#my rock climbing buddy seems to have basically dropped me

[laughinglynx]

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[artifanatik]

Tim and Lucy are walking along their favorite hiking trail before shift. It has a good steady incline that’s not too hard for Kojo, but also has beautiful scenery and is relatively close to Tim’s house. Kojo is leading the way when he hesitates and looks bad at his parents.

“Oh my gosh, that’s a cow!”

Kojo can’t seem to decide whether he wants to hide or attack the calm beast.

“How observant of you.” Tim states without looking away from the cow, eyes wide.

“How did a cow get up here?”

“How should I know?”

Lucy takes a slow step forward and Kojo takes that as an okay to proceed forward. Tim holds his leash back.

“What are you doing, stay back!!”

“Cows are friendly!” Lucy assures, taking another slow step forward.

“Maybe if it was raised on a farm and is used to people. You don’t know where that thing came from!”

Lucy ignores him in favor of addressing the cow. “Hey buddy! Where did you come from? It must’ve been quite a hike for you to get up here!”

“You know it can’t understand you…”

“Please, like you don’t have full conversations with Kojo.”

“Kojo understands me. He is smart.”

“Cows are about as smart as dogs.” Lucy is now only about a dozen or so feet away from the cow.

“Lucy… Please stop. You are going to get hurt. The cow doesn’t know you!”

“It’ll be fine, Tim.” He can barely hear her as she doesn’t raise her voice, not wanting to spook the cow. The cow locks eyes with her and she smiles at it. “Hi!” The cows bristles and moo’s loudly. The look on it’s face, looking a lot less friendly suddenly. Lucy backs away slowly. “Okay, okay.”

The cow starts turning it’s body toward her as she starts to back away quicker and Tim starts to back away as well. “Run Lucy!” Lucy turns around and runs, Tim already running in the opposite direction, with Kojo on his heels. Tim weaves through trees, trying to put obstacles in the cows path, knowing how fast they can be, and pulls out his phone dialing 9-1-1. “Shit, shit, shit.”

“9-1-1, what’s your emergency?”

“We are on Griffith Park Trail about 3 miles from the trail head and we are being chased by a cow!” Tim shouts, panting.

“I’m sorry, did you say a cow?”

“Yes, a cow!”

“Alright sir, please stay on the line. We are dispatching an officer and animal control. Is there anywhere you can go for shelter? A tight knit group of trees the cow can’t get to or rocks you can climb?”

“Working on it!” He yells back to her, already beelining through the trees to where he knows there is a parking lot further along in the trail, Lucy and Kojo not far behind. “There’s a parking lot close to where we were.”

“Good. Help will be there shortly. Whatever you do, don’t make eye contact and try and remain calm,” the woman warns.

“I’m so sorry!” Lucy shouts behind him, though he isn’t entirely sure if she is speaking to him or the cow.

They escape the trees and spill out into the parking lot, Tim basically diving in between two cars parked close enough together that the cow shouldn’t fit. Kojo jumps over Tim and nearly jumps back out into the open, but Tim drops the phone and catches him, pulling him close just as Lucy rams into his crouched body, what’s left of her breath being knocked out of her.

Tim nearly crushes Kojo as he falls to his knees and elbows from the impact but manages to catch himself and keep Kojo’s squirming body from escaping. The cow slams into the cars, leaving a huge dent, and the entire car shifts to the side a couple inches.

“Shit, Lucy, what did you say to offend it!”

“Maybe it was you, when you implied it was stupid!” The cow slams into the car again.

“Maybe it’s that you are assuming it’s a cow! I’m pretty sure it’s a bull!” It slams into the car again. “Shit, Lucy crawl under the car! See if you can lie down in that truck bed!” He says pointing to the truck on the other side of the car.

Lucy shimmies under and manages to get to the truck hopping into the bed, though she can see Tim is about to be exposed. She hits the side of the truck and whistles, taking its attention away from Tim and Kojo. The bull huffs and makes its way over to the truck and Tim picks up Kojo and runs to the next nearest truck, throws Kojo in the bed and hops in behind him as the bull rams into the truck Lucy is in.

Tim can’t see her, which is good he thinks. He wonders how good of smell cows… bulls have. The bull then gets on its hind legs, placing its front hooves on the truck ledge. Shit. “Hey!”

The bull looks over to him and starts trotting over. Tim braces for impact right as the bull hits the truck. Kojo whimpers.

“Hey!! What are you doing in my truck?!” A voice calls from the trail head. Tim looks over in alarm for this man, just as the bull looks over. “Oh hell, no.” The man slowly recedes into the trees. The bull turns its attention back to Tim, then to Lucy, who has peeked her head up at the sound of a guest.

“Hey, buddy. We mean no harm,” she raises her hands in a show of peace, locking eyes with the beast once again.

“Lucy, don’t make eye contact! And stop trying to be friends!”

The bull moves toward Lucy again and Tim bangs on the truck. It turns toward Lucy, so Lucy bangs on her truck. The bull huffs in frustration.

“I have a feeling we are making this worse…”

With some monumental amount of luck, considering how fast it got there, an animal control truck pulls up and they don’t have to find out. A man gets out of the vehicle and shoots a tranquilizer into the bulls butt.

They both let out a big sigh of relief and hop down, giving the unconscious bull a wide berth. Tim making his way to Lucy and wrapping a protective arm around her. “You see what you get for trying to nice to everyone?”

“I’m sorry, Tim. I thought it was a cow!”

“I don’t think that should be the take away here…”

A police car pulls up shortly after and Aaron steps out. He looks at Tim and Lucy, then down to the bull. “Do I even want to know?”

...

I’m titling this “What’s Your Beef With Me?” 

[codylabs]

The Bottomless Pit

New scifi-horror story! Well, not exactly new, I’ve had it finished for a year or so now, but never shared it on Tumblr. It’s an entirely original story, so don’t expect any familiar characters or places. But it does introduce one or two pieces of worldbuilding for my original universe, which will be important for some of my other upcoming stories, so I figured now would be a good time to share it.

Enjoy.

Part 1

Once upon a time, far from here, at the bottom of the deepest shaft of the deepest mine, two boys stood regarding a pit that led yet deeper.

“You sure about this?”

“Yeah! C’mon, it’s not like there’s anything dangerous down there!”

Louis nervously leaned out over the fissure as far as he dared. It was true, there didn’t rightly seem to be anything at all down there; just blackness. The walls of the fissure passed beyond the range of their headlamps after the first twenty meters, and after that, floors and walls became nothing but indistinct void. It must be fifty meters deep, at least.

“You just let me down,” Peter pointed to the towing winch built into the belt of Louis’s suit. “Until I touch the bottom. And then when you see me standing down there walking around, you’ll be brave enough to come down too.”

“…What if there is no bottom?”

"...What do you mean 'if there's no bottom'? What else would there be?"

"I...? Uh... You know? I dunno."

"Every hole on every single one of the hundred million brazillion planets and moons in the universe has a bottom. Because if it didn’t, it would go straight through the place, and there’d be magma everywhere right? Which would make it not dark. But it is dark. Which means it doesn’t go forever.”

“That’s not what I mean.” Louis’s helmet was rattling around on his head as he shifted his weight this way and that, trying to find a comfortable position where he wasn’t sweaty. Even through a thick pressure suit, the body language was apparent. “I mean, like… Like… Okay, never mind.”

“C’mon dude. This is basic simple science stuff. And since basic simple science proves that there is a bottom, we can therefore find that bottom!”

“Yeah…”

“We know space pirates once used this moon as a hideaway. Maybe they hid treasure down there!”

“That’s stupid.”

“It’s not, it’s true. And it makes sense for them to hide their treasure down in the deepest, darkest hole they could find. And what’s deeper and darker than here? Nothing, that’s what! Look, my GPS says we’re… What, a kilometer below the surface already? No mines go that deep! This must’ve been dug by the first colony! You know. Before they disappeared.”

“Yeah, well…” Louis glancing at the floor behind them. “...Well, I guess the footprints were pretty weird.”

With no wind and no water on this moon, dust and dirt and stone remain exactly as they are until something disturbs them, meaning that footprints last forever, with newer ones layering on top of old ones. In a long-abandoned mine like this, one would have expected the most recent, top layer of prints to have been left by the mining tractor; the one that dug the tunnel. In most of the other tunnels, that’s just how it was. After all, there was never any reason the miners themselves to bodily enter the tunnel.

Except here, the tread marks weren’t the last tracks.

Louis and Peter had followed a set of three tracks, tracks from adult human boots, all the way down here… Two sets had been leading up to this very hole… But only one set could be seen returning…

“It must be pirates.” Peter nodded, as he gazed down into the crevice. “It’s the only explanation… That or aliens.”

“Aliens don’t exist.”

“Yeah, and that just leaves pirates, which makes more sense anyway.” Peter explained. “See, the Captain must have needed help from his second-in command to carry the treasure chest, but when they threw it in the hole, the Captian shot his buddy and threw him in too! Because the Captain knew that all pirates are nothing but dirty thieving buccaneers, so to keep his greatest fortune safe, he made sure that nobody else knew…! I bet we’ll find an evaporated mummy with a busted faceplate down there… And riches… Riches worth killing over… Gold and crystals and ancient forms of currency that have all been forgotten for centuries…”

Louis’s body language said he was almost convinced. (Not convinced enough to believe it, but almost convinced enough to try exploring it.) “But…” He offered one last objection. “Maybe they were just explorers or something. You know, like us. Maybe his buddy just got hurt down there, so he just carried him out… I mean, it doesn’t necessarily mean one of them died down there…”

“But there’s no piton left behind.” Peter gestured to the tunnel floor around them. “And no place where one was driven in… And they weren’t using jetpacks either, because there’s no disturbance in the dust from the downdraft… Which means they had no way back out.”

That tipped Louis over the edge, and he reluctantly began to unpack his climbing gear. “Oh-kaaaay…” He sighed, as he aimed the power-driver at the tunnel floor. There was a burst of compressed air from the driver, and a piton appeared in front of the barrel, embedded securely in the rock. He unspooled a length of cable from the winch and passed it through the piton’s pulley, then handed the end to Peter. “But… Uh… If you find anything scary down there, could you bring it back up so I can see it please?”

“You’re a baby.” Peter locked the cable into his harness, and stepped up to the edge of the crevice. “How are you a boy scout if you’re such a baby?”

“I’m a boy scout because I know everything.” Louis frowned, as he braced his feet against the side of the tunnel to balance out the winch. “I know how to maintenance all the types of engines that we use. I know how to build an airtight shelter out of nothing but rocks and resin. I know how to recycle urine without ever taking off my suit. I can signal for help in 23 languages. If we were crashlanded, then I would be the hero, and you would be the bumbling sidekick.”

“You also know how to be a baby.”

“I also know there was never any pirates on this moon.” Louis added. “Those are just rumors that sprung up around the old military depot in the Eastern hemisphere.”

“Which was destroyed by pirates!” Peter reminded him as he leaned into the cable. He bounced slightly, just to convince his mind that the thin material could actually hold his weight.

“Destroyed by themselves via routine self-destruction. That was standard scorched-earth policy back during the war.”

Louis leaned out over the blackness, at an angle where the cable was supporting the majority of his weight. And he prepared to step out into darkness. “Being a baby must be standard policy too, huh?”

"In certain circumstances yes, maybe being a baby is standard policy.”

“Your mom is standard policy.”

“Negative.”

“Line down.”

Naturally, Louis’s winch made no sound in the airless environment. All Peter could hear were his own boots scuffling and sliding down the first section of the crevice sides, and the faint rhythm of the winch vibrating down through the taught cable. And, of course, there were all the familiar background sounds: the hissing of the life support in his pack, the whirring of the water pump warming his extremities. And above all, his helmet echoed his own breathing back toward him, muffled and close and incredibly loud. That omnipresent, overbearing sound of breathing used to scare him when he’d first worn a space suit; made him feel either profoundly claustrophobic and alone, or feel like Darth Vader was standing behind him.

But now he was a boy scout. And boy scouts are many things. They aren’t babies, first of all. Second of all, they’re responsible, and dutiful, and they know their equipment. Third, they can survive outdoors. So in this day and age, when most doors opened into hard vacuum, you can know for darn sure that a good boy scout isn’t afraid to be out on his own in it, locking his life behind nothing but a little fabric and glass.

This fabric and glass was rugged, and tough, and meticulously well-maintained. It was his armor. And inside it, he was as safe. Safe as he was in his own home.

Peter found that the crevice was widening as he descended. The tunnel wall dropped sideways from beneath his feet, and he soon found himself hovering on his back, suspended from his harness like a sack of freight as the walls continued to recede above him. “Louis be advised.” Peter said. “Tunnel is widening significantly. I have lost physical contact with the wall. Over.”

“How is visual contact? Over.” Louis’s voice came through Peter’s radio, as it always had.

Peter looked left, and right. The ‘hole’ they’d descended seemed to actually be some sort of chasm or fissure, running through the moon’s crust like a cut or a tectonic crack. It stretched off into blackness to either end, far further than his beam could search, must be more than a hundred meters. As for the walls to either side of him, they were widening, dropping off into the distance steadily, like the incredibly steep, jagged walls of an upside-down canyon. He could still see them, but his light could only reach so far; if they became dim enough, he wouldn’t be able to focus on them past the slight glare reflecting off the scratches in his helmet.

And no, he could not yet see the bottom.

“Mediocre, and getting worse. Over.” Peter answered.

“Do you wish to abort? Over.” Louis asked.

“No!” Peter let himself hang flat on his back again, so he was looking straight up the cable at the opening above him. The glow from Louis’s light was brightly illuminating the inside of the mineshaft, forming a jagged splotch of bright brown surrounding the cable’s end. “No…” He repeated, talking to the light. “Just a bigger hole than I thought, that’s all. Don’t blame the Captain for throwing his treasure down here; it’s a good hiding spot. Over.”

Louis ignored that.

The winch continued to spin, the cable continued to unwind, the light continued to shrink above, the walls continued to recede.

“Peter be advised…” Louis’s voice was slow and careful, not quite nervous. “Tension in cable seems slightly uneven. Over.”

“Uneven?” Peter frowned up at his friend. “Louis, please elaborate. Over.”

“It’s decreasing… Like you’re getting lighter… Are you dropping rocks out of your pockets or anything? Over.”

“No… Is your winch speeding up?”

“No…”

There was a brief moment of silence while they both pondered all this.

“Maybe your legs are going numb.” Peter suggested. “Uh, over.”

