#lisa kairos

[thenerdsofcolor]

A Los Angeles Theatre Review: 'Kairos'

My biggest and most immediate takeaway after watching the world premiere of Kairos at East West Players is that I wish more stories were told in this particular manner, despite the genre or the size of the cast. Written by Lisa Sanaye Dring and directed by Jesca Prudencio, Kairos is both a dystopian science-fiction play and a dark-comedy love story about an Asian American woman and a Black man.…

[rosewaterandivy]

Choiceless Hope in Grief - I. Kairos

Summary: someone has to tell the tale, even if it doesn’t turn out well. it’s one we already know: you will die. in fact, you’re already dead, have been since the beginning. but maybe, it’ll turn out different in the end.

Pairing: e.m. x reader

W.C.: 4k

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“Every time I sing this song, I hope it’s for the last time.”

—An Iliad, Lisa Peterson and Denis O'Hare

He wakes with a jolt.

“Eddie!”

Goes to sit up, finds that he can’t— tubes in his arms and strapped to the bed. Feels like he’s swallowed cotton, what he wouldn’t give for some water.

It’s uncomfortably bright when he opens his eyes. He blinks a few times before the blurry slumped shape in the corner comes into focus— Wayne, of course.

Sleeping in a chair with his jacket thrown on top of him, looks uncomfortable as hell.

Hospitals are never silent, not really. Machines blip and beep, footfalls from passing nurses or doctors, an errant slurp of cold coffee.

His torso burns, body feeling like it’s on fire even with the pain meds coursing through his system. Wayne looks exhausted and Eddie’s only been awake for five minutes, but it seems like an eternity.

And the prospect of sleep is far worse. So, if he can manage to stay awake for a couple of hours it’d be a damn miracle. Anything to escape the never-ending loop of screams torn from your throat, his name falling from your bitten and bloody lips, tears streaming from your glassy eyes.

All because he had to play the hero.

Fucking christ.

Eddie must have dozed off somewhere between 3 a.m. and now, because a soft rap at the door rouses him. He cracks an eye open and groans, the spring sun streaming in through the blinds and splashing light on the linoleum floor.

“Shit.”

The doctor, he assumes, an older man with a wry smile, checks his chart at the foot of the bed. “Well Eddie,” he greets, flipping the page, “It’s going about as well as we can hope.”

Wayne turns the corner with a steaming cup of coffee and sighs in relief at seeing his nephew awake. “Mornin’ Doc,” He greets the man with a nod as he takes a seat. He sets the coffee on the table and settles his gaze on Eddie, “Hey, honey.” He gently ruffles Eddie’s mop of curls, eyes roving to check that he is, in fact, alive and somewhat well.

“Was just telling Eddie here that things are looking good.” He scribbles a few things on the chart and steps closer to the pair. “Due to the length of the coma, the injuries have had a decent amount of time to heal. And I would imagine that we’ll be able to discharge him in maybe a day or so if he can manage a meal or two and stay hydrated.”

He deftly undoes the straps bearing down on Eddie’s wrists as he says this, casually as ever.

Wayne nods, blinking away any gathering tears and offers the doctor his hand. “Thanks Dr. Owens, we appreciate everything you’ve done for Eddie.”

He shakes Wayne's hand and smiles, “Not at all, happy to help.” Glancing at Eddie, he says, “I’ll be back later this afternoon, but if you need anything before then Wayne knows how to get in touch.”

Eddie relaxes somewhat at getting the all clear from the good Dr. Owens. He’d be out of this place soon enough and back to you.

That was all that mattered.

He hears Dustin hollering down the hallway before the kid hobbles into his room. Steve’s long-suffering sigh coming in a beat or two after. It takes him a minute to maneuver his way over to Eddie’s bed with the crutches, and he all but falls onto his legs once there.

“You’re back,” He says, like he never dared hope otherwise. “Steve said I can’t hit you, but the second you’re cleared I’m gonna deck you, man.”

Eddie laughs but it comes out more as a wheeze than anything. Quickly followed by a violent fit of coughing, Wayne’s requisite hand thumping against his back while Steve raised a glass of water toward him.

Draining the glass in record time, he fell back against the pillows with a sigh.

“Not that I’m not overjoyed by the welcome, Henderson,” Eddie begins, voice a crackly rasp from disuse. “But I was kinda hoping to see my girl. You might have heard of her? Hot as hell. Gives the centerfolds a run for their money. Wild, fiery.”

At that, Steve quietly closed the door as Wayne stepped out for a smoke break.

He and Dustin shared a pointed glance with Steve while Jonathan and Argyle slipped into the room, their faces unusually drawn.

“Yeah, uh, about that.”

So, turns out, while Eddie was ready to bleed out right then and there in the Upside Down, you were not having any of that. Had wrapped him up as best you could and got Steve to drag him out of there. And, according to Harrington, you were a step behind them the entire way. But what with getting Eddie out and helping Dustin hobble his way toward the gate, they hadn’t exactly noticed you slipping further and further behind.

Almost as if you’d planned it that way.

Reassurances of “Yeah, right behind you,” or “Just need to catch my breath,” and no one was the wiser.

You weren’t even supposed to be there in the first place.

And it’s all his fault, because Eddie could never manage to stay away from you for long. Even when it was in his best interest.

If he could go back and knock some sense into himself, he never would’ve scaled the trellis of your house that night. Wouldn’t have slotted his fingers just beneath the window pane and slid it open, stepping through only to be greeted by the raw and visceral voice of Ian Curtis lamenting how love would tear us apart.

Toeing his shoes off to collapse onto your panoply of pillows that adorn your bed? Couldn’t be him. That would be idiotic, he’s a wanted man for shit’s sake! Eddie Munson would have better sense than that, right?

No, as it turns out. No, he would not.

But not for lack of trying.

Hearing the news from Steve, well intended as it may have been, is nearly enough to do him in. Injuries aside, there were a fair few and man, did they hurt like a bitch, it took Steve, Jonathan, and Argyle to restrain him while Dustin rushed off for a nurse and a sedative.

“No, I just gotta,” He’d grunted, in an attempt to wrangle free from Steve, “I can’t just leave here there! You don’t understand!” His voice was a croak when all was said and done, his pleas falling on deaf ears as the nurse arrived with her syringe.

“Eddie, dude,” Argyle said in an attempt to soothe, his hand firmly on Eddie’s shoulder and pressing him back onto the hospital bed. “Just rest, man.”

Satisfied that the sedative was doing its work, Steve stepped back and crossed his arms. “You’re in no shape to stand up, much less go back into that shithole and rescue your girlfriend, Munson.”

He blinks, slowly feeling as if it takes him forever to get his eyelids to move. And manages to mumble, only somewhat incoherently before succumbing to the beckoning oblivion, “S’all my fault.”

Someone lays a comforting hand on his shoulder as he drifts to sleep, as if it would help. Realistically, the only thing that could remedy his current predicament would be him waking up to find it was all some cruel joke.

But fate, as ever, is rarely kind to Eddie Munson.

There’s a wisp of hushed voices coloring the air, whispers almost, if he had to guess. The forest is silent otherwise, save the heralds from between the towering trees. And it’s not a Gate, per se, though the sky is streaked with smears of blue and lilac as if it could be one. Nothing about his surroundings screams Upside Down, so Eddie is a bit at odds with where he currently is.

Which is to say, alone. He’s as lonely as he’s ever been, standing in a creepy forest in front of something that any sane person would recognize as an ill, foreboding omen.

And yet, he’s compelled to step ever closer to the beckoning voices. They’re not exactly saying anything discernible, at least to his ear. Just an occasional wail or mournful cry tinged with an acute sensation of pain.

“Yeah,” He sighs, “I can relate.”

The closer he gets to the… whatever the fuck this is, the stronger the urge is to step through. The dense black void seems lessened somehow, rather than opaque, as he’d thought before, the expanse between the trees is in actuality partially visible. Like a screen or a veil? He’s not terribly sure.

What he is sure of, however, is the passing of shaded splotches behind the veil. Just floating past his keyhole view, no apparent features present. Almost as if they were ghosts. But, that can’t be possible. The Upside Down doesn’t have spirits haunting it, or at least, any that Eddie knows of.

Maybe, this isn’t the place he thought it was.

But what was it? Where was it?

He reaches forward, and his hand brushes against a fluttery cloth, the edges shimmering around where Eddie has pierced the veil.

Around him, the wind, once dormant, picks up and swirls leaves around him, the whispers rising in a dull roar, but all he can see is the specters curving round a bend in the river. And there’s someone that sticks out from the rest, a black bandana wrapped around their forearm and a well-loved tee shirt draped over their torso.

Eddie’s heart hammers in his chest, hand pressing incrementally against the veil only to meet resistance. He curls his hand into a fist and slams it against the barrier, a hollow thunk ringing in his ears.

The mournful parade marches on before his very eyes. The shades aren’t concerned with the repetitive sound of his fist beating against the veil, in fact, they can’t seem hear him at all. So really, Eddie’s incessant pleas for someone to, “Look up, goddamnit!” are meaningless. As are his attempts to shoulder his way through.

He remains focused on the figure at the banks of the river, his terrified eyes trained on their face as they look around. Their eyes flit from the shades, to the cypress trees, and back to the river again. Crouching down, they extend their hand toward the surging tides, which draws Eddie’s horror-stricken gaze as he shouts out, “No! You can’t have her— Just look up, fucking shit!”

Then, all at once, Eddie and the figure beyond the veil share a moment’s horrified look, eyes wide.

“Eddie?”

The sound of your wispy voice makes his legs lock up. He stares at you, eyes pricking with frustrated tears, branches and leaves whipping up around him.

“Please,” Eddie says, his voice broken open. “I can’t lose you, not like this.”

A bewildered look crosses your face, brows furrowing in confusion.

“What d’ya mean, baby?”

Color drains from his face, framed by the dark veil. And he can feel the moment his heart shatters to pieces in his chest, falling like so much broken glass and riddling his rib cage with its carnage.

“Just—” He takes a short breath in, trying to play it cool. “Can you step closer to me?”

Rising from the banks of the dark and churning river, you turn toward him and take a solitary step forward.

The shades halt in their procession, and the wind kicks up around Eddie. Trees swaying toward the veil and branches swept into the air, severing themselves from trunks in resounding cracks and sent flying. The voices get louder now, wailing, as the shades circle you on the other side.

“Shut up, shut up, and get over here. I can pull you out, I’ve got you—” He pleads, slamming his fist against the tattered material of the veil once more.

“I— Eddie, I can’t—”

“No, no, no, I’m not letting you—”

“What’s happening?” You gasp as the specters brush cooly against your skin, boxing you in where you stand. “Eddie!”

He’s beyond words at this point, throwing himself bodily against the veil, the impenetrable pane not giving so much as an inch against his bruised and battered skin.

It’s impossible to discern the whispers and wails from the wind now. Eddie watches as you attempt a wrenching step forward, only to be pushed back by the shades closer and closer to the river’s edge.

Screaming, he watches as you disappear from view, the image of the shades shepherding you into the procession, leaving him shattered. Though useless, he throws himself against the veil once more, for good measure, finding it somehow more unyielding than before.

Leaves crunch beneath his feet as he cries out in overwhelming grief, punching the trunks of the trees flanking the veil, his knuckles coming away pierced with bark and dripping maroon. He heaves gasps of horror, his eyelids seared with the retreating image of you with wide frightened eyes turned toward him, your mouth open to say something. Your lips move but he can’t make out your voice anymore, not over the howling winds. And all too quickly, you’re ushered onward by the shades at your side.

Eventually, though he can’t say when, the wind and wails begin to die down. So much so that Eddie can barely hear them over the sounds of his own sobs. His hand lands on his pocket, bringing to mind the knife he carries there. And it’s only by the grace of overwhelming grief that he doesn’t rend the tattered veil to shreds right then and there.

Blinking his eyes open is a task, reaches up to rub away the vestiges of sleep only to jerk at the sharp sensation of pain along his knuckles. He stares at the bandages, weeping pink, and attempts to flex his fingers.

“Fuck,” He breathes as the pain laces his hands.

It’s night now, or maybe early morning, Eddie’s not entirely sure.

His room is quiet, save for the occasional snore from Wayne posted up on the shitty sofa or an errant beep from a machine.

And he can’t remember why he’s woken up in such a state.

Which, to be fair, Eddie doesn’t have the most reliable memory. But shitty memory or no, how did he wake up with new injuries when he hasn’t left the hospital? Especially since he’s still bedridden on this fucking excuse for a mattress.

But for now, well, he’d like nothing more than to drop off into sleep. Feels like he’s been hit by a mack truck or thrown around like a rag doll. Sighing, he tries to find a comfortable position, but he’d never been a back sleeper in the first place. Eddie occupies himself with his old reliables, flitting between mentally plotting another D&D campaign and thoughts of you. Eventually, he’ll fall asleep with the passing thought of rivers and your pretty face and won’t know why that is.

Because it’s not as if he’d planned on having to do his senior year over again. And he certainly never planned for you— best laid plans and all of that. Planned or no, you were arguably the highlight of his senior year 2.0. Bright and vivacious with a scalding wit, could’ve had your pick of the guys in school and yet you’d picked him. He tries not to think about it too much, fails most of the time.

And when everything’d gone to shit over spring break, all he wanted was to protect you, like the desperate sap he was. So in the scant hours between hyperventilating over Chrissy’s death, but before he’d holed up at the boathouse, Eddie had found himself climbing through your bedroom window like nothing was out of the ordinary.

He looked a mess and felt it, truth be told. But you’d taken one look at him and sent him to the shower. Your socked feet slid across the tiled floors as you busied yourself turning the taps, finding towels, and stripping him of his clothes.

“I’ll put these in the wash,” You’d said, voice a whisper against the water as it fell in torrents against the tile walls. You turned to leave him to it, and suddenly the thought of being alone, even for a second, was terrifying to him.

Before you could close the door, he pinched your baggy sweatshirt between his fingers and tugged you back into the steamy room. Hadn’t said a word as he buried his head in the juncture of your shoulder and throat, until a shakey, “Don’t leave me,” fell from his lips.

Your fingers wound through his hair as you dropped the clothes on the floor and turned in his grasp. “Okay,” You’d said with a subtle nod, eyes never leaving his face. “Sure thing, babe. We’ll just get you cleaned up, yeah?”

And you were so delicate with him, so kind that he couldn’t quite believe it— had anyone ever treated him with such tenderness before? Definitely not since he wound up on Wayne’s doorstep with nowhere else to go. Wiping at his tears, you offered him a small smile as you stepped into the shower, clothes littering the floor, and led him in after you.

The air was balmy and warm, the water fell like a humid summer rain against his skin as he slumped against you. Dutifully you set about lathering the pair of you with a soap that smelled like you, smelt like home. Your hands carded through his hair and its various knots working in the shampoo and conditioner.

It was overwhelmingly intimate to his mind, the soft touches and hushed words. Intimate in the sense that he felt vulnerable, as if he’d been torn open in the wake of the evening’s events. But cared for by the person he trusted the most, the person he lo—

Oh no.

He shuddered at the realization, the weight of it forcing the meandering of his mind, quite suddenly, to focus on the trickling of blood in his veins, the rapid beating of his heart, the quickening expansion and contraction of his lungs.

“Eddie?”

Your voice sounded so far away.

He felt at once too big and too small in his own body. He didn’t know what to do with his hands as they shook. He took a quick step back and away from you, only to have his back meet the shockingly cool tiles of the shower.

This is not how this was supposed to go. Not when he’d— And Chrissy was— Because that actually happened, right? Eddie’s imagination was good, but not so much as to conjure the unholy terror that was a bastardized crucifixion of hellish proportion. He nearly second guesses himself— he didn’t kill her, right?

No, he’d just stood there shocked still, save for the tremor in his hands that hasn’t left him since.

Slowly, you turn the taps off in the shower and approach him as if he’s an animal liable to spook, rather than a guy who was recently walloped with the knowledge that he was in love with his girlfriend and fresh from witnessing a grisly death that would surely be pinned on him.

Wrapping him in towels and leading him back to your cozy bedroom, you sit Eddie down on the bed with a look on your face that implores him to say something, anything.

But the things that are on the tip of his tongue aren’t the sort of things you say to the woman you love— I think I may have inadvertently killed someone, oh, and by the way, I love you. Not a great opening line, not a great line, period.

The gauzy fabric of your canopy diffuses the warm golden glow of the lamp at the corner of your room. A cascade a fabric flutters closed as you sit down beside him on the bed. Eddie’s thoughts are a whirl of nonsense spliced with a loop of Chrissy as she dies in front of him for no discernible reason.

He shouldn’t be feeling this way— some shitty version of fight or flight or fuck because he’s some kind of psycho now, he supposes; one who will do just about anything to 1) keep you safe, 2) blot this experience from recent memory, all while, 3) doing everything in his power to not blurt out the real reason he’s here.

Eddie Munson, like the truest of blue, is at heart a coward.

He’s always known this. Valiant deeds best are saved for campaigns, as are heroic rescues, unless one of the sheepies is getting their shit handed to them and Eddie can do something about it. He’s no Lancelot or King Arthur, that’s for damn sure. But he can distract you, in all likelihood, just long enough for you to drift off to sleep, allowing him to sneak off somewhere far from the pristine suburban sprawl of your neighborhood.

That’ll buy him a few hours, tops.

He wants to do so many things— ask about your day, listen as you animatedly recount the recent goings-on of small town life while worrying about your mother, to kiss you blind and fuck you stupid, to sear you with his burning heart and so much scorching heat, to touch you for eternity.

Eddie does maybe one or two of those things before he slips through your open window that night.

Despite his wants, his desires that all begin and end with you, what he wants most and hopes he’s done right, is to belong to you. To remember this. As horrifying as his night has been up until now, Eddie never wants to forget your smile in the low golden glow of the room. How his gaze touched you before his hands ever did, before he rightly knew how. That you never asked for anything, yet he freely gave it all to you.

