 4 with major OCs and filler (and the same changes carrying over from tlt2). some episodes are identical to the last couple episodes of tlt2. works as a direct sequel only if you ignore the last couple episodes of tlt2 that take place in the snowy mountains. (those episodes of tlt2 were filmed after this drama was filmed, and im still not sure why they dragged the wu xie and xiaoge from tlt2 back to changbai mountain to film those episodes.)

终极笔记 / ultimate note (2020): covers parts 5-8 with minor OCs and minimal filler, also introduces xiao hua & xiuxiu early. the only adaptation that resembles its source material most of the time.

沙海 / tomb of the sea (2018): covers the second sequel with major OCs and filler. includes some bits from zhh and the short story “three days of silence”.

重启之极海听雷 / the lost tomb reboot (2020): covers third sequel with major OCs and filler.

in addition there is the prequel series mystic nine (2016) and side movies for the dramas that the author produced. there is also a single standalone movie--time raiders (2016) that is....well it’s. very strange. it’s fully subbed on youtube if you’re interested?

the best way to watch the dramas is to assume each one is its own self-contained AU set along different points of the dmbj timeline because even the dramas the author himself worked on don’t have continuity LOL (and with the exception of ultimate note & sha hai most of the time, also assume most characters are pretty OOC from the novels).

i uh regret to inform you though, that ultimate note will not be getting a sequel unless the author magically decides to not care about making money anymore and sells the rights to film the finale to linghe or something ^^;;;; it’s....unfortunate bc un is the most highly-rated dmbj adaptation on douban by A Lot, but it’s an adaptation that the author had literally nothing to do with whatsoever.

more information on some of the side movies/stage plays/manhua/donghua here.

summaries of the main novel stories (currently through zhh) here.

edited mtl (some of which has apparently been looked over by native cn speakers) of the novels following where official eng tls end here. (there are many scattered extras as well.)

you can get the official eng tl books/ebooks on amazon or elsewhere(?), but if you have problems purchasing them or like you just dont wanna support amazon or something, dm me off anon. (also i dont want to be mean but frankly the official tls are kinda bad too ^^;;;)

a rough timeline (spoilers galore) for the dmbj novels here. (fair warning im not 100% sure how accurate all of this is--they put three days of silence as 1991 but looking at the info in zhh, it seems like it should have been before the 1950s...but it’s more than fine as a general overview.)

anyway i hope that was helpful in some way? dmbj is a Very Confusing thing to get into ahahaha, one of my twitter mutuals has made a few carrds if you think they might be helpful: book, dramas (slightly out of date bc it says heavenly palace hasn’t aired yet), ultimate note (got its own carrd by virtue of being the only adaptation aside from sha hai sometimes that most og book fans acknowledge lol ^^;;;)

also anon if anything wasn’t clear or if you had more questions feel free to ask again sorry ahahaha im kinda tired rn @.@ 

[kookie-doughs]

Beta Tester

Kozume Kenma X Reader

-YN LN is a popular mangaka

Chapter 29: Tested

As you sat in the middle of Kenma's sprawled leg, you two cuddled with controllers at hand.

A year at most had passed since the release of Puri Puri Magika: Lost Magic™ and things happened.

Of course PPM recieved a lot of rewards and the hype of the game still hasn't died which surprised you. A multi-player version was also released after 5 months.

You had publish and completed 2 Manga and have a new one on going. Your Manga recieved an anime adaptation which made you proud.

Kenma had won awards as well. Not that we'd go into that🙄. He also 'forced' you to move in so he could make sure you're living healthy and not staying up for a week finishing your script. He also dedicated a day where he streams with you, so you could rest.

You both usually used your time playing games that were on top charts. And among all the games only 1 game almost topped PPM.

The game Kenma had asked Sakujo to make. They publicly released it as a dating simulator, which you could either end up with Kenma or you.

"You idiot! Just fucking die already!!" You screeched as you button mashed.

Right now you were playing Street fighter to match with Kenma's retro theme of the month.

"You suck at this."

"Shut the fuck up! How do I do Kamehameha?!!!??"

Kenma sighed, "It's not called Kamehameha idiot. It's called-" He didn't need to finish his sentence when his character finished you off with a yell of "Hadouken!"

You looked at how your character lost and clenched you jaw.

"You suck!!!! You're a cheater!!!! I hate this let's play something else!!!!!" You screamed.

Kenma frowned at how loud your were but obliged. He checked the comments to see which games they were recommending.

"Let's play th---" He was cut off when the door slammed open outside.

The two of you looked at each other.

"Y/N!!! BABEEEEE!!!!" You heard your Soulmate yell at the living room.

"AHHH! Kuroo!!!!" You hopped off Kenma and ran to the door.

Kenma wouldn't agree but according to the comments, Kenma gave a horrified and broken look the moment you jumped off.

"This idiot." He grumbled and followed you as fast as he could not bothering with his stream.

He saw how you and Kuroo approached each other in slow mo, skipping to each other. So Kenma had no trouble grabbing you by the hood of your hoodie and frowned at Kuroo only to see Alisa holding Kuroo in a choke hold.

"Hey Kenma!" Alisa smiled.

The blond nodded and dragged you behind him.

"Alisaaaaa! Kenmaaaa!!!! You can't split away soulmates!! Let us goo!!!" You and Kuroo struggled from their hold.

Managing to free a hand you both tried to reach out to each other, only for Alisa to choke Kuroo harder killing the poor man.

"I came to borrow YN~" Alisa sang looking at Kenma.

"If she's going be like this, you can have her."

"Swap her with Kuroo?"

"Why the fuck would I want Kuroo?"

"Well I can't have both of them! Do you seriously want them arrested? Again?"

Kenma groaned at sighed. He let Alisa drag you to your closet and he was stuck with Kuroo.

After you got prepared to go out you gave Kenma a kiss and tried to do it Kuroo as well but the demonic aura of the two scared you both so you decided against it and went out.

Unbeknownst to you the two male had a talk about something. Unfortunately unbeknownst to them, the stream was still active...

Alisa dragged you from shop to shop. Buying this and that.

After what seemed to be 3 hours you and Alisa went to a food court.

To your surprise you saw Keiji, Tenma and Yamaguchi together.

"Y/N! Alisa!" Satori greeted.

"What are you guys doing here?" You asked shocked.

"Well we wanted to hang out and Alisa said you were with her so we went here." Tenma grinned.

"Satori dragged me with him." Akaashi said.

They all joined you and then conversation just flowed perfectly. You talked about this and that while eating.

You'd check on your phone hoping to see a message from Kenma but you got none.

"You keep checking your phone, want us gone that bad?" Satori frowned.

"N-No! I was just checking if Kenma left a message."

"Did he?"

"Nope. I kinda wanna go home now."

"Oh my god what if he's cheating on you?" Satori gasped. Which earned him a hit from Alisa and Akaashi.

"As if that hermit could get anyone else. Especially with Kuroo following him. My Soulmate would make girls pass out before they could even glance at Kenma."

"I don't understand why YN loves Kuroo more than Kenma." Yamaguchi laughed nervously.

"Alisa prefers Kenma. Kuroo prefers YN. Kenma hates everyone." Akaashi pointed out.

"If Alisa would let me I wouldn't mind being a third."

"One thing we agreed on is never put you and Kuroo together and unsupervised. So no I don't think so."

"When did you learn that?" Tenma asked.

"After the two got arrested." Akaashi answered.

"Huh?"

"It was at a train. Something... Explicit happened." Alisa sighed remembering what happened.

"H-Huh?"

"YN went on her knees on a train. They didn't actually do anything, just suggested the thought but I guess it was enough to get them arrested." Akaashi explained.

"That's where the KenYN break up came in."

"I'm surprised Kenma and Alisa are still dating you and Kuroo at this point."

"I know right?" Alisa cringed. "Anyway we should continue our shopping spree."

You all stood up and roamed around for another hour or two until Alisa got a message.

"We should go home. Kuroo just texted me. You guys wanna come with?"

They all shrugged and said they'll meet you at your place.

When you got home you got home you laughed seeing how messy your place was. It was like there's a con going on at your house.

Everyone in it was Cosplaying as some game character. There were people you didn't quite know who.

"Y/N!!!!" Kuroo came barelling towards you in his Luigi costume with Mario right behind him.

"Ahh! Where's Akaashi?!" Mario, who turned out to be Bokuto, asked.

Alisa stepped in front of you before Kuroo got to you and turned to Bokuto. "He's on his way. He probably changed clothes."

"What's happening? Why is everyone dressed up?"

Kenma came out of the room with his Overwatch cosplay. You told your friends you were going to Kenma and went over.

"Well hello there. What's up with everything?"

"Do you not know what today is?" Kenma asked.

"Oh fuck, is it our anniversary?"

You and Kenma just looked at each. You fucked up.

"You don't know when that is?"

"P-psh. Of course I-I know!

Kenma flicked your forehead and walked away after saying, "Get dressed. Choose whatever you want."

And now he's upset at you. You felt guilty about forgetting what today was.

Luckily you and Kenma often Cosplay during stream so you had spares. You decided to go as Graves from League of Legends with face beard and all.

Everyone was looking at you when you got out of the room which made you feel anxious.

Was this party for you and you forgot about it? It wasn't Kenma's birthday that's for sure. What could it have been?

Alisa came to you in a KDA Akali Cosplay that you assume Kenma lent her.

"Oh my god the photos are gonna be so great."

"I think Kenma's mad at me..." You mumbled.

"When is he not?"

"I don't know what today is..."

"Just- it'll come to you sooner or later."

You frowned as you scanned the room for your man. You saw Akaashi in a Kingdom Hearts Cosplay, Satori and Wakatoshi in a Tomb Raider costume. Hinata and Kageyama in Danganronpa. Link, who is Atsumu, clinging to Skull Kid. Sakujo and his husband wearimg you and Kenma's character in PPM.

But you found no one in an Overwatch costume.

"Excuse me..." You heard from the front. It was Kuroo, Bokuto and Kenma on an improvised stage.

"I'm sure everyone here knows what's going on right?" Kenma said exaggerating on the word everyone.

"Today, to continue our celebration we will be having a treasure hunt! The treasures you're looking for are in a form of a game loot box of various game style."

"There are a total of 21 loot boxes around town. One of them empty. You are to bring the loot box unopened here and you'll claim the prize of whatever it is in it. You could either come home empty handed or 100k courtesy to our dear host."

"The clues to the boxes are cut evenly to all the players. All the players will have 1 clue. Each players could only get one loot box and it has to correspond to your clue. Come up and get your clue!"

With that, Bokuto brought out a box with a hole on top. Everyone went on stage and got their clue. You were the last to get the clue so you were excited.

The thought of at least 45 adults in Cosplay running around town looking for boxes humored you. So you excitedly looked at your clue.

What made today special.

You froze. It was as if they were doing this in purpose. You had no idea what today was, and of course you had to get the clue asking for what today was.

You looked at Kenma and he gave you a look. Did he know which clue you got, and is disappointed you didn't know what it was?

You took a deep breath and went over to Kenma. "I-I'll win! I know it."

Kenma nodded. "That'll be one less 100k. Do win."

"Ready???" Kuroo called everyone.

"Go!" Bokuto yelled and everyone went out.

Eyes were on us with a bunch of adults wearing Cosplay coming out of a room. Some recognized people it made you realize everyone running right now was a pretty big deal in entertainment industry or related to someone. No one recognized you though. Bless your fake beard.

You ran to wherever you could think of. Enix, Jump, your place. But you saw nothing. Then you thought of the party.

The party wasn't a year ago from today but it was the only one you could think of.

You ran you were just so tired. After all you've been running for hours. And when you got there.

It was empty.

It broke your heart. You couldn't remember what today was. You failed Kenma.

You just gave up. You needed Kenma's comfort, but you were afraid you won't get it since you failed.

You sadly made your way back to you place. Tears threatening to fall. You were disappointed in yourself.

"Y/N." You heard someone call. You lifted your head to see Kenma.

The tears fell. "Kenma... I could find the box..."

Everyone was already back, and was looking out.

"I-I looked everywhere and I-I just couldn't find it..." A soft sob escaped your lips. And you looked down.

"Y/N."

"I-I don't remember what today is..."

"Y/N look at me." Kenma called.

You lifted your head and saw that Kenma was on his knees. Your eyes widened.

"H-Huh...?"

He brought out a Overwatch loot box from his pocket and cleared his throat.

"Today... Was the day when it all started. The day you showed up in my steps with a stupid flash drive..." He laughed weakly.

You blinked confused of what's happening.

"The day I saw, was the most important day for me. It was the day... The day I noticed you. I really hate you back then. You were so annoying, you still are. You're so persistent. So loud. You ruined my stream. And you kept bothering me. "

"Now you're just insulting me..." You laughed sadly.

"I-I... Look... I love you. I love you YN LN." And looked at the box, "Do you want to know what box you got?"

"Uh-Hm..."

When you opened the box there was a ring.

"Marry me."

You took the box from him and laughed. "You are such a nerd!" Wrapping your arms around him and gave him a kiss.

The crowd hollered and awed at you two. Chanting "Answer him!" and "Say yes!"

When you two parted you rested your forehead against his.

"I love you so much Kenma. I'd love to spend an eternity stuck with your stupid nerdy ass."

Previous | Masterlist

This was the last chapter!!! Thank you very much for sticking with it!!!!

It was kinda dull and all that but I had an issue with my messaging app so I couldn't use it so I went for written only

I hope you liked this and I want to thank you all for supporting this I had so much fun writing this

-kookie-doughs

Taglist?

@gayer-than-the-gayest-gay @synx-ed @normalisthenewnorm @0majuh0 @leachann @nikanikabitch @almondeupeach @immxnty @mer-majesty @yamayoomi @simpingoveranime-men @lostmarimoismyhubby @mariishat @just-snog-already @sadcosmicdoggie @so-lo-stuff @emperor-eros @nachotrash @themisadventurescrew

[al-stuffy]

I was tagged by @mira--mira to post the titles of my WIPs and if asked share some snippets.

Oh my this'll be so fun! But also- long, really long. An advanced sorry for that! 😅

I currently have 24 wips on my laptop and another 10 on my head. But don't worry, I'll pick only the most interesting ones and I'm most excited about!

So, let's begin

1.- Brothers relationship (I'll probably change that title)

This one is close to my heart cuz is the first long-fic I've written in the Naruto fandom (and the second fic). It is really messy and stupid but I love it and I hope I'll finish it someday (It's also the one I have written the most so far 👀)

Is a modern au and Madara and Izuna fight over a stupidity (like real brothers would).

2.- Dear Diary (A Tobirama Fic) Modern Au

Join me in this story about a 10-year-old boy who has to deal with a dysfunctional family and the recent death of his 2 younger brothers. While his older brother spends less time at home and his father's mood and attitude worsens. Much angst assured!

3.- The Courtship

Tobirama Senju thinks Izuna Uchiha is courting him.

This was originally written for IzunaWeek2021 back in February. I only posted a small part here on tumblr but what's really fun is the rest.

4.- The Mission

Summary: A feudal lord hires the Indra team to escort his daughter on a trip, said daughter was very attached to Hashirama from the first moment, Madara does not like it.

Genin Team Au my beloved 🥺🤲🏼❤️

A very self indugent Au where Mito, Hashirama and Madara are a genin team. A little snippet of a bigger story that I haven't written.

Yet ;)

5.- Butsuma and Tajima's undercover mission

Just two dads spying on their 2 sons' first date

6.- We are still brothers, even in the apocalypse (The title SUCKS and I'll for sure gonna change it)

Just two words, zombie apocalypse

This is one of my darkest fics because I want to focus on the psychological damage that stress would inflict on survivors. And they are also children :p

7.- Mr. Hashirama has a gift from the divine

Just a whole class of teenagers trying to figure out who it was that gave their political science teacher a beautiful flower ornament in the middle of class.

8.- The Fifth Sun

My fic for the second day for Founders Week, Mythology.

I'm currently obsessing over this and I'm doing a lot of research, but I haven't had the time to write something. I just hope you'll like it as much as I do.

9.- Avatar Au

As the name implies, it's an avatar au. More specifically, I'm gonna adapt the episode of The Southern Raiders from two different points of view.

10.- Hashimada Exchange Fic

11. No title yet

I can't say much about this one, but I will say that there is a wedding ;)

Tajima surprises his family with a forced family trip whose final destination is to take Hikaku to his university on the other side of the country.

The least excited is the grumpy 17-year-old Madara, who will have to cancel his plans for that weekend.

Join the Uchiha family on this road trip that will touch our hearts (I hope) and where family ties will strengthen (or end up breaking).

Will Tajima "Can you guys stop watching the screen for 5 damn minutes" Uchiha survive 4 teenagers? (You got into that mess yourself dude)

Will Madara -Stare at the screen harder- Uchiha go crazy in this family hell?

Will Hikaku "Ah shit here we go again" make it to his classes on time?

How long they gonna make it until the car explodes?

Who will be the first Uchiha to succumb?

Who's gonna be responsible for feeding the cats?

And most importantly

When is the next bathroom stop?

Discover that and much more in this wonderful documentary made by Naori Uchiha! (Feat Izuna bratty Uchiha and the 3 family cats)

If the Robot Apocalypse allows it

12.- Brother Bear Au (No title yet)

Just Tobirama pretending he's not a Senju while traveling the country with little Kagami (who Tobirama knows is an Uchiha) to reach the same destination.

Both are in similar situations, Tobirama doesn't know where he is after the river in which he fell took him downstream and he woke up in an unknown place, besides that he is still grieving over the recent loss of his brothers.

And Kagami lost his two older brothers, literally! He doesn't know where they are, they parted ways when they were suddenly attacked by a group of Senjus, but they will surely meet soon! Fortunately he knows the way home and will help his new friend get to his too.

What can go wrong?

Alright that's it! Don't hesitate to ask if you want to know more about any of them! ;D

And thanks again for tagging me!

I don't know who to tag but if you want to do it then go ahead!

[weeniewrites]

Lost Connections

Zombie Kenma x g/n reader part 1

3k Words

tw: zombies, mentions of death, reader kills a few zombies, descriptions of rot and gore, mentions of past limb loss (Kenma’s in bad shape), the plots pretty peaceful all things considered i just go in depth when describing gross things

-a lot more’s changed since high school than you could’ve imagined

_________________________________________________________

It’s been said that traveling in groups is the safest idea. There are more hands for tasks, people to lean back on in the case of an injury or for comfort. But considering the state of things, the messy wasteland you assume the rest of the world has become, the stress that’s put on you and everyone around you, you know too well the strain that would put on any relationship. So you travel alone, to avoid the pain of loss and strain. Arguing that even if you can’t carry as many resources with you, you need much less food as a party of one.

You’ve made a home base of sorts. A basement near but not next to a general store, making it easy to move the supplies from there to your place without drawing attention to your home of operations. When you moved in the basement was empty save for a couple shelves and the walls unfinished to the point where the insulation’s still exposed. You’ve contemplated ripping a panel down to put under your blanket as a makeshift bed but it’s too itchy. What's insulation even made of? Maybe you shouldn’t touch it. So no bed. This isn’t your home anyway. It’s not your home. It would be more convenient to stay in the general store, yes. Not have to move your food, an overall nicer looking place. But too many windows, too many risks coming from staying in a building that so clearly carried food at one point. You haven’t encountered them yourself but you’ve heard of raiders from your time traveling with others.

Thankfully this town is small, away from others. The wildlife in the woods can be dangerous but it's far enough away from civilization that zombies are few and far between, easily taken care of or ignored until they stumble away. You’ve hit the jackpot essentially. Food. A stream of hopefully? Clean water that you boil still just in case. And no one around to bother you. Just you, an assortment of plastic containers, and your slowly decaying mental state.

‘Til the day you hear a rumble. Curiosity outweighs your concerns to make you peek out the basement window that’s usually covered. There’s a truck! What kind of idiots running and screeching around in a truck that makes so much noise! But you can’t help the excitement at seeing something you used to see so often. And then it's gone out of your vision with a shout, a hoot and a thump.

A thump? Did they hit something? Gaining your better sense back you cover up the window again and retreat to your cave of poorly circulated but still drafty air. There’s more than enough supplies in here. No reason to venture out. You shouldn’t go. With that high and mighty attitude you heard, those must’ve been raiders, or at the very least not the kind of people you’d want to stay around. Too risky. Too risky to even talk to...

When did you get to the door?

“Snap out of it me, you’re only alive because you’ve been cautious. You’re safer alone.” You croak out. When’s the last time you spoke? With there being little reason to? Just another noise to keep track of and minimize. You take one more look around at your supplies and curse. You need to get water today. It’s possible to wait a day, but between not wanting to wait on something so integral and the curiosity of what you’ll find outside. You remove the barricade, twist the rusty hatch lock, and go out, bat at the ready.