“Maybe… Yeah, I dunno, I don’t think so… Seriously, if you’re messing with me-”

“I’m not messing with you…” That gave Peter an idea: mess with him. He began to flail his arms and legs to make the line bounce. “I… I think I feel it too!”

“You feel the tension decreasing?”

“No, it’s just kind of… Bumpy… Like somebody’s shaking it…! Are you moving around up there?”

“N-no, I’m not moving an inch!” Louis said. “Uh… Oh, wow, actually yeah, I can feel it bouncing too now!”

“I think something’s on the cable!” Peter cried out. “I think something grabbed it! Oh no, I can see it! OH MY GEEZ! It’s coming toward me!”

“WHATISWHATIS WHAT’S COMING TOWARD YOU?!?” Louis was getting hysterical.

The bumping in the line stopped. All was silent on the radio. Peter held his breath in gleeful anticipation.

“Oh.” Louis said after a few seconds. “Ha ha. Very funny. Over.”

“PFFWA HA HA!” Peter burst out in a spasm of laughter. “You should have heard you! Over.”

“Yeah, yeah, okay, you’ve had your laugh, now no more thrashing around, alright? Like seriously, you’ll freak me out… And if you were just planning on making a fool of me, you shouldn’t have invited me on the mission… Over.”

“It’s not a ‘mission’, and I didn’t ‘invite’ you. I said I was gonna go look for pirate treasure, and then you begged to come along. Over.”

“I didn’t beg.”

“Did too.”

“You’re stupid. Over.”

“You’re a baby. Now keep lining down; I never said stop. Over.”

Louis sighed and flipped the switch again.

The winch started spinning again.

Peter continued to drop.

Five minutes later, Louis finally spoke. “Peter come in; please tell me you’re getting near the bottom…! Over!”

Peter looked over his shoulder. “No, still can’t see a thing down there, over.”

Five minutes further, Louis’s voice had a sharpness to it. “WHEN should we abort, over?”

“Would you quit it with the abort talk?” Peter snapped, and shook his fist up at the fading light. “Just keep spooling down until I tell you to stop, okay? You’ve got, like, a barjillion meters of line in your winch, and it’s rated for, what, two tons?”

“Four.”

“Four! Four tons! That’s about 100 of me! In Earth gravity! This is, like, less than half Earth gravity, so that thing should be able to hold 200 of me, easy! I’m literally in no danger at all! Over.”

“But…!”

“Just keep spooling down until I tell you to stop. Okay? Over.”

“…Okay. Over.”

“Great. Over.”

“Yeah… Yeah, great. I will. Over.”

“Over.”

“Over yourself.”

“Over times two.”

“Over infinity. Over.”

The walls were getting wider and wider still, and Peter’s light was getting no brighter. Soon, the passing rock began to fade. Nothing mysterious about it, the walls just receded further and further until they merged with the black background, leaving nothing but blurs and shadows. And as Peter waited, it seemed that even those blurs were inching their way upward, to disappear into the ever-growing darkness he’d already passed.

Only the speck of light from the distant mineshaft remained clearly visible directly above; that and whatever length of cable was near enough to be seen. A pinpoint of light piercing down at him, and the cable pointing toward it like a finger, as if to remind him that he was not some lonely spider suspended on a web, but that there was light, and company, and good solid ground awaiting him above, whenever he should choose to return.

The last glimpses of rocks passed out of sight. There may as well be no more walls. He looked over his shoulder again, hoping, if not expecting, the floor to be coming up to meet him soon. Surely the bottom must be approaching soon, right…? But it was not.

His light had become utterly useless now, with nothing else around to illuminate. And when that realization struck him, it sowed the seed of doubt. Maybe Louis’s right. Maybe I shouldn’t do this. I should abort, let him reel me back topside, come back later with the scout leader and a big crane and some huge ol’ searchlights… Yeah… Yeah, this hole, this CHASM, was bigger than I ever would have imagined, and one kid with a headlamp isn’t enough to conquer it…

No…

No, keep going, Peter.

It’s got to end sometime.

He looked up at Louis’s dot of light above him. It’s got to end sometime. It’s not bottomless.

Unease built.

It festered in the back of his mind, surged forward every once in a while to try to bring him to panic, to get him to give up, but each time he forced it back. More and more he found himself staring upwards at the spot of light. Strangely enough, it seemed to be getting reddish. As if blood were throbbing forward into his eyesockets, or as if he was gradually being engulfed in some fog, or filter. Perhaps this pit was flooded with trace amounts of some heavy, reddish gas, and as he descended the depths of it clouded over.

However it was happening, he had become utterly fixated on that spot of light, measuring how it faded and shrunk and reddened, trying to estimate when that final singular anchor would fade away.

Five more minutes passed.

You know, it was bizarre. He hadn’t noticed it quite as fast as Louis had, since he’d been hanging comfortably by his harness instead of bracing against the walls with the winch, but Louis was right: the tension in the line was decreasing.

How was it decreasing? How did that make any sense? No, he wasn’t dropping rocks from his pockets, no, the winch couldn’t be gradually accelerating, as the motor only went one speed… It didn’t make any sense.

Ten minutes.

The light… Was the light getting fainter up above? It seems that now, Peter could barely make out the pinprick of red light that was the opening of the mineshaft. There was only the cable, and himself, hanging in the black.

Nineteen minutes.

Nineteen and a half minutes.

Peter found himself staring at the timer in his helmet, waiting for the seconds to finally add up to the big two-oh, and he’d finally have a good round number to affix to his boredom, and his boredom was the excuse he would affix to his request that they finally abort this pointless plunge.

“H-hey!” He radioed up to Louis. “Y-you know dude, th-th-this is a drag. It’s been twenty minutes. Let’s just reverse it now, eh? This is getting silly! Bring me back up! Over.” It felt really good to finally say it actually; to admit that his friend was right; to give up. It felt good, in a way, to never have to discover what lay at the bottom of this hole.

But horror beyond all horrors, there was no answer!

“Louis? LOUIS! Louis, come in! Louis, do you read?!? Over!”

He was still going down!

“LOUIS COME IN!”

His friend didn’t respond, but the line kept descending, and the tension kept lowering, and the light was very, very red and kept fading, and Peter found himself in tears, crying and trembling.

He looked back over his shoulder again, but he still couldn’t see the bottom!

What’s going on?!? Why can’t Louis hear me?!? How far down does it go?!?

In a sudden flash of inspiration, he remembered; he remembered what he should have done in the first place, before ever starting into the pit. How could I forget? In all the movies, whenever anybody descends into the dark, they always throw a flare or a flashlight or a torch first! They always drop a light so they can get a gauge of how far it goes! It’s only smart! Heck, forget movies, I’m a boy scout! I should have instantly known to do that, how could I forget?!?

I still can!

With shaking hands he fumbled the emergency flare gun out of his belt, and loaded a brightly-colored canister into the barrel. Then he twisted around in the harness, pointed the gun straight downwards into the exact center of that gaping black void, and pulled the trigger.

The flare burst from the gun, and flew straight down. Gravity continuously accelerated it, and without air resistance, it kept going faster and faster, a brilliant yellow missile glowing with incredible brightness, speeding ever faster.

And continued.

And continued.

And continued.

It slowly faded from yellow to white to blue, growing steadily more distant and small and faint with the distance. Finally, after craning his neck to watch it for what felt like minutes, he found he could no longer even see it.

Good grief! Up on the surface, those flares are normally visible from kilometers out! Kilometers!

Louis was right all along! It’s bottomless! IT’S A BOTTOMLESS PIT!!

He looked back upwards. His panic, which was already skyrocketing, was suddenly compounded when he realized that he couldn’t see the light of the mineshaft anymore. He hurriedly turned off the light in his own helmet, in hopes that he could see better without the slight glare. Yes, that was it; if he killed all his own lights, he could just barely make out the mineshaft, shining like a red star high above. “Louis!” He screamed into his radio. “Louis, bring me up! It’s bottomless! You were right, it goes on forever! You gotta bring me up! Abort! LINE UP!!”

No answer.

He fumbled a second flare out of his pocket, and reloaded. Taking careful aim, the very most meticulous and steady aim, he pointed the missile directly at the patch of light. Perhaps if he could be a totally bona-fide sniper with this little flare pistol, perhaps if the flare traveled dead-center, then perhaps it would get near enough to the shaft for Louis to glimpse its glow, and realize that their radios had been somehow compromised, and reverse the line.

He fired.

The second yellow missile streaked from the gun, this time in exactly the opposite direction of the first.

It went straight up, growing redder and redder as it did.

A minute later, it returned to its yellow color as it came straight back down. It passed by Peter again not 10 meters to his left.

And it disappeared into the dark below with the other flare, once again fading to white and then blue. Now that Peter had his lights off, he thought he could still see the first flare glowing in the incredible distance. It hadn’t hit the floor yet.

Bottomless, bottomless…

He squeezed his eyes shut, not wanting to look at anything anymore. Wanting to exchange the hungry, malicious blackness around him for the close, comfy blackness of the backside of his eyelids. Anything to pretend he wasn’t where he was. But the silence was heavy on his ears. Louis wasn’t there any more, only the hissing of his suit’s life support, the whirring of its heater, and his own breathing. And of course he couldn’t ignore the tension in his harness; The tension is still dropping! Now it’s about half what it should be; like for some physically impossible reason the cable is just stretching and I’m falling faster and faster forever and ever and I can’t feel it! Except I can feel it! I feel like I weigh half of what I ought, like I’m halfway to the moon’s center. But that’s impossible! How could he lower me so deep? And if I’m so deep, where’s the magma?!? Oh God, how can it not have a bottom?!?

God…

That’s right, God!

Without any hesitation, Peter curled into a ball, folded the gloves of his spacesuit against his helmet, and began to pray.

“Dear God…! Dear God, come in God! God come in, I’m scared! Please help! Please help it not be bottomless!” He wondered if there was some kind of enormous monster instead of a bottom, or if the moon was hollow and infested with Aliens, or if this pit led straight to hell. “Please make Louis reverse the line!” He pleaded. “Please make it be alright again…! And…! Andandand if you don’t do any of those other things God, then please, please, please make me brave…!”

He continued down.

“Please make me brave.”

He never stopped.

“A-a-amen… Over.” He stuttered. And as his prayer finished, he knew that even through a kilometer of stone, even across the vast reaches of space, even from out of the depths of this unbelievable void, God had heard him. That’s right… God is in control… God knows where this pit leads, heck, he probably created this pit! That means he knows when I’ll reach the bottom. He knows if I’m gonna get back out or if I’m gonna die… In fact, he knew all this before I ever got up this morning. He knows what I’ll find down here, and he still loves me… God loves me. He’s still looking out for me.

Even down here.

And God answered Peter’s prayer; God made him brave.

Peter opened his eyes.

And then he turned his lights back on, and found that the empty pit wasn’t quite so empty anymore. Way off in the distance to his left and right, his lights seemed to be illuminating something… Not a bottom, but something along the walls; yes, the walls seemed to be narrowing again, at least partially… That was a good sign.

The walls got nearer.

And now that they were back in range of his light, he could see something really quite strange: they were no longer made of rock. He could scarcely believe his eyes at first, but the walls were made of metal now, shinier and more uniform. On his left side, he was currently moving past some kind of enormous, curved surface, like the flank of an incredible water tank. A line of rivets bordering a seam confirmed its artificial nature.

On his other side, there was what appeared to be some kind of weight-bearing truss, like you’d see holding up the archways of an old bridge. There was another tank beside the truss too, and what looked like a ganglion of pipes, just on the edge of the range of his light.

As he continued downward, there were other structures. There were round, rivetted tanks similar to the first one, most of them smaller and miscellaneous, but a few quite a bit larger. In between the tanks and the trusses, great cuboid somethings were bolted to trusses, and the housings and shafts of unfamiliar machinery poked out and interconnected here and there. All through the labyrinthian industrial complex, pipes of every imaginable shape and size stretched and curled.

He sure was glad that God had made him brave. With that bravery, he hazarded another communication. “Louis, be advised.” He said, just in case his friend was still able to hear him. “The tunnel walls now appear populated with mechanical structures. Looks like it could be a factory or a refining installation of some kind. Maybe something else. Not seeing any movement or people, so I think it’s abandoned. And there are no lights, so I’m assuming it’s powerless. I’m also not seeing any words or language on any of the pipes, so your guess is good as mine as to who made it… Yeah. Anyway, it’s weird. Over.”

Louis evidently didn’t hear him.

“Louis, be advised.” He continued a few minutes later. “Looks like the machinery is ending. The last of it is passing out of sight, and I’m in blackness again. It was all just on the walls, and the pit itself is still bottomless… Over.”

The tension in the line was as low as it ever had been, perhaps a quarter of his own weight. He thought back for a moment to his science classes: Newton said that if he wasn’t changing speed at all, then that means the total amount of force on him balanced out to zero. Meaning the tension in the line must be equal to his weight, which meant that he must be getting lighter. But he wasn’t losing any mass, so that means the gravity must be decreasing. Somehow.

He imagined that if it continued, he would eventually be weightless entirely. It didn’t make any sense to him how that was happening, but he understood how the affect was progressing, and it was consistent and logical in its own queer way.

It was logical. It didn’t necessarily make sense, but it made a sense.

The logic and predictability of it made him feel a little better, and he allowed himself to relax. In fact, as he rested on the end of the tether under ever-decreasing stress, the inside of his suit began to seem very comfy. Indeed, he even began to feel sleepy…

Well… I can’t keep going down forever. Louis doesn’t have infinite cable in his winch, and his winch doesn’t have infinite batteries. He’s smart enough to know when enough is enough, and he’ll bring me back up eventually.

…

Thank you, God, for making me brave.

He turned off his light to save battery power in the suit, and settled back to wait.

[thehermitcraftqueen]

Your Betrayal - Angst, Skizz & Impulse

Basically a rewrite of Impulse's betrayal and Skizz's 3rdLife death, but in songfic form. :')

This is PURE ANGST, so if you're not into that don't read it. There's also some violence, but that's expected.

The song is 'Your Betrayal' by Bullet for My Valentine. Go give it a listen if you like Metalcore/Hard Rock type stuff. Personally not my thing, but the lyrics fit too well for me to not use it.

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

Am I going insane?