As he sinks into you, you wipe his mind clean. His hunger, once timid, ventures forth brazenly accepting the invitation of desire. He can finally think, for once, and breathe and just be. It’s as close to a sense of peace as someone like him will ever get. He’s made present by your presence, valiantly reconstructed from the shards of his scant existence, the meager life he’s carved out for himself.

But you—

Overwhelmingly beautiful and ardently adored. Gasps of subtle shock and pleasure as he moves in you and for you, drawing your legs to wind around his back. Your perfect mouth falling open in exquisite anguish, brow furrowed as your eyes flutter close.

The undertow of unbridled want draws him asunder, its descent brutal in its application. The drive to move toward it, into the light on the other side, away from the mists of uncertainty. How sweet is the fall, the rush of blood in his veins, the sure beat of his heart, the scattered thought—

How could he ever love another?

Trembling above you, he comes with a gasp of your name.

Wakes with it too.

Reeling from the comedown of a dry orgasm, the violent aftermath of apocryphal annihilation, Eddie’s body lurches to the fore. His eyes surge open, teased by the promise of your grace, your sweetness. The hope that—

His soul withered and shrank within a single breath. He feels tilted and wrong in his wound-ridden skin, itchy and tight. Hope spirited from his grasp before Eddie was even aware he fostered it.

Through his hospital room window, the sun begins its steady trek across the sky. He sighs and lets his head fall back against the pillows, exhausted by the thought of yet another day on this side of the apocalypse. Another day feeling like a raw, exposed nerve, another day without you and your light.

Hope, when it returned (and it wouldn’t be for some time yet) would be something else entirely to Eddie, and wholly unknown.

[anim-ttrpgs]

Songs for Eureka Sessions: Investigation Scenes (tense/creepy) Part 1

Masterpost of Eureka song lists & how to choose good music for any TTRPG session.

Neve (Versione Integrale) - The Hateful Eight

Opening Credits - Prince of Darkness

The Underground Church - Prince of Darkness

The Night Stalker

The Werewolf - Kolchak: The Night Stalker

Ghost - Stealth Music Avery Alexander

Save Room - Resident Evil 2

Shadow - Deadly Premonition

And Hell Followed - Randal Collier Ford

The Lady Circles - Little Nightmares

Shape - The Thing

Darkness - Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective

Humanity - The Thing

Solitude - The Thing

Main Hall - Resident Evil

Nebula - Lugensa

Dining Room - Resident Evil

The Gramophone - Crimson Peak

A Clockwork Killing - The Sexy Brutale

Vanessa Wants to Play - A Hat in Time

Watchful Eyes from Above - Silent Hill 4

Laudanum – Atrium Carceri

The Underground Laboratory – Resident Evil 2

The Suspense Is Killing – L.A. Noire

Nightmare – Max Payne 2     

Left Alone? – Resident Evil 2

Max Hurt: Danger and Consequences – Max Payne 2

Anomaly – Cities Last Broadcast

Fabiana – Max Payne 3

The Jail – Resident Evil 2 Remake

Clues 05 – L.A. Noire

Fate of the Damned – Blood

Clues 03 – L.A. Noire

Double, Double, Toil and Trouble – Blood

Police Station Basement – Resident Evil 2 Remake

Find a Way Out – Resident Evil 2 Remake

Den – Resident Evil 2 Remake

Jill. You Are Alive! – Resident Evil 1 Remake

Lisa’s Lair – Resident Evil 1 Remake

What’s Going On – Resident Evil 2 Remake

Barry’s Betrayal – Resident Evil 1 Remake

The Marshalling Yard (First Half) – Resident Evil 2

The First Floor – Resident Evil 2

Weapons Don’t Give Us Relief – Resident Evil 2

Lab Entrance – Resident Evil 1 Remake

Contanimated – Resident Evil 1 Remake

Wesker’s Master Plan – Resident Evil 1 Remake

Underground – Resident Evil 1 Remake

A Statue with a Map – Resident Evil 1 Remake

Fourth Floor – Cities Last Broadcast

Guardhouse II – Resident Evil 1 Remake

Neptune Tank – Resident Evil 1 Remake

Macabre Hallway – Resident Evil 1 Remake

Track 1 – Nightmare Creatures

The Bottom of the Well – Parasite Eve II

Lost in Fog – Phonothek

Blood Red – Silent Hill 4

Track 06 – Galerians

A Ruined Village – Resident Evil 4

Moonchild – Silent Hill 1

Disfigured Reality – yatakiya

Inner Most Part of the Shelter – Parasite Eve II

The Sleep Ensemble – Atrium Carceri

the White – Kairo

Twisted Emotions – Silent Hill 4

Fear of Heights – Silent Hill 4

Ghost Room – Martha Is Dead

Stares Back – Cities Last Broadcast

Gloomy View – Silent Hill 3

Wind Chime – Silent Hill 3

Vagues - Benoit Pioulard

Lisa Trevor – Resident Evil 1 Remake

Disembodied – Cities Last Broadcast

Totentanz – Musica Cthulhiana

The Sitting – Cities Last Broadcast

All Things Nocturnal – Atrium Carceri & Cities Last Broadcast

The Death of a Lover – Heroin and Your Veins

[most-screwed-by-writers-tourney]

Also, potential list of the yandere characters under the read more!

1. Cutthroat from Akudama Drive

2. Belphegor (Obey Me)

3. Griffith (Berserk)

4. Mimimi, Hypnosis Mic

5. Zenos yae Galvus from Final Fantasy 14

6. Shion Sonozaki from Higurashi

7. Yandere-Chan from Carflo + co's Yandere High School Minecraft Roleplay series

8. Luo Binghe, Scum Villain’s Self Saving System

9. Monica Campanella, Baccano!

10. Creed, Black Cat

11. Seiko, Blood on the Tracks

12. Makima, Chainsaw Man

13. Mao, Code Geass

14. Mariko Shinobu, Dear Brother

15. Mika Harima, Durarara

16. Akito Sohma, Fruits Baskrt

17. Shigure Sohma, Fruits Basket

18. Yuno Gasai, Future Diary

19. Satou, Happy Sugar Life

20. Yukako Yamagishi, JJBA Diamond is Unbreakable

21. Himiko Toga, My Hero Academia

22. Haru, My Little Monster

23. Oz, Pandora Hearts

24. Kuroi, Thou Shalt Not Die

25. Seishirou, Tokyo Babylon

26. Kish, Tokyo Mew Mew

27. Asami, Audition

28. Lucille Sharpe, Crimson Peak

29. Alex Forrest, Fatal Attraction

30. Jareth, Labyrinth

31. Annie Wilkes, Misery

32. Evelyn Draper, Play Misty for Me

33. Charlie Stoker, Stoker

34. Nellie Lovett, Sweeney Todd

35. Victor Frankenstein, The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein

36. Frollo, Hunchback of Notre Dame

37. Erik, Phantom of the Opera

38. Fu Shenxing, Who is the Prey

39. Heathcliff, Wuthering Heights

40. Joe Goldberg, You

41. Missy, Doctor Who

42. Lestat, Interview with the Vampire

43. Kilgrave, Jessica Jones

44. Masato Kisaka, Kamen Rider 555

45. Siyun Baek, Dreaming Freedom

46. Tomoya/Sam, He’s Harmless I swear

47. Morae Baek, I don’t want this kind of hero

48. Lady, I don’t want this kind of hero

49. Yuta, Kubera

50. Thaddeus, Madame Outlaw

51. Yunsu, Trapped

52. JD, Heathers

53. Erik, Yeston and Kopit Phantom

54. Der Tod, Elisabeth

55. Callisto, Villains Are Destined to Die

56. Hannibal, Hannibal

57. Reinhart, I failed to oust the villain

58. Yul, Secret Alliance

59. Hananoi, A Condition Called Love

60. Naoka Ueno, A Silent Voice

61. Sumireko Hanabusa, Akuma no Riddle

62. Esdeath, Akame ga Kill

63. Dracula, Bram Stoker’s Dracula

64. Mashiro Mai, Dead Tube

65. Monika, Doki Doki Literature Club

66. Lucy, Elfen Lied

67. Juvia, Fairy Tail

68. Mimi. flip flappers

69. Akise Aru, Future Diary

70. Elena Aoki, Gleipnir

71. Hades, Hadestown

72. shuu iwamine, Hatoful Boyfriend

73. Luka, Alien Stage

74. LT. Oscar, Lupin the III, The Woman Called Fujiko Mine

75. Sumin Jeong, Marry My Husband

76. Reiko Ichijou, Migi and Dali

77. Diane Selwyn, Mulholland Drive

78. Harry MacDougall, Outlaw Star

79. Root, Person of Interest

80. Jackson Rippner, Red Eye

81. Kozue Kaoru, Revolutionary Girl Utena

82. Seyoung Jin, Surviving Romance

83. Sudou Kayo, Tailer of Enbizaka

84. Hayase, To Your Eternity

85. Tooru Mutsuki, Tokyo Ghoul RE

86. Kichimura Washuu, Tokyo Ghoul RE

87. The Creature, Lisa Frankenstein

88. Pig, Disco Pigs

89. Shinpei, Firefly Wedding

90. Aiko, Goodnight Punpun

91. Sal, Wadanonara

92. Jung, Cheese in the Trap

93. Khalid, From a knight to a lady

94. Margot, Gremoryland

95. Bibi, I love Amy

96. Kairos, I Shall Kill that Sweet Devil

[wellesleybooks]

The National Book Award finalists have been announced.

2023 Longlist for the National Book Award for Fiction:

Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Chain-Gang All-Stars Pantheon Books / Penguin Random House

Aaliyah Bilal, Temple Folk Simon & Schuster

Eliot Duncan, Ponyboy W. W. Norton & Company

Paul Harding, This Other Eden W. W. Norton & Company

Tania James, Loot Knopf / Penguin Random House

Jayne Anne Phillips, Night Watch Knopf / Penguin Random House

Mona Susan Power, A Council of Dolls Mariner Books / HarperCollins Publishers

Hanna Pylväinen, The End of Drum-Time Henry Holt and Company / Macmillan Publishers

Justin Torres, Blackouts Farrar, Straus and Giroux / Macmillan Publishers

LaToya Watkins, Holler, Child Tiny Reparations Books / Penguin Random House

2023 Longlist for the National Book Award for Nonfiction:

Ned Blackhawk, The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History Yale University Press

Jonathan Eig, King: A Life Farrar, Straus and Giroux / Macmillan Publishers

Viet Thanh Nguyen, A Man of Two Faces: A Memoir, A History, A Memorial Grove Press / Grove Atlantic

Prudence Peiffer, The Slip: The New York City Street That Changed American Art Forever Harper / HarperCollins Publishers

Donovan X. Ramsey, When Crack Was King: A People’s History of a Misunderstood Era One World / Penguin Random House

Cristina Rivera Garza, Liliana’s Invincible Summer: A Sister’s Search for Justice Hogarth / Penguin Random House

Christina Sharpe, Ordinary Notes Farrar, Straus and Giroux / Macmillan Publishers

Raja Shehadeh, We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I: A Palestinian Memoir Other Press

John Vaillant, Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World Knopf / Penguin Random House

Kidada E. Williams, I Saw Death Coming: A History of Terror and Survival in the War Against Reconstruction Bloomsbury Publishing

2023 Longlist for the National Book Award for Poetry:

John Lee Clark, How to Communicate W. W. Norton & Company

Oliver de la Paz, The Diaspora Sonnets Liveright / W. W. Norton & Company

Annelyse Gelman, Vexations University of Chicago Press

José Olivarez, Promises of Gold Henry Holt and Company / Macmillan Publishers

Craig Santos Perez, from unincorporated territory [åmot] Omnidawn Publishing

Paisley Rekdal, West: A Translation Copper Canyon Press

Brandon Som, Tripas Georgia Review Books / University of Georgia Press

Charif Shanahan, Trace Evidence Tin House Books

Evie Shockley, suddenly we Wesleyan University Press Monica Youn, From From Graywolf Press

2023 Longlist for the National Book Award for Translated Literature:

Juan Cárdenas, The Devil of the Provinces Translated from the Spanish by Lizzie Davis Coffee House Press

Bora Chung, Cursed Bunny Translated from the Korean by Anton Hur Algonquin Books / Hachette Book Group

David Diop, Beyond the Door of No Return Translated from the French by Sam Taylor Farrar, Straus and Giroux / Macmillan Publishers

Jenny Erpenbeck, Kairos Translated from the German by Michael Hofmann New Directions Publishing

Stênio Gardel, The Words That Remain Translated from the Portuguese by Bruna Dantas Lobato New Vessel Press

Khaled Khalifa, No One Prayed Over Their Graves Translated from the Arabic by Leri Price Farrar, Straus and Giroux / Macmillan Publishers

Fernanda Melchor, This Is Not Miami Translated from the Spanish by Sophie Hughes New Directions Publishing

Pilar Quintana, Abyss Translated from the Spanish by Lisa Dillman World Editions

Astrid Roemer, On a Woman’s Madness Translated from the Dutch by Lucy Scott Two Lines Press

Mohamed Mbougar Sarr, The Most Secret Memory of Men Translated from the French by Lara Vergnaud Other Press

2023 Longlist for the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature:

Erin Bow, Simon Sort of Says Disney-Hyperion Books / Disney Publishing Worldwide

Kenneth M. Cadow, Gather Candlewick Press

Alyson Derrick, Forget Me Not Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers / Simon & Schuster

Huda Fahmy, Huda F Cares? Dial Books for Young Readers / Penguin Random House

Vashti Harrison, Big Little, Brown Books for Young Readers / Hachette Book Group

Katherine Marsh, The Lost Year: A Survival Story of the Ukrainian Famine Roaring Brook Press / Macmillan Publishers

Dan Nott, Hidden Systems: Water, Electricity, the Internet, and the Secrets Behind the Systems We Use Every Day Random House Graphic / Penguin Random House

Dan Santat, A First Time for Everything First Second / Macmillan Publishers

Betty C. Tang, Parachute Kids Graphix / Scholastic, Inc.

Yohuru Williams and Michael G. Long, More Than a Dream: The Radical March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom Farrar, Straus and Giroux Books for Young Readers / Macmillan Publishers

[phanfictioncatalogue]

Fic Titles In Different Languages Masterlist

adiós (ao3) - philsmeatylegss

Summary: five times dan bought flowers and one time phil bought flowers

anocht, beidh muid (ao3) - werebothstubborn

Summary: when phil walks into a dingy bar on the outskirts of galway, he's not sure what to expect - least of all, a beautiful, irish-speaking fiddle player named dan.

Chez Nous - cityofphanchester

Summary: Dan’s stressed, Phil’s comforting.

doppelt. (ao3) - schnaf

Summary: The big wheel in Manchester. The big wheel in another Manchester. Phil's disappearance. Finding Phil - twice. Dealing with Doppelgängers. That's not exactly what Dan expected from their first meeting. But in the end, being with Phil is all that matters.

Embrasse-moi Près (ao3) - orphan_account

Summary: Phil has always been a hugger

Gamos (ao3) - auroraphilealis (peachrosepetals)

Summary: Phil manages to get himself cursed by the God’s again, but this time he won’t tell Dan what he did wrong, and Dan’s left to figure it out for himself. Modern Day Greek Gods AU

in vino veritas (ao3) - orphan_account

Summary: in vino veritas: latin - ‘in wine, truth’

it’s 9pm and they’re already halfway through a bottle of merlot.

Jardin d’Eden - wavydanrises

Summary: "They made it just in time, thanks to Dan covering the last part of the path with Nathan on his back and clutching onto his shoulders. He set him down and planted a kiss on the top of his head.

“Run kid, if you get inside before the bell rings, we're free men!”

Nathan giggled and hurried to the gate, where a teacher was standing.

“Hi I'm Dan, Nathan's dad, I'm assuming you're his teacher?”

“Yes, I don't think we've met yet,” Phil smiled. “My colleague Lisa usually does the openings.” "

Or the one in which Dan is a single dad managing running a flower shop and dealing with his five years old son, and his new teacher is very easy to like

je reviens vers toi (ao3) - basl

Summary: Oh no! There's only one bed.

kairos (ao3) - uselessphillie

Summary: (greek, n.) - the perfect, delicate, crucial moment; the fleeting rightness of time and place that creates the opportune atmosphere for action, words, or movement

(a 2009 fic. sort of.)

L'Histoire Française (ao3) - danfanciesphil (thejigsawtimess)

Summary: Since he can remember, Dan has had a bad experience with teachers. When desperate times call for him to take a job as a TA at his local secondary school, he is dreading the experience. Cue Phil Lester: eclectic, vivacious History teacher whom the students and teachers adore for his fantastical, unique methods and sincere passion for his job. Dan was expecting all sorts of drama in his new job, but falling for a member of the faculty was not part of it.

La Vérité Nue - lovebuglester

Summary: 'Charles-de-Gaulle airport was empty of anyone speaking English, as far as he could hear, and that relaxed him. It was barely prime time for small talk about the different between Parisian and London weather.' Dan gets snowed into an airport in paris, basically.

le tour de ton coeur (ao3) - Iittlesparkle

Summary: The bus was about to kick off when Phil saw a lanky man running alongside of it. His curly hair was sweaty, sticking up to his forehead, and his face red. Phil thought it was weird for someone about to do le tour de France. He could hear the guy mumbling from the open window next to him, but he was probably French as Phil couldn’t understand what he was saying.

“Putain de bus ! Arrête toi bordel !’’

or the Tour de France AU you didn't know you needed

Mon Cœur S'ouvre à Ta Voix (ao3) - auroraphilealis

Summary: It’s taken Dan a year to work up the courage to really discover why he keeps slipping into something he doesn’t fully understand, but now that he’s discovered that he’s not alone, he’s ready to find a solution, even if that does mean accepting a Dom into his life. Thank God Phil is there to save him when things seem like they’re about to go wrong.

