#long distance is a nightmare actually i need to die

[sunflauw]

I wanna be romanced I wanna be swindled i wanna be held i wanna be kiss I wanna blush I wanna giggle like I'm so humiliatingly desperate

[wileycap]

Beings Suffering From Extreme Sleep Deprivation Should Not Attempt Turning To The Dark Side

There he was. Anakin Skywalker, the prize jewel of the Sith... even if he did not know it yet. Sitting in the office of his friend, the Supreme Chancellor.

All the pieces were now in place, and the only thing left to do was to reveal his identity to Skywalker and let him break down. The satisfaction that permeated the form of Sheev Palpatine was so great that he nearly forgot that his parents had named him Sheev.

But not for long. Distaste prickled up his spine. Still, they were entering the glorious morning of a Sith Empire that would never see night. Or, rather more accurately, the night would be neverending. And the metaphors would be better - he would hire (and by hire, he meant enslave) the greatest poets to compose endless lamentations for the suffering he was about to unleash.

Skywalker sat in the chair, looking listless. The nightmares Palpatine had sent had done their job well - it seemed like he had hardly slept. His thoughts were sluggish, his resistance gone, and his terror absolute. Terror for his "secret" wife, who he feared would die in childbirth.

And while the "visions" were far from genuine, oh, Palpatine intended to make sure that Padmé Amidala would.

With the death of his wife, Palpatine's control over Anakin Skywalker would be perfect. And, in ten or twenty years, thirty even, the boy would become his new vessel. After all, the plans of the Sith were measured in the millenia, and Sheev Palpatine had no intention of planting trees in whose shade younger generations might sit. No. He intended to sit there himself, chasing off the whippersnappers so they might get sunburnt. (He really needed to consult a poet.)

But the creation of his Empire was a far more immediate goal, and a very worthy stepping stone indeed. And since all it would take was a push, he had better get to administering said push.

"Dear boy, I don't think I've ever seen you look quite this... disturbed," he intoned, perfectly miming the tones of a concerned grandfather. "Not - and I am terribly sorry to bring this up, but I can't help but be concerned - not even... not even when your mother died."

There. Skywalker was an easy instrument to play. A veil of concern, a dash of "you can tell me anything." A hint of his past trauma, which so neatly (almost as if by design) connected to his current fear. Even calling attention to Skywalker's sorry state served to remind him that the structures he could depend on were now shaky and unsure, ravaged by war.

Palpatine briefly entertained himself by wondering what the boy might think of the sheer amount of planning that had been put into his fall.

"Mom?" Skywalker asked, voice groggy and wide eyes betraying his shock.

And said nothing more, just gaped at Palpatine, as if he were about to pull Shmi Skywalker out from under his robes. Idiot boy.

"I'm terribly sorry for shocking you, Anakin," Palpatine said, suffusing the room with his phony concern. "I know it must be horrible to think about, especially in these... present circumstances."

Well, he'd thrown subtlety out the viewport, but that would certainly get the job done.

Skywalker did not respond. He was blearily gazing into middle distance. And Palpatine was running out of time - Skywalker needed to fall now, before Kenobi could return from Utapau and somehow pull him back from the brink, again.

So, subtlety? Subtlety would die the same death it always died in Skywalker's presence: a sudden one.

"Actually, I've called you here on an important matter," he said, injecting some urgency into his tone - no longer a grandfather, but a concerned statesman. "I now have every reason to believe that Senator Amidala and the Delegation of Two Thousand are planning a coup."

"Huh?" Skywalker said, attempting to sit up. "Padmé's planning..."

And then his train of thought appeared to slip away again, and he resumed his vacant staring.

"Yes." Palpatine gritted out. "Padmé Amidala, your wife, is planning a coup."

"Oh. Yeah, she's good at politics," Anakin mumbled, offering Palpatine a tired smile. "I'm sure she'll do a good job."

"A coup against me." When nothing more than a "hmm" was forthcoming, Palpatine continued. "And it appears she has allied with the Jedi Council."

Skywalker suddenly stood up, ramrod straight. Finally, Palpatine thought.

"What?"

"I'm sorry you have to find out this way-"

"No, no, this is great! She's finally hanging out with my work friends! Now she'll know what it feels like!" Skywalker shook his head. "Like, it's only fair, right? I've sat through a ton of formal dinners and stuff. And Bail is okay, I guess, and Mon, and Fang Zhar is kinda funny, but... they're so boring. Treaty this, agreement that, 'what do you think, Master Jedi?'"

Skywalker started pacing. "Yeah, but who's laughing now, Padmé? I hope she tries to take them out for lunch. Then she'll get to see twelve Jedi Masters meditating to discern which restaurant the Force is pulling them towards."

He turned to Palpatine, as if to explain. "And that takes hours. You wanted lunch? Sorry, it's dinnertime and also tomorrow, and the spot they picked, which, by the way, is always the one Yoda wants,-" and, to the Sith Lord's horror, he launched into an imitation, "'mmm, great darkness I sense within the Jundland Buffet, perhaps to Stewcruiser, we should instead go', but when we finally decide to go to Stewcruiser, it's closed on Taungsday, and the whole thing starts all over again!"

And at that, Skywalker sat down with a huff.

"Indeed," Palpatine said, no longer able to keep the coldness out of his voice. "The inefficiencies of the Jedi are... vexing."

"Tell me about it," Skywalker mumbled, rubbing at his eyes.

"But rather more pressingly, they are planning a coup." Palpatine said, rather icily.

"Yeah, right," the boy said, looking a bit shamefaced. "Sorry."

"It is no matter," Palpatine replied, still eyeing the Jedi. Skywalker made no move. "What do you think about the coup?"

"Oh, yeah, uh. Like I said, I'm sure she'll do a great job. Sorry, I don't really... pay attention to politics."

Palpatine opened his mouth. And then closed it again. "A coup is a bad thing, Anakin."

"Uh-huh," Skywalker said, clearly paying no attention, and that was just about the limit of Palpatine's patience. He hadn't set the entire galaxy ablaze to be uh-huhed by the boy.

It was time to go for the throat.

"Anakin, I'm going to kill your wife." He said, enunciating every word as clearly as he could. He needed to provoke the boy into fear and anger, which would feed his guilt and shame, which would lead him to the Dark Si-

"Oh, okay. Good luck."

"What?!" He hissed. "I just threatened to kill your wife!"

"Yeah, but..." Skywalker scratched at the back of his neck. "I mean, she's been in like, twenty battles. She can handle herself."

"She is eight months pregnant!"

Skywalker actually shrugged. "The med droid said she can keep doing her usual activities for as long as she feels able. And no offence, but you're kind of... old."

"Old? I am the Lord of the Sith, young fool! I possess powers your feeble mind can't even comprehend!"

Something had gone blank in Skywalker's eyes, but Palpatine was far too angry to notice. "I orchestrated this entire war! All of this is my doing! I planned for your mother to die, I corrupted the Tuskens myself, I was behind Kenobi faking his death, beh-"

And that's about as far as he got, because a sky blue blade had just passed between the spot his head occupied and the spot that was occupied by his body, and had kindly suggested to the two that it was time to part ways.

"Chancellor, Sith Lords are a specialty at the Jundland Buffet," Anakin muttered, turning off his saber. He tried to hook it back on his belt, but apparently somebody had taken his usual hook, and the handle fell to the ground. Sighing, he called it up with the Force and shoved it into his boot for safekeeping, when a thought struck him. "No, that's not right. How did Obi-Wan say it..."

And then he commed Obi-Wan, because that seemed like the thing to do. After a long wait, a small, blue Obi-Wan appeared, looking harried. Before Anakin could compliment him on his new size and color, Obi-Wan was already talking way too fast, something about killing Grievous.

"Hey, Obi-Wan, uh. I killed the Sith, but I-"

"What?" Obi-Wan's voice had a lot of static in it. He should really get that checked out. "Sorry, Anakin, did you say you killed the Sith Lord?"

"Yeah, anyways, back when we were fighting Dooku, you said something about Sith Lords and a specialty, and, uh, is it a specialty dish somewhere? And can we go there next time the Council has lunch? I'm getting really sick of Stewcruiser."

"Anakin. When was the last time you slept?"

"Oh, uh, two weeks ago or something."

There was a heavy, staticy sigh from the other end of the comlink. "Alright, Anakin. Turn the comlink around and show me the Sith, and then I'll guide you through cleaning up the pieces of the duelling droid you dismantled this time, and - oh Force, is that the Chancellor?!"

"Uh-huh," Anakin nodded, forgetting that he wasn't in view of the receiver.

"Don't uh-huh me, Anakin! Did you kill the Supreme Chancellor?"

"Yeah, he was the Sith?" There weren't any more words coming through the comlink, so Anakin figured it was safe to continue. "He said that he orchestrated the whole war and he was the Sith. Also, for some reason, he moved out here to the desert, and that's weird, because I don't think it's gonna agree with his complexion."

There was more silence from the comlink. Anakin remembered to turn it so he was again visible to Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan appeared to be frozen.

"Are you... disappointed?" Anakin asked, after a while.

"No more than the usual amount," Obi-Wan sighed. "Go take a nap."

"Oh, good," Anakin smiled. And then frowned. "Wait, what do you mean, 'the usual amount?'"

[livvy-fallen]

To add from my last post. (I'm so sorry it took so long:( I'm trying my best to get it to you guys as soon as possible)

Yandere obey me when MC goes to the past

I'm so sorry it took a while. It got deleted as my cousin was messing around and then it wouldn't save .

Warning! This fic contains: blood, yandere stuff, cannibalism and maybe dead dove no clue! But it has disturbing subjects matters

You have been warned

People say rose tinted glasses make red flags look like just normal flags... And now your wondering how many glasses you owed.

You never really thought about how the brothers habits we're.... Let's say a red flag parade.But now you wish you realized you need to disappear and put Houdini to Shame. At first it was nothing big. A few comments from Mammon. Nothing you couldn't handle.

"Hey! Don't be going out ! I'm your first you should be spending time with me!...be grateful that The great Mammon wants to spend time with ya!"

And

"Your just asking for any lower demon to just take ya! "

Then your stuff keept on going missing. It probably wasn't just that stupid, greedy demon who was doing so but he differently was in first place for it!

Then you noticed your few friends from RAD are gone... Like that really nice succubus you were friends with. She was so nice to you always there to help you with anything. You never saw again after you said you were hanging out with her to the brothers! You were the last person to see her alive. You had to hold her funeral. You could bearly keep it together at said funeral. You never cried so hard.

You still keep a picture of her and your friend group hidden in your room. You know dam well if the brothers find it.... You don't want to think about it..

Now you wish you never made that STUPID pact with him or any of them! You couldn't of even go outside without them trying to drag you back in!

Then you saw Mammon killing one of your few friends left... The way their blood dripping making a horrible wet sound as it hit the floor. The way you could see the blood drip out of his mouth! The way he had a stupid grin on his face! You saw the poor demons insides put on display.... The poor demon was still alive! And they looked so scared... You don't blame them...... The way their life was ended by one loud stomp! And you saw the blood splatter every in a certain distance. You threw up.. Like a large amount of throw up... It didn't help you saw that bastards hand grab something.... You don't want to know what. But you then... You heard a loud chomp. And him sallowing...... You saw the insides dangling out of his mouth.... The blood still dripping.. ...

It's been.... You don't even remember..... Since then...

"I'm sorry but you made me do it. Now you have a ugly scar on your once beautiful face... But I still love you!"

You still have have a scar from trying to escape amso....its not even that noticeable from far way but he won't let you live it down! You hate all of those 7 fuckers!

You tried everything! You even used your pacts.. You managed to get away for 2 weeks and back to the human realm before Lucifer found you... You don't even know how! You dyed your hair,changed your name! you changed everything... But you think the pact is way too strong of that....

You took away to many showers after you got brought back.. You still have nightmares about it but you rather die a horrible death then tell them that..you wish that you stayed dead!

So when you got brought back to the past you were actually happy... Because they don't even remember you!! Meaning no more yandere!! You gladly took that deal and ran with it..

However the brothers didn't take it so well.... You escaped their grasp and this time they have no way getting you back!