My blood is boiling inside of my veins

An evil feeling attacks

My body shaking there's no turning back

Skizz stood on the wall of Dogwarts, glaring at the Crastle in the distance. His heart was racing. Sweat glistened on his bare arms, and he was shaking with anger. He hated that stupid castle that was near impossible to shoot into or infiltrate. He hated the enemy faces peeking out of the windows, shouting taunts and jeers towards Dogwarts. He hated the fresh scars he had from their recent fight. But most of all?

He hated Impulse. The supposed ‘nice guy’. The guy who was supposed to be on Skizz’s team, with the Red Army. His friend.

Skizz had specially asked Ren to let Impulse join the team. He thought--no, he knew --that he could trust Impulse, even though Ren was suspicious of him at first. Impulse helped them with gear, helped them plot attacks, even swore his loyalty. And for what? Him to switch sides at the last minute? If he was ever truly with the Red Army to switch in the first place...

He never thought he’d see the day Impulse betrayed him. But here they were, staring each other down from opposing kingdoms. Skizz’s blood boiled at the thought and his fingers curled around the hilt of his sword, itching to run over there and stab Impulse with it. Even though he’d killed two people for good already, his bloodlust was far from satisfied. No, he needed all of the enemy dead at his feet...starting with Impulse.

So take your eyes off the trigger

I'm not to blame if your world turns to black

As your eyes start to blister

There's just no hope for our final embrace

So here we are, I'm in your head

I'm in your heart

An arrow landed next to Skizz's foot. He glanced down at it, then back at the Crastle. A growl escaped him as he noticed Impulse with his bow drawn, preparing to fire another arrow. Skizz whipped out his own bow and placed an arrow on the string, drawing it back as he aimed it at Impulse. Impulse vanished into the castle suddenly, and Skizz sneered.

"The coward. He knows I can use a bow, unlike him."

"Are you alright, laddie?" Ren asked, climbing onto the wall beside him. Skizz lowered his bow and turned to his king.

"No, my liege. I'm angry. My bloodlust is the strongest it's ever been, and most of it is directed at that traitor," Skizz replied, the hint of a snarl in his voice.

"Speaking of that traitor, he's coming this way," Martyn said, hopping up next to Ren.

"No," Skizz hissed under his breath, following Martyn's gaze to Impulse's figure which was indeed headed toward Dogwarts.

"He's coming alone, too..." Etho murmured, joining the others on the wall. "He's crazy."

"He's crazy..." Skizz agreed, drawing his bow once more. "...And he's about to be dead."

You were told to run away

Soak the place and light the flame

Pay the price for your betrayal

Your betrayal, your betrayal

"You're in deep waters coming here alone, Impulse!" Ren shouted as Impulse came into earshot. Skizz drew his bow and aimed an arrow at Impulse, but didn't fire. A glance in either direction told him Etho and Martyn were doing the same.

"Oh, I know," Impulse said. The calmness in his voice infuriated Skizz even more. Did he think he'd get out of this alive?

"Then what do you want?" Ren growled.

"It's no use negotiating anything with him, my lord, he'll just betray us again," Martyn said.

"I have a...proposition," Impulse said. "Well, more of a suggestion and a warning, I guess."

"Oh yeah? And I have a warning for you, buddy, and that's get out before I put an arrow through your skull," Skizz snarled.

"Let him talk. He hasn't made any move of aggression," Ren said.

"He was shooting at us!" Skizz argued.

Ren ignored him, his gaze fixed on Impulse. Skizz wanted so badly to just let the arrow fly, but he held back...just barely.

Impulse, seeming to realize he had limited time, began talking quickly. "Grian has a lot of TNT, Scott still has a flint and steel, and Team Crastle currently outnumbers you. Bases will get destroyed and fights will continue. Even though I betrayed you guys, I don't want you getting hurt. But that'll happen if you don't give up. This isn't a fight you can win."

Shouts of protest rose from the wall.

"You're just trying to scare us, you filthy traitor!" Martyn yelled.

"Anyone who tries to burn down my castle again is only getting blood, and it won't be mine," Etho hissed.

Skizz released his arrow, savoring Impulse's short cry of surprise and pain as it hit him. "No way are we giving up. But I'll sure enjoy watching you die."

"There is not always power in numbers, laddie," Ren said. "The Red Army will survive, or die the deaths of heroes. You've chosen to go against us, Impulse. Now get out, and stay out."

"Y-you guys are going to regret this!" Impulse warned, before whipping around and running. Martyn and Etho let their arrows fly, but Impulse dodged both.

Skizz couldn't let him escape.

I was told to stay away

Those two words I can't obey

Pay the price for your betrayal

Your betrayal, your betrayal

"I'm going after him," Skizz declared, putting away his bow.

"What?! You can't do that!" Martyn protested.

"We can't lose ye, Skizz," Ren agreed.

"Well...I'm sorry. I love you guys. But I have to do this." Pulling out his sword, Skizz leaped off the wall and into the water below. He swam to the opposite bank, ignoring the protests of his friends behind him. Skizz began running and quickly spotted Impulse just ahead of him. “Impulse!” he yelled, red flashing across his vision. Impulse’s eyes widened and he began running faster. Skizz chased after him, murder his only thought.

Impulse made it to the Crastle, but Skizz was close behind. When Impulse stopped to open the door for himself, Skizz caught up. His sword slashed, fire aspect setting Impulse on fire.

“Grian! Help!” Impulse shouted. He was still desperately messing with the door, but he couldn’t get it open.

Bloodlust surged as Skizz grabbed Impulse by the throat. “You can’t get away now,” he growled. Impulse whimpered slightly, clutching at Skizz’s hand that was clasped around his neck. For a split second, that whimper made Skizz hesitate. It wasn’t long. But it was just long enough for someone else to get the door open and stab him, causing him to release Impulse.

Skizz found himself locked in a fierce swordfight with Grian. He was on fire. Grian was on fire. They were both low on health, but Grian was lower. Skizz could win this. But then an arrow pierced his side.

Is it my turn to die?

My heart is pounding as I say goodbye

So now I dance in the flames

I love you crying and screaming my name

Skizz’s vision darkened. He turned his head slightly to see Impulse with a horrified look, his bow in his hands.

He’d lost. Or rather, Impulse had killed him. But, oddly enough, he didn’t feel bloodlust or hate towards him anymore. Only a deep sadness that all of this had to happen.

As his hearts dropped down to nothing, pain spiraling through his body, Skizz managed to whisper, “Goodbye, Impulse.”

Skizzleman was shot by Impulse.

He collapsed, only hearing Impulse’s cry of “Skizz!” before his vision went black. A moment later he floated up out of his body as a ghost, staring down at the scene below.

Impulse just stared at his corpse for several seconds before dropping to his knees. “No...Skizz...I-I’m so sorry...” Tears began to fall down his face, and Skizz almost felt sorry for him. Impulse would never forget what he did, that was one thing he knew.

You said that we'd be forever

How could you kill me and lie to my face?

Now that we can't be together

There's just no hope for our final embrace

So here we are, I'm in your head

I'm in your heart

[mariinara]

HC where sam is your best friends brother?

I actually thought about making your best friend just Nathan? But, for the sake of routine and creativity, let's shake it up a bit and create another sibling– a middle Drake sister? 👀👀

-First of all, being best friends with a Drake means that you have to be wild and absolutely unhinged to keep up.

-Your best friend– who happens to be the middle sister of two impossible brothers – rarely ever experienced a dull moment.

-Since you were the same, you had no problem whatsoever with tagging along with her, wherever she might go.

-However, she was just as much of an adrenalin junkie as her two brothers, which means she very often traveled around and was usually up to her usual treasure-hunting, museum-looting, lost-city-plundering shenanigans with either her two brothers, just one of them, Sullivan, or Chloe Frazer.

-And as a woman who only had a couple of odd jobs with her, Nathan, Elena, and Sullivan for the sole purpose of being "the tech gal in the chair", you didn't tag along in most of those.

-In fact, you had a pretty stable job in a computer shop as an I.T. manager and technician.

-Sounds boring, but is quite lucrative at times.

-And, sure, you'd met Nathan. You thought he was an absolute sweetheart and a joy to be around. Sometimes, though, when he didn't listen to your advice that would prevent him from getting his neck wrung, he was positively infuriating.

-Sam, though..

-You'd heard of the infamous older brother. You saw some of his pictures with his younger sister and brother, too, but they were about sixteen-year-old photographs, taken way before he was thrown in Panama and got locked up for thirteen years..

-Sometimes, you heard your best friend talking to him on the phone, but it'd be very brief and happened once every blue moon.

-Her explanation behind the very superficial relationship was that Sam didn't really share such a strong bond with her. They almost always fought and never once did they go a day without flipping each other off at least a thousand times.

-It was because their sister was a bit more reasonable when it came to life or death. She might've been wild at parties and great at rock-climbing or swinging off a cliff, but when odds were against her, she knew when to turn back and call it quits.

-A trait that – obviously – Sam did not have.

-She loved him, though, and she would do anything for him and so would he. Anytime. No questions asked.

-In fact, whenever she asked him to send her something from Boston to New Orleans, he'd do it without hesitation and would even leave a small note saying how he'd missed her and would like to catch up soon.

-So you had a pretty basic idea of who Sam Drake was, but you hadn't actually had the privilege of seeing him in person.

-One day, however, your best friend called and invited you over to her place that evening because she was holding a huge family gathering.

-"Everyone's gonna be there!", she'd told you.

-You were always up for a good backyard barbecue party with people you haven't seen in years. You knew for a fact that when she said 'everyone', she literally meant everyone.

-Nate, Elena, Cassie, Chloe, Sullivan, Charlie, and Nadine were all going to attend and the only missing person was you– the life of the party and the most theatrical comedian in the bunch.

-So not only did your friend want you there, but everyone said that they'd come only if you did and you couldn't disappoint them.

-And there you were, standing at the head of the table in the large pergola of your friend's yard, a glass of wine in your hand as you entertained and told a story of something stupid that'd happened to you with a celebrity customer that almost cost you your career. The table shook as all your buddies roared in laughter, some struggling to breathe and others not bothering to try and sound respectable– snorting away to their hearts' content and slamming the table or sinking into their chairs.

-A huge grin played on your lips before you brought your glass up to take a sip of wine, waiting for your friends to calm down, and then, your best friend suddenly perked up, her eyes as wide as the growing smile on her face.

-"Is that..?"

-Your brows pull in confusion and you look in the direction that everyone was looking towards and you saw a tall, broad man, a duffel in one hand while the other remained in the pocket of his deep blue jeans.

-Your wine remained in your mouth a little and as he stepped closer, a sheepish smile on his face, you swallowed thickly, your eyes widening.

-"Sam!", his sister yelled, jumping from her chair to break a sprint towards him and collide against his chest, making him stumble back a little, a chuckle escaping him as he rubbed her back.

-Everyone rushed to him, giving hugs and serenading him with 'It's so good to see you's. He even picked up his twelve-year-old niece, spun her around, and attacked her cheek with kisses, telling her how much he's missed her and that he had a small gift for her in his bag that he brought back from his most recent travel.

-And then, your best friend and his sister dragged you from your frozen position, putting you in front of him.

-"This is (y/n)!", she excitedly introduced you, "Remember? I told you all about her."

-Sam paused for a second and you did your best to look confident but something about him was so alluring and knee-buckling that it was so hard not to see flustered, especially that he gave you what seemed to be a ghost of a smirk.

-"M'yeah.", he replied, shaking your hand gently, "She wouldn't shut up about you." He pointed out, making his sister pout and gently nudge his arm.

-And, then, out of nowhere, your confident demeanor was back, "I must be greater than I thought, then.", you quickly quipped, having literally no clue where that came from.

-Sam raised an interested brow, "I'll bet." He replied, his voice dropping an octave and his eyes boring into yours.

-Maybe it was the wine, but you wanted nothing more but to jump him at that very moment.

-You two broke the staring game when Nathan cleared his throat and clapped his hands, rubbing them together, "So who's up for some barbecue, huh?"

-Everyone murmured in agreement and they quickly went back to their designated seats.

-You hadn't even noticed that your hand was still in Sam's until everyone was gone from around you and you quickly pulled it away, unable to make eye contact with the incredibly handsome man before you, just sticking to looking down at the small portion of wine left in your glass.

-"C'mon and sit next to me.", Sam suddenly said, making your eyes snap up at him in surprise, "I wanna get to know you better.", he clarified, sending you a sly smirk before brushing past you, making sure that his shoulder gently nudged yours.

-You looked at him as he confidently sauntered away, your mouth agape but an amused smile still present.

-"I warn you..", you whipped your head to see your best friend grinning at you, bemused by the whole scene that'd unfolded before her eyes. She walked towards you, "He'll break your heart.", she shook her head, taking a sip out of her beer.

-A snort left you and you shook your head, "He's.. not my type..", you mutter, downing the last drops of red wine afterwards as if to wash down the blatant lie that you'd just told.

-"Mm-hmm..", she gave you a sassy look and you rolled your eyes, gently kicking her along, telling her to shut up and get a move on.

-When you made it to the table, Sam looked up at you and smiled cordially, patting the chair next to him.

-You sat down next to him, and immediately, the chattering around the table began, and you were back to being your funny, confident self, captivating everyone with your brilliant story-telling and impeccable impressions that left everyone keeling over and laughing.

-Sam was a funny guy as well. He'd throw a few comments here and there that made your stories even funnier.

-You laughed together a few times and most of the time, his eyes were on you. He'd laugh and grin and nod along while sipping on his beer sometimes, but other than that, he was fully enamored with you.

-Not only were you attractive and witty, but also funny and really passionate, which was a dangerous mix that had Sam immediately sold.

-Everyone went to get their grilling on and were shoving their faces with hotdogs. Charlie and Nathan had an eating contest while Cassie filmed it with her camera, giggling all the while.

-So everyone was gathered in different areas, sometimes joining in on others' conversations or just sticking to their own, intimate ones.

-Your best friend was immersed in a conversation with Charlie, who'd won the hotdog eating contest and wasn't as whoozy as Nathan was. Charlie also happened to be her ex-boyfriend, but they were on great terms, even after they'd broken it off.

-And there you were with Sam, on the garden swing, keeping a good, friendly distance between each other, but somehow, the looks you shared suggested otherwise.

-You told him stories he needed to hear to have an idea about who you were as a person. You told him how you met Nate and his sister and he pretended not to know any of the information you spilt. He only listened to you intently because the way you pieced your stories was so interesting and your voice was captivating and so were your over-the-top hand gestures.

-He just loved listening to you.

-And the two of you didn't notice the hours go by, only absentmindedly bidding farewell to the friends who left.