Mon Chaton - chocolatesaucelester

Summary: Neko!Dan and Dom!Phil.

no te de miedo vivir algo diferente (ao3) - witchpersephone (tothendoftheline)

Summary: VFX artist Phil likes company parties, but an expensive tequila bar is so far from his usual scene that he has no idea what's going on. Luckily, bartender Dan is happy to educate.

Spiagga e Gelato (ao3) - Azure (Fancy_Ravenclaw)

Summary: Two rivalling ice cream vendors on an Italian beach sneak off together on their lunch break every day.

Tu étais courageux! (ao3) - phanburnhamizzard

Summary: Dan and Phil are lost in the streets of Paris trying to find the venue for their next Interactive Introverts show. This begins a day of stomach wrenching stress for Phil, who is already carsick from the bus travel.

[phant0m-l0rd]

Pulse / 回路 (Kairo) (2001).

(fineliner, India ink brush pen, black coloured pencil, alcohol markers)

[houseisekai]

House Isekai: A Realm Reborn - Part 3, Thunder Rolls (2 of 2)

House Isekai ARR Masterlist Here

—

Client: Marianne Von Edmund

With Marianne's help, the new House Isekai split off into teams to find this mysterious object and take it down before it becomes too dangerous...

[Tactics - Fire Emblem: Three Houses OST]

Marianne handed Sitri a paper with all the findings her scouts have reported.

(Marianne) "I hope this will be of use to you all."

(Sitri) "It will, thank you, Marianne."

Marianne nodded and smiled.

(Marianne) "Please be careful, I would not like to see any of you come to harm."

(Kazuma) "Eh, don't worry, the kids'll be fine with us!"

Marianne raised an eyebrow, although her smile was still kept.

(Marianne) "With Rean and the others, I can believe that."

(Kazuma) "Hey, who was the group that saved your guys asses plenty of times back then? Mine, that's who!"

(Rean) "Aaaand, don't forget who bailed you out for a lot of those situations."

(Aigis) "It was us."

Kazuma continued to cause a commotion, letting the other groups spectate.

(Jean) "They all seem rather close."

(Lisa) "Reminds you a bit of home, doesn't it?"

Lisa smirked as she turned to Kaeya and Diluc.

Diluc rolled his eyes while Kaeya shrugged.

(Kurt) "I trust Instructor Rean and Towa's guidance, but I am unsure about the other two."

(Juna) "Well, that Aigis lady seems nice enough though, now that I think on it, what CAN those two do?"

(Ash) "Noticed Kazuma has a dagger and a short sword on his belt, but for Aigis...can't tell."

(Altina) "It appears she is like me."

(Juna) "Wait, as in not human?"

Musse turned to the Garreg Mach students.

(Musse) "What do you guys think?"

(Astrid) "Eh? Well, I dunno. I've only heard stories, never seen them in action."

(Helena) "Gets kinda hard to tell what's true."

(Stefan) "I guess today's our lucky day!"

(Elizabeth) "Hmph, if you call having to deal with otherworldy monstrosities lucky!"

(Helena) "Harsh. These people aren't that ugly."

(Elizabeth) "What in the-That is not what I meant and you know it!"

(Kairos) "..."

(Astrid) ? "Kairos? Somethin' up?"

(Kairos) "Huh? Oh, I am fine. It's nothing."

Kairos looked back down, a bit dejected.

(Stefan) "The things Lady Marianne and Sitri say getting you down?"

Kairos raised his voice to object but sighed instead.

(Kairos) "I just cannot believe I let my immaturity get the best of me there. These people are the reason we're here right now, but I cannot shake off how I feel that easily."

(Elizabeth) "I...would be lying if I said I did not feel the same."

Venti and Amber didn't mean to eavesdrop, but it was hard not to considering how loudly they were announcing their feelings to the entire group.

(Venti) "If that's the case, why not get to know us then?"

(Elizabeth and Kairos) "Huh?"

(Amber) "Yeah, this mission looks to be tough, so if we all work together, I'm sure we'll be friends in no time!"

(Kurt) "I would not be opposed to it. Well, considering that we also have no alternatives present as well.'

Meanwhile, the Instructors finally finished their conversation.

(Marianne) "I wish you luck, House Isekai."

(Rean) "Thanks, Marianne. We'll be back as soon as we can."

Marianne bowed and went inside back to her estate, leaving the Instructors to walk back to their groups.

(Towa) "So, what's the plan?"

(Sitri) "I...Hm."

She stopped walking to take a moment to think.

(Sitri) "I think it'd be best if we were to all search together. We have no idea what we'd be up against."

The tone of her voice made it sound like it was more of a suggestion than a command.

(Sothis) "Looks like the group has another one."

(Diluc) "Miss Sitri, was it? If we could speak our mind."

(Sitri) "Huh? O-Oh, Go ahead."

Kazuma leaned over to Rean.

(Kazuma) "She doesn't exactly sound confident for a headmaster."

(Rean) "Being fair, she was just a nun from what we were told by Jeralt."

(Aigis) "Affirmative, she also was very weak and could not leave Garreg Mach often."

(Towa) "...S-So, if that's the case, how is she walking around out here carrying her sword no problem?"

The four stared at her while Diluc was explaining the group's plan.

(Rean) "Lahabrea did mention she was chosen to be resurrected for a reason...Did we ever find out why?"

They were silent.

(Kazuma) "Tch, even dead Those Who Slither are a pain in our ass. We never get straight answers from them"

(Aigis) "Well, that wasn't Those Who Slither, that was Byle-...Er, Lahabrea who did the resurrection himself."

(Towa) "Regardless, I think we should ask this ourselves another time."

(Diluc) "...And so, we think splitting up is the best way to approach this threat."

(Sitri) "Well..."

(Jean) "You have our word that nothing will befall any of your students."

(Kurt) "And mine as well."

(Helena) "To be fair, this would be a good way to know how we all fight considering this is our first assignment together."

(Sitri) "Fair enough...Very well, we shall split into teams.

(Rean) "I think it'd be best to mix and match teams."

(Aigis) "Agreed. Based off initial data, I will configure the teams as follows:

First Team will consist of: Rean, Sitri, Helena, Stefan, Kaeya, Amber, Altina, and Ash.

Second team will consist of: Myself, Kazuma, Astrid, Diluc, Jean, Venti, Kurt, and Juna.

Third team will consist of: Towa, Kairos, Elizabeth, Lisa, and Musse."

(Jean) "No objections from me."

(Ash) "Sounds fine."

(Musse) "Aww, I wanted one with Rean-"

(Rean) "You'll be fine under Towa's command. Besides, she was your homeroom teacher anyway."

(Lisa) "Ouch, shot down."

(Musse) "Doesn't mean I'm giving up!~"

(Lisa) "Oh, I like your attitude, love is such a powerful thing..."

(Towa) "Uh...."

(Elizabeth) "I had some slight objections being put in a group with you, Kairos, but now? I think I am glad to have at least someone familiar..."

(Kairos) "Ugh, the feeling's mutual."

(Rean) "Right then. We'll split up and meet at this point in the map if we don't find anything."

(Kazuma) "How are we gonna keep in contact if shit goes down?"

(Aigis) "Rean and Towa have their Arcus Units, and I believe the students of Garreg Mach have something similar."

(Stefan) "Yes, we were all given a communication crystal upon our entry for Sitri's group."

All the students of Garreg Mach pulled out a small flat crystal that faintly glowed blue.

(Kaeya) "We have our methods then. It's probably best we stop wasting time and get moving."

(Sitri) "Agreed. Everyone, remember to be safe. This may be only our first assignment, but do not underestimate the danger. Your lives could be thrown away if you're careless enough."

Everyone nodded and split up.

(Towa) "Alright, looks like we'll head to the site where it was first spotted. This way everyone."

Towa's group walked down a path deeper into the forest and slowly disappeared from sight of everyone else...

...

===

Doomguy's Base, Present...

Doomguy tapped his foot while listening to the Persona Users give their explanation of what was happening.

Apparently, Ryuji, Ann, Mitsuru, and Naoto fought off a group of hulking green creatures calling themselves "Orks" who came from Fodlan's Crystal Tower.

(Yu) "And that's about the gist of it."

(Yosuke) "Yeah, we weren't close enough to the scene and the news gets everything wrong anyway.."

(Futaba) "Even with my hacking I can't get a full picture, it happened so fast."

(Akihiko) "You still got any idea what's going on in Fodlan right now?"

Doomguy shook his head, and shrugged to the air, indicating for VEGA to speak for him.

(VEGA) "Unfortunately, no. There is too much interference for us to make contact with those currently in. That being the case, they are working to rectify this communication block, hopefully soon."

(Junpei) "So what, we're supposed to twiddle our thumbs and just wait?"

(Yukari) "And what exactly can we do, Stupei? If all of us just jump in guns blazing, who knows how long we'd be trapped, and how Fodlan would react!"

(Makoto) "Our entry and exit wasn't the most graceful after all..."

(Akira) "I have faith in everyone over there. It'll be up to us to keep our home safe."

(Chie) "Hey, who else has responded anyway? Seems not too many of us were able to make it in there."

(VEGA) "You are correct. The only ones to answer the call are yourselves, Rean, Elliot, Laura, Fie, Towa, and Kazuma."

(Morgana) "Anyone else?"

(VEGA) "The Denizens of Nazarick appear to be busy handling their world's politics, but they have acknowledged our call and plan to send whoever is available. The same goes for the remaining members of Class VII."

(Teddie) "Oh, how about Yuki-chan and the others?"

(Fuuka) "The School-Living Club?"

(VEGA) "I'm afraid nothing has been sent our way. Not even an acknowledgement."

(Rise) "I hope they're alright. Their world didn't exactly sound forgiving..."

(Kanji) "It's prolly' best they weren't here anyway. Not sure they'd be much help...Er, wait that sounds bad!"

(VEGA) "Negative. You are objectively correct, in terms of combat at least. Megumi and the School-Living Club were the least active members when it came to fights. Their efforts were focused on helping fleeing civilians and moral support. Neither of which we are sure is needed for Fodlan's current circumstances."

(Ken) "I'm sure everyone's fine. We should be worried less about how they are and more on how the Crystal Tower came to our world to begin with."

(VEGA) "We are currently looking into that as we speak. Please feel free to rest here until then."

The Persona users nodded and tried their best to relax, not knowing what the future would bring...

===

[Stilness of Night - Trails of Cold Steel 3 OST]

A few hours later...

Towa's group kept investigating the points of which the scouts had written on the reports, but they had found nothing.

No trace of any warning shots Marianne mentioned, its like they had completely erased the evidence.

The sun was starting to set, but thankfully it was still bright enough for them to keep looking untroubled.

Lisa was close by with Towa, looking with her and Musse while Kairos and Elizabeth investigated somewhere close by.

(Towa) "Hm...still nothing."

(Musse) "Instructor Towa?"

(Towa) "What is it, Musse?"

(Musse) "If I can ask, why is it that the people of this world hold such hostility against you?"

(Lisa) "I have been rather curious myself. It seems every opportunity those two in particular talk bad about your old group."

Towa looked up and made sure Kairos and Elizabeth was far away enough for her to continue.

(Towa) "Truth be told, our group was a mess. We kept coming in out of nowhere, and forming this massive superpower that threw a wrench into all the world leader's plans for...whatever they were going to do. World Domination? Separation? I have no idea."

Towa's eyes looked down as her expression darkened.

(Towa) "We lost a lot of friends during that war too, they gave their lives for a world they didn't know. But this place is home to us, just as much as it is to them..."

Musse and Lisa looked at each other but didn't say anything else.

Towa was doing her best to keep those memories out of her head. She had to keep a clear mind for this assignment.

Though, being told that their group was the reason a civil war was on the brink again, it didn't sit well in her stomach.

Towa's mind ached, thinking the possibility of losing even more friends to this world, which she was struggling to keep out.

Lisa walked towards Towa, kneeling down and rubbing her head.

(Lisa) "There there...I'm sure they'd understand if you told them. No need to fret."

Towa shot back up, a slight tinge of red as she put her hands on her hat.

(Towa) "ACK!"

(Lisa) "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to startle."

(Towa) "N-No you're fine, Miss Lisa! I'm just usually used to Rean doing that...Which, now that I say out loud, is kinda weird..."

(Musse) "Hmph, lucky."

(Lisa) "Is it weird? I was under the impression you were a couple with the way you acted."

(Musse) "I'm sure she'd like that!"

Lisa and Musse's smirks were flustering Towa.

(Towa) "T-That's not relevant, Musse! And Miss Lisa, we are NOT a couple!"

(Lisa) "So, you're available then?"

(Towa) "BWUH-WHAT?!"

Lisa failed to hold back a chuckle.

(Lisa) "Relax cutie, I'm just joking...Mostly."

(Towa) "Ugh, please just focus back on the task at hand!"

She began mumbling to herself.

(Towa) "You think I'd be used to this considering how much time I've spent with Angie and Crow..."

Lisa crossed her arms as she turned back to finding any signs of a fight.

(Musse) "...Thanks for doing that, Miss Lisa. I never liked seeing Instructor Towa get that down on herself."

(Lisa) "Figured no one does, from what I've gathered. By the way, have you found anything?"

(Musse) "Not particularly. Though that being said-"

Musse began speaking with Lisa who crouched down next to her, pointing at the trees in front of them.

(Kairos) "This question is only now appearing in my head, how exactly do they fight?"

(Elizabeth) "Now that you point it out, the only real weapon I see is on Musse's back. It appears to be some sort of...staff?"

They stared at the rifle that was strapped onto her, not sure what its function was.

(Kairos) "That makes sense, though it's shaped quite oddly. What's the point of that...lever, I think?"

Squinting at the triggerhair on Musse's rifle, he shook his head and turned to Lisa.

(Kairos) "And her. Everyone else from her group has a visible weapon, but she doesn't. All I see is a book."

(Elizabeth) "She could be a spellcaster, though what kind of magic user dresses like that?"

(Kairos) "Of course you judge them based on clothes."

(Elizabeth) "Oh stuff it! As if you're one to talk to ME about biases!"

Kairos and Elizabeth stood up, glaring daggers at each other.

(Kairos) "Hey, I was talking about their weapons!"

(Elizabeth) "And I'm talking about your little outburst earlier! Do you know how much you embarrassed all of us by-"

The went back and forth a little bit, Musse and Lisa pausing their conversation to listen.

(Musse) "How noisy."

(Lisa) "Well, we didn't find anything over here anyway, we might as well put a pause to it."

Towa watched them head towards Elizabeth and Kairos, and decided to watch what would happen instead of interfering. She knew Musse was a lot smarter than she looked, and Lisa seemed to be the same way.

(Towa) "So this is how Instructor Sara felt."

(Musse) "Is there a problem?"

(Elizabeth) "O-Oh, my apologies! No there isn't any problem."

(Kairos) "If you don't count her mouth as one."

(Elizabeth) "Silence yourself, or so goddess help me, I will silence yours!"

(Lisa) "My my, so feisty! You'll ruin those cute faces if you keep frowning so much."

That snapped Elizabeth and Kairos out of their spat and took them aback.

(Kairos) "C-Cute?"

(Elizabeth) "Feisty?!"

(Musse) "It seems no matter the world, people have the same reactions to these things..."

(Lisa) "It would appear so. It's nice having someone who understands, though."

Lisa and Musse smiled, making Kairos and Elizabeth feel slightly uncomfortable.

(Musse) "But back on topic, did you happen to find anything?"

(Kairos) "No, not really."

The two looked back down to the ground they were examining prior.

It was two trees that had snapped and fell to the ground, but there was no magical energy or weapon marks to indicate it had fell down by unnatural causes.

They were looking at the point where the tree snapped and fell over, hoping to find anything but-

(Elizabeth) "Kairos and I are well versed in magic, but we were unable to find anything that we could detect."

(Musse) "Hm...from what I see, there's nothing there either."

Lisa furrowed her brows as she gently pushed everyone to the side, taking a look herself.

(Kairos) "Miss Lisa?"

(Lisa) "...Instructor."

(Towa) "Huh? What is it?"

(Lisa) "I believe I found something."

(Elizabeth) "Truly?"

Towa walked over to the group and looked at the trees as well.

(Lisa) "I understand why no one has reported anything. This was caused by something from our group's world."

Everyone stood on edge.

(Lisa) "Our world has something we call 'Visions', powers granted to us by the Archons and allows us to attune ourselves to the elements and channel them into our will. Diluc and Amber have Pyro visions, letting them control fire. Kaeya has Cryo, Ice, Venti and Jean have Anemo, Wind. I, have Electro. Electricity."

Lisa rubbed her finger against the tree and looked at her finger.

(Lisa) "And on my hands is a very faint remnants of an Electro attack."

She stood up, grabbing her book.

(Lisa) "A very recent one."

Musse and Towa unsheathed their guns while Kairos and Elizabeth quickly looked around.

(Lisa) "I'm presuming you two cuties also wield magic?"

(Kairos) "Y-Yes. I'm proficient in dark magic skills."

(Elizabeth) "I am most skilled with white magic, but I am able to channel dark as well."

(Lisa) "Good. Because I think I know where our target is at."

Kairos and Elizabeth felt the hairs on their arms raise. The darkness of the forest started to glow with an eerie purple in the distance.

Towa got behind them and pulled out an ARCUS unit, calling Rean.

(Towa) "Rean, I think we found it! I'm sending our coordinates-"

A bolt of lightning shot down and almost hit her, making her scream and almost drop her unit.

(Towa) "AAH!"

(Rean's voice) "Towa?! Towa are you-"

BZZZZZRRRRT!

(Musse) "Target straight ahead!"

The cube slowly floated over to them, shooting out bolts of electricity in random directions.

(Musse) "I believe that first one was the warning shot the scouts were talking about."

(Kairos) "What the hell is that thing?!"

(Lisa) "Hmph. Nothing too dangerous, but still, don't let your guards down. We call it an Electro Hypostasis."