Lucifer

He is pissed. Not only did he lose his darling. That shady wizard bitch is getting to be all yours! His anger wasn't obvious at first glance due to his pride. But if you look closely you can see how he is inraged. His coal black wings were puffed out like an upset cat. Last time he was this angry he ended up with Satan. He looking for anything that can get you back. And once you do come back he's never letting you out of his sight again. If your able to walk after you go back it's a miracle. All though the Demonus companies are really thankful. They haven't seen so much profit in the start of its production! But at the same time he feels like a failure of an oldest brother. He isn't there for his baby siblings. He feels like a failure of his family. He's watching his siblings ruin themselves. He needs to be strong for them... But he just can't bare the pain of you no longer there. The pain of knowing dam well that you could be hurting and no one is there to wipe away your tears and to pick you up. Just like how you did with his family

Mammon

Oh boy... Where do I start? He is absolutely devastated! His Human, treasure his everything is gone and probably in danger! And you just want him to except that?! (Yes. Yes we do) if he can do anything he will! If Solomon comes back with a single scratch on your perfect body he is going to regret the day his mother had to give birth to him. Mammon is using EVERY connection he has to see if they can help. Before they knew you were in the past he was the first one out the door looking for you. And we all know he isn't going to make the same mistake again. I hope you enjoyed going to the bathroom alone. Because when you get back you NOT having that again. He also is picking up the slack because of Lucifer. Mammon is the second oldest and he CAN NOT deal with the image of his siblings in pain. He cares for them. So even if gets insulted, hit and hissed at by his brothers he doesn't care as long as they aren't upset as much.

Leviathan

He's not very happy. Is all I can really say? But because of his crippling self worth issues he's saying stuff like "of course they wouldn't want to be around a yucky otaku like me" and similar stuff.. It's a little depressive. But don't be fooled if you think he isn't lashing out at everything. He nearly damaged his figures in a fit of rage once. If that doesn't show how upset he is then what does? He is the general of hell's Navy so one wrong comment from a lower demon and their swimming with Lotan

Satan

Avatar of wrath so you can guess how he is dealing with this.. Not very fucking well. He has destroyed so much of the devildom it's common practice for demons to be jumping over creators just to go to school. His room is worse for wear. It looks like a war happened in there. He is reading every single book he can about this subject so he can get you back faster but every dead end only leads to a ruined building. However most of his wrath also steams from the fact he knows how he was back then. He's worried that he will hurt you. All though he harsh with punishments he isn't very found of the idea of you getting killed by his wrath

Asmo

Asmo isn't recognizable. At all. His hair is greasy from not showering or bathing for long times.. His eyes red and puffy for crying his eyes out, lips cracked from not drinking water. He spends most of his time sleeping. He didn't get how belphi could sleep all the time but now he does. All mirrors are broken in the house. He couldn't stand seeing himself in the mirror. Not only are you gone ( he thinks your scared without them and crying without them to which your definitely not. You celebrated the second you were free) but so is Solomon! And no one other then him is there for you! That Shady sorcerer.. What if you get a scar! What if you don't drink water? (The call is coming from inside the house I swear-) what if a stupid lust demon tries to take you?! Their scent on you definitely is gone by now! He has his good days though! If he realized that you could be back soon he has to look the best! So he washed his hair and everything else, did a face mask his daily routine and put a lot of chap stick on. Just in case you're back at that day! It usually lasts for a week until he gets upset.

Beelzebub

Beel is trying to keep his family together. He's trying his very best. But he just can't always do so. He's the protector of this family. He always has been but he doesn't feel like he should anymore.. After all not only did he failed to protect Lilith. He couldn't even protect you! He I'd having nightmares after nightmares about his failures of not protecting his family to the point belphegor often goes to his beloved twin's dreams to try to put a good dream in his mind. His appetite is all over the place! One day he eats everything like normal then the next day he can't actually eat anything. It worries his other siblings. Another thing is he keeps food for you just in case you're back. He has no clue if your eating correctly! Your way from the people who protect you. Your probably so scared! (Your really not-) so he keeps food he just in case for you. No one is allowed to throw it away though... So when or IF you come back ignore the moldy rotten food. You know during the early lessons while belphi was in the attic? It's like that. Demons are pact animals pretty much and beel is the biggest family man know to man. So he was destroyed and don't get me started how he feels thinking that if he was just there with you, you would be safe and there with them. You know when you called for Beelzebub in the past because of the apples he felt that but not 100% . He felt you call for him to help you. He didn't know if he actually did in the past. He has no clue if you got hurt because HE wasn't there for you. He wasn't there to pick you up and save you

Belphegor

He is PISSED to say the least. Not only did you get out if their grasp there's no guarantee that your coming back let alone safe! The one day they let you lock yourself in your room and didn't join you is the time you were taken away by someone. That is NEVER happing again. Hope you enjoyed having a door because that is coming straight off. His sleep schedule is so off wack. One day he sleeps for 23 hours and only getting up because Beel is making him eat. Beel be dammed if he loses another loved one. But the next 3 days he isn't sleeping. He is only sleeping when beel put sleeping pills in his food. Belphi is now never leaving Beel's side. Not like Beel was letting him leave longer than 30 minutes. Belphi isn't very found of the idea that your in the past for MANY reasons but one main one is because the simple fact. You went to the past where Lilith's death was fresh. His hate for humans were so strong. He already killed you once he doesn't want to lose you again.

While all this is happening your living the life that the brothers ripped away from you. So when your looking for books about Nightbringer and when Mammon freaks out... All you get are flashbacks. You feel the pain of the brothers keeping your away from everything and everyone. The pain of knowing if you left the family alone you wouldn't of been hurting... You wouldn't of had to buried your friends bodies... You wouldn't of had to cry at a locked door begging to be let out. Only for an hour in the human realm... You missed your family... All that comes back and you can't hold it anymore. You sob your eyes out. Your crying on the floor as everyone fights... Because you know if you stay any longer it will happen again.. "To hell to this family! FUCK THIS FAMILY! LET THEM DEAL WITH THEIR OWN SHIT!" Is what your mind is yelling at you as you hold your arm. This family will be the death of you... Not like they will let you die...

[howlsofbloodhounds]

Hey. I think Killer and Error duo is being slept on. Dunno what dynamic they may have (don't have any thoughts) but something about these two makes me think that they'd get along (or at least, they would get along after initial first impressions)

Yeah, I think so too maybe. I also think that other than Color, Error is the one who actually encourages Killer to talk shit and complain about Nightmare with him.

Now im not too familiar with Error’s canon lore as of right now, but im familiar with the idea that he’s kinda a man child and sometimes had a tendency to throw tantrums.

I can see killer being uncomfortable (unsettled, nervous, confused, on edge, scared) by any huge displays of emotion, especially if they’re about or directed towards him, but he’d die before he admits to anything like that or expresses any genuine emotion and he doesn’t have the words to express any of it anyway because he doesn’t understand emotions or himself.

Killer’s more likely to decide that “something error does is influencing the soul/the body to behave differently and so I should stay away from being controlled” rather than anything like “this makes me uncomfortable.”

Because killer doesnt see himself as experiencing emotions in stage 2, and “himself” is in his mind and away from the body (which allows him to not really care what happens to the physical form so long as it operates well enough), he just thinks it’s the body behaving weird. Couldn’t be him, he can’t feel anything.

But I can see error trying to tune down the huge displays around killer eventually, maybe after a particularly huge and somewhat destructive tantrum of his drives killer to distance himself away from him. (Error seems rather lonely, and I doubt he’d want to lose his fellow nightmare-shit talking buddy.)

And another thing is that Error has issues with being touched, and killer relies on touch to determine if something is truly real or not.

And, uh, his stage 2 self doesn’t really understand boundaries naturally (or, a bit more accurately, he doesn’t see how they effect him) and therefore he can disrespect them; a lot of the time because he needs to tell if something is real or not or he’ll lose his damn mind again, other times because of a sense of curiosity or his deep seated need for control. He has a tendency to be like “boundaries for me, not for thee”—and we all saw how he manhandles swap.

So I can see just spending a lot of time just silently staring at error with his big doe black eyes while error yaps on, silent. And killer can’t really see shit well due to the goop from his sockets, so staring holes into error’s skull doesn’t make him seem any more real.

And of course error understandably flips his lid when he’s suddenly touched out of nowhere without his permission, probably stringing killer up in his strings and holding him up and away so he won’t touch him again. Only for killer to calmly slip right out of them because the strings don’t really affect him.

It’s gonna be like pulling teeth to get killer to explain why he did that, so this will probably be another period of rockiness in their relationship. Killer simply doesn’t like letting others know anything about him that he doesn’t want to willingly give, anything about his motives, genuine thoughts, goals.

And he doesn’t see what the issue is, although he recognizes that error is upset. He’ll probably say something to calm error down, something like “I won’t do it again,” without fully understanding the problem simply because, once again, the displays of emotion are making his body act weird. He doesn’t like the “control” error has over it. Killer knows how to people please and fawn when he needs to.

I don’t think he’ll willingly bring this interaction up with color to ask his trusted person to explain to him why this was an issue—simply because killer’s stage 2 self doesn’t often seek out emotional connection due to plain indifference and disinterest towards most people.

He doesn’t really care at this point if error doesn’t wanna talk to him again—just means that less chance of error’s emotions controlling his body again. (It’s the schizoid tendencies talking girl oh no he has headphones in he can’t hear us!!)

But color, being the absolute chad he is, recognizes that killer really needs more friends than him and error probably does too honestly. So instead color gently spends some time trying to encourage killer to just show some trust in others for once, and explain why he needs touch.

It takes awhile. Killer doesn’t get why he should explain himself to anyone that doesn’t have power over him, and no thank you to the idea of expressing himself. Color points out that error was willing to tone down the intensity of his outbursts, willing to adjust himself for killer’s comfort, because he wanted killer’s company.

Killer says error just wanted company. Not his company. Color gives killer a look and says, “being lonely and wanting company isn’t weakness.”

But it probably eventually happens. Color helps him write down the words, perhaps writes the definition for the derealization that killer was experiencing.

From there things probably get better for them. Error explains his phobia, killer says color told him he’s not supposed to touch people without permission. Error says he doesn’t give permission, and killer is quiet for a moment, before saying, “ok.”

Maybe they work up to it, maybe they never do. Error gives killer a mini doll of himself to squeeze whenever he starts doubting reality—probably because killer keeps forgetting he’s supposed to ask before touching but always stops himself mid way.

Error can see that killer is trying, although he doesn’t understand why it’s so hard for the guy to conceptualize the idea of boundaries. Does he not understand that saying no is a valid option? Regardless, killer is willing to listen when told no. Even if he clearly doesn’t understand what the big deal is. (If only killer had learned this lesson before meeting swap)

And they will of course what Error’s telenovelas. Or Error will watch them and ramble to killer with character analysis, headcanons, and theories while killer struggles to stay present and not become completely dissociated. The cats will lounge around in the beanbags with them.

I think it’ll be a very long time before killer feels safe enough around error to allow himself to be in stage 1–he will leave immediately as soon as he starts shifting over—but for now they’re both content with keeping things more surface level.

Kidnapping will become a staple of their interactions. Some days error will just snatch killer right up regardless of what’s he’s doing or saying and killer can escape easily but instead he’s just like, “new episode again?” Nightmare throws a fit whenever error takes killer while he’s trying to talk to him, which amuses killer so he allows it simply to spite the boss.

Sometimes ink is there too. Killer doesn’t know why or when they came around, but he’s there! Ink apparently likes drawing killer and error a lot. Ink comments that’s he taking all this in a surprising stride, and killer’s like..”pal, most days this just feels like a fever dream.”

Ink likes making and giving killer drawings of what happened that day out of hopes itll help it all feel more real to him.