-And soon, it was only the two of you, chatting away, laughing and sighing wistfully at memories.

-"You two are so indiscreet.", you and Sam look up at his sister, who had her hands in the pockets of her hoodie, a smirk on her face, "Everyone noticed."

-"Noticed?", Sam asked, raising a brow and narrowing his eyes.

-She scoffed, "Uh, yeah. You two lovebirds are so obvious."

-"A-ha. M'kay. Good talk.", Sam gave her a wry smile, further confirming his sister's suspicion.

-"He likes you but he's too pussy to admit it.", She told you, making you chuckle, the heat creeping up your neck again to make you look down in hopes of concealing your embarrassment.

-"Shut up or else.", Sam warned, leaning forward on the swing, as if he was preparing to pounce on his sister.

-But she ignored him and kept her eyes on you, "Remember what I told you..~", she taunted before stretching and looking at Sam, "You stayin' here?"

-Sam glared, "Do I have any other choice?" He asked in a "duh" tone.

-She yawned and nodded, scratching the back of her neck and stretching tiredly, "Okay, well..", a deep sigh left her as she moved her arms around to stretch her muscles, "I'm turnin' over."

-You cleared your throat and gently smacked your thighs before getting up, "I, uhh.. better get goin', too.", you sent Sam a warm smile, "It's gettin' kinda late."

-He looked up at you with his starry, puppy eyes before standing to tower over you, wiping his hands against the sides of his thighs, "Yeah, uhh..", he paused for a second, "Want me to walk you?"

-Yeah, you did. And you almost approved before you closed your mouth again and closed your eyes, breathing out a soft chuckle at your own ridiculousness, "No, I.. came over here in my car.", you told him and he nodded, his lips pursing to a thin smile.

-"Ugh, get it over with!", his sister complained, looking back and forth between the two of you, irked by the palpable tension in the air.

-Sam quickly sent her a death glare, "Do you mind?", he warned behind clenched teeth.

-She rolled her eyes and backtracked, "As if me leaving's gonna grow you any balls..", she mumbled, but Sam completely heard her and shook his head in dismay as you chuckled at their antics, watching her walk towards her front door and slip inside.

-When you looked back at Sam, his eyes were already on you and you smiled at him while he reciprocated it with a slightly awkward one, "Guess this is the part where I ask you out, huh..?", he spoke lowly, scratching his cheek and averting his gaze from yours for a second.

-You tilted your head, "Guess so..", you pushed your hand in your pocket and pulled out a pen, "Gimme your hand."

-Sam raised a brow but did so anyway and you grabbed his hand, turning it so you could see the back of it and scribbled down with the ink on his skin.

-"There." You let go and he looked at his hand, smiling when he found that you wrote your phone number, "Call me."

-He chuckled as he looked back up at you, "Will do."

-You paused for a second and, just to make up for the time you weren't going to be together in, you stood on your toes and pulled him in, planting a gently, chaste kiss on his cheek before pulling away, smiling at him warmly when you saw his fingers gently ghosting the area where your lips pressed against his skin.

-"See you 'round.", you winked at him and backed away, turning around to leave.

-Sam watched you, almost bewitched by the way you made him feel. His eyes followed you intently and took note of everything: the sway of your hips and your curves and legs and everything.

-But, suddenly, he called out for you when he remembered something, stopping you in your tracks. You looked back at him, raising a curious brow, "What'd she tell you about me earlier?"

-You paused for a few seconds, a smirk playing on your lips as you realized what he was referring to, "Nothing.", you waved him off, "Just don't break my heart!", you jut a finger at him, playfully warning him with a glare that caused him to chuckle.

-"No promises."

-But he'd be lying if he didn't admit that anyone who'd break your heart would be a complete and utter ungrateful idiot.

Tags: @missdictatorme , @the-drakeboys , @the-winchesterboys , @samdrakeftw , @easy-and-steady @s4mdrake , @writer-jamie , @hrgnm , @purplezebra68 , @elledrake , @misslongcep

[greyfongschemmenti]

Under Pressure 7|15

FryeArcana

Chapter 7

Bruising

You run to the bar and don’t see Nox anywhere you push the doors open and look for Chen. “Chen, please tell me you know where my bike is.” He dries some glasses as he thinks back “yeah, your buddy took it.” You scratch the back of your ear “what buddy?!” you slam your fists on the counter “hell, how do I know what buddies you got, kid” he snaps. You groan rubbing your face, shit what the fuck am I to do. You walk out the bar and head on home. You’re kicking rocks, when you walk to your garage and open it. Your eyes widen “Nox?!” you gasp as you close the door behind you and run to your bike. Making sure the bike is totally safe and nothing is missing. You breathe out a sigh of relief, but quickly look around. How did Nox make it home? Who brought it home?  You slowly creep to the door leading inside the apartment and open the door stepping inside. You put your arms up in front of your face as you slowly check out your place. You slowly put your hands down when you see Lin, sitting at your dining room table, drinking tea, “wondered when you’d make it back” she stated as she looks through the newspaper. “what are you doing here? You’re the one who got Nox?” you stammered trying to make sense of the image you’re seeing in front of you.

Lin sighed as she looks up at you “I was driving home from work when I saw your bike parked outside the bar. Couldn’t find you asked the bartender who told me you had left a while ago. Didn’t know where though just that you stumbled out after refusing his offer to call you a cab.” Your cross your arms and huff looking away. “I parked my car at my place and walked back to the bar to get your bike then drove to the park, since I know you’re always there. Went to the spot and you weren’t there. Checked all over the park then came here, you weren’t here either. I didn’t know where else you could be, so I figured you’re going to make home at some point.” She shrugs she looks up at you “to be honest, I was worried about you. Didn’t know if something had happened.” She confessed and you drop your arms down softening up, “you…. you were?” you say surprisingly but tense back up “well I’m safe as you can see.” You walk up and go to your liquor cabinet getting a couple of glasses and a bottle of whiskey “are you were just to see if I’m still alive or were you wanting to finally talk?” you pour two shots worth in each glass and set one down to Lin before putting the bottle down. Lin doesn’t touch the glass as you sit down across from her and take a sip. “what’s there to talk about?” Lin says flatly and you groan “How long are we going to do this little game, Lin?” you spat out at her. “no one is playing a game here y/n” she eyes you and you return her glare “you could have fooled me” you muttered under your breath. “what was that?”

You look up at her and stand up pushing your chair back and slowly walk over to her you hand brushing along the table “you know you haunt me, Lin.” You tell her as she watches you move towards her “how so?” she got up and faced you

“You. could have. Fooled. me, Lin.” You spoke slowly as you enunciate each word while you inched closer to you “we’ve been basically living a domesticate life together. My sleeping over, almost every night. Being a warm body to you. Catering to your every need. Trying to prove to you that you deserve just as much love if not more than everybody else. You’re incredible but you don’t seem to see it. You’re giving me all the signs that you feel something for me, but you’re preventing yourself to get it. Give me something, Lin. Give m—” Lin cuts you off by grabbing the back of your neck, pulling you to her and kisses you deeply. You stiffen up a split second before you relax under her grasp wrapping an arm around her waist as you kiss her back deeply, lifting her up and sit her on the edge of the table.

Semi-hushed panting. Hot breathes exchanging in between. Lips moist and swollen with the urgency and passion between the two of you. You groan when Lin bites on your lower lip and tugs on it, you squeeze on her thigh making her bite on your harder. You pull your lip back then tilt her head so you can kiss the crook of her neck while you bend her sleeves off of her armor. Lin sighs contently as she runs her hand up the back of your head gripping onto your hair, a moan escaping her lips while you kiss her neck as she runs her legs up your waist wrapping her legs around you. You lean up and look at her your eyes darken with lust as you look at her rubbing her waist as you rest your head against her letting out a sigh of relief. “was that the something you were hoping for?” Lin smirked and let out a laugh. You smirked back and look at her “it’s something alright” you lean down and peck her neck “stay with me, for the night” you mumble while Lin rubs the back of your hair and gives you an “okay”. You stand back and grab her sleeves as she slides off the table, you slide your hand into hers and pull her to your bedroom. You set the sleeves in your dresser as Lin bends her armor off and sets it beside the sleeves then closes the doors and pushes you onto the bed. You kick your boots off and prop yourself up on your arms as she takes her boots off then climbs into bed and straddles your waist, you lay down and run your hands up her thighs then rubs her waist. She runs her hands up your abdomen her nails grazing against your skin under your tank and she lifts it up taking it off you. She tosses your shirt aside “You’re not completely forgiven but…. wait for me?” she looks at you as she puts her hands on the side of your neck. You nod and kiss her wrist softly “always, you’re worth the wait” giving her a verbal confirmation before she leans down and starts kissing you. You run your hands up her sides before putting your hand on her neck as you thumb brushes along her jaw. She grinds her waist against you, and you groan against her lips, you wrap your arm around her waist and pull her down on the bed getting on top of her. Lin holds onto your face while you make out she slides her tongue inside your mouth while you run your down her body then slide it back up under her shirt and lift up the helm until it comes off her before reconnecting your lips with hers. “you’re so beautiful” you whisper against her lips and she gives you a small smile, before you scoot over and wrap your arm around her and pull you close spooning her. You lean in close and slowly kiss her running your hand up and down her abdomen. Your tongues dancing with each other trying to claim dominance of one another. You made out with Lin until your lips were bruised. Only pulling back to regain your breath before kissing those lips you’re addicted to. Lin enjoys the taste of your lips thought your breath has a mix of alcohol and a now faint taste of cigarette smoke. Lin turned onto her back so she could face you and have your bodies flushed to one another. y/n kissed you with such care and passion as if you were the only person that mattered. The kissing didn’t stop until the both of you were left breathless.

*

           “I can’t believe you let her kiss you” Lin muttered as she played with your fingers, “it happened so fast, I didn’t know what was going on…I was unwrapping my bindings of my arms when she surprise attacked me” you laid your head above hers as you have your arm around her and watch her fingers play with yours. “I witnessed it…. I was walking past when I saw you push her back and heard what that little bitch said…” she sunk her nails into your wrists, and you bite your lip groaning slightly from the slight pain. “you suck at turning a person down, way too nice. I would have gotten her arrested for assault” she scoffed loudly. you sighed “yeah…I was. I didn’t want to be harsh.” You sigh but move some of Lin’s hair a bit to the side and kiss her neck while mumbling “But I don’t want to talk about her” she sinks back into you then you pull your head back, “You told me to stop trying. I figured what you wanted was space. My drunk mind ended up playing with me.” Lin turned her head over her shoulder to look at you “yeah, you changed into a different person.” You laugh “no, that’s my professional side. I should bring it out more often around you. Everyone else has seen it. Saikhan hates me.” you laugh some more while you trail your fingers around her waist. Lin chuckles a bit then gets serious “I know you’ve been patient with me these past months. I appreciate it. I admit I do have feelings for you, y/n. I just need you to continue exercising patience, until I’m ready.” You listen to her while you play with each other hand until you interlock your fingers with hers and bring your hands up to your lips and kiss the back of her hand “of course, Lin. Whatever you need. I’m here with you” you rub the back of her hand with your thumb then let the silence settle down before talking again “so you were jealous” you smirked as you can’t see Lin’s face, but you can sense her rolling her eyes.

*

You’re dead asleep catching up on the sleep you’ve missed after that drunken night. You have your arm around Lin’s waist holding her close as you lay on your side. Lin hasn’t fallen asleep yet, she turns around in your embrace to look at you. She watches you sleep putting her hand on your chest as she senses your breath and pulse. You feel calm and looking so peaceful while you rest she runs her hand up to your cheek and her lips curl up when she sees you lean into her touch. She strokes your cheek softly as she analyzes every detail on your face then she gently pushes you onto your back careful not to wake you as she rests her head on your chest and drapes her arm around you. You settle into the new position and run your hand up her arm as she pulls the covers up on the both of you as she fell asleep.

*

Lin dreams back of that scene at the training ground and remembers listening to your lame excuse to get your way out. She felt a bit amused as you got flustered and guilt from that little scene that you didn’t really cause. She knew you were getting mad from her lack of emotion as she kept calm. She did get surprised to watch you get mad and step into her personal space then walk away and you made your final outburst “she’s not you, Lin!” she remembered those words clearly. y/n sounded so sure of herself when she said it, not a detection of a lie. Kids, drunks, and when you’re at your wits end are when the truth comes out. Lin had a lot experience with truth spilling while having drunken fights with Tenzin about the topic of having kids. Honestly, watching y/n flare up and that vein that showed up on her neck was surprisingly attractive to see. y/n was so sure when she said it and fight back at you. Most people were too scared to look her in the eye let alone fight back so watching y/n standing her ground, was something new. When she dismissed you it gave her time to think things over about how she felt about you. y/n did push that secretary away and brushed her off. Lin knew she was wrong about telling you to stop trying, of course she didn’t want you to stop. If anything she wanted you stay. Stay with her. Keep doing whatever it is that causes her heart to skip a beat when she sees you.  

Lin would never admit it out openly to you about her jealousy, but even she can’t deny that slowly--Incredibly slowly-- her walls were breaking down brick by brick as she’s hesitatively falling for you as well. She hasn’t been able to get physical with you just because of the fear of getting hurt. She’s had one night stands after Tenzin, but even she knew this relationship she has with you is different. It took a couple years before she took that next level with Tenzin, for Raava’s sake. Though it’s easy for you two now since it’s just the two of you here in the city, but once the rest of Team Avatar and when the rest of the gang come back she wonders what will happen. She’s taking it one pebble at a time; she hopes you will be patient enough to wait for her.

*

You wake up slowly opening your eyes and see the sun slowly creep through the shades as you rub your eyes. You look over and see Lin resting her head on your chest and her arm around you, you softly stroke her arm and kiss her forehead. You look over and see the clock reading at 6:44 am, you beat the alarm by a minute, and you turn it off.  You lay back and enjoy yourself for a moment before you dreadfully have to get up and wake a peaceful Lin. “Morning, Lin. Wake up” you whisper as you gently shake her, causing her to stir in her sleep but tightens her grasp on you. “Wake up, Linny” you stroke the small of her back. Lin opens her eyes and lifts her head looking at you as she points a finger at you, “don’t call me that”. Your lips curl up in a faint smirk “it got you to wake up though” you lean in and giving her a kiss on her lips, causing a groan, her lips feeling sore, she gives you an eyeroll from her as she pushes herself off of you and stretches as she sits up. You sit up and stretch your arms above your head then get out of bed, “want to shower first” you yawn as you ruffle your hair then grab a towel for her setting it on the bed. “I’m going to make some tea” you head out the bedroom. Lin heads into the shower while you clean up the mess from last night and prepped some tea for Lin letting it steep so once she gets out it’ll be ready. After she gets done in the shower you go in after and quickly wash yourself and get ready for work. You’re almost done as you walk out the bedroom putting your Lieutenant jacket you watch Lin drinking her morning tea. “how’s the tea?” you smile as you start buttoning the jacket up while you look at her “it’s good, the elder that taught you would be satisfied” you smirk as you finish then fix your collar, “that’s quite the compliment,” you laugh softly as you grab your mug and drink your tea. You enjoy the morning with Lin as you sip on tea and some sweetbread.

