#my birthday isn't until the 29th so it's an early one

[wanderingcas]

as a birthday present to myself this year i got myself a year's subscription to the new yorker, which i've always wanted to do. i'm getting the physical copies too and a free tote:')

[corvicarum]

@couturiere asked:

"Happy birthday...!" Gwen's exclamation is followed by a swift kiss to each cheek, the large flat box in her hands presented without fanfare. Atop it is also a smaller bag, and her mouth twitches in amusement as her eyes flick to it. "I figured since I wouldn't be able to give it to you the day of, early was fine. It seems to be a running theme with us anyway." Inside the box are what are very clearly limited edition Pentakill vinyls- one of each of their albums. Did she call in a favor for them? Perhaps. but who besides Kayn could appreciate printing 666 of each one as they deserved?

Then there's the bag, which Gwen keeps glancing at until he peeks inside- where he'll find a thick, pyramid-studded, plum-colored collar.

"I thought it would match your hair better," she laughs, nose crinkling as she giggles. "You don't really have to wear it though- it was mostly a joke." Her arm hooks through his, smile lopsided as she looks up at him. "Now, shall we test out how loudly those records can play?"

he was fairly sure he told her it was the 31st...today was the 29th but still-

" 𝐍𝐎 𝐎𝐍𝐄 𝐁𝐄𝐋𝐈𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐒 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐀𝐍𝐘𝐖𝐀𝐘. "

it didn't matter now. she was here, she had gifts, and kayn can't help the bounce in his step. a frequency, whenever she came to visit anymore. he liked her so much, but didn't introspect too deeply on it just yet. lessons learned; last time it'd ended a real bad away. and he didn't need more drama.

the kisse to each cheek snaps him to the moment. a box set in his hands. right, yes birthday gifts ( 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐊𝐈𝐒𝐒𝐄𝐒 ). of course he checks the box first. and if kayn wasn't excited before-- he was now. eyes light up, his mouth split in a wide smile. he felt like it was christmas. he carefully looks through the contents, barely able to contain his excitement. he isn't gonna bother asking how she got them, he already knows who her dad is. " thanks peach- god damn i dont even wanna know how much these would cost on the market. i. love. them. "

then to the bag.

as soon as he pulls it out, he can hear rhaast laughing in the background. it matched perfectly, and when he tilted it a particular way-- it's tint changed slightly. similar to the two tones of his own hair. and as soon as gwen leans closer, looping her arm into his own, he laughs. tilting his head down to bump his cheek against her head. holding the collar up to admire it more. " oh dont worry i'm gonna wear it. " giving her a little tug. he's feeling impatient. " i wanna test both my gifts~ "

unprompted

[mj-skyair-star]

█🕹️👾🎮Chapter 6: Before To Now░▒▓█

March 29th, 2036, Saturday morning, 4:33 a.m (Oscar's P.O.V Flashback) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Comfortably, I was sleeping, dreaming about getting an award from the ANZAC army and my dad being present for me, proud of me! I was in tears when I saw him again. It has been so long, and the place is stunning! It felt like I was in heaven, surrounded by soldiers who defend our country and defend others that are in need of our allyship. The most enjoyable part for me was a hug from dad as he told me how proud he was of me for making it this far. There has never been a better feeling than this, to have this moment with him again. It was almost real.

Everything was amazing.

RING! RING! RING!

Until I got disturbed by a certain noise.

RING! RING! RING!

I was so startled that I fell off my bed along with my dark blue blanket. I panicked at the random thought that someone was trying to kidnap me. I immediately stood up, freaked out from being blinded by my own blanket, and totally didn't run around like a mad man...

"AAAAHHHHH! I'M SORRY! WHATEVER IT IS I'VE DONE! I PROMISE, I DIDN'T DO IT!!!!" ... For a few minutes of pondering what the hell is going on. It turns out that noise was coming from my phone, ringing SO DAMN LOUDLY!! And I realised that I had a blanket on me, not a sack... "Oh, my-" I took it off and placed it on the bed carelessly. I felt a bit upset that this had happened and the fact that my dream had been ruined. My back hurts a bit since the floor is hardwood, but not enough to break my back completely, luckily. I looked over at my phone that was sitting on the bedside table, charging. "Who's calling me?" I scoffed indignantly.