It’s fairly quiet, a few zombies dredged up from the earlier noise needing to be dispatched but it's easy to crush their heads with a well-placed swing, decay making them fragile. Seems like the rowdy bunch left town as soon as they came, perhaps outrunning a hoard? God, you’re an idiot for coming out here but at least it worked out with little affair. Though your one pair of pants is dirty now. It’d be nice to have a different pair, your backup being worn to threads. It’s possible to raid zombies for supplies but you DEFINITELY don’t want to strip them. Considering the amount of undead you’ve seen today (several compared to the usual none) it’s not worth it to make this foolish trip longer by washing up. Maybe the stench will hide you, can these things even smell? A trip to the stream to fill up your jug, a trek back through the road you know best and one last zombie stumbling around to take care of and your work's done for the day! It’s almost a nice routine at this point even if it feels like murder. Gross stinky murder.

It hasn’t seen you yet. One side of its body is visibly damaged, perhaps dragged? Ah well. Not your problem. Despite the sorry state of its body, it has an unusual amount of hair left. Man those roots are overgrown. The thing’s stumbling so you have no worries about being able to outrun it. Overall it’s no match for you with only one arm left, shambling with most of its weight on one leg, the other on its bad side visibly torn. Curious. A couple more steps and you’ll be done for the day and-

    It sees you. One wide unblinking yellow eye meeting yours. You hop back, circling around to keep your distance and get a better idea of how to respond. Intense scrutiny makes you catch more details, the lack of blood on the seemingly recent injuries, the face you refuse to look at (it's always the most unsettling) and the... Is that a Nekoma jacket? Shit. Shit shit shit shit you went there! That was your high school you can’t- you back up further and the thing shambles with you. Its too dangerous to get sentimental now just, don't look, don’t look and bash the poor things head in. It’s too late. Whoever it is is long dead just-

    The blond zombie trips and falls to the ground, wiggling around to look back up at you and you can’t avoid its face any longer, his face. Kenma’s face.

    God, you wanna cry, tears already threatening to cloud your vision. It was always a possibility to see someone you knew personally but what’s he even doing out here? You’re so far away from home, or at least it feels like it just. Shit! He’s wiggling you need to get this over with. Can’t avoid hesitating and compromising your safety further. A step back, readjusting your grip on your bat and... he's not. Moving? Did he run out of energy? Can zombies even do that? Why’s he-it. Why is it staring? His big yellow eyes looking almost curiously up at you.

“Kenma?”

His head tilts.

“What the fuck.”

The rustle of leaves and the trash picked up by the wind are the only sounds. It’s just you and this old dead classmate. At least that gives a chance to react to whatever this is. There’s not exactly a protocol! You didn’t plan for this! Shit just, um-

One eye attempts to blink, faltering halfway down- God that's gross

“Kenma?”

His head tilts again

“Okay shit that's, god that's definitely you- Can you understand me?”

No response

Maybe that was a fluke the first time, you would try and project human behavior on a shambling corpse in your lonely state. Fucking idiot... He’s still not moving.

“Kenma, why aren’t you attacking me?”

 His head twitches and you flinch, steadying your grip on your bat.

“Do you want to eat me?”

No response. Okay thats... weird. Wait let's try-

“Kenma, do you want to attack me?”

You can almost physically feel his focus shift, your breathing picking up as his eyes seem to focus on you rather than through.

He shakes his head.

“What the Fuck.”

You keep him tied up across the room at first. It’s idiotic. It’s not like you had a space set up specifically to keep an undead. Why would you? But he’s been surprisingly docile. Complying with any question or demand as long as you clearly address it to him. Knotting the rope around him was nerve-wracking. His jaw dropping open and hanging slack on request to place a gag inside “To stop you from biting me.” His spit leaves mismatched spots on the fabric. Being mindful to stay on his weaker side, you bind his neck and torso as his eyes keep a careful, blank eyed watch. Should his arm be tied up too? There’d been rumours that only bites turned people but risking a scratch just because you didn’t know for sure felt unwise. Finishing the knot on the first short piece of rope you take a step back to access his state. And another as he tenses. And another as he wrenches his head around, tearing through the fabric though pieces catch in his teeth.

“Kenma, stay still.”

He wiggles in complaint, face as taut as the rotting skin will allow.

“Kenma, do you want to hurt me?”

He shakes his head

“Kenma I need to do this... We need to do this. To be sure, to be safe.”

No response.

“Kenma I don’t want to hurt you either, but I need to be sure you can’t hurt me okay? Just in case”

....

“Please?”

His glare is focused on the floor beside him. Any attempts to get closer are met with a huff. Maybe... It’d be best to try again later.

Staying with Kenma is... scary at first and probably will be for a while but there are parts of it you don’t mind. That are nice even. The touch of familiarity, of home. It’s nice to talk to someone even if the most he can do is nod. Something feels wrong about tying up an old friend. He’d say he didn’t want to hurt you anytime you asked but, you can’t be sure. Zombies must have like, instincts or something. Why else would they become the aggressive shambling corpses you’ve come to know.?

You don’t know if he can fully understand you but he’s less restless when you speak, sitting calmly rather than scratching the wall and floor where he can reach. The occasional shuffle of movement makes things slightly less monotonous though it's hard not to tense up at the noise. Movement usually means danger. While you’re cracking open a can and deciding if the risk of smoke was worth a warm meal, he’s jostling around in his bonds enough to knock a jar off the shelf he’s tied to. The shattering glass loud enough to echo in the small space.

“Shhhhh!!!”

His stare’s more intense than in life, that cat-like part of him where you could feel his stare across the room, now with unblinking cloudy eyes. They’ve kept their yellow shine despite his pallor skin. But his movement’s stopped at least.

“Kenma I need you to be quiet okay? It’s dangerous to make noise. Can you be quiet for me?”

He nods.

You set your can down for now, standing and listening intently. No movement on the loud floorboards above you. No noise outside save for the rain and the occasional caw from a bird. Safe.

“Okay lemme clean this up”

Pickles are easy to pick up at least, though the whole room stinks of vinegar now. Hopefully it’s not enough to draw anything to you. Wouldn’t like, blood or something draw them? Yeah, this must be safe okay just, grab a plastic bag from the convenience store, shove the pickles and glass in and toss it out at some point later. You already have a rotting corpse for a friend you don’t need rotting food down here too. Curiosity makes you wonder though as you touch the wet food, the vinegar unpleasant on your dry fingers.

“Kenma can you smell this, or is it just blood you can smell?”

He stares blankly

“Shoot sorry okay uh, Kenma can you smell vinegar? What you just spilled?”

A pause, and then a small nod.

“Kenma, can you smell blood better?”

Awkward timing to ask that as in your distraction, your finger catches on the shards, cutting shallowly but more than enough for it to burn. Flinching at the pain you shuffle away as you hear more than see him tense in his bounds. One of his pupils swells to an unnatural level of dilation, intently watching the red dripping down your finger.

He nods.

After cleaning up the rest, much slower this time to avoid another mess up, and to keep a very very close eye on Kenma considering his reaction. You finally pick up the rest and stow it away in the corner. Wiping your hands on your old pants.

    That general store's first aid kit better have disinfecting wipes left. And it does! “My lucky day! Ah, haha..... Yeah, sarcasm isn’t very funny without an audience.” Or in general. A wipe, a bandaid, and boom! Good as new.... Geez he’s still staring.

“Kenma I’m fine, chill. You look like you want to eat me.”

He glances away though his attention, like always, inevitably comes back to you.

“It’ll heal. I know you can survive a lot of things I can’t. But I can heal and you...” 

You trail off, thinking about the injuries that plague the better half of one side of his body. Questioning how one even loses an arm but not wanting to know how.

“Shit Kenma, can you feel pain?”

Kenma blinks. Shit an actual successful one! Who knew he had it in him.

“Okay how about this, instead of using an entire wipe on just one little cut. Can I clean you off a little Kenma? It might feel better.”

A nod.

“Okay, I’m gonna come closer now. Kenma don’t move too much or you’ll scare me.”

You must actually be losing it if you’re willing to get this close, but... If it could make him more comfortable it feels worth it. Keeping your movement slow in case fast ones set off hidden hunter instincts or something, you settle at his side, reaching out for his hand and trying to hide your wince at how cold it is. Decays made his already small frame even daintier, his wrist feeling almost fragile in your hand. Don’t focus on that just, clean him up. His nails are bloodied and you wonder how one hasn’t popped off yet. Ew. But rubbing around the nail beds (there’s no chance in hell you’re risking getting underneath his nails) his palm, between his fingers, his wrist, sliding the wipe a little further up his arm to get what’s not covered by his sleeve and. “There we go! Much better.”

He blinks at you again. Man this is, really close. There are so many details to his face you couldn’t see prior. His eyes are slightly shriveled up, the skin pulling at the corners. Despite his mouth being closed you can see a hint of teeth with his lips no longer being able to fully close. His nose has caved slightly in on itself making you uncomfortably aware of where his nasal bone is. You look away with a shiver and he shimmies in front of you, his hand twitching and faltering but succeeding in holding him up. You turn again and he moves, struggling to stay within your line of sight.

“Do you... want me to look at you?”

A nod

“Kenma I can’t. I-I need a minute”

His arm violently twitches. You can’t help the way your body lurches away from him, a well trained and well needed fear response.

“Please just! I’ll do it just give me a minute I-”

You blink.

Panic blinds you as a cold hand covers your mouth, shocking your eyes back open to meet his. It stinks it stinks it stinks! Your hands squeezing against his one frail wrist to force it away, the skin leathery and wet. You feel something pop. The force of your shove makes him lose his balance, slamming the air out of his chest like a second death rattle as he meets the wall. His wide eyes look up at you, neither of you moving as the dust that was shocked up in his fall settles. And then, he looks away.

It should’ve been nice to lose the intense pressure of his stare, but it’s not. Any new unpredictable behavior is frightening. As you move to stand, he starts kicking away from you. His trajectory slightly curved as his good leg does most of the work and his arm it... it falters with each push. His wrist moved more than it should, more than it could even a minute ago.

“Wait Kenma!”

His head jerks back, silencing you. Afterwards, he continues his trek further away from you, as much as the ropes allow, audibly dragging across the floor.

“....Kozume?”

No response

He’s still not looking at you.

Unsure of what to say, you stand in silent watch as he struggles to maneuver himself into a seated position, hand slipping across the floor with each attempt to push up.

“Did I hurt you Kenma?”

He ignores you in favor of trying to scratch the floor with his limp hand, your previous work on cleaning him up already being undone.

You sigh as you open your pack. Only once your attention is away from him does he look up, looking away each time you lift your head. Satisfied once you find what you wanted, you start closing the distance between the two of you, pausing as he straight up glares at you. Face tense.

“Kenma?”

And in the most surprising gesture so far, he lifts his hand to place a finger over his lips. The gesture is clumsy, his fingers are unable to fully close and his hand’s dangling limply but the intention is clear.

He’s shushing you.

You roll your eyes.

“Kenma I didn’t raise my voice because I was looking at you. This is just.. It’s a lot. You’re a lot.”

He looks like he’d be blinking if his lids decided to move this time.

“Kenma, it’s okay. We’re okay. Or we will be once we get you patched up. That-” You point at his limp hand. “Doesn’t look comfortable. Is it okay if I come closer?”

He doesn’t respond.

“Kenma is it okay if I come closer? I promise I’ll be quiet.”

A pause and then he nods, his head turned just enough to see you as you finish the trip back to him. “Now I don’t know a lot about medical care but I think? Your wrist might be dislocated. So here’s what I need you to do.” You guide him through the motions, taking your time to make sure everything's lined up like the diagrams in the first aid booklet. It’s not possible to position yourself right and keep your distance but if this is how you die, trying to help an old friend feel more comfortable then fuck it. You’ll go out a proud idiot. Pushing his hand down it snaps back into place with a crack. He hisses in discomfort.

“It’s all better now. You’re all fixed up okay? But just to be safe, can I have your hand Kenma?” His hand appears in yours near immediately. “I want to wrap this as if it were sprained, since you can’t heal? I’m worried we tore some of your muscle or something and I don’t want the damage to spread. Hold still okay?” The bandage wraps up and around, carefully around his palm. It’s almost like taping up his fingers before a game. “Is that okay Kenma?” He nods, gaze not rising from the floor and the rest of the day is spent in silence, Kenma occasionally testing his hand’s movement throughout the night.

[bullets-and-masks]

Fantastic Flustercuck: Lore, Interesting points, and a little thinking through

Here we go! This list is really, really big. I’ll do a short analysis/critic later on, but I want to get this out now! We’ll have 4 sessions: 1. Krieg and the Crimson Raiders 2. Krieg and Maya 3. Krieg and Himself  4. Final Notes 

Session 01: Krieg and the Raiders

Sane Krieg starts by calling Psycho Krieg him; and dividing their mind between two minds, as if there are thoughts only Psycho Krieg has that he can’t access and/or understand 

There’s a constant JACK voiceover that can be heard anywhere. Sadly, I didn’t catch the words, but sounded like the pre recorded messages at the preserve in Bl2

The first section of the DLC, the Castle raid, is considered imporant because it’s the first mission Krieg did along with the Crimson Raiders after a while 

During this section, we fight the raiders

Brick and Modercai come first. They talk about how Krieg is too crazy to be a part of the Raiders. Sane Krieg does not want to fight them. Psycho Krieg fights - but it’s fear

Tannis quickly accesses it as fear of rejection. Krieg always had an issue with how the Raiders see him 

Despite this Sane Krieg does know they’re friends, his family 

Also sane Krieg uses the word oaf and that’s like... really funny 

In this, Tannis says she relates to fear of rejection, but quickly corrects saying she doesn’t care 

There’s the implication that Krieg’s eye was clawed out by a skag 

The “Evil Lilith” inside his head calls him an animal, a beast, a weapon just to be used. Says they never cared if he lived or died

Sane Krieg quickly corrects this isn’t how she spoke to us

Lilith is tagged as “Scary fire lady” and that’s kind of adorable

Sane Krieg shows Psycho Krieg an old memory about how the Raiders treat him, and it’s the Raiders inviting Krieg to a bar. They don’t mind how he acts and laugh along with him 

But Krieg follows from a distance

The Raiders guard his buzzaxe = strenght and attack

Krieg has a dialogue with himself that goes sorta like: Sane Krieg: (smth about finding out who is he, really) Psycho Krieg: Fragile Things

Sane Krieg also mentions wanting to learn dance, saying he has to exercise to keep his abs, calling it “lean muscle”

Session 02: Krieg and Maya

Oh boy

As soon as they see a memory of Maya, Sane Krieg wants to be careful. He doesn’t want the memory corrupted like the Raiders’. 

Krieg KNOWS she is dead

Sane Krieg says Maya is the only thing he and Psycho Krieg ever agreed on 

despite this, during the DLC they seem to get along better and better, Krieg is really working on themselves

Maya drops her book before proceeding. The player has to go after. Flowers grow on the ground where we walk

Tannis states diferent brain activity readings at this point, saying Krieg can really focus on Maya 

Maya is taken by Locomobius, the monster train, and Sane Krieg says it’s because at the time they met, Psycho Krieg thought the train was taking her

Maya tells him in a goodbye ECHO: “No matter how far appart we are, I’ll always be with you.”

The name of the mission to catch Locomobius and free the memories of Maya is what love remains 

Sane Krieg says the memories are all he has left of Maya

There’s a flashback to when they met, and it shows that Maya invited Krieg to come with her because he showed knowing how to fight 

She does call him Big Guy constantly

Krieg has memories of Athenas, implying he has been there 

Athenas is guarded by eridians, here funcioning as guardians to the memories of Maya 

This is all viewed by Tannis as the protections of a grieving mind

The flashback about when they met also reveals that Krieg expressed he didn’t think he had anything to offer Maya and she understood him 

It it’s not explained, whoever, how she understands him, but it’s very strongly implied that she sees his through thoughts/the translation of psycho speech

Maya guards his gauntlet = his defenses and hope 

Even now, Maya is still a figure of hope for him 

Sane Krieg complains about how Psycho Krieg lost a watch that he cared for

Session 2.5: Maya’s Spirit

Maya’s Last ECHO Maya leaves for Krieg one last ECHO that explains why she’s staying on Athenas for an indefinite time - to teach Eva.  She says she knows she’ll pass her powers to Eva which implies she suspects her death could be soon.  She says she can feel all the sirens that came before her like energy flowing, and says that if she days she’ll be among the stars waiting for him.  There’s the quote, from her: “Even death and time can’t keep us appart from each other.”

The Spirit Maya stays in Krieg’s mind in a shining black and white form. At first, It looks like it might be his perception of her, the way she appears in his mind, but upon further triggering dialogue, there’s a lot of things told from a perspective that make it sound like Krieg didn’t know, and that also Maya is aware of this new form for her.

Quotes say: 

that she never thought she could care about anyone the way she cared about Krieg

says that Krieg’s mind is less messy than she thought it’d be

had noodles in Minus-Prime, and loves it 

she dyes her hair!

Maya says with all the words Siren’s have the power to leave memory on objects, memory that are almost a spirt 

So this could be a fragment of Maya, alive in Krieg’s mind through the last ECHO he ever got from her

Also her spirit also mentions that one day a hotel showed up in Athenas, she slept there, it was a super interesting place, and she woke up lying on grass the morning after. Mancubus’ traveling hotel? 

Session 03: Krieg and Himself 

And Hyperion. 

Krieg was at Hyperion to do a job at a lab

but then was “taken” by them. also not specified if he was taken for doing the wrong job, or he was there not hired by them and was captured 

It is not specified what job, but he does mention he was a mercenary

The scientist responsible for him was Dr Benedict, and the called the subjects rejects of society

Sane Krieg says the lab saw the subjects as just meat. This is easily read as way Psycho Krieg registers meat as something that matters so much

Dr Benedict considered/might have done it: sweing the mouths of subjects shut or extracting their tongues so they couldn’t complain 

Sane Krieg was really soft y’all... He fights a rat while imprisioned and names it Tawanda - unclear what happens to it - but Krieg says they’ll take care of each other

Krieg tells Tawanda “I’m called Krieg”. In a further ECHO, Dr Benedict calls Krieg Subject 24C. So Krieg really isn’t his name, and he can’t remember it 

There’s an audio from Dr Benedict about an non specific subject asking to see his son, which the dr considers crazy, but all the others audios, even if not mentioning Krieg by name, seemed to be about him...

Sane Krieg sits along with Pyscho Krieg in an aparent crumbled cell space watching shadows that he calls The World. It’s Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, here showing Krieg is content with the world presented to him, unable, weak or even afraid to explore. It speaks to a false meaning he found to have the sense of living without having the strenght to do so

the player destroys the allegory, thus freeing Sane Krieg to see the actual world, a further step in regaining his mind as a world to really live in - he truly was trapped in himself

Bloodlust is a type of psychosis studied by Dr Benedict. It’s unclear wheter he created it, or what is behind it, but he uses a gas to infect people

considers making a gas bomb to infect whole populations

there’s a line from the Dr about how brain probing worsed pyschosis

the gas didn’t affect Krieg like the others - it is also unclear why 

a mission with a Fear Mom, completely referencing the Clockwork Orange, tells Krieg to drink Milk to grow strong so “no one will hurt you ever again.” This could be read as remnants of his past self, creating a place to feel cared for someway, but also embracing the ultraviolence of his being and the brainwashing he went through

this side mission rewards a gun with the flavor text our eyes are yet to open like a baby, or like someone who lacks clarity 

Krieg cared a lot about people before going insane. He holds strongly to a sense of right and wrong he calls goodness, and values innocence a lot

The Psycho personality is a schism that showed up in several test subjects that manifested the same personality

Dr Benedict wanted to change the subject pool to see the relation and considers an elementary school class

Also considers putting the gas in water supply to infect people since the gas won’t work on open areas

Psycho Krieg saves Sane Krieg when he had given up on scaping 

It is a bloodbath Psycho Krieg calls Tea Party

Sane Krieg sees this realization, about being saved and the Vault Hunter being inside his head, as Psycho Krieg letting people in

Hyperion kept his mask from him = “false face is protection”

Upon defeating the boss, the Gigantic Krieg tied to an experimentation bed fades.

After taking the mask, this Three Figures walk into a portal in his mind and disappear forever. Sane Krieg doesn’t remember who they are and remarks that he forgot his past entirely.  But looks at Psycho Krieg and decides on Forging a future.

They tell jokes to each other constantly, though Psycho Krieg only tells a decent joke by the end of the DLC. The joke is the one coherent sentence he can make; showing a lot of progress in how he communicates, but not changing who he is.  By the end, his mind is empty, and both Kriegs work together to fill it slowy with new memories and thoughts. They start with Maya, and keep creating until she says “Enough for now. Come in and tell me about your day”, to which Krieg responds FUSING INTO HIMSELF, WHOLE, and walking into the house with her. The voiceover from Krieg tells us we’re always breaking and hurting, but we put ourselves together again, never perfect, but close enough. Always fixing ourselves. 

Final Notes:

This DLC was really good, imo. I really liked the direction it took and I’m glad it wasn’t TOO wacky, loosing all the meaning and more seriousness it could have. It is a great character exploration, respects Krieg as a character and the one around him and their relationships.  Krieg comes out as not needing fixing, and instead making peace with all he is and growing.  Canon things confirmed:  Worked as a mercenary, was a Crimson Raider, was one invited by Maya, was loved back, was experimented on by Hyperion, was saved by himself.