You’re walking out to the garage and open the door “I can give you a ride to work unless you want me to drop you off to your car” you turn to her she thinks about it “Just take me to my car”. You nod as you grab a helmet for her and you’re about to start the bike before you stop and look at Lin. “Before we go outside this space, I get you want to keep this a secret and I’m completely fine with it. But I insist you be woman enough to take me. I won’t have you making light of my feelings or making light of yourself—as if you’re not worthy of them. Because you are worthy, Lin. You’re a generous, good-hearted person, and you deserve to be loved. Deeply, truly, well, and often.” You take her hand and pull her close to you before giving her a soft kiss. Lin kisses you back and presses her hand on your chest as she steps back bringing her thumb up and wiping the corner of your mouth “You’re not going to be this mushy all the time right?” you laugh as you give her the helmet and tilt your head for her to get on the bike, “only when it’s necessary” you respond back as you put on your helmet then start the bike and drop Lin off at her place before going to work.

*

“TR 1,2, and 3 confirm your locations, over.” you radio quietly as you look out towards the truck waiting for everyone to confirm their spots. “you’re sure tonight is the night?” Lin looks over to you while you’re squinting your eyes looking out at the darkness a faint light from the streetlights, “I’m positive, Chief”. Five minutes past by and you check the clock on the dash of the squad car, 10:25, you’re about to offer to do a quick sweep around the dock when 2 cars and a moving van pull up around a corner and everyone ducks down in the squad car. You slowly peer over the dash and watch Viper’s men pull up. Seven men step out of their vehicles, the other two in the van get out and walk to the back opening the door to bring out the crate. Viper and six are surrounding watching the two men bring down the crate. You and the squad watch this go on as you start to give the signal to the other unmark car to prepare to head out. The land team starts moving in stealthy, getting closer to the triad. “Shark-squid be at the ready, over” you radio the water team handing the portable radio to an officer, then look at your team then at Lin giving them a nod. “everyone ready” the officers get into their stances “on my signal” you order before you stand and start walking to the back of one of the cars. You peer over readying your cables before giving Lin the signal, a tap on the left side of your temple then pointing forward with two fingers. The squad move in as you walk up to the triad “RCPD! we have you surrounded. Don’t make this worse than it has to be.” You stand in your fighting stance looking around for any sudden movements as the men look. A waterbender makes the first move sending a stream of water bullets your way. You kneel down quickly sending out your cables wrapping around an earth and firebender, pulling them back and slam them to the ground, wrapping them with a piece of your cables before climbing on the car and rushing into the scene. You hear the commotion from the triad as they scurry around trying to get away and fight the police. Fire benders and water benders putting up a big fight, you dodge attacks coming from your right. You side flip but then a large amount of water comes to your left side and knocks you down a couple feet back, your back hitting the front bumper of one of the triad’s car.  

           You groan as you rub the back of your head, but you quickly get up and draw out your blades from your armored sleeves. A waterbender comes rushing you sending shards of ice towards you which you cut through with your blades then you draw them back in once you’re close enough and go into some hand to hand combat with the bender. The fight in a fast pace, trying to fight off every wave they send, you find an opening and sweep kick the waterbender out then block his water punches. You bend your cables around his wrist and slide him across the dock and metalbend the bumper of a car around the guy’s waist. You look over and watch Lin and your team of officers take out the remaining men. You and Lin walk over to the shipment while your officers arrest the gang members. You open the crates with your cables to reveal the gloves as well as another crate that was packed with electric batons the chi-blockers used.  “Nice job, Lieutenant” Lin smirks as she crosses her arms “All in a day’s work, Chief” you smirk back.

           As you make your arrests there are reporters there to take pictures and get any comments from the scene. Lin handled the reporters while you help your men put the perps into the squad cars, “reporters are the worst. Why can’t they let us just do our jobs” you mutter as you glare at the paps. You send your officers off to get the perps to booking while you walk back to your squad car when there’s a call coming in “Come in CB-01, do you copy.” You grab the receiver and answer “10-9” you wait for the station to relay the message again “Can CB-99 code 13 a meet” you listen and look over at Lin who is busy at the moment “uh, negative, CB-99 is code six with paps at the corner of 38 and Zen, over” you let go of the button and listen for a response “Darn paps, when CB-99 is done have them report back to the hole, over.” You smirk “copy, 10-4” you finish the call as Lin is walking back and gets into the car. “Darn reporters are the worse” Lin mutters as you start the car you let out a laugh “tell me about it, by the way you’re needed at the station. Apparently President Raiko is there so it can’t be good.” You report to her as you drive back to the station while Lin groans in response “it’s never good with Raiko…”

*

“what do you mean there’s a war starting?” Lin asks President Raiko in her office with Saikhan and you in assistance. “The Southerners are forming a rebellion against the Northern water tribe. Tensions between Southern and Northern Water Tribe people are rising ever since the assassination attempt on Southern Water Chief by the Southern rebels which was conspired by Avatar Korra’s parents.”

Raiko explains then sighs deeply

“now the Southern Water Tribe citizens here in Republic City are going to form a peaceful tribe march tomorrow night. I need every officer there to make sure this doesn’t become another fire into this war. I will not allow Republic City to go down, we are coming to some progress since the Equalist Revolution. I assure you can handle this Chief Beifong” President Raiko looks at her which she keeps her cool stature “Of course, President Raiko. I’ll have the very best there.”  

“I hope so” Raiko responded back then looks over at Saikhan acknowledging him then he cocks his head over to you with a confused face “you, never met you” you extend your hand to the president “Lieutenant y/n, Mr. President” you greet yourself to him he gives you a surprising nod “ah yes, I’ve heard good things about you. Rose the ranks quicker than most rookies.” He took your hand and shook it firmly when you returned. Your lips curl up in a smirk “thank you sir, I take my work very seriously. All to keep Republic City safe.” You let go of his hand and stand at attention “That’s what I strive for. Glad to have you on board.” He looks at you then turns out to leave the office before he stops and turns back around to look at Lin, “oh Chief Beifong, I have word that Avatar Korra is already on route back to Republic City. If you can brief her on the situation that she caused.” He groans out before leaving out the office and heads out the station. You look over at Lin and Saikhan before excusing yourself to leave them to their own meeting about the march and the current situation in the city. You head to your office and get your things locking it afterwards before heading home. What the hell did you do Korra.

[ghostboybabies]

little ghost boy || [JATP Agere/CGLRE]- “Hide and Seek” (Chapter 4)

Luke had been searching for Reggie for at least ten minutes.

He knew that was the whole point of hide and seek, but it genuinely scared him when he couldn't find him! And Reggie was pretty good at curling up in small spaces and hiding away.

"Baby?" He called out.

He walked by Julie's room, pausing. "You're not supposed to be in there..." he paused, taking a breath before deciding to check anyways.

Of course, he found Reggie sitting on Julie's bed. "Buddy, you know Julie would kill you if she was the one to find you in here, right?" he gave him a 'you should know better' look, approaching him and sitting next to him on the bed.

"But you find me! Just hiding..." he said innocently.

"Yeah, but this room is off limits, okay?"

Reggie regressed quite a bit now that Luke had offered to take care of him. They'd usually go hang out in some empty place and play games until Reggie was big again or got sleepy. Luke stopped trying to push Reggie to tell the others because he knew it wasn't doing anything but upsetting him. When Reggie was ready, he'd help him do it.

But for now, he'd help him keep him secret. As long as he could, anyways.

Reggie pouted nodding. "Sorry." he mumbled.

"You're okay, rockstar. Julie's not home right now so you weren't hurting anything, but if she was she would've been pretty upset."

Luke knew it would've been a disaster if she caught Reggie in her room, especially while he was regressed. While he didn't like yelling in general, yelling at him would probably result in tears and anxiety.

"Mad at me?" The regressor looked down, hugging himself a bit.

"But she's not home! So no one is mad at you!" he assured, quickly shifting the conversation once he realized what he insinuated. Reggie looked up, humming.

"Mkay. No coming in here." he said aloud, as if reminding himself.

"That's right, baby. Let's go play another round, okay?"

Reggie didn't get the chance to respond, because they heard the front door open, and quick footsteps up the stairs. Reggie took Luke's hand quickly, whimpering. Luke was shocked by two things.  First of all, Julie was gonna see Reggie regressed for the first time. And also, how did Julie get up the stairs so fast?

He didn't even process what was happening, and it was to late to poof them out by the time he did.

"Why are you in my room?" she opened her door, her eyes immediately falling on the two boys hold hands on her bed. She looked around behind her, before entering the room fully and shutting the door behind her. She let her bag slide off of her arms and drop by the door, crossing her arms and looking between the two boys for an explanation.

"Julie! Hi...I thought you were going to Flynn's house after school?" Luke asked, trying to redirect the conversation. He squeezed Reggie's hand in reassurance, because the poor boy currently looked so scared.

"She had a thing," she corrected. "Why are you in here? I told you, it's off limits unless I let you in here." Luke's redirection only lasted a few seconds. Reggie stayed quiet, wanting to hide away. It was so hard to repress regression when he had already slipped.

"Sorry, Jules. We were doing something and I came in here..." Reggie had a hard time keeping his voice level, and "big", but he tried his best. "Luke already told me that I shouldn't have and we were gonna leave!" he explained, quickly. He looked down again, pulling his hand away from Luke's.

Luke seemed concerned. Reggie told him that repressing regression wasn't good for him and he hated to see him feel like he had to do that.

"What were you doing though? What reason is there to come in here?" she asked. Reggie started to close in on himself, casting his eyes down. In the eyes of five year old him, she was gonna start yelling any minute now.

He did something bad and now she was mad at him. "I'm sorry!" he said, his voice falling into that babyish pitch before he could stop himself. He shut his mouth quickly, looking around him to see Luke's face of pity, and Julie's face of confusion.

He needed to get out of there.

So he did. He simply teleported to the studio, which was a lot more difficult when he was mentally a child.

--

"What happened? Did I make him cry?" Julie was the first to speak once Reggie disappeared. Now she felt bad. She didn't even yell, and yet, she scared him. She didn't really understand what she had done to upset him, or that he was currently more sensitive then he'd usually be.

"Um..okay. Sit down, I guess I should try and explain."

"Yeah, you should," she nodded, coming to sit next to him.

"He can tell you more later, because I want to go make sure he's okay...but he does this thing called age regression. He's like, mentally a little kid for a little bit, a-and I kinda take care of him?"

Her face softened. "Oh! I've heard of that. I-i didn't know-"

"It's okay! He's just a lot more sensitive when he's like this and any sign of someone being upset with him makes him feel bad. He apologizes for everything. So I'm kinda really soft of him, and if you're going to interact with him while he's little, then you should too." he explained.

Julie nodded. "Oh, I'm sorry. Is he just afraid that I'm mad at him?" she questioned.

"Basically, yeah. He's also kinda scared that someones gonna yell at him, his parents used to when he did something 'wrong'. It'd probably help a lot if you told him yourself that you're not mad, he already felt bad about coming in here."

Julie nodded again, "Of course." she said softly. "What were you two doing though?"

Luke's face went pink. "Well- he likes playing games and stuff and we were playing hide and seek!"

"Awe, you play with him?" Julie asked, speaking in a teasing tone. Luke rolled his eyes.

"Of course, he's a toddler!" he defended.

"Still, it's sweet that you care about him." she smiled at him. She held her hand out. "Lead the way?"

Luke smiled, taking her hand and pulling her along.

--

Reggie sat in the loft, legs pulled up to his chest. He curled up, rocking back and forth slowly in an attempt to calm himself down. There was a small part of his brain telling him that crying over this was stupid.

But he felt bad. And scared.

If Julie found him, she was gonna be mad! She was gonna yell and tell him that he's stupid and-

"Baby? Are you in here?" his thoughts were interrupted by his friends voice. He let himself take a deep breath, feeling a little safer in his presence. That relief went away when he realized that there were two pairs of feet walking around the studio.

"He's up there," Luke whispered to Julie, pointing up the the loft. "I'll go first." he said.

Julie nodded. "Awe, rockstar. Come here," Luke spoke in a soft, comforting voice once he was up there, coming to sit in front of him. He opened his arms. Reggie hesitantly uncurled himself, falling into Luke's embrace. Luke wrapped his arms around him, squeezing him tightly.

"You're okay," he whispered, rubbing his back again. He pulled away after a few moments. "No one is mad at you, baby. I talked to Julie, everything's okay." he assured.

Reggie bit on his lip, seemingly confused. "I told her about the whole littlespace thing, she's cool with it. Like I said she would be. And she's not mad at you, she isn't gonna yell."

"Weally?" Reggie sniffled a bit, looking up at him nervously.

"Why don't you ask her?" he turned to look back at the girl in question, who stood at the top of the ladder. He made a motion with his head and she climbed into the loft completely, coming forward to sit next to Luke.

She had so many questions about all of this. But right now, all she knew was that she had upset her friend.

And she really, really wanted to fix it.

Reggie looked at her nervously, biting on his thumbnail and waiting for her to talk. "I'm not upset with you. Next time, just ask before going in my room, okay?" she spoke softly, not quite knowing how to deal with him as a kid.

Reggie nodded. "I'm sorry I went in there! I-i was hidin' and I didn' mean to break a rule, I pwomise!" he pouted, speaking in a tone he hoped would convince her.

She smiled a bit, "I'm sure you didn't. Just keep that in mind for next time and everything's good, okay?"

Reggie nodded quickly, agreeing to those terms. Luke seemed pretty happy watching their reaction. The girl he liked was good with this "weird" part of his friend. He was glad that he didn't have to deal with someone being judgmental.

"Hug?" she asked, holding out her arms.