"My ringtone must have been on high volume again... Get fucked by the phone once again! Ugh! This is my third time forgetting to adjust the volume!" I took the phone with the dark blue case to see who the hell was calling AT THIS TIME! Once the phone has been turned over, the screen shows a picture of me and my crus- FRIEND! At the front of the laser tag entrance.

We had one arm around each other's shoulders like best friends. (We are friends, except... I have feelings for her... I don't know if she likes me back that way... that's why I said friends, and yes, you caught me out for calling her my crush.) That photo was taken a year ago for my 12th birthday. We were at an arcade if you couldn't guess where, and Laser Tag is my favourite gaming area. That's where we snapped a photo together.

Okay, back to the real story here. Her name was shown on the screen with love hearts on each side of her name, above the picture, of course. As I stared at it, anger drained away for perplexity to take over before I looked at the time.

"Four-thirty-three am!? Why is Airis calling me that early!?" I exclaimed at the unexpected.

The only person I anticipated most was my awful AND infuriating cousin. He's a massive jerk and would ring me in the middle of the night, EVERY NIGHT on purpose! To get me on his nerve-! Wait- I haven't heard him call this time... Huh? Strange... Why do I even care? Airis is calling me for God's sake!

I answered it because I wanted to hear her explanation of why the hell she was calling me. Yeah, I'm a tad mad at her for waking me up. Although calling me this early isn't something she normally does, and all of this is giving me a sense of unease. A feeling that something unpleasant has happened to her.

***

I hung up my phone after our interesting conversation about Airis' dog barking from ages ago, her mum's garden has been destroyed (along with finding weird footprints and a piece of metal), her family has gone missing, the neighbours are not answering, I couldn't say bullshit, and somehow, triple zero doesn't exist in the contact??? Strange... And of course, I believe every word she says, even if it sounds crazy!

Right now I'm rushing to get ready.

My closet is where I get the clothes that I'll be wearing today. I grab out a white shirt, brown camping jacket, blue shorts and a pair of white mid-calf socks. The shoes are at the front door of the house, so I'll put them on after I tell my mum and... stepdad about what happened.

Leaving my room, I headed to my parents' room and knocked on their door.

Knock, knock, knock.

"Mum? Byron? I'm sorry for disrupting your sleep. This morning, Airis called me- and I know it's early, but! It's an emergency, and we need to be there ASAP!.." I called out and waited for at least my mum to answer, hopefully, it is my mum... OK? Nothing happened… I knocked again, louder this time. "Mum?" ... Feeling nervous, my hand reached for the doorknob until it made contact with it... turning it... I entered... "Huh??" ... They're not there? Stay calm.

I think my sisters know where they are.

With a simple shrug, I left the room to head to Hayley and Holly's room.

As soon as I got there, I knocked on their bedroom door.

Knock, knock, knock.

"Hayley? Holly? Has mum or Byron said anything that they went off somewhere?" I waited for a bit...

Neither of them answered the door.

Knock, knock, knock.

"Hello!?" Ok, that's it.

I burst into the room only to discover that my twin sisters weren't there either. My entire body grew numb while my ocean blue eyes grew wide, and my head felt dizzy from the shock I was experiencing. Now my cool has been taken over by fear. I can fully understand Airis' perspective... That is until I remembered something.

"Celven!" I ran to the baby's room (speed walked) and checked his cradle- HE'S NOT HERE! OH, MY GOD!- MY BROTHER IS MISSING!

"... No... NO!" I clench my blonde hair tightly, stressing out at the fact that I'm in the same situation AS Airis!!

My knees tumbled on the floor in the middle of the room.

"GOD, WHY!? WHY DID YOU TAKE MY FAMILY!? WHY WOULD YOU TAKE BYRON!? WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU!?!?!" I couldn't believe that all of this was real.

Exactly like yesterday night when I was at my nana, Polly's place (mum's side.)

She's... A Christian old lady (not that I have a problem with Christians in general. The only time I will have a problem with Christians is if they did something really wrong. My nana would be an example- You'll see what I mean). She is aware that I'm an atheist, which somehow made her think that I'm a 'sinner for not believing in God and Jesus.'