[afy2018]

Going Through Changes Ch. 1

[Aug. 24th, 2020]

It was very early, that Monday morning, when Sara woke up. The curtain, being partially closed, revealed the sun’s strong rays. She glanced over to her roommate, Samantha Santos, who was still sound asleep. Sara slid out of her bed and quietly got changed, taking a moment to turn off her alarm so it would not go off. She grabbed her bag and books before swiping her wallet, keys, and phone. It was almost completely quiet in the dorms. She could hear some muffled conversations as she made her way down the hall. There was a student in the lobby, working as a campus officer and another working the desk.

Sara waved and continued to the cafeteria. The campus had a few students walking around, but most were either already in class or just getting ready for another early morning class. Even the breeze was calm and tired, barely grazing through the trees. The building’s lights were still on like stars to pave the way through the university. Sara gazed at the stars that still lightly speckled the sky. She tried to find the familiar constellations before they disappeared into the daylight.

Sara made her way into the cafeteria where there were only five other students getting breakfast as they waited for their day to begin. Sara walked in line to buy a breakfast burrito and a bottle of orange juice.

She peeled back the thin shiny wrapper and made her way to her classroom. There were more students walking around as she made her way through the campus and to the F Building. The professor’s offices were mostly dark with only one person in their room - that Sara could see. She made her way to her classroom. Still fifteen minutes ahead, Sara walked into the almost empty classroom. Her Professor stood at the podium-desk next to his notes and a pile of syllabi, just waiting to start the new semester. Professor Wright was a portly old man with a bulbous nose that hooked at the end. His dark eyes were full of life as he waited for the lecture hall to fill up and the hour to pass over.

Sara sat in the middle of the hall as the seats around her quickly filled up. She was surprised to see the number of women in the class. From what she could see, there was about one girl for every three boys in there with her. The moment the thin black minute hand on the clock at the back of the classroom ticked over the twelve, Professor Wright sprung to life.

“Good morning class. Welcome back.” He called out to his students. “I would like to start with those on the waitlist. Raise your hands so I can see… who or how many I need to add,” He quickly corrected, counting the seven students on the waitlist. “Okay. After class come up and I’ll email you the add code. Now,” He sighed, grabbing a stack of papers, “time for my favorite part, the syllabus.” He handed it to a blonde boy up in the front of the row and walked back to his desk. “Now, I have a PDF on canvas if there aren’t enough to go around. The important dates and my office hours are on the front. My rules of the classroom are on the second page, my recommended resources- all free- are listed in the very back. In the middle, you will find the description for your Final, your Midterm, and your three research papers. There isn’t any homework for this class. Show up to the lectures and you will pass. I take attendance once that hand reaches 8:00. If you are late to class because of reasons you cannot control, call, text, and email in that order with evidence Like hospital wrist band, pictures of your car troubles, et cetera. Any questions?”

A few students began to ask questions. Someone asked about the way he wanted the assignments turned in, another asked about the late policy. As important as these questions and answers were, Sara felt like something was off. She glanced around the slanted beige room and found a pair of dark chocolate eyes watching her. Her father had always taught her to be vigilant to any threat, especially on campus, but as she glanced at the person staring at her, she just nodded in their direction, feeling no malice, just curiosity from them.

There was a young woman with dark brown hair pulled back in a tight bun. She had tan golden skin that was mostly covered with by a dark green sweatshirt that said “CCRI Knights”; the rest was too small for Sara to read. The woman quickly glanced at another student in the room with her, twirling her pencil around her fingers.

Sara tore her gaze away from her and focused back on her professor. Wright was talking about his thoughts on social media for some reason, making Sara wish she’d learned the context to this rant. By studying how he spoke, Sara could tell that this guy was a rambler as the reviews on Rate My Professor had warned, but he was the highest rated professor for this class, so she decided that she’d just have to sit through it. Of all types of professors to have, “The Rambler” was not the worst kind at all.

Lost in her thoughts, Sara missed whatever Professor Wright had said to end the class. She quickly gathered her belongings and headed to the cafeteria. On her way there, she passed by the art wing. There was a glinting and sparkling piece that caught her eye from one of the hallways. She followed the way down, taking a quick moment to explore the small art garden.

There was a large glittering glass mosaic wall. It was a beautiful piece reflecting the native flora and fauna of New Jersey. There was a deer and a fox by the river with a fish hopping out. The colors were beautiful, with iridescent glass on the birds and trees, bronze for the deer, and a fiery amber for the fox.

Sara glanced at her phone to check the time, she still had an hour and forty minutes until her next class, great to get food from Jeepers. She headed back out of the art garden and to the casual restaurant. Sara had been there before because it came with her meal plan. Jeepers was a fun place with a lot of seating for the students. She kind of wondered how busy it was going to be.

Walking into Jeepers, Sara spotted a familiar face by the windows on the barstool. It was that girl in the forest green sweater. Even though her back was turned to her, Sara could still tell it was her. She decided to grab a bite before the lines got too long and sit next to her. They could swap numbers just in case either of them missed a class.

Sara walked in line and ordered an Asian chicken wrap, grabbed a bag of original Skinny Pop, a banana, and a bottle of water. She waited behind a string bean guy who could not have been any taller than Sara herself. He had a slight frame with messy brown hair. When he turned to look back at Sara, she first noticed his thick sharp brown eyebrows, then his wide and inviting smile.

“Hey.” He greeted.

“Hey, how’s it going?”

The young man shrugged and grabbed his food. “Pretty good. I just got out of my first college class.” He finished with an excited smile.

Sara couldn’t help but smile back. “So this is your first year?” She asked paying for her meal.

“Yeah! I’m Barry, Barry Allen.” He introduced, quickly reaching over to shake her hand.

“Hey, Barry, I’m Sara Lance.” She smiled. “I’m a Junior here.”

“Really?”

“Yup.” She answered, taking her food and thanking the cashier. “Did you get the turkey club?”

“Yeah, why?”

“No reason.” She shrugged, “Bye Barry.”

“Wait, why?” He asked again.

Sara chuckled to herself, just pulling his leg. She walked to the window where her classmate was sitting and took the spot to her left. The girl looked at Sara, tearing her focus away from the textbook in front of her.

“Hey, you’re in my Ethics class right?” Sara inquired.

“Yeah, I’m Nyssa.” She greeted, closing her book.

“Sara, without an H.”

“Nice to meet you.”

“So Criminal Justice major, too?”

“Yeah. I’m here for my masters before I join the UN Security Force.”

“Same here, but I want to join the CIA or the FBI. What’s the UN Security Force?”

“The part I want to join in is the Blue Berets, it’s their armed forces. They’re also known as the Peacekeepers. They help protect people like the victims of African raiders and ISIS.”

“Wow.”

“What about you?”

“I want to become an agent. Hey, do you want to swap numbers, you know just in case one of us misses class?”

“Oh, yeah, sounds good to me.”

Sara reached into her backpack and pulled out a pencil and pad of sticky notes. She quickly jotted down her phone number, email, and name before peeling it off and handing it to Nyssa.

“So what’s CCRI?” She asked while entering the number into her phone.

“Community College of Rhode Island.”

“Oh wow, that’s a long ways away.”

“Yeah, but I really wanted to get out of there,” Nyssa sighed. “What about you. Where are you from?”

“New York.”

“Wow, I’ve always wanted to go there! What’s it like?”

“I mean, it’s a mix. One moment you’re in the city and the next you’re in the suburban hills, then you’re in another state. What about Rhode Island, I’ve never been there.”

“I mean, really it’s a tiny state that it mostly a bay then another state almost right away.” She joked, glancing at the clock on her phone. “Well, I have to go. I’ll see you around, Sara.”

“See you, Nyssa.” Sara smiled, not partaking in her meal as Nyssa walked away.

As Nyssa walked away, Sara’s phone went off in her pocket. A text lit up from her phone with the message “Hey Sara, it’s Nyssa.”