[jennycalendar]

making some of briar's dynamics more explicit i think just to catch up to speed the people who don't live in my head

imoen and briar get along like a house on fire. wheres that post about how the phrase "get along like a house on fire" implies actual physical harm and danger to all nearby parties. thats relevant here. there is no braincell in the house which means that when imoen is like hey i want to go steal shit briar is like immy you are the smartest person in the entire world. walk me through the plan. and then thinks it's smart no matter how bad it is. imoen thinks all of briar's songs are terrible but in that very specific sister way where it's a multi-year-long bit she's been doing that she will die before giving up on. she will hum them sometimes to herself while she's going through her weapons and briar will pop up out of nowhere like AHA GOTCHA!!!! and then they'll start giggle arguing and attract kobolds. she is the most profound love of briar's life, her ride or die, her bestie, her sister, and briar's heart is never fully complete without imoen there. they match each other's energy on a level that is dangerous to society

jaheira and briar work really amazing together because jaheira has this psychologically fascinating combination of "clinically needs to take care of everything and everyone" and "really really really doesn't want to pick up on the fact that she cares so much" and briar is too god damn dense to EVER pick up on the fact that jaheira cares. just loves jaheira <3 so jaheira will be having one of her category 4 tsundere moments going GODS i don't care about you even!!! whatever!!! and briar will go okay mom of my heart i love you and all that you are and if sometimes that means you need to beat your feelings to death with a stick i respect that :D and the only other person in her life who responds to her insanity adjacent to this approach is khalid so of course jaheira is like wh , at i s , hap penning. also just like . there is never a shortage of things for jaheira to micromanage re: briar and we all know that woman LOVES LOVES LOVES criticizing shit, so this is basically her dream come true. unfixable problem of a puppy of a daughter

khalid and briar operate from the foundational principle that briar is grieving her dad very deeply and khalid in his gentle efforts to provide her support and guidance through that without ever replacing gorion has won her heart in totality. despite appearances briar does not actually mind if jaheira disapproves of what she's doing (she likes when mom yells at her. it's funny :D) but if khalid so much as makes a little :/ face about something briar is like okay torch this plan. this plan is garbage. what if i also maybe killed myself. ran a heroic party all through bg1 because she wanted dad to be proud of her and no she was NOT thinking about gorion in that moment. to her he represents every ounce of good heroic knightly chivalry in the world. he's the one who understands most intimately how scared she is, and encourages her to grow past it! to fight through it! he wants to see her become braver than he thinks he is & she's in a unique position to recognize that he's the bravest person she knows :')

dynaheir and briar do not interact for longer than five seconds until they're traveling without jaheira and dynaheir liked it so much that way. so so much. that's jaheira's kid. cute from a distance but oh my god she doesn't know the first fucking thing about childcare and caring for THIS child????? NIGHTMARE FROM HELL. has confiscated every wand of fire in camp and can't figure out how briar keeps finding more and setting the party on fire with them. has had to grab briar by the cloak 200 times in the last week to keep her from running straight into an enemy sword. keeps mage hand on retainer just for that actually

minsc and briar are besties :) she loves boo almost as much as he does WHILE ALSO taking his esteemed status as a miniature giant space hamster EXTREMELY seriously and this alone means that they get along like a house on fire. which is an apt metaphor because he is how briar is getting all of those wands of fire back

viconia and briar have kind of an interesting dynamic that i think will probably become more relevant in bg2, maybe. traveled together for a hot few seconds in bg1, met again during siege of dragonspear, viconia after so much hardship and cruelty privately finds briar's authentic kindness legitimately endearing and is Absolutely Fucking Furious about it because she also finds briar deeply, deeply, deeply, deeply stupid. briar has no idea any of this is happening and is mostly just very stubbornly keeping viconia in the party On Principle because people keep saying insane shit about drow to her and she's #teamviconia until viconia does something to Her Personally (which will not happen. because viconia is too busy being Tormented that she secretly thinks briar is kind of cute)

skie and briar are in love <3 which was not in my initial plans but then i met skie and started thinking about how i've characterized briar as someone who is so not taking this shit seriously, and i love the thought of her meeting another adventuring girl who is also not taking this shit seriously, also grew up sheltered, also has a lot of romantic ideas and has not had that bubble popped just yet, and then both of them getting along in a way where it's clear no one is actually learning anything and everyone is enjoying the comfortable echo chamber of silly little romantic girl who grew up inside a bubble validation. this will end so well im sure. for everyone.

[runningfrom2am]

to be honest, giving your favourite books for an undefined period of time is a huge thing when even lending them to your friends is hard enough.

“Him and Cole are practically the same person!” no, they just happen to be looking exactly the same. coryo is one of a kind and you can take this both as a compliment and an insult.

“Lennox you are such a.. boy!” me, any given moment.

almost nothing is as unsettling to me as relationships that don’t have a name. r can’t go and live in the capitol anytime soon and coryo would rather die than live in district 12. i understand why they haven’t discussed it, though i’m sure that coryo is more than willing to call her his “girlfriend”, yet it feels like personal attack.

THEY ARE COMMUNICATING!! FINALLY!! 🥹

cole, when i catch you cole WHEN I CATCH YOU- (he got what he deserved 😌)

standing in front of a gun held by the boy you love but also had nightmares about, for someone who was talking about getting you killed when you know it may cause too much trouble for you, takes a lot of will power. not everyone could and certainly not everyone would. this was what stopped coryo from shooting, what reminded him of all the other times.

coryo trying to save r from seeing yet another body-

WHAT WILL THEY DO WITH HER?

bestieee i was so nervous for you to read this part haha so i HOPE you liked it ahhh

1. omg literally like i couldn’t do it hahah she is stronger than i

2. men with blonde hair and blue eyes are a very valid weakness to have in my opinion. also i feel like lennox won’t really see past that surface level similarity, at least not until coryo proves to him that he is different

3. lol literally he is once again proving his little brother energy haha

4. SO REALLL situationships are an actual nightmare. me and my bf had to go from spending every day together for the first few months of our relationship to being long distance and it was SO hard and we couldn’t talk about it at ALL until literally the day we both had to leave. and even then we had a plan of when we would see each other again and we could call everyday and facetime everyday but for them they have none of those options like i wouldn’t talk about it either.

and yes like he’s dying to be like “yes this is my girlfriend” but i feel like he’s still a little bit scared of rejection after what happened after the games where she unintentionally ghosted him

5. WE LOVE THEM BEING ABLE TO COMMUNICATE OMG

6. HES SO FUCKED FOR THAT like i really need to know what their history is bc i feel like it’s some complicated tea. bottom line he did get what he deserved lol

7. it’s literally so intense and like clearly it was an impulsive decision on her part but she really committed. i think too that it was really good for her bc 1. obviously she knows now for sure that he wouldn’t hurt her (at least not on purpose) and 2. that maybe she hasn’t changed as much as she feared that she did. or maybe at the very least she’s starting to come back. it was a HUGE step for her and honestly i’m proud.

9. aww like yeah of course he would 🥺 he really tried his best and made her his priority like immediately and just AH

10. 🤭🤭🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

[kyojurismo]

imagine sanemi had a nightmare one night. you were sleeping peacefully next to him, when he suddenly grabbed your neck and you panicked as you opened your eyes and found his face a few of inches from yours. his eyes were open but you could see very clearly that he wasn’t in full control of his actions. when he squeezed more you cry for his name, trying to make him stop. “san-nemi… pl–ease,” you even kicked him in the stomach as he didn’t move off you. you were close to pass out when he finally came back to his senses and let you go in a swift as he crawled far away from you, staring at the floor in shock. you coughed violently as you tried to catch your breathing, eyes filled with tears as you thought you were really going to die there.

the silence was loud. none of you had enough courage to actually make eye contact but sanemi knew that he must say something. “i’m sorry… i had a nightmare, i felt you moving and i thought…” he squinted his eyes before covering his face with his hands. you stayed there sitting on the futon as you look outside, in silence. this was wrong, you were never this quiet. “please say something,” he begged as he felt his eyes filling with tears, the feeling so foreign as he rarely cries. “i realised how strong you actually are,” you murmured, you never once turned your head to look at him. he was confused by your words, but then he saw how your hands were nervously gripping the sheets. you were scared — you found him scary. sanemi felt like throwing up, realisation slapping his face violently.

“y-you can go back to sleep, i’ll stay here… i’ll sit here and stay awake, i promise,” this time you turned your head to finally meet his purple eyes. “you need to sleep too, you’re a hashira. you’ll leave for the mission soon,” how could you care about such things now?! you spoke with very little emotion, as if your mind was still trying to process what just happened. “i don’t care about it. you need to rest, okay? i won’t touch you anymore,” he promised, his tone more firm now. “hm,” you stared at his figure for a couple of moments before lying down again, covering yourself almost completely.

“can you hold my hand?” you then asked him, after a long period of silence. he fought against it, before giving up and moving closer to you. he sat at a fair distance, enough to hold your hand so you could lie comfortably. you relaxed and managed to fall asleep, after a long period of time though. sanemi kept his promise and remained close to you, fully awake, till dawn.

the next morning you woke up alone. after a couple of moments, your crow entered and left a letter next to you, you quickly took it and started reading it.

don’t wait there for my return, you should go on with your things. i love you.

it was shinobu’s handwriting, which made you chuckle as you imagined the scene of him asking to write something for him.

your error was that of not understanding what he truly meant with those words. when he came back from his mission you waited patiently for him to finish his meeting with the master. when you finally saw him you sighed in relief when you noticed he didn’t came back with new injuries. you felt your heart shattering into million of pieces as sanemi walked past you without a word. everyone knew you were seeing each others, that’s why mitsuri gasped at the scene. you stood there in silence for a couple of moments, completely frozen, before you turned to look at him walking away with obanai.

“you should at least tell me in the face that you don’t want to see me anymore! you hear me, dickhead?! i hate you!” you didn’t care if you were causing a scene. sanemi gulped down the lump in his throat and kept walking, clenching his fists tightly.

that’s right, you should hate me.

shinobu reached your side swiftly and started comforting you as tears streamed down your face copiously. she walked away from the scene with you, so you missed how sanemi turned his head to glance at you… but he was grateful, because if he had met your eyes he wouldn’t have been able to walk away and leave you anymore.

he did it to protect you… he was protecting you… right?

[spotsupstuff]

hi

you've mentioned that sparrows would have reincarnated as a slugcat?

would you mind elaborating on that?

also would they have met caper again after becoming all scuggy?

heehee

hoohoo hee :)c of course i'll elaborate! it is Her ✨ Fish's little best animal friend

wonderfully enough, Sparrows and the Tinkerer were developed completely removed from each other in my head, so Tinkerer still feels like a rather separate character from Sparrows even though they somehow wound up havin a lot of similiarities. exactly how the reincarnation stuff should feel like

the Tinkerer is Sparrows! and no character in-universe will ever find out. it isn't important. nobody but Tinkerer is affected by this, and Tinktink doesn't really have the means to speak about it. but for us behind the screens that know about this it will make Tinktink's interactions with the world just a lil bit more juicy

you've sent this at a good time, too! the day ur question came in i was actually pondering how to somehow make use of this reincarnation fact and not just let it float about as a lil bonus for the people that would know about this lil tiny ultimately unimportant connection

so, the idea: as we (probably) all know, Euros is going to end up developing the Rot. this is distressing for a large amount of reasons, but the main point rn is that Euros is also a secret archive of folklore of the lower circles in the Eo group, plus maybe even a little bit over the range's borders to the east (after all, there's two more groups right next door to him n he's a phone operator chief). Euros is going to die a slow painful death and he won't be able to care for or save his collection of knowledge, which somehow manages to hurt him more than the reality of his impending doom

maybe not so surprising, considering that in his archive are the stories, the history, the spirit of his late lover's home- a place he clung to for as long as he could, the one he spent the most time in with his overseers, the one that held people he constantly wished could be his citizens instead of the vile and fake *things* soiling the streets of Ales

so one day after the Fish has properly reconnected to the Eo group, is caught up on current events and trying his *damnest* to revive Mission Self-preservation even though it is guaranteed to be useless, Euros mentions the nightmare that he's living through

"I'm a dead man walking, carrying precious treasures of people that were never heard crying out. I've held them close and safely within myself for over two thousand years. And now, when I'm fated to rot through and splatter on the ground, I fear all this time will be for nought. That I will kill what I've been protecting for so long."

"Even if nobody ever reads these- learns of them, hears them out from above their graves- I can't bear the thought of losing them."

and well Fish DOES have a lot of beef with Euros, but at this point this bitterness is starting to give away to desperation and horror of the terrible torment waiting for them in the future. he might be stubbornly still trying with the Mission, but he would go against what makes him himself if he didn't acknowledge that they are all damned for good no matter what he tries. so he gives in to the pity and hails Tinkerer to his chamber

he explains to her what he needs her to do and tells Euros about the plan. Tinktink has to travel all of this distance

to get to Euros (basically walk through the whole Europe), but dammit, she helped one Iterator that became her closest friend, she will help another one (a different Gen 2 that she loved and dedicated her whole life to in a different life)

Fish sends her on her way with a hug and a plead to keep herself safe

it takes her over a month to get there even with the help of vehicles like the barely working trains and a remshackle sky-sail that Fish guided her through fixing in their free time together. when she gets on top of Euros' structure, the dejavus start to hit. she visits the Mechanics' home, her feet carrying her to the bedroom as if it was just another end of the workshift. she looks in the cupboards she- opened millions of times- never even touched. she walks outside and then down the path to the entrance into the Iterator she's- taken countless times- never set a foot on

she saw these halls so many times she can pin point where every screw is- she's never been here, she can't understand these giant beings, they are too complex for her animal brain. that specific rhythm of beeps and pumps and water rushing through metal veins has haunted- comforted- her in many of her dreams. the Tinkerer makes it to the chamber almost like on an auto-pilot

when she enters the chamber, the slugcat finds itself disappointed, scared, confused- this isn't what this place is supposed to look like (but how does she know what it is supposed to look like-?), this isn't how she left it (this is the first time she stands here, what are these thoughts). it's supposed to be brighter. warmer. why is the puppet's plating and skin damaged by time, where is it its vibrancy, why are its eyes so tired? there are panels missing from the walls ("it's got to be the results of that Fever i once made a proj- i can fix thi-! what?"), glowing artificial bronze robins fly about or sleeping on his shoulders, tiny Rot cysts pulsate from the cracks in the umbilical arm. where has the firebird in that halo gone off to?

