#mod here: i think i actually got like four or less hours of sleep last night LMAO

[awfulcake]

Hello Captain!! How ya doing?

@pony-express-official

"Ah , hello .. I'm doing as decent as can be running on about .. I think three hours of sleep."

[sassaetcie]

Silver x Idia (The Molten Charcoal) chapter 5

Sorry for the long delay www

I... got out a bit. Even if I had this test and... was proud of it? Somehow... I mean, sure I was proud of it, especially the fact Trey listened to me and didn't look at me like I was some kind of creep because of my hair or name or eyes or lips or fingers or heavy breathing... I didn't even... suffocate once... He was really nice, yep. He really listened to me... so many times. Sure... there was the Wishes event when he kind of sided with Deuce but... At last he's not fucking dumb like Deuce... Even if Deuce isn't probably absolutely dumb... Well, at least he could praise me so... I don't know? And people didn't doubt the fact I was the one that invented this strategy...! So I was... happy, I think. Or at least feeling a bit less weird than "usual". These flames had almost started to look like clouds around me. Blue clouds... These clouds would drive away for sure. But they would not spread an unwanted arson, a fake arson, a superficial blaze. Of course talking with people like this could transform them into cumulus, but a single trouble would turn them into hot steam before anointing him with the fake will-o'-the-wisp again. I had walked through the corridors, hiding my hair with... my hood. Somehow it finally became mine and stop slipping through my fingers as any stream would. The black, gray and blue outfit was... no more drenched in... my blood's light. I should stop saying "blood" stuff, tho. It's so stupid... I stopped and leaned some seconds in a corridor's shade for sure. I... clasped my hands. Of course they weren't frozen nor cold. But they were... neither dry nor hot with sweat. I grabbed one with the other... No, I grabbed the other thanks to the one. They felt somehow slim, perhaps skinny compared to other people, and my fingers were still shaking but not as much as before, for sure... This was my skin. I could see pearls of sweat... Even if it was ugly or unsightly, this was still some "water". Not that I would drink or lick it, thanks. But these tall slender, spectral... hands were of alabaster now... They could resist fire and water alike. I probably stood a while like this... After all, everyone was supposed to be either in lessons or being tested... So I wasn't supposed to be found out. Maybe I should have moved before? Because that was a very normal situation, I should maybe have been even more cautious... There's no way normal would articulate itself around me, after all... Tho NRC is probably another kind of normal, but that's something else. I leaned stroking my hands like that... for probably some seconds at least, but probably not minutes? Even for me, it would have been weird. Yet, I should have gone back to the den before. Because nothing good was supposed to occur to my surroundings...

And thus the epitome of water, or ice, had come. His smile was indeed that of a sun, burning down every last remnant of my confidence. Everything about himself was so shiny and dazzling, and yet he just made me burn as if he were made of the same hair as I was. But he was more likely an aqua-elemental. Perhaps more of a djinn since I wasn't of the same area as he was... Well I wasn't of the "same" area anyway. He told me he was happy to see me... That it was weird to see me... Sure thing it was weird, I usually don't go outside, that's pretty obvious...? Why was his supposed standard, normal, usual, water hurting me? Why did he seem made of lava in front of me? His red eyes never tried to harm me intentionally... I hate how shiny he is... I hate so much when he gets close to me. I suffocate SUFF SUFF SUFFSUFFSUFFSUFFSUFFNO MATTER HOW HARD I TRY I'M A WEIRDO. No, I should try to think of better things... Like how Trey worked perfectly with me and never mocked me. He didn't seem like he was lying either. He really seemed amused in some way, but not because of my stupidity. Some people probably respected me... respect me, here. And not for my rank... Not for my rank... He asked me if I was alright since I was sweaty and clutching the hood around my hair. Did I look alright? Of course I'm not. OF COURSE I'M NOT SUFFSUFFSUFFSUFFSUFFSUFFSUFF SUFFO SUFFOCATESUFF SUFFO SUFFO SUFFSUFFSUFFIt's not his fault, RIGHT? He wasn't doing it on purpose, was he? WAS HE? That's okay... That's okay, I just... had to tell him I wasn't feeling good so I told him I felt hot, but that it wasn't because of some weird illness because he could have been dumb enough to tell others to bring me to the nurse's office... He told me he could make rain happen if I was feeling too hot. That his unique magic was changing the weather into raining. WHY? WHY IS HE THE ONE WITH THIS POWER? I don't understand. SUFFOCATE SUFF SUFFO NO. NO I SHOULDN'T HAVE... I'm sorry Ortho. I'm still jealous and afraid of everyone but... I want a power that seems as useless as his... I want to be able to summon water and touch it like everyone... I just ran away and went straight (lol) back to Ignihyde... my room. It was suffocating. Everything was just suffocating. I was suffocating. Suffocation was strangulating me. Every stiff sound my computer made sounded like suffocation. I just stretched my back while sitting trying to grasp some air. I could do it! I can do it! I couldn't. No matter how I breathe in, I can't breathe properly. Only a part allows me to breathe... I can put this cursed hair away, air won't come in. I can raise my hands and body to the only sky I am allowed to see by myself, air will curl back to any other place than myself. One. Two. Three.                                                

I cannot breathe properly again. Was I too fast? No... I'm just doomed, right? I'm just so fucking stupid, I probably even don't know how to breathe, I'm sorry Ortho, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm neither a fucking adult like they are, nor I'm like the other students, I'm just a fucking weirdo, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry... NO! I should try to breathe again. Let's breathe properly... I can do it! I saved Ortho... No, Ortho believed in me... I have to do this.

One.

Two.

Three...

IT DOESN'T WORK. NO MATTER HOW MUCH I COUNT I JUST... I JUST SUFFSUFFSUFFSUFFSUFFSUFFI'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'm sorry... I have to yawn to breathe... Just because I was happy to stretch my hands... Just because I was glad not to feel squirm today... What am I doing wrong...? I should sleep... Crying is worthless for someone like me... My tears just feel hot and disappear again. I'm tired...

[Started Recording at : 10:00 am : Seventh? Day]

-BIG BROOOOO! OPEN THE DOOR! IT'S TIME FOR YOU TO GET OUT TO MEET. YOUR. LOVED. ONE.

-EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEH?! BUT IT HAS ONLY BEEN... FOUR DAYS? RIGHT?! RIIIIIGHT?!

-Actually, you have slept two days after the exam, so I have all recordings ready whenever you feel the need to learn things for future exams.

-H-huh? Two days? But...

-Well, another day has passed since you've awoken only hours ago but you've spent these hours on videogames... Or have I misunderstood something? :(

-N-no! Of course not, O-ortho! But... are you sure... I can't have slept for two days in a row... I'm not a-a princess or something like this...

-Well, anxiety can lead to disrupted behaviors, so it is not that weird you actually have slept for two days, especially with your bad habits when it comes to slumber.

-Y-yeah but two days... I'm not that much...

-Well, whatever! Let's go!

The room opened among its unique blue fire. Had the heat peaked or lessens? No one was used to this temperature swinging and lurking through the whole room, barely restrained by such weak walls. Ashes or obsidian walking away would probably be decided sooner or later. The hellish trail of cursed un-will-o'-the-wisps seemed to have expanded... It was time to wash all of this gloomy blue out of this body stuck to such blazing ideals, lit with yet another kind of light. The doll's arm reached out to the human yet separated one.

-Let's go, Big Bro!

-Y-yeah...

-I'm going to walk a bit with you and then I will let go to the tree where you met with Silver so that I can check no one gets between you two, okay?

-The tree where we met...? Is i-it a shojo stereotype supposed to cheer me up...?

The supposed doll closed the door, sealed this heat away, even if it would have means to escape if anything was to fail on this day. The burning One was lurking and scratching Idia from the inside, after all. Wind blew from Ignihyde's far end. Freshness and magic were still running the place at the moment. The light steps barely echoed on the soft floor, or perhaps Ortho's ones were the louder. He extracted pride from these very legs, after all. His steps were noisy, even if he had been maximized. Ignihyde dorm was not dingy, neither dark. Only lit to a certain extent. Sunshine was painful for most of them, and so had become the whole dorm. At least Dire Crowley never asked for the whole dorm to change its way of thinking nor lighting.

-Okay, we're going in Night Raven College's main building. Are you ready, Big Bro?  

-Y-yeah... I've taken some walks before, it s-s-s-s-hould be alright...

The mirror teleported them as it was supposed to be, no matter the heat and fake sun. How far his power went was something they had not calculated yet, after all.

-Haha! This is as fast as usual, this is nice. Do you think the mirror might need an update sometime, Big Bro? :o

-An... update? Pfffffhehe... That would be fun... That would be really fun, yeah.

The temperature was now stuck between ocean and magma. The dorm's crossroads was not a source of anxiety for Idia, after all. And thus, not at all for Ortho. No parasite nor virus could invade him as long as this area was 200% safe for his... big brother, after all. Others were probably between 0% and 100%, Ignihyde being rather 75% because of the throng of students sometimes walking between each rooms to ask for plugs or volatile memory they might have burned because of modding too much some of their games or an infinity of problems-solutions only Ignihyde truly come up with. And Idia's room was only 150% safe since people online could start insulting him, even though he would beat them up or hack them if they were trying anything, and sometimes he could hear him crying because of the heat or things he could not entirely make sense of. Ortho checked his proto-hand, though it was probably not a prototype anymore. The Shroud son had worked on it for a long time, as little as long could mean. Well, sure Ortho would not mind knowing such a great amount of "time". Not knowing was something quite problematic in his condition, after all. Touching his fellow's head would be troublesome, in the end.

-We will soon reach the court... In less than 5 minutes, Silver will arrive if he is not already there. Are you ready, Big Bro? I'm sure you can do this!

-T-thanks but you're the one...

-Yes? :D

-N-n-n-n-o, nothing... Thanks for making this true... We'll see if everything proceeds smoothly...

-I'm sure it will, you're the best!

The boy hit his hair, aiming his back, above his back. His mouth tried to swallow some air, as softly as he could among the buzzing atmosphere, as much as air was running away from him. A little hand blessed him enough to breathe again, petting his back for a few seconds, enough to shatter the curse which he could have brought, willingly or not. He spread his self in the body he was born with, and took a step. He lead his feet as far as they could, watching them whatever could happen around him. He could not touch water, after all. Thus, he should not be worried about it... If people were afraid of him, then he should not be afraid of them. And the other way around. But where was Silver? Where was he among the Earth's debates? The tree was stopping the sunshine, and would do the same with rain. And above all with mist, thunder, hail... Thus, their beings would be in this shadow of a tree and not under the tree itself. Or would it be under the shadow itself? Only a few more steps and he would be entering the shadow layer. How billions of shades were in it? Calculating the mirror's power would be far easier, in the end. And thus, as many solutions were dripping from the tree's twigs hindering the sun.

[Ended Recording at : 10:15 am : Seventh? Day]

I didn't expect to find him asleep, tbh. Well... I kind of. I found him sleeping the first time so it wouldn't be that weird for the second time... But wasn't I supposed to be earlier than expected? Or was he the kind of person to be in front of a classroom even earlier?! Or was it the other way around... which is, he was here maybe BECAUSE I make him miss a lecture?! Or perhaps... he was on his way and he fell asleep... No, it didn't seem so at first. Because I remember his bag was not next to him, and his wand wasn't in his hand either... He was simply... slumbering. A squirrel came forward and rubbed his head on his soft-looking, attached by a same mind, fingers. He probably dozed off earlier... but not that earlier. More animals would have gathered if it were to be the case, especially since no it hadn't been raining on this very morning. So he had just... arrived before I did. This wasn't like the last time for sure. No animals, no unexpected meeting, no ceremony robe. (Not that he wasn't cute in his ceremony robe but-). Maybe the shadow was blessing me in the end, lol. There were not enough things in common with the last time to hinder me... Well, I was already anxious as hell, but that wasn't that shocking, lol. But that was like last time for a thing at least... Was I supposed to wake him up? I mean, he didn't judge me for watching him sleeping last time so... Not that I enjoyed it, though?! I just... didn't know... Was it more awkward to wake him up or let him sleep? He could have been angry... He seemed to be in such a deep and sweet slumber I just couldn't awake him... And he didn't seem to be that angry... So letting him asleep was probably the good choice to reach a good end? But what if he hadn't sleep and... what if he didn't want to sleep?! Maybe he was narcoleptic?! (well he likely still is but-). But if I had been to awaken him not on purpose, maybe I could avoid the bad end and reach the best end instead of the neutral end I thought to be the good one?! Then I needed to sit... but not in a normal way (if I could sit in a normal way among all of these elements which weren't mine). Of course I needed to sit as cautiously as possible and not hurt Silver on purpose... Did I dare to write this?! I can't think of hurting him. Well, I probably can under a certain point of view but it's not mine. It's not mine... I was supposed to sit as slowly as possible and break something, like a twig put on purpose under my foot or something like this. Then it wouldn't be my fault for sure, right? But wasn't I lying to him... My legs just betrayed me and I fell down because of how much the rest of my body was shaking.