Sara texted back, “Hey, dude”, before adding her into her contacts as, ‘Nyssa (The Cute Girl)’. She glanced at her phone and continued to eat her lunch.

~~~~~~~~~~

It was her third and final class of the day and Sara was actually kind of glad. She walked to the building and went down the hallway to her last class. She was glad to have ceramics between her major classes because it was a nice break. Sara walked into the classroom and sat down in the middle with a few other students. She set up her belongings, getting ready to write down her schedule and organized her planner, highlighting the two syllabi she placed on her desk. Someone tapped on her shoulder, making Sara glance up at them. It was Nyssa again. Sara quickly moved her backpack out of the chair next to her and smiled up at her.

“You stalking me, Nyssa?” She joked.

“I mean you saved me a spot.” She taunted back. “Were you expecting me?”

Sara chuckled and went back to fixing her planner as their teacher spoke to a few students. She glanced at her phone, two minutes before class, and their professor had already begun to hand out the syllabus and a few other papers. Once they made their round to Sara and Nyssa, it seemed that the extra papers were meant to introduce the students to their teacher. It was a Getting-to-Know-You page off of the internet. Sara filled out the survey and re-read her answers again.

“Alright, I want you to go to seven people and learn their name and one thing off of that paper.” He proclaimed, sitting back in his chair.

Sara turned to Nyssa and asked, “What was your first pet’s name?”

“Levi, he was a frog. What about you?”

“I had a Canary named Tweedie.”

“Like Tweety bird?”

“Yeah.” Sara chuckled writing Nyssa’s answer by the question.

She then went to a six other classmates of hers, learning that a boy named Nicola was born in Montana, a girl named Denise is a Pisces, another boy named James wanted to be a farmer growing up, Rachel has four siblings, Evan would want to rename himself, Charles, and Alex played bass in a Math-Rock band. It was fun, much more fun than Sara thought it would be. She was glad that she could keep the paper, it was interesting to learn more about her peers. As their class ended, they packed their belongings and began out the door.

“Hey, Nyssa, you wanna get something to eat at the cafeteria?” Sara asked, trying to catch up with her.

“Oh, yeah.”

“So, judging by your community college, I’m guessing that you’re not a local.” Sara wondered on their way.

“Yeah, I’m staying in University Court.”

“Really? Me, too. I’m in building 8.”

“Building 2.”

“So, what are you getting?”

“I haven’t tried their pasta choices yet.” Nyssa shrugged.

“Might I recommend the manicotti? It’s stuffed with ricotta and Italian sausage. It’s really filling.”

“How much do you get?” Nyssa asked pulling out her wallet.

“Like,” Sara began trying to size it up with her hands, “this big, and you get two.”

“Wow… I mean I’ve never had the manicotti?”

“Yeah, and they’re really good. Especially the ones they make here.”

“I think I’ll get it then. What about you?”

Sara glanced at the menu and shrugged. “I’m gonna get a burrito, or… nah, I’ll just stick with a Ceasar salad. After this, we should head back to the dorms.”

“Oh, why?”

“They close at 8:30.”

“Oh, yeah, that’s in, like, fifteen minutes.” Nyssa nodded before going up to order.

“So,” Sara began, unfolding a paper in her pocket, “while our food’s getting ready. ‘What is your favorite holiday?’”

“The questionnaire?”

“Yup.”

“Halloween. You?”

“Christmas.”

“Wasn’t one of the questions, like, what’s your least favorite holiday?”

“Yeah, mine’s Christmas again.”

“Why?”

Because my birthday’s Christmas day and it’s kind of annoying to constantly be compared to Jesus by religious friends, the antichrist by regular friends, and a Christmas miracle by distant family.”

“I bet you only got Christmas presents, too. Not much of a birthday celebration?”

“Yeah. No parties either because everyone traveled for the holidays.”

“So,” Nyssa asked glancing at the paper. “You can hotwire a car?”

“Yeah.”

“How’d you learn that?”

“From some friends in high school.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. What’s a weird fact about you?”

“Well, it’s not really weird more as it’s just a fact about me.”

“Anything will do.”

“Well, I did jujitsu until high school.”

“Really? Why’d you stop?” Sara asked grabbing their food.

“I started wrestling. It became too much to play a sport and do another one outside of school. Did you play any sports in high school?”

“No, but I did use to fight. It helped that had learned some basic skills from my dad.”

“Wait, like fist fighting?”

“Yeah, I’d fight for money.”

“Wow, were you good?”

“My stats were pretty good. I could beat most people, but I wasn’t great, just had a lot of stamina.”

“I did not expect that from you, you look like… well like…”

“A princess? Yeah, just to the public, but in private I’m not so nice and proper.” She joked.

“Are you a secret queen of underground fighting rings?”

“Depends, are you gonna 21 Jump Street me?”

Nyssa rolled her eyes and took a bite of the manicotti. “Oh wow, that’s pretty damn good!”

“I know right?” Sara chuckled looking at the paper again. “So, we did one weird fact, siblings?”

“I have an older sister, Talia, and a younger brother, Saracon.” She told her, rounding the corner to University Court.

“I have an older sister, too, Laurel.”

“So what’s she up to?”

“She’s a lawyer. Right now she’s working for a small company. Last time she texted me, she said that she was getting ready for her first case defending a divorce settlement.”

“Wow, my sister works for my Dad’s business and my brother’s kind of AWOL, well to my dad and Talia, that is. My turn.” Nyssa said changing the subject to look at the paper. “If you could rename yourself what would it be?”

“Sara with an H.”

“So people don’t-”

“Don’t get my name wrong, yeah. What about you?”

“Amaal, I don’t know I just wrote down a random name.”

“Why Amaal first?”

“It’s a common name in my community.” She shrugged as they came upon the dorms. “Well, this is my stop.”

“Mine, too.”

“See you on Wednesday?”

“Yeah, I’m not planning on dropping any classes, so.”

“Alright, night, Sara without an H.”

“Night, Amaal,” Sara smirked, going to her dorm.

She went into the dorm and began to room 124. She took out her card key and placed it against the sensor, waiting for the beep, the green light, and the sound of the lock clicking out of place. She walked into the low lit room to see her roommate and “Big Sister” Sam Santos on her bed with her blankets pulled up her legs, her laptop slapped onto her stomach as she typed something onto the keyboard. Her hood was pulled over her head. She glanced around her device at Sara and gave her a large smile and closed the lid. Sam sat up and took a swig from her hydro flask.

“How was the first day?”

“Good. I met a new student who’s in my first and last class.”

“Cool.”

“What about you?”

“Very easy, so far.” She smirked brandishing her laptop.

“When’s your next class?”

“Well I have an online lecture at 9 and then an art class at noon, and finally my history classes back to back from 2 to 6.”

“I have the same schedule.”

“I don’t know how you do the early bird-night owl schedule.” Sam huffed.

“I enjoy it. Hey, when’s our first meeting?”

“It’s Sunday at noon. We have to sign up for shifts for Club Day.”

“Don’t we also have to elect a new leader?”

“Oh yeah, well, in the Spring.”

“Ally texted me that she wanted to start early.” Sara inquired, looking at her phone. “Dina said that they were talking about it… anyway, I don’t know though.”

“They’ll decide soon enough.” Sam sighed looking down at her laptop and opened it up again. “Oh, so about your new friend, what’s she like?”

“She’s nice and weirdly serious and laid back at the same time.”

“Sounds mysterious.”

“I don’t know about that. She’s a criminal justice major like myself,” Sara shrugged pulling on her pajamas, “she seems kind of nerdy though.”

“Sounds like a good girl,” Sam noted peeking up from her laptop.

Sara paused halfway pulling her shirt on. “It’s not like that.”

“Okay, okay, that’s not what you said about Riley Appletree.”

“First of all, it’s Riley Oglesbee. Second, he wasn’t too bad.”

“He was one of the messiest people I had ever met.”

“I liked him, he was really nice.”

“Oh really?”

“Yeah… we went out to sushi a lot.” Sara shrugged.

“You liked him because he took you out for food and bought you stuff.”

“Yup.” She huffed sliding onto her bed.

“Honestly, I don’t blame you… but I do judge you.” Sam chuckled opening up a bag of kettle corn Popchips.

“You know I can’t let just you eat those.”

“I know.” She nodded scooting over for Sara.

[zuzuslastbraincell]

Katara!

KATARA KATARA KATARA

why I like them

oh god where do i even start. katara just contains so many multitudes - she's sweet and feminine and caring and attentive but she's never reduced to just that, she's never just 'the girl', she's also allowed to get mad, to be petty, to laugh at her brother, to be headstrong and stubborn, to express vulnerability, to cry and to laugh, to make ridiculous facial expressions and *be* very expressive. she's dealing with a lot of trauma not simply from the loss of her mother but that loss represents also how her tribe have been decimated by the fire nation, how she's the last waterbender, how all this pressure exists on her shoulders (but also pride, but also determination, to bring it back) and that is expressed subtly throughout the series with the same depth and love that male characters are afforded with regard to their respective traumatic experiences. and despite all this she never tries to stop making the world good? She's always pushing for change, she's always wanting to make things better, she's relentless and doesn't give up when it comes to her vision for a better world... she has such a big heart. and that coexists with a deep anger in her, and deep hurt. Not to make an ocean metaphor so early on but she's as deadly and deep as the ocean but she chooses to be kind and warm and that's so powerful.

why i don't

honnestly while katara's instincts to mother people are a sad symptom of how she was forced to grow up to soon and automaically asigns herself a role of emotional responsibility she has mixed feelings about, i know that if katara tried to mother me, i would be annoyed. but that sounds more like a me problem.

favourite episode

oh it's either the episode where she beats the fucking shit out of pakku or it's the southern raiders. the first one because it's so gratifying to see how she's grown and developed as a bender and really come into her own. the second because... god i love how *messy* the southern raiders is, and it really taps into what i love about katara - she's flawed, she runs off on an ill-thought out revenge mission with zuko, she's got a great capability for darkness as she quite seriously considers murdering a man she has every right to loathe and to kill - but she chooses against it, in the end. it would not be right for her, if not him. she chooses what's right for her in the end.

favourite season

I'm gonna be a wee bit controversial and say book 1 had the best conception of katara's arc from student to master and really saw her grow and flourish, from someone yelling at her brother' oafish prejudice to a real master, that really solidified her as an idealist and presented that as the strength that is, that showed her struggling with petty jealousy of aang's progress and had her stumble in ways that made her character comeplling and interesting - like what an introduction to her character! book 2 had some fantastic moments but i can't think of anything particularly remarkable about hee character arc - largely because it tied into aang's romantic arc i think at this point. book 3 had some absolutely fantastic moments (scam queens katara and toph!! painted lady!! southern raiders!! the final agni kai) that really shone but also book 3 lays a lot of groundwork for fanon i hate (e.g. katara as the mom friend - wish that headcanon would die tbh)

favourite line

fuck there's a lot of good ones but my underrated fave is when sokka says he's kissed a girl before but she's never met her and katara says 'Who? Gran-gran? I've met gran-gran' and it's bruuutaaall

but my favourite serious line is 'I will never ever give up on people who need me'. powerful.

favourite outfit

water tribe anything!! and i actually think her book one/book two braids are her best hair. underrated katara hair. personally she looks just adorable in her parka in the flashback to when she was like. eight.

OTP

katara/personal fulfilment

katara/happiness

katara/fulfilling her goals and dreams

katara/loving minor background character who is never named

there's some ships i like in AU situations - yuetara is actually one i lov, especially with waterbender yue, i just love the whole sea/moon thing as well as katara and yue rebelling in loud/quiet ways, being girlfriends who refuse to have their lives defined by the expectations of older men, who have a great sense of duty towards their nations and won’t let gendered expectations stop them.

and most of you know i like the messy drama of katara/azula in a lighter AU situation where they're like, school or academic rivals, and the legacy of imperialism isn’t quite so personal (and azula makes better choices, obviously), but it’s not as much as i “ship” them as i just find the potential dynamic interesting, they’re both driven by a sense of duty for their home, it’s just that means *very* different things depending if you’re SWT or FN.

none of them are OTPs though - they’re more just fun thought experiments

brotp

katara & sokka - absolutely love their sibling dynamic its amazing. both have been impacted negatively by the shit in their lives and are not always dealing with it in functional ways but theyre there for each other, through thick and thin, always have each other's backs, they roast each other and bicker and sometimes make stupid decisions and sometimes lash out but at the end of the day their love pulls through, they’re able to work past those conflicts.

katara & aang - honestly while i feel kataang was just so poorly executed in the show (listen guys I just can’t after ember island players, i know that was a bad episode, but i can’t) & i cant imagine katara wanting to leave the south pole after the war for long spells (it would have to be long distance love, lots of profound and heartfelt letters and occasional visits, if anything, but i dont know if that’s what katara wants or needs? so maybe it wouldn’t pan out?), but regardless, i really do think these two had a life-changing friendship where each really represented hope for each other, that's at the core of it, they both truly believe in each other, and inspired each other. katara & aang good.

a headcanon

chief katara anyone?? chief katara?!?! 

oh oh OH i also think that katara, while primarily a combat bender during the war, actually takes to healing a lot more after the show and gets proper healing training at some point with the help of a trained medical expert and maybe yugoda. tbh i feel like the show was a bit dismissive of healing as an ability - i feel like having that is *extremely* useful in any combat situation, you always have a medic on hand - but i understand why katara, who wanted to be recognised as powerful regardless of her gender, and wanted to hold herself in a fight alongside sokka & aang, pushed for combat waterbending training because that is what 'powerful' looks like to her in the moment. obviously katara is capable of incredible healing feats (see: saving aang) but i think given we see her as a healer in lok (not a decision i necessarily disagree with) would mean a shift in focus. i think katara actually comes to realise she likes healing a great deal, but really she excels in all aspects of waterbending and is the south’s most respected master who helped rejuvenate southern style waterbending  

unpopular opinion

the main reason people think katara is straight is because we see her have very few meaningful interactions with other girls outside of toph. ATLA as a show is a bit romance obsessed, and very heteronormative in that regard, and so interactions with minor characters almost always line up with a potential crush for sokka or katara, and later, zuko (suki, haru, jet, yue, song, jin....). we rarely see katara build friendships with other girls and it’s such a damn shame.

(anyway bi katara for life)

a wish

the version of the puppetmaster we saw was actually fire nation propaganda, i feel like katara would have felt deep compassion for a prisoner of war and after maybe some clashes, would have agreed to help smuggle her out of the fire nation and secure passage home for hama, and tried to assure her that she still has a place there. the treatment of hama in that episode was awful (but also hama was written to be almost cartoonishly evil, very much an evil witch in her cottage in the spooky woods? like the whole horror movie / spooky story opening was such a big tell) and tbh i reject the thesis that we saw ‘katara’s dark potential’ in that episode completely, or that bloodbending as a power is inherently dark, or katara’s use of it to stop hama ‘corrupted’ her. I feel like katara might feel this way as a teenager perhaps but with time (she can be a little black and white at times), and especially with more training as a healer, i think she might realise that’s not the case, she’ll realise that she was right to try and oppose hama, her elder (she was lashing out rather than really trying to oppose the fire nation), and it wasn’t a betrayal of her or her beliefs, but also her use of bloodbending wasn’t wrong or evil inherently at all? and maybe she’d find ways to use it for healing purposes? anyway my wish is that, i like the idea that they meet again, speak about their differences, reconcile a little / come to an understanding, and katara learns more from hama again

an oh-god-please-don't-ever-happen

anything where katara’s character is reduced to a comforter or a healing device for a man and his trauma. particularly zuko. (they don’t have that dynamic in canon thankfully, zuko would never, zuko respects her too much)

5 words to describe them:

idealistic, hard-working, powerful, headstrong, kind

my nickname for them:

chief. or comrade. :^)

[anonwrite]

Into the Stratosphere (Part 1)

The author wants to be anon.

The author wants to know:

What readers would find interesting or boring in the story, as well as what feels out of place or unnecessary. English is not a native language, please point out what doesn’t sound natural.

“I write for myself and my imagination, but I know the pace or wording may not fit what most people expect from good writing. I want to know how to polish this up.”

-------------------

Readers can give comments in reply or reblog to this post

Readers can send me anon comments with the title of the post

Readers can use THIS google doc - to do a deeper commenting

---------------------------

Part 1

“Hey, check this out!”, a young voice resonated in the hut made of metal scraps and ship parts. One of the two girls sitting at the tables filled with broken mechanical devices and trash twirled around in an old leather chair bursting with its stuffing in several places.

“I’ve never seen a cloud this big before”, the girl in the chair pointed at a screen behind her, showing a bunch of glowing dots.

The other girl, not looking up from the scraps she was carefully taking apart answered in a soft voice, “So you’re getting excited at the *size* of clouds now”, laughing a little, “are you really that bored?”

Still trying to get the other’s full attention the girl beamed and got up. “It hasn’t rained in like half a year, maybe we’ll finally get some wetness up in this wasteland of a desert”

Pushing her messy chin length hair behind her ears the other looked up to watch the screen herself. Still filled with excitement the girl that had been looking at the signals from the sky was already stuffing a few things in a rugged bag. “I’m off to check if I can see it on the horizon, the wind should bring it further our way. Maybe I can already tell the others about it too”

And just like that, throwing it over her shoulder and wrapping her head in a light fabric she stormed out. “Be safe out there, Maya!”, the other called after her.

The hut was their home, and had been that for years. Once an abandoned and broken down building, only a few of the original walls had survived and gave the hut the base structure. Walls from shipwrecks and metal sheets held up and supported by metal streams filled out the rest and made it habitable. Years ago, when this place hadn’t been the girls home for long, they found old weather equipment in the ground that had been hidden by sand and dirt. Kora had spent months on trying to get it to work, only to spend several months more studying how it even worked.

Maya, as the older of the bunch, despite being sceptical, let her do this and gradually the hut turned into a weather station for the desert people who appreciate the forecast in the rough climate of the desolate planet from time to time. Though the desert people weren’t typically aggressive or dangerous, they were still not always to be trusted and Maya had found that out on several occasions on trips to the next big city.

Largely getting their food from old family friends and jobs fixing up broken things the two girls who once chose their home as a place of isolation had actually become an important piece of the community and were respected by the people that knew them.

As of now, Kora was working on a fusion cell worth enough to get them through the next few months, given she actually figured out how to fix the thing. “Damn it.”, she mumbled and placed her tools down. It was bent out of shape and she didn’t know if it would ever work again. Frustrated she got up to walk back to their kitchen, she started rearranging the containers of condiments, trying to take her mind of her apparent failure.

She thought about what they were actually working towards. Was there a goal for them to reach, something for them to discover? Kora thought her life had lead to a dead end where what lies ahead won’t ever be new or exciting to her. She started heating up a food packet they bought in town while her mind went different places. They were getting by, had enough food, essentially did what being adult was. Or was it?

She could try getting a job in town, stop hiding away in this desolate place and actually face the world. Was she trained enough to be able to prevail out there? The idea scared her and she retreated back to her sleeping mat, steaming food packet in one hand and a bent out of shape spoon in the other.

Maya had ran over to visit their nearest neighbors in her excitement, a family with six children, ages ranging from a baby to a boy about the same age as her. The run was rather long, in the scorching sun Maya felt thankful she had water and fairly good health to get her through. The mother was feeding camels outside when she saw Maya walking towards them and waved at her.

Inside the house she was greeted warmly. Offered cold refreshments they sat down at the livingroom table with the kids running around, mother holding the youngest in her arm. “Are you dear girls alright by yourself? Have there been raiders? I’ve heard from town people are getting desperate in this dry heat-” “Don’t worry about us, we’ve been good and we’ll be good, actually - I’m here because of this heat”, Maya interrupted the mother’s words in a calming manner, “Our monitors show a big cloud, way in the east, coming towards us”

“I heard Mayas voice, is she here?“, the eldest son walked in, wiping motor oil off his hands with a rug. When he saw her, he threw her a big smile and sat down with them at the table with a huff. "She was just talking about possible rain, promise me you’ll go into town to buy us some new food and supplies, alright sugar?”, the mother turned to him and requested.

“Will do”, he smiled again and looked at Maya, “only if Maya comes with me though, of course.”, he said jokingly. Maya couldn’t help but laugh at that and the mother smiled and excused herself back outside to look after the animals and leave the two alone. “How much food do you still have?”, he asked after carefully waiting until his mother was out of hearing range, “I know we usually don’t have to worry about running out of stuff at all, with Dad working at the town suppliance office and our animals, but even he took me by the side and hinted things are looking bleak.” He laughed awkwardly to mask his concern.

“We’re all good, we stock for long and don’t exactly need thaaaat much. We’re only two people after all, unlike…”, she motioned around to three of the other siblings chasing each others through the house. “If I can help around here, you have to message me. Do you still have the radio phone Kora fixed up for you?” The boy lowered his voice and scooted closer to Maya. “Keep it in my bed. My mom still thinks it’s dark magic or something”, he shook his head and smirked. “I’ll use it for emergencies. I promise.”

He turned to one of his brothers and held his arm, “Why don’t you all play outside for a bit? It’s nice and bright out. Take your brothers and sisters.” When he realeased the boy’s arm he was already running out of the door with his siblings. “Don’t go too far from the house!”, he tried warning them before they completely disappeared out of the house.

It had gotten way more quiet now, besides the few animals from outside and the wind blowing against the desert structure, it had gotten peaceful. “I don’t know how you do it”, Maya said. The boy just picked up a glass from the table and turned it in his hands, looking at how the light coming in through the windows would pass through it at different angles.

“Once the ground is wet, supply and merchant ships can land and we’ll all be fine. It’s been worse before.”, he sat the glass back down on the big weathered table. His voice was determined and Maya questioned if he was trying to convince himself of what he said or if he truly believed it.

Maya nodded and looked around. After a while of sitting in silence he spoke again. “Do you know for sure it’s a cloud? And it’s not moving away?”, he asked hopeful. “Looked like any other cloud I’ve seen on our monitor before. But big. And the wind, the wind usually comes from the east. So it should carry it right towards us”, she said. The boy exhaled loudly and stood from his chair. “Come out with me to the back, I’ve been working on something.”, he called out already walking through the back door into the sun.

Outside stood a bike, with misshapen panels that looked like it could be solar powered. The boy walked over to the thing, standing next to it proudly and a motioned for Maya to come closer. “My dad brought this home the other day. Broken messenger bike from town, the motor wasn’t powerful enough to make it run smoothly to operate,” he crouched down and pulled at the side to open the bike, revealing the rusty and dirty insides. “It still needs normal fuel, but I hooked up some old sun panels so it should run way more smooth with the extra power.”

Maya walked around the misshapen thing, the colors scraped off the sides of bike, making her question if it was really let go because it didn’t run anymore or if there was an accident involving the bike. “Sit on it, it’s easy to control”, the boy told her. Reluctantly but intrigued Maya got onto the bike, putting her hands on the handles and feeling the bike react to her weight by creaking. Despite that, it felt sturdy and she thought about this being way better than having to walk. “I want you to take it.”, he said.

Maya turned to him in disbelief. “If there’s anyone deserves it or needs it, it’d be  you. It’ll be easier to get around. And it’s made to travel over this rough terrain.”

“You’re kidding”, Maya said quietly.

“Well, you got a message to deliver, don’t you? Go to town to tell them about the possibe rain. They can prepare for the landings.”, he smiled seeing her excitement grow.

She jumped off and gave him a big hug, throwing her hands around him. “Thank you so so much. This means a lot.”, she whispered.