Euros greets her joyfully ("oh what are you trying to play at, you goof. i've known you for so long, i can tell when something's wrong. what's hurting? why are you tired? i'll get you back into shape, doncha worry love.")

"Ah, you made it! Welcome to my chamber, adroit little thing."

"Please. Your journey was a long one. I hold no doubt a very dangerous one, too. I won't march you into the job immediately. Rest up."

Tinkerer thinks he's strange. but her legs are indeed hurting, the bag strapped to her is heavy. she curls up in the corner of the room and tries to get some shut eye. she almost falls asleep when Euros starts mumbling under his breath, shooting nervous glances towards the birds. five fingered hands tremble so badly the joints rattle like a child's toy. he's scary, when his shoulders hunch up like that and those tired eyes turn frantic. but it hurts so much to see him like that for some reason, more so than it is scary. so against the better judgement of a survivor, she softly coos at him

the puppet's head snaps to her, gaze cold. the mumbles increase in volume, allowing her to understand

"...I'll tell you what. I have another mission for you, little messenger. But it has to stay a secret between the two of us. Nobody would approve, especially not the one you belong to now."

something whispers that the puppet closing in is supposed to be a comfort. the larger part of the Tinkerer instead finds itself wishing to run away

"Are you aware of the Memory Crypts that lie beneath all of us City Bearers?"

cautious nod, back pressed against the wall

"Good."

[ratatouillewastakendammit]

Regrets

Chapter 7

Next Chapter

Index/Warnings

After the day you had, you were a bit worried about the nightmares that would follow. Fortunately, you were way too tired. Sleep was just long and dark, just the way a good sleep should be.

Unfortunately, good things don't last long.

The mattress you were on was thin and flimsy, allowing the jagged rock from beneath to poke out slightly. It was probably just in case of emergencies since you guessed the Troupe didn't actually sleep here like some demented murder-school dorm situation. The tiny knot of pain flared in your brain when you sat up, a match pushed against the stiff paper of your skull to ignite it.

You jumped a little when you noticed you weren't alone, which also didn't help the headache.

Chrollo was sitting in a chair with one hand propping up his face, the arm supported by the seats handle. His legs were crossed and he was leaning back in a comfortable position. He was reading a book.

"Good morning." He acknowledged without looking up.

Your eyes trailed around the room, searching for any sort of window to hint as to what time of day it was. When you didn't find one, you reluctantly turned back to him.

"How long was I out?"

"Fourteen hours."

Shit.

"What do you want?"

"I figured you had questions." He snapped the book shut and placed it on the ground before standing up. "Am I correct?"

Yes.

You left out an annoyed huff.

He chuckled a bit at that, but continued moving closer to you. Thankfully, he stopped at a respectable distance, seeing that you weren't keen on being all that close to him. He got lucky yesterday since you were too tired to care. When you realized he was waiting for you to continue the mainly one-sided conversation, you looked up and began with the most important issue.

"What do you want with me?"

"In short, we're looking for the chain user."

"I won't be of any help with finding him or anything." You retorted, hoping to keep the conversation swift.

"That's alright, we know where he is."

They've already found him?

"Or, at least we know where he'll be." Chrollo took your confused expression as an indicator to continue. "In two days, he'll be in a small town in the Roto mountains. I'm sure you know what he's doing."

Your expression darkened slightly. "Then what do you need me for? I'll die before being used as some homing beacon so you can get to my friend."

"After that little show you put on yesterday I don't doubt you would. However, that's not why you're here. I assume you've been filled in on the consequence's of the judgement chain inside me?"

You nodded. "And I assume you've managed to find an exorcist?"

"With everyone still lingering from the auction, we were able to find someone to defuse your friends power enough for me to reunite with my colleagues. However, it was only sufficient to allow me use of my own abilities for a limited time. This particular exorcist requires the original castor to exterminate more powerful abilities, meaning I'd need to get in contact with the chain user again."

So that's why.

"Although we've been able to trace him, your friend doesn't stay very long in the same place." He continued. "However, I trust that with you there, we'll have enough time to allow the exorcist the remove the remaining nen."

"So, you need me to lie and distract my friend for your personal ability renewal?"

"Precisely."

You scoffed, a bit dumbfound, and folded your arms. "So you get your powers back. Then what, you kill him? Why would I ever help you?"

"For starters, I'll make sure no one from the Troupe interferes with either of you again, unless of course, your friend does someone else radical and decides to strike first. "

Although you remained steady, shock fazed through your previously spiteful tone as you carried on with questions of your own. "So, we really wouldn't have to worry about any of you? Even after the judgement chain is released?"

"No harm will come to you from anyone in this hideout, I give you my word. And as long as you're working for me, then I will also be able to guarantee your personal protection."

His words confused you. When you inquired why you would ever want to comply, the expected answer was something along the lines of 'we won't kill you.' Of course, the Phantom Troupe's amnesty was an insane benefit, especially after Kurapika succeeded in killing one of their members, whether it had been directly or not. However, would this be worth whatever he needed of you?

"I'm not gonna kill anyone. Or have anyone get hurt because of me."

The look he gave you was odd; it was calculating, yet interested. He took a moment to ponder it before giving you a response.

"Fine. I'll add onto our clause. As long as you're taking my orders, I won't kill anyone, unless they pose an immediate threat or you give me your permission."

This time, surprise actually did overtake you to the point where composure faltered; you blinked back, running his words over in your head to make sure they were heard correctly.

Of course, they could be just that: words.

It was pretty obvious he was a talented liar that hid behind the mask of a charming persona, but something told you that it wasn't a deception.

'I give you my word.'

Did you trust him? No, obviously not. However, something was off.

You still couldn't read his emotions at all, but your abilities weren't what were pushing you. This time, it was just plain intuition, nagging at you like a small child to make a bad decision. And it was probably a bad decision, an immensely stupid decision.

But you've made a lot of stupid decisions already.

"Alright, fine. Deal."

XxXxX

The next day and a half were tense.

A few of the Troupe members rotated the watch over you in order to prevent any attempts of escape. The act wasn't a surprise, but still unpleasant. You were already uncomfortable with them and having their eyes on you made it that much more awful, forcing a constant exhale of control over your own emotions. Some would try to make conversation or just plain snide remarks, but you didn't give them the time of day, refusing to even look in the direction of any of them.

Although you hated to say that you had one at all, your favorite member as of now was Machi, who didn't attempt to bother you very much. Instead, she would sit, gracefully balancing that iridescent silk between slim fingers. Neither of you were stupid and both knew she was quicker and much stronger than you, at least to the point where she could capture you without much fuss. So she kept her eyes on her hatsu, which was a refreshing change from the undignified feeling of being constantly babysat. Some might've even described it as a comfortable silence between the both of you.

It definitely wasn't friendliness, but rather a mutual agreement of respect between the two of you; you wouldn't try to run and she wouldn't bother herself with antagonizing you.

She was actually the one watching you when Franklin knocked on the door, letting you know that it was time to leave for the Roto Mountains. They were only a little over two hours away, so you went by car. Unfortunately, that also meant two hours in the car with the man you had come to know as Chrollo.

If you thought being constantly monitored within the hideout was bad, which you did, this was so much worse.

Troublesome emotions permeated the air like a poisonous gas, suffocating and heavy, much too overpowering for the confines of the vehicle.

His charming yet detached semblance made you squirm. It made it even harder that you couldn't begin to understand what lied beneath it. Knowing what others were thinking was like a safety net that allowed you to feel in control, or at least provided a heads up for when it was time to run. He had yet to seem hostile to you, but that made the apprehensive state of being in the dark more daunting.

On most long car rides, you took to the usual practice of napping, but you just couldn't with him.

Ignore, yes. Fully letting your guard down for an unprecedented amount of time? No way.

Instead, you did your best to disregard him, just focusing on the trailing foliage outside your window and letting your mind wander as far as it could without becoming overly careless. Still, you could never seem to escape the unnerving feeling of being so close to the Troupe's leader.

Thankfully, you at least had the barrior of a chair, with him being in the passenger and Nobunaga driving, yet another form of mental turmoil within the automobile. On the other hand, you sat next to the nen exorcist, a young man that went by the name of Abengane.

After what seemed like much longer than two hours, the small group finally managed to pull into a parking lot.

You surveyed the location, raising a tentative eyebrow. "A bar?"

"The chain user is giving payment to the man who tipped him off on the Kurta eyes location."

Your neck swiveled in the direction of the man in front of you, heart breaking just a bit at the unbothered way he mentioned the stolen body parts of your fallen kin. Of course, it was always easier to hide behind anger, so you answered with a curt,

"Fuck you."

And with that, you stepped outside of the car and made your way to the pub, slamming the door on your way out.

'The chain user is giving payment to the man who tipped him off on the Kurta eyes location.'

Yeah, I wonder why the fuck he had to do that in the first place.

Whatever, just get this over with.

An intense aroma of liquor and cigar smoke was the first thing that you noticed as you entered the bar, which now seemed more like a modern day speakeasy. Your nose unconsciously wrinkled at the fragrant assault. The room was dark and cold, despite the warmth of the many bodies inhabiting it or the fire blazing in the far corner. Although it certainly was loud, there was one voice you could make out over anyone else's.

"What are you doing here?"

XxXxX

You hadn't really been fond on letting Kurapika go after violently tackling him with an embrace. Of course, he had been momentarily stunned, and a bit apprehensive at the prospect of a possible assault, but after a few seconds he flung his arms around your back. Even though you weren't really known for hugs, it honestly seemed like the only thing you could do at the moment, and you allowed yourself to stay like this for a small while. Of course, Kurapika wasn't a very physical person in general either, so the fact that he himself indulged in it spoke to how much he missed you.

Now, however, you were both behind the bar, perched on a wooden picnic table Kurapika had led you too. The air was so much fresher than inside, giving you the chance to breath before jumping into dreaded conversation.

As you looked at the man in front of you, the pangs of ache and guilt were increasingly evident within his emotional aura, like little flecks of sorrow among the usual sheet of indifference. You weren't exactly keen on starting the discussion, but it was plainly obvious your friend was in the same boat.

"Why did you leave?"

He kept his head down, hands gripping one another a bit too harshly.

"Hey." You snuck a gloved palm over, entwining your fingers with his. "I'm not mad. I just... I just wanna know what I did."

"You didn't do anything. You've never done anything wrong." His eyes remained downward. "I just can't let you die."

"So, you left without telling me?"

"I didn't want to, but after everything with the Phantom Troupe... We have targets painted on our backs now, even with their leader out of commission."

"I'm sorry."

Regret swarmed through your body. Your leg began to bounce up and down like a jumping bean.

"It's not your fault. If you and Gon hadn't stepped in back then, I could be dead right now."

He's lying, just trying to make you feel better.

"No, not just for..." You let out a huff of frustration, not knowing what to say, or at least, whether to say it. Thankfully, he did.

"How did you even find me?"

"I heard about the movement of Kurta eyes a few cities away from here and managed to connect it to where you would come next." It was shameful how easily the lie slipped past your lips, but you still tried hard to make it believable. Despite your natural talent at improvising, Kurapika was always good at telling your fibs. "I'd been looking for a while."

He gave a lighthearted hum. "You never were very good at giving up, even when I was being foolish."

"Which is pretty often." You replied, happy that your prepared script was flowing into a more cheerful territory. "But you're still my best friend. I don't... I can't just sit and wonder if you're dead. And I know I'm not strong or smart or anything, but I want to help you, even if that means from the sidelines."

The offer made Kurapika him look up. But as you watched his hopeful expression pale into one of dread, it wasn't hard to understand something was wrong.

"What?" Then it hit you. "Shit!"

You had been so invested in the heartfelt conversation that you had somehow managed to ignore the tingly warmth of your eyes turning bright red.