Reggie seemed hesitant, like she was going to revoke the offer. When she didn't, he rushed into her arms, cuddling into her chest. "Cuddles!" he giggled. Julie couldn't help but smile at that.

"He really likes affection," Luke told Julie. "Don't ya', bud?" he spoke to Reggie, who was still hugging Julie. He nodded, hugging Julie just a bit tighter.

"I can tell," she chuckled, not letting go of the baby in her arms. He wasn't technically a baby, but Julie figured that he was as fragile as one. "Why don't we watch a movie or something? You can pick which one we watch!" she spoke in an excited voice, finally pulling away from the hug after a bit.

"Watch um..." Reggie paused, looking at Luke for help. He was pouting, due to the fact that he didn't remember what the movie he had in mind was called. "Pretty princess!" he exclaimed, seemingly frustrated.

Luke laughed. "Pretty dress or pretty hair?" he asked.

"Pretty hair." he whined, with his arms crossed, and a pout on his face.

"He wants to watch Tangled." Luke told Julie.

"Oh! Yeah, dat one!" Reggie confirmed. He giggled a bit.

"Sounds like a plan. I'll go grab my laptop and some blankets, okay?" she looked to Luke, who nodded.

"We'll be in here."

Reggie would have a conversation with Julie about his regression, just as he had with Luke. He wasn't planning on telling Julie, but just like Luke, she reacted well and did what she could to help even if she didn't completely understand what was happening. Maybe, just maybe, Reggie would get the courage to talk to Alex about this soon.

That way, he could be open about this part of him completely. But first, his bandmates needed to know. They were the people he was closest to in his afterlife, and once he told them, he'd be able to regress fairly openly.

As of today, two out of the three knew.  Only one more person to tell. One more anxiety-inducing conversation to have. One more confession.

Two down, one to go.

--

A/N: okay so I'm trying not to make this story go by to quick, I promise! There's a insinuated time skip between Luke first finding out and Julie finding out, I just didn't write a lot of the inbetween stuff. anyways, do you guys like how I'm developing Luke and Reggie's CGLRE dynamic? or, do you have any other feedback to give? please leave a comment!

[shirtlesssammy]

15x07: Last Call

Then:

In case you forgot, Dean and Cas are  f i g h t i n g. 

Now:

Texhoma, Texas

It’s bar time at a lonely little dive bar and two friends are stumbling to their car. Well, one is helping the other. Sally needs to vomit and runs to the bushes. Her friend, Angela, gets in the car instead of holding her hair back. I’m side eyeing your level of friendship here, ladies. Sally turns around from her puke-athon to find Angela and car gone. 

Cut to Angela tied to a chair in a basement. There’s a line slowly draining blood from her arm --and a monster feeding on it behind a door!

At the bunker, Dean continues his nihilistic spiral by drinking all the beer in his room and surfing the internet for cases. He finds one!

Cut to Dean wandering into the kitchen where a very cozy Sam and Eileen are making all the breakfasts. 

Dean knows when he’s a third wheel and decides to check out the case on his own. Sam and Eileen are living their best lives. He doesn’t want to get in the way.

Dean arrives at the Texhoma sheriff’s office and meets Sheriff Dillon. He asks about the disappearance of Angela. The sheriff isn’t convinced she’s gone. Her car went with her. He suggests that maybe she ran away to LA. Kids do that. They usually return within the week. He boasts that he stayed for a month. 

Ok, I can’t recap this with a straight (*wink*) face anymore. WHAT THE WHAT was happening here? There is SO much staring and awkwardness. I loved it but also wanted to hide under a rock. 

In any event, the sheriff admits that Angela’s friend has issues that usually keeps her at Swayze’s Bar 24/7. Before Dean can head out though, the sheriff tells Dean that he could go to LA and look for Angela. He could give showbiz a try himself. Cue camera zoom and, “You’ve got the look.” 

Dean    is    confused. 

That night Dean arrives at Swayze’s Bar. Dancing, drinking, and live music greet him. Also, a flirty waitress asks for his phone. This is a No Phones Allowed bar (guns are ok #AmericaYouAreTheWorst  -and what’s even worse? As an American, I didn’t think twice about this line until international fans vomited on Twitter. Sigh.) Dean, who’s currently on a case, just drops it in the basket. I guess he won’t be calling Sam if he needs anything. He asks about the friend, Sally. The waitress, Lorna, hasn’t seen her yet. She does slap Dean’s ass as she walks away though. Sigh. <Insert discourse on all the times Dean’s been sexually assaulted and harassed throughout the years.> He turns around to watch the waitress walk away when he notices the lead singer of the band. 

“Lee Webb.”

They’re old friends and ecstatic to see each other. Lee owns the bar. I wonder if they watched Swayze movies together in their youth?

Back at the bunker, things are snoozeville in Research Land. Eileen suggests they stop to do something fun. ooooOOOOOooooo. Sultry looks and awkward glances ensue. Sam takes her hand, she looks expectantly towards him, he leans forward, and...CAS INTERRUPTS! Bless the angel and his timing. Sam deserves it after 12 years of doing it to Cas and Dean. Cas and Eileen meet. Yay! 

*Classic SPN Dialog Alert*

Cas: I thought your were…

Eileen: Dead? Yeah, I got...better. 

Then Cas asks the important question in life: “Where’s Dean?” Lol, you two are divorced, remember? Anyway, Cas comes with ideas. He thinks that Sam and God are connected through their wound. 

At the bar, Dean tells Lee that John died 13 years ago. Damn, when you put it like that, it’s overwhelming to think about how much of their lives we’ve watched. Lee’s sorry to hear it. They toast to his memory. They talk about the last time they saw each other. (A cult thing in Arizona.) Lee did one more case and hung up his hunter spurs. Dean asks if he regrets walking away. Nope. 

At the bunker, Cas is going to probe Sam. Well, his wound really. Cas does his angel magic and that leads to Sam getting tossed against the wall. Ooops. 

Cas calls and leaves a message with Dean (on all his many, many phones it seems.) Cas growling directly into the phone is all kinds of wonderful. 

Dean’s busy reminiscing about orgies Lee and him had with triples. Yeah, they split triplets up “fair and square.” Um? <Insert lady doing complicated math gif here>

Cut to Sergei. Remember him? He sold Cas “archangel” grace back in the day. Cas needs his help. Cas goes all BAMF on him and we collectively swoon. Cas also makes another phone call. 

For Hand Porn Science:

At the bar, Dean tells Lee all about Ghost Sickness (ah, that very funny episode, until it wasn’t. Andrew Dabb’s first episode. Lilith makes an appearance.) Lee asks about his current case. Dean shows him a picture of Angela. Lorna sees it and is surprised Lee doesn’t recognize her. She’s in the bar all the time. WHERPS. Someone’s a lying liar. Anyway, the conversation moves on and Lee tells Dean he could have this life. (*crying Rocky’s Bar noise*) Dean wants to know who’ll kill the bad guys? “You deserve a break, bro.” Ok, fair. 

Lee then gets the band to play “Good Ol’ Boys” AND convinces Dean to join him on stage. Dean takes another shot and joins his friend. Dean’s on stage, but HE IS FREAKED OUT. Poor boy. He starts singing though. 

And he can sing?? Ok. I will accept. Because I have to. Why would he pretend to not be able to sing for all these years? I mean, I guess, why does Dean pretend to be something he’s not is the main question we have about this poor soul in general. 

A fight breaks out in the back - Blondie’s getting harassed. “Road house rules?” Dean asks, invoking our lord and savior, Swayze. Hell yeah. Dean and Lee make quick work of the bullies and Dean discovers that Blondie’s actually Sally Anderson, the best friend of the girl who disappeared. 

Cas lets Sergei into the bunker. Sergei is positively ENAMORED by the bunker and all the delightful treasures within. Cool your jets, man! “You’re here for a reason,” Cas growls. 

“Aren’t we all?” Sergei replies, and my eyebrows go WAY UP high in the air because that is some straight up authorial intent nonsense. They head in to the infirmary and Sergei uses a crystal to scan Sam like it’s a medical tricorder. Sam’s dying, according to Sergei. 

Sally spills the details, including the disappearance of the car. “You can’t rapture a car,” Lee protests. 

“It was a good car,” Sally tells him and I am definitely not now thinking about the Impala getting sucked up to her eternal rest in Heaven. Nope. Not thinking about that at all. 

Instead of Heaven, Lee suggests that the car may have gotten dumped in the lake. Lorna, who is probably a TRUE CRIME enthusiast, suggests the scrapyard, though. Dean marks that as his first stop. 

Sergei delivers some truth about Sam’s wound. It’s a soul-deep wound and connects his soul to something that wanders the world. When Castiel probed it, Sam’s soul was squeezed out of his body. Please be like me, and envision Sam’s soul as the toothpaste in a half used toothpaste tube squeezed by Castiel’s fist. If Sam’s soul wanders too far, he dies. Or, as in my analogy, the toothpaste tube of the soul explodes. Soul toothpaste everywhere!

In the junkyard, Dean discovers the victim’s car and more appallingly, her body hidden in the trunk. A gun is cocked behind him. It’s Lee! He knocks Dean out cold. 

Sergei smears a potion on Sam’s wound. Sam begins to thrash violently while Sergei chortles to Cas about deliberately hastening his death with his “cure.” Wherps. Shockingly, trusting the villain who cheerfully harmed Jack has backfired! Sam flashes on Chuck’s conversation with Amara - particularly on all the bits where they discuss Chuck’s current weakened state. While Sam flashes, Eileen drives Sergei into the wall and chokes off his airway. FANS SELF. 

Sergei demands the “Key to Death” in exchange for saving Sam’s life. It’s a key with a skeleton handle which can open the door to Death’s library. OKAY GUYS THIS IS NOT A DRILL I am very excited! First: a trip to the library! Second: it’s a SKELETON key, pardon me while I savor this pun with all I’m worth. Please, please can we visit Billie with a magic key? PLEASE????

Um. Anyway. Castiel isn’t taking any of Sergei’s bullshit. He pulls out his phone and shows a photo of Sergei’s niece, under surveillance by Bobby. At Castiel’s order, Bobby will kill her. This takes all the wind out of Sergei’s sails. 

Cut to Sergei chanting over Sam just before Sam wakes up, mostly intact. “We good?” Sergei asks. Sure! BFFs. 

Dean wakes up tied to a chair in a basement with an IV in his arm. “You awake, Buddy?” Lee asks, and isn’t that just an improper endearment to use at this time? Lee heads downstairs to deliver his villain monologue to Dean’s face. No sense in killing him while Dean was knocked out, right?!

Lee reveals that he had a very bad hunt that caused him to despair ever winning against the evil in the world. When he did his last hunt in this town, he found the monster who is now locked up in the cage in the bar’s basement. “As long as you feed it, it gives you money. It gives you health. It gives you anything you dreamed of.” Lee feels that the world owes him for his many monster kills from his younger days. The world isn’t divided into good or bad, nor does it care for anybody’s moral high ground. “But I do,” Dean says, and it’s like a rallying cry for our poor hot-dog-pantsed hero.

Lee releases the blood and it begins to travel up towards the monster’s cage. “Dean Winchester, the righter of wrongs. You’re gonna keep digging. You’re gonna figure me out.” Lee pats him on the shoulder one more time, bro-like, and heads up the stairs again. 

Dean sizes up the situation, rocks the chair and shatters it on the floor like he’s made out of granite, and pulls out the needle. It’s monster fightin’ time! 

Upstairs, Lee hears the commotion. It’s basically a lot of loud snarling and banging. Just a typical Friday night for Dean Winchester, amirite? Footsteps climb the stairs…and the monster’s head is thrown through the doorway.

They engage in a good ol’ fashioned shootout before confronting each other face-to-face. “I am you,” Lee tells Dean. But he’s a version that realized the world was broken and bought into it. 

“Then you fix it,” Dean insists. “You don’t walk away. You fight for it.” And, as it turns out, they fight for justice, I guess. They fight and Dean skewers Lee with a broken pool cue. 

“I’m glad it was you,” Lee says about his death which is twenty flavors of fucked up. Look, I know there’s all this meta about how this is Dean’s unrealistic fantasy and it shows him his true calling isn’t tending bar. That is all ABSOLUTELY accurate. But GUYS this also reads like another lesson from Chuck to poke Dean back into hunting and eventual fratricide again. Hot dog pants don’t kill people (EVEN THOUGH they straight up murdered fandom a few weeks ago). What parts of these episodes are meant to be Chuck and what are meant to be “free will”? I have no idea and I’ve never been more in love with this show!

!!!

Um. Anyway. 

Dean returns to the bunker. Castiel, just striding innocently through the war room, is ASSAULTED by Dean’s surprise presence. “Dean,” he says, so very softly. GAAAAAH. 

Dean asks after Sam. Castiel delivers the good news and can NOT maintain eye contact. WHEN WILL MY SUFFERING END? Castiel strides away and Dean follows him to check on Sam. 

Sam, bless this poor clueless bean, is ecstatic with his new knowledge from his near-death visions. He realizes he saw Chuck’s memories, and knows he is weak now. Sam’s ready to take the Team Free Will monster truck and just rollllll it right over Chuck. Easy peasy! 

________________________________

Gimme a Bro-Quote, Bro:

Duke? Like put up your dukes?!

I need a break and so do you. Why don’t we do something fun?

Livin’ the dream!

Can’t just keep lip syncing Eye of the Tiger while no one’s watching

You can’t rapture a car

Best friends don’t just leave without saying goodbye

I like this you, Castiel. It’s very…Russian

Good or bad. The world doesn’t care. No one cares, Dean.

________________________________

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[ray-the-fanatic]

His Home

Gravesbeaks family, Hurt/comfort fluff prompt. One shot

Ao3 link 

(last one short for bit now that im working on multiple chapter stories.)

Just a some moment dealing with this awakard family figuering things out. 

Everything was dark from under marks hands as he used them to keep Boyd’s eyes covered. While Mark ushered him quickly, Boyd could really only feel the carpet under his feet as they awkwardly waddled across it. There were at least, from what Boyd could think up five better ways to go about this. Another part of him, however, thought this was more fun. It was pretty normal for him to feel pulled by two different lines of thought process like that. Maybe cause Mark programmed more kid like thoughts? Or whoever made the original software did.   

“Alright Little buddy ready, to have your circuits blown? Not really though.” Mark said as he moved his hands away from Boyd’s eyes.