The shapes of the cubes floating around the core slowly shifted around, seemingly ready to change shapes at any time.

(Lisa) "It shapes itself into whatever it wants to attack, so be prepared for anything."

(Elizabeth) "You've fought these abominations before?!"

From Elizabeth's view, Lisa looked more annoyed than anything facing this...thing.

(Lisa) "A few times. They're normally docile until you approach, which makes Marianne's reports a lot more sense considering what's been harassing them."

The Cube seemingly stared at all of them, waiting to see if they would back off.

(Lisa) "I'm afraid my Electro vision isn't going to be as helpful as I'd like, but I won't let that stop me."

She flipped open her book, which began levitating in front of her.

The text in the book began to glow a dark purple as she turned to the group.

(Lisa) "But, I digress. The command is up to you, Instructor Towa."

(Towa) "If we let it go, it could be days before we can find it again, we don't let it slip away!"

Towa loaded her pistol and pointed at the Electro Hypostasis.

(Towa) "Engage the enemy!"

(Musse) "Understood, Instructor!"

(Elizabeth & Kairos) "Yes Ma'am!"

(Lisa) "Got it."

[Twice Stricken - Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers OST]

Musse backed up and pointed her rifle at the Hypostasis, taking the first shot.

The bullet predictably reflected off, and the four cubes flew into the air and into a rhombus shape, all aiming at the team.

Electric missiles shot out of the Hypostasis at speeds equivalent to Musse's and Towa's gun.

Lisa snapped her fingers and a electricity field formed around them, misdirecting the attacks and hitting in random directions.

Kairos and Elizabeth ran to the front, Kairos casting a fireball while Elizabeth had ice spikes form underneath it.

The first fireball caused a small explosion, blowing back some of the trees and scorching the grass while the ice spikes shot into the air and at the core of the Hypostasis, stopping the fire before it spread and piercing the core.

It made no noise of pain, though they could tell they were doing some damage to it.

The cubes quickly flew away from the spikes and towards them.

Towa fired her pistol, all aiming at a singular point the spike had pierced into.

Small bits of electricity chipped off, tho it began flying faster and dodged whatever was shot at it.

Lisa's spells were having no effect on the Hypostasis as it landed behind them.

(Lisa) "Get behind something!"

Musse and Towa dove for cover as more missiles shot out of it, Lisa standing behind a tree to hide from it.

Elizabeth did the same as well, but noticed Kairos wasn't moving.

Kairos stood out in the open still and tried to fire another fireball, but it quickly moved to the side, dodging the fireball as it hit the tree behind the Hypostasis instead.

The Hypostasis aimed at Kairos and shot a singular missile, too fast for him to dodge in time and hit him in the chest and sending him flying back into the tree.

He clenched his teeth in pain as the electricity rattled and sent a painful shock throughout his entire body.

(Elizabeth) "Kairos, you bloody idiot!"

She quickly grabbed his arm and dragged him behind cover before another barrage of missiles hit her.

(Elizabeth) "Why didn't you get into cover?!"

(Kairos) "Ach, thought I could hit it again!"

(Lisa) "It's not sentient enough to think creatively, but it's not stupid enough to fall for that again!"

Her brow furrowed further even more, knowing her spells would do nothing to it.

Musse poked her head out and pulled out her ARCUS unit, letting it analyze the Hypostasis.

(Musse) "Miss Lisa, your advice?"

(Lisa) "Keep hitting it with any elemental attack that isn't Electro-Er, thunder!"

(Musse) "Understood, taking the shot! Kairos, Elizabeth!"

Elizabeth stood out of the way of Musse's barrel as her rifle began glowing a hot red.

Pulling the trigger, a single shot hit the core, making it stagger back and form back into it's cube state.

As miniature cubes shot towards them from the excess electricity, Lisa stepped out to the open and shielded them from the bolts on the ground shooting out.

Towa rushed over to Kairos and loaded another round into her pistol, shooting it into the air.

Kairos suddenly felt the pain in his body slowly fade away and looked to Towa.

(Kairos) "Thank y-"

(Towa) "Do that later, right now they need your help!"

(Musse) "Instructor, get down!"

Towa and Kairos saw the three of them dive out the way.

Instinctually, Kairos grabbed Towa's shoulders and shoved her down to the floor as laser beams shot out and spun across the forest, it spinning rapidly as it vaporized the leaves into smoke.

The trees were getting burnt, but thankfully not chipped enough to topple over, Kairos saw.

Once it was done, Kairos rolled into the open and got on knee, adjusting his glasses as he raised his hand and clenched it.

From the skies above the Hypostasis, a burning rock crashed itself on the Hypostasis, knocking the cubes that formed the laser into pieces as the core stood out in the open.

(Lisa) "It's exposed, attack now!"

Elizabeth stood next to Kairos and swiped her hands downwards, the air forming a sword-like shape and slicing through the core, making it slightly shatter and pieces fall off.

Musse's rifle glowed white as it fired a straight line of ice, going through the core.

Towa did the same as her pistol began to glow several colors, red, then white, then red again.

Lisa made sure to keep an eye on any of the excess electricity in the air, flicking her wrist and deflecting a bolt of lightning without looking at it.

It quickly formed back into shape, and stood for a moment as the shots reflected off it.

(Elizabeth) "What is it doing now?!"

The cubes broke off into smaller ones, forming a giant arrow-shape and-

(Lisa) "To the sides, now!"

Lisa jumped back as the Hypostasis formed into a drill-like shape and began spinning towards them, tearing apart any trees that was in its way.

Towa and Musse ran to the sides while Kairos and Elizabeth ducked as it barreled past them.

The trees it knocked over were falling down left and right, Musse almost getting hit by one.

(Towa) "ABOVE YOU!"

Elizabeth looked up and realized a tree was falling on top of her.

Lisa raised her book and a concentrated spell shot out, the strength of it rushing it forward as it collided into more trees and away from everyone.

When Lisa turned her attention back to the Hypostasis, she realized it had formed two giant walls.

Lisa's eyes widened as she tried to brace herself for the shock, the walls closing on her and the force sending her into a tree.

Lisa's body tumbled onto the floor and out in the open, her vision going in and out from the attack.

(Kairos) "Lisa!"

The Hypostasis began to form it's drill shape again while Kairos and Elizabeth rushed to Lisa's defense, shooting whatever spell they could as it began flying to them.

Musse and Towa tried to help with their guns, but they were having no effect.

As it got closer, Kairos tried to pick up Lisa to move her, joined by Elizabeth as it got dangerously close to tearing through them.

Although there were no trees nearby for it to be a hazard, they still couldn't move fast enough with Lisa in hand to get out of the way safely.

(Familliar boy's voice) "COMING THROUGH KIDS!"

Kairos and Elizabeth were tackled by Kazuma while Aigis got in front of Lisa.

(Aigis) "ATHENA!"

Her Persona appeared in front of the drill, the shield failing to be pierced as Athena raised its hand, and knocked it to the side, toppling trees as it bounced through the ground.

Aigis spun around and gave Lisa a hand, which she grabbed it and was helped up.

Kazuma got up and dusted himself off.

(Elizabeth) "Instructor?"

(Kazuma) "Yeah yeah, you're welcome, now get your asses up, that cube thing will be doing the same!"

Kazuma unsheathed his sword, letting Elizabeth and Kairos get up on their own.

As the Hypostasis was getting up and about to change forms, before the core was shelled off, Jean and Venti jumped from the top of the trees and used their Anemo Visions.

Jean first blew it into the air while Venti summoned a mini tornado, picking up the core and shredding it with the speeds of the wind.

Diluc ignited his sword as he slammed it down into the tornado, setting the wind ablaze with the core still inside.

Kurt and Juna jumped in as the core hit the floor, Kurt's sword dicing it to pieces while Juna used the force of her tonfas to dent it, making electricity shoot out with each strike.

It quickly got itself up with the cubes forming once more, this time shifting into a giant fist.

It swung first into Kurt and Juna, sending them flying back into Towa and Musse.

Then it shapeshifted into a pair of scissors, making the Vision users duck under cover as it almost cut them into two.

It finally formed a giant rectangle, slamming down in front of them and sending them into the air.

As the core revealed itself while the three landed on their feet, Astrid and Kazuma swung their weapons into it, Astrid piercing through it while Kazuma slashed it in half with his sword.

Aigis, Musse, Towa, Elizabeth, and Kairos readied their guns and spells, all opening fire together while Astrid and Kazuma dodged out the way.

The final bullet went through it, the core now full of holes, it began to twitch violently as it split into pieces.

It split into three prisms as the core remained invisible in the center.

(Lisa) "Destroy those prisms!"

Juna switched her tonfas into a gunner mode and pulled the trigger, shooting one prism to tiny pieces.

Aigis's Persona smashed another prism into the floor, completely eradicating any trace of it.

Diluc's flaming sword shot out a bird-like shape, turning the prism into cinders as he made a wide swing.

With the last of the prisms gone, the core began to twitch violently as the group formed together.

Lisa got in front of everyone and held out her hands, casting another field to block out the electricity that exploded into a bright purple, the skies turning from white to a dark gray, then the clouds finally disappearing.

[Words to Believe In - Fire Emblem: Three Houses OST]

Towa's team tried to catch their breath.

(Musse) "Whew, that was close..."

(Towa) "Now I'm reminded why Rean's the combat instructor..."

(Lisa) "Nonsense, you did just fine-...Ugh!"

Lisa fell to one knee, Diluc catching her in time.

(Diluc) "Hey, are you alright?"

(Jean) "You took a bad hit from the looks of it."

Jean looked at her back and saw a bleeding wound, as well from her head.

(Elizabeth) "Miss Lisa, I'm so sorry! If you didn't have to take your at-"

Lisa waved her hand in a dismissive manner, smiling through the pain now the adrenaline was wearing off.

(Lisa) "Don't apologize, cutie. Ol' Lisa will be just fine."

Jean and Diluc slowly helped her up while Venti turned to them.

(Venti) "Honestly, not bad for your first time fighting it!"

(Musse) "Thank you. Without Lisa, I'm not sure what would have happened."

(Kairos) "Yes, we owe much of our victory today to her-"

(Kazuma) "Yadda yadda, stop being so humble. Just accept the compliment and move on. Besides, far as Fodlan kids fighting the unknown go, you two ain't half bad."

(Aigis) "Indeed. We were only able to see snippets of the fight, but despite your differences you came to work together rather well."

(Elizabeth) "Why...T-Thank you Instructors."

(Astrid) "Wow, no love for you Instructor Towa."

(Towa) "Oh come on now, don't make this a competition!"

The group began to back and forth, Astrid moving to Elizabeth and Kairos.

(Astrid) "So, what's your impression of 'em? Kazuma and Venti just argued a lot the entire time. Was pretty funny though."

(Elizabeth) "They're not as uncivilized as I was expecting to be honest."

(Kairos) "Psh, who's judging on character now?"

(Elizabeth) "Shut. Up. Already."

(Astrid) "And now I get to hear you guys argue. Ugh, great."

(Musse) "...Huh, where's Instructor Rean and the others?"

(Everyone) "..."

Towa pulled out her ARCUS unit again.

(Towa) "Rean?"

...

Everyone stiffened when they didn't hear a response.

(Towa) "Rean?!"

===

Rean, Sitri, Helena, Stefan, Kaeya, Amber, Altina, and Ash.

Rean was looking for any signs of an attack before hearing his ARCUS unit go off.

(Towa's Voice) "Rean, I think we found it! I'm sending our coordinates-AAH!"

(Rean) "Towa?! Towa are you-"

BZZZZZRRRRT!

(Sitri) "Did something happen?!"

(Rean) "Yeah, Towa's team found it! She sent us the coordinates so we need to-AAAGH!"

Rean fell to one knee, reaching for his head.

(Altina) "Instructor?!"

(Ash) "The hell's going-DAGH! SHIT!"

Ash stopped moving and reached for his head as well, followed by Altina, then the rest of the group one by one, their heads pounding as their vision suddenly faded to white.

…

…

[Out of Time - Final Fantasy XIV OST]

The inside of the room was glowing a faint blue-white, two green haired individuals walking through them, though one was significantly taller than the other.

(Flayn) "Father, are you sure this is the way?"

Seteth's face scrunched up as he stared at one of the crystals in his hand. The directions it was pointing to was hazy at best.

(Seteth) "No...No Flayn, I am not sure. But we have to try something at least."

Flayn looked behind her, worried.

(Flayn) "Of course..."

They stopped themselves to what appeared to be a massive doorway. Seteth held the stone up to it and the door slowly began to open, light pouring out from the other side.

The two were about to take a step through the door before a shot of electricity bolted over their heads.

Seteth quickly raised the crystal up, and it glowed a bright blue before whatever was shooting at them disappeared.

Inside the crystal was a dark purple fog before it quickly disappeared with a white flash.

(Flayn) "What was that?!"

(Seteth) "Something we weren't looking for. Perhaps the deeper we go into the tower, we'll be able to find it."

Saying nothing else, they looked around as moving platforms shifted around them.

Seteth and Flayn stepped onto them as everything turned into a static mess, slowly fading out of view...

…

[Spiderweb - Fire Emblem: Three Houses OST]

(Towa's voice) "Rean?"

...

(Towa's voice) "Rean?!"

Rean hazily reached for his ARCUS unit, responding to a very concerned Towa.

(Rean) "Agh, we're here!...I think."

Everyone looked at each other, the headache slowly subsiding.

(Kaeya) "What in the world was that?"

(Amber) "Ugh, my head!"

(Altina) "Is...is that supposed to happen naturally?"

(Helena) "Unless we're in extreme stress situations where our physical bodies are pushed to the limit, no."

(Stefan) "And considering we just started our assignment."

Sitri began speaking in her head.

(Sitri) Sothis...?

(Sothis) "Agh, don't worry, I felt it too...Though, wasn't that?-"

(Sitri) Seteth and Flayn...

(Sothis) "Doubt anyone else would know what they saw besides you and Rean."

(Sitri) What were they doing in the Tower, I thought we cleared it by now!

(Sothis) "I have no idea, but we have to tell this to the other instructors."

(Rean) "...And that was the end of that...vision? Or something. I'm still not sure."

(Towa's Voice) "...Understood. Let's meet back up at Marianne's and tell her that we finished the job."

(Rean) "Roger that. And Towa? Good work."

(Towa's voice) "Heh, um...thank you."

Rean hung up the call and motioned for everyone to follow, everyone still out of it from whatever it was they saw.

Later...

(Aigis) "A vision?"

(Kazuma) "Holy shit, Seteth and Flayn are alive?!"

(Sitri) "Possibly? I'm not sure..."

(Rean) "It's still blurry in my head, and I'm sure the others agree."

Everyone nodded in agreement.

(Towa) "We should investigate once we get back, but..."

[Where the Heart is - Final Fantasy XIV OST]

(Towa) "I'm glad we were able to help out, Marianne!"

(Marianne) "Thank you so much for your assistance. As always, you're always rescuing us from dangers."

Marianne smiled and bowed.

(Rean) "Of course. If there's any other troubles, please call upon us to help if you need it."

(Sitri) "Thank you for your kindness."

(Marianne) "And as requested, we have the railroads to take you back to Garreg Mach. It should be a day's trip.

(Juna) "Man, it just feels like went to a different country instead of a world with how familiar it is..."

(Amber) "What's a railroad?"

(Musse) "Oh, you see it's-..."

Class VII and the Knights began engaging in a friendly banter, which gave Kazuma to groan.

(Kazuma) "A train?! Why the hell are we taking a train when we can teleport?!"

Sothis appeared for a brief moment when she made sure no one was looking in their direction.

(Sothis) "We'll explain it later, but for now just shut up and deal with it."

Rean and Towa laughed while Aigis had a smirk.

Kazuma was ready to cuss out Sothis before the students approached them.

(Kairos) "Instructors? I...would like to apologize for my earlier outburst-"

(Rean) "Don't sweat it."

(Kairos) "Huh?"

(Towa) "To be fair, it IS a little strange for a bunch of people to pop out of portals like this and boss you around. But that being said, we are your instructors for a reason!"

(Kazuma) "Some respect goes a long way, kid!"

(Astrid) "You look as old as we do..."

(Kazuma) "And YOU shutting up can go a long way!"

Aigis slapped the back of his head and nodded.

(Aigis) "Apologies for him. Although he is right to some degree. We are happy to be your instructors, no matter what we have done in the past."

(Stefan) "I look forward to your guidance, Instructors!"

(Elizabeth) "As do I. I will make the Blue Lions proud for having me as their chosen!"

(Helena) "Hear that Astrid? You shutting up means they'll like you more."

Astrid gently punched Helena in the shoulder, Helena's expression being deadpan from the delivery to the literal punchline.

(Astrid) "Same goes for you, smartass."

Marianne approached the Garreg Mach students and looked at Kairos.

(Marianne) "You've grown up so much despite the fact it's only been a few years. I hope in the future we can have a moment to talk, so we can catch up!"

(Kairos) "A-As do I Lady- Er, I mean...Marianne."

Marianne's smile made him unable to look at her in the eye and she turned to Sitri.

(Marianne) "It's right this way. Follow me everyone."

And in a few moments, the members of House Isekai stepped onto a train that took them to Garreg Mach, Marianne waving goodbye to everyone...

...

...

...

BING, BING BING BING, BONG!

[Life at Garreg Mach Monastery - Fire Emblem: Three Houses OST]

Today's instructions were done for the day, the doors being opened as students and guards went from position to position.

A good number of students went to their dorms while many others went into the mess hall.

Guards piloted massive Knight mechs out of the hangar and towards the Gates, practicing military drills and simply standing guard for any potential threats.

Kairos, Elizabeth, Astrid, Helena, and Stefan walked out their respective classrooms and towards the Hangar.

(Helena) "Last day of hanging with the Golden Deer...Can't say I'll miss them too much."

(Astrid) "I will a little, I was FINALLY getting used to the schedule!"

Kairos shrugged.