If I was staying at her house for a week or longer, she would make me pray, and take me to church. I would also be forced to read the Bible for some lessons in the word of the Bible and watch some Christian movies with her. Basically, it was all about what she wanted. That's the problem I have with her. I have no freedom when it comes to staying with Nana Polly, and oh yeah, my younger sisters were forced as well.-

Oops, Sidetrack!

So, about her plan... Her plan may have gone astray... as usual.

Seeing that God can take every good person and Christian, including all children of all ages across the entire globe. That movie terrified me! Despite the fact that it was only a movie, however, I couldn't help it! Leaving the bad people and non-religious on Earth to suffer the chaos, ‘just to go home’?! That's just... A lot! I was afraid of the chaos! Everyone turned completely nuts!

Nan, I know you 'care' about me and my sisters but... UGH!.. You're getting very annoying and you got me scared of that movie!

Now I'm not saying that 'all Christian force people' if that's what you're thinking. Some may be more respectful than you think.

I told a friend (that I made at a church that nana attends) about it and he completely understands me! He agrees that my nan shouldn't be forcing me or my twins to believe in something that she believes in, unless you want to, without force, meaning, if she didn't abu- force us to, then maybe things could have turned out a lot differently... Still wouldn't be interested.

All of this was kept a secret for about two years so no one else in the church knows or even outside of it.

... Anyway, enough talking about that, because I'll ramble too much about my tra- experience!

After taking a couple of breaths, I felt a lot calmer now.

Even if I did take the film way too seriously in a freak-out manner, I still have to meet Airis at the church (not that I was suddenly convinced to pray or worship God and Jesus because of the movie- Just ignore my continued ramble).

I left Celven's room and began to gather some things that I needed before I headed out, just to get on with packing. I hurried to a closet (located right next to the garage) then I hurried to the kitchen to get my drink bottle (that had water) from the fridge before heading off to other locations like some chips, my game boy (a gift from my dad), my phone and a first aid kit.

By the time everything was ready, I zipped the bag and placed it on my back. I also took my yellow cricket bat and skateboard with me before I put on my shoes.

As soon as I left the house, I used my house keys to lock the front, grey-painted door, and off I go.

***

I arrived at the church to see Airis and her dog, Winter, there. We had a short chat until we left the building to head to Airis' place so we could ask someone for help in the bright morning.

That's not exactly what we expected since today is supposed to be a hangout day at my house. The problem boils down to a major one instead.

While we were skating to her place, the wheel of my skateboard got shot by some laser out of nowhere! Causing me to fall and scratch my knee... Ah, the agony! After she nursed my knee, we ended up walking to her place since there was nothing we could do about my skateboard, and yes, I'm still upset about it. Speaking of that... Admittedly I felt flustered about her suggestion of travelling on the same skateboard together (her one)... Hmm... What's there to be embarrassed about? It's just a ride... Well, it was too late to change options, besides, I don't want Airis to feel uncomfortable if she really is uncomfortable. That's why we stuck with walking.

***

A few moments later, I felt like we'd been followed, just when we heard something in the bushes. It took some convincing for Airis to allow me to check the bushland. Yes, it worked. However, she only allowed me to go if I took Winter with me, and of course, I said yes for the sake of not dealing with her stubbornness.

From my point of view: Me and Winter were out in the forest. Looking around for animal/s that may be injured, though we did not see anything nor hear any more rattling from the bushes.

"There's nothing there. Maybe it got away?"

Bark! Bark!

"Huh?" I looked over at Winter who was jumping to get my attention.

I raised an eyebrow at him curiously and headed up to him to see what he had found.

"What's up, Snowdog?" I asked. The husky stopped jumping and pointed his snout further down into the dense forest. I'm not actually afraid. I'm familiar with nature because I go camping almost every year. "Did you sniff somethi-?" Before I could finish, the fluffy dog ran off. "W-Wait! Winter!" I called out to him as I ran after him.

Airis will kill me if I let something disastrous happen to him! I'm not exaggerating, she will!

Whatever it is, I know Winter is trying to show or tell me something.

We delved really fast, deeper into the forest.

Pushing the grimy green leaves out of the way, pushing the annoying branches out of the way as well and jumping over the roots until I found him.

He was sniffing the ground and... growling at it??? I'm clearly dumbfounded by this.