Of course I had semi-planned this one... I mean that was something I was very likely to do but... It was the first time it came in handy?! This was also the most cliche one but... the fact he rolled to the right to catch me wasn't absolutely one, I guess? Why would he had rolled if he could have straightly (lol) caught me? And I wouldn't have felt AWKWARD AS HELL BECAUSE HE CAUGHT ME IN HIS ARMS AND UGFGKFKGFKREOIGIGKFGK?! Even if I try to write only to put some order in my brain, it just gets more chaotic... But I just... can't think of this day without crying and all... His indigo eyes were wide open, especially for him. They sure looked like a calm lake but... they didn't feel as if they were made of water either. A pale purple gauze opposed all of the ocean from swallowing this "prince" into his blue hue. Yet, none of them were a prisoner. His blue and His purple were, simply, together. His black uniform wasn't that different from our shades, it seems... And all of the leather strips looked like a complex armor, I cannot think otherwise. Sure... it wasn't a thief's outfit, nor that of a killer nor... Well, it could be seen as such because of the black and green hue... I guess some people would find it ominous.

-So you have arrived, Shroud. I'm sorry, I fell asleep once again... I just can't control myself on this point, this is quite the bother.

I tried to gather my hands, legs, thighs, chest, head, knees, ankles, arms to move. Two barely shook out of the body I was supposed to have. There was nothing to escape for sure but... There may have been something to escape, actually. Whatever it might have been. His hands wrapped by a serene, quiet black had touched my forehead, each of his fingers dancing far from my cursed, hated, despicable, despised, hateful, ugly, heinous hair.

-Are you... ill, Shroud?

-H—h-h-huh? S-s-sure I'm not, S-S-ilver... IsitokayifIcallyouSilverthough...?!

-Well, yes? I don't have a second name, so yes... Please do, I don't mind. You just felt hotter than usual... Hmm, probably more like warmer. Sorry, didn't mean to be mean.

What did he mean by warmer or hotter, though? I guess my... hair was truly invading. Not that much a surprise... Even if he was in mid-water... It was probably too much to handle for anyone who was closer to normality than I was. And yet he was kind...

-I... I'm sorry if my hair is weird and if you're feeling hyper hot a-and sweating all over the place and I should have cancelled the date, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, you're probably losing a precious time right now, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm...

-Oh no, I like your hair.

Well, of course I didn't expect this one in 99% of the roads. There was still a percent in which Silver was indeed a true Prince Charming. I guess I... wasn't wrong so far. Well either way I wouldn't have been wrong anyway. I did plan everything, after all, and the keikaku... Yeah. But that he truly liked my hair was still such a tiny percent... Miracle could occur, I would have guessed. But that wasn't a miracle, for sure. Miracles didn't truly exist. People sure tend to believe for some reason or hate the concept of miracles by cynism but... I just want to be in-between... It's who I am anyway... I just... can't be normal, can I? Well, I'm probably better in most fields anyway... right? Silver isn't a miracle that exist for me... I will probably even be a burden for him.

-M-my hair?

-Yes. It looks... peaceful? I don't really know how to tell you that and I don't want to offend you in any way but... It just looks like a chimney fire I could sleep to. For a long time. Even if I would like to avoid falling asleep out of nowhere...

-P-peaceful? Are... we... t-t-t-talking about the same thing...? I mean, I don't mean to insult you either, you're really nice but I just cc—c-cc-an't understand why would someone think my hair is p-p-pretty or something like this...

-It feels warm and... saudade to me.

-Sau...?!

-Yes... I would like to touch them, but would it harm you if I did? Or me?

-I... I don't know... I'm sure it will. My hair isn't as warm as you think... You're just... just different from everyone... But it won't be enough... I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry...

-That's alright. If you don't want me to touch your hair or even your hand, I would understand. You're quite the soft type, Shroud.

-H-huh?

-Lil... My Old Man was the one who sent me here earlier, but I was kind of... happy to see you wanted to talk to me. We discussed this "type" things earlier but I didn't really understand anything. Oh, yes what did you want to tell me, Shroud? I am sorry if I'm too blunt or something like this. I'm kind of lost, too.

The True Prince had arrived. If he had been to guess what was to happen, then he would have been a Perfect Prince, which I didn't want. Because he would have been... too much. I guess I have some stupid fears but... I can't have too much... I'll just end up breaking everything... If he was dense, and not dense on purpose, thus not manipulative and not ending up a Villain Prince, which was another path... Then we could be equal in some ways. Of course... There was still a lot of crossroads before I could... reach this potential happy ending. If he was a True Prince but yet wasn't in love with me, then it would be a Neutral End at most. If he was a True Prince but ended up hollow even after I love him, it would be a Bad End, probably. If he was to hate me... it would be another Bad End. At least there was a possible Good End... I wasn't in Drakenkard 3 lol. ... I didn't even know how to sing in a wonderful way, probably.

-I... Huh... Is it okay if I talk for a while? O-o-o-only if it doesn't bother you, o-of course... I... just want to be as clear... as... understandable as possible... I-I don't mean that you won't understand o-o-o-of course! It's just that I... need to explain... a lot...

One of his definitely lead hand approached the other one he handled so easily. He took of his left or right glove, whatever actually. His barely long fingers made the black clothing disappear from the alabaster hand which could have been protected so far from the crown of flames piercing my soul. The awakened limb rubbed each of his eye surrounded by the soft veil of maskara, darkening his face, tho maybe not to my level lol. One time. Two times. Three times.

-I've rubbed my eyes. I should be awakened for a while. I hope. Please start. I want to listen to you, Shroud.

I... just needed to do what I usually did in my fanfictions... and all that kind of stuff, right?

-W-w-well... I... really like you? I can't tell you if it's affection, deep affection, crush, squish, love, love at first sight... I just can't tell what's going inside my brain but... I... just love everything about your appearance, that's true. Your eyes look so different, so dreamy. I feel like there's... a whole castle inside? I'm sorry, this is weird, right? I'm sorry but... Your hair looks like messy snow, like the purest snow, that no human has ever tried to play or make profit of... Your skin looks so soft and delicate, and yet I... I've seen you sometimes in your sport outfit and you got... these arms... and your face just looks like the old prince stories... Yeah. That's it. You look so much like a Prince who could save me. I'm just sorry, it's pathetic, I know... But you won't make fun of me... will you? I love you... You look so much like a prince... I feel like you can fulfill any of my dream as long as I'm with you... You're... You... You were so nice... w-w-when we first met... You didn't judge me... You just... YOU JUST... you just asked me things... and answered... You didn't laugh... even if you had lied... you didn't laugh... You just... You just... kept your composure... You didn't call me a weirdo... You didn't want my inheritance either.. You just... You. You... I love your lips too. They look soft and sweet and not a bunch of skin ready to spit poison and lies... And your ears look so round... so human-like... And your nose doesn't look like the kind to hurt when two foreheads lay upon e-each other and... your height comforts me... Your voice is serious but never shouting... you don't stress me... You... I just... can't believe someone as good as you exist... I'm sorry... We, teenagers shouldn't think like this but... Thanks for... thanks for existing... Love doesn't mean anything for someone like me, I just don't understand it... I guess... Thanks for.. making fairies flying into my veins?

How could someone answer something like this? Fairies were probably running through my head, and they were probably fireflies I thought made of water.

[scoobydoominuscoobydoo]

How many kids do you think Shaphne has? (This is building on the previous ask.)

Asking the really important questions here anon!

Since this is piggybacking the last ask I’ll just pick up where I left off from there.

I’ve always seen Shaggy and Daphne both having pretty huge families. Daph with her four sisters and Shag with his majorly extended (and eccentric) relatives. Plus, neither of them is an only child so I’m certain that both of them had placed the kids option on the table early on. They might talk about it together when the see a group of kids run by their front window or awkwardly say they were considering it whenever their nosy parents (or sisters) asked how much longer it would be until they were grandparents (aunts). They both mainly hadn’t made any serious plans because they still thought they were fairly young to be parents (keep in mind they just learned what a mortgage was). But if anyone would get punched in the face with baby fever it would be Daphne.

One of her coworkers might have brought her own daughter or granddaughter (don’t forget she shares her office with the Golden Girls) and our Daph’s heart would just melt. She’d kick open the front door, causing her husband to almost spill whatever he was making them for dinner. That little spitfire would immediately march into the kitchen, grab Shag by the collar of his shirt and declare, “Babies. I want at least a million.” Shaggy would grab her hand and remove it from his shirt and say something like, “Like, nice to see you too honey.”

It might take a little while (probably like a week but that’s a long time in Daphne land) but our girl is determined to get what she wants; she can’t just deny the spoiled rich girl part of herself. And maybe because she looks really cute with her cheeks all puffed up in a pout, or because he loves her so damn much, or maybe because he reciprocates her desire for kids (not a million of course but he has a suspicion that she only said that so she had something to drop during negotiations) but Shag gives in. At first Daphne gets to work reading every single family planning book or magazine she can find (And watching What to Expect When You’re Expecting at least a million times), the ladies from work giving her every single old baby thing they have. After two days Daph and Shag have already been given three cribs and five walkers and their up to their ears in toys. Daph starts drowning Shag in questions he could never possibly know the right answer to (”Babe, should we breastfeed or stick to the bottle?” “What sleeping technique would work best with our work schedules?” “Who’s parents are we gonna trust to babysit?”).

But, because she is Danger-Prone Daphne to the end, she gets pregnant way before her initial planned time. So no matter their decision, Daphne was gonna end up pregnant in October anyway. She is a mixture between annoyed because she really wanted a spring baby and overjoyed because, “Shags there is an actual human being growing inside of me!” 

It takes her less than a week to have her whole maternity wardrobe put together even though she’s nowhere near showing. 

While she’s not exactly moody during her pregnancy, Daphne is definitely clingy (mostly to Shaggy but she did cry once when Scooby got off the couch while she was still petting him). If Shaggy starts rubbing her back then it very well may be hours until he’ll be able to stop. I picture that scene from Lady and the Tramp during the baby shower where all of the mom’s friends tell her she looks gorgeous and then all of the dad’s friends tell him he looks absolutely awful. I think that’s a good summary of the public’s reaction the the new Roger’s upcoming arrival. Daphne has plenty of late-night cravings but her husband is a cook and also constantly hungry so it’s no problem. Fred and Velma come back to Coolsville during the tail-end of the third trimester because, in Velma’s words, “Daph is about to pop any day now and I didn’t wanna have to wait for her water to break for us to try and beat the baby here.”

The baby comes early because that’s just their luck on July 5th right at 1 a.m.

Fred and Velma start panicking and trying to find everything they’re gonna need at the hospital. Shaggy is taking deep breaths and desperately trying to find his car keys and, “Damn it where did I put them?!?!” He’s freaking out because losing the keys is such a Daphne thing to do. Meanwhile, Daph calmly calls the clinic and lets them know they’re on their way. Shag finally finds the keys (in his hand) and screams at everyone to get in the van.

Everyone is yelling at each other except Daphne who is desperately trying to keep her blood pressure low. By the time they pull up to the hospital, the security guard at the door isn’t sure if he should call the police or not. Shaggy falls out of the front door and busts his lip but he barely feels it as he grabs Daphne out of the back (”Honey! What happened to your face!?” “Nothing I’ve always looked like this...”). They just barely reach the door before Daph collapses on the sidewalk (”Norville if I give birth to our first child on a sidewalk I’m gonna kill you!”) and they have to carry her to the delivery room. Her and Shaggy disappear for the next four or five hours, Fred and Velma can just barely hear a mixture of Daph’s screams and Shaggy’s screams. They call everyone’s family and soon enough the whole waiting room is full of Blakes and Rogers.