He hugged back slightly and patiently waited for her to let go, overwhelmed by her closeness. “See, turn this for it to jump on.”, he taught her by showing. The bike stuttered and growled to life. “The petal down there will make it drive, the left handle lets you break. I tried it out, don’t put too much trust in the break.”

Maya was listening and could barely contain her excitement. Once she sat back on the bike, the boy held it and pulled away the safety break. Her start was wobbly, but she soon sped off into the desert, saying goodbye with only an energetic wave and driving off to the distance.

In the meantime, Kora had dug up an old book about trade from under her bed. Her empty food packed laid next to her, her nose was buried in the book. She didn’t know if it was fiction or not, sometimes it seemed like storytelling to her, but she did not care. The distant sound of a bike tore her out of her reading and made her jump, confused as to what someone with a motorbike was doing out here. Taking precaution she took a metal rod from the table when making her way to the door, only to soon realise the person on the bike was too familiar. Maya looked happy as she came closer and Kora knew already who had blessed her with the gift.

“Is that what he paid you for your hand in marriage?”, she taunted Maya when she came to a rough stop by the creaky old gate. Maya got off the bike and skipped over to Kora.

“Shush! We just have each others back, you know. If you went he would’ve given you this thing too”, she muttered smiling while hugging Kora. “If you say so. It looks like one of those city bikes, only-”, she made a face, “a little bit broken.”

“Well you saw that it works, so we shouldn’t complain”, Maya laughed and went inside, Kora following her.

“I’m going to town tomorrow, it’s too late now to make the trip. Even though this thing is substantially faster, I better not test my luck” Maya said while already shuffling steaming hot food in her mouth, huffing to cool it faster. She was now sitting at their cluttered table. She hadn’t eaten the entire day, but it was normal to ration out the food sparingly over long dry periods. Kora nodded without looking up, again occupied with her book, sitting across the room in her bed in the corner.

After cleaning up a little and making one last trip around the house to check if everything was in order, the sun had gone down and  they soon traded in the flickering light bulbs they had to illuminate their house for some well deserved sleep.

The heat of the morning woke the girls and Maya almost immediately fixed herself a bag for the trip to town. Kora took one last look at the monitor to confirm the cloud was still there, and it was, showing up closer and bigger than the day before. Before Maya left, Kora scraped together the last of her savings to stock them up on some food and water. Putting on her best clothes, Maya saw Kora slipping the money into her bag.

“We’re low on food and water?”, she guessed. Kora answered with a shrug and a mumbled “You know how it is, in case you find someone to trade with”

Bag strapped to the bike carefully, Maya was ready for the journey that’d easily take morning. Especially if she chatted with the people along the way, as she usually does. Kora trusted Maya’s social skills and knew she could look out for herself. Despite that, she watched her drive off with a little bit of worry in her stomach. When the bike became a small spot on the horizon and eventually disappeared in the glimmering heat over the desert hills, she went back inside to work on the fusion cell for now, hoping she’d fix it before the merchants would depart.

She needed a new approach to fixing it, this much she knew. She didn’t want to give up on this thing, if there was a way to fix this she swore to herself she’d find it. So she decided to wire it together with a generator and test the different circuits, checking which ones worked and which didn’t. She knew which ones didn’t work through sparks that’d be emitting from the thing, making her jump back every time they’d fly at her. She had to put away all the other electronics and devices to make sure nothing would get even more broken than it already was.

After the sun stood much higher than when Maya departed, she had tried every single one and could safely say what parts exactly needed fixing. Much to her dismay, the core seemed to not be connected correctly, throwing the entire thing off. She sunk back into her chair when she realized she had to open the entire thing to rewire it. She’d never done this and knew it wasn’t easy to do.

Frustrated she wondered if this was even worth trying. She looked around the home and her eyes stuck on the almost empty box with their food packets. She remembered their water tank outside being filled the lowest it’s probably ever been. She had spent a considerable amount of time creating a system that’d collect and purify rain, but that didn’t help when there was none.

Knowing she had to, she picked herself up and got to work.

Sweating and using most of the tools she had at hand, finally Kora had a break through. Carefully closing the cell that now glowed by itself, she knew she had done it.

Smiling at her achievement she wrapped it in cloth carefully and put it in a box. Maya would take it to sell it. They would be able to charge more for this than for anything else Kora had fixed up before. Satisfied with herself, she noted down some of her findings and what she did to fix the cell in her journal, for her to remember later if she ever got the opportunity to do this again.

A sudden continuous beeping tore Kora out of the situation. The monitor that was showing the distant big cloud before, carrying the hope of the desert people, was now blinking red and making jarring noises.

The girl walked to the monitor and inspected the old device. To Kora’s relief nothing seemed to be wrong, she figured it just picked up on the signals of starships that would land when the rain would dampen and thicken the ground terrain, allowing trade and an interchange of information that they had been starved of for months now.

Skillfully pressing a few buttons the beeping stopped and she tried to look further into how many ships were there to make a rough estimate. Any information like this would help prepare and make sure everything would go smoothly.

Bent over the device, focused on the screen, Kora was interrupted yet again. A static coming from the communication box next to the makeshift weather station caught her attention. Then, a distorted voice came from the ancient speakers Kora had presumed broken.

“Is anyone picking up this signal.”, the voice spoke barely distinguishable words.

Stunned and surprised Kora stood for a second. Usually ships would not try and make contact and if they did, they’d try to connect to town and not to here.  Maya and Kora used to have radio equipment to be able to make contact with ships and people from far away, but decided they wanted to avoid trouble and now had portable close range radio phones instead, to ensure communication between the people they knew and trusted, not outsiders.

“Is someone picking this signal up?”, the voice repeated and Kora started frantically digging through boxes to find an old microphone. When she found it, she hooked it up to to the dusty communication box. She took a deep breath and spoke.

“Yes. Not very clear, but I can hear you”, she said, somewhere between excited and scared.

The static responded after a few seconds. “Who am I speaking with?”, it asked.

Kora’s heart sunk as she realised this might be important business. They probably wanted to speak to the one in charge, the mayor or the few town officials that they had.

“My name is Kora, I live in the outskirts of Yilandir, the town”

The static took longer to respond this time and Kora bit her lip in nervousness. How deeply she wished for Maya to be there. Maya would know what to say, she thought.

“How big is the population?”, it said.

Kora responded explaining how there were about 11.000 people as far as she knew, many living right by the town but also quite a few living scattered around it. Yilandir wasn’t big and usually didn’t get much attention, she knew there were bigger cities at the opposite end of the planet, but there were a few skillful workers here that’d get jobs fixing merchant ships, or some ships that’d pass by needed to fuel up coincidentally when landing was possible. The people also liked buying food and other goods from merchants, making this a safe place to go to earn money for travellers.

Having said all that she could, Kora went quiet and waited for a response. Instead of a response, the static went away completely and left her confused in silence.

Kora had almost pushed all her thoughts about the weird static incident away when she noticed swirled up dust way off on the horizon. She was sitting outside in the shade of the home, sun going down behind her, already turning the sky all sorts of colors. She had been looking at the stars that were shining and becoming more in numbers by the minute. She knew it was Maya returning from her day in the city and remembered wanting to ask her what she would’ve done about the incident.

With Maya slowly coming closer, Kora went inside to fix her some hot food to welcome her, and decided to make some tea aswell. The crumbled packet of leaf she used for the tea was from a foreign planet, she was told, making it the most contact she’d had with the world outside of Yilandir.

Kora was stirring the tea when she heard Maya’s bike finally closing in. She closed the lid to let it sit and went to meet her at the gate.

Maya looked sweaty, understandable in this heat, but happy. When she got off the bike Kora could already see her bag was full of food and other stuff, more than the money she put in the bag could’ve possibly bought. What could you say, Maya was just that charming. She went in for a hug and Kora felt a bit more at ease now that she was back.

“Need help carrying that?”, Kora asked as they pulled away from the welcome hug.

“No, it’s not as much as it looks. Still quite a lot though-”, she struggled visibly to lift the bag, “everyone was super thankful for the info. Took my word for it, I told them maybe one or two more days max and the rain should come.” Kora couldn’t help but wonder what she did to get such a good deal. She was charming, sure- but not charming enough you’d gift her your scarce food. She hoped the old townfolk weren’t convinced the girls were the ones to credit for the rain, as she didn’t want to feed old superstitions.

The two went inside and Maya happily took what Kora had prepared for her. They both sat on the floor for a while, in silence, only Maya was eating. The tea had sat long enough and it looked almost like an oil spill glitter in the now dusty golden water, smelling refreshing and sweet at the same time.

“Think we should try and get away from here?”, Kora asked.

Maya took her time answering. “Why go somewhere new when we know for sure we’re just fine here”, she said after having a few more bites of the food.

Kora looked down and stirred the tea, making multicoloured swirls dance in the cup.

“This time when the ships land, I want to see if I can maybe find someone willing to let teach me. Mechanics and stuff. Like, fixing actual useful things and not just trash that’s thrown away or so old it’s from before we were even born.”, Kora spoke, still looking down.

“Don’t feel like you’re not doing anything useful, you’re fine the way it is. I can’t be sure you’re safe when you go off somewhere just to see a bit of the world”, Maya told Kora, “and you can’t look over me, either. It just seems so unnecessaryily risky”

Kora nodded, still avoiding looking at Maya.

“If you really want to do it though, you have to do it. If you think it makes you happy.”, Maya added.

Now Kora looked up at Maya and smiled. “Thank you”, she simply said, then went back to sipping her tea by Maya’s side.

The light slowly faded away until only starlight lit up the home. Light pollution wasn’t a thing here, countless stars could be seen in the night sky. Kora decided to finally get up and put away their now empty cups. “I’m going to check the monitor and then see if I can see the cloud from here already before heading to bed, want to come too?”, she asked the girl that was still cuddled up on the floor.

Maya yawned and stretched. “You can tell me if you see something”, she said in a sleepy voice.

The monitor showed the same as before, but the cloud had gotten closer now. Even though it wasn’t cold, Kora still threw on a jacket and went outside. Walking around the hut to the back she could already make up a dark outline in the sky where the starlight was blocked by the cluster of clouds. It stretched far and towered like a black wall over the desert dunes. When Kora concentrated on the outline, she could swear she saw it slowly but steadily moving towards her.

She stood and watched for a little, trying to see if she could make out darker shadows thrown by merchant ships everyone was desperately expecting. A few minutes went by before she noticed diffused blinking in the clouds. This meant there had to be at least one ship, flying in the cloud. A bit weird, she thought, the electromagnetic tension in clouds must mess with their equipment on board. Why were they not flying above it or below it? Or maybe she was way off and they had a perfectly good reason for flying in the clouds. One last look before going back inside and she noticed a few more lights up there. She turned her back on it and went inside, closing the door quietly, just to see Maya had went to bed already. It didn’t take long before Kora laid in bed too, mentally preparing for the rain.

The girls woke to the sounds of a caravan of camels and other indigenous animals on their way to the city. They must have noticed the clouds and wanted to use their chance to trade with the outside world. Maya immediately got excited and wanted to check out the strangers right away, but before storming out the hut Kora got a hold of her.

In a groggy voice Kora explained her concern. “We’re all running on our last reserves. At least most people by now are. We don’t know these people so-" "They’re not here for trouble, it’s a caravan for goodness sake.”, Maya interrupted Kora.

Kora shrugged, still in her bed, and pointed out of the tinted window next to their beds.

“At least check them out from inside first before you go and see what they’re up about”, she said before turning over and trying to get a few more minutes of sleep.

Upon further inspection, the fully covered people walking the caravan seemed to be fully armed as well, so Maya gave in. Maybe it wasn’t the best idea to go out  to meet armed people when we can’t make sure if friendly or not, she admitted. She still insisted on watching the entire thing pass their home and stood by the window until the very last camel was out of sight.

Kora got herself up and had prepared breakfast for them, the same food packets from town she steamed and heated up every day. In the back of some shelves she found some spices she decided to throw in the sticky mess. The same food every day made even the best food taste bland, and the generic tasting food packets basically everyone was eating definitely already didn’t taste all too well in itself. They filled you up and did what they were supposed to, but not more.

They ate together before getting ready for the day. It looked like this was going to be the big day, the cloud had creeped far enough to block out the sun and was on its way towards town. The girls threw together a few essentials to take with them for the event.

It was certain they were going together, an event like this was celebrated and treated like a get together for everyone, plus it was an event to do business and find new contacts. Kora didn’t want to bring it up again, but she was set on learning more about mechanics. Even though she knew the road she was choosing may be uncertain, she felt sure of her decision and was ready to start a new chapter. Given she would find someone willing to teach her, of course.

Maya on the other hand was simply excited to see everyone together again. In her happy ramblings she talked about how the governor would deliver a speech, people would play board games the way it was last time, she could be meeting old and new friends and all the things Maya found cool.

Kora listened and smirked, knowing how gambling was running wild when everyone was feeling confident and steady with their finances right before the trade event. She doubted the people would take risks now, after the experience of how life could dry them out just by chance.

“They even let me play, were you with me when that happened?”, Maya was putting their radio phones into their seperate bags.

Kora carefully took her wrapped up fusion cell to sell once the market was up and going and placed it in her bag. And just like that, they were ready to take the trip, even ready to spend the night in town if needed.

The bike stuttered and moaned under the weight of them both and their bags, the way to town dragged on forever in hot anticipation.

When they arrived it was as if the anticipation had jumped over like a spark to everyone and snowballed into something that could almost be felt on the skin when walking through the dusty streets. The small capital, home to the people of the desert, was the only place to do business without having to already know your business partner for years, those few who could afford would gamble for rare fortunes from other worlds you could only find here. Sometimes even those who couldn’t afford it would gamble. And although you could not compare the small yellow city to a metropolis with its own heartbeat, it had its way of dealing with strays.

No matter who you were, sooner or later you would have to come here, the main water tanks and farmers selling produce were the base for survival. Now was the time where everyone wanted to come and see what travelers from other planets might have to offer, too. People like Kora would see if they could get a job on deck, working on one of the ships that would land. Very few of those had ever come back from their journey, which is exactly why Kora had felt guilty of her dream for so long.

Driving through streets which were of course way busier than usual, the girls saw preparations were happening fast, the sky had darkened already. The open field behind town hall was being kept open and barren as a landing spot, but people were already setting up market signs around it. There were a few women in dainty scarfs who had painted their faces, trying to appeal to the travellers. Maya averted her eyes, she thought even though her people were dependent on those travellers, they should take pride in their home and not sell themselves to those passing through.

By a crumbling fountain, drained of any water, the two came to a halt. Kora looked towards the sky while unpacking her stuff from the bike while Maya was thrilled by the lively atmosphere. The first drops of rain soon fell and so did the tension as everyone’s hopes came true.

“Town hall, with our stuff?”, Kora asked Maya fidgeting with her hands.

“I want to go say hi to everyone, people are still setting up their market stuff, outside a bit-”, Maya cut herself off by turning her face up and feeling the waterdrops hit her skin.

Kora laughed and her heart warmed up seeing Maya so excited, but she was for sure not going to miss the announcements in town hall.

Every time the travelers would come, just when the rain had started falling and the ground wasn’t fit for landing just yet, the people would gather and inform others of all important things, such as newly formed marriages or losses or big plans.

Kora saw the governor, an old soul named Hank Hill, already up front preparing to talk when she slipped by the townfolk into the massive sandstone hall. Kora trusted him. Though she also knew she was responsible for herself, it felt as if she wasn’t completely alone in times she needed help. This feeling was shared by many and was what had kept Hill in office for years.

“Hello my friends and - neighbours. Let us celebrate. Our land has given us the gift of water once again and we will savour it.”, the man coughed and continued, “-more efficiently, ever since last rainfall we have expanded our collectors and added an extra water tank-”, some people were cheering already, “so that we don’t come close to running dry like *this* again.”

The ‘like this again’ felt like a collective gut punch and concerned murmuring spread through the crowd. The governor sighed and continued. “It is true that we would have run out of water very soon if the rain hadn’t come now, but let us thank God for giving us this gift and not think about negative what-ifs.

We can be sure to welcome outsiders today, who will give us many opportunities and I encourage everyone to make friendly business with the travellers.”

“friendly business”, Kora thought. Normally there would be half a dozen small merchant ships, but when she thought about the lights in the sky the other night it looked like there was a bigger ship this time. More space for products, she shrugged and made her way out of the crowd as they were starting to announce all the new couples.

The air felt fresher and besides trying to not get the bags full of their goodies soaking wet, the water was something no one found irritating. Taking hurried steps towards the landing field Kora identified Maya waving at her from across, at a tent from the scavenger men who were something like police for the town, only way less official. Kora told herself the low humming she she heard was just her head anticipating the ships, as she thought it’d still be a bit until anyone would try landing. The field was big, when Kora arrived at the tent her drapings were wet and clinging to her skin, a funny feeling but not uncomfortable as it was not at all cold even though the sun was behind clouds now.

Chairs were set and you could almost think there was a festival going on from the look of some of the guys.

“Beer? It’s warm but it’s still good”, the guy next to Maya offered Kora a drink. She politely declined as she set down her stuff. “Made new friends? “, Kora asked Maya who seemed to be enjoying her drink and playing against the other guys in some foreign board game.

"Old ones, actually. Remember when I was sentenced to townwork because my behaviour needed 'disciplining?’ ”, Maya made weird faces when saying the words *behaviour* and *disciplining*. And no wonder she still wasn’t convinced her behaviour was too much sometimes. Kora thought that with these guys rules were bendable, you’d just have to prove yourself as a cool person.

Just as Kora was starting to get basics of the game, a faint metal surring yanked everyone’s attention back to the sky. People were hurrying around and making room, the rain had soaked everything and even though the water brought optimism, it clung and seeped everywhere even if it wasn’t as welcomed as it was for the desert people.

The mayor had made his way to the large field quickly after the announcements, the formal wear of dark cloth already wet from being outside a few minutes.

And that is when a large metal object burst through the dense rainclouds, the surring getting ever louder. The citizens were gathered and watching, many were overjoyed at the sight of what was expected to be a merchant spaceship. Only that it definitely didn’t look like just a merchant spaceship. It was big and looked sleek, landing in just a few seconds and blowing air and water everywhere, towering over the desert people shielding themselves from the impact of the vessel by just their arms and hands.

The governor wiped his hands on his clothes nervously and stepped to the front of the foreign ship. He was waiting to welcome the visitors, the people had quieted down and watched the ship.

A good thirty seconds went by before the ramp of the ship was finally lowered. The governor held his position and the people fell silent.

Suddenly a door slid open and figures stormed out, their faces obscured by helmets, seeming to know just what they were there for. Kora looked at Maya frozen still by watching what was unfolding in front of them.

“Just run. Now.”, she whispered at Maya.

[bucket-of-rice]

Grappling with attention, suchi with friends, and so, so much soccer: A week in the life of Morgan Rielly.

Justin Kloke. 16 Jan 2019

(HEADS UP! this is a long post)

In a Maple Leafs season with high expectations and the hopes of making a legitimate push in the Stanley Cup playoffs, no player has had a more transformative year than Morgan Rielly. For one week, The Athletic was granted a glimpse into the life of the Maple Leafs’ star defenceman.

Saturday, January 5

Just after 10:30 a.m. Saturday morning, Morgan Rielly takes his place in front of an army of reporters and cameramen at the front of the Maple Leafs dressing room. His blonde hair walks the line between well-manicured and messy as he eschews the high and tight look of so many of his peers. He wears a slight stubble on his face, shorts, non-descript Black Nike trainers and large white socks bunched up just over his heels.

At first glance, the 24 year old looks more like a suburban father out on a diaper run than he does a Norris Trophy candidate. As Rielly speaks, there is no trace of ego. An outsider would be hard-pressed to believe Rielly has scored 44 points in 40 games, which at this point is tied for the lead among NHL defencemen.

“I feel like I have room to get better,” Rielly tells the scrum. “When you look, recently, we’ve had some losses and it’s important we all take that upon ourselves as individuals and try to get better.”

The Leafs welcome the Vancouver Canucks that night at Scotiabank Arena, Rielly’s hometown team. Rielly has become accustomed to being sent to speak for the Leafs ahead of a game. He has not just taken steps, but leaps and bounds this season to become the team’s number one defenceman. In training camp, Rielly confided to one of his best friends on the team, Jake Gardiner, that he was going to be “more assertive” offensively this season.

As such, it’s curious that the league’s highest-scoring defenceman was left off the All-Star Game roster when it was announced a few days earlier.

But Rielly still has a shot to get to San Jose and his first All-Star Game: Throughout this week, fans can vote for him as part of a “Last Man In” campaign. One player from each division will be selected.

Not surprisingly, Rielly, who has been hesitant to speak about his own personal accomplishments all season, isn’t viewing this week as a try-out for the All-Star Game.

“I don’t think it’s going to change anything,” Rielly says, shaking his head. “Voting is what it is. It’s based on a lot more than just what happens on Monday night and then Thursday night.”

After a five-game point streak through December that saw him net 11 points, Rielly has cooled, going pointless in his last three games. It is his longest scoring drought of an otherwise scorching season.

Tonight’s setting is seemingly right for Rielly to get back on track.

“I’d be lying if I said I just treated it like every other game,” Rielly says of facing the Canucks.

He knows all of his buddies back in Vancouver are watching, and he understands expectations surrounding his play might be heightened.

At 6:35 p.m., Rielly and the Leafs exit the dressing room, but not until famed Canadian astronaut, and noted Leafs fan Chris Hadfield quickly scoots through the blocked-off area directly outside the dressing room.

Rielly is the 19th player out of the dressing room. He stops to share a choreographed handshake with Mitch Marner that ends up looking more like an entanglement of hands than it does a high-five. They both burst out in simultaneous laughter.

“I like it in basketball when it’s a little bit more elaborate,” Rielly says of special handshakes among teammates.

Midway through the first period, Rielly sees his fortunes change. He throws the puck on net from just inside the blueline and John Tavares tips it in. It’s part of a comprehensive performance from Rielly in which he generates six scoring chances.

The Leafs humiliate Rielly’s hometown team, 5-0.

Still, Rielly isn’t interested in personal accolades, including breaking his pointless drought.

“People always ask me about points and stuff,” Rielly says. “I genuinely don’t think about it. I used to when I was younger. As you get a bit older, you put it out of your mind and you just worry about playing.”