Jolting upward, you smashed your hands against your face in a meager attempt to hide the abnormality. When they changed the usual feeling was that of fear, fear of any outsider noticing and somehow making a connection. Now, the only one you were worried about shared the same peculiar feature.

Said individual harshly grabbed your wrists before you could trip yourself over the bench. "Just try and calm down quickly. Did you forget to put in contacts today? Have you forgotten before?"

"No, I-I was-" forced to take them out by our worst enemy who I'm apparently in cahoots with. "Fuck!"

You had created the grand plan of giving however much time the exorcist needed and then hightailing it as far away from here as possible, but that was thrown out the window because of one stupid mistake and your uncontrollable emotions.

Fucking idiot.

He's gonna find out. He already knows something's up; maybe if you're honest it'll soften the blow.

I can't.

I need to think.

"Hey, stop."

What do I do?

Just calm down.

But you couldn't. Your hands were stilled by his, but at this point you couldn't stop panicking, anxiety you hadn't felt since his leave over half a year ago growing worse with every moment spent trying to decide what to say next.

This wasn't supposed to happen.

"What's going on?"

Mouth watering with verbal nausea, your brain cut to the nearest option.

"'Made a deal."

"A deal? Wait, with who?"

Guilty conscious is a self-accuser.

"Phantom Troupe."

He went silent, a cold and dark quiet that made your insides hollow as you waited for a response.

"You... you what?"

You can't stop now.

"They kidnapped me and said that they needed you to try and fix the nen dagger."

His hands dropped from yours and he backed away. "You're serious?"

You watched in despair as his expression turned sour, your heart becoming heavy as you realized how grave of a mistake you had let out into the open. The already-present panic began to grow bigger as remorse and worry hit you like a train. "They said... they said that they would leave us alone. And that they wouldn't kill anyone as long as I-"

"And you believed them?!" Shame washed over you, lowering your head as he scoffed.

"I... I know it sounds bad, but I just knew I could."

"How could you be so stupid?"

You tried advancing forward, but he backed away in disgust, like you were some contagious disease. Coherent thoughts transformed into slurred phrases as your downward slope of hysteria continued.

"I thought... I thought maybe we wouldn't have to worry anymore."

"What would Pairo think? And your mom? Huh?"

That was the breaking point.

Your heart shattered into pieces, carved out by the blade of his words. The dam cracks and tears begin to flow down your face when you look up at him. No matter how hard you tried to plug it back up, it just won't stop.

"No, no, no, Kurapika, please don't say that." You cried.

"Well, it's true! Isn't it?" He grabbed your wrist in an iron-clad grip. "They're dead because of the Phantom Troupe and you go off and make deals with them? Are you really that callous or just a fucking idiot?"

You tried to wriggle out of his painful clasp, but he held firm, eyes blazing so hard beneath his contacts that you thought they might melt away.

"This isn't her fault, you know."

Kurapika didn't turn around to meet Chrollo's eyes, but his grip somehow grew impossibly stronger. "Why should I believe you?"

"Because I have no reason to lie. We did kidnap her and I have no intent on forgoing our deal."

His expression remained unchanged, either still in disbelief or at the point where the words didn't make a difference.

"Kurapika, p-please! I'm s-so sor-"

"I'll find you again someday." He grunted, ignoring you. "And when I do, I'll make sure to slit each of your throats individually."

He finally dropped your wrist, turning around to leave. You made a move to grab onto him and make him stop, but he slapped your arm away without enough force to make you stumble and fall onto the floor.

"Don't touch me."

"Kurapika-"

"As far as I'm concerned, you're one of them now."

You tried pleading with him to come back, to not leave you again, but he didn't hesitate, leaving you to sob on the concrete flooring of the patio. The pavement scraped against your hands as you drew them into fists.

He's not coming back

He hates you

The world melted away through a veil of unseen voices as you drowned in turmoil, letting out a cry of what one could only describe as pure despair.

And here you are, blubbering like an idiot

You're nothing but a pathetic bitch

it's no wonder he doesn't want you anymore

Who in the world would?

Your head was beginning to hurt as you continued to weep, but it was nothing compared to the agonizing pain in your chest. Breathing became almost impossible, just becoming wet heaves between sobs that were enough to drown out the light footsteps coming closer.

They stopped right in front of you, causing you to glance up and see Chrollo. His tall stature was enough to block out the sun, casting a dark shadow over you that made you grimace.

"Fuck. Off." You spat.

But he merely tilted his head, like an animal wordlessly expressing their confusion, then knelt down, taking away the shade with him. The sun pierced through your still-crimson eyes and you glanced away, already missing his cool shadow and cursing yourself for it.

"What do you want?"

"Would you like me to wait in the car instead?"

You stilled at his words for a moment.

"What?"

"Do you expect us to leave you here?"

This made you look up, surprised, only to be met with his outstretched hand. The scene from a few nights ago, one where physical exhaustion weighed you down rather than emotional, replayed in your head. You were certain this was worse, though.

Regardless, he still held his palm out expectantly, every broken part of you begging to take it, to take some form of comfort in any shape.

"I don't need your pity."

"I wasn't offering it." But his stance remained firm.

You eyed his hand, looking for any sign of a trick, even though you weren't really sure you would care if that was the case. He gave you the time, waiting patiently for you to push him away. But some part of you just couldn't, at least, not now.

Where else do I have to go?

So, you stood up, fueled only by the hopeless weight flaming in your stomach. You ignored his hand, but followed back to the car nonetheless, not giving much attention to whether the decision would end up with you dead.

[meraki24601]

*bangs aggresivly on door*

FBI open up! Drop all your weapons and put yours hands up . we brought reinforcements. Now follow us and leave all your belongings where they are except for your laptop. We need a part 3 to muted.

I surrender! It took me longer than I had hoped, but to everyone asking for part 3 to Muted, here it is!

Part 1, Part 2

-----------*-***-*-----------

Muted Part 3

Hero slept nearly 4 hours without any nightmares. Something they hadn’t done, by their estimate, for around 10 years. They hadn’t even screamed or flinched when they woke up.

Villain rested peacefully next to them. They were lying with a respectful distance between them, but their fingers were tightly woven with Hero’s. Villain twitched slightly as Hero shifted but didn’t wake. With care they haven’t been allowed to use for a while, Hero released Villain’s hand and slipped out of the bed. 

This was it. The moment Villain woke and had some breakfast, they were running away. Away from Superhero. Away from Supervillain. As far away as they could go. Hero only had one suitcase, but it would have to be enough. Clothes, food, and first aid. Hero’s medical backpack wasn’t super flashy, so they could probably take that instead of taking up room in the suitcase. 

Having already barely escaped with their life once, Villain didn’t have any clothes they could bring with them. Some of Hero’s smaller shirts might fit well enough, and they can bring several belts to hold the pants on until they have the opportunity to buy some that actually fit. If they’re quick, they might even be able to get Ally to make some false paperwork for them to leave the country. 

As Hero zipped up their suitcase to take it downstairs to gather food, they heard a small noise behind them. Villain was awake and watching them with tears in their eyes. Shifting back so they could rest against the headboard, Villain signed, “We’re leaving? You weren’t lying?”

Sighing deeply, Hero signed back, “As long as you’re willing to try. I swear, I don’t know how much I can do, but I will do everything I can to keep you safe.”

“I’ve always liked road trips.” Villain laughed softly. “What can I do to help?”

“There’s a change of clothes and bandages in the bathroom. Wash up. If you can rewrap your wounds, I’ll make breakfast and pack food and toiletries. We can be out of here before my next check-in at 10.” Hero helps Villain rise from the bed, “I… I’m still so sorry for what I did to you.”

“Nevermind that, Moonlight. What’s done is done.”

“Moonlight?”

“I’ve always loved the Moon. The whole world is dark, but despite it all, there’s a small ray of light. No one has ever tried to help me before. No one but you has shone any light in my life.” Villain scratches the back of their head, “Is… is that alright?”

Hero’s grin could have rivaled the Cheshire Cat’s. “Only if I can call you Honeybee.” 

Villain giggled, “Why Honeybee?” 

“I’ll save my reasoning for later if you don’t mind. Now, get ready. We don’t have much time.” Hero pushes Villain toward the connected bathroom before slipping quickly out the bedroom door. They took a moment, joy filling their heart, then ran down the stairs to the kitchen. 

There, leaning casually against the kitchen counter with two of Hero’s favorite mugs were Superhero and Supervillain. 

Hero didn’t hesitate. Immediately, they drew on their power and prepared to shout for Villain to run. Hero wasn’t strong enough to take on Superhero, much less Superhero and Supervillain. They were going to die, but maybe Villain could make it out if they jumped out the window. All they had to do was warn them.

Too late. Before Hero had taken a full breath, Supervillain was behind them. Supervillain’s hand wrapped firmly around Hero’s throat, cutting off their cry. “Ah ah ah. None of that now, little traitor. Villain will be joining us soon enough. Let them finish their shower. Your friend Sidekick was all too eager to help them finish quickly.”

A small gasp of “why” is all Hero can squeeze past Supervillain’s hand. Superhero laughs as Hero struggles slightly, quickly growing desperate for air. “You gave us something we could fight against. Something we both hate more than each other.” Superhero growls as they slam Hero’s cup on the counter.

“Sweet little traitors like you and my darling Villain.” Supervillain shoved Hero to their knees. “Superhero and I, well, we came to a little agreement. A little party game of sorts. We work together to find the biggest, most violent ways to kill you two, then blame the fallout on you. No one will know the truth of us working together since, well, you’ll be dead.”

Hero hears a crash in their bedroom and can’t hold back a flinch. Seeing Hero’s reaction, Supervillain giggles, stomping their feet with glee. “Oh, Superhero. I know we agreed to punish our own as we see fit, but can’t I have this one, just for a moment? I won’t kill them yet, I promise.”

“I guess.” Superhero sighs, “But only for a moment. We don’t want to get carried away too quickly. We need a crowd outside.”

Sidekick crashed down the stairs, almost falling on the last step. Hero wasn’t sure, they couldn’t turn to get a good look, but they thought they caught a glimpse of a new bruise around Sidekick’s eye. “Superhero! S-Supervillain. It’s Villain. I looked everywhere, but they’re not here. I. I swear I looked everywhere. The window was open before I made it upstairs.” 

Superhero’s laughter sent shivers down Hero’s spine. Supervillain released Hero’s throat to grab their arm and twist it behind them, lifting Hero from their spot on the ground. As Superhero moved past them toward Sidekick, Supervillain’s free hand grabbed Hero’s side, fingers cutting into Hero’s now bleeding wound, and turned them to watch.

At that moment, Hero saw something they had never seen before. Superhero hurt Sidekick. They shoved Sidekick to the ground into a position Hero knew all too well. “Wait. Stop.” Hero whispered as they watched Superhero release their power into a whip. When the first stroke fell, Hero turned their head aside and threw up. That first stroke opened up Sidekick’s shirt, revealing dozens of old scars.

How did they never know?

With a loud crash, the outside wall of Hero’s apartment burst in. There, in the rubble, stood Villain. Hand clutching their side, Villain stood tall. Their smile was weak. Their whole frame shook from the effort, but their eyes were unwavering in their determination. Even as Supervillain dragged Hero out of the kitchen, they didn’t waver. 

“Run, Villain.” Hero gasped, “Please, run. They’ll kill us both.” Hero’s throat burned from the sudden use after Supervillain’s abuse. A small sound, however, drew Hero’s attention away from their new friend and to the three teenagers standing as far from Villain as they could get in the damaged room. 

Supervillain twisted Hero’s arm and squeezed their arm tighter, causing them to cry out. “Well. Isn’t this interesting? Oh, Superhero! It seems my little pet brought us some new friends. Where do they fall in our little alliance?”

Superhero slipped into view with that inhuman grace Hero learned to fear long ago. Their whip was wrapped tightly around Sidekick’s throat, dragging them, kicking, and trying to scream through the rubble. “I see. Did you think bringing in witnesses would be enough to stop us? They’re irrelevant. Unfortunate victims caught up in Hero and Villain’s fight.”

“Oh, I do love it when you talk like that. Maybe we ought to kill our underlings together more often. Make it a monthly event?” Supervillain released Hero to fall to the floor at their feet. Their power stretched between their fingers, growing with each step they took toward Villain.

The weak smile Villain wore gained strength. Their hands didn’t shake as they signed one simple little word. “Livestream.” Each of the teens was holding up a phone, livestreaming Superhero and Supervillain’s words to the world. “Let us go. All we want is to be free from the two of you and your hatred. We don’t want to fight anymore.”