(Kairos) "It's not like we'll never see them again. We're still attending the same Academy."

(Stefan) "I'm a bit sad I can't hang out with my friends as much, but I guess that's the nature of an Officer's academy."

(Elizabeth) "Well think of it this way, we now have a new opportunity to go down in history!...Even though our instructors are those offworlders."

(Helena) "I still can't tell, do you like them or not?"

The banter went back and forth a few more times as they moved to the hangar.

The Imperial soldier in front nodded to them and let them pass.

(Stefan) "Oh, Kairos."

(Kairos) "Hm?"

(Stefan) "Your data from the fight with that...cube thing is recorded on your crystal right?"

(Kairos) "Yeah. What about it?"

(Stefan) "You should send that to the rest of us, so we can see everyone's fighting style."

(Helena) "Oh yeah, we didn't get to fight during that."

(Kairos) "Sure, one second."

Kairos took out his communication crystal and let it connect with Astrid, Stefan, and Helena's.

Stefan nodded and smiled.

(Stefan) "Thanks, I'm pretty excited to see what they can do!"

(Elizabeth) "Soon enough, we'll get to know how they are-"

(Recette's voice) "Yoohoo, over here!"

The five stopped once they saw Recette waving over to them excitedly.

(Tear) "Welcome. Your quarters are now finished."

(Astrid) "Dam-Er, Dang, it's only been like 3 days, and you're already finished?"

(Recette) "Yup! There's nothing that blood, sweat and heckuva lotta gold can't accomplish!"

(Tear) "The wonders of capitalism."

(Helena) "...Capi-what?"

(Tear) "Nevermind. This way, your instructors are currently in a meeting but everyone else is waiting for you in the room.

The five followed Recette and Tear into their barracks into an elevator, going below the hangar and storage floor...

Garreg Mach's Listening Chamber...

(Sitri) "The other team contacted me and let us know their task is done. They're currently on their way back on the railway and should be back within the hour."

(Towa) "It's crazy to know Slayer sent Elliot, Fie, and Laura to us!"

(Rean) "Duvalie being with them is sure going to make her a lot more irritable."

(Kazuma) "She seems like a bitch."

(Towa) "That's putting it lightly..."

(Aigis) "Regardless, it is good to have reinforcements backing us up."

(Rean) "...Valimar, can you confirm signatures of anyone else present in Fodlan?"

Valimar's voice echoed out of his ARCUS unit.

(Valimar) "...Affirmative. It would appear some of the Persona Users are present as well."

(Aigis) "Really?!"

(Valimar) "Ryuji Sakamoto, Ann Takamaki, Mitsuru Kirijo, and Naoto Shirogane, according to my scans."

(Kazuma) "How come no one else has reported this?"

(Towa) "Yeah, that is pretty weird..."

(Valimar) "I am still scanning, so I am unable to tell where they are. Analysis would take a day or so."

(Rean) "Just keep us updated Valimar."

(Valimar) "Of course. Speaking of which, it seems Duvalie's group is about to arrive."

(Rean) "Let's go ahead and meet them then."

The instructors nodded and left before Sitri's Crystal began beeping.

(Sitri) "Hold on, I have to take this. I'll be with you soon."

The four left Sitri and Sothis alone as Sitri opened it up, revealing a small reflection of Edelgard.

(Sitri) "Edelgard?"

(Edelgard) "Hello, Sitri. With the official reformation of House Isekai, we would like to assign your tasks for this month, as it was done when we were enrolled."

(Sothis) "So...why are you calling just by yourself?"

(Edelgard) "And that is my next point..."

...

As the train approached the station, Stefan saw Rean and the other instructors meet up with the rest of the group.

(Stefan) "...Even more of the offworlders."

He looked to see no one was watching him, and slowly snuck away from the group.

Everyone was distracted meeting Rean's friends to notice Stefan had disappeared into a corner.

Stefan looked at his crystal and saw the recording of Kairos and Elizabeth fighting the...whatever the hell it was.

Though, he was honestly glad no one was hurt.

He tweaked his communication crystal by turning a dial to the left and pressing in a specific combination with the buttons on it.

And with that, a voice popped up on the other side.

(Distorted Voice) "There are you. Goddess, we thought something happened. Status?"

(Stefan) "I'm fine, don't worry. And something did. House Isekai has returned."

(Distorted Voice) "...Say that again, it sounded like you said House Isekai."

(Stefan) "I did say House Isekai. It's the White Cloud Contingency."

(Distorted Voice) "...Keep your eye on them. And be careful. We all saw what happened to the poor bastards who underestimated them seven years ago."

(Stefan) "Understood. And you all be careful as well."

(Distorted Voice) "Godspeed."

Stefan nodded and hung up. He slowly blended back into the crowd and saw Kairos looking in his direction.

(Kairos) "Hey, there you are!"

(Helena) "That armor slowing you down or something?"

(Astrid) "I told you guys to wait up, he was falling behind!"

(Stefan) "Hah, yeah I got lost. This place is huge!"

(Elizabeth) "Goodness gracious, just speak up Stefan! Anyways, what do you think of Instructor Rean's colleagues?"

(Helena) "...I like that grey-haired one."

(Kairos) "Of course you would."

(Astrid) "T-That orange haired guy, and...and that blue haired lady! So hot...!"

(Kairos) "...What?"

(Astrid) "I-I MEAN-"

The four exchanged jabs with each other, Stefan occasionally throwing in lines as well, but he was far more concerned that the old members alongside new people of House Isekai were coming.

[Lost in Paradise - ALI]

(Stefan) "...Hmph."

He breathed in and out to calm himself.

(Stefan) No matter what happens, even with them here, they can't interfere...Fodlan HAS to be free from this rule!

===

PART 3: ENDED

STANDBY PHASE 1...

Gotta get it homie gotta move it If you gonna do it then, push everything to the side Everybody just talk nobody really do it You should keep a secret until you actually do it No need to double check with someone Use your judgement only, break the walls Let’s do flashy fake More Cool, keep it low, prove them wrong I won’t give up the fight in my life ‘Cause my life is living for love I won’t give up the fight in my life Stand off and groove on time Tokyo prison Going to relight your feelings When times get too rough Night and day are fading Going to relight your feelings There’s no time to explain Gimme your love Access to your love Oh yeah Lost in paradise Night and day are fading out When times getting rough Access to your love Lost in paradise Night and day are fading out Keep on dancing now Hеy hey hеy hey heyeah

[longlistshort]

(Artist Pierre Daquin's tapestry "La Vue" courtesy of Galerie Chevalier as part of The 13th Floor project)

Several art fairs took over Los Angeles last weekend, two of which used hotels to create temporary galleries and installations.

At the The Hollywood Roosevelt was the first edition of Felix, a free art fair co-founded by Dean Valentine along with brothers Al Morán and Mills Morán (of LA gallery Morán Morán). Galleries took over rooms along the pool, on the 11th floor, and the penthouse.  Starting at the penthouse was The 13th Floor (pictured above), a collection of work by French artists curated by writer Andrew Berardini and presented by The French Committee of Art Galleries and the Cultural Services of the French embassy.

Kenny Schachter had some fun pieces in his room on the 11th Floor including Ilona Rich's sculptures, one of which was in the bathroom shower (pictured above), and a framed collection of artist Chris Burden's cancelled checks.  

Bodega gallery, from New York's Lower East Side, had a selection of interesting work including paintings by Alexandra Noel (pictured below).

Grice Bench's selections included a collection of lovely watercolors by Roger White and a painting placed above the bed by Lara Schnitger (pictured below).

On the ground floor Marc Selwyn Fine Art presented Jennifer Aniston's Used Book Sale, artist Kristen Morgin's incredibly realistic ceramic replicas of books she imagines might make up the actress' collection (the VHS tape is real).

At a hotel in a completely different part of town was the stARTup Art Fair, taking place at The Kinney in Venice. Here, instead of galleries representing the artists, it's the artists that set up their rooms and sell their art.  It made for a great experience as the artists were all very friendly and eager to discuss their work. Below are a few highlights from the fair.

San Francisco artists Lisa Kairos and Melissa Mohammadi's room was filled with really beautiful work. Kairos makes dreamy multilayered paintings based on natural landscapes. She then cuts patterns into the images which adds yet another dimension to the paintings. Mohammadi's work incorporates botanical and marine life into a meditative world where bright pastels stand out among subdued watercolor backgrounds; highly detailed sections mix with the more abstract. The end result for both artists is work you want to spend time looking at.

Husband and wife artists Eric Rewitzer and Annie Galvin of 3 Fish Studios in San Francisco had lots of great, affordable prints. They also teach printmaking and collage classes in their studio.

Artist Camila Magrane had several pieces in her darkened hotel room that use augmented reality technology to make the works animated and three dimensional when looked at through her Virtual Mutations app. The video above illustrates the effect.

Jeff Horton uses his architecture background to create paintings of urban structures (often larger than what's pictured above), some of which incorporate wax with oil paint for an added layer.

Other artists work not shown but worth checking out- Los Angeles based Margaret Hyde makes ethereal still life photographs of natural objects she finds and combines with water, and Kyong Ae Kim showed a variety of impressive work including her animal skulls cut from multiple layers of drafting film and acrylic paintings combined with hand cut elements.

[luffles424]

Appetence

☼ Pairing: Seokjin x reader

☼ Genre: A/B/O dynamics, omega!reader, Alpha!CEO!Seokjin, fluff, smut, PWP

☼ Count: 7.8K

☼ Warnings: mating cycles (rut), feral Seokjin, big dick Seokjin, manhandling, dirty talk, teasing, spitting, hard dom Seokjin, (light) degradation, oral (f + m receiving), face fucking, deepthroating, cum swallowing, facial, cum play, overstimulation, multiple orgasms, bruising, squirting, unprotected, biting, knotting, creampie, minor breeding kink, fingering, cum eating, rough sex, aftercare 

☼ Summary: appetence (n.) - an eager desire, an instinctive inclination; an attraction or a natural bond

It’s time for Seokjin’s rut. Are either of you prepared for this step?

☼ Sequel to Kairos (not necessary to read first; this can be read alone and you won’t be confused)

☼ a/n: Surprise! Our favorite soft alpha is back! And decidedly less soft this time. I wanted to explore Seokjin in rut this time and have there be a difference to how he behaves when reader is in heat. I hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think! My ask box is always open ~ 💙💙💙💙

☼ Second a/n: This wasn’t intended to be such, but it actually kind of worked out. Lovely @ladyartemesia​‘s birthday just passed and she’s been such a big fan of Kairos that it’s honestly so fitting that the sequel releases near her birthday. I hope you had a wonderful day, a wonderful person like you deserves nothing less, Vi! 💙💙

The scent hits you before you even reach Seokjin’s office. His scent permeates the hall to his door, but there’s a slight difference today. A note of something from him that you can’t quite put your finger on why it seems almost familiar. The woodsmoke and comfort that you’ve come to expect is different and not in a way that implies there’s simply someone new here. You ponder it, making your way down the hall and Seokjin’s scent only becomes more intense the closer you get, cloying enough to make you want to get closer even if this hadn’t been your destination to begin with. 

His secretary gives you a wave, gathering her purse as she heads out for lunch and gives you the all clear that it’s good to go in. 

You nudge the door open and almost immediately regret it. Seokjin’s scent is absolutely potent now that you have the source right in front of you. There’s still a tinge of something clinging to the edges that you can’t quite place as you quietly shut the door behind you. You feel like you’re standing in the middle of a bonfire, all smoke scent but no burn. 

The man in question is sitting at his desk, brows furrowed as he reads something on his screen. He doesn’t seem to have noticed your presence yet and so you take the rare opportunity to watch him work. You notice the clench of his jaw and the way he subconsciously growls occasionally. You’ve never seen him quite so irritated. 

And then it hits you. The reason there’s an edge to his scent, why it seems so familiar. You recognize it from Lisa and what Jimin’s described from Yoongi and what you remember from your health classes. Seokjin’s about to go into a rut. Now that the idea is there, all you can smell is alpha and it makes you want to comfort and soothe the irritation, distract and be good for him. 

From the way he continues to work, oblivious to you standing there, you’re fairly certain that he doesn’t realize what’s about to happen either. You wonder why he hasn’t asked you to help him through it. He always takes such good care of you, you’re a little eager to finally be able to return that level of caring. 

Thinking more on it, you realize that he should’ve had a rut long before now. Which means he must take suppressors. Suppressors that he must not have brought with him when he stayed over a few weeks ago while his apartment was getting some repairs. You wonder why he takes them, most alphas don’t bother. Alpha ruts being notoriously short and easy to manage, at least far easier than omega heats comparatively. You move closer, setting the lunch you brought for the two of you to share on the corner of his desk, though you highly doubt that it’s going to be eaten now. 

The noise or movement finally grabs his attention and he blinks up at you in surprise as you slip around the desk and slide into his lap. He shudders at the contact, though you’re not sure if he’s conscious of the movement. He buries his face in your neck and takes a deep breath, seeming to ground himself with your scent as his nose brushes against your scent gland.

You giggle, threading your fingers through his hair and scratching lightly at his scalp, drawing another shudder from him. “Seokjinnie,” you coo, waiting until he hums in response. “Did you… perhaps forget something when you stayed with me the other week? Something… maybe important?”

All you get is a grunt in response, Seokjin far too busy rubbing his face against your neck to scent you, although you think that’s fairly pointless given that you’re wearing his hoodie currently. You say nothing though, he clearly needs the comfort of the action as much as the smell right now. Everything within him must be a swirling mess of hormones if he’s unknowingly coming off suppressors and right into a rut. 

“Baby… Did you maybe forget some pills you take?”

At that, he finally freezes. You know when he reaches the same conclusion you had by the way he tenses beneath you. He slowly pulls away, face flitting through several emotions and before you can say anything, he’s lifting you off his lap.

“You should go home.” He says, voice tight. You frown and when you don’t make any moves to leave like he apparently wants, he speaks again. “I’ll call you when it’s over.”

“You don’t want me to help?” You question softly, trying not to let any hurt show through. He’s allowed to not want someone there, mate or not. Plenty of people in relationships choose to spend heats or ruts by themselves. 

He groans and leans forward, burying his face in your belly. “I don’t want to hurt you. I’m not… as in control when I’m in rut.”

You try your best not to laugh, but a snicker still escapes and Seokjin shoots you a petulant glare. You coo, cupping his cheeks and leaning down to kiss his nose. “My sweet, sweet, silly alpha,” you let a smirk curl your lips as you whisper the last part in his ear. “What makes you think I wouldn’t enjoy that?” The room is dead silent after your proclamation. You’re not even sure if Seokjin is still breathing. Guilt begins to creep in the longer he remains quiet though. “If you really want me to go, I will. But… your omega is a good girl and is always eager to help and please her alpha.”

Seokjin continues to remain quiet and you decide that maybe it’s just best if you left. But as you start to pull away, your wrists are collected into one of his large hands and the other is grabbing your waist. Using his hold on you, you’re tugged forward until you’re straddling his thighs. The hand on your waist quickly disappears and there’s a firm grip on your chin, forcing you to stare at him. You swallow at the dark look you’re met with. 

His eyes close and you watch as he takes a few deep breaths. When he opens his eyes again, they look a little clearer and a little less heated. “Are you absolutely sure? I don’t want to hurt you, princess.”

You want to make a joke. Normally you’d make a joke and you’d both laugh. But that seems like the wrong move right now. He needs a straight answer and you know it’ll help relieve some of whatever worries of what ifs he’s concocted in his pretty head. 

“Seokjinnie, I want to help you. I want to take care of you too.”

His jaw works for a moment as his hand drops from your chin, instead wrapping around you and allowing him to pull you closer so he can once again bury his face in your neck. His lips brush your skin as he speaks. 

“I can’t promise I’ll be gentle, princess. Or nice.” 

You giggle. He sounds more like he’s trying to convince himself rather than you. “Cause you’ve never been rough or mean before in bed?” You pull your hands from his lax grip and let them fall to his waist and you give him a squeeze. “I think I can handle whatever you give me, alpha.” 

He growls, the sound reverberating through you and your panties dampen. His teeth tease at the skin of your neck.

“Oh, is that what you think, little omega? Think you can take an alpha during their rut, hm?” He pulls away to look at you and his eyes are dark once more as an almost mocking smirk stretches his lips. “We’ll see if you’re still this confident when I have you spread out on my knot and squirming in oversensitivity.”

Your mouth goes dry at the image and your core clenches around nothing. He smirks, like he knows exactly the effect he’s having on you and it’s likely that he does, the smell of your arousal permeates the room just as much as his own alpha pheromones. He pulls you in for a sudden hard kiss, drawing a whine from you as his tongue slips into your mouth before he’s pulling away, ending the kiss just as suddenly as he had started it. 

He chuckles at your dazed look, thumb brushing along your lip. “Go wait for me at my place. Be naked and on the bed for me, princess.” At your confused look, he glances over to the computer. “I have a few things to wrap up before I become… a little distracted.” He helps you stand and gives your ass a swat to get you walking. “Now go be a good omega for me.”

Waiting for Seokjin to arrive is torture. His sheets have the edge of rut on them and it just makes you squirm in excitement. You can’t wait to see him let loose and that you finally get to be the one taking care of him. You wonder how he’ll act. You’ve only heard generalities and Lisa is often tight lipped about her own specifics of ruts. 

Seokjin said he loses control during ruts, that he’s rough and mean. It’s hard to picture your doting mate, the composed alpha CEO, completely out of control. He’s been rough before, it’s certainly not something you’re a stranger to, but he seems to be implying something rougher, more wild. You wonder if that’s the reason why he started suprescents. Given his job, it’s not too hard to imagine that he dislikes the lack of control and that trusting that to someone else can be difficult. Your heart skips a beat at the fact that he’s trusting you with this moment.

You’re drawn from your musing by the ding of the elevator and are instantly on alert, shifting so you’re sat on your knees in the middle of his bed, hands folded neatly in your lap. You listen as you hear the key in the lock and then the door open and shut. The soft thuds as he removes his shoes, the light jingling from hanging up his keys. 