Rielly will hang around Scotiabank Arena after the game until half-time of the Dallas Cowboys-Seattle Seahawks wildcard playoff game. He then quickly drives home to his Trinity Bellwoods apartment. He pours himself a glass of red wine and makes a beeline for his couch to watch the second half of the game and unwind.

Rielly won’t call himself a wine connoisseur by any means, but he’s met enough people through his NHL career that have influenced his taste in wine. He favours wines from Napa Valley instead of more traditionally popular countries like France and Italy. When he gets together with his parents, he always chooses the wine, even if they do talk a big game after recently returning from a trip to Italy.

“I know what I like now,” Rielly says, nodding his head confidently.

Sunday, January 6

Rielly arrives at the Leafs’ practice facility at 10:00 a.m. for a noon practice. He’ll get a bit of physical treatment, stretch, take part in a team workout around 11:00 a.m. then be part of a team meeting at 11:30.

When Rielly does take to the ice just before noon, there is a full-size dummy on the ice that goaltending coach Steve Briere uses to simulate screens for the team’s goalies.

Rielly has other plans.

“Me and (Gardiner) like to shoot pucks at it because we think it’s funny,” Rielly says.

Sunday’s practice is short, totalling just 25 minutes. The team avoids working on structure, instead opting for a variety of three-on-three games meant to, in Rielly’s estimation, “just keep the motor running.”

With the rest of the day to kill, Rielly considers his options: he’s interested in seeing ‘Vice,’ or perhaps spending time with Auston Matthews, Frederik Andersen and Tyler Ennis, all of whom are single and have established a routine of dining out and seeing movies together.

Rielly is all too aware that it’s important to have hobbies outside of hockey and not simply spend his personal time on the couch.

But Sunday is different.

“Today’s going to be about football,” Rielly says.

It’s the final day of the NFL’s wildcard weekend, and Rielly wants nothing more than to park himself on his couch to watch.

“I do believe in preparation, being rested and being aware of what you put in your body today,” Rielly says, perhaps using this as an excuse to spend a Sunday afternoon vegging.

Rielly’s interest in football isn’t just a passing one.

His father, Andy, was a Raiders fan after working in Orange County, California as a carpenter when he was younger. Morgan and Andy would drive down together from West Vancouver to Seattle to watch the Raiders play the Seahawks. When Rielly was seven and the Seahawks played at the University of Washington’s Husky Stadium, the two braved the freezing, snowy conditions by buying entirely too many blankets which they still have, and use.

“I’ll always remember that,” Rielly says.

His interest became even more deep-seated when he began playing fantasy football. Rielly’s incredible season isn’t just limited to the ice: He won the team’s fantasy football league.

His pick for the Super Bowl is the New Orleans Saints, led by Drew Brees. He admits to being mesmerized by one of the all-time great quarterbacks.

“He’s one of the only guys who I’ll watch the entire game and not change the channel. When I watch that team play I just think about how good they are. Their offence just clicks.”

Monday, January 7

Game days are always the same for Rielly. After waking at 8:00 a.m., as he does every morning, and throwing on the first clothes he can find, he’ll drive along Lakeshore Boulevard to the Scotiabank Arena, arriving no later than 8:45.

He’ll mosey around the dressing room, striking up a conversation with whichever teammate he meets.

“It takes me a while to wake up,” Rielly says.

Breakfast always consists of two eggs, over easy, with one notable exception.

“If I’m really hungry I’ll have these blueberry pancakes we have,” Rielly says. “They say they’re supposed to be good for you but I don’t really believe them.”

More coffee follows. Rielly will tape his sticks for the game while waiting for one of his favourite parts of his day: The pre-game soccer kick about. Players organize a tournament and whoever lets the ball drop is out of the circle. The last man standing gets a point, and the first player to three points wins.

“I’m the best guy on the team. You can ask,” says Rielly. He never played much soccer growing up but he has honed his skills.

The first team meeting is at 9:50 followed by another at 10:00. If the morning skate is mandatory, Rielly will take the ice.

If not? More soccer.

“That’s harder than pre-game skate,” Rielly says.

Lunch is served at the Platinum Club, a restaurant just steps away from the dressing room. He’ll always eat pasta in rosé sauce, and will always sit across from Gardiner. After lunch, Rielly grabs a cookie, a bottle of water and returns home.

He naps earlier than his teammates, generally from 12:30-1:30. Once he wakes up, he’ll open his laptop and pore through the endless stream of news stories emerging that day, paying particular attention to any stories his mother has sent him.

Rielly arrives back at Scotiabank Arena by 4:00 p.m. His pre-game meal is simple: toast, and, more coffee.

At 4:25, Rielly enters the trainer’s room for a thorough stretch. He’ll wait for Gardiner to finish his stretch immediately afterwards and a one-on-one game of soccer follows. First to 10 points wins.

By the end of that game, more teammates are waiting on the sidelines to join in. Another tournament commences.

At 5:00, Rielly enters the dressing room. The team’s penalty kill meeting begins at 5:12 sharp. He’ll then chat with defence partner Ron Hainsey about the evening’s matchup. Rielly is a fan of poring over the game notes on the opposition to see if any trends stick out.

Another meeting at 5:30 follows before…another game of soccer.

Rielly eventually has to be pulled away from his teammates for more stretching before getting dressed for the game.

Tonight’s game is one to forget for Rielly and the Leafs. After giving up two second period goals against the Nashville Predators, the Leafs throw caution to the wind and abandon their defensive structure in search of the tying goals. In doing so, they expose themselves and are exploited by a very good Predators offence. They add two more goals in the third period and the Leafs lose 4-0.

Rielly is unable to break out of the Leafs own zone as he has all season.

“It was an example of them clogging up the ice and making it difficult for us to generate offence,” Rielly says. “And that can be frustrating.”

Tuesday, January 8

It is a day off for Rielly and the Leafs. Rielly begins his day by running a few errands, including a stop at the bank, all fueled by a few iced coffees. He makes his way to Ossington Avenue where he meets Ennis, Andersen and Matthews for a sushi lunch.

The push to get Rielly into the All-Star game begins to ramp up. The Toronto Raptors post a short video with Pascal Siakam in a Rielly jersey encouraging fans to vote for Rielly.

Matthews also posts a photo of Rielly from lunch on his Instagram story, trying to generate more votes.

The four of them then move on to a local theatre for a matinee viewing of ‘Aquaman.’ Nothing special, according to Rielly, even if he is into superhero movies.

By the evening, the weight of two games over the past three nights catches up with Rielly. He’s exhausted, and can’t be bothered to cook. He says goodbye to his teammates and walks across the street from his apartment to Oyster Boy and saddles up to the bar.

He’s a fan of spending his evenings alone at the restaurant bar, often bringing a book, such as Thomas L. Friedman’s ‘Thank You for Being Late: An Optimist’s Guide to Thriving in the Age of Accelerations.’

As increased attention on Rielly’s social media ramps up, he needs drown out the noise. He isn’t entirely comfortable with all the attention. He plugs in his headphones and listens to an episode of the Joe Rogan Experience with a plate of oysters in front of him.

Wednesday, January 9

Wednesday’s practice ends with a competition born out of a discussion among Leafs teammates: Who’s better at taking faceoffs, defencemen or centres? Rielly has only taken two draws in his lifetime. Last season, with the Leafs trying to kill a 5-on-3 penalty and one Leafs forward already kicked out of the dot, Rielly was called in to face off against Henrik Sedin. He lost.

Assistant coach D.J. Smith drops pucks as the two groups bark after every draw. In the end, perhaps against the odds, Gardiner leads the defencemen to a surprise victory. A round of cheers breaks out among the Leafs defencemen.

Jake Gardiner and Nazem Kadri often debate whether forwards or defencemen have harder practices, and Rielly hopes this competition settled the debate.

“It was brewing for a couple of days,” Rielly says, “so I’m glad we squashed it.”

After practice, Rielly and his teammates board a flight to New Jersey in advance of tomorrow’s game against the Devils.

Rielly takes his seat near Gardiner, Kadri and Hainsey for a heated game of poker. Rielly has never considered himself much of a poker player, aside from killing time on his phone with a poker app. It’s the camaraderie he enjoys.

“I’m not a good player. I like being involved in making fun of guys,” Rielly says with a mischievous grin that is as commonplace to Rielly as his dad socks.

Nevertheless, he wins big on the flight down.

Previous attempts via social media to bring attention to Rielly’s “Last Man In” vote were only a start: On Wednesday night, Gardiner helps the Leafs go on the offensive. Gardiner films a series of short clips with players hamming it up for the camera in an attempt to influence voters and boost Rielly’s case for the All-Star Game.

Rielly was alone in his hotel room at the time, getting ready for a team dinner and was unaware of what Gardiner and the team were putting together.

“If I was, they wouldn’t have gotten out,” Rielly says.

When he returns to his room after dinner his phone blows up with notifications. He can only shake his head and text Gardiner to plead for the videos to stop.

Thursday, January 10

The majority of the Leafs don’t travel to the Prudential Center for a morning skate, so Rielly and Gardiner play soccer at the hotel on their own.

“I rinsed him,” says Rielly.

More videos continue to roll in on social media, encouraging fans to vote for Rielly.

Rielly tries to block out the added attention by continuing his routine. The Prudential Center offers a roomier space for the team’s pre-game soccer than many arenas. But that could only increase the attention on Rielly.

“He’s a target man,” says forward Andreas Johnsson, who is also one of the better soccer players on the team.

Rielly isn’t fazed. If anything, he believes Johnsson’s admission proves his superiority.

“If it’s Royal Rumble, you go after the best player, because you want him out early,” Rielly says.

The Leafs get the bounce-back effort they needed, a comprehensive 4-2 victory over the Devils. Rielly registers one assist and it’s one worth remembering. His patient highlight-reel pass looks almost effortless but still brilliant.

The Leafs don’t leave the airport in New Jersey until just after 11:30 p.m. Rielly finally arrives home just before 1:30 a.m. It’s a late night, but Rielly still sets his alarm for 8:00 a.m. the next morning.

“You have about 12 coffees and go about your day,” says Rielly.

Friday, January 11

As Rielly begins skating laps around the ice ahead of practice, the results are announced by the NHL: Rielly will not be going to the All-Star Game. Sabres forward Jeff Skinner is the final Atlantic Division representative.

After practice, Rielly is swarmed by reporters. Asked repeatedly what it would have meant for him to have been able to go to the game, Rielly deflects. He can’t imagine what it would be like to experience something that didn’t happen.

“I’m glad it’s over,” Rielly says repeatedly of the vote. The feelings of self-consciousness over the attention were a little too much to bear.

He’s already making plans to return to Vancouver and spend some quality time with his eight-year-old yellow lab, Maggie. Time away from the spotlight would serve Rielly well.

After a nap to recuperate from practice, Rielly and Ennis meet at Lee, a trendy Asian fusion restaurant, for dinner. Rielly is a massive fan of Susur Lee but even more so, considers living in Toronto as a way to expand his culinary palette.

“There’s a lot of diversity in this city,” says Rielly. “That is true certainly with the food. There’s lots out there that you can try, and find what you like.”

Saturday, January 12

By Saturday afternoon, the focus has shifted away from Rielly’s All-Star Game snub to that night’s opponents, the Bruins. After losing two of three regular-season meetings so far, questions continue to swirl about whether the Leafs have the mettle to combat the Bruins should they meet again in the postseason.

Rielly understands the questions, even if he doesn’t like them.

“If you’re a journalist and you look at the history, that’s the narrative I would write too,” Rielly says. “I don’t think there’s anything there that we’re afraid of.”

As the Leafs prepare to take the ice, Rielly takes his normal position in front of the silver Maple Leaf logo in the dressing room hallway to the ice. He wears an “A” on his sweater and is beginning to take more responsibility on this team. So much so that, as strong a year as he is having as an individual, he would trade it all for greater success as a team.

“That’s the end goal,” says Rielly, with the admission that the Leafs need their best players to be performing at their full capacity to succeed. “That’s why we’re here. We want to win hockey games. It’s not about what we do as individuals. That’s a trade I’d make for sure.”

In the second intermission, with the Leafs trailing 3-2 and slightly deflated, Rielly pipes up. His message is simple: Stay positive. He reminds those closest to him in the dressing room that the team is at home, down by just one goal and that they were getting their fair share of scoring chances.

“To hear voices, I think it’s good,” says Rielly. “You feel like there’s something that has to be said, whether you’re a young guy, old guy, it doesn’t matter.”

The Bruins hold on for the win. There were long stretches throughout the game that Rielly felt the Leafs were in control. It’s hard for Rielly not to imagine another playoff matchup.

“When you look at the standings, there’s a chance we’ll see them again,” Rielly says. “That’s something you always think about.”

Rielly returns to his apartment, alone with his thoughts. He tries not to let losses fester too long. He genuinely tries to find the positives in the game, and then “flushes it,” before practice the next day. Rielly is happy to have some time to himself. If there will be no reflection on his breakout season in public, the only time it might come is on his couch, free of distraction.

“I like my own space,” Rielly says. “My mom always commented on that, the way I liked to — not necessarily be alone, but — more or less, be alone.”

From the outside, Rielly may never live a more enviable life than he currently does. He does not allow for the admission that in playing the best hockey of his professional career, his profile has been raised dramatically. Even when his family visits and he dines out with his mother, she cannot get over how many people around Rielly are staring, whispering and pointing in admiration.

Rielly doesn’t want to notice the added attention, or have himself singled out for what could be one of the best offensive seasons by a Leafs defenceman, ever.

“I don’t think we’ve accomplished our end goal yet,” says Rielly. “Yeah, things are good if you look at it right now, but I think they could be a lot better. I don’t think our focus is enjoying everything that’s happening right now. We have bigger goals. And to reach that end goal, I think then we’ll be able to take a step back and look around a bit more.”

The following day is a practice, and Rielly has his alarm set for 8:00 a.m.

[kvltprince]

I was tagged by the lovely @leporidaefluff (Thank you! it was the push i needed to get started on this instead of just going oh~ neat~!)

Rules:

1. Choose an OC.

2. Answer them as that OC.

3. Tag 5 people to do the same. Sorry if anyone has already been tagged, no obligation. @ heathie on whatever acct cos im a dumbass an i miss your bois(you miss em too), @randomwordsandstormydays, @randomfuzzbunny, @jornaquinn @chrysocolladawn ( @somewhere-withoutyou if you would...) and anyone else who would enjoy doing this. (if i get tagged again ill do anther oc. i would tag a few others but i feel weird tagging ppl i dont like ever talk to lol.)

What is your name?

"Lucy Grandchester, yeah that one.” 

How old are you?

“Fourty-five unless you are getting nitpicky about cryostasis. That doesn’t count unless I am joking with a ghoul, honestly.”

What do you look like?

He lets out a small half chuckle, "Oh, we are doing this okay. I’ll bite. Slightly short middle aged punk, long greying curly hair, undercut, with one leg and too many tattoos?”

Where are you from? Where do you live now?

Lucy uncomfortably takes down his hair and redoes his messy bun while sighing and becoming a bit short. “I’m from just the other side of that irradiated water near that gas station south of here. Name kinda gives it away. You have seen it? I honestly am not sure how it’s standing still between the bombs and everything else. It’s looked after now, and is a surprise asset to still have. I lived in Boston for a while after all that, and back in this area once Nuka World was opened, then back in the Boston area, and would you look at that I am back in Nuka World and it is a lot more comfortable now.”

What was your childhood like?

"...Unstable, for everyone. It got a bit better once my parents were dead... are we done with this line of questions? Or am I excusing you?”

What groups are you friendly with? Are you allied with any factions?

“Well, I started out trying to play nicely vaguely with anyone that didn’t try to shoot me first. That.... hasn’t stayed how it is. At least not fully, though i generally play nice until I am given a reason not to. I am friendly with the Disciples, the Operators, several of the Children of Atom groups that haven't irradiated their sense out of their heads yet, the Railroad.”

Tell me about your best friend.

He finally visibly relaxes the rest of the way after that history business, and takes a drink of a quantum. “Oh only one best friend? Are we in high school again? aw Alright. We have some parallel histories.” He swirls the glowing drink, but doesn't let himself get lost in his head too far. “Great humor, puts up with my shit somehow, doesn't blow my sneaking. Laugh that could take on the world even though they probably wouldn't. No I am not spoiling who I decided on. A man has to have some secrets somewhere and mine are in short supply”

Do you have a family? Tell me about them!

“My son Shaun never ceases to surprise me with what he can come up with, and how well adjusted he is. Codsworth is still helping out with the household, and helping keep Shaun from disassembling live turrets while I am away, though now he is living here at Fizztop with us. Surprisingly it seems to be an alright setup, and Shaun has taught a few people some upgrades in their downtime. There is enough room to keep things comfortable, and I have done some park remodeling since I arrived. My closest companions that don’t hate my choices I have made I consider family, but that has become a smaller circle than before.”

What about a partner or partners?

“Gage of course, he is my husband for whatever it is worth in the wasteland. Otherwise I suppose that depends how you are defining that. I am an affectionate person and some people seem to have rather strict definitions of where the edge of friend and partner should be”

Who are your enemies, and why?

“Several people aren’t speaking to me very well at best after I have settled into the Overboss seat here, on a personal level. The Pack were wiped out. The Brotherhood were wiped out. The Institute were wiped out. The minutemen are pretty pissed understandably. The Gunners still show up in vertibirds sometimes and are still pretty fun target practice. My settlements are generally comfortable, and my outposts mostly only have problems with gunners or trappers. Minor annoyances.”

Have you ever heard of The Brotherhood of Steel? What do you think about them?

“Yeah, of course. I think they got too headstrong for their flightsuits. I mean I understand but you really can’t do that shit and expect no repercussions. It was quite a firework show honestly, I wonder how far away the heat was felt..”

What about The Enclave?

"I don’t know much about them, only one of their ex-soldiers, he didn’t exactly tell me much. Cute, a bit odd. Not sure if it is the radiation that did that or not.”

How do you feel about Super Mutants?

He has a flash of a pensive thought drift across his face “There’s a few that aren’t so bad. Obviously the FEV isn’t mass-curable though, so not exactly much of a choice what to do about them unless you like getting a rocket launcher or a nuke in your face.”

What’s the craziest fight you’ve ever been in?

“Proobably~ around Bunker Hill, It was just, A Lot. That whole time was not just the specific fight. I don’t remember a lot of it, I’m pretty sure Gage half dragged me home after the main running around and meetings after the fight. I don’t think I had a full thought for a while.”

Have you ever fought a Deathclaw?

He thumb points to a sniper rifle leaning against the wall “Yeah, too often, thankfully usually I see them first, and I’ve gotten the sneaking thing down. They make pretty good steaks.”

Do you like fighting?

“Sometimes, honestly. Something tired and overstated about old habits or something boring. Really though, it is exciting and keeps the boredom away. Playfighting and sparring will do, no need to draw blood. I guess. Good to keep knife and sneaking skills sharp however you can.”

What’s your weapon of choice?

“A modded real sharp Throatslicer she called it, I swear Nisha found this thing in the loading dock or something it is the nicest box-cutter I have ever owned. Opens up anything.”

How do you survive? Your wits, your charm, your skills, brute force, some combination? (a.k.a. what’s your S.P.E.C.I.A.L?)

“Outlive everything around me usually by not being seen, notice it first, shoot it faster, stab it more, talk my way out of it, or by luck. I have zero real idea, but I can eat nearly anything and I bet that helps too.”

Have you ever been in a vault? What do you think about them?

"Of course, there are a bunch, and I was ushered into 111 to turn my life upside down. They seem to only be any good for salvage, horror stories, clean water sometimes, and if you are real lucky a trade post and a shave. I have a settlement vault that is doing well that I have taken over and built up, but that is not Vault-Tec related, obviously.”

How do you beat all the radiation around here? Has it affected you?

“I have a few recipes that are good for radiation, though it doesn't affect me very badly overall and I am slow to feel any sickness. I suspect that one day I will turn into a ghoul.” He is rather matter of fact and unbothered by this, and hints that he knows that not getting sick much from radiation means just that.

What’s your favorite wasteland critter?

“Probably the stags and gazelles and other herd animals. They are overall unchanged other than most have two heads now, they are still nice to watch”

What’s your least favorite wasteland critter?

“Honestly? radscorpions? Those fuckers are too quick and you cant shoot them cos they tunnel and they knock you on your ass and poison you and just UGH”

How do you feel about robots?

"Robots are alright if they are not causing trouble. Some of them are nice. Jezebel is not so nice, but she is guarding red rocket and bitching the entire time so shes no longer my problem. The Rust Devil’s robots are a pain in my ass for real.”

How many caps do you have on you right now?

"Plenty.”

Nuka Cola or Sunset Sarsaparilla?

He cocks his head slightly “I havent heard that one in a while. Depends on the flavor of Nuka Cola, I do like Sunset Sarsaparilla though, if you have any.”

Do you do chems?

"Not recreationally anymore. No, not because of him.” He nods toward Gage “It just, gets out of hand”

Do you ever think about the Pre-War world?

"Not as often as you would expect, I mean obviously there is the ‘oh i remember when that wasn't destroyed’ of things, but things are more comfortable than I thought they could be”

What’s your deepest regret? What would you do differently?

His eyes narrow slightly “I don’t really do regret. Things were done the way they were because it was the choice at the time. A choice now for an old situation isn’t helpful to living my current life or my old life. I am not living then, I am living now.” 

What’s your biggest achievement? Or what do you hope to achieve?

“Surviving all of this, and myself. Creating this strange semi-stability in this post apocalyptic place.”

What do you want for the future? For yourself? Your friends? The world?

“Keep me and mine safe, happy as we can be, and I hope that my found-family never fully stops growing. Curious what the future holds for my raiders and friends, there is so much potential, it could be risky but it is there. For once it is a good solid place to be, and it’s mine.” Lucy polishes off his questionable as hell drink with a smile.

[thranduilsperkybutt]

Gif source:  1  |  2  |  3

Series Masterlist

Pairings: Dean Winchester/Reader; Sam Winchester/Reader

Warnings:  Some cursing. Lengthy exposition. Nothing else, really.

Word Count: 3,982 words

Reader Gender:  Female

Author: Meg

Summary:  You bring Charlie up to speed on things and learn a little more about Sam from a colleague. Car trouble causes delays but a handsome stranger swoops in and saves the day. [While You Were Sleeping AU, Coffee-Shop!AU? — I’m playing fast and loose with the plot.]

A/N:  Ayyyy! Here’s part two! So this slow-burn is going slower than I planned, but I’ve got a lot of ideas! Next chapter things are going to start to heat up between Dean/Reader and I plan on going into some more detail on both of their pasts! Hope y’all keep enjoying!

|  Part 2  |  Long Road Home

“You told them what?”

“Shh!” you hiss quickly, glancing around the shop to make sure none of the patrons had been too disturbed by Charlie’s startled shout. Charlie, on the other hand, hardly seemed worried about the few curious eyes her outburst had drawn, too occupied with gaping at you in disbelief to notice. You couldn’t blame her; not after the story you filled her in on over the course of the morning, “I know, I know! All I wanted to do was make sure he was okay, but everything just snowballed out of control!”

“A snowball would be an understatement! You’re like Indiana Jones in Raiders, and the giant boulder that’s chasing you is the web of lies you’re weaving!” Charlie waves her hands at you dramatically, but there was a teasing tone in her voice, “You’re so doomed!”

“Thanks,” you comment sarcastically, “that’s really what I needed to hear right now, with the family dinner right around the corner. You’re a big help, Charlie.”

Leaning on the counter top, you’re thankful the Coffee House’s morning rush had decided to settle down with the nearing of noon, making it easier to finally have this talk with your friend. The night of the accident, the best you could do upon arriving home was to crash on your bed, your exhaustion taking all the wind out of you. But in the light of day, you found yourself seriously in need of Charlie’s insight on the situation, despite her reputation for brutal honesty or her lack of viable relationship advice. With her having gone to her class yesterday, you hadn’t seen her at work, and this was a conversation best had face-to-face.

“You know, you’re probably right,” reaching to take a sip of ice water from the Yeti you bought yourself this Christmas, a heavy sigh escapes you, “Maybe I should just back out of it. Come up with an excuse not to go---”