Finally a nurse walks in, intimidated by all of the eyes on her, and says that family is able to go see the baby (At least 20 people step toward her, “I meant immediate family.” Six redheads and three dirty blondes take another step closer, the nurse’s eyes widen, “Lets just go with parents.”). When Fred and Velma finally get their turn they see Shaggy with a patched up lip trying to sell Daphne on the name Moonbeam before they both look up and smile (”I would have come and got you guys myself but Daph won’t let go of my hand.”) Everytime Daphne looks at the baby she starts sobbing and when Shag asks why she says, “Because I really do want a million of these things.”

They eventually settle on four.

- Mod Ninja

[anachronisims]

replies!

moocha-muses replied to your photo “MEANWHILE…. Rubati smuggled some chips out of the fridge, prompting me...”

I've read apocalypse plays where simmers got around this by just keeping the fridge turned around until they wanted to use it.

Oh yeah, I’ve heard about that trick too.  The “fridges” in use here are the Sun&Moon Butcher Set Hanging Animals fridges though, and while they physically could turn around, the aesthetic wouldn’t work for me and having to turn it back around to use it would get old, I imagine.  

Far easier to challenge myself with diligently policing their autonomous actions (which are generally few anyway) and, gasp, perhaps make sure they’re all properly fed in the first place.  Now (Y1D4) that everyone’s better at fishing, they’re doing it autonomously at the Fishin’ Hole while other characters are active, which means each family usually has at least one fish in inventory already when I enter a lot.  Maybe later I’ll make it harder for them to use these fish, but I have got BoilingOil’s mod that makes fish worth fewer food points so they still need more than one per day to stay fed - especially once the kiddos start arriving!

snarkysims replied to your post “!!!!!”

Yay! Glad you found the pics!

Me tooooo, I was really, really confused about it!

snarkysims replied to your photoset “Noel:  “Hey, Kimbs, thanks for putting up with me.  You’re the only...”

Awww... he was sweet to her. And yes, that nose is, um, interesting.

He’s got just enough self-awareness to be tolerable.  Like me :)

His nose is built to stand the test of time lolol, I’m sure we’ll see it all over in Gen 20...

niamh-sims replied to your photo “Didn’t I promise you fireworks and stars and good times had by all?”

That last picture is gorgeous!

I think I actually answered this one on the post itself, but thank you again.  I am doing everything in my power to try and keep up the level of gorgeous even as round by round my graphics settings are chipped away :(

niamh-sims replied to your photo “Meraki Y1D1 Summary *  We got to know our founders a lot better! ...”

Congratulations! How are you playing your rotations? Are you playing with any mods that change the length of the Seasons or ages?

Thanks!  I’m really glad you asked these questions because I love getting into the weeds on gameplay styles!! tldr I’m legit crazy about rotations.

I have pretty much always done rotations of 1-3 days at a time, and it will be flexible within a game depending on when someone is giving birth, aging up, or dying.  I’m fanatical about maintaining “proper” birth order - even though everyone ages at the same time every day, and lot sync timer, and blah blah. So like, right now everyone is playing through 2000 on day 4, then Stachia will give birth, I’ll name her baby, and then switch to Rubati’s birth, then play everyone through midnight (yes, a four hour chunk of probably watching them sleep but who knows, maybe someone makes a late trip to grab some water from the Fishin’ Hole), then I’ll do Nadii’ya’s birth, play everyone through till morning, then do Junia’s birth around 0500-0700, THEN everyone will play until it’s the hour of Kimba’s birth, then Saphir’s birth, then Stachia and Rubati’s babies’ birthdays... and on and on and on.  It’s probably confusing to read about but less confusing to do - and, you won’t notice any difference because the pictures are going to post normally.  

So then why bother?

90% of it is me liking to get interactions with pregnant sims on community lots by making sure the other families get played up until the synchronous hour at which they will give birth.  On the old community time mod, I never ever ever let preggos leave home, which was unfair to them but required for the game to calculate the pregnancy correctly/not bork the hood (as far as I know).  Now, using CH’s update, it... is workable to let them leave the lot, with judicious use of SimBlender’s pregnancy control options.  (I don’t use CH’s pregnancy controller so it still has to be done manually.)  But now I’m so used to micromanaging their time that I can’t help it and barely think twice about it.  

The other 10%, and this speaks more to the shorter rotations that break at 1800, is wanting to make sure kids are kids on the same day on everybody’s lot, teens are teens, etc etc.  If I had a five-day rotation, and Stachia’s kid aged to teen on day 4, then on everyone else’s lot’s days 1-3.99 that Sim would be walking by as a teen instead of as a child, shortchanging them and their peers of precious time for age-appropriate interaction.

No mods to change age lengths or seasons lengths, except that teens should age up to adult when they have anywhere between 11 and 7 days left.  I fudge it sometimes if the partner they’re destined for is way older/younger than they are, which is the only reason why I don’t use the mod that shortens it to 8 days.  I have been considering getting a shorter pregnancy mod, but probably won’t do it.  I like the motive decay of pregnancy to really endanger them :)

In a “real” game, where the point isn’t to churn generations, I have used longer lifespan and other attendant mods.  In my last ToT attempt, I used a longer life mod for pets but not Sims, because I didn’t want to have to say goodbye to any of them, but I doubt I’ll do that this time because it’s just too weird to have them basically live as long as the Sims do.

[zydrateacademy]

Review - Rage 2

I have little to no experience with the first Rage. I have about two hours on it, last played five years ago. I remember a lot of brown, and I think I immediately quit because it didn’t engage me very much. To the surprise of everyone, last year we get a teaser trailer set to Andrew WK’s “Ready to Die” in a semi live action setpiece telling everyone that Rage has returned, and it’s gonna be wacky! In practice, it’s just a very colorful shooter. A fairly decent one, but it lacks the general humor that Borderlands has, which yields a common comparison. Indeed, Rage 2 feels like a union between Mad Max (the driving), Borderlands (the environment), and DOOM (the gunplay). This review will have several comparisons to all three, but I’ll try to explain the systems so my readers won’t require previous knowledge of other games. I’ll start with the game’s main selling point, the zany gunplay and abilities. You play as Walker, gender of your choice but you cannot customize them as they both essentially exist as their own beings in this world. You are some kind of military trainee in a fairly safe and stable stronghold that gets annihilated in the first fifteen minutes of the game by an organization called “The Authority”. You put on a suit of armor of a now-extinct sect of “Rangers”, you being the last one in an impromptu promotion. This armor facilitates all of your guns and abilities. Even the guns are acquired through ARKS dotted around the land that are specifically designed for rangers and their suits, so right off the bat you’re more or less more equipped than every bandit in the wasteland.

Other than some odd key bindings to start with, the abilities and guns feel very good. One of the first you acquire is imminently useful, as it was designed to shatter armor of the enemies (and the ability is in fact called “Shatter”). This is also very satisfying as you play through the game, whether you use that ability or shoot it all off, you can actually see mob’s armor plating fly off as you whittle them down. It’s a good signifier as any that they’re ready to be killed outright. Considering the game shares much more with DOOM than with Borderlands, enemies are not at all bullet sponges. Most enemies can be taken out in just a couple shots, or a single headshot. The armor is what makes them spongey, but you’re very quickly given the tools to deal with it. Other abilities include a bullet barrier, a ground slam, a super sprint, a dash, a vortex that pulls enemies in and detonates, an overdrive, and a few others. Considering that DOOM developers have worked on this, this is not a cover shooter. Everything is designed to keep you moving and shooting and the set of abilities you acquire serve this goal incredibly well, and the gunplay is very fun. However, like Mad Max (from Avalanche Studios, which also served as developers here) strongholds don’t tend to respawn which leaves my usual fare of sandboxing starting to dry up just 11 hours into the game. I’m starting to get the feeling that the game is rather short, and I wish it took a similar idea from recent Far Cry games to reset the strongholds, maybe add some extra difficulty to it, and let us play it all again. I do not believe there is a New Game Plus at this time, so when I’m done, I’m done. This is essentially a twenty to thirty hour game it feels, so take that as you will.

Everything can be upgraded as well, DOOM-style. This is not Borderlands, and you will be staring at the same guns throughout your experience. There are about ten of them though (two from the preorder bonus, or potential DLC) and you can change their capabilities, level them up, and add extra mag sizes, reload speeds, and so on. They’ll function differently as you see fit but I find myself defaulting to the assault rifle you acquire, upgradable with armor piercing rounds which really tear through most enemies.

Returning from Mad Max are the convoys, one of my favorite mechanics from that game. There were only a handful there, and this game serves many more and they’re certainly more engaging in their own way. They boast an entire caravan with a War-Rig like truck that serves as its own boss (complete with a health bar), where you must wipe out the allies and then hit “weak points” that pop out periodically. I’m not sure if they constantly spawn or are as temporary as the strongholds, but I do enjoy them.

So the gunplay is good, the environment is interesting to look at. There’s plenty of lights, colorful characters, and even trees and wildlife in certain zones. The writing leaves something to be desired. For example you get a Borderlandsy splash screen introducing a few characters, one of which was “enjoys manipulating others, and once tortured a guy just to get his approval”. Meeting him just screamed “This guy is going to betray the fuck out of you”. Sure enough...

So let’s move on to some points I have “mixed” feelings about.

As I alluded to with the guns, this isn’t really a Loot-N-Shooter. It’s just a shooter. Everywhere there are chests to get “feltrite”, the main upgrade currency. You also get money, which also helps buy upgrades outright as well as ammo for you and your vehicle. There’s even an upgrade just to help you triangulate and find these chests so you don’t abandon every stronghold at 3/4 chests found because it’s hiding in a tiny alcove somewhere, but sometimes I do it anyway because it kind of kills too much time when you’re running around for a while. The gameplay encourages constant moving, shooting, and ground-slamming, but after a while you actually run out of things to do all of that with. To the game’s credit, it doesn’t make Anthem’s mistake of “go here, kill everything”. Sometimes you defend a pylon, sometimes you shoot fuel tanks, sometimes you destroy a power silo. All of which involves a lot of shooting but none of this respawns or comes back.

In relation, the map does feel a bit small. After gaining reputation with a certain main character, you’re awarded the Icarus, which is a flight vehicle. No weapon capabilities and it’s made out of paper but it’s very useful for transit. I’d almost recommend not using it at all, but it does help nab a few points of interest that you wouldn’t necessarily drive past on wheels, as some things you need to actively search for rather than drive by. As I said before, after 11 hours it feels as though I’ve complete most of the side-stuff already. Side missions can be picked up in towns but they’re much simpler and less interesting than the main story itself, and there’s little reason to do them.

The game is also very buggy. I suffer a crash to desktop (no error message or anything) every couple of hours. Much more often the game will freeze on me for an extended period of time (forty-five seconds or more) before coming back to me. I was on a “clear out the bandits” objective and one of the enemies was clipped into a building. Thankfully the “Shatter” ability has some AoE capabilities that got through the wall and I got him eventually. Those are the main three I’ve suffered but if you read around, you’ll no doubt find much more. These aren’t the usual funny “dragons flying backwards” Bethesda bugs, these are actually game breaking and rage inducing.

Oh, Bethesda. What has happened to you? It felt like it’s just been a couple years since you were the gaming community’s golden boy. It really all went downhill with Fallout 76 (which I’m still waiting on single player and modding capabilities) and has never really recovered. Yes, their new fare of “microtransactions” are here. I don’t normally have a hate-on for cosmetic shops like the community as a whole does but in Rage 2 it’s particularly pointless. It has some gun skins, both of which can be acquired in game. The golden skins are 10,000 dollars in certain shops (which is a lot, mind you) and the other ones can be acquired by farming the Mutant Bash TV enough. I enjoy the mutant-killing arena but I find it’s far too damn easy, and it really needed extra difficulty levels attached. Those skins cost 2500 MBTV tokens and you can get ~1500 every run you do. Considering how easy it is, I earned most of them in like, an hour. Now let’s get to some of the things I actively hate.