“Go, then.” Superhero sighed, they started to walk away but turned quickly. “Was that good? We did what you asked. We performed in your play. Please, release your magic and let Sidekick go. Give Supervillain the antidote.” 

The building rumbled beneath Hero and started to collapse inward. Hero’s heart clenched as the two floors below theirs were crushed under the weight of the now unstable top floor. Screams surrounded Hero. Superhero found an out. They turned themselves into the victims. The cameras were off and the battle had begun. If only Hero could still fight.

A piece of the building had fallen on top of them, crushing them from where it rested on their lower back. 

Still in character, Superhero stood above Hero. “Please, let them go. I, I can’t save you from those wounds. Release my Sidekick. Please.” Even as they spoke, Hero could feel Superhero’s power shifting some of the rubble beneath them so sharp metal pressed against their chest. Not far away, they could hear Supervillain giving Villain a similar speech, though Villain seemed largely uninjured in the fall.

“Enough.” Sidekick’s voice was just barely louder than the growing fires around them. “Enough of your lies.” 

The rubble holding Hero down is lifted and slammed into Supervillain, sending them flying. Hero can breathe again. Though, not for long. The metal beneath them pierces their skin, drawing out a long groan.

“Enough, Superhero! I refuse to let you have your way.” Sidekick leaned over Hero, dragging their helpless body from the ground and tossing them into Villain. Instead of piercing Hero’s heart, the metal meant to kill them cuts a long gash across their chest before lurching up and impaling Sidekick.

Villain’s arms wrapped around Hero, pulling them away from the remains of their home. Hero’s voice rips from their chest as they use what little strength they have left to fight to reach Sidekick. They watched as yet another victim fell to their knees. The last thing Hero saw before the world went dark was a tear in Sidekick’s eyes as they mouthed “I’m sorry.”

[thornybubbles]

Playing a Horror Game with Josuke and Okuyasu (non-yandere scenario/headcanons)

Note: These headcanons are based in the current year and aren’t yandere themed. As much as I like yandere stuff, I have to take a break from it every now and again. So, here’s a little something from my brain’s lighter side. (You’re still going to be playing a horror game though!)

Josuke is a bit nervous about this. He’ll never admit it in a thousand years, but he’s not a fan of horror games. The last one he played scared him badly enough to give him nightmares for days and he never played it again. When you asked him to play a game called “7 Days to Die”, a survival/crafting/zombie horde game, he wanted to refuse, but when you mentioned that you had been playing the game with Okuyasu for a few weeks now, he immediately downloaded the game from Steam. He was a bit miffed (and very jealous) that you had been playing with Okuyasu and neither of you bothered to invite him until now. You didn’t say anything to him at the time, but you knew all about his aversion to horror games and were reluctant to invite him to play due to how intense 7 Days could get. It was Okuyasu that insisted that you invite his best friend, because the two of you had been having some trouble with the last few zombie hordes and he felt that Josuke’s gaming experience could come in handy. So you relented. 

Okuyasu, in spite of his… limitations… proved to be a genius at building. He managed to design a beautiful fortress with a kitchen, sleeping quarters, garden, storage room, and even a watchtower. You helped him surround the fortress with an impressive concrete wall and surrounded that wall with a ditch full of metal spikes. Neither of you had quite reached the level where you could get the perks that allowed you to create automated defenses… at least you hadn’t. 

You found out that Okuyasu hadn’t bothered to put perk points into anything yet. He’d been collecting unused perk points since level one and hadn’t unlocked ANYTHING! No wonder you guys were struggling! After getting him to actually use his perk points (and making sure he invested them in perks that were actually useful), the two of you began to set up more high tech defenses. This, of course, was after you finally got him to stop giggling stupidly at the fact that there was a perk called “Sexual Tyrannosaurus”. 

When Okuyasu first spawned into the game, he spotted what he thought was an NPC in the distance and ran over to them. You tried to warn him over Discord that it wasn’t an NPC, but when you heard his startled scream, you knew it was already too late. He was zombie chow. He respawned in the desert and it took you forever to find him again. When you did manage to find him, he was fighting off a flock of zombified vultures. You sighed and went to his rescue. 

When Josuke was creating his character, he was disappointed that he wasn’t able to give his character a pompadour. He settled for a mohawk.

When Josuke finally joined the game, he spawned in the snow. It was a terrible starting point, but it didn’t slow him down at all. It took you and Okuyasu a long time to get to him, but by the time you found him he was already wearing padded armor, managed to loot some ruined houses for ammo, and made a pipe rifle and a sledge hammer. 

“Hey guys! What took you so long?” he said, as he stood outside of his shack that he already had surrounded with wooden spikes, while cooking meat from a freshly killed wolf over his campfire. 

You stared at him, a little bit envious of how quickly he progressed with no guidance at all. It took you a while to figure out the mechanics of the game and took you even longer to explain it all to Okuyasu, (and he still struggled with it from time to time). You glanced up at the day counter at the top of the screen. You didn’t have much time. Maybe it was a good thing that Josuke was so good at picking up the game so quickly. 

“We need to hurry and get back to the base.” You said. “We only have three days before the next Blood Moon.” 

“Oh that’s right! We haven’t finished setting up the rest of those traps!” Okuyasu chimed in. 

“And you’re gonna need much better armor than that.” You said to Josuke, looking at his character’s very basic armor.

“Uh… Blood Moon…???” Josuke asked, sounding confused. 

Oh boy. Josuke hadn’t bothered to do any research on the main mechanic of the game. You told him that you would explain on the way. Josuke gathered up the few supplies that he deemed important and followed you and Okuyasu back to the base. Along the way, you explained to him just why the game was called “7 Days to Die”. 

“You have a total of seven in-game days to do things like build, gather materials and supplies, look for food and water, and take quests from the Traders. On the night of the seventh day, a Blood Moon rises and a horde of zombies comes after you. It doesn’t matter where you are, they’ll find you. You can’t hide from them and you can’t run from them. Your only choice is to stand and fight.” you explained. 

Josuke was really quiet as he listened to your explanation. That sounded absolutely terrifying.

“And the attack lasts all night long!” Okuyasu added. “Also, everything is bathed in an eerie red glow, like the gates of Hell just opened and unleashed its lost souls upon the living!” 

He added the last part in a creepy voice and let out a maniacal laugh. 

“Don’t be so dramatic, Okuyasu.” You said, rolling your eyes at his antics. 

Josuke was having some major second thoughts. 

“Great…” he muttered under his breath. You managed to pick it up through Discord though.

“You, uh… you gonna be able to do this, Josuke?” you asked. 

“Y-yeah! It can’t be that bad… c-can it?” he said, trying to sound brave but failing. 

“Weeeeelllllll….” 

You didn’t think it would be fair to lie to him.

“With every level up you get and every week that passes, things get more and more difficult. Eventually you’ll come across different kinds of zombies and some of them have different abilities. Some are stronger, some can jump really high, some can call other zombies, some explode…” 

“Explode?!” Josuke shouted. 

You explained more about what to expect from the game. The more you explained, the more Josuke doubted that he wasn’t going to have nightmares that night. 

Eventually you all made it back to your base and Josuke was impressed with your progress. Okuyasu proudly showed him around while you rifled through your supplies, looking for what you needed to make Josuke a decent set of armor for his current level and perks. You also searched through your weapons and ammo supplies as well. While you were impressed with how quickly Josuke managed to make his own weapons, a pipe rifle and a stone sledge hammer weren’t going to be enough for what the next Blood Moon would throw at you. You realized that you forgot to mention that with each Blood Moon that passes, the Blood Moon hordes get more and more intense, including the stronger variations of zombies. Glancing at the day counter again, you realized that it wouldn’t matter if he knew or not anyway. This next Blood Moon would be rough. You just hoped your preparations were going to be enough. 

Josuke proved a big help in preparing the base for defending against the horde. He helped you and Okuyasu plan better defensive strategies for the upcoming Blood Moon. It was his idea to set up an extra two layers of barbed wire around the spike pit. The barbed wire would slow the zombies down, allowing you to pick off the more dangerous ones. The spike pit would take care of the rest. It sounded good in theory, but having been through several Blood Moon hordes before, you couldn’t help but feel a bit worried that it wasn’t going to go as smoothly as you hoped. Okuyasu set up some robotic turrets to mow down the oncoming horde from the watchtower. It seemed like a good plan. You started to feel a little more confident about your chances of surviving the next Blood Moon. 

Josuke’s first night in the game was pretty awful. No lighting of any kind was allowed because you discovered earlier that light attracted curious zombies to your base. Campfires were only used for making emergency rations or to warm up when your characters got wet and cold when it rained. Josuke hated that. He asked if you could have at least one torch but you said no. It was just too risky. So Josuke spent that night huddled in the darkness of the main room with you and Okuyasu with the only light coming from the moon. While the “home base” music was comforting, it still held a slight sinister undertones to it and when it wasn’t playing, the night time air was filled with all kinds of strange sounds that set him on edge. 

“W-what the hell was that noise?!” he yelped. 

Okuyasu chuckled at his obvious nervousness. 

“Just nighttime ambience to make the game spooky. Trust me, you’ll know if it’s zombies.” you told him. 

Speaking of which…

Your base was suddenly surrounded by the sound of footsteps rushing around the outside. . 

“Shoot…” you mumbled. 

“What? What is it?!” Josuke demanded, his voice pitched with growing terror. 

“I forgot to mention that the zombies gain the ability to run when it’s dark.” You said. 

“WHAT?!!” Josuke shouted. 

You could hear the snarling and growling near the front of your base. It was the unmistakable sound of zombies angrily trying to free themselves from your barbed wire traps. Battle music started playing. 

“HORDE!!!” Okuyasu shouted, maybe a bit too gleefully for your tastes. 

His character threw open the back door and ran up to the top of the watchtower. From there he could see a fairly large group of zombies wading through the barbed wire in an effort to get to the base. Without the sunlight blaring down on them, they were faster and more energized. They were making short work of the barbed wire. They’d already broken some of the traps. Okuyasu killed a few of them, but he could see more coming in the distance. 

“What do we do?!” Josuke yelled, panic evident in his voice. 

“Come on!” you said and led him up a ladder to the roof of the base. 

From there you lead him to the catwalks that Okuyasu set up. The catwalks lined the wall, giving you both a decent view of the approaching horde. You and Josuke began picking off the newcomers, while Okuyasu got rid of the zombies stuck in the barbed wire. 

Eventually, the three of you managed to fend off the horde with minimal damage to the defenses. Josuke felt like his heart had gone up to his throat. After taking a moment to calm down, and metaphorically swallow his heart back down into his chest, he let out a relieved sigh. 

“That wasn’t so bad!” he said. “Man, you guys made it out like the Blood Moon was gonna be tough!” 

“Uh… Josuke…” Okuyasu started to say.

“That wasn’t a Blood Moon. We still have another day before that happens.” You said. “That was just a mini-horde.”

“MINI-HORDE!?” Josuke shouted. “That was like 20 zombies!” 

“Nah, more like 10.” Okuyasu corrected. “Blood Moon hordes are way bigger and they keep comin’ until the sun comes up. I told ya that before, remember?” 

“Oh…” Josuke said. 

When the day of the Blood Moon finally arrived, Josuke spent all of the daylight hours feeling on edge. The three of you went about gathering up the needed materials to do quick repairs, getting loot from one of the nearby houses, buying ammo and repair kits from the Trader, and preparing food and water. Josuke got the idea to set up some storage crates at strategic areas around the base and fill them with supplies so you wouldn’t have to run all the way back to the storage room if you ran out of ammo or needed first aid kits or something during the Blood Moon. 

Finally, the sun set and the Blood Moon had arrived. Just as Okuyasu described, the world was bathed in a red glow, giving it a hellish look. Thunder boomed in the sky and, in no time at all, the horde was upon you. Okuyasu let out a ridiculous battle cry and began shooting down on the zombies with the turrets. You tossed molotovs down onto the zombies as they approached the outer layer of barbed wire. While they burned, you took out your sniper rifle and began picking off the tougher zombies. Josuke just used the machine gun you gave him to pepper them with bullets. Things were going fairly well… at first. 

Then things went sour very quickly. One of your bullets hit a large soldier zombie in the chest, setting off the bomb embedded there, and causing it to explode. The resulting explosion took out a section of the layers of barbed wire and the zombies went right to it. The spike pit took out the first few that fell into it, but eventually the spikes were broken and destroyed, opening up yet another path. The zombies that fell into the pit and weren’t impaled by the spikes began climbing out of the pit and making a beeline for the main gate in the wall. You, Okuyasu, and Josuke killed off as many of them as you could, but eventually they tore the gate down and flooded into the front yard. They had breached your defenses! 