“Oh, no you don’t! You have to go to it,” Charlie interrupts, nearly making you choke on your water as her features smooth with her seriousness. She tugs her hair out of its falling messy ponytail, letting the fiery tendrils drape across her shoulders for an instant as she pops the band around her wrist.

“What? I thought I was ‘doomed,’ remember? Your words, not mine,” quoting her in the air with your index and middle fingers, you fix her with a skeptical brow. What’s with the sudden one-eighty? She was going to give you whiplash at this rate.

“Oh, you are still totally doomed, my dude,” she breaks into a teasing grin, pulling her hair back up to fix it into a, hopefully sturdier, bun, “but this is the most interesting thing that’s happened in the past three years I’ve known you! I’ve gotta’ see how it turns out. Nothing exciting ever happens to you!”

“Wow, Char,” rolling your eyes, you scoff. “Glad to know this is at least amusing for you! Meanwhile, I’ll just completely wallow in my own guilt about living a lie! His family--- they’re so nice to me. They wanted to know how we met, what made me know he was the one, and all I could say was that his eyes were kind. I don’t deserve how nice they are.”

“Okay, fine! If you won’t listen to me, listen to… Cas!” she calls, drawing him to look up from where he was currently in the midst of restocking the blueberry muffins, “Cas, please tell (Y/N) that she should go to her fake-fiancé’s family dinner!”

“Don’t drag Cas into this,” the protest does nothing to quell her enthusiasm. You can see it in her eyes, she was nowhere through with trying to convince you to go.

Cas’ dark brows draw together in confusion beneath the Charlie’s Coffee House cap he wore, before he decides it’s better to not question her too much, and fixates his sapphire eyes on you, “You should go to your fake-fiancé’s family dinner.”

In all honesty, you didn’t need much convincing to go. Somewhere buried beneath the rational side of you who knew there was something morally wrong with lying to Sam’s family more than you already had, was a desperate want to experience a family dinner. You ached to have at least one day’s worth of the simple family gathering you never got to have. Living your life with an estranged family was better than being around them, but it still hurt that you could never experience the things that normal families got to. Gathering around a dinner table always seemed just barely out of your family’s reach, each Christmas or Thanksgiving being filled with some sort of drama or falling-out. The dysfunctional circular motions your family went in each year resulted in your slow drift away from them, until it culminated in this year, when you hadn’t even received so much as a phone call on Christmas.

As one last-ditch effort to talk yourself out of it and listen to the morally-correct angel clinging onto your shoulder by a thread, you murmur, “I should tell them I’m not his fiancée. Ripping the band-aid off sooner is better than later, right?”

While you had expected Charlie to start in on you, it’s Cas that pulls your listening ear back to him, “While I did not catch all of your story, (Y/N), I believe I’ve heard enough to have a grasp on the situation you find yourself in. From my perspective, I don’t think you should tell your fake-fiancée’s family the truth right now.”

“Someone pinch me! Did the saint just tell you to lie?” Charlie quips, making Cas’ shoot her a mildly annoyed glare at her teasing nickname for him.

“All I’m saying is, what good would come from it? Think about it,” Cas begins, leaning beside you on the counter as he tries to make his point clear, “if you do tell them, yes, they most likely would be upset, but they also are having to handle their son’s accident, too. Do you really think it is the time to give them the truth? It’s a mercy to keep it to yourself, at least for now.”

“What happens when Sam wakes up, though? It’s going to be even worse, then, if I don’t come clean now,” you worry your bottom lip with your teeth, feeling quite stuck between a rock and a hard place. It seemed that whatever you did, the end result left you hurting them, and admitting the embarrassing truth that you’d lied, regardless of what your initial intentions were.

What was the saying? The road to hell is paved with good intentions. You never quite put too much thought into the phrase until right now.

“When Sam does wake up, at least that is one less thing they have to worry about,” he offers.

“Our friendly neighborhood saint has a point,” Charlie hums, gripping Cas’ shoulder in her own proud approval. “Maybe you should put it off until Sam’s back up and running. At least they won’t have to worry about you and Sam at the same time.”

“Ugh, I hate to say that you two are probably right,” you groan, rubbing your temples, “how did I get myself into this mess?”

“You told a fib,” it comes out jokingly, but all it makes you want to do is smack her for it. Luckily, you’re saved from the conversation by a vibrating in your back pocket. Pointing up your index finger in the universal gesture for them to hold on a second, you pull the phone from your pocket, not recognizing the name there.

Arthur Ketch, it announced.

“Huh,” you huff, debating whether you should even answer the call. It wasn’t even your phone, it was Sam’s. You had just been toting it around in case it got a call, but you hadn’t actually thought you would be on the receiving end of one, as Sam was in the hospital.

“Did you purchase a new phone?” Cas wonders, but you shake your head.

“No, it’s… Sam’s,” the admission earns a scandalized gasp from Charlie, and you quickly explain, “The hospital gave me his stuff! I’m the fiancée, remember?” Finally deciding it could be something important, you move away from the two of them, if only for the space to breathe that the distance provided. Swiping to answer, you lift the cell to your ear and motion for them to be quiet, “Hello? This is Sam’s phone.”

“Uhm, hello,” the man’s voice was accented, but curious, as he drawled through the crackly reception of the phone, “To whom am I speaking?”

“This is (Y/N), I’m… taking Sam’s calls while he’s in the hospital. Would you like to leave a message?”

“In the hospital? My goodness, so that explains why he hasn’t called in to the office! What’s he gone and done to himself this time?”

“He was hit by a car on Wednesday,” you reply, choosing the blunt approach. “He’s in a coma right now, but the doctors think he’s doing better. Sorry--- you said ‘the office?’ Are you from Sam’s work?”

“Ah, yes. My apologies. This is Arthur Ketch of MacLeod and Associates. I was calling to see why Sam had neglected work, but I dare say this is quite a valid excuse for not showing up, or giving a call-in, for that matter,” Arthur chuckled in his own amusement, before adding. “Which hospital did you say he was in, again?”

“I didn’t, actually, but he’s at Lawrence Memorial,” you wondered if your frown was audible through the phone. This guy didn’t even sound too upset at the news that Sam was in the hospital, as if this were just another business phone call. Freakin’ lawyers.

“We’re very sorry to hear that. I will definitely pass on the news to our partners. Of course, we wish Sam will get well soon,” he pauses, before adding, “He is one of our best attorneys, after all. But, it can’t be helped. Please, be certain to send our sympathies to his family. It is truly bad luck after the last accident.”

“The… last accident?” you press, only to hear Arthur click his tongue in response.

“It isn’t my place to say…”

“I’m sure the doctors would want to know about it,” a bit worried now, you wondered how Sam could have been hurt before. It could really be some information the doctors needed to know! It wasn’t as if his family knew a thing about him, it seemed.

“Well, I suppose you’re right.”

While Charlie was spending her Friday night on a much-anticipated date with her online friend Ruthy, who she had spent the last three months gushing to you about, you had a date of your own at the hospital.

Your Jeep had other ideas, though.

“Damn it,” you growl, kicking angrily at the tire that was comically flat, as if just for God to laugh at you. “Just had to ignore that repair, didn’t you, (Y/N)?” The nail that you’d been avoiding paying to have fixed until payday had finally taken its toll, when your tire had blown on the highway. Really, you were lucky you didn’t wreck when you felt the threatening thump-thump-thump of your rim on asphalt, but sitting at the side of the road, all you could do was blame yourself for this.

The sun was already low in the sky, and in another hour sunset would settle into nightfall. The last place you wanted to be was on the side of the road with a spare you couldn’t even put on because your damn lug-nuts were on too tight for you to be able to get off. With a defeated sigh, you crouch back down to take up the lug wrench once again, in the hopes that maybe third time's the charm and you find some strength you hadn’t had before.

You’re in the middle of struggling with it, a slew of grumbled profanities slipping from you, when the low rumble of an engine draws closer in the distance. Your attention isn’t drawn from your own work until you hear the car pull off the road, and you find the driver stopping a little behind your Jeep, blinding you slightly with the circular headlights and drawing your hand up to shield your eyes.

For a moment, your heart skips with icy adrenaline. You’d seen enough horror movies to know where this could go.

When the lights turn off, you blink away your blindness, the spots in your vision resolving just as the driver’s door opens and a man steps out, calling to you, “You need some help over there, princess?”

He was tall, with short hair that bordered on a buzz in the back, and stubble trailing along his jaw. His smile was warm, though, blindingly white teeth parting his plump lips. A leather jacket framed his broad shoulders, with a flannel layered beneath it, nearly covering the Henley that peeked from below.

But it was the car that caught your eye next. All black and sleek and something right out of a period piece set in the sixties. It was a car that was cared for--- fawned over--- that much was apparent.

Hell, it looked better than the old and slightly rusted ‘95 Jeep you bought off your uncle back in the day for two grand before leaving town, and was probably twice the age. At least. You were guessing it was a Chevy.

“Uh, yeah, actually,” you respond cautiously, after weighing your options. No way were you getting these lugs off by yourself, “Just having a hard time with the lug-nuts, is all.”

“Hey, leave it to me. I gotta’ impact wrench in my trunk, it’ll be better than that old thing you’re using,” you hadn’t thought his smile could get wider, but you caught a glimpse of it before he turned to move to his trunk, popping it and rummaging around. Your watch never left him, not wanting to turn your back on a stranger on the side of the highway.

It had absolutely nothing to do with how attractive he was. Yeah, nothing at all to do with that.

It doesn’t take him all that long to fish the wrench from his trunk, which he shakes a bit in his hand at you as if he’s discovered a treasure, before he makes his way on over. When he comes closer, you notice his eyes are green, right before he leans down towards your tire.

“I appreciate it,” you begin, but he just waves you off, taking the lugs off as if you hadn’t been struggling for the last thirty minutes with the damned things. You might just need to get yourself a wrench like the one he had, if you could save up enough.

“Don’t mention it. These things can be a bitch to get off with the manual wrenches, especially if they were tightened in a shop,” he sighs, making quick work of the flat and replacing it with your spare as you put the now-ruined tire in your cargo. By the time you come back around to the side of your car, he’s already lowering the jack, seemingly finished.

“There, should get you home now,” and he was grinning at you again.

“You have no idea what a life saver you are,” you sigh gratefully, but feeling a little guilty for taking up this kind stranger’s time, “I’d pay you for your time, but all I’ve got is like five bucks in cash and a gift card to Charlie’s Coffee House on me.”

He laughs at that, “Don’t worry about it. Just call it helping a damsel in distress.” With a playful wink, he moves around you to head back to his car, leaving you with the jack and repaired tire.

Still, you call after him, offering a wave as you climb back into your Jeep, “Thanks, stranger!”

Albeit a little later than you intended, you eventually arrived at the hospital to hand off the information you learned that morning from Arthur Ketch. Telling yourself you were there to pass on the info wasn’t enough to deny the fact that you didn’t want to go back to your empty house just yet. You could have turned around and went home as soon as you finished your conversation with the nurse, but instead you lingered, moving to Sam’s bedside.

“Hey,” you murmur low, almost half-hoping for an answer that doesn’t come, your only response his steady breathing, “do you mind if I sit?” With the chair comes a contented sigh, the ache in your heels subsiding just a bit as you finally get off your feet for the day. With a sigh, you murmur, “You won’t believe the day I’ve had.” Looking around the hospital room, you notice the things that hadn’t been there the day before.

There were flowers, an assortment of daisies in all different hues, along with the Get Well Soon cards that Jo had littered the windowsill with. A militarian-looking duffel bag was in the corner of the room, left by John, stuffed full of an extra set of clothes as if Sam could wake up at any moment and walk out of here. A tug in your heart reminded you how you wished he would, not just for his own sake, but for theirs.

“They love you,” a soft smile comes to your lips. “Mary misses you, more than from just this... I can tell.” Looking back to Sam, you sigh, “I’m sorry I roped you into this whole, engagement thing, but I couldn’t tell them I wasn’t really getting married to you. They let me in, and I can’t bring myself to tell them different.” Your hands fidget with your bag as you dangle it between your knees, your elbows resting on your thighs as you lean towards him, “I know it’s probably selfish, but I’m going to go to the family dinner, Sam. I don’t expect you to wake up and fall madly in love with me at first sight or anything--- I’m not going to ever be a perfect model girlfriend, like I’m absolutely positive you’ve had in the past--- no matter how awesome it would be to feel wanted like that, and if it was by you, that would be amazing, because the more and more I hear about you, the more amazing you apparently are. I know you’ll wake up and I’ll have to go on with my life. I know I’m going to have to let them go, but I just…” you huff out a chuckle, but there’s no humor behind it, “I don’t want to be alone for once, you know? I just want to have this one dinner, okay? Is that really so bad?”

Of course, Sam doesn’t answer. He just breathes steadily. He could have tricked you into thinking he was sleeping, if it weren’t for the hospital gown and the beeping of the monitors in the background.

Pursing your lips, you add dryly, reaching to brush his hair out of his face, “You’re a pretty good listener. Thanks, Sam.”

With a sigh, you will a smile onto your face, “Hey, on a lighter note, I got you something.” You fish through your back, pulling out the small, stuffed bear who proudly wore a tiny Lawrence Memorial shirt and had Feel Better embroidered on its left paw. It brings an embarrassed chuckle from you, “The gift shop is lined with rows of these things, but I think this one’s the cutest.” You sit it on the bedside table, making sure the bear can sit upright on its own before letting it go.

Dean’s anger was tempered just enough by the time he got to the hospital that he wasn’t entirely steaming as the elevator let him off at the floor his brother was apparently on.

“You needed to be focused on finishing the job. It’s not like you could have finished in Chicago any faster.”

Yeah, well, he could have damn well tried if he’d known something like this had happened. Dean would have dropped everything, job be damned. But he didn’t want to fight with his dad right now. Right now, Dean wanted to see his little brother.

Frustration and worry matched themselves in equal strides as he moved towards the nurse’s station, catching the eye of a plump woman with latte hued skin as he leaned over the counter to ask her softly for directions to his room.

“Oh, he’s in three-oh-eight, right over there on the left,” the nurse points out to him the room, drawing his eye to spot the glass-lined room. Dean’s about to thank her and head over, when she adds, “Just knock before you go in.”

“Wait--- I thought Sam was in a coma?” Dean raises a brow.

“So you don’t startle the fiancée,” she explains, looking with pity towards the room, “Poor thing comes by every night to check on him.”

Dean does a good job of hiding his shock. Keeping the emotion simmering beneath the surface. The most she gets is his widened eyes, though they turn towards the room quickly enough.

“Thanks for the tip.”

Dean maneuvers around another nurse wheeling a vitals machine as he makes his way to the door, peering through the window as inconspicuously as possible to catch sight of the fiancée he hadn’t known Sam had.

Her back was to him, seated in a chair as she leaned a bit on the edge of Sam’s bedside. Her fingers fiddled with a teddybear on the nightstand, trying to keep it from falling over before she could be satisfied with leaving it alone. A hint of recognition flashes through him as he stares at her, before moving to open the door without a knock.

The sound of the door opening draws your attention, and instinctively you move away from the bedside in case it was a doctor or nurse who needed to get to Sam, only for your eyes to find someone entirely different.

“It is you,” comes from the man in the doorway, who looked on at you with an incredulous look in his green eyes.

It was the guy who fixed your tire.

“Y-You! What are you doing here!” you stood, immediately on edge, your mind rushing back to the worst-case, horror-movie scenario, “Did you follow me?!”

“What?” his nose wrinkles up at the accusation, rolling his eyes, “No! I’m not some freakin’ creep who goes around stalking chicks who have flat tires on the freeway. Sam’s my brother!”

You weren’t as good at hiding your shock, your mouth parting slightly at the news, as your finger pointed at him warily, “So you’re Dean, then?”

“Now you’re on the right track, princess,” he sighs, before his eyes widen a fraction at himself and his hand comes to rub the back of his neck nervously, “Eh, I mean--- Guess it’s about time I learned your name, huh?”

“Oh! Yeah. Right,” you stammer, before offering it and an apology, “Sorry.”

“Well,” Dean frowns, glancing to Sam as he moves to the side of the bed, reaching out to give his brother’s hand a squeeze, “wish we met under better circumstances.” Dean’s eyes find yours again, studying you as you stood there awkwardly, as if trying to figure something out in his mind, before speaking, “So… you’re Sam’s fianceé, huh?” He said it like he already knew the answer, but just wanted to hear it confirmed from you for himself.

Heat burns at the back of your mind as you stammer out your lie, poorly, “Y-Yep. That’s me.”

Dean must take your nervousness for something else, because he just shakes his head with a sad sounding sigh, “I can get why he wouldn’t want to tell everyone all at once, but… I just can’t believe he didn’t tell me about you, though.”

[atomiccocktailhangover]

Interview OC Meme!

tagged in a roud-about sorta way by @thecosmicsleep ! Tagging @memailikesnukacola @nuclear-darling and anyone else who wants to do this too! Feel free to tag me so I can see!!

1. What is your name?

Well hello there, sugar! My name’s Daffodil Marceline Polly-Anna Marie LeMieux - Daffodil to my friends.

2. Do you know why are you named that?

That’s just the funniest story. It was in the script! I was an actress years ago, played a part in my troupe’s matinee about some pre-War debutante, when I had a little….mishap, out in the desert. Ended up more scrambled than a mirelurk omelette. Couldn’t remember a thing, besides bits and pieces of that silly old script. Ran around the Mojave for a spell, telling everybody my name was Miss Daffodil. Later on I found some folks who knew me from before, told me my name had been Aggie. Aggie! Could you imagine?

3. Are you single or taken?

The two are hardly mutually exclusive, wouldn’t you say?

4. Have any abilities or powers?

I’m awful persuasive. People skills are what keeps you alive out in the Wastes, really. Any old brute can pick up a gun and pull the trigger, but talking a big bad raider into putting down his gun? Now that’s a skill.

5. Stop being a Mary Sue.

I’d like to see you try to stop me.

6. What’s your eye color?

A pale sort of green. More of a gray, really - it takes a lot of makeup to bring the color out.

7. How about your hair color?

It’ll be bright, golden blonde for as long as I can afford the dyes.

8. Have any family members?

None that I can recall. I asked my old theater company about that, all those years ago, and they told me they’d never heard to speak of anyone. No parents, no spouses, no children, nothing. In my - that is, Aggie’s - personal effects, there were no letters from any relations. There was an old photograph of an NCR Officer, hidden away in a suitcase, but who he was or how he knew me, I doubt I’ll never know.

9. Oh? How about pets?

Oh, he’s just the most darling thing! A little rowdy, a little messy, but oh so loyal! He hardly ever leaves my side. I found him in Goodneighbor, all alone, and I knew I couldn’t just leave him there! The locals call him Maccready, but he let’s me call him Mac.

10. That’s cool, I guess. Now tell me something you don’t like?

I can’t stand secrecy. Being lied to just sets my blood boiling! It just isn’t fair, folks knowing things that I don’t. Completely unfair!

11. Do you have any activities/hobbies that you like to do?

Music has always been my one true love. Singing, dancing, anything. Old World instruments are harder to come by the further East I travel, but put one in front of me and I’ll spend a whole evening trying to figure it out. There’s just something about making something beautiful, intangible, completely out of nothing… it’s magical, isn’t it?

12. Have you ever hurt anyone in any way before?

Oh, well of course I have. That’s just part of being human, isn’t it?

13. Ever… killed anyone before?

Not often. And nobody innocent, I can assure you!

14. What kind of animal are you?

I’ve seen old pictures of these birds who used to just strut around, looking so strange and so beautiful that people would wear their feathers. Peacocks, I think they were called.

15. Name your worst habits?

So a girl likes to have a little drink every now and then, fall in love with someone new for an evening. I don’t see what the big deal is.

16. Do you look up to anyone at all?

Goodness no, of course not. There are plenty of swell folks out and about in the Wasteland, don’t get me wrong, but I’m my own role model.

17. Are you gay, straight or bisexual?

In a world of robots and mutants and all kinds of things, who can really say for sure? But I’m weak for a man who can do as he’s told.

18. Do you go to school?

Who needs book-learnin’ when you’ve got a face like mine?

19. Ever want to marry and have kids one day?

[She laughs. Hard.]

20. Do you have any fangirls/fanboys?

That’s an awful silly question. Of course I do! I’ve loved and been loved in every city from here to the NCR. I’m sure there’s plenty of folks out there still holding candles for me.

21. What are you most afraid of?

Feels a little silly to say, but in all honesty, loneliness. People are spread out so far out here, living out in pairs, or even just all on their lonesome. I couldn’t live that way. For all their faults, I just adore people. I’ve been on my own before, and I don’t much care for it.

22. What do you usually wear?

I’ve tried keeping it practical as of late. Mac thinks it’s easier when we’re on the road. I like to wear light clothes - pinks and blues and suchlike - and I make sure I’ve always got my lipstick and a couple of bobby pins on me. You never know who you’ll meet out in the Commonwealth, so I make sure to never cover up too much of my...assets.

23. What’s one food that tempts you?

A nice, hot, steaming bowl of stew. Something that takes extra time and effort into making.

24. Am I annoying to you?

Heavens no! I could talk about myself all day long, if you’d like.

25. Well, it’s still not over!

Wonderful! How about some wine?

26. What class are you (low/middle/high)?

Listen, sugar, it’s not about class. It’s all about how you carry yourself. I know I’m a lady whether I’ve got two caps or two thousand.

27. How many friends do you have?

An awful lot, and the list keeps on growing. I’m sure you’ve noticed by now, but I am a very agreeable person.

28. What are your thoughts on pie?

I’d love some!

29. Favorite drink?

Vodka tarberry with just a splash of Nuka Dark.

30. What’s your favorite place?

In the arms of someone warm and sweet as melted chocolate.

31. Are you interested in anyone?

I’m interested in all sorts of people!

32. That was a stupid question…

You’re the one who said it, not me.

33. Would you rather swim in a lake or the ocean?

Swimming’s not my forte, what with all the radiation and all. But there’s something special about paddling a boat out onto a lake on a clear day, with someone special and a couple of drinks.

34. What’s your type?

A man who’s none too bright, but with the sunniest disposition you ever did see.

35. Any fetishes?

36. Camping or outdoors?

I certainly don’t prefer it, but I’ve been making it work for years. The trick is travelling with somebody with a strong back, so they can carry all your comforts for you. I’ve got Mac carrying some goosefeather pillows, this lovely old tea kettle, and a little portable radio in our travel pack. He bellyaches about it until we’ve set up camp for the night. It’s those little touches that can make any place feel like home.

[grandmother-goblin]

Second Place: Chapter 1

Daisy lifted her head when Hancock crossed the threshold of her shop. The pale yellow and blue linoleum tiles were as spotless as they could be for their age. Shelves were stocked, labeled, and dusted. Even the service bell on her counter appeared polished as the dim fluorescent light overhead gleamed off the rusted metal. Daisy lifted the bell as she dragged a cloth across her already pristine counter and heaved a sigh. “Can’t pay you this month,” she said with a shake of her head. Instead of looking at Hancock, she focused on rubbing a stain on the counter.

Hancock leaned against the doorway and folded his arms. Daisy was one of the good ones. One of the few people he could trust in Goodneighbor. Had anyone else made such a claim, he would have called bullshit. He already did with Makowski and Fred Allen when they claimed business was slow. But Daisy? The girl never missed a payment since Hancock took the title of mayor. “I’ve noticed the town coffers are a little bare lately. It ain’t the off-season either.”

Daisy hummed in agreement and started on wiping down the cash register. Which was already clean as well. “Hard to make a profit with all my customers running away the second they walk in,” Daisy replied dryly.

“Have you tried wearing lipstick?”

“Ha! It ain’t me they’re running from.” Daisy folded the cloth and set it behind the shop counter. “That jackass Finn takes up right over there” — she pointed to the dilapidated stone wall outside her shop — “and waits for drifters he can scare out of a few caps.”

Hancock’s ruined lips drew into a thin line. “I told him to cut that shit out.” Finn could be difficult to reason with, but not impossible. The guy was second to none against super mutants; he saved Goodneighbor against hordes of them several times. Yet, in recent months, something changed with Finn. It was gradual, but clear as day when compared to the Finn Hancock first met. Finn always itched for a fight. That did not change. The type of fight he wanted did. Before, he’d go hunt down super mutants and raiders for the hell of it. Just to give them a reason to stay away from Goodneighbor. Nowadays, he barely lifted a finger unless there was something in it for him. Fahrenheit suggested Finn was strung out on Jet, making him lazy. Another theory was the Institute had replaced Finn. The chems seemed most likely.