I don’t like the driving. Not nearly as much in Mad Max, anyway. The convoys are indeed still fun and more rewarding than Max’s were. To Max’s credit, that entire game was built around the car being a major mechanic and hell, even plot point and Max’s entire motivation. In Rage 2 it’s more of a sideshow. The cars don’t feel like they have much weight to them (at least, not until you spin them out and try to push yourself out of a ditch, which I often do) and when I was given the flying Icarus, I felt little point in returning to the sassy-AI that hosted the Phoenix, the only car you can upgrade and customize.

To wit, I actually quite despise the driving in certain contexts. Early in the story you have to impress someone enough to enter his suite. To do so you must play through the Mutant Bash TV (fun, but easy) and... a race. You enter the race and the NPC there tells you that you’re starting on the bottom. Now, in other games this means they usually give you idiots for AI. The first race in GTA5 was laughable, and even in Mad Max their one main “race” was actually just a deathmatch with a six minute timer. This newbie race in Rage 2 actually made me Rage-Quit the night the game was released. They give you their own car, every other racer has the same one and they actually match your speed. At any given point I always had two to four other racers ahead of me at all times. You know what bots and AI don’t do? Make mistakes. They never spun out, rammed into each other, or hit a wall unless you yourself did all that to them. After getting a night’s sleep and three tries in the morning later, my only strategy was to ignore the other drivers and concentrate harder than I ever have in a game. I basically had to do a perfect run, not hitting anything. I did so well and ALMOST lost the ENTIRE race to one single spinout near the end of the track. When I won, I could hear one or two car engines right on my tailpipe. They never lost traction like I did, and that’s just garbage.

I hated it. I do not look forward to dealing with this required mission in future playthroughs. By the way, it’s required to unlock an entire upgrade tree.

One final point of annoyance before I summarize my thoughts ultimately. This one is much more minor but it actually irritates me more than the driving does because this one is a constant threat. Every time you clear an objective, no matter how quick or small, you get an unskippable popup announcing your victory and rewards, as well as the reputation gain. This could have so easily been put on the side, like they do their radio-bound dialogues. Instead it completely stops the show and I find myself slamming the enter key so I can skip it the very split second it allows me to do so. In a game that wants you to keep moving, in a very successful and fun way, this thing is just a complete show stopper and I don’t know how their beta testers weren’t yelling “Come on, let me PLAY!” constantly. Ultimately, I do feel like there’s a good game to be had here. The cosmetic store is easily ignored and beyond that, you’ll have to deal with some bugs, janky driving, and bullshit “OBJECTIVE COMPLETE” popups. If you can deal with that, you’re left with some excellent gunplay and skillfully crafted environments. It’s not as long as I had hoped, and I really expected more to justify an eighty dollar preorder but I have not at all hated the experience.

[rookieskrp]

RK’S FOURTH BIRTHDAY CELEBRATIONS CONCLUDE

What better way to celebrate four years of Rookies than with a bit of a makeover, right? Yes, those of you that noticed the change in icon and/or that the main was private for about an hour probably guessed it. Check out our lovely new theme, courtesy of the amazing Mod Razel! Those of you that were around in December 2013 may feel a little familiarity in some of the graphics, because this theme drew inspiration from the first theme Rookies ever had. The new acceptance graphics will kick in next week, so please look forward to it! Pardon our dust as we clean everything up and apply the necessary changes to our numerous sideblogs, too. We had intentions of getting all of this finished yesterday at the end of the queue, but what can we say, sometimes high quality work takes a little bit more time!! We hope it was well worth the wait.

To conclude the celebrations of this incredible landmark, we, your staff team, wanted to share our feelings on all of this beyond just a blanket announcement-- in a little more of a personal way. We always enjoy reading all the posts from you guys when you reach an important benchmark on your characters, be it a year anniversary, a certain number of posts, or more, so this is our version of that as mods. If this compels you to embrace your feelings of nostalgia and fondness, feel free to make an OOC post to let it out. We’d love to hear what this anniversary means to you! Tag any relevant posts as #rkfourth so we can see them all. If you’re inspired to make graphics or start any other projects, too, feel free to! Now, onward with our feelings!!

bianca:

the fact i'm writing this right now is pretty surreal (especially since i forgot about it and had to do it while lying in bed ready to sleep). i was one of the last additions to the admod team and sometimes i still need to stop and think about it to remember that actually happened. i had been a member of rookies for less than a year when i was given the chance to become a mod and even if at first i wasn't sure if i was ready for the job i'm glad i took it! rookies has become something close to a second home to me and i often find myself choosing to write something instead of studying for an exam. during my time here i actually graduated from high school and got into an university which sounds crazy to me!! now debuts are happening and i can't wait to see what more this rp has in store for us. i truly do hope rookies continues going for many more years and that i can help it grow into something even better that can bring joy to whoever wants to join us (or is already part of the family)! watch out for events and see you next year, rookies!

razel:

ahhhhhh it’s already rookies fourth birthday *wipes tears* y’all grow up so fast i can’t believe we’re here four years later and rookies is still as alive and accommodating as it had began. i just want to thank the original admin team, julie and jaiden, for bringing to life a roleplay that’s both brought happiness and excitation for many of our muns. shoutout to piper for doing her absolute 100% best taking over and giving us a foundation to continue on after her leave. my fellow mod team who are literally THE BEST team y’all could ask for in running a roleplay. BUT ALSO who could forget our beautiful muns and muses we’ve seen come and go (as well as who are still here) without your participation, anticipation and love for rookies — none of this could really be possible. thank you for being so patient and hope everyone is excited for the future of rookies and the expectations of debuts in the new year! (i think we can all say this was a long time coming and i’m happy for those who have overcome this wait with us! rookies has always been my home away from home. from the very start, back in 2013, i had already known it would be hard to leave this place behind. with the countless muses i’ve created, rkqri has made a deep impression in my heart with her relationships as well as her development in the rk-verse. i honestly don’t know what i would have done without her or rookies to distract me from the stress irl had on me. it’s been my safe haven since 2013 until now and i’m happy to continue being here to see it til the very end! aghhhh i’m getting emotional but i’m super happy for rookies, it’s fourth birthday and for all the muses and muns who are still here and have made rookies their home as well. i Love ya, rookies 💓

sera:

hello, it’s your bandaid mod here! i still remember when i first joined rookies when shannen (former rkmyung) brought me over during the mgas2 season. i thought this place was amazing then (my first tumblr rp!) and i still think - despite the ups and downs i’ve felt as a member - that this place is incredible for lasting as long as it has! i’m beyond grateful to the current head mods for hiring me on within the last year because it was definitely a leap of faith on their part!! it’s even more of an honor to get to work on debut tier along with mod kyle (how y’all gonna trust me with these big tasks idk???) so i just want to say... thanks!!! to everyone for making the rookies community as fun, as stressful, and as rewarding as it is. i love it here more than i can possibly express. i’ll keep working hard as your mod from now on and as hyeri & joohyun for as long as i can! ♡

kyle:

Happy Birthday, Rookies!  As a lot of you know, I’ve been here since the first day Rookies opened, four years ago!  I’ve really enjoyed my time here and the opportunities I’ve had to bring my muses to life and to write with so many talented people over the years.  I just want to say that Rookies has been a major part of my life for a long time now and I’m very grateful for that.  

Over four years, I’ve played several characters, though probably Taeyeon is the one I’m best known for, having played her for every single day of the four years I’ve been here!  My other two current muses are Seulgi and Sejeong, and I’m quite happy with how both of them have progressed so far!   I’ve also played the actress Kim Jiwon, After School’s Lizzy, GFriend’s Yerin (who became Seulgi), APink’s Eunji, & Pristin’s Minkyung.  I’ve enjoyed writing with all of you that I’ve had the chance to and even if I haven’t, I’ve enjoyed seeing you all here over the years, building your own characters in this world we share.

We have a lot more coming up in the future of Rookies, including debuts! (Finally, I know some of you are saying, myself included lol)  I just want to say thank you for all of you that have been here, no matter how long or short of a time you’ve been here.  Rookies is an amazing rpbecause of each and every one of you that takes the courage to put your writing out there.  So really and truly, thank you for being here and sharing your lives, and your muses lives, with us.  Here’s to more fantastic times in the future!

The only advice anybody can give is, if you wanna be a writer, keep writing. And read all you can, read everything. – Stan Lee

mira:

i remember feeling both excited and super nervous while writing my app to become a mod for rookies over two years ago - those who were close to me at the time can confirm that i wrote about six different versions for it, and ended up changing to a seventh one last minute because i STILL wasn't sure of what to send! i also remember the day mama piper told me she picked me as events mod as one of the happiest days of my life; i love her and rookies more than i can explain in this tiny little message and it means the world to me to have been chosen into such an important and special role in it. i know i've been lacking in my job and i would like to take the chance to apologize to all my members for being absent. i would also like to thank everyone for letting me be here and helping me grow both as a mod and as a person. please, know this: if i haven't been around as much as i should have, it's because i now finally have the strength and courage to take care of myself properly. i have accomplished many, many things this past year, and i know that i couldn't have done it without all that i've learned while being your events mod and your head of development. rookies is a part of me that i dearly love, and i promise i won't ever give up on it. it's not everyday you get to be a staff member of a rp that shares your own birthday, after all. ♡

carly:

i really honestly can’t believe rookies has been around for four years (people have entered and graduated HIGH SCHOOL in the time rookies has been open!!) but at the same time, i can. rookies always seemed like a special rp, and once it got through the original bumps, i’m really glad nothing stopped it. i think the most unbelievable thing is that i’m here, talking about this as a mod (admin???) those of you that have been around for a while have heard the story before. i joined rookies a few days before christmas 2013, and i was so overwhelmed by everything-- back then, my health was even worse than it is now, and i had no idea that i even had lyme disease, i was just sick allll the time. i thought for sure i would end up dropping in the first two weeks. i don’t actually remember how or why i stuck around, but by february, i was really invested and attached. over time, i started reading and liking every solo and sns post anyone ever posted, and kept up with what was going on in the lives of all of the characters here (i was inspired by our now former admin piper, who did the same thing before i did!) and i’m sure that’s what got me my dash mod job at the end of 2015. in my mod app, i said “i love rookies and rookies has helped me so much in the near two years i’ve been here, so i’d love to give back even half as much as i’ve gotten from it,“ and i think that sums up why i became a mod really well. rookies has been here for me when i didn’t know what all of my health issues were, when i got my diagnosis of lyme disease, and through all of the (continuing) ups and downs of treatment for it, and i can’t honestly express enough how wonderful it’s been for me to always count on rookies to be here as a creative outlet, and something to enjoy, and to always count on you all for your support. i like to think in the two years i’ve been a mod, that i’ve done a good job of giving back some of what i’ve gotten from rookies, though i think i still have some work to do before i reach giving back half as much, because you guys are always giving a lot to me every day, too. i should probably cut myself off before this gets EVEN LONGER so all the other mods can talk too (joke’s on you carly your message is so long that it got moved to the end) but i feel really blessed to be here in this exact moment, with the exact role i’ve had. i hope that my being a mod has made rookies a bit better of a place, and that your lives have been a little brighter because of it. thank you all for talking to me about your muses, and trusting me to sort out things that bother you, for choosing to spend your time and energy here, and for helping me learn and grow into a better person every day. in good times and bad, rookies has always been some of the good for me. i love you all dearly and i’ll keep working to make rookies a place you can enjoy for an even longer time  ♡♡♡

[imagineclaireandjamie]

The Last All-Clear (4)

Notes from Mod Bonnie

This story is a series of vignettes following the premise: “Imagine if Jamie travelled through the stones, but instead of finding Claire in Boston he found himself having arrived years too early, when the War was still happening and Claire had yet to meet him… What would he do?”

Formatting note: Bolding in Jamie’s letters = underlining

Previously:

(Part 1) September 17, 1942: A Rusty Nail

(Part 2) December 3, 1942: Comb and Glove

(Part 3) 1943: Blood and Whisky 

1943-1944: Gifts and Ends

C. E. B. Randall

Camp Nightwing, France

1 September

Another long night in surgery by the end of which I wanted nothing more than to scream.

But, as always, Danton was there waiting for me at the shed with whisky and an open ear. I don’t know how he always knows when I’m in most need of company, but it means the world to know I’ve got a friend, not just friendly people with whom I work, but a friend. He’s always there to listen, drink with me, say a word of encouragement, and get me laughing by the time I leave to go to sleep. Still a tough nut to crack, all things considered, but I’ve rarely encountered someone so intuitive and incisive. He’s quiet, but when he speaks, it’s with such intention. 