"Why is he growling at the dirt???" It doesn't make sense.

I approached him once again, completely baffled.

"Dude, why are you growling at the dirt?" All he did was stare at me without showing any emotion but soon reverted back to being all riled up and growled back at it even more. Whoa! I've never seen him act like this before. "Winter stop! Stop!" I grabbed his slightly dirty leash (that's been dragging around for a while) and pulled him away (without hurting him). Now that I had done it, I had the chance to gaze down at the ground to see what could possibly make Winter an-... gry... "What the-" There are prints on the ground that oddly resemble the one that Airis showed me... Curiosity grew in me, much stronger than before. I decided to do a bit of investigating. I kneeled down and examined it more closely while getting my phone out of my pocket. After I got it out and unlocked the password, I hopped on Messenger to look at the photo that Airis sent. A sudden gasp escapes my lip- IT'S THE SAME PRINT AS THE PHOTO!! "No way..!" I muttered out loud as the realisation struck me... This thing was at Airis' house... This thing was following us... This mysterious print belongs to that thing and it leads down to...

My blue eyes follow where it's going...

"Oh no...-"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!"

Awro!?

"AIRIS!" Winter began barking mad! Since I still held the leash in my hand he managed to make me follow him to where Airis is- A HELL OF A LOT OF MIGHT AND SPEED!

"SHIIIT! Whatever it is, it's no good! And I left her alone by herself! WHAT WAS I THINKING!? I should've listened to her stubbornness!"

***

We arrived and stopped behind one of the bushes to look over to see- OH MY GOD!

"IS THAT 'THE SLAYERS'!? FROM 'WAR OF TIME'?!" I haven't played that in a while... Wait- Am I dreaming??? Using my pointer finger and thumb, I pinched my arm really hard.

"Ow!" I hissed quietly at the pain...

"Not a dream!?" No way... THIS IS REAL!?!?

"That's not... possible..." I looked down at Winter, astounded, however, he was about to charge at them. Using the leash, I held him down. "Winter! Don't charge at them! I know you're protective of Airis, but it's not the right time!" I whisper-shouted at him who gave me a rage whimper.

My head then turned back toward Airis and TS.

I'm fully aware that 'The Slayers' are bad news, I mean, incredibly bad. I could tell that they were talking. I don't know what, obviously. All I know is the eight-point or seven-foot-tall chubby bot, Drillbit, is holding Airis hostage, facing Slaytrap. Damn, Airis can't even touch the ground because of Drillbit's height. Speaking of Airis, she's petrified as hell.

While I spy, Airis looked away from the leader, but Slaytrap wasn't happy about that, so he cupped her cheeks and forcefully made her look at him. THAT made my temper flare up. I swear, if he makes her cry, I'll be determined to end him.

Whatever the hell TS wants, I'm not letting any of them lay a single hair on her!

"Don't worry, Iris. We're not leaving without you. I'll find a way to get you out of there," I began to brainstorm rapidly about how I'm gonna get Airis out of Drillbit's grip... Looking around while thinking intently, I saw my bat right in front of us... Looking back at them... then at the bat...

I think I have the unthinkable idea that Airis will say for sure that I'm insane.

I can't just sit around watching all of that crap all day. Very carefully and quietly as possible (so the bush doesn't blow my cover) I crawled up to my cricket bat, grasped it and crawled back into the bush again. During my examination, Winter let out a curious yelp about what I was doing/thinking.

"I have a plan. Once I let go of your leash, you distract everyone while I throw the bat at the fat robot over there,"- I pointed at Drillbit for two seconds- "When it hits him. He'll release Airis, I'll grab her so she can run along with me, and that's when we escape. Sounds good?" ... Wait a minute- How did I just realise this? I'm literally talking to a dog... Ok? Anyways. Winter was completely unsure about it (so dogs can understand English... alright?) The fluffy Siberian husky tilted his head as he showed 'I have a bad feeling about this.' "Clearly, you can't speak English, and I don't think you can think of a plan for this type of situation, can you?" He knows I'm right. I glance back at the group, holding my bat tightly. "On three, I'll let you go... one..." As I started counting, Winter prepared his position. "Two..." I was ready. " Three!" I let go of the light blue leash.

Winter ran out and ran towards them, barking like an aggressive coyote. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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