Josuke was panic shooting as he watched the zombies surround your base and begin pounding on the front door and around the walls. It wouldn’t be long before they made their way into the base! Sure enough, the horde broke through the front door and some of the windows. They piled into the base and began making their way up the ladder to you and Josuke. 

Okuyasu and Josuke were nearly deafened by your screaming as you found yourself face to face with your least favorite kind of zombie: the spider zombie. As if a regular zombie wasn’t bad enough, some sicko developer thought it would be a great idea to combine one with a spider, thus creating a monstrosity that had a hideous, arachnid-like face, crawled around on all fours, leapt to great heights, and made the most horrible sounds you’ve ever heard. The creature seemed weirdly focused on you, more so than even the other zombies. It let out an ear-splitting screech before jumping on you. It broke your arm and gave you a concussion. Soon the other zombies joined in, punching and slashing at you and knocking your health down bit by bit. You did your best to fight them off, but both your ammo and health were depleting. At least you managed to kill that horrible spider zombie. 

Amidst the flurry of blows from your undead attackers, you could see that Josuke was having his own troubles. A group of female zombies had cornered him on the catwalk and were now chasing him around the top of the wall. Josuke had long since run out of ammo and due to his undead fangirls, he was unable to get to the emergency supply crate. He used the modified baseball bat you gave him to bash in a few of their skulls, cringing at the cracking and squelching sound their heads made when he smashed them open. He noted that it seemed that only the female zombies were targeting him. Even in a game, he ends up with an unwanted harem. He was seriously contemplating just jumping down into the spike pit to get away from them. He would probably survive…

Okuyasu was doing better than you two. The horde had not yet breached the watchtower and he managed to mow down most of the ones that tried to break in with the turrets. He had a fully stocked supply crate that he only needed to get into once, and that was to refill the ammo for one of the turrets. He was feeling pretty safe at the top of his watchtower… until the flock of zombie vultures flew into his face.

“Not you guys again!” he cried.

Just when it seemed like all was lost, the sun rose and the Blood Moon came to an end. Miraculously, you managed to fend off the last few zombie stragglers. Your base was in shambles. Your poor character had two broken legs, one broken arm, and a concussion and was slowly bleeding out. You hobbled over to the nearly destroyed supply crate and grabbed a first aid kit and some bandages to stop the bleeding. You also put casts on all your broken limbs. Due to your character’s injuries, you couldn’t do much to help as Josuke and Okuyasu healed themselves and started to work on repairing the base. You could only stand there and watch as they started patching things up. 

To your surprise, Josuke was already planning for the next Blood Moon, hoping to be better prepared now that he knew just how intense things could get. You thought for sure the Blood Moon would scare Josuke away from the game for good, but he told you that playing it with you and Okuyasu made it fun, and a lot less scary than it would be if he were playing it by himself. 

If he could handle multiplayer survival horror games then maybe you’d introduce him to more. You wondered how he would do in a game like “The Forest”. Maybe you’d invite him and Okuyasu to join you sometime. In the meantime, you watched your friends start the rebuilding process as you waited for your character to heal.

[deadbeandrop]

is lumpus a city boy

y'know i really love asking in that way (there's something cute yet almost mocking about the phrase) but you get me, see, i already have a list of this stuff i've been trying to figure out for everyone

for the record, at the same time i've also been trying to nail down the other factors that come with a family situation there, like, work statuses of the household, wealth, what time frame i'm working from (it's such a nightmare trying to get a job and own a house in comparison rn...) so i'll talk about that a bit too... and there is also the ever present "do you guys know how fucking Expensive it actually is to stay at a summer camp this long???" thing that unfortunately my very specific brain has me thinking about even though it doesn't matter in Cartoon Land and i simply have a Prablem

(i'm also still learning about some of these terms i use because i have no life experience but i hope this still paints a picture here even if it might not be fully correct...?)

so for lumpus specifically we're looking at

- two parents who aren't particularly young when he's born (my friends not too much older than me talk about their 50+ parents and i'm like What???)

- a span of years where it's still easier to make enough money to own a house and be alright on one good source of income (his father works but i'm not sure what his job is yet... maybe he should go work at the nuclear power plant all homer simpson-style and die ☺️ idk)

- a flashback that i'm working off of where things look pretty average over there (i do still have the idea that the house is a hand-me-down from one of their parents on the table though... in general my brain still tilts to working class in a different era but this is subject to change a bit)

- me having already placed a general area in the state that i've been playing in (i've been eyeing sort of the southwest here but i do need to think about it more and the distance from camp further north)

- at least enough money to be sent to camp for the summer (even if he has to scrounge it up over the year, but i've also been thinking of camp kidney already being a bit different/weird on this front)

- and a character where camp being something of an "escape" for him is actually pretty important

so i don't think he's a country boy, but i also definitely haven't been imagining things directly in the city, so i placed him in the middle zone, which means they're either somewhere in suburbs or a little bit outside of that... not overwhelmingly urban but still not too far. i'm only learning today what i might be thinking is usually called the exurbs, maybe...? i don't have a strong sense of reference for a lot of things so a lot of my thinking is based in places where i've lived... and he very likely may not have a super accessible woods to go and frolic in but maybe the issue is just that he has no one to do it with cus he's an only child with no friends growing up LOL

the Main part of the Escape aspect is still on other factors, i.e. he's lonely at home, his parents fight a lot and his dad's an alcoholic and he has a very complicated relationship with them (you know how it goes), he's not the best in school and gets picked on and in trouble a lot there as well, etc.

and i think it's almost helpful to describe everything in contrast to slinkman's family, which in comparison is a bit easier to pin down. his family is more on the side of upper middle class (?) and they have a good sized house with passive income (father's a landlord) to be comfortable with and are actively involved in their community. they do live in the suburbs just because a mix of the of the type of people they are (his father's a city boy but his mother's on the country end) and cus they do have the privilege to do so. they're able to pay for slinkman to go to college/uni and for lumpus to fuck around over there but for slinkman to still feel like he's leeching off of their support too much... and it's almost that feeling to me when i visit an older relative who's got an actual House, and it's a decent size, its always clean, and there's a spare bedroom or two, and they're always busy or off doing something, and it still feels like they have the money to spare on whatever even if they don't really... to me that's still almost the feeling lumpus gets when he stays with slinkman and his parents for a while LOL

so the difference between their situations at least in translation to today is something like this to me:

To me middle class is staying afloat - you make enough money, can save up for a minor goal like a vacation or even a medium goal like a car down payment but you’d probably finance the car rather than purchase it in cash. A minor emergency or car issue won’t break you but it’ll delay other priorities (like vacation would get delayed by a year)

Upper middle class is making enough to support your day to day life and having a decent amount of excess income to where you can save quite a bit while taking a family vacation a couple of times a year (maybe overseas for a couple of weeks a year). You may be working towards saving for a rental property and investing in a 401k, IRA, and maybe even taxable brokerage account. Rainy day fund is fully funded so you won’t have an issue with regular maintenance on your car or needing braces for the kids.

lumpus' family still struggles at times, is probably in debt in some areas, they don't always have the money for what they want and something like camp becomes an exception (there is definitely still the threat of lumpus worrying he won't be able to go to camp if too much comes up...) and slinkman's family is over here with assets and money to spare even if they can't go crazy... but everything also sort of feeds into slinkman's "it's easier to just follow someone else's lead" thing too, like, his dad is like ''son why don't you go to college for (XYZ)'' and slinkman's like ''ok'' because he literally had his only sense of self aspiration crushed barely a couple of years ago and he has no idea what to do with himself and they'll have the money to do so and so he just sort of goes along with it

anyway. yeah. i have a lot of shit locked and loaded at any given time thank you for the quastion 😁

[vixstarria]

💭 💻 for the fic ask game - thanks!

💻 Do you do research for your fics? What’s the deepest dive you’ve done?

Aside from overall reading of DND-related lore, tbh the most amount of time I've spent on something purposefully was looking up very specific threesome porn, to check whether what I envisioned was physically possible, or if you'd need to detach some limbs first. And let me tell you, watching porn whilst stone cold sober arousal-wise is... hilarious, actually.

I've also spent a fair amount of time reading about sexual encounters from a male perspective.

I have also done a dive into different stab wounds and other injuries and how they affect the body, how much and long it would it take to die from them, etc - but in the end I decided to just be lazy and vague, and simply write "dying" instead of "dead", before my browsing history got too weird. 😅

💭 What is a headcanon you have about your own work?

I've got heaps. I'm going to assume 'headcanon' here means anything that deviates from the established lore within my longfic/series.

[for smut] Vampire bites are pleasant and leave the bitten area extremely sensitive. Astarion's own bite marks are very erogenous and touching them is kind of a big deal.

Halsin approached both my Tav (Asmodea) and Astarion together, not just Asmodea. Related fic. They wind up being a full triad after the game. Fic going into that upcoming.

My Astarion chooses not to reverie. I've read somewhere (can't recall whether official source or not) that deeply traumatised elves might lose the ability or choose to sleep instead - and that's what I'm rolling with. He needs more than 4 hours of rest, and still often has nightmares, but at least he's not reliving his past every night.

Red wine is one of the few things Astarion can taste and drink, though it's better if you add some blood to it. He also gets high off catnip (don't ask, it's just funny).

I often ignore the way things look in-game. For example, the Elfsong has additional stories, as far as I'm concerned. And booths. Idk, I just like booths. 🤷‍♀️ Last Light has private rooms. Locations and distances are generally larger and longer. I inserted some random village or hamlet somewhere between Reithwin and Baldur's Gate

I've completely rewritten some scenes, including Astarion's Act 2 confession

There are many other things that add on to the lore, but if I start getting into it, this will be a very long post.

Thanks for the ask!

[elgascreamslikehell]

It's something something Sunday again!!

I know the final, i know the name - it'll be.. okay, I don't really have a name cause i stuck with 'don't die before i do' cause it is dramatic enough but TOO CLICHÉ. The funniest part still i have ending part and bonus part finished and now I'm still fixing the beginning.

This is the part of beginning)) kinda

'But enough chatting, i wanted to have him'- Alan points to Buck with a gun which makes Eddie instantly furious: 'As my shield to get out alive but i don't need two shields apparently, so we don't need him anymore. You see, Diaz, you shouldn't come back here' There's this clicking sound of the trigger making Eddie nauseous. That's not fair. You can't just shoot Buck. Not him. God i saw him dead once and it's my nightmare for the rest of my life. Just stop. Put your gun down. 'Buck, go away!' It was bold to assume Buck would really obey. Why is it always so cliché? Bad guy with a gun, good guy is just wrong time wrong place and minor character who has nothing to do, just watch. Who the hell decided Eddie is minor character actually? Sometimes ago, like very long time ago, Eddie spent nights watching old tv series of the mobile army hospital. It was that time when Shannon left him and Chris has a lot of issues so sleep was something Eddie just couldn't afford. So, in one of the episodes - he remembers it clearly cause it was quite a drama - was a whole monologue of 'you never hear the bullet'. It ends with 'sometimes you hear it'. Well, it ends with another great monologue about young people always dying but he just pretends to ignore this part now. There should be a law. Never put Evan Buckley in danger. Punishment is dead penalty. But Alan is, technically, a psycho, so he doesn't care about any laws, especially if they are existing only in Eddie's head. From the outside it should look heroically. Eddie sure hopes so, otherwise it'll be just stupid to go towards armed guy who keeps his finger on the trigger. Or run towards him. And not that Eddie has a plan. It would be much better if he has a plan not only rage.

At least he heard his bullet. It was hard to miss on such short distance. So he definitely heard it. And Buck's gasp - he also heard that. Looks like Buck doesn't think it was heroic at all. Apparently, Buck catches him before even pain catches him. But pain is much more aggressive. 'Eddie!' Do not scare him, Eddie, you promised your cap you'll keep an eye on Buck 'I'm fine... small calibre, Hen fixes me in a moment' Alan looks at them with crooked smile. Well, what else could you expect from schizophrenic. But then he talks and makes everything just ... complicated. Okay, he is also ex-military. He knows Eddie is lying now. Of course he knows, if Eddie spent his serving time mostly helping people, he was a medic - Alan spent it in a killing spree. Direct shot to the chest from so little distance - not the best way to live your life long enough. But instead of any unnecessary details or revealing of Eddie's lies he speaks with no visible emotions 'I didn't want this. Any of this. And you better run' Buck opens his mouth for really untimely question, Eddie feels it with the back of his head. But he just doesn't have time to actually ask. It's still a small calibre, yes, but this guy, apart of his schizophrenia is... was still a professional. His next shot is aimed perfectly - to color school walls with a pool of blood. He said run...