Add another tidbit to the Danton file: his mother’s name was Hélène and she had red hair. It makes him sad to talk about her, but he loved her very much. 

9 3 2 

Will ye have you noticed, reading this, years hence, that I’m a different person these last several months than in the ones before? That I go days—weeks, even— without writing single word? That when I do, it’s brief pleasantries: what I ate, the tasks I undertook?

It isna because my days are less full than before; quite the contrary. Only, if I dinna force myself to recount the way I’ve let myself act around you, the way I order my day so that I can see you, the way I encourage your attentions, chaste and merely friendly as they are....If I allow myself to simply go to sleep with the sound of your voice still fresh in my ear, I’m better able to live with myself for it. ‘Tis infinitely easier to let myself live my days in an unexamined happiness, however fleeting, however much I feel the shame of it in my bones, deep down. Writing of it, having to face it, makes my weaknesses so abundantly and painfully clear. Denial, I have found, is its own sweet comfort. 

Will you understand this, Sassenach? Will you understand the depth of loneliness that can drive a person to be so pitifully less than he ought? 

Still, with every day that passes, each day torn between restraint and joy in your companionship, I find the voice of better judgement murmuring more and more determinedly in the back of my mind, the same questions that have been there from the beginning of this nightmare: What is it that I actually accomplish on your behalf? Is it only my pride that keeps me here? Would it be better for you, be less risky, if I were to simply leave, go to Scotland and bide my time until you should return? Am I doing you any good at all by staying? 

C. E. B. Randall

Camp Nightwing, France

25 December

A working Christmas, but a merry one. Wrote a long letter to Frank with all my love. 

Danton seemed absolutely shocked when I handed him his gift, and he tried to scold me for it, but everyone can use a new scarf, I insisted! It brings out the blue in his eyes. He grumbled about it even then, but honestly I think he was just embarrassed he didn’t have anything for me in return. Told him it was the least I could do to pay him back for drinking all of his good whisky, month after month. Then I told him the truth: that his friendship has been a tremendously dear gift to me this year. I swear to God, the man actually blushed. 

9 9 1

A new year, today, mo nighean donn.  Ye pushed a paper cup of champagne into my hand at the gathering in the mess hall and kissed my cheek before running off to dance with your friends. It was a lively song first, but followed by that bittersweet one that brings tears to my eyes every time, even if I canna discern the tune: 

     ....how happy, my darling, we’ll be,     

     when they turn up the lights, 

     and the dark, lonely nights     

     are only a memory.

You sat off to the side, during that one, looking as lonely and sorrowful as I myself must have appeared.

Nineteen hundred and forty-four. Another year closer to when I can take your face in both my hands and kiss you without end, at the stroke of midnight or no. 

C. E. B. Randall

Camp Nightwing, France

13 January

Saw Danton wearing his blue muffler again. Teased him about it and he immediately grinned and pulled a little cloth-wrapped bundle out of his pocket. The bastard intentionally baited me! 

My Christmas gift turned out to be a little carved-wood oval, polished and sleek as a pebble, with an intricate interlace pattern that, at the center, knits inward to form a dragonfly. It’s small enough to fit in the palm of my hand, and I honestly can’t stop staring at it. The time it must have taken him, and the precision needed for working on so tiny a canvas! He demurred, of course, when I raved about the craftsmanship, but I know he was pleased I liked it. 

1 0 0 9

You stitched up a wee French laddie today, no more than four years of age. He was hurt in the course of fleeing with his family, and it was clear that he was terrified of soldiers and of being in camp. Ye spoke to him softly in his own language as ye worked, though, soothing and comforting him as though he were your own. Ye sang to him, too. Being so sadly precluded from music myself, these last years, it didna occur to me before that ye might have such a lovely voice. 

I’ve passed these last few hours in such beautiful peace, mo ghraidh: imagining the day when ye might take my head in your lap and sing to me as you stroke my hair; a day when a song drifts through our rooms, our home, and I peek through a doorway to see you cradling our child, singing them to sleep. 

1 0 1 3 

You didna tell me he was coming to camp.

Should it reassure me, an indication that I’m insignificant enough that it didna even cross your mind to mention it? Or is it the worst of signs: that ye didna want to speak of your husband, of all people, to me? 

There he stood, there at the quiet edge of camp by the pond, behind the barracks. Franklin Wolverton Randall, patiently waiting for his wife to go on leave. He truly does look like the bastard. I nearly reached for my knife when I saw him standing there, unannounced, unexpected. Then to see you, out of uniform, hair long and loose as ye ran for him, flew into his arms with that same abandon as you used to enter mine? See him kiss you, touch you like that—

I watched for far too long, mo chridhe. I confess as much to you, here. It was wrong of me, but I simply couldna look away. Even after the two of ye had left, hand-in-hand, your face alight and beaming....I sat under that tree for hours—trying not to think of where and how and for how long he was bedding you, tasting you. Would ye be making those same small sounds for him, reaching for him with that wild, lovely abandon? Would ye be crying out his name, moaning for him as

Forgive me. 

C. E. B. Randall

Camp Nightwing, France

24 January

Lord, it’s positively wretched trying to undertake an intimate visit in a mobile camp with no friendly town or inn nearby. A spare tent and two mattresses pushed together on the ground hardly can qualify as a love nest. Still, throw enough cozy blankets on top and a cozy husband within for good measure, and not a bad way to spend a day or two off. 

It’s been over a year since we last saw each other. Always a little strange trying to get back into things, but it’s so good to have him here, to have even a short time to reconnect. It’s easy to get caught up in work, day after day and month after month; easy to forget, amidst it all, that I’ve a marriage to maintain.  

Danton’s taken ill, apparently; asked for today and tomorrow off. Hoping he’s alright.

1 0 1 5 

I wanted him to be cruel. I wanted him to be the worst kind of scum. 

But when I was so startled seeing his face again unexpectedly today that I dropped a hammer on my foot, he came over at once to see if he could help. He was kind and considerate, and had a warmth to his eyes, even toward a complete stranger such as me. He has nothing of the cruelty of his putative ancestor, not to me, and more importantly, not toward you. I could see the tenderness he has for ye, the evident care and the love as the two of ye made your farewells.

It only serves as yet another proof. You’re safe while you’re in camp. You’re safe when you’re with Frank. You dinna need me watching over you. You never did. The only one that needed it was me. 

Today, Claire. It ends today. I promise you this.

C. E. B. Randall

Camp Nightwing, France

9 February

Danton is angry with me, I think. Every time I try to approach him to talk or just say hello, he’s turning tail and making for the other side of camp. He’s never in the wards anymore, nor do I see him taking his meals at the usual times. I made excuses for him for the first several days, but it’s clear, now, that he’s actively avoiding me. 

It shouldn’t bother me as much as it has, but damn it all, I miss him; that calm support he’s been to me this year. 

Jesus, looking at that on the page, I want to scratch it out. I have no right to be so entitled or territorial or whatever you wish to call it. The man’s never even told me his first name, for god’s sake, and he hardly knows a thing about me, either. Still, there’s a hollow feeling in my chest every time I feel that dragonfly carving in my pocket. I miss him, and I don’t know what I did. 

How bloody dare he. 

1 0 6 5 

I ache for you, mo nighean donn.

April 1, 1944

I rounded the corner so quickly, neither of us had time to avoid the other. We both just stood there in the narrow passage between tents, teetering mid-step. I smiled and opened my mouth to speak. He nodded once, put his head down, and walked around me.

“Oh for Christ’s sake,” I snapped, turning to follow him with my glare, “honestly? Danton, I’m not going to bite you.”

He stopped, but did not turn. “I know, madame.” Quiet. lifeless. 

“Will you at least tell me what it is I’ve done to offend you so grievously?”

I didn’t think it was possible, but his shoulders tensed further. “You ‘ave done nothing, madame.”

“Well, something clearly changed.” All my pent-up bewilderment was barreling out of me in a fury. “You’ve avoided me completely for weeks. You won’t even look at me any more, like the past year was just— erased overnight! I mean, Jesus H. Christ, we used to be friends, didn’t we?”

A momentary flash of blue over his shoulder before the hair and the hat obscured him. “In truth, we do not know one another, madame. We ‘ave been friendly acquaintances.”

“Ac...Acquaintances.” My blood boiled and hot tears prickled in my eyes. “That’s it? That’s.... bloody it?” My voice came out shrill and small. 

His was like a dead man’s. “What more did you think it was, madame?”

I couldn’t even speak for a few moments, so great was the shock and hurt. 

He made to walk away, but then I found my voice, low, teeth gritted. “Perhaps I don’t know you in the sense of having all the details of your life’s story. Why? Because you deign to divulge such things only once in a blue moon and I’ve respected that.” I rallied, trying to maintain control of the lump in my throat and my rage. “But you meant a hell of a lot more to me than I apparently meant to you.”

He was still for moment longer, then he turned and faced me squarely, looking me in the eye with a hostility I had never before seen there. “I am no longer interested in being your charity case, madame. And it is time you learned to carry on without needing a man to constantly congratulate you.” 

He may as well have sliced me open. 

“Fuck you, too, then.”

I threw the dragonfly on the ground and walked away without a glance backward. 

1 0 8 2  

It was the only way I knew to complete the break. 

I am so very sorry, mo nighean donn. 

I shall be leaving as soon as I have enough wages to get home.  I waited all my life for you. I can wait four years more alone.

C. E. B. Randall

Camp Nightwing, France

4 May 

So many battles. So many wounded. German incursions and raids have locked down the camp until further notice. 

God, just let this vile war end. 

1 1 3 4 

You willna even speak to me, now. I hardly can blame you for it, as that was the intended result. Still, now it’s me keeping my eyes wide and searching for you at every turning, for you’ve been avoiding the usual sick bays, the places we used to encounter one another. 

You’ve taken to teaching classes to the soldiers. It’s a credit to you, Claire. I’ve stood outside the tents and listened to you give your lessons on several occasions. You truly are grand at it, this world of healing and instructing. You have so much in you, Sassenach, so much to give. 

I dinna wish to leave you. 

C. E. B. Randall

Camp Nightwing, France

7 June 

God be praised, the Americans stormed the Normandy beaches yesterday. Let this be the breakthrough that changes things, at last. 

1 1 5 6 

Tomorrow. I’ve been given leave to depart tomorrow. 

I’ve thought long and hard about it, Claire. Even if you dinna wish to see me, even if it is only a word and a moment, I shall say farewell face-to-face. 

The sack felt leaden on his shoulders, though he had hardly any possessions to his name.  His old sporran. A change of clothing. His book of letters to Claire. 

This is not the end, he reminded himself over and over. This is naught but the end of a chapter that should not have been opened to begin with. This is not the end. 

The walk across camp felt an eternity, made still worse by the fact that she wasn’t even in the barracks, where she would normally be found at 7:00 of an evening. She wasn’t in the instructional tent. He went to the mess-hall—not there either.

“Jesus, Claire,” he muttered under his breath after a full quarter hour of searching, “where in God’s name have ye gone?

At last, he spotted a familiar face and he all but ran to catch up with her, panting a little as he said, “Excuse me, Miss Nancy?”

Nancy jumped as though he had grabbed her, and it took all his control not to roll his eyes at the flighty wee thing. She never had gotten over that initial fear and loathing for his manner and look. More’s the pity that it hadn’t worked half so well on Claire.

He recovered and gave a cordial bow. “I am most sorry to ‘ave startled you. Would you tell me, please, where I might find Nurse Randall?”

“Whew, um,” Nancy put a dramatic hand on her heaving heart as she blinked and thought. “Oh! Yes, well, she’s not here, of course.”

“Not here?” In his shock, he nearly forgot to put on the French accent. “Where ‘as she gone?”

“She was part of the escort that set out to take those American chaps back.”

“...Ameri—” Then the world was shifting, tumbling, fragments of memory from another war suddenly sparking into horrific clarity. 

“Surely you heard about it? The two Airborne lads that came to us because they got separated from their men after Normandy? They’ve been here for the last week, I can’t believe you haven’t—”

But Jamie wasn’t listening. He was running. 

Of all the things Claire had told him, how could he have failed to recollect THIS?  For today was the day Claire nearly got herself killed by German fire.....the day when Claire could get herself killed by German fire. 