Boyd took a moment to adjust to the light, as his eyes set on said surprise. A bedroom just for him, well almost it was more a mix of a playground as well. Boyd walked in further looking over everything before him. The room was full of colorful tubes that were scattered all over the place. That you could climb through with exit and entrance points found in different places of the room. A few of the exits being slides that drop at different heights. Rock climbing walls and foam pits to fall into under them. A built-in playhouse building that functioned as a bed on the bottom. Covered in Boyd quickly counted, ten, colorful pillows. The top of it was set up as a small reading area. From where he stood Boyd could make out shelves with a few books on them. There were cut-outs on the floor for trampolines. Likely just like at Waddle each for different impacts of bouncing. There was also a small desk almost resembling the deck of a skateboard. The desk having a computer set up on it. Boyd ran over to it to check it out, able to tell it wasn’t from any store in town. The room was amazing he thought full of excitement just wanting to explore every inch of it now.

“So?” Mark said as he walked over to Boyd “Like it?” 

“Very much Dad, it’s” He paused to think a moment “Lit?” 

Mark smiled brightly and took a picture of Boyd standing in the room quickly as he started writing an update to go with it. 

“Best room ever.” He said out loud as he typed then watched the screen for a few seconds before excitedly chirping out “ooo look at all those likes, it's blowing up.” Mark held his hands up in the shape of a gun and playfully gestured like he was shooting real ones in the air “pew, pew, pew.” 

Boyd did the same and moved in sync with Mark “pew, pew, pew.”

The action caught Mark’s attention right away as he couldn’t help but smile. He placed his hand on top of Boyd's head gently ruffling his head feathers. Boyd happily moved into Mark's palm as he hummed happily enjoying the affirmation from his creator, Dad he meant. One thing Boyd knew well at this point was he often got rewarded for mimicking his Dad or going along with his antics. Maybe it was deceitful, another side of Boyd thought it was like he exploited that fact. He decided not to dwell on that thought thankful to hear Mark speak up.   

“Glad that didn’t get lost during your little meltdown at that brats party.”

 Mark pulled his hand away slowly as he could hear footsteps behind him. His smile growing brighter when turning to see the man he called Falcon. Though when Boyd looked his inner files they told him he was farther.  Who seemed shocked by the room as he looked around curiously. Boyd’s own smile growing when seeing him, he was very fascinated with Falcon since he didn’t see him often. His height alone was enough to pull his attention since he towered over the small android, no boy. He was quiet and calm most of the time and spoke in a stern English tone. His eyes always having that pricing gaze of a predatory bird. To Boyd he was the definition of fierce nothing shook him, well one thing seemed to faze him and make him break that facade.

“Hello Father!” Boyd sprouted out suddenly as he made his way over to him having to stare up at the raptor. 

“Y yes uh hello to you as well” Falcon seemed to tense up slightly by that sudden greeting from the boy.

For whatever reason he seemed to be easily thrown off by Boyd, he would freeze up and lost his usual air whenever Boyd got near him. Like he was now so Boyd took a few steps back which was for the best most likely. Boyd tried to keep his smile though to act as if he didn’t notice.   

"Hey kiddo why don't you play around in here for now and get settled in." Mark said as he began to push Falcon out of the room able to feel the tension growing in the air. “Were just going to head downstairs for a bit boring stuff, unlike your super cool room.” He added on as he pulled the door to Boyd’s room closed behind them. 

Boyd knew it wasn't right but at the same time, he couldn't help it. Quickly running over to the heavy door able to faintly hear their voices from the other side. But, he couldn't really make out what they were saying too well. Luckily being an android came with advantages. Taking a moment to raise up his frequency until he could clearly hear Mark's voice from the other side. 

“Does it bother you when he calls you that? I just thought it would be nice so I programmed it in.”

Boyd hadn’t been living with them for long, it had only been a few days since that party. Everyone was still adjusting to this change but Falcon seemed to need the most time for the adjustment. He always reacted the same way whenever Boyd called out to him. Mark made sure to reassure him or would intervene whenever it happened.

“Falcon.” Mark said his voice in a tone Boyd never realized it could reach. It was followed by a sigh from the larger bird. 

“I’m not sure. I guess I didn’t think much about it at first when you decided to turn your new project into a means of increasing likes for your social media, so you could go to the child’s birthday party.” He paused “Which I still don’t fully understand why you went to that. When it was just one of your random whims I figured you get bored of the idea. But he’s not an idea he’s here?” Falcon phased like a question. 

“Well the little guy kind of grew on me and guess I got attached, I wasn’t really expecting this turn out myself. At first, the project was to make my own robot to be better than Gizmoduck so I could rub it in his face.” Mark said then trailed off for  a moment “The focus shifted a bit there and I don’t know the idea grew on me?” 

Boyd was listening to every word, it wasn’t like before he knew he wasn’t. Real. He was a robot, android, created by Mark. Kind of. Everything that made Boyd well Boyd was programmed, coded in. He looked down at his hands as he thought to himself. He felt something heavy inside sink into his deepest pits. It wasn’t an actual object but it made him. Feel? Feel bad. In his memory Dad and Farther, no. Mark and Falcon were his parents well they were meant to be. That wasn't real either though. That was the truth. No matter how much he didn’t like having that knowledge it conflicted with his files and it hurt when he looked into it too much. The last thing he wanted was a repeat of his malfunction. His mind was a blank and he had no control over what he was doing. No matter how hard he tried to take it back, he just couldn’t. It was still him doing that but he felt like he had been watching it. Boyd tightly closed his eyes, it was- he didn’t want to think about it. He took a moment to process and pushed those memories away, placing them as far back as he could in his memory as possible. So he wouldn’t have to be reminded of it again. 

Boyd moved away from the door and made his way to the bed, he let his face hit the soft mattress. Mark and Falcon seemed to have walked away since he couldn’t hear them in the hallway anymore. That was likely why Fath- Falcon, reacted as he did. The things Boyd could do set him apart too much. Making it apparent that he wasn’t a real kid, and maybe that was why he just couldn’t seem to connect with him ? It was easy with Mark. If he mimicked Mark, he would smile like he could burst from the pride alone. Being basically a walking breathing piece of tech probably didn’t hurt either. Mark liked the power technology offered so Boyd was just the perfect kid for him. 

“That’s it!” Boyd sprung up suddenly “I act like dad and that makes him happy so if I act like father too then that should work.!” He said to himself.

...

No less than a few hours had passed when Boyd saw his dad poke his head into the room. Boyd met his eyes and smiled like his usual self, taking note of the slight drop in Mark's shoulders as he seemed to let out a sigh of relief.

“Wanna come out of here for a bit?” Mark asked him “and maybe spend some time with us?” The added emphasis on ‘us’ was not lost to Boyd. 

“Yes, I would enjoy that.” 

Mark had to pause a moment, he was used to hearing an Engilsh accent now but not from Boyd who he was positive didn’t have that before. He looked down at the young android as he walked by him, arms kept at his sides walking with his back completely straight. A stance he was all too familiar with, didn’t take Mark long to figure out what he was doing. But, he just smiled and shrugged wanting to see where this goes.     

Boyd made his way to the living room where Falcon, back to his usual self, it seemed. Was sitting in his scarlet recliner buried beak deep into his current book. Boyd caught sight of it and quickly ran to the bookcase grabbing the first book he could. He went to run back when he caught his dad staring at him so he instead went back to his proper stance and walked to the couch. Only to scrambled quickly on to it as he climbed- up on the couch he got situated and cracked the book open to start reading. Mark looked over to Falcon who was unaware of everything. 

“So, kiddo anything you wanna do?” Mark asked as he walked up behind Falcon’s seat, resting an arm on the back of it purposely elbowing his boyfriend when he did so well speaking. 

Falcon looked up at Mark a bit annoyed only to get caught by the smile on his face. Mark then pointed over to the couch. Falcon’s eyes following as he looked over to Boyd mimicking Falcon’s usual reading position. 

“Reading is fine by me.” Boyd said again using the Engilsh accent once more. 

Mark covered his beak as he playfully nudged Falcon, who was more confused instead of delighted by the situation. Falcon closed his book and tentatively placed it on his lap able to see Boyd copy his actions from the corner of his eye. A quick look over to Mark, seeing the smug smile he had made it clear he wasn’t going to help. Falcon just sighed, part of him almost laughed though. It reminded him of all the times Mark had put on his god awful attempt at the accent himself. He looked back to Boyd who seemed to be staring in anticipation at him. Falcon’s tension built up a bit.

“Um, Boyd are you sure that book is a good pick for you?” Was all Falcon could think to ask since he couldn’t make eye contact with him and instead looked to the cover of the book to see the title. “I don’t think 'The Grapes of  Wrath' is right at your age.”

“Oh it’s fine, my reading level is above average!” Boyd responded with forgetting the accent as he excitedly spoke. Only to quickly shift back into his act when he realized it. “I do enjoy reading a lot. Reading is an essential skill to have after all.”

Falcon smiled a bit not having spent much time with Boyd so it was the first time he saw him perk with such enthusiasm. Displaying such a kid like enjoyment for the task and the act was starting to grow on him, maybe that was why Mark enjoyed it so much.

 "Well being able to read it is one thing, that book may be out your understanding." 

“Dad made sure my artificial intelligence can grow naturally so the more I do something I just advance along with it. I like to read so I can grasp the more complex topics on somethings” Boyd looked down annoyed suddenly. That was the second, no third time already he broke character. He sighed and turned his head to the side looking away from Mark and Falcon as he pressed himself up into the couch cushions. 

This wasn’t working, by now Mark would be bursting with joy and giving him a pat on the head. Falcon was more a challenge with this game. Though it made sense he was so close off, Boyd had seen him at times drop it when he looked at Mark. With a softer smile and sometimes a playful tone when speaking to him. Cause he cared about Mark. They had a love for the other, Boyd pushed himself deeper into the couch. It felt nice at the moment, it gave him some comfort because suddenly he just felt so alone. Boyd wanted to just escape into the comfort the couch had to offer because it didn’t make him question his place. In truth all Boyd wanted was to just feel he belonged here.

“Hey Kiddo you okay over there?” Mark asked, snapping Boyd out of his thoughts. 

Boyd opened his eyes but didn’t move from his hiding place, he seemed to have wedge himself between two of the cushions squeezing tightly in the small gap they offered him. 

No, I’m not okay

 He thought to himself something wasn’t right with him, he couldn't shake the, feelings? Thoughts that kept fogging up his mind. That same sensation from before like something was sinking inside him. Almost  like he was being weighed down by it. He squeezed his eyes shut, hoping to force those thoughts from coming back again. He didn’t want to think about those thoughts he could maybe delete them? Make it like he never had them in the first place? That could work, then they wouldn’t be in the way he could just act like everything was normal. Like he was normal, just like before. 

Again his thoughts were interrupted, feeling the familiar sensation of a hand resting on his arm. At first he thought it was Mark but the size wasn’t right and the touch was more hesitant. Boyd lowered his head a bit to look. Surprised to see brown feathers instead of Marks grey ones. Continuing his gaze up to see Falcon standing over him, his expression something Boyd never thought he could make. Did he look worried? No that can’t be right.

“Are you okay?” Falcon said, his usual stern tone gone replaced by something more soft and genuine. Concern maybe? That alone made him crave in.

“No” He vocalized this time only to retreat back into his safe haven between the couch cushions. 

Falcon looked over to Mark who made his way over and sat on the other side of Boyd, laying up against the couch as he lightly poked at Boyd’s head. His own special approach to the situation. 

“What’s going on kid?” 

“I’m not!”

“Not what?” Mark asked “Gonna say? Talk? Not here? The last one won’t work cause we can see you clearly.” 

“Mark” Falcon said flatly to show that wasn’t helping, then turned his attention back to Boyd “You can tell us son” that tone aimed at him again. It didn’t bring comfort this time though it was more a reminder of what was bothering him so much right now.

“I’m not your son!” He let out and drew his knees to his chest curling up into the couch like a small ball, he didn’t want to see their faces after saying it. “I’m not even real, no matter how much I want to be I can’t be.” Everything he had been thinking for the past days coming all out. 

“What that's crazy, I built you to be my kid so obviously that's what you are.”

Boyd looked up at Mark his eyes fierce and burning red as the head inside them started to raise “I’m fake!” He yelled out in frustration making Mark grow silent at the reaction. 

“I know it, you know it farther knows it.” he tucked his face into his shoulder as his voice grew more quiet. His thoughts messy and all over the place but he couldn’t keep them from spilling out anymore. “I hate it. I want to act like I don’t know the truth but I do. I’m not your son I wish I could be but i’m not real. It’s all pretend.” 

“What? But you are real Boyd.” Falcon was the one to speak up 

“No I'm not that's why you get all weird with me. If I was real you could bond with me. Dad can but that's cause he made me and he likes when I copy him. That’s all I am”

Falcon awkwardly pulled his hand away then fidgeted with his cufflinks. He happened to catch Mark’s gaze who just slightly gestured to Boyd. A small sigh escaped his beak and he nodded to show he understood. Falcon placed his hand back on to Boyd’s shoulder. He was so small especially when curled up like this.

“Boyd?” He said and like always his voice got the small boy’s attention as he looked over his shoulder to him. “You are real to me  and that scares me.” 

It grew silent between the three of them as those words settled in the air. The reason Mark was aware of, the answer Boyd didn't have. The truth Falcon wasn't good about stating seeming to bring a clam over them all. 

“I scare you?”

Falcon nodded but smiled not helping clear Boyd’s confusion in the least when he did. It wasn’t often when Falcon displayed his awkward side but as he used his free hand to move around in the air. Almost as if it was physically trying to grab at the right words when he spoke. 

“I never thought I’d have a kid or family, your Dad’s whims are not in my control well really anyones. You just were an unexpected surprise. I probably should be used to all that now. “ He said tossing a look Mark’s way before he continued on “I’m just not sure what I'm doing.”

Boyd blinked absently as he took in those words. He slightly seemed to follow with what was said. Boyd could understand that though he too was unsure about the whole situation at times. Maybe he was also scared?  

“And for what it’s worth, you are able to think freely. I found a good AI to base yours off for that. I think it’s cute when you copy me even if you do it on purpose.” Mark added in himself “Yeah you weren’t planned to be as you are now but that doesn't mean anything really. Most of my plans don’t go as I think they will, doesn't mean I dislike the outcomes.” 

Boyd smiled slightly, it didn't really fix anything but it was nice. He moved out from the couch and looked at Falcon as he swept in and clung to his side,in a slightly awkward but loving hug. Falcon froze a moment but Boyd didn’t let go, his father was the one who needed the gesture. Slowly he felt Falcon arm wrap around him hugging him back. It took Mark a full half a second to intrude as he moved over.  Throwing an arm over Falcon as he took a selfie. 