You fidget, wondering why he’s taking so long to make his way to the bedroom. You would’ve thought that the mounting hormones would’ve made him a little more eager to be in here with you. Your annoyance grows more when you hear him stop in the kitchen, going through a few cabinets before the sink turns on. There’s silence for a while, which you take to mean he’s now drinking the water. 

The bed creaks as you shift, impatience filling you, and you hear Seokjin snicker from the kitchen, the asshole. Minutes stretch and he still doesn’t move. You’ve finally grown tired of waiting and slide to the end of the bed and stand. The second both feet hit the ground, you barely have time to register Seokjin’s footsteps approaching before he’s leaning against the doorframe, a spark of something dancing in his eyes. His suit jacket and tie have already been discarded, leaving him in a dark golden button up and black slacks.

He tuts. “I thought I told you to be waiting on the bed for me, princess.”

Your mouth drops open. He knew you had been on the bed and waiting. You pout. “I was. You were talking too long.”

He quirks an eyebrow. “So you decided to disobey me?”

You flounder for a moment. You didn’t disobey him, right? You had been waiting when he got home. You did what he asked. It’s not your fault that he decided to stay in the kitchen while his scent slowly filled the apartment, the comforting scent of woodsmoke and the new hint of spice mixing with it signaling his rut. 

He straightens before you can formulate a retort and stalks towards you. Your eyes widen at the sudden advance and you take a step back only to bump into the bed. Seokjin stops in front of you, eyes hungrily tracing over your form. A hand reaches up and he uses a single finger to trace your sternum.

“At least you followed part of my instructions.”

“I followed all your instructions.”

He smirks, pointedly looking behind you to the bed that you are no longer sitting on. “Doesn’t look that way to me, princess.” He shakes his head in disappointment. “I really didn’t want to have to punish you tonight.”

You freeze, blinking up at him. “Punish?” Your voice comes out weaker than you meant it to.

He nods sadly, looking like this hurts him just as much. “I’m afraid so. You didn’t follow instructions.” He grabs your chin in one hand and while his face is a picture of sadness, his eyes swirling with lust. “What a naughty little omega you are.”

His hand shifts just enough so that his thumb can press at the seam of your lips and you don’t even think about opening up and letting him press the digit inside. He lets you suck on it for a moment before he’s pressing down on your tongue and forcing your mouth open. He looks thoughtful for a moment before he’s using his grip to tilt your head back. Leaning over you, you almost think he’s going to kiss you, but the thumb pressing on your tongue would make that difficult and he stops a few inches short of your lips. Something dances in his eyes that you can’t quite place before his mouth is opening and he’s spitting into your mouth. 

It hits your tongue near his thumb and you feel it slowly slide to the back of your throat where it pools with your own gathering saliva. He commands a gruff ‘swallow’ and you feel powerless to do more than follow his instruction, though it proves a little more difficult with the way your tongue is being held. You end up inadvertently sucking on his thumb, deciding to continue once you’ve swallowed and hoping that this will show him how good you are. A slight scowl crosses his features and your jaw is pried open once more. He spits into your mouth once more but instead of telling you to swallow like you expect, he leaves you like that while he gathers more of his saliva to add to the pool in your mouth. He leaves you like that until you whine, the sound coming out as more of a gurgle, and then he’s withdrawing his hand entirely and taking a step back. 

“Swallow and get on your knees.”

You swallow quickly before dropping to your knees, hoping that if you follow orders, maybe he’ll forgive you without giving you a punishment. It wasn’t that you were against being punished. You’ve certainly been on the receiving end of that before. But usually when you get punished, he tells you how you’ll be punished. Tonight, he’s said nothing; there’s just the looming threat of punishment and the not knowing is almost worse than anything he might do. He’s also in a different mindset, there’s no telling which direction this punishment could go. It’s an enticing thought, maybe something to explore in the future. 

He gives you a pleased hum, unbuttoning and rolling the sleeves of his dress shirt to his elbows. He undoes the top couple of buttons of the shirt as well, giving you a teasing glimpse of his chest. His lips purse as he looks down at you in thought and you find yourself clenching your thighs together as slick threatens to drip to the floor. He’s barely done anything yet and you’re already wet and aching. 

His eyes alight at the movement as he coos. “Aw, little omega getting excited by the idea of being punished? Or was it the spitting that did it? What a dirty girl.”

You squirm, thoughts a mess of shame and arousal as Seokjin unbuckles his belt before unbuttoning and unzipping his pants just enough to pull his cock out. He’s already hard, thick cock leaking and leaving a tantalizing trail of precum dripping down the length of him. You wonder if he’s been hard since you left him over an hour ago. If he sat there trying to finish work while distracted by the thought of you wet and spread out for him. Hoping to get back onto his good side, you drop your mouth open before he can even think to ask. 

He chuckles, stepping closer until the head of his cock just barely brushes your lips. Your tongue darts out, swiping for a taste of him. 

“You’re quite the little cockslut, huh? Didn’t even have to ask you to open up for me. All too eager to open up for some alpha cock, hm?”

You shake your head and he raises an eyebrow. “Only yours, alpha.”

A shudder ripples through him and his cock finally presses past your lips. “Is that so? So you’re my little cockslut?”

You hum an affirmative, tongue swirling around the head of his cock. One hand comes to rest on the back of your head, resting comfortingly there for a moment before he uses it to push you further onto his cock. 

He groans as you gag around him and there’s a sudden sharp spike in his scent, the spicy undertones almost completely overshadowing his natural scent. It leaves you dizzy with want, being so close to the alpha-rut-power scent oozing off of him now. 

His rut has well and truly started. His grip on your head tightens as he withdraws before pushing back in. Hands twisting in the material of his pants, you resist, just barely, the urge to touch yourself as Seokjin uses your mouth, though his movements remain surprisingly tame and shallow. 

Seokjin is vocal above you, far more than he usually is, growls and groans punctuating the wet sounds coming from him fucking into your mouth. His thrusts finally grow rougher, pushing you to take more and more as he goes. You do your best to keep your throat relaxed as he fucks into it, but his usual slow build up to that is nowhere to be seen tonight, causing you to gag far more than you typically would as your throat struggles to accommodate his girth. 

Drool slides from the corners of your mouth, displaced by every thrust, and it drips from your chin to leave wet trails down your breasts. Seokjin buries himself to the hilt, the sheer size of him making your jaw ache as he keeps your mouth stretched open. He swears as your throat spasms and while you can’t do much with the way he’s taking control, you can swallow. So you do and his hips jerk forward in an attempt to chase the feeling and bury himself deeper in you. 

Another swallow has his hand tightening in your hair as he shallowly ruts into your mouth. You whine and squirm, dizziness beginning to creep in from lack of oxygen. Seokjin tugs you back and you take a deep gasping breath once his cock is out of your mouth. 

He chuckles, tilting your head back as you blink teary eyes up at him. “Look at you, princess,” he coos mockingly. “Not much of a princess anymore, huh? Just look how messy you are. What a cockslut.” He finishes with a tut. 

He wraps a hand around the base of his cock, using it to help guide him back to your mouth which drops open without prompting. Instead of immediately pushing back in like you expect though, he simply traces your lips with the head of his cock, leaving a smear of precum behind like lip gloss. He pulls his cock away and watches with hooded eyes as your tongue darts out to lick your lips clean. He smirks, giving himself a pump to push more precum out and repeats his actions, carefully following the curves of your lips. 

He pulls away again for a moment to admire his work and before your tongue can clean his mess again, he shoves his cock back into your mouth. You startle slightly, making a noise of protest around him that quickly turns into a gag as he pushes all the way in in one swift move. You swallow reflexively and that just seems to egg him on even more. His next thrust has your lips stretching further and you’re startled to realize that his knot is forming already. 

Thoughts of what it’d be like to have him knot your mouth flood your mind, being tied and helpless on your knees for him. You’d never considered being knotted orally before. You’re not even fully sure it’s safe, but your pussy doesn’t care for safety as a fresh gush of slick drips to the floor at the mere thought of Seokjin knotting your mouth right now. Of locking himself behind your lips and forcing his cum down your throat. 

Seokjin cums suddenly with a deep growl that has your pussy clenching around nothing, almost like he was having the same thoughts as you. His knot presses to your lips but never further so you lift your hands to wrap around it, massaging the bulge to milk every drop of cum from him that you can. It throbs beneath your palms with each pulse of cum that fills your mouth. There’s so much it leaks from the corners of your mouth, joining the trails of saliva dripping down your bare chest. 

Pulling himself from your mouth suddenly, the last few spurts smear your cheeks and lips, adding further to the mess already there. You pant, hands falling from his cock as he takes a small step back. 

Your breath catches in your throat at the sight of him. His eyes gleam with heat, lips bitten and pink. He looks almost perfectly put together, if not for his cock jutting out from the part of his slacks, still hard, knot prominent, tip dripping a last little dribble of cum. A spark of humiliation settles in your belly at the contrast in your states, you on the floor, already so wrecked and him towering above you and nearly perfectly put together. 

He reaches out, smearing the cum coating your cheek into your skin and then he takes a deep breath, face evening out and eyes slipping shut in bliss, presumably at either the smell of you or he’s pleased at his marking. Blinking his eyes back open, his gaze traces over you slowly, his tongue darting out to wet his lips. 

“Bed.”

His command is curt, more growl than words and you scramble to comply, knees sinking into the plush mattress as you face him once more. 

He takes a step forward, hands moving to undo the buttons of his shirt but before he can get any undone, he freezes. Brows furrowing, he steps back and looks down, head tilted inquisitively. You follow his movements with confusion as he stoops down, eyes widening the second you realize what must have made him stop, just where he had stepped. 

Shame heats you as Seokjin’s gaze lifts to pierce you and he raises his hand, fingers now glistening with slick, and confirms your thoughts, the puddle of slick on the floor. The evidence of just what his rough treatment has done to you already. He takes a deep inhale, eyes flashing darkly before he’s moving, faster than you expect. Your back hits the bed and you barely have a moment to register the change before your legs are being parted and pushed up. 

Your startled squeak morphs into a moan as Seokjin buries his face in your pussy. He wastes no time, gone is the teasing flicks of his tongue, instead laving the flat of his tongue up your slit with a pleased rumble deep in his chest. He gives little thought to your pleasure, seeming far more content at simply feasting on the taste of you. His lack of focus means your pleasure builds slowly, ebbing and flowing as his focus shifts based on his whims. Your orgasm stays fleetingly out of reach, which may be for the best as Seokjin seems like he wouldn’t stop for some oversensitivity. 

Reaching for his hair, just for something to hold on to while he ravishes you, you earn yourself a harsh nip to your thigh the second your fingers slip between the strands. Whimpering, you wretch your hands away from him, pouting as you glance down. His gaze meets yours as his mouth laps at your clit and you shudder as a warning growl vibrates against you. 

Right, so no touching and he appears to be so deep in rut that he’s now nonverbal. You’d learned that it can happen, in theory. Alphas who get so overwhelmed that they revert to their baser instincts to guide them. You just never expected that to be Seokjin, someone with such a hold on their composure. You wonder how long it’s been since Seokjin’s had a rut to end up overwhelmed like this. 

You don’t get long to follow that train of thought, Seokjin’s nails dig into your skin suddenly, pulling your focus back to him as his lips wrap around your clit and suck. Crying out, you scrabble at the sheets, grabbing handfuls of fabric tightly. Pleasure rips through you, body bowing at the sudden directed onslaught of stimulation.

A whine bubbles up in your throat, loud and desperate. “Alpha…”

There’s a rumble, something pleased and deep like a purr. It vibrates against you, throwing you headlong into an ograsm. You shudder and whine and Seokjin shows no signs of letting up, moving with the same ferocity and enthusiasm as before. Tears spring to your eyes as the sharp sting of overstimulation takes over, every lick and suck sending a shocking course of too much through your system. Your mind is blissfully blank, helpless in a way that doesn’t leave you feeling scared and vulnerable. For all that Seokjin is deep into rut and, according to him, out of control, you know you’re safe here. The warm comfort of mate. 

Seokjin takes his time lapping up the slick leaking from you and soon enough, the pain begins to ebb away, replaced by pleasure once more. Seokjin seems to realize the subtle shift, attuned to every little sound you make, and he seems to increase his efforts as the overstimulation fades. You squirm and Seokjin’s grip on you tightens, pinning you in place and halting your squirming. His fingers feel like steel, digging into the soft flesh of your thighs. You can feel the bruises forming already and it only makes you want to squirm more. To force him to leave even more bruises for you to revisit later, to have the reminder of this rut for days after it ends. 

Your pussy clenches with a particularly deft twist of his tongue and one more twist has you throwing your head back as another orgasm rips through you. You cry out as your pussy gushes, drenching Seokjin and the sheets below. The mess seems to send him further into a frenzy as he works hard and fast to draw your squirting out for as long as possible. 

He jerks away as the last of your orgasm rolls through you, dropping your thighs to the damp sheets. He gives you almost no reprieve, flipping your boneless, twitching body onto your belly and pulling your hips up just enough for you to present to him. 

Whining, you arch your back for him, earning another pleased rumble and the prod of his cock against your still pulsing cunt. His cock presses against the crease of your ass, giving a few lazy thrusts before he’s pulling away from you entirely. You whine in confusion before the tearing of fabric reaches your ears and you realize that he must be finally stripping. You have to fight down a laugh because you know he’s not going to be happy with the torn clothes once his rut is finished. But he’ll have no one to blame but himself. 

A moment later, the heavy, comforting weight of him drapes across your back, hips twitching as his cock bumps clumsily against your hole without catching. There’s a grumble of frustration before he grips himself and guides his cock to your entrance. 

It’s a smooth, slick slide as he thrusts into you, body and pussy relaxed and ready for him. He wastes no time building to a fast, rough pace; his need obvious and unavoidable now that it can be sated. His breath puffs hot against your shoulder as his fingers find purchase on your hips. His chest presses to your back, wet with your slick.

He laps at your shoulder for a moment before moving to where your mating bite sits. His mouth fits over the mark, tongue tracing over the twin crescent marks with reverence and your whole body sings with pleasure. His pace picks up as he lavs attention on your bite, teeth teasing. Knot catching on your entrance as it begins to swell, Seokjin’s pace becomes more frantic.

“Alpha… Alpha, please… Wan… knot, please…” you babble. A part deep down wants him to knot you, fill you up and plug you up so not a single drop leaks out. To fuck his seed into you and watch you swell with his pups.

Your pussy tightens around him at your thoughts and a growl punches out of Seokjin, teeth digging into your mating mark. You moan, long and drawn out as your orgasm suddenly crashes over you. Your pussy clenching around Seokjin seems to finally tip him over the edge as he slams into you one last time as his knot finally swells fully and ties you both together. He grinds a few times before his cock twitches and he cums with a rumbling purr. 

He seems to cum for ages, each spurt filling you a little more. Seokjin’s jaw relaxes, releasing his hold on your shoulder to lick soothingly at the fresh indents. Then his arms are wrapping around your middle and he’s carefully maneuvering you both onto your sides, careful not to tug too much at where you’re joined. 

Snuffling against your neck, he gives a pleased hum, presumably appeased with the way your scents are currently mixed. His face presses between your shoulder blades and his breathing begins to slow and you take that as your sign to get some rest yourself, you have a long few days before you. 

The water is a cool relief as you drink it. When you fell asleep you hadn’t realized just how thirsty you were, but the second you awoke a few hours later, your throat felt like a desert. It had been a little difficult to extract yourself from Seokjin, his arms tights around you, but you managed. 

His brows had furrowed and you wanted to coo at how adorable it was if you didn’t fear that it would wake him and you’d be fully unable to go get some water and snacks to try to force into him. You’d pressed your pillow into his arms and his expression quickly smoothed out as he buried his face in the source of your scent. Hopefully that bought you just enough time for your little trip to the kitchen. He’s just at the beginning of rut, you should have a little more time before he wakes and needs to breed.  

You’d also made a quick stop to quickly wipe yourself down. Nothing major, just a damp cloth to get the dried bits. If you used anything more and washed too much of the scent away, it would likely make Seokjin mad. So a quick wipe was enough for now, just so you didn’t feel so gross and crusty and to throw one of Seokjin’s large shirts on to leave the room. 

Setting the glass down, you begin to rummage through the cabinets. Seokjin doesn’t have a lot that would be helpful for a rut. Though you find some leftover snacks from your heats. You figure they’ll be good enough, hoping that he’s not as stubborn when it comes to eating as you are. 

You’re just starting to lay out a few things when an angry, panicked growl breaks the silence of the apartment. You wince, instincts immediately telling you to hide or submit. There’s the thump of footsteps and then Seokjin rounds the corner into the kitchen, eyes wild as they finally land on you. 

His strides are quick as he crosses the distance, hands quickly flitting over you like he’s checking for some sort of injury. Discovering none, he buries his face in your neck, dragging his check across the skin to scent you. 

Suddenly his body goes rigid beneath you and when he pulls back, his face is startlingly blank. He takes a deep pointed inhale, clearly trying to scent something and his face twists in displeasure when he doesn’t seem to find what he’s looking for. His sniffing settles dread in your stomach. You must have wiped too much of the mess away.

With an irritated growl, he flips you around and presses you to the counter, rucking the shirt up over your ass. His fingers find your hole, still wet and sloppy from his knotting, and slip inside. Gasping, you writhe against the cool granite for only a moment before Seokjin’s palm presses down on your back and immobilizes you. 

His fingers fuck into you, each thrust drawing a wet squelch as he effectively displaces his cum from your pussy. It drips down your thighs and splashes against the tile. That’ll be awkward to clean later. His fingering is slow and tortuous, you can’t decide if it’s meant to be a punishment for something, maybe for removing too much of his scent, or if he’s doing it for himself. Eventually his fingers slip from you and when you glance over your shoulder at him, you see that they’re absolutely dripping with a combination of you both. 