[ritosgale]

My Sims 3 Mess of a Legacy Challenge: Catching Up and Meeting the Nieves Family

Okay so I downloaded the Sims 3 a while ago during the Steam winter sale and because I was getting slightly bored with the game, I decided to start a legacy challenge. I doubt anyone who is reading this doesn’t know what it is because I’ll literally tag it “Sims 3 Legacy” but I don’t feel like explaining the rules so here they are. Knock yourself out. Also I would like to say that tamashiihiroka inspired me to do this, so check out her own legacy journals and such.

Anyways I started a legacy a while ago, and I thought it would be a cool idea to keep a record of it because I love playing this game and I feel like it’s fun to share one’s experience with the game because everybody’s challenge is different. I feel like Tumblr is a less cluttered place to share the challenge compared to forums, as much as I hate to admit it because this website is trash but ANYWAYS. I like writing too so this gives me an excuse to do write... I feel like I have rambled on for too long so I’ll go ahead and just make this introductory post about the family I’m playing with.

(I started this Legacy with Late Night, Generations, Seasons, and Diesel stuff installed)

Also, I have quite a number of mods installed for the game. I have Overwatch and ErrorTrap to help reduce the lag, the story progression mod that makes every sim actually do interesting things, and the MasterController mod so that I manually fix things. I also have many custom career mods such as the NFL, NHL, social worker, teen modeling, and standup comedy career mods just to make things more interesting.

I’m also not the best picture taker so prepare for poor pictures and screenshots!

I have no idea how to start with other than to introduce the founder- 

Mateo Nieves

His traits are virtuoso, flirty, artistic, handy, and star quality. I named him Mateo because I like the name a lot for some reason, and I gave him the surname Nieves because the last name just sounded cool. He is a five star celebrity, and is also a vampire. He is only an adult despite the fact that I have spent many hours playing with this Sim... jfc these vampires NEVER die. 

He settled in the big city of Bridgeport to seek celebrity status and to become a rockstar. He has achieved both dreams, but it was not an easy path. First, he basically lived as a hobo because the rules to the challenge are cruel AF. He had to sleep in a sleeping bag every night and had no shower for basically four days. I made him go to a co-worker named Brandon’s house and spend four nights there so that he could shower and eat well because his house was so shitty. (Side note: His lifetime wish of being a rich and famous celebrity glitched out somehow so I changed his wish to being a rockstar and his wish was fulfiled).

I made him fall in love with the co-worker, who he later became engaged to. However, I got bored of Brandon so I made Mateo dump him and he later fell in love with and married Marina Prattle, who later obviously became Marina Nieves. Together they had triplets, who you will be introduced to further in this post.

The family traits that he is passing down in his family are the purple eyes, his celebrity status, his virtuoso trait. Every descendant of Mateo is a musician, since that idea just seemed cool to me. Right now, since the death of his wife, he’s been a player and has been hitting it off with many different people. Who knows if he’s happy to be free as a flirty sim, or is longing to fill the hole in his heart...

Marina Nieves

Lmao she ded af

Triplet #1: Tiago Nieves

I couldn’t get a good picture of him, but he’s the oldest of the triplets. He inherited his late mom’s blonde hair, his father’s eye color, and the virtuoso trait. He is not the heir of the legacy, but he has achieved the most out of his siblings. For example, he won Valedictorian in his high school class and has mastered many instruments because of him joining band class. His lifetime wish is to become a Renaissance Sim, and he has mastered the Logic and Guitar skills so far.

His career is a hit movie composer, his traits are genius, virtuoso, flirty, and good (I guess you don’t get a fifth trait until you’re an adult or something?). He is very flirty like his father, and is still looking for a girl to start a family with, after he achieves his lifetime dream, of course.

Triplet #2: Mateo Nieves, Jr (The First Heir)

This is Mateo Jr, obviously named after his father. I chose him to be the heir solely because he shares the same name as his father... that’s really the only reason...He has inherited his hair and eyes from his father, and his vampirisim from both his parents (I have no idea what he’s inherited solely from his mother). His traits are virtuoso, perfectionist, vehicle enthusiast, and athletic. His atheltic trait has helped him achieve his lifetime wish of becoming a professional athlete, and he’s reached the top of the athletic career.

He’s still a young adult and is happily married to his husband Pat (the guy right behind him), who was his imaginary friend growing up. Together they have two teenager daughters- Natalia and Gina. 

Note: One thing that I’ve done with heirs throughout my legacy is that they wear purple earrings and are associated a lot with purple (because it’s my favorite color). Mateo Jr’s room is purple, his swimwear is purple, etc. I just thought it was a cool idea to do that.

Triplet #3: Diana Nieves

She is the youngest of the triplets, and is the most artistic one in terms of painting. She works from home, painting brilliant works and masterpieces and being pretty crucial to maintaining her family’s wealth. 

Her traits are virtuoso, loves the heat, star quality, and technophobe. She’s a 4-star celebrity, and I’m trying to make her famous just so that she can be like her father. Her mother Marina, also dreamed of being a 5-star celebrity, but because of some stupid glitch with the celebrity system, she stayed stuck at 3 stars. For RP’s sake, Diana would like to achieve something that her mother could not just to honor her life.

She’s single, but because I’ve been running out of room in the household, I’ve been trying to marry her off. Like Tiago, I’m trying to have her accomplish her lifetime wish before having a husband. I’m thinking about using the MasterController mod to prevent her from having kids- not to make her sterile, but just because she doesn’t want to have any. I also think that she’s too good for many of the Bridgeport sims, so I haven’t really found a perfect partner for her.

Pat Nieves

Pat and one of his daughters are the only two humans in the household. He’s Mateo Jr’s husband, and was his imaginary friend. When both Pat and Mateo Jr were teenagers, Tiago finally developed a potion for Pat to become real. When offered the potion, Pat happily accepted and became real. He immediately fell in love with Mateo after looking back at the years of their friendship, and the feelings were mutual between the both of them. They both then got married. I used a mod to get Pat pregnant (I don’t support MPreg or anything, so anyone who has that fetish can walk away now. I just didn’t want to buy Into The Future for the genes mix baby thing), and that was a huge mess. His body disappeared and glitched out until he gave birth to Natalia, who is the next heir.

He works as a journalist, and his dream is to become a star news anchor. However, since he ages a lot faster than everyone in his family, he hasn’t really come close to achieving his dream. He’s very close to becoming an elder. He can’t become a vampire because he’s already an imaginary friend, but I’m greatly considering using the mod to make him become one. I would feel bad to have him die without achieving his dream...

His traits are nurturing, angler, bookworm, neat, and vegetarian. These traits were very helpful when it came to raising Natalia as a baby and a toddler.

Natalia Nieves (The Second Heir)

Natalia, like Mateo Jr, is also a vampire. Also, surprisingly enough, like her other father, she is also an imaginary friend. Her hybrid-ness is legitimate, and I was surprised when I saw the option for her to turn into toy form. So yeah, that’s something funny about her. She also inherited Pat’s hair, which is a pretty cool scheme to me. Lastly, she is the heir, and she also has purple earrings, bracelets, and many other things. 

Right now, she is a teenager, and she missed many of her elementary and middle school days because of the winter snow. Despite her being a genius and having a high logic skill, she barely reached the honor roll in high school. She is striving to becoming her class’ Valedictiorian, just like her uncle.Her lifetime desire is to become a world-renowned surgeon. I hope that her genius trait will help her out with that. 

Her other traits are light sleeper, friendly, and virtuoso.

Gina Nieves

Last but not least, this is Gina Nieves. I named her after Gina Rodriguez because I love her and stan that actress. She is the adopted child of Pat and Mateo Jr. She is also human, and has no desire in becoming a vampire no matter what. 

She wants to become a famous actress, which stems from her wanting to honor the legacy of her late grandmother. She also desires to become a 5-star celebrity. In her high school career, she is striving to become the most popular in her class, and wants to win that award at her graduation.

Her traits are perfectionist, excitable, artistic, and athetlic. She wants to paint a little on the side just as a hobby and for some pocket money, but she also wants to be a great athlete. Perhaps her aritistic nature and ahtletic skill will help her become a famous movie star, where she can express herself and have lots of stamina for different roles.

Edit: I put this post on drafts because I am a great writer who takes breaks and doesn’t write on posts for days. I literally just* installed 6 other things for this game because of the Steam Midweek Madness sale. I downloaded Ambitions, University Life, Pets, Supernatural, Master Suite stuff, and World Adventures and I’m pretty excited to see how they turn out and add to my gameplay. I’m gonna edit some random town sims into supernaturals just so the expansion pack doesn’t go unused but yeah I’m excited.

Another edit: I took another break and it’s been like two days since I installed the EPs and I haven’t played much with them. I just finished editing this post lol so I’m gonna post this now. These edits are pretty poorly-written but I don’t know what else to add. Lol also just so you know the paragraph after this was written before these edits. But anyways

Conclusion:

These are pretty much the family members of the Nieves family. They’re a wealthy and famous family, which I think is interesting. I’ll try to make them dramatic and as extra as I can when things seem to get a bit bland just for the fun of it. Maybe they can be some sort of weird Kardashian rip-off family. 

Anyways, these characters will come and go, since I’m only on my third generation, and it’ll be pretty sad to see some of these characters die. I want to in a way immortalize them outside of my memory just so that I don’t forget exactly why I spend 5 hours a day playing this really fun game. This might seem cheesey to many people, but I like the thought of doing this, and I guess that matters to me more than what others think of this. Anyways, I hope that the three people who read this enjoy this journal thing of the weird ass things that happen in this game.

Fun fact: I’m planning on making Natalia and Gina attend university together when they’re young adults since they’re basically the same age. That should be fun!

P.S. I don’t feel like spellchecking this thing so deal with my grammar errors lol bye

[wztd]