“Family moments” He said out loud as he posted the picture. Boyd slightly laughing as Falcon groaned in annoyance. 

[observing-obliviousness]

All My Strength, For You

For Kaciart (https://kaciart.tumblr.com/post/623568650228596736). I am routinely inspired by your art to write these things. Some inspire more than others, and I may have an FFVII brewing in my mind from another recent pic. (Even though I know, like, nothing about it.) I love your work and am glad to be among the followers.

I know there isn’t much to go from, but I always imagine the training halls are at or below ground in this universe (the glaives’ areas obviously being an exception.) Here, it’s just below ground.

This is set the September before the events of the game. (Noct 20, Prom 19, Iggy 21, and Gladio 22)

Story under the cut. Also on ff.net

Prompto was somewhat enjoying his afternoon. Yeah, taking a few hits from Noctis wasn’t what most people call “fun”, but this was time he gets to spend with his friend.

He was still technically a recruit in the Crownsguard, but he had finished most of the basic training last month. Now it was just drilling those basics and building proficiency in his division, projectile weaponry. He thinks Noct was the one who pushed for him to get placement there, but he didn’t know for sure. He was shaping up to be as expert a marksman as Weskham Armaugh of his majesty’s retinue according to his instructors. He really hoped he was good enough to join Noctis’ retinue when he goes on his tour of Lucis.

A fist sailing closer to his face brought Prompto out of his thoughts and back to the moment. Right. Focus here, focus now, block the fist, kick the open side. He and Noctis were working on hand-to-hand combat in one of the Crownsguard’s satellite offices. And Noctis, of course, was winning more than losing.

“C’mon Prom, I know you can do better than that,” Noctis teased as he dodged the kick. Once upon a time, that would have hurt Prompto’s confidence.

Now it served to spur him on.

Prompto let out a short breath, readied his arms, and sprang at his friend.

BOOM

Everything seemed to slow as sudden tremors knocked the two of them off their feet.

Prompto noticed cracks forming in the wall as he fell. He managed to twist enough to cover Noctis when he landed. Noctis was dazed as he looked up at Prompto.

But he would not move until he was sure Noctis could get out safely, and he didn’t.

Not as another boom was heard through the ceiling.

Not as tremors rocked the area again.

Not as dust fell around them.

Not as he could hear the concrete cracking.

And certainly not as what felt like a ton of concrete landed on his back.

After an agonizing minute, Noctis’s eyes cleared.

“Astrals, Prom! -“

“You ok, buddy?” Prompto’s voice was breathy.

“Wha- Am I ok, are YOU ok?!” Noctis’s words got faster and faster the more he spoke, “Wait, no, stupid question. Of course, you’re not ok. A bunch of concrete just landed on top of you.”

Prompto’s weak smile turned into a grimace as some weight shifted. Rescuers were digging through the rubble or the debris was settling.

Noctis thought of how he could signal the rescuers when something wet landed on his face. He looked to Prompto and saw blood on what hair and clothes he could see.

“Noct,” Prompto breathed, his voice barely a whisper, “Get out of here. You can send someone for me when you climb out.”

“No Prom, I won’t leave you.”

“Please. Help can find me faster if you show then where I am.”

Noctis looked away with a frown, tears in his eyes. “Why do this?”

“Because you’re my friend. I’d give everything for you.”

Noctis could only stare in shock and wonder.

“So please.”

At that, Noctis’s face set in determination. “I will make sure they come back for you; I swear.”

Prompto gave a small nod. Noctis nodded back and wriggled out from underneath Prompto as quickly and gently as he could. He spotted a small opening up and to his right. With one last look at his friend, the Prince of Lucis began to climb.

Rescue teams and Crownsguard worked frantically to clear the rubble. According to the younger Lords Amicitia and Scientia, Prince Noctis was in the building when it collapsed. They set to work immediately after the bomb-induced tremors ceased. That was an hour ago.

The sky continued to darken slowly as crews worked to dig those trapped out. They had already pulled 15 other Crownsguard out with nearly 20 more still buried. They had a long night ahead of them.

The Prince’s shield and advisor rushed over to a commotion a little deeper in the hole. The crew there found another person. They worked quickly to uncover the person and found another Crownsguard. He was unconscious but alive. The young lords sighed to themselves and kept digging. They would not leave until his highness was safe.

Climbing through the rubble was hard. The spaces were incredibly cramped and there were a few places he just barely squeezed through. After what felt like hours, Noctis could just see some slivers of light. His climbing became more frantic but there were no spaces big enough to get through.

“Damn it!” He slammed his fist on the concrete right above him.

Noctis sighed and dropped his head. Can’t go any further until I’m unburied. He took another breath and slowly let it out. Looking up, he breathed in deep and shouted as loud as he could.

“HELP! SOMEONE! I’M DOWN HERE!”

Ignis wiped the sweat from his brow. He, Gladiolus, and the rest of the rescue crew have been digging people out of the rubble for over two hours now and there was still no sign of Noctis. He had hoped to find His Prince by now. Ignis knew that he and Prompto were in the training hall working on hand-to-hand, but he still held hope that Noctis and his friend were not too far down.

A faint noise froze Ignis in his movement.

“Iggy?” Gladiolus asked from his left.

“Shh, I thought I heard something.” Ignis motioned with his hand to still his fellow retainer.

They both stood in silence for a few moments before Ignis heard the sound again.

“Over there! A voice!” Ignis pointed in front of him before carefully running over. Gladiolus and a few others followed.

“HELLO! CAN YOU HEAR ME DOWN THERE?”

“……Iggy……Is that you?” The voice was soft through the rubble but definitely familiar.

“NOCT, IS THAT YOU?”

The crews in earshot gasped.

“…Yeah…I climbed as far as I could…but I’m stuck here.”

“DON’T WORRY. WE’LL GET YOU OUT.”

Gladiolus pushed away some concrete and motioned for the other crew to do the same. Ignis joined the effort. The digging was a little more rushed.

Noctis could hear the people moving above him. He doubted that Ignis heard him when he said that Prompto was further down, but he can tell his advisor when he’s a little closer. He could feel the dust fall on top of him as the light peeking through got stronger.

A crack above him suddenly flooded with light. He flinched a little but was able to wiggle his hand through.

Ignis looked for another piece of concrete he could lift when a slight movement caught his eye. A hand. He knelt by the hand only to find Noctis staring back at him through the crack.

“Noct,” Ignis breathed, “Are you alright?”

Noctis gave a slight cough. “I’m uninjured. But…Prom’s further down. He’s hurt, bad. He…he shielded me from the collapse. He told me to climb out and direct the crews to find him.”

“Alright, we’ll get you out then dig for Prompto.”

“Ok, but I’m not leaving until he’s out.”

Ignis nodded and stood back up. The crew had stopped while he and Noctis were speaking. A look got them moving again. A few more pieces of concrete moved out of the way and Gladiolus was able to pull Noctis from the rubble.

“Are you ok?” The shield rumbled.

“I’m fine, but Prom…”

“We’ll find him, Noct,” Ignis reassured, “Just tell us where to go.”

Prompto’s eyes drooped. He felt like he had been kneeling there for ages. The weight on his back became harder and harder to keep up with his shaking arms and legs. He knew he couldn’t let his arms buckle or lock, or he’d be looking death in the eye. His hands and knees dug into the concrete below him painfully. He wouldn’t be surprised to find them covered in blood by the time he got out.

He was also finding it hard to keep his eyes open. They drooped over and over again as his head fell forward. Sleep sounded so good. Maybe a short nap…

NO! Sleep means that the arms collapse and that means death. Do not fall asleep!

But keeping awake was hard.

Dust fell around him.

“You’re sure he’s around here?”

“I’m positive, Gladio.”

The crew with Ignis and Gladiolus followed Noctis’ directions and started digging where he indicated. They had been digging for nearly half an hour. Gladiolus had a few doubts about his Prince’s word. He raised an eyebrow.

“I’m sure. The spaces I could get through were always on my front right. I retraced my movements from where you pulled me out. We should be almost directly above him.”

Gladiolus sighed. “Ok. We’ll keep digging.”

Sleep was nearly impossible to fight off at this point. Yet Prompto remained awake. His head was about to drop again when something shifted. Somehow, the weight on him got lighter.

“What?” He murmured.

A beam of light cut through the dust almost right in front of him. Prompto stared at it for a while before putting two and two together. Rescue was close.

“Hello? Anyone up there?” he said as loud as he could.

The light cut off as feet suddenly appeared in front of him. Prompto looked as high as possible but couldn’t see the person’s face.

“Prompto?” he heard as the other knelt in front of him.

“Iggy?” Prompto’s voice wavered and wobbled like his arms.

“Yes. We’ve almost got you completely unburied. Just hold on a little longer.”

Ignis’ legs then feet disappeared as he climbed out of the hole. To help with getting me out, I guess? Prompto could feel the weight lessen as more time passed. He thought maybe another ten minutes after Ignis left, a different set of feet appeared. Arms then hooked underneath his shoulders and pulled him forward.

Prompto’s arms hung uselessly and his legs dragged through the dust as whoever removed him from the pocket put their arm under his and pulled him to their chest. Prompto looked up to see his rescuer was Gladiolus.

“Gladio…?”

“Shh, it’s ok. You’re almost free.”

“’m tired.”

“Then sleep. You’ve earned it.”

A week later saw Prompto still recovering in the hospital. The entirety of his back was shredded from the falling concrete. His hands and knees were in a similar state. He sustained a slight concussion from the falling concrete as well. The hospital staff refused to let him leave until his back was healed to the point where he could sleep on his back like normal and raise his arms without pain.

“You know you didn’t have to do that.”

“I know, Noct,” Prompto sighed. They had this conversation before. “I wanted to.”

“Still doesn’t mean you should.”

“And let you die? Not a chance in hell.”

Noctis fell silent at that. He couldn’t argue the point when he would do the same.

“Anything you want?”

“Can you tell me how the bombers are doing in the Marshall’s interrogations?”

Noctis gave his friend a mischievous smile at that.

King Regis ordered a thorough investigation immediately after word of the bombing reached him. He pushed Clarus Amicitia to head the investigation upon hearing that Noctis was also in the building upon its collapse.

Investigators found a group of protestors to be responsible for the bombing. Nearly everyone in the group were brought in for questioning. Marshall Leonis was conducting the interrogations himself. The protestors cracked right away and pointed to a specific person as the instigator. That person went missing from Insomnia the day after the attack.

“They cracked like eggs. Cor is also working on measures to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”

Prompto smiled and went to sleep.

Poor Prom ended up stuck there for about three hours. Noct took about an hour to get to the spot where Gladio pulled him out, Gladio and Ignis took another hour after he got there to actually pull him out, and getting Prompto out took another hour. My dude was so sore. It took a physical therapist nearly a week to get his muscles to fully relax. He also had a hot bath at least once a day for a month.

I also feel like this might feel into the claustrophobia we see in game. I know like it's more likely from the MT pods, but this might've exacerbated the issue.

[drxbbles]

This little drabble idea originally came from another of my blogs forever ago and I only just got around to polishing it all off. Just some sinful public teasing underneath a dinner table during season two/Rapunzel’s Tangled Adventures. 

***

At first glance, the restaurant seemed like any other he had passed by while travelling. A quaint spot with a checkered tablecloth or two, candles in old bottles and a tavern-style bar tucked away, around the corner from the dining.

But then Rapunzel had bumped into some nice old ladies while stocking up on fruits for the caravan. And after hearing all the good feedback she insisted on skipping a campfire meal and buying dinner for their party of four. (Five, if you count Shorty who made himself at home on a bar stool with the kids menu.)

After all that excitement, and seeing her features light up as she scanned the menu and made her choice, Eugene was certain he’d never been in a nicer restaurant. Anything that had Blondie’s seal of approval worked for him.

“I cannot wait to try their chicken dish!” Rapunzel’s shoulders rose and fell as she watched their meals being brought over towards their booth. “I hear they use breadcrumbs and an Italian paste, and some cheese, and it’s so experimental!”

“And really healthy,” Cassandra remarked dryly, jerking her thumb towards the kitchen. “I’ll enjoy my usual salad and eggs, thank you very much.”

“Wow - cold, damp and a little runny? I never would’ve guessed,” Eugene hummed, before his knee bashed underneath the table and he flinched. “Ow!” The only thing stopping him from reaching down and rubbing his poor shin where it had suddenly been kicked was the smug look on Cass’s face.

“Having trouble, Fitzherbert?” she asked, knife and fork in each hand, waiting as a bowl of colourful… plant-matter, if he had to guess, was placed in front of her.

“Not at all,” he ground out, but it was as much for show as anything. A plate of hot food was placed before him and he thanked the waiter. A heartbeat was all it took for Lance to reach over and steal half of a potato.

“Hey! That’s mine!”

“Correction - it was yours,” Lance said with gravitas, pushing the whole half into his mouth and humming with delight. “And ish good!”

“Thrilled for you,” Eugene muttered, pulling his plate just a little closer before shooting a helpless look at his radiant little girlfriend. “Next time can we leave the ‘kids’ at home?”

Rapunzel finished thanking the waiter in earnest before smiling playfully back. “Oh, Eugene. Relax - it’s a nice evening out. And it smells so good! How do you pronounce the dish again?”

“I don’t think it has a name, yet, Blondie,” he murmured. “But if I had to guess…” He summoned a few words of Italian - basic phrases for chicken and sauce and cheese, swallowing a bite of his beef as he made a gesture. “Some combination of those words.”

“Well, it sounds as fascinating as it looks,” Rapunzel insisted, picking up her knife and fork and cutting a bite-sized piece for herself.

“Raps - you think that of everything,” Cass declared. Eugene guessed it was a full moon out - it was one of the times, usually once a month at best, when he found himself agreeing with her.

Until he felt something pressing against his shin and he lost his train of thought. His brow creased as he stayed still, assuming it was just someone’s leg stretching out.

“Well, I really think it of this,” Rapunzel said, and the gentle pressure and lift as she spoke made it clear who was touching him under the table.

Not that there was many other candidates - she was sitting opposite him instead of snuggled up beside him for a change, the pair of them on the inside of their little booth. And nobody else was as likely to slip out of their boot and press their foot against his shin. Obviously to sooth where her lady-in-waiting had kicked him, he figured.