Then he lifts his fingers up, popping the soaked digits into his mouth to lick them clean. You whimper, heat rolling in your belly at the way the displeased look seems to cling to his face. Pulling the digits from his mouth with a pop, his hand drops to his cock, already hard and leaking and lines himself up. 

The stretch of his cock has your toes curling against the tiles. Just shy of too much too fast, riding that fine line of pleasurable pain. Seokjin’s thrusts are quick and methodical, his drive to claim his sole focus as he hitches your hips up just a bit more, forcing you up to your tiptoes and your upper body to press further against the counter in order to keep yourself upright. Little ‘ah, ah’s punch out of you with every snap of his hips, helpless to do much more than to grip the edge of the counter as Seokjin fucks you. 

His knot fills quickly, locking you together as he leans over you and bites your mating mark. Whining, you squirm on his knot, gasping when it brushes against your g-spot. Seokjin growls and you halt your movements. He grinds into you once, twice and then he starts cumming with a drawn out howl, muffled into your shoulder. 

He seems to go boneless then, slumping against your back, though still careful not to fully press his weight onto you. You take a moment to regain your senses, body singing with pleasure, but not the need to cum. You don’t feel the need to at the moment anyway. This is about him and his needs are far more important than one little orgasm right now. Plus, you’re fairly certain that if he made you cum on his knot right now, your legs would absolutely give out and you’d fall or have to rely on him catching you. Once you’ve calmed yourself slightly, the packaging of the snacks catches your attention.

Well it’s certainly not how you intended to get him fed, but you can work with it. You reach out carefully, moving slowly in case Seokjin decides he doesn’t want you to move just yet, but he seems content with you moving your arms. 

Getting the package of dried fruits open proves a little difficult in this position, but you manage and pluck a piece from the bag. You nudge Seokjin slightly and get a sleepy grumble in response. Twisting just enough to see him over your shoulder, you smile at the reluctance to even lift his head. 

“Alpha,” you coo and that gets his attention a little more as he lifts his head slightly, gaze going from your face to the fruit held between your fingers. “Eat please.”

You see his nose wrinkle slightly and so you clench around his knot. His eyes flutter at the sensation and you nudge the fruit a little closer, fingertips bumping his plush lips. He resists for a moment longer before finally allowing you to press the snack into his mouth. He chews slowly and you reward his acquiesce with another squeeze to his knot. He catches on fast, taking the fruit much quicker once he realizes the reward he gets for eating. You’re definitely going to tease him for this later. When the last piece is gone, he nudges your shoulder for more and you almost want to laugh. You doubt he’s actually hungry for more and you may have just set yourself up for future feedings. But you give in to his sad eyes and open another package, shifting your hips just slightly so they’re not digging into the edge of the counter quite as much. 

This bag you share, one piece for him and one for you, back and forth until the bag is empty. By the time the last piece is gone, his knot has deflated enough for him to pull out, which he seems to do reluctantly. He scoops you up quickly and takes you back to the bedroom, tossing you to the bed and moving in beside you just as quickly, like if he lets go of you for too long you’ll disappear once more. He falls asleep with his arms wrapped vice-like around you.

Seokjin’s rut is brutal in all the best ways. There’s a loss of restraint in him that delights you, soothes the omega in you more than you expected to be so wholly claimed by your mate. That’s not to say you don’t love when Seokjin is soft and loving and doting. But the ferality of his actions pulls something feral out in yourself. Something deep and basic that comes down to two people meant for each other marking each other as such. 

He remains mostly nonverbal for the duration and the few words he does get out amount to nothing more than possessive growls of mine. It’s easy to tell when his rut finally breaks, you wake up to him sprawled beside you, the least amount of contact you’ve had since the beginning. And when you take a cursory sniff of the air, that spicy-hot-alpha scent is gone, leaving Seokjin’s normal warm woodsmoke scent behind, though it’s thoroughly steeped in the scent of sex that clings to the room. You might need to open a window.  

When you move to sit up, Seokjin remains asleep, another sign that his rut has finally passed. The slightest movements before would’ve had him startling awake, scanning the room for threat before turning to check you over for injuries. You’re really not sure why he always seemed to think a threat was imminent upon waking, but you just assume it’s something to do with alpha hormones. 

You know you’ve got a while until he wakes up, exhausted from his rut as he likely is. It lasted 2 days longer than you expected, and you assume that must be because he hasn’t had one in so long. 

You decide to shower, the first proper one in days and relish the hot spray as it works to soothe your sore muscles. You use one of Seokjin’s neutral soaps, something to clean the cum and saliva from your skin but leave enough of the scent markers for Seokjin’s alpha to still be pleased with a good job when he wakes up. 

Once clean and dry, you tug one of Seokjin’s shirts on and a pair of panties before moving to the kitchen. As you start preparing food, a truly inordinate amount of meat and some noodles stir fried with veggies, you’re struck by the similarity of this moment to when you spent your heat with him for the first time. Though this time won’t end in weeks of bond sickness, but you hope it does lead to more ruts with him. You liked taking care of him during it and you see why Seokjin loves spending heats with you so much and getting to dote on you for a few uninterrupted days. 

You’re just plating up the last of the meat when Seokjin stumbles into the kitchen, bleary eyed and sleep rumpled, a pair of boxer briefs hastily tugged on, but he was clearly led here by his nose as he sniffs the air and his gaze zeroes in on the spread on the table. 

His voice cracks when he first speaks and you bite your lip on a giggle when he has to clear his throat and try again. “For me?”

Smile softening, you nod. “Of course. I have to take care of my alpha after such a tough rut.”

Before he can say anything, his stomach growls and this time you do let out a giggle. You gesture for him to sit as you plate up a hearty portion of everything for him. He doesn’t argue, just sits and waits for you to set the plate down before he quickly digs in. Sitting, you plate some up for yourself, though you do significantly less than him. You snacked while you were cooking. 

You eat in silence for a while, content and happy. Until Seokjin seems to eat enough for his brain to kick into gear and he looks up at you with wide eyes and sour worry seeping into his scent. Frowning at the sudden shift, you glance at the food, wondering if maybe something wasn’t cooked properly.

“Are you okay?” 

His question startles you. You should be the one asking that, not him. “Yes? Why wouldn’t I be?”

Swallowing his current mouthful, he’s up from his seat in a flash, circling to where you’re sat and his hands hover as he slowly checks you over with his eyes. It’s reminiscent of when he would check you over if you were gone for too long or when he woke up. Your confusion clears when his hands finally, carefully, reach out to touch you, making you flinch slightly when his finger presses into a particularly tender spot and his face crumples.

“Oh no, I was too rough,” he frets, yanking his hands away as if he’s been burned. 

His scent sours further as he continues to spiral, a litany of apologies flowing from his mouth. It overwhelms you for a moment, leaving you frozen in your seat before you snap out of it and press your hand to his mouth to stop his (unnecessary) sorries. 

“How about we go sit in the living room and talk and you drink some more water because you still need to rehydrate?”

You feel his frown against your palm, but the stern look on your face makes him give in quickly with a small nod. With a pleased smile, you usher him towards the couch as you grab him a full glass of water and follow him out. He takes the water cautiously, seeming to make an effort not to touch you at all. 

You both sit in silence for a moment while you gather your thoughts. Though that seems to just cause Seokjin to worry more and he starts to speak. You hold up your finger to silence him. “No. No more. I’ll speak first, just give me a moment.” He swallows, looking displeased, but he remains silent. “I know you think you were too rough, but I can assure you, sweetheart, that you were not. I enjoyed every moment of helping you through your rut. It was such a special experience and I’m incredibly thankful that you were okay with sharing it with me. You know I would tell you if I didn’t like something or if there was something wrong.” 

Seokjin goes to protest, but one look keeps him quiet as you continue. “I know you know you were in a rut haze and you think that means you were completely out of control, but I know that even in a haze you would’ve stopped if I showed signs of discomfort. You were so in tune with me even when consumed by your instincts.” You take his free hand and give it a squeeze. “Seokjin, I swear, I enjoyed every moment of your rut. And if you ever want to go off suppressants, I’d be more than happy to help you through any rut in the future.”

He waits a few moments, digesting your words, before he’s setting his glass on the coffee table. “Are you sure I didn’t hurt you?”

You chuckle. “I mean, technically, you did. But I liked it. You didn’t hurt me more than I would enjoy and that’s the important thing. Everything was enjoyable.”

He chews his lip. “And you’d really want to spend another rut with me?”

“As long as you’d be comfortable with it, yes.”

He thinks for another stretch of minutes before nodding like he’s decided something. “I think… I do want to go off suppressants. I’ve been on them for so long and I know they’re going to start losing effectiveness sooner or later. And I’ve never had a partner that I trusted enough to share my rut with. That loss of control… is kind of terrifying to experience. I know some alpha’s don’t care, or don’t lose control as much… But that’s just… never been me. But with you,” he smiles at you with something so full of love and adoration that you melt a little. “With you I feel so safe. I know that if I lose control, you’ll be there to guide me back. I’d be honored if you spent my ruts with me.”

“Always.”

He pulls you in for a kiss then, soft and gentle, pouring every ounce of love he has for you into it. You sink into, into the kiss, his arms, his scent. Seokjin means so much to you and warmth fills you at his admission that he trusts you that much. That he is willing to let himself be so vulnerable with you. To know that the level of love and trust you have in him is returned. 

He pulls away, not very far, just enough to rest his forehead on yours. 

“I love you.”

“I love you too.”

[tormenta-azul-19]

~°√L

Parece q tudo voltou Caimbra sombras devassso e dubio sorrindo Alma deposite minha fe em tudo que respirar e tiver folego pra poder existir a isso tomei dose competencia e coerência e confiança Soube ouvir e compreender a ti ar O motivo de cada existencia e atirar Que possui sua propria inexistencia ao tirar o ser interpessoal da tirinha desses tirano-a chegando la Bem me avise em casa enxergando o mal que querem te fazer cre Crença n e agua benzida em tv No bolso varios & nada Facada do bolso e naro Beba das minhas palavras e achara luz dentro de vc proprio Soberba de acreditar em vc litio sempre anjo Matar a ira dos coraçoes amorosos pai P/ pra frasiar sobre você e salvar alguem mais importante do tedios do seus próprios pqs A sombra da cruz dizendo ser luz Meu povo vive com sua fé na vitoria própria cena num universo mais apropriado era da idolatria as maquinas e gatos Fone de ouvido capuz A energia do som me conduz Tento n ser sombra mas sou luz Ela me diz colurbe queria ter To sem luz a dias minha mãe vai morrer sem ver o final das minhas atitudes No seu interior fez morada Tento ser carne mas sou alma A tela de frente pros seus olhos se viu em dor e karma Escrevendo presente de proprio punho Lido com rabiskos and rascunhos Por dó me da Tema Por pó pa pum eles me dão Tapa A faca nera no datena? O ópio era sangrar Mas vampiros daqui ja sangram prata Forfun na talfa Tatu quanta falta faz uma AK Penso anos luz pro presente Vcs a frente caminhando sorrindo Futuro e nosso passado doi saber que foi sortido Na máxima surtado Inimigos no minimo calados Me ouvindo Essa foi atenue so pros atingidos Desplanejei conflito pois falo de paz serio e guerra sorrindo Plenei destino Rumo ao "lirismo & misterio" Rumores de arcadismo Um novo velho (fakando do novo) Caminhada a uns tempo barroco (E tu por perto) Mo climão de montanha De canto quieto Poesias Ao cantar do galo Escravizo Vao dizer que eu faço rap morto Vizo lucro formo jovens pro topo Um freestalke inqueito por dia ou um ver tik e teco So relaxo pra esfumaçar o esboço Gatos presos dando no seu teto Vou me tornar o mais velho rapido em escrever o novo O vento sempre estara por perto TemporalA tempos temporalAtempos AtentoTempo TemosTemplos Sampl& √Lendo Veneno queimo Se eles tem medo Eu tremo Eles e de venda eu vendo Eles correndo eu crendo Almas no teto eu pleno Bicho solto Uvento AK to lento li no pendulo Vi eles sem partido se partindo E nem era um bom partido Sairam paridos pálidos Havidos invisível victo impulso cívil de 80 tiros uma enchente pra encobrir verdade a pino Me de deem o paleto vou abrir caminhos Deitar inimigos Fazer nascer sorrisos Nos corações mais feridos Sou verso base dos oprimidos A dose certa velada de verdade Um corpo frio pra me encaixar no tom do amor A pose certa e fria com um copo sanador vaidade Minha mente cria o universo so viajo com corpo Por isso hj ai n to Eles gritando livre mas me prendendo To imparivel pra morrer agr e nascer no seu templo Renasci na era tecno brega hype flow de cola Catarses binarias das minhas frases vL marola Parei de descer meu nivel e dar aula na sua historia Professor profissão de indigno olha quanto ganharemos se jogarmos bola Sou psicólogo cínico te convenço a se matar com um sorriso mas nao vou fazer isso Pisiquiatra de poemas mortos Matemático clinico em portugues mais alta nota 5 (haha) Maestria e meu deficit convicto Anota a rota utilizando hipotenusa medusa A tensão do meu catarina presas nessas linhas Visao blackmirror ou titanic To vivo aonde minha poesia transita Mulheres no topo dando tapa tipo visa platina no dente drica isa Homens clamando por mais amor abusante da filha Crianças tipo meg lisa Velhos com sdd de 50 n era militante sim militar palhaço q pisa Me conhece vento? Te apresento lazward Vei tu era aquele bb de nazare Sim se entorpeça e faça teorias das minhas frases Me ajude a compreender essas fraudes Garanto tudo q fomos e nunca serenos Seres transitórios canalha aprenda a canalizar seu karma escreve no mudo seu berro e grita Seuescrever em folhas entope as calha Rima na febre sai navalha Fere lhe fé rebem Jovem artista seu futuro n e Febem & q eu fui pego no sonho delas te provocam ódio falam por tras da dor nunca de frente sentindo ela Quando sentem raiva se tampam Percebe oq faltou algo de mongo Nada meu ego no mic sonso Formosura ekes no sodio ludico Como se vivessem com sains E tinhas provas com tim Maia somos morto Nao viram uma guerra pra salvar o mundo Depois de um sobro pra sintetizar em mudo Isso tudo Nem digo tudo oq vivo? repara no retalho Se so escrevo que vivo Agora estou parado Repara o estado me decoro com o tempo nao tenho atalhos liberto de Cronos Quase um fantasma no seu sonho Nunca entenderam o niilismo do palhaço Sou frio Sorrio frágil Um caido Verdade q me fez trácio Asas de kairos 13 karmas que vivemos Eles tem pesquisado "Ele quer ir pra outros planos Outras dimensões Visitar outros lugares com a alma " Foi isso q estudei sobre mim Pq a real lealdade e drmais A realidade me pende a alcatraz Mundo real real demais Black o alien me diz calma Adoração a políticos Crentes em anti Cristo Jesus visto jogando bola Apocalipse des palmatórias no bispo Gatos drogados de LSD Mas um suicídio no seu freed Sombrancelhas escandalosas Exílio dos lírios..(e de vc) Comunicação por símbolos Com risco de ficar rico fazendo isso Nova Speed estou a caminho... Tem um drone me seguindo Ja sei q vou vencer NPV

[wildcxrds]

♪:  three songs that remind me of my muse for kairo

Still Alive by Lisa Miskovsky

Achilles Come Down by Gang of Youths

Pluto Projector by Rex Orange County

[finishinglinepress]

THE WINNER of the 2018 New Women’s Voices Chapbook Competition is Libby Maxey!

Libby Maxey has a BA in English from Whitman College and an MA in medieval studies from Cornell University. She is a senior editor with the online journal Literary Mama, where she has been a part of the Literary Reflections department since 2012. She also does editorial work for Amherst College. She reviews poetry for The Mom Egg Review and Solstice, and her own poems have appeared in Tule Review, Mezzo Cammin, Crannóg, Think, Kestrel, and elsewhere. Her nonliterary activities include singing classical repertoire and mothering two sons. She lives with her family in Western Massachusetts.

2018 New Women’s Voices Chapbook Competition!

Results (302 entries)

Winner: Libby Maxey of Conway, Massachusetts for Kairos

Top Ten Finalists in the New Women’s Voices Series

1st Honorable Mention: Lana Issam Ghannam of Sanford FL

2nd Honorable Mention: Shenandoah Sowash of Washington DC

3rd Honorable Mention: Winifred Spar of Princeton NJ

4. M Soledad Caballero of Pittsburgh PA

5. Jessica Jones of Canal Fulton, OH

6. Jayne Moore Waldrop of Lexington, KY

7. Angela Trudell Vasquez of Madison WI

8. Michele Desmarais of Omaha NE

9. Nancy Breen of Loveland OH

10. Jill Bergkamp of Randleman NC

And 12 Semi-finalists

Monica Adams of Ruchersville, VA

Sharon Ankrum of San Antonio, TX

Chelsea Bunn of Staten Island, NY

Carrie Green of Lexington, KY

Judy Kaber of Belfast, ME

Robin Kemkes of Ashland, WI

Lisa Kemmerer of Billings, MT

Elaine Nussbaum of Scappoose, OR

Susan Oringel of Albany NY

Anna Smucker of Bridgeport, WV

Wren Tuatha of Magalia, CA

Paige Webb of Columbus, OH

[wazafam]

Two stars of Bravo's The Real Housewives franchise are "upset" with Andy Cohen (who has been accused of playing favorites in the past) for leaving their kids out of his recently announced Watch What Happens Live special that will star several housewives' children. On April 6, Cohen took to Twitter to announce the list of children joining him for his late-night special and ask for fan questions. Over the years, Housewives has utilized dozens of their main cast's children as supporting stars, and fans have been awaiting an opportunity to watch their favorite housewife descendants take centerstage.