First and foremost I need to make this very clear: The local law enforcement has been very well notified about this situation and my family has a member of a federal agency that is aware of the situation as well. I know that Reddit likes to dive into stories posted on here sometimes, but please know that the situation is being taken care of as we speak.Secondly, I have been a lurker on Reddit for around three years now (only making an account a year ago though). I know that there’s a ton of trolls online who like to post things like these for a reaction. I have zero issue sending sub mods proof of this story, but only once things have been taken care of legally. But for the upmost safety of my family and the guidance from my lawyer, law enforcement, and family, I will only be posting the information I chose to share in this post for the time being. Please understand that.Now, what’s been going on...Less than half a year ago, my wife and I purchased what we consider our ‘dream home’. It’s exactly what we have been discussing about what we have wanted in our home to raise our family since we first started to get very serious as a couple. To paint the picture for you, it is a completely redone farmhouse that sits on a large amount of land. We have a very long driveway that takes you right up to the side of the house. The house can not be seen from the road we live on, simply just because of how far back and where the house sits.Our neighbors are a pretty good distances away from us. They are both an older couple and they both have been very vocal about how happy they are we are there. They have been great and could not have been more welcoming to me and my family during the initial move in process.My farmland is mostly behind the house, with only a little bit of it starting on the right side of the house, and then a few acres on the left side. On the left, past my property is kinda dead land. Where no one owns it or takes care of it. After my property ends, there is a huge amount of brush and grass built up and then there are a ton of large trees that scatter right up to my neighbors property. These trees are just a small patch of woods, but it is probably around an acre long.Behind my house is a very large barn. The barn isn’t far from the house at all. If I was to guess, it’s only probably around 50 feet behind. Even though the house is gorgeous after the major remodel the previous owners did to sell the house, the barn is in its original glory. It’s old and sorta falling apart. I have made it very clear to my daughter not to go in certain parts of the barn simply because I don’t trust the old wood to hold up.This barn is not locked ever. I just don’t have many belongings in it and also, I quickly realized that there’s a few places to get into the barn other than the front entrance, and they are very obvious spots just due to the wood breaking down and getting older and older. I’m sure that it was a nice barn in its glory days, but to me, and especially my wife, it’s a massive eye sore. It’s very large, but for the most part empty. I keep my riding lawn mower in there and I also have some miscellaneous tools in there as well. The barn is never used by us.Four days ago, my daughter came running into the house terrified. She’s under 13 years old (again, I’m choosing to be vague in some parts of this story just for protection) and I immediately thought that she was playing outside and walked up on a snake. But the fear in her eyes was, just different. She ran full force into my body and grabbed onto it with her life. She was hysterical. After a minute of trying to calm her down enough to get a word out of her, she told me that she found bones in the barn. I still didn’t think anything of this because I assumed that it was a coyote or dog or some other animal that took shelter in the barn during some time and died there and no one found it. I quickly asked her to show me.She guided me into the barn and pointed up to the ‘second floor’. I call it the ‘second floor’ because it’s not really that. It’s an overhang that it near the top of the barn that has a ladder going up to it. Not entirely sure what this used to be used for, but it’s not used by us at all. I also know that there’s zero chance that a dog or fox or other four legged guy stumbled upon this barn for shelter, since I’ve never seen a dog climb a high ladder.My ‘protective dad’ mode immediately turned on and I knew that something was up. A few months ago I decided to climb up there just out of curiosity and found a board that came up. The previous owners used to hide money throughout the house and property and I actually found a wad of cash hidden in this very board. But after that day, I never went back up there.Once I climbed up, I saw that my daughter found that board and lifted it up. But she did not find money. There was a trash bag with multiple bones inside of it tucked inside the hidden spot. This is hands down the scariest moment in my life. Because I know for a fact, that this has been placed there recently because when I went up there, it wasn’t there.I immediately made phone calls and the local police and crew came out. The entire property was overran with different types of vans and cars. My family was questioned very intensely for around two hours. Asking us every single question you could possibly ask someone. One of the officers pulled me aside and told me that they are in fact what I feared, human remains. After the longest day of my life, some information came out from the last owners that there was a problem with squatters in the woods on the edge of my property. I have never seen anyone roaming around or any sign of people going through my things.Looking back now, I made a very dangerous and idiotic mistake. I installed a camera system when we first moved in, but made the decision to only put cameras facing the front of the house and driveway. I figured there was no rush to get cameras for the back. Easily one of the biggest mistakes of my life, since we would have been able to have footage of the person going into my barn with this bag.When going through the camera footage with the officers, we discovered something extremely chilling that I somehow never saw, because up to this point there was no reason to check the cameras. Caught on the cameras exactly five days back, at the early hours in the morning, the side motion light of my house turned on and you could see multiple shadows on the ground of people walking by. But that absolutely is not the part that made me shiver and make this grown man almost fall to the ground in tears from fright.When going back to the footage, every night after the five day point leading up to this day, every single night, two men wearing some sort of identical masks and completely covered in clothes head to toe, would walk up my driveway and just stare at my house. The shortest time they stood there was a tiny bit over twenty minutes. The longest that they stood there was right under two hours. Standing there. Completely still. Just looking at my house. My hands are shaking so bad typing those sentences.The local police put us up in a motel around thirty minutes outside of town. Promising us that they would make routine drivebys every thirty minutes to check on us. Why they would not have officers posted up outside the room at all times, I have no idea and I am extremely upset with that decision.We were at the motel for two nights. The first night, I got zero minutes of sleep. I held my family extremely tight and watched the front door for every single second that night. The police did hold up to their promise of checking on us. On the second night, around the similar time of the two men caught on camera, we awoke to an extreme loud banging on my front door of the motel. I jumped up and went into panic mode. We waited in silence and nothing happened.I got on the phone and dialed my direct contact line to police. Within only a few moments, an officer was at the motel. We were taken to a new location and have been here for a few days. My family member in the federal agency has intervened and is personally taking care of us.This is an ongoing investigation and I can not give more detail than what I have given already in this post. My family is safe. I am safe. I again beg for the privacy of this situation outside of what was given in this post. I 100% will update on this account once everything has been taken care of and I will make sure to update you to tell you that we are safe once we are for good. My family is in extreme fear of the unknown. We have no idea why any of this is happening to us and even though it as all just started, we are so ready for this to be behind us.I spend all of my time just staring. Staring out into the distance waiting for those unknown men to come and take my life, my daughter, my wife, my unborn baby. Wherever they may be, I’m here. Waiting and ready for what’s next.Edit: I thank you all for your nice comments during this time. We needed to hear them. I just wanted to address two things very quickly.As I was expecting, some people are finding this story to be a fake and my account a fake. Perfectly normal reaction that I expected. Like mentioned though, I will happily give mods proof once I am given the okay to.A lot of detail have been removed from the story. Please keep in mind that this just happened to my family and I. There are still answers that we simply don’t have and I will not for an unknown amount of time. In order to not risk any leads, clues, anything, I just told the very stripped down version of what has happened to us. I see some comments about things not adding up. That makes perfect sense considering that there are portions left out, because right now at this moment, they simply just have to be. I hope you understand that. via /r/LetsNotMeet

[sassaetcie]

The Molten Charcoal - Chapter 5 Silver x Idia Fanfiction

Since exams are coming, here’s a bit of old (alas) content: 

I... got out a bit. Even if I had this test and... was proud of it? Somehow... I mean, sure I was proud of it, especially the fact Trey listened to me and didn't look at me like I was some kind of creep because of my hair or name or eyes or lips or fingers or heavy breathing... I didn't even... suffocate once... He was really nice, yep. He really listened to me... so many times. Sure... there was the Wishes event when he kind of sided with Deuce but... At last he's not fucking dumb like Deuce... Even if Deuce isn't probably absolutely dumb... Well, at least he could praise me so... I don't know? And people didn't doubt the fact I was the one that invented this strategy...! So I was... happy, I think. Or at least feeling a bit less weird than "usual". These flames had almost started to look like clouds around me. Blue clouds... These clouds would drive away for sure. But they would not spread an unwanted arson, a fake arson, a superficial blaze. Of course talking with people like this could transform them into cumulus, but a single trouble would turn them into hot steam before anointing him with the fake will-o'-the-wisp again. I had walked through the corridors, hiding my hair with... my hood. Somehow it finally became mine and stop slipping through my fingers as any stream would. The black, gray and blue outfit was... no more drenched in... my blood's light. I should stop saying "blood" stuff, tho. It's so stupid... I stopped and leaned some seconds in a corridor's shade for sure. I... clasped my hands. Of course they weren't frozen nor cold. But they were... neither dry nor hot with sweat. I grabbed one with the other... No, I grabbed the other thanks to the one. They felt somehow slim, perhaps skinny compared to other people, and my fingers were still shaking but not as much as before, for sure... This was my skin. I could see pearls of sweat... Even if it was ugly or unsightly, this was still some "water". Not that I would drink or lick it, thanks. But these tall slender, spectral... hands were of alabaster now... They could resist fire and water alike. I probably stood a while like this... After all, everyone was supposed to be either in lessons or being tested... So I wasn't supposed to be found out. Maybe I should have moved before? Because that was a very normal situation, I should maybe have been even more cautious... There's no way normal would articulate itself around me, after all... Tho NRC is probably another kind of normal, but that's something else. I leaned stroking my hands like that... for probably some seconds at least, but probably not minutes? Even for me, it would have been weird. Yet, I should have gone back to the den before. Because nothing good was supposed to occur to my surroundings...

And thus the epitome of water, or ice, had come. His smile was indeed that of a sun, burning down every last remnant of my confidence. Everything about himself was so shiny and dazzling, and yet he just made me burn as if he were made of the same hair as I was. But he was more likely an aqua-elemental. Perhaps more of a djinn since I wasn't of the same area as he was... Well I wasn't of the "same" area anyway. He told me he was happy to see me... That it was weird to see me... Sure thing it was weird, I usually don't go outside, that's pretty obvious...? Why was his supposed standard, normal, usual, water hurting me? Why did he seem made of lava in front of me? His red eyes never tried to harm me intentionally... I hate how shiny he is... I hate so much when he gets close to me. I suffocate SUFF SUFF SUFFSUFFSUFFSUFFSUFFNO MATTER HOW HARD I TRY I'M A WEIRDO. No, I should try to think of better things... Like how Trey worked perfectly with me and never mocked me. He didn't seem like he was lying either. He really seemed amused in some way, but not because of my stupidity. Some people probably respected me... respect me, here. And not for my rank... Not for my rank... He asked me if I was alright since I was sweaty and clutching the hood around my hair. Did I look alright? Of course I'm not. OF COURSE I'M NOT SUFFSUFFSUFFSUFFSUFFSUFFSUFF SUFFO SUFFOCATESUFF SUFFO SUFFO SUFFSUFFSUFFIt's not his fault, RIGHT? He wasn't doing it on purpose, was he? WAS HE? That's okay... That's okay, I just... had to tell him I wasn't feeling good so I told him I felt hot, but that it wasn't because of some weird illness because he could have been dumb enough to tell others to bring me to the nurse's office... He told me he could make rain happen if I was feeling too hot. That his unique magic was changing the weather into raining. WHY? WHY IS HE THE ONE WITH THIS POWER? I don't understand. SUFFOCATE SUFF SUFFO NO. NO I SHOULDN'T HAVE... I'm sorry Ortho. I'm still jealous and afraid of everyone but... I want a power that seems as useless as his... I want to be able to summon water and touch it like everyone... I just ran away and went straight (lol) back to Ignihyde... my room. It was suffocating. Everything was just suffocating. I was suffocating. Suffocation was strangulating me. Every stiff sound my computer made sounded like suffocation. I just stretched my back while sitting trying to grasp some air. I could do it! I can do it! I couldn't. No matter how I breathe in, I can't breathe properly. Only a part allows me to breathe... I can put this cursed hair away, air won't come in. I can raise my hands and body to the only sky I am allowed to see by myself, air will curl back to any other place than myself. One. Two. Three.                                                

I cannot breathe properly again. Was I too fast? No... I'm just doomed, right? I'm just so fucking stupid, I probably even don't know how to breathe, I'm sorry Ortho, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm neither a fucking adult like they are, nor I'm like the other students, I'm just a fucking weirdo, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry... NO! I should try to breathe again. Let's breathe properly... I can do it! I saved Ortho... No, Ortho believed in me... I have to do this.

One.

Two.

Three...

IT DOESN'T WORK. NO MATTER HOW MUCH I COUNT I JUST... I JUST SUFFSUFFSUFFSUFFSUFFSUFFI'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'm sorry... I have to yawn to breathe... Just because I was happy to stretch my hands... Just because I was glad not to feel squirm today... What am I doing wrong...? I should sleep... Crying is worthless for someone like me... My tears just feel hot and disappear again. I'm tired...

[Started Recording at : 10:00 am : Seventh? Day]

-BIG BROOOOO! OPEN THE DOOR! IT'S TIME FOR YOU TO GET OUT TO MEET. YOUR. LOVED. ONE.

-EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEH?! BUT IT HAS ONLY BEEN... FOUR DAYS? RIGHT?! RIIIIIGHT?!

-Actually, you have slept two days after the exam, so I have all recordings ready whenever you feel the need to learn things for future exams.

-H-huh? Two days? But...

-Well, another day has passed since you've awoken only hours ago but you've spent these hours on videogames... Or have I misunderstood something? :(

-N-no! Of course not, O-ortho! But... are you sure... I can't have slept for two days in a row... I'm not a-a princess or something like this...

-Well, anxiety can lead to disrupted behaviors, so it is not that weird you actually have slept for two days, especially with your bad habits when it comes to slumber.

-Y-yeah but two days... I'm not that much...

-Well, whatever! Let's go!

The room opened among its unique blue fire. Had the heat peaked or lessens? No one was used to this temperature swinging and lurking through the whole room, barely restrained by such weak walls. Ashes or obsidian walking away would probably be decided sooner or later. The hellish trail of cursed un-will-o'-the-wisps seemed to have expanded... It was time to wash all of this gloomy blue out of this body stuck to such blazing ideals, lit with yet another kind of light. The doll's arm reached out to the human yet separated one.

-Let's go, Big Bro!

-Y-yeah...

-I'm going to walk a bit with you and then I will let go to the tree where you met with Silver so that I can check no one gets between you two, okay?

-The tree where we met...? Is i-it a shojo stereotype supposed to cheer me up...?

The supposed doll closed the door, sealed this heat away, even if it would have means to escape if anything was to fail on this day. The burning One was lurking and scratching Idia from the inside, after all. Wind blew from Ignihyde's far end. Freshness and magic were still running the place at the moment. The light steps barely echoed on the soft floor, or perhaps Ortho's ones were the louder. He extracted pride from these very legs, after all. His steps were noisy, even if he had been maximized. Ignihyde dorm was not dingy, neither dark. Only lit to a certain extent. Sunshine was painful for most of them, and so had become the whole dorm. At least Dire Crowley never asked for the whole dorm to change its way of thinking nor lighting.