[nielsbrabants]

ending stoner lifestyle (excerpt from my novella SLUTMANIA)

The lonely stoner seems to free his mind at night but lately I’m just having panic attacks. Wednesday, already stoned and with one more joint to conquer the night, I flush away my stash. The flushing does not work, this is a lie of the entertainment industry, I have to reach my hand down our shared toilet and fish the floating weed out.

Thursday with Seán sitting at his kitchen table, while booking our weekend trip, I get anxious and we order five grams which we split. I do not sleep at all, smoke frantically, my heart beating like a techno track. 

Friday afternoon I rid myself of the weed, my American Spirit tobacco, brown rolling papers and sleek gold tinted grinder by throwing them in a garbage bag and disposing of this downstairs in the container. I find myself on my knees asking God to give me the strength to kick my habit which is serving me in no way anymore. ‘Rid me of this addiction,’ I say over and over again, thinking labeling it as an addiction, permanently shifting the frame of my perception, is an important step towards cleanliness. I download an app called ‘Quit Weed’ which shows me how long the manifold of withdrawal symptoms will last. Basically I need to get through the first week. No one tells you how unchill weed actually is. In the evening I resubscribe to Netflix, wanting a streamlined entertainment experience to distract me from the angst and physical discomfort. 

Oh how hard it is not to go and knock on Miss Iantha’s door and beg for some hash, but I keep on telling myself, twisting and turning on my soaked in cold sweat mattress, I just have to get through this one night. 

At 3 am, aggravated and awake, I open my laptop and end up having a Spotify spiral of recent music. It’s all dark, with techno undertones and lyrics which seem to be written by the algorithm, but the production is impeccable, reflective of our times and I feel as if I am reconnecting somehow. I text some of the songs to Santos, saying, omg I thought no bangers came out in 2021 but I was wronggggg.

The next day, having slept zero hours, on the bus to Poznań, I show Seán the music video of a recent Berlin techno track with lyrics about cum and ego. 

Withdrawls and snow in Poland. I keep thinking ‘what if I die during this weekend,’ then realizing what a ridiculous notion this is. The first evening we go eat pierogi which is being hand made by some Polish ladies in the tiniest restaurant. Feasting on this freshly prepared three euro quality meal, I have to think of the Shock Doctrine and how these people’s economy was raped beyond repair by Harvard and Chicago school Clinton technocrats in the nineties, feeling some vague sense of guilt.

At night, in our shared room, after finally drifting off, I am haunted by extremely vivid nightmares. In one, a freakish figure, wearing a leather trench coat and with a black plastic dog’s head, comes to steal my younger sisters, because I read too much about deep state politics on the internet. In a second one I aggressively spit in my team lead’s face, from up close and I can smell his cheap cologne. Relieved when the alarm goes off. My naked body low key convulsing on the white tiled bathroom floor of the Mercure hotel as I can throw up nothing but vial, embracing the toilet seat with both arms, before breakfast on this snowy Sunday morning, while Seán is doing yoga stretches on the bed. At least I feel as if in a Tom Ford movie. During mass, on my knees in the Neo-Baroque church I cry three times, thank the Lord for getting me this far and receive communion while reflecting on not being baptized.

So yeah, Poland was weird, dreamlike, feverish and strangely transformative. Sunday night I finally sleep and my dreams are less disheveled and Monday morning I feel like a whole new person.

Monday after work, in the East Side Mall, which is on a walking distance from my flat, I surrender to retail therapy. In Bershka and h&m I buy three pair of pants, a shirt, a beige turtleneck, and a pair of knockoff designer boots. It amazes me that each item costs only twenty five euros and I think of the Bangladeshi sweatshop children and in my room I observe myself in the mirror looking fine as hell. Giving up all my principles and being lulled into compliant capitalist bliss actually feels amazing and I cannot understand how I have been denying myself these pleasures for years and no wonder I was feeling so empty and depressed. In the supermarket I buy eggs and bacon for the next morning and for dinner I get myself a Middle Eastern style chicken wrap and for the first time in months I am not hungry at night.

[xoteajays]

Yesterday was a bad day for me. My Halloween was ruined. Hopefully next year is better for me. I woke up with cramps (so I'll probably start bleeding soon), the weather was colder than I originally thought so I'd say that it was a nightmare being outside. And I kept fucking up all of my makeup, I was so angry about that because I took a long time just working on my hair and makeup. Every little thing that happened. Not a single thing went as planned for me this month, especially when for Halloween day. I hope next year is better than this year though. I'm so upset by everyone and everything yesterday. Every thing was ruined.

The only good thing about yesterday was eating candy, since I was so able to try some new flavors. Mostly lollipops. Not the other candies.

I have a thought! Rocky has his businesses. Club Heaven is one of the main businesses that we know of.. Do you think they would have a lot of theme nights at the club? In general and on holidays? If they would stay open on holidays anyway, like Valentine's Day and Halloween? I'd see certain themes happening for some holidays if they ever did that.

~

Now that Halloween is over. I have to decide which shows and movies I'm going to watch next.. Since there are just so many too watch now.

Anyway.

Yeah. I'm not completely sure if they participated in the rope climbing game.. But, being in the montage, there's a strong possibly they really were a part of that game and just won. But that is why I think though.

But yes! I have no balance, aim, rhythm or anything else you will may need to be physically active. That includes dancing and sports too.

I need at least one, maybe two, character who can balance out any of my other characters who aren't that skilled in spade games.. But I still don't know my characters strength and weaknesses are yet so I could figure that out before trying to developed these characters anymore.

Yeah. There isn't much to the Distance game. Everyone has run.. Only to find out you have to stay in the bus, you find out they'd have to run the vehicles (cars and motorcycles) because you need certain parts - because there are specific mechanics and technologies that still work in Borderlands. So that is thanks to Arisu's friend for figuring that out.

Building legos? Seriously. People still do that? I would not expect that hobby from you. Actually I don't know much about you so I can't even comment about that then.. But I'm surprising people still like legos.

That could be a game. I don't trust it though... Mostly because if I was in a situation where I might potentially drown and my life was in other people's hands. I don't trust it. I'd rather die than take the chance too.

~

Aguni would choose Heiya over your card soldier? That's interesting... I don't know why I think that's interesting though. But, then again, his character does seem to have a soft spot towards Heiya for reasons I'd never understand. Why he's so nice towards her, but not anyone else?

Just about every character's gender is swapped. And most of them is swapped.. Minus only a few who weren't swapped already though. I'm so tired that I'm not making any sense right now. Or I don't think I am.

And Nezuko! Well.. Kind of. That name Nezu is what came to mind for me when I thought of that name. But not exactly Nezumi or Nezumo.

~

Since I was so undecided on my White/Green character, I made a poll for her. But I doubt anyone would vote with how small this fandom is.

~

Like I told you a couple nights ago.. I watched Midnight. And I have to say, I stand by my statement. Any Asian media has the suspense that American media lacks in most shows and movies - especially modern American media. American media people need to take notes over this if they're actually paying attention. But they're never paying attention.

I'll watch to watch the movie again soon. Oh! And like I was telling you though. The one soldier was Tae Won-seok. He's the actor of who was Inbeom in Bloodhounds. And he's a lot younger than I thought he'd be too, I don't even know why I thought he was older than his actual age.

And I liked the ending. The deaf mother and daughter becoming very friends with the marine and his sister. They're like a found family with the four of them. So I'm happy that it was a happy ending for them.

I don't know why.. But something about the way his voice was, for the killer, his angry tone of voice reminded me of Gwi-nam for any reason that I don't know? I don't know. But that's what he sounded like to me though. Maybe he will sound differently next time I watch the movie.

Even if he did leave the mafia behind to become a "clean" person now in any way, he would still be a criminal who would have been the main leader of the mafia. He sold many drugs and weapons, also murdered people and who knows what other crimes he might have committed.

But still... The wrong cop squad tried arresting the mafia because any of the don's former friends wanted to betray him a lot sooner than the other people thought was going to happen. I mean. They were just so impatient to wait that they ruined up their own plan. The irony to that is funny. And also stupid. How can someone be that stupid though?

Regardless of the relationship between the male cop and the Chinese female associate. That's awkward. They might have some feelings for each other in some way. Even to warn her that her and her family was going to be arrested, so he warned her to start a new life before then.

So he blotched that.

I mean. At least that's realistic? Maybe your mind is so screwed up on which is real and not real.. Obviously she's your wife. But after both of them kinda had an affair with their main targets, that may have really messed with their minds? But, it seems like they would have to repair, like repair their relationship in some way to forgive the other person is what I'm getting from it? But I don't know. I haven't seen the show yet so I don't know the whole situation with that. But I still think it's really awkward that you would place your wedding ring one anyone's grave, especially if that grave doesn't even belong to your own dead spouse.

- 💋

my halloween was also pretty meh. i had to work and australia didn’t really celebrate halloween when i was a kid and still doesn’t really. my mum almost hit a kid that was crossing the road without looking to. dumbass parent was nowhere to be seen and her young daughter had to stop a third unattended kid from crossing the street in front of our car.

!! i also had shitty cramps the other day!! but i’m not on my period yet. got a couple days until then. but the cramps have been ramping up. should probably see a doctor about it since my last few periods have had seriously bad cramps - like worse than usual - and i have pcos, but meh. nah.

i could see rocky having theme nights at club heaven! i bet kizzy like dressing up for halloween. she probably drags kaito into couples costumes. i bet koo is impossible to convince to dress up. i can’t think of what rocky would dress up as. maybe jack skellington? the whole pinstripe suit and skull makeup. im not sure.

~

speaking of new things to watch, have you heard of knuckle girl? it’s on amazon prime but it’s probably on other sites by now. it’s an action movie with ayaka miyoshi and goki maeda! ayaka looks so pretty!! from the description, it’s about ayaka’s character joining a ‘no-rules deathmatch’ while looking for her missing sister, and ‘trading in her boxing gloves for brass knuckles’.

interestingly it’s made by a korean director but with a japanese cast. i’ll probably be watching it tonight so i’ll write up a lil thing of my thoughts for my next reply.

~

i still need to figure out what games i want my card soldier to do. i know he’s mainly a spades player, but i still haven’t decided on what canon games he’d be in and what ones i need to make up for him. i have more of an idea for my dormouse but that’s probably because i’ve been focusing on her more.

i like legos! it’s very relaxing. and i’m not just sitting around with a box of legos, i’m like doing the ‘adult’ lego sets. like the botanicals and i got the vespa for my birthday. i’ve got a couple different non-lego building sets from japan and china too, and nanoblocks are fun. it’s just relaxing to sit and do something with my hands and see an immediate result, like doing a physical craft. i tried origami but i’m not great at it.

my dormouse is on the trusting side, but she’s also a lil self-sacrificing. like ‘if nobody else wants to do it, i’ll volunteer and risk a drowning death in a glass case. it’s fine, i can hold my breath for a long time.’ also chishiya’s there and she trusts him to figure out the puzzles. i can force him to play clubs games if i shove him alongside kuina.

i want to rework my king of hearts game too. i still like the idea of the players being drugged - like how mira drugs arisu and usagi in the queen game - but i want to rework it more. there was on a short scene of it in the montage and the wiki doesn’t have much infor on. i might lean more into the labyrinth vibe. minotaur….

~

to be fair, aguni kind of sees too much of himself in the card soldier since they have the same kind of anger towards their abusive fathers, so he distances himself a lil from him. i just choose to think that aguni has a soft spot for girls. in the manga, as a kid he would draw his abusive dad’s attention away from his mother. plus, he does have the misfortune of a lot of his scenes being at the beach where he got stuck dealing with the more violent members and watching his best friend spiral into madness - which he also blames on the beach - so. probably not feeling his kindest and making him come off especially cold.

using ‘鼠子’ for nezuko would translate to ‘rat child’, not the most complimentary and i don’t know if it’s commonly used as name kanji, but it works.

~

midnight is So Good. it’s so good!! wi ha joon does exceptionally in villainous roles, he’s just got an energy about him and in midnight he’s excellent. him and the main actress have great chemistry for the whole cat-and-mouse situation. and the ambience and suspense is done so well. asia is doing horror thriller movies like no one else.