Fans of housewives who have been loyal since the beginning have watched many of their children grow into adults practically in real-time. Kandi Burruss' daughter Riley, Ramona Singer's daughter Avery, and Meredith Marks' son Brooks, are some of the kids who have appeared on their parents' series for over a decade and have been invited to talk with Andy on his late-night talk show, WWHL. The event will feature 13 children of stars from a variety of series including RHONY, RHOA, RHONJ, and even the most recent addition to the Bravo family, The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City. While that may appear to be inclusive, two anonymous housewives are upset their kids were not invited onto the special, according to Andy Cohen.

Related: How Andy Cohen Will Spotlight The Real Housewives Children

On his SiriusXM show Radio Andy, Cohen admitted, "I will say I heard from two moms saying, 'Why wasn't my daughter included?'" While Andy wouldn't name any names, he did reveal the other housewife royalty set to join him on WWHL include Teresa Giudice's "Sad Song" singer Gia, Dolores Catania's son Frankie, Jeana Keough's son Shane, Luan de Lesseps' daughter Victoria, Sheree Whitfield's son Kairo, Cynthia Bailey's daughter Noelle Robinson, Vicki Gunvalson's daughter Briana Culberson, Kim Zolciak's daughter Brielle Biermann, and Caroline Manzo's sons Albie and Chris. This complete list of children, along with Cohen's hint that the housewives requested their "daughters" be included, slightly narrows the field of potential complaining reality TV celebrities.

Although she may seem like a prime candidate, Andy was quick to deny Sonja Morgan was one of the two upset housewives, "I would love to have Quincy [Morgan]." Noticeably missing is any Real Housewives of Beverly Hills children. Could Kyle Richards have wanted one of her four daughters to snag a spot on the special? Additionally, Lisa Rinna's two daughters would serve as great contributions to the group following reports of Amelia and Scott Disick's relationship getting serious in the press. The Real Housewives of Potomac is also underrepresented in this pool of reality television kin. Gizelle Bryant's three daughters and Karen Huger's daughter Raven have all made memorable appearances on the past seasons of RHOP, perhaps prompting one of these housewives to be agitated with Andy.

While there will be no confirmation of which two aggrieved reality stars are upset with Andy, it's safe to say several worthy children were omitted from the anticipated Watch What Happens Live event. Regardless, this late-night reunion is so full of The Real Housewives offspring it will certainly satisfy the Bravo fans who have been waiting for the housewives' children to shine in their own spotlight.

Next: The Real Housewives: 5 Reddit Conspiracy Theories That Could Be Legit (&5 That Are Too Far-Fetched)

Why Two Real Housewives Are 'Upset' Over WWHL Children's Special from https://ift.tt/31V0zSe

[houseisekai]

To Musse, my fair lady you should really stop pursuing Rean. He doesn't need any more lady problems. P.S i know that you read BL books.

House Isekai ARR Masterlist Here

—

(Musse) “I don’t tell you how to live your life, anon. And what if I do? There are no laws saying I can’t.”

(Lisa’s voice) “Oh, interesting. Perhaps you could share?”

(Astrid’s voice) “Y-YOU TOO?! I THOUGHT I WAS THE ONLY ONE!”

(Kairos) “Oh for goddess’s sake-”

(Jean) sigh

[huma888podcast]

Aural Assembly: Artistic Statement

Aural Assembly: Echoing Life-Worlds

Interdisciplinary research requires not only the transgression of different fields of study, but can be viewed as the very questioning of the relation of subject and object, self and other, of concept and affect, in the active pursuit of knowledge and understanding.

Pairing the exploration of ephemerality as a way to engage and expand the relationship of interdisciplinarity, with soundscapes in a non-narrative and non-linear style, a podcast can become not only the discussion of a subject by means of words and discourse, but an (albeit short) engagement with relationality and aurality as epistemology itself. Recording soundscapes of our direct environment, pairing these with elements of found sounds, recordings of media or occasional poetics creates the fruitful tension of inference and interferences: at once an argument or idea is carried forward (to infer) in the modes of listening and sense-making as logocentric animals trying to gauge and utilize, to understand and categorize sound; while the idiosyncrasies of sound, its incidental and fleeting nature in the cycles of occurrence, reoccurrence and rhythmic breakages create interferences and epistemic-noise. Aurality that disregards “sense” for the current timespace of listening, unique and again living only in relation of subject and object, turning ephemeral, dissipating once the experiences cease to occur but binding in a transformative mode of kairos.

In creating different “Assignments” the group explored the ability of sound-making and recording as a means to engage with each other's life-worlds. That is, the active and sounding environment of one's own individual hearing and listening (passive/active), shimmering between specificity and everyday similarities. The group’s makeup creates a unique line of interferences/ inferences: taking up the theme of research and life during the CoViD 19 pandemic; listening through different levels of lockdown and protests across the political spectrum; hearing three different countries and through four different sonic approaches; listening to each other and understanding each other stretch over space, positionality and academic backgrounds. This might sound like interference as in a simple game of broken telephone, trying to echo and reiterate common themes and auditory cues, but it also builds a different relation to a shared life-world and mutual aural existence. For instance, we went from childhood memories to experiences of colorism, mothering and loss to political outrage within the span of two creation cycles.

Our aim is not only to create an intimacy within our group and our individual works, but to explore sub themes within the overarching focus on soundscapes during the pandemic, and in so doing resonate with the listeners of the podcast. Taking up these different relationalities, sounds (and soundscapes) as non-verbal communications of lived timespace can bridge the divides between us as powerful actors, creating a living narrative for listeners to follow. The self will always be inscribed in the recordings, incidents and editing might flow apart or together in the listening experiences of the audience, with their own relation being born in the process of encountering the piece at hand. In these movements the idea of static messages becomes alleviated and transformative: the affective nature of sound, the shaping of pure energy paired with the ability to communicate distilled emotion and situatedness via sounds, creates an active knowing for us and the listeners in turn. In creating a cohesive fifteen-minute experience while also enlarging this with our research work in the form of a Tumblr, padlet and soundcloud sites, references and textual resources become available while giving the listeners the agency to deepen and completely transform their own trajectory – giving the possibility to create their personal  “podcast” of sorts.

Post-scriptum: in entering the editing process for this 15 min montage, we came upon more than one ethical crisis. What had first been delineated as spaces, started to feel like rifts, then chasms. Questions of collectivity came through in questioning leadership, representativity, agency and choice. What does it mean for us to highlight violence? When does editing out become harsh, brutal even? Are we sublimating dissonance when advocating for unity? What does letting go mean for in fact wanting to hold on, tighter? We spoke louder across these distances, as if asking the same question over again: can you hear me. For some of us this has begun to feel like so much more than a project. It is about life under COVID. It is assembly, and it is dispersal.

What you are listening to is ultimately one take among many.

Subtheme Jayanthan Sriram: Breathing in Times of CoViD

As an academic working on olfaction and the epistemic value of smells, working with sound encompasses the making and disintegration of these relations via ephemerality. Following a modal anthropology as proposed by Francois Laplantine, while olfaction and smelling things break the relation in a mode of internalization, the inextricability of sounding-self and sounding-other(ness), sound and listening perpetuate similar delimitations of hearing and sounding, being in sound, sound itself and dealing with the eventfulness of something that is mostly regarded as the antithesis to knowledge formations of visuality and written language.

The exploration of olfaction via sound becomes an issue of translatability. A common denominator of sound and smell, however, is the air we breathe. The simplicity of an autonomous action, one that builds the very essence of bodily existence, becomes messy and contested during the pandemic and beyond. As protests for Black Lives repeat the dying words of those lives taken by executive force, “I Can't Breathe” turns to the disillusioned notion of those that feel their freedom pressured and their sovereignty questioned by lockdown regulations. Air and the common air we breathe becomes a contested field: The medium of an airborne virus and therefore the probable health hazard, the lived necessity taken by racist actions and the perceived source of defiance against the confines of state regulation and obscure power interested in leaning into conspiracies against white and western supremacy. Can a recording of this struggle for breath make sense of the times, or serve as the mere invitation for understanding the divides that have taken a different turn during a pandemic? Can a moment like the one we are living, that attacks the very nature of relating to one another, bring insight into connections of communities and society that have been under attack all along?

List of audio used:

Spoken excerpt: Wilkerson, Isabel (2020), Caste - The Lies That Divide Us. London: Penguin Books. p. 18.

Excerpts of Anti-COVID Regulation Demos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yr1YyrolRZY (Courtesy of Spiegel TV) and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zf7fRGI_7eo (Courtesy of BILD)

Recordings of Guitar and Voice by Jayanthan Sriram

Excerpt from The Simpsons “Boy-Scoutz´n the Hood” (1993) and “Lisa´s Rival” (1994). Courtesy of FOX.

Excerpt of “Lil Diamond Boy” by Lil Yachty from Lil Boat 3.5 (2020). Courtesy of Capital / Quality Control.

Excerpt of “Many Jewels Surround the Crown” by Prurient from Bermuda Drain (2011). Courtesy of Hydra Head Records.

Excerpt of “Sleeping In” by Jesu from Terminus (2020). Courtesy of Avalanche Records.

Excerpt of “Between The World and Me” (2020), directed by Kamilah Forbes. Courtesy of Warner Media / HBO

Subtheme Amanda Gutierrez: Walking as a collective in Times of CoViD

Voice over:

Judith Butler's text, Gender Politics and the Right to Appear (2015), informed my work about the meaning of collective walking in the public space as a political alliance. In her book, Notes Toward a Performative Theory of Assembly, she exposes the concept of "we" as a collective body that spatially voices the challenges of exclusion that have been experienced under conditions of oppression. For Butler, the performative action of taking public space as an act of resistance and solidarity reads as follows:

Each "I" brings the "we" along as he or she enters or exits that door, finding oneself in an unprotected enclosure or exposed out there on the street. We might say that there is a group, if not an alliance, walking there, too, whether or not they are anywhere to be seen. It is, of course, a singular person who walks there, who takes the risk of walking there, but it is also the social category that traverses that particular gait and walk, that singular movement in the world; and if there is an attack, it targets the individual and the social category at once. (2015, p. 51-52)

Thus, the idea of "walking with with" is a crucial tool for collective recognition and a performative act of enunciation, an act of speech that we can exercise in space. As a filmmaker, the virtual space could be an extension of the public space, an intersection that I am trying to find in these soundscapes.

However, how can we do it from the interior of our houses? Keeping us safe from being infected by a virus?

I did this performative exercise, please join me interacting with the sound:

Experiment on aural performance, can be heard in the minute 12:17 on the soundtrack.

Subtheme Koby Rogers Hall: Life and Death in Reproductive Labour

In the seminal book Mapping Vulnerability: Disasters, Development and People, the authors argue for an interpretation of disaster as a complex process that is socially, politically, environmentally and economically constructed, as opposed to an event caused by an external agent (Bankoff, Frerks & Hilhorst, 2013). Correspondingly, the concept of “structural vulnerability” is used within the social sciences as a method to analyze the varying capacities of communities to deal with hazards, based on their social positionality; vulnerabilities result from an individual’s position within local hierarchies and broader power relationships. This approach to vulnerability differs greatly from others that seek to naturalize an individual’s ability to cope as a result of internal causes. 

(Henaway, 2020)

MY WORKING WILL BE THE WORK.

- Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Manifesto for Maintenance Art

The soundscapes work of the past four months has been an experiment in sounding, listening, and wondering, of being heard in a time of being unseen. As Dwayne Donald (2012) unravels in his work on a decolonizing research sensibility, our stories are held in tension as they display relationality and difference around difficult concerns. “The line which a story follows is not straight, logical, step by step. It varies from life to life. Most often, it zigzags, as if seeking out the spot for a breakthrough” (Novak, 1978, p.53).

In this year since my first child’s birth, a year of pandemic, of public outcry, of climate crisis on an ever-consuming scale, the violence of inequities for those of us who recognise them well have been forced to the forefront of our being. They say this economic crisis is ‘different’, in that it will set mothers back a generation between care work and the loss of any employment gains (Cohen, 2020; Adams-Prassl, 2020). As I do another load of diapers in what is essentially a broken laundry machine – having been asked to bear far beyond its load capacity - I am reminded of how my dreams of late feel so disjointed, and that disruption feels so familiar. “Everything I say is art is art. Everything I do is Art is Art.” (Ukeles, 1969, p.2).

The rage in the quietude is palpable. And so in sounding with my colleagues across locations, in conversing across ‘tasks’ we have given each other, I see the juxtaposition of our daily reproductive lives and labour. There are gaps between two sounds, two spaces, and we are left to negotiate in relation to this empty space. We are asked to “hold these understandings in tension without the need to resolve, assimilate, or incorporate” (Donald, 20102, p.534). The distances I feel from the people I organise with are felt stronger and stronger every day – mothering and organising, worker and consumer, the privilege of working and so feeling remotely. These distinct fields are not only removed from one another, but they further vulnerabilise us, structurally, by making the vast expanses already between us viscerally clear. When Judith Butler asks if precarity can be a unifying force, what do we risk losing in this assumption of unity? What are these soundscapes ‘trying to do’, if not be seen, then heard? Are we, am I, in fact grievable? (Butler, 2015, p.47).

A distanced visit with a friend and organiser tells me of ‘essential workers’, immigrant and migrant workers, demonstrating daily during the pandemic because they have to. In their words, “I have to be here, otherwise people will let me die.” (Henaway, in conversation, June 2020). Linda Tuhiwai Smith asserts that we need to think of research methodology as resistance, “a thoughtful engagement with these contradictions by providing a way to plan, conceptualize, strategize, and make cogent various forms of resistance to the logic of colonialism.” (1999, p.38) For those of us who are made to feel expendable, the ones who show up when the shit hits the fan, we know who we are – this is a moment of dignity and overflowing rage. With death comes endings, and as the contours of this world face their own forms of decay, there are those of us at the edges who find comfort in this, knowing that we breathe life anew.

Sub-theme Raphaëlle Bessette-Viens: feeling around

“What does your life sound like?” I asked you. “It sounds a bit like this, here, listen …” And when we listened to each other I felt my boredom, anxiousness and loneliness was shared. Some of us thought it was an ideal period to work, others felt too dispersed to concentrate properly. Micro social spheres; partners, children. A few times we shared being surrounded by collective appearing bodies; some skeptical or paranoid when they disbelieved the existence of the virus, some out of collective outrage when black bodies continued being assaulted by police officers.

Fear. Around me concern for sustaining life amidst an overwhelmed medical system co-exists with the perpetuation of fear of the ‘stranger’ (Ahmed, 2014): police violence, the criminilization of anti-islamophobic organisations, the expulsion and chasing of undocumented persons into invisibility. Being inside, feeling non-apparent. The aggregation of bodies that collect together in order to state their existence (Butler, 2015), to which I belong to, is in intermission. Spilling over. There was a protest and I saw all those familiar faces I hadn't seen in a while and walked and screamed and sang with them. Anger and happiness overlapped.

Affective contagion (Stewart, 2007, p.16). When I heard you say you were feeling anxious, and that you were having a hard time with distanced communication, it made me feel it was okay to say it too. I edited-in my piece that I gave back to you, to signify it. Did you hear it? Echoing. “... hmm that reminds me of”; the surfacing of a thought or a memory. Hearing your child made me think of me as a child and then I learned about your childhood. I heard the sounds of our bodies in our confined spaces, in relation with others in this space, in relation with the exterior world by mediation, being called-in to your world with your voices. Our echoes felt like intimate refrains: “(…) repetition that underscores, overscores, rescores in a social aesthetics (…)” (Stewart, 2010, p.339). We worked together, as Guattari suggests, with ways closer to the ethico-aesthetic than of scientificism (1995). Aggregating, week after week, our soundscapes and our thoughts, we practiced our attunement to one another, to our collective. “What does your life sound like right now?”

List of references

Adams-Prassl, A.,  Boneva, T., Golin, M., Rauh, C. (2020). Inequality in the Impact of the Coronavirus Shock: Evidence from Real Time Surveys. Cambridge-INET Working Paper Series, (18)

Ahmed, S. (2014). The Cultural Politics of Emotion (2nd ed.). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

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Butler, J. (2015). Gender politics and the right to appear. In Notes Toward a Performative Theory of Assembly (pp. 24–65). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Cohen, P. (2020, Nov. 19). Recession with a Difference: Women Face Special Burden. New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/17/business/economy/women-jobs-economy-recession.html

Donald, D. (2012). Indigenous Métissage: a decolonizing research sensibility. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 25(5), 533-555.

Guattari, F. (1995). Chaosmosis: An Ethico-Aesthetic Paradigm (Bains, P., Pefanis, J., Trans.) Sydney: Power. (Original work published 1992)

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Henaway, M. (2020). The Borders that Define our Vulnerability. Terms, semi-annual program. Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery, Concordia University. http://ellengallery.concordia.ca/programming/online/terms/?lang=en

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Howes, D. (ed.) (2005). Empire of the senses. The sensual culture reader. Oxford & New York: Berg.

Laplantine, F. (2015). The life of the senses, Introduction to a modal anthropology (Furniss. J. Trans.). London: Bloomsbury. (Original work published 2005)

Novak, M. (1978). Ascent of the mountain, flight of the dove: An invitation to religious studies. New York: Harper & Row.

Reynolds, S. (2011). Retromania. Pop culture's addiction to its own past. London: Faber and Faber Ltd.

Smith, L.T. (1999). Decolonizing methodologies: Research and Indigenous peoples. Dunedin, New Zealand: University of Otago Press.

Stewart, K. (2007). Ordinary affects. London and Durham: Duke University Press.

Stewart, K. (2010). Afterword, Worlding refrains. In Gregg, M., J. Seigworth, G. (Eds.). The affect theory reader (1st ed. pp. 339-353). London and Durham: Duke University Press.

Ukeles, M.L. (1969). Manifesto for maintenance art, 1969! Proposal for an exhibition: “care”, 1969.

Voegelin, S. (2010). Listening to sound and silence. Towards a philosophy of sound art. London, New York: Continuum.