-Okay, we're going in Night Raven College's main building. Are you ready, Big Bro?  

-Y-yeah... I've taken some walks before, it s-s-s-s-hould be alright...

The mirror teleported them as it was supposed to be, no matter the heat and fake sun. How far his power went was something they had not calculated yet, after all.

-Haha! This is as fast as usual, this is nice. Do you think the mirror might need an update sometime, Big Bro? :o

-An... update? Pfffffhehe... That would be fun... That would be really fun, yeah.

The temperature was now stuck between ocean and magma. The dorm's crossroads was not a source of anxiety for Idia, after all. And thus, not at all for Ortho. No parasite nor virus could invade him as long as this area was 200% safe for his... big brother, after all. Others were probably between 0% and 100%, Ignihyde being rather 75% because of the throng of students sometimes walking between each rooms to ask for plugs or volatile memory they might have burned because of modding too much some of their games or an infinity of problems-solutions only Ignihyde truly come up with. And Idia's room was only 150% safe since people online could start insulting him, even though he would beat them up or hack them if they were trying anything, and sometimes he could hear him crying because of the heat or things he could not entirely make sense of. Ortho checked his proto-hand, though it was probably not a prototype anymore. The Shroud son had worked on it for a long time, as little as long could mean. Well, sure Ortho would not mind knowing such a great amount of "time". Not knowing was something quite problematic in his condition, after all. Touching his fellow's head would be troublesome, in the end.

-We will soon reach the court... In less than 5 minutes, Silver will arrive if he is not already there. Are you ready, Big Bro? I'm sure you can do this!

-T-thanks but you're the one...

-Yes? :D

-N-n-n-n-o, nothing... Thanks for making this true... We'll see if everything proceeds smoothly...

-I'm sure it will, you're the best!

The boy hit his hair, aiming his back, above his back. His mouth tried to swallow some air, as softly as he could among the buzzing atmosphere, as much as air was running away from him. A little hand blessed him enough to breathe again, petting his back for a few seconds, enough to shatter the curse which he could have brought, willingly or not. He spread his self in the body he was born with, and took a step. He lead his feet as far as they could, watching them whatever could happen around him. He could not touch water, after all. Thus, he should not be worried about it... If people were afraid of him, then he should not be afraid of them. And the other way around. But where was Silver? Where was he among the Earth's debates? The tree was stopping the sunshine, and would do the same with rain. And above all with mist, thunder, hail... Thus, their beings would be in this shadow of a tree and not under the tree itself. Or would it be under the shadow itself? Only a few more steps and he would be entering the shadow layer. How billions of shades were in it? Calculating the mirror's power would be far easier, in the end. And thus, as many solutions were dripping from the tree's twigs hindering the sun.

[Ended Recording at : 10:15 am : Seventh? Day]

I didn't expect to find him asleep, tbh. Well... I kind of. I found him sleeping the first time so it wouldn't be that weird for the second time... But wasn't I supposed to be earlier than expected? Or was he the kind of person to be in front of a classroom even earlier?! Or was it the other way around... which is, he was here maybe BECAUSE I make him miss a lecture?! Or perhaps... he was on his way and he fell asleep... No, it didn't seem so at first. Because I remember his bag was not next to him, and his wand wasn't in his hand either... He was simply... slumbering. A squirrel came forward and rubbed his head on his soft-looking, attached by a same mind, fingers. He probably dozed off earlier... but not that earlier. More animals would have gathered if it were to be the case, especially since no it hadn't been raining on this very morning. So he had just... arrived before I did. This wasn't like the last time for sure. No animals, no unexpected meeting, no ceremony robe. (Not that he wasn't cute in his ceremony robe but-). Maybe the shadow was blessing me in the end, lol. There were not enough things in common with the last time to hinder me... Well, I was already anxious as hell, but that wasn't that shocking, lol. But that was like last time for a thing at least... Was I supposed to wake him up? I mean, he didn't judge me for watching him sleeping last time so... Not that I enjoyed it, though?! I just... didn't know... Was it more awkward to wake him up or let him sleep? He could have been angry... He seemed to be in such a deep and sweet slumber I just couldn't awake him... And he didn't seem to be that angry... So letting him asleep was probably the good choice to reach a good end? But what if he hadn't sleep and... what if he didn't want to sleep?! Maybe he was narcoleptic?! (well he likely still is but-). But if I had been to awaken him not on purpose, maybe I could avoid the bad end and reach the best end instead of the neutral end I thought to be the good one?! Then I needed to sit... but not in a normal way (if I could sit in a normal way among all of these elements which weren't mine). Of course I needed to sit as cautiously as possible and not hurt Silver on purpose... Did I dare to write this?! I can't think of hurting him. Well, I probably can under a certain point of view but it's not mine. It's not mine... I was supposed to sit as slowly as possible and break something, like a twig put on purpose under my foot or something like this. Then it wouldn't be my fault for sure, right? But wasn't I lying to him... My legs just betrayed me and I fell down because of how much the rest of my body was shaking.

Of course I had semi-planned this one... I mean that was something I was very likely to do but... It was the first time it came in handy?! This was also the most cliche one but... the fact he rolled to the right to catch me wasn't absolutely one, I guess? Why would he had rolled if he could have straightly (lol) caught me? And I wouldn't have felt AWKWARD AS HELL BECAUSE HE CAUGHT ME IN HIS ARMS AND UGFGKFKGFKREOIGIGKFGK?! Even if I try to write only to put some order in my brain, it just gets more chaotic... But I just... can't think of this day without crying and all... His indigo eyes were wide open, especially for him. They sure looked like a calm lake but... they didn't feel as if they were made of water either. A pale purple gauze opposed all of the ocean from swallowing this "prince" into his blue hue. Yet, none of them were a prisoner. His blue and His purple were, simply, together. His black uniform wasn't that different from our shades, it seems... And all of the leather strips looked like a complex armor, I cannot think otherwise. Sure... it wasn't a thief's outfit, nor that of a killer nor... Well, it could be seen as such because of the black and green hue... I guess some people would find it ominous.

-So you have arrived, Shroud. I'm sorry, I fell asleep once again... I just can't control myself on this point, this is quite the bother.

I tried to gather my hands, legs, thighs, chest, head, knees, ankles, arms to move. Two barely shook out of the body I was supposed to have. There was nothing to escape for sure but... There may have been something to escape, actually. Whatever it might have been. His hands wrapped by a serene, quiet black had touched my forehead, each of his fingers dancing far from my cursed, hated, despicable, despised, hateful, ugly, heinous hair.

-Are you... ill, Shroud?

-H—h-h-huh? S-s-sure I'm not, S-S-ilver... IsitokayifIcallyouSilverthough...?!

-Well, yes? I don't have a second name, so yes... Please do, I don't mind. You just felt hotter than usual... Hmm, probably more like warmer. Sorry, didn't mean to be mean.

What did he mean by warmer or hotter, though? I guess my... hair was truly invading. Not that much a surprise... Even if he was in mid-water... It was probably too much to handle for anyone who was closer to normality than I was. And yet he was kind...

-I... I'm sorry if my hair is weird and if you're feeling hyper hot a-and sweating all over the place and I should have cancelled the date, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, you're probably losing a precious time right now, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm...

-Oh no, I like your hair.

Well, of course I didn't expect this one in 99% of the roads. There was still a percent in which Silver was indeed a true Prince Charming. I guess I... wasn't wrong so far. Well either way I wouldn't have been wrong anyway. I did plan everything, after all, and the keikaku... Yeah. But that he truly liked my hair was still such a tiny percent... Miracle could occur, I would have guessed. But that wasn't a miracle, for sure. Miracles didn't truly exist. People sure tend to believe for some reason or hate the concept of miracles by cynism but... I just want to be in-between... It's who I am anyway... I just... can't be normal, can I? Well, I'm probably better in most fields anyway... right? Silver isn't a miracle that exist for me... I will probably even be a burden for him.

-M-my hair?

-Yes. It looks... peaceful? I don't really know how to tell you that and I don't want to offend you in any way but... It just looks like a chimney fire I could sleep to. For a long time. Even if I would like to avoid falling asleep out of nowhere...

-P-peaceful? Are... we... t-t-t-talking about the same thing...? I mean, I don't mean to insult you either, you're really nice but I just cc—c-cc-an't understand why would someone think my hair is p-p-pretty or something like this...

-It feels warm and... saudade to me.

-Sau...?!

-Yes... I would like to touch them, but would it harm you if I did? Or me?

-I... I don't know... I'm sure it will. My hair isn't as warm as you think... You're just... just different from everyone... But it won't be enough... I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry...

-That's alright. If you don't want me to touch your hair or even your hand, I would understand. You're quite the soft type, Shroud.

-H-huh?

-Lil... My Old Man was the one who sent me here earlier, but I was kind of... happy to see you wanted to talk to me. We discussed this "type" things earlier but I didn't really understand anything. Oh, yes what did you want to tell me, Shroud? I am sorry if I'm too blunt or something like this. I'm kind of lost, too.

The True Prince had arrived. If he had been to guess what was to happen, then he would have been a Perfect Prince, which I didn't want. Because he would have been... too much. I guess I have some stupid fears but... I can't have too much... I'll just end up breaking everything... If he was dense, and not dense on purpose, thus not manipulative and not ending up a Villain Prince, which was another path... Then we could be equal in some ways. Of course... There was still a lot of crossroads before I could... reach this potential happy ending. If he was a True Prince but yet wasn't in love with me, then it would be a Neutral End at most. If he was a True Prince but ended up hollow even after I love him, it would be a Bad End, probably. If he was to hate me... it would be another Bad End. At least there was a possible Good End... I wasn't in Drakenkard 3 lol. ... I didn't even know how to sing in a wonderful way, probably.

-I... Huh... Is it okay if I talk for a while? O-o-o-only if it doesn't bother you, o-of course... I... just want to be as clear... as... understandable as possible... I-I don't mean that you won't understand o-o-o-of course! It's just that I... need to explain... a lot...

One of his definitely lead hand approached the other one he handled so easily. He took of his left or right glove, whatever actually. His barely long fingers made the black clothing disappear from the alabaster hand which could have been protected so far from the crown of flames piercing my soul. The awakened limb rubbed each of his eye surrounded by the soft veil of maskara, darkening his face, tho maybe not to my level lol. One time. Two times. Three times.

-I've rubbed my eyes. I should be awakened for a while. I hope. Please start. I want to listen to you, Shroud.

I... just needed to do what I usually did in my fanfictions... and all that kind of stuff, right?

-W-w-well... I... really like you? I can't tell you if it's affection, deep affection, crush, squish, love, love at first sight... I just can't tell what's going inside my brain but... I... just love everything about your appearance, that's true. Your eyes look so different, so dreamy. I feel like there's... a whole castle inside? I'm sorry, this is weird, right? I'm sorry but... Your hair looks like messy snow, like the purest snow, that no human has ever tried to play or make profit of... Your skin looks so soft and delicate, and yet I... I've seen you sometimes in your sport outfit and you got... these arms... and your face just looks like the old prince stories... Yeah. That's it. You look so much like a Prince who could save me. I'm just sorry, it's pathetic, I know... But you won't make fun of me... will you? I love you... You look so much like a prince... I feel like you can fulfill any of my dream as long as I'm with you... You're... You... You were so nice... w-w-when we first met... You didn't judge me... You just... YOU JUST... you just asked me things... and answered... You didn't laugh... even if you had lied... you didn't laugh... You just... You just... kept your composure... You didn't call me a weirdo... You didn't want my inheritance either.. You just... You. You... I love your lips too. They look soft and sweet and not a bunch of skin ready to spit poison and lies... And your ears look so round... so human-like... And your nose doesn't look like the kind to hurt when two foreheads lay upon e-each other and... your height comforts me... Your voice is serious but never shouting... you don't stress me... You... I just... can't believe someone as good as you exist... I'm sorry... We, teenagers shouldn't think like this but... Thanks for... thanks for existing... Love doesn't mean anything for someone like me, I just don't understand it... I guess... Thanks for.. making fairies flying into my veins?

How could someone answer something like this? Fairies were probably running through my head, and they were probably fireflies I thought made of water.