The lamp light outside Daisy’s store buzzed in the misty morning air. Daisy rested her forearms on the counter and clasped her hands together as she watched the lamp flicker. “Word’s getting around. Caravans and traders are steering clear unless they got firepower. Even then—” Daisy shrugged “—Finn picks off the smaller groups. They don’t want a fight.”

Hancock hummed in agreement. “Last time you got a trader in?”

Her brows furrowed, and she pursed her pale lips. “A week? Maybe. Time all runs together when you get to be my age.” Daisy pushed a button on her cash register and the drawer popped open with a metallic clatter. She produced a small, yellow, notebook and flipped through the pages. She dragged a boney finger down a neatly written table documenting her sales. “Trader from Bunker Hill. February 6th. Bought some clothes, liquor, and Med-X.”

“Almost a month,” Hancock concluded.

“Everything else I’ve been selling has been local. Can’t make much profit off people here.” Daisy pushed the notebook across the counter and tapped a manicured nail on the caps column. “Most caps come from outside.”

Hancock skimmed the opened page of the notebook and nodded in agreement. He passed the notebook back to Daisy. “I’ll have my guys keep a look out for Finn,” he said and started toward the front of the shop. “You’ll be back in caps by lunch.”

Daisy offered a weak smile but said nothing. Hancock tipped his hat and left Daisy to her idle cleaning.

—

Maintenance projects never ended in a town with buildings over four hundred years old and survived a nuclear war. Maybe there would be fewer problems if any of the lowlifes that ran Goodneighbor before him bothered with that shit. The number of requests tripled in the months after Hancock took office simply because the citizens realized he would do something. Hancock tried to address at least one or two requests a day. Not fix them, but at least get the gears in motion so someone could fix them.

Hancock took a sip of coffee from that stupid mug Fahrenheit gave him. At one point, the mug said ‘World’s Greatest Mayor’. At first, someone crossed out the word ‘Greatest’ and scribbled ‘Okayest’ beneath it. A few months later, ‘World’s’ was replaced with ‘Goodneighbor’s’. Hancock was not sure if that implied that there was another mayor he did not know about, or if it was a statement about the previous. At the end of the day, the mug had no cracks, and it kept his coffee warm. Warm coffee and a sweet roll made going through the maintenance requests a little more pleasant.

He set the mug on his desk and shuffled through a short stack of papers. The oldest item, dated three days ago, was a request from Rufus. Some pipes needed replacing and it would not be cheap. In Rufus’s words, the pipes might last another day or another decade.. But there was evidence of corrosion that needed addressing if the Rexford wanted to continue having running water. Hancock slid the paper into the ‘Maybe’ pile. Needed to look into the other issues before he emptied the towns coffers into a non-urgent project.

Next request was from Morowski, complaining about a leaky faucet. Hancock tossed the request into a trash bin by his desk. Bastard could fix his own faucet. With the shit Morowski suggested, Hancock wondered if the guy was just messing around for kicks. Seemed like the immature stuff he would do in his free time.

Heavy footsteps on the spiral staircase outside his office drew his attention away from the papers. Fahrenheit caught his gaze and stopped in the middle of the staircase. “Finn’s at it again,” she called matter-of-factly.

Hancock groaned and got to his feet, his desk chair scraping against the worn wood floors as he stood. “I’m on it.” He took his duster from the back of his chair and shrugged it over his shoulders. If Finn wanted trouble, then that’s exactly what Hancock would give him.

Fahrenheit leaned against the brick side wall of Kill or Be Killed and took a long drag of her cigarette. There was a sparkle to her eyes that only showed when she anticipated a shit show. Given how the few drifters outside the Statehouse all had their heads turned to the gates, they were expecting the same. “Finn picked the wrong target,” Fahrenheit stated with a hushed tone and a sadistic smirk.

Hancock’s eyes widened when he glanced at the gate. A super mutant clutching a blood stained mini-gun loomed a few feet in front of Finn. Alongside the super mutant, dwarfed in comparison, was a young woman with pixie-like features and a pretentious gaze. Unflinching, she planted herself in front of the mutant and stared Finn down like he was nothing. Almost like something amused her.

With quiet steps, Hancock joined Fahrenheit against the wall and retrieved a cigarette from pack in his coat. “Wrong target, indeed.”

Finn, however, heeded none of the warning signs. Even from a distance, Hancock could tell something was wrong with him. Something about the way his head tilted a little to the right and his fingers twitched. “Listen lady,” Finn started, sounding annoyed, “first time in Goodneighbor? Can’t be walking around without insurance. Otherwise, accidents start happening to you. Big. Bloody. Accidents.”

The woman planted a hand on her hip and cocked her head at Finn. The grin on her face grew like it was all a joke to her. “Aww, aren’t you a cutie,” she drawled with an accent Hancock could not quite place. “Does your mum know you’re out?”

Fahrenheit let out an un-ladylike snort as she tried to hide a chuckle. Finn did not seem nearly as amused. He lit a cigarette and stared the woman down. “Three hundred caps.”

The woman raised her brows. “You serious?”

“Another hundred for the big guy.” Finn gestured to the super mutant with the glowing red tip of his cigarette.

The super mutant growled and nudged the woman’s upper back with his elbow. “Stop talking and smash him.”

The woman shushed him and made a gesture like she was closing a zipper. Few people in the Commonwealth got away with treating a super mutant like that. Hell, most people who even looked at a super mutant wrong ended up in a meat sack. When the mutant did not make another comment, the woman returned her attention to Finn and crossed her arms. “You best pull your head in before you lose it, mate.”

The super mutant’s face lit up at the threat of violence and he re-adjusted his grip on his mini-gun.

Fahrenheit tilted her head towards Hancock. “Might be a good time for you to step in, Mayor,” she said with a chuckle.

Hancock smoothed his hands over his coat and felt the outline of his switchblade in the pocket. Good to have, he thought. Just in case things got messy. In Goodneighbor, things always got messy.

“Total’s four hundred caps,” Finn stated and exhaled a lungful of stoke in the woman’s direction.

Hancock felt a frown tug on his lips as he took a few steps forward. Not close enough to get Finn’s attention, but enough to better gauge the situation. The woman, however, noticed the movement and glanced at him with narrowed eyes. Like a warning. Like she was trying to deter him from getting involved.

The woman rolled her eyes to Finn. “I don’t have time for this. We’ll be gone in five” — she tossed a glance at the super mutant — “Strong, stay there.”

With heavy, confident, steps, the woman marched past Finn without so much as a look of acknowledgement. Like he was not worth even a cautionary glance.

A bulky hand latched around the arm of her leather jacket. Finn tossed the cigarette to the damp ground. “Not so fast, sweetheart,” he said and yanked the woman towards him.

Without hesitation, the woman threw her fist across his face with practiced confidence. There was an audible, sickening, crack. Redness spread across his face as blood dripped from his surely broken nose. Finn took a staggering step back with a hand over his nose to catch the blood.

The woman shook out her fist. “You touch me again,” she said, “it’ll be the last thing you do.”

Finn spat a mouthful of blood onto the cobblestone street along with a tooth and sneered. “You fucking bitch.” He lunged at her. He hooked his fingers into the back of her leather chest piece. She stumbled at the unexpected weight and Finn threw her down against the street. “You think you can pull that shit with me, huh?” he said placed his boot over her throat, keeping her down.

“Hey!” Hancock’s voice echoed off the old brick buildings.

Finn glanced up from his quarry with blood from his nose coating his mouth and chin. “Stay out of this, Hancock.”

Without breaking his stride, Hancock slipped his hand into his pocket and grasped the switchblade. “Someone walks through the gate for the first time, they’re a guest,” Hancock said and flipped open the blade still concealed by his coat. “Let her go.”

Finn drew a pipe pistol from his belt, appearing unbothered by the woman struggling under his boot. Bastard would suffocate her before he shot her at this rate. The super mutant took a lumbering, limping, step forward and Finn shot him a look. “Another step and she gets it,” he snapped.

The mutant stopped and watched as his companion clawed at Finn’s pant leg. He growled and pounded his bulky fist twice against his chest in a display of dominance. “Coward human,” he taunted, “get Strong first.”

The pipe pistol whipped towards the super mutant. Strong was his name, based upon what Hancock gathered. “You trying to protect your little friend here?” Finn used the barrel of his gun to point at the woman.

The mutant bared his teeth but did not take another step. Instead, he stared at the woman and tightened his grip on the mini-gun.

If Hancock did not act soon, there would be more than one death at Goodneighbor’s doorstep.

“Let her go,” Hancock commanded. He circled closer to Finn with his switchblade gripped tight in his hand. “Now, Finn.”

Finn whipped his head towards Hancock. There as a look in his eyes that was far too familiar, and it made Hancock’s stomach twist. Psychobuff. As if psycho was not bad enough. The combination could turn the most experienced users from men into monsters. Great for a fight in the Wasteland. Not for a community. Not in his town.

Finn’s eye seemed to twitch. “What d’you care? She ain’t one of us,” he said with his boot still pressed beneath her jaw.

Redness colored the woman’s tanned face as the veins around her forehead bulged. She made another attempt to yank Finn from her only to have more weight put on her delicate throat. If the bastard was gonna kill her, why did he have to drag it out? Her eyes darted towards him, wide and panicked, begging him to do something.

Aggression would not work on Finn in his string out state. It would just make things worse. Hancock lowered his blade and tried a friendly tone. “No love for your mayor, Finn?” He opened his arms wide and took a two careful steps toward him. “Let her go.”

“You’re soft, Hancock,” Finn spat. “You keep letting outsiders walk all over us, one day, there’ll be—“

Two gunshots crackled through the stale air like fireworks. If Hancock had blinked, he would have missed it. Even a few seconds later, he was not quite sure he saw it. The woman knelt on the ground, gasping for breath, with a .44 revolver pinned beneath her hand. Across from her, Finn; a knife in the back of his knee and bullets embedded in his face and chest. The woman gingerly rubbed her throat and closed her eyes as she took a deep breath.

The super mutant limped towards her. Only when he turned did Hancock notice the blood soaked through the armor on his left leg. “Strong make sure he dead,” he said.

The woman held up her hand, and the mutant stopped. “He is,” she croaked and then coughed.

Hancock blinked away his shock. “Ah, shit,” he muttered, “are you okay?” He offered a hand to help her to her feet. Not that she needed it, but after what she went through, it was a nice gesture. Few people could stab and shoot a man in under five seconds after nearly suffocated. Tough as nails that one. Probably a raider or a mercenary.

To his surprise, she took his hand. “I’m fine. Thanks, mate,” she said. Thread thin tattoos wrapped around two of her fingers like rings. The ink was fine and neat, unlike most tattoos people got in the Commonwealth these days. The tattoos combined with her accent told him she was not the typical drifter that wandered through his town.

Hancock pulled her to her feet. “You ain’t from around here, are you?”

“What gave that away?” She rubbed her throat and looked at him. Her sharp, small, eyes met his for a split second before she looked away. Typical reaction to a ghoul and it made his heart sink. At least she did not scream.

Hancock stuffed his hands in his pockets and said, “your accent, mostly. Plus you seem a bit too clean and pretty for these parts.” He flashed his signature John Hancock smile he always used to charm the ladies. It was not a lie. The Commonwealth scarred or maimed most in one way or another. Except for a thin scar on the side of her nose, she appeared untouched.

Before she could reply, the super mutant gripped the woman by the shoulders and turned her to face him. He lifted her chin with and scrutinized the boot print left on her neck. His hum sounded like a growl. “Leader hurt,” he observed. “Ghoul. Help Leader.”

The woman batted Strong’s hands away. “Let’s take care of you first,” she said and glanced at his injured leg.

“Strong fine.” Strong limped back a few feet and retrieved his mini-gun. With his back turned, Hancock could see clear punctures through his metal armor. Bite marks. Too small to be a Deathclaw. Yet, too large for the average Commonwealth mongrel. A mutant hound bite if Hancock had to venture a guess.

Hancock made a face when he realized that the bits of cloth beneath Strong’s armor were not black, but dark red. “Yeah, you look like you could see a doctor,” he remarked.

Strong dismissed the comment with a wave of his hand and a growl.

The woman rolled her eyes. “Working on his manners,” she said. “Mayor Hancock, was it?”

Hancock tipped his hat. “At your service,” he said with a grin.

“Sasha,” she introduced herself without even looking at him. “Thanks for distracting him” — she cocked her thumb towards Finn’s lifeless body on the cobblestone — “If it weren’t for you, I’d be dead.”

“I wouldn’t let that happen,” Hancock replied and realized a moment too late she could take his words as flirtation. Not the right time for that. “Hope this incident doesn’t taint your view of our little community. Goodneighbor’s of the people, for the people, you feel me? Everyone’s welcome.”

“I feel ya, mate,” she said with little sincerity to her tone. “We need meds if you got ‘em. And a place to stay.”

“You don’t beat around the bush, do you? I like that.” Hancock pulled the knife from the back of Finn’s leg and wiped off the blade before he returned it to the woman. “Let’s get you set up in the Rexford ‘round the corner. I’ll show you.”

The woman took the blade and stashed it in the small leather bag slung around her shoulders. “Thank you, Mayor Hancock.” Before she followed, she ducked around the super mutant’s right side and lifted his big green hand onto her shoulder.

“Bah. Strong don’t need help.” Strong yanked his hand away and almost toppled over.

Undeterred by the mutant’s protests, the woman clapped his hand onto her other shoulder so his arm wrapped around her. She was far too short to support him like any other wounded man, but she offered a crutch at the very least. “Strong, if you fall over, I can’t help you back up.”

“Leader should work out more. Eat meat. Make Leader strong.”

“Call this my work out,” she said. “Lean on me and make me strong.”

The mutant seemed to accept this logic. With that, they followed behind Hancock at a decent pace. Even though it was a short distance, Hancock offered to help with the super mutant if he could. The mutant tossed his mini gun on the ground and told Hancock to pick it up, then laughed when he did. What the mutant found funny, he did not understand.

As he lifted the mini gun, he caught Fahrenheit’s gaze and bemused smirk. At least, he knew what Fahrenheit found funny. And he was sure he would not hear the end of it any time soon.

[surveysonfleek]

992.

1. If someone were to write about your life thus far, do you think the book would be a success? What parts of the book would make you cringe, and which parts would you be proud of? it wouldn’t be a success at all, the ending would be so underwhelming. 

2. Are you subscribed to anyone other than survey takers on your Tumblr? If so, what kind of blogs are they? If not, would you ever consider subbing to a non-survey taker? i made this tumblr in addition to my main tumblr so i don’t follow any other survey themed tumblrs unfortunately coz it’d mix too much with my main tumblr which i don’t even use anymore.

3. In general do you think you’re a likable person? Why? for the most part, yes. i’m friendly to anyone who’s friendly to me.

4. Do you think it’s okay to have a “Black People Meet.com” and not a “White People Meet.com?” Explain. i think both are fine, especially if it’s to make friends, perhaps romance etc. if these websites are being used to find other like-minded people to discuss hate on other races than i’m not for it at all.

5. Do you remember the old MTV show Room Raiders? What do you people would think about you judging off your room alone? i don’t remember it. my room is pretty chill. neither neat or messy. 

6. When you sit down to watch a movie do you watch it the whole way through even if it isn’t that good? Or do you just give up and do something else? if it’s really bad i’ll definitely stop.

7. Name 5 things you don’t believe in. magic, chem trails, psychics, horoscopes and strategy with certain casino games.

8. Are you hard or easy to make friends with? Do you think this is reflected in the amount of friends you have now? i haven’t made any new friends in a really long time. it’s not that i’m hard to make friends with, it’s just that i’m happy with everyone in my life now. 

9. Do you have any interest in mythology of any kind? If so, what do you like about it most? If not, what is/was your favorite period to study in history class? nope. i liked modern history.

10. Do you ever experience second-hand embarrassment while watching movies or reading books? haha not usually.

11. Are there any movies or books you’d have your children/future children watch/read that you enjoyed when you were a kid? harry potter for sure.

12. Have you ever gotten a comment on Tumblr only to first discover it long after the person originally posted it? Did you respond in the end despite how much time passed? nope.

13. What do you think of the Tumblr dashboard design? it’s fine i guess.

14. When you see an attractive member of your preferred sex, what’s the likelihood of you going up to them to start up a conversation? very unlikely.

15. How was your day today? Did anything interesting happen? it was okay. work sucked. apparently there was some really famous asian celebrity at work but i had a look and obviously didn’t recognize them.

16. Are you guilty of giving people ‘death glares’ when you’re angry or are you able to keep your composure? haha no, i hate the idea of staring at people to begin with.

17. How often do you take old surveys that you’ve already taken? What makes you re-take them again? i’ve done it before but i’m not a fan of it.

18. Can you think of any desserts or foods that everyone else seems to rave about but you dislike? olives. i haaaaate olives with a passion.

19. Are you a believer in conspiracy theories (9/11, Sandy Hook, Putting a man on the moon, etc.)? interesting to read/watch but meh. i don’t want to invest to much of my time believing in something when i’ll never know the real facts.

20. Was your high school nearly as catty as the ones typically shown in movies and on TV? How was it similar, and how was it different? our grade got along fairly well tbh. there were cliques but not too much drama.

21. If you had all the money you needed and didn’t have to work, what would you do to fill your time? i’d learn more skills or travel the world and document it. i’d definitely volunteer and help out poor and disadvantaged places.

22. Do you ever get nervous about where your future is headed or are you just going with the flow? i’m very nervous.

23. Even if you think where you live sucks, list 3 things that are positive about it. it’s quiet, the neighbours keep to themselves and not much traffic.

24. If someone you care about is being mean to you, how do you react? i’d ask them what’s wrong straight up.

[thedasboi]

Penny

Full name: Penny Pamela Penwood

Complexion: Fair

Eyes: Light green

Hair: Deep red

Age: 28

Height: 5'8

Features: Stitched scar on cheek, white patch on forehead, tattoo of a wrench and screwdriver along the majority of her spine, custom hair (formerly), "Poodleskirt" hair (currently, but lack pictures).

Personality: 3 parts sane, 3 parts insane, and 3 parts smart as hell, and 1 part oblivious. She has a bit of a crazy obsession with anything and everything technical and mechanical. She wanders around the Commonwealth without a care and has been misled and used by its lying residents more times than she can count. None of them still exist, however. She's trigger happy beyond compare — the bigger the weapon the better — with a passion for explosives. If anyone betrays her in any way, she doesn't just kill them. She makes sure to put on a hell of a show and has a smile plastered on her face through it all.

Pre-war story: She grew up in a mansion — literally — with her filthy rich parents, just ten minutes out of Concord. She got a pony on her tenth birthday and a luxurious car on her twentieth, and her life was like that almost every day. If she wanted something, her dad had bought it before she knew. So when she wanted a house in Sanctuary Hills for her twenty fifth birthday, she got it. Her dad had also bought her a place in Vault 111, and it was there she fled along with the other Vault residents when the bombs dropped.

Post-war story: When she emerged from her cryopod in Vault 111, she did so at the same time as Ray Foster — another Vault resident — did. The two of them ventured out together but eventually went separate ways when Ray wanted to travel to Nuka World and Penny wanted to remain close to home. She sought out to build a new Vault to keep safe yet escape the old one and it's history. After finding a map of Boston's sewer system and finding that there was a large cavern underneath Hangman's Alley where multiple sewage pipes connected, she headed there to begin what would be her most impressive project. When she was wandering the Commonwealth on the hunt of materials one day, she was attacked by a group of raiders. One of them had a strange weapon which shot barrels of unusual, Hallucigen, compound, that vaporized upon hit. Penny was exposed to the chemical which left permanent, neurological, damage, on her brain and left her nearly incapable of social interaction and understanding, fast mood changes, occasionally hearing voices and sounds, and a nearly unhealthy obsession with certain things (such as building and explosives).

Agenda: She likes to have fun, and so she makes sure she has it. If someone points to a person and tells her to kill, Penny will most likely listen. She tries to stay out of fights, however. All she really wants to do is care about all of her many projects.

The Institute: Whilst she doesn't like them as an organization, she loves their technology. She'll do pretty much anything to get her hands on it.

The Brotherhood of Steel: Just like with the Institute, she doesn't really like them, but she loves their technology.

The Railroad: She wants to protect synths just as much as they do, and whilst they struggle a little to get along due to her unique personality, she's still considered one of their allies, even if she's not officially a part of the team.

The Minutemen: She finds them rather boring, so she tries to spice things up, which has gotten her in trouble quite a handful of times. Apparently Preston doesn't like it when she replaces the artillery missiles with pink fireworks or when she paints smiley faces on the hats of the Minutemen when they're sleeping.

Best friend/s: She considers anyone she's remotely close to as her best friends. Most of the time, they're only friendly to her because they feel bad for her clearly being a little dim witted when it comes to anything relating to humans. 

Favorite companion: The more people, the merrier. She tries to have as many friends with her as possible, but Deacon and Dogmeat are the one's that she usually get to tag along.

Love interest: She's too focused on her work to look for love, nor does she have the social skills for love. She doesn't feel a need for it, however.

Place of residence: Vault City; the huge Vault with its entrance in Hangman's Alley with nearly fifty residents. She has her own room and a spacious workshop inside of it.

Daily occupation: Working on the Vault in one way or another, or working on some other, personal, project, which ranges from everything in between robots and weapons to modifying willing synths or just helping them.

Combat style: She has fun in combat, which makes both her enemies and her allies uneasy. She often uses explosives or creative weapons of her own making.

Armor: She has highly modified her clothes to suit all her needs, and usually dressed to be as tactical and efficient as possible.

Scars: She has a long one on her right cheek where you can still see the messy stitches she once did herself. She was attacked by a Mr. Handy with faulty wiring once and it's saw blade nearly took her right eye, but luckily she got to keep it.

Happiest, pre-war, memory: When she graduated as an architect and her parents hosted a ball in her name. Every guest that had came had been there for her accomplishment, and that form of attention had left a huge imprint on her.

Happiest, post-war, memory: When she first switched on the radio beacon for her Vault and when five days later, a family of four showed up and asked for refuge. She had never truly done anything for someone else until that point, and there was no feeling like it.

Favorite pastime: Building for the most part, but she really likes to visit new places every now and then. Usually she stays underground and remain isolated to the rest of the world.

Robots: She loves robots. They can be programmed to do almost anything and designed to look just how she wants them to. A handful of them work inside Vault City as maintenance.

Synths: She find few things as fascinating as synths. They're capable of emotions and independent decision making despite being machines, and that is something that will always astound her.

Ghouls: She likes how they very seldom judge others — which of course includes herself — and she's also interested in their mutation. Few are very keen on the experiments and tests she wishes she could do on them, however.

Super mutants: Her opinion on super mutants is almost identical to that of ghouls, and even though mutants do judge humans rather harshly, they don't judge them for the same reason as other humans. She and Strong get along rather well, despite his brutal nature and her oblivious one.

Children of Atom: She doesn't care much for them. She does want to know how they can live in areas with such high levels of radiation, however. It makes her wonder of their believes aren't as crazy as people say they are.

Gunners: Gunner's have used her multiple times. They've tried to infiltrate Vault City by pretending to be her friend, have tried stealing from her valuable armory, but they've always ended up ruining their own scheme. Because of her history with them, she despises them all as an entirety.

Raiders: She doesn't understand why they keep shooting at her for no reason, but she doesn't mind firing back.

Children: She loves children, although they're usually quite freaked out by her over-the-top baby tone she has whenever she speaks to them. She makes up for it — however — by bringing more than generous gifts, which in the end leads to them loving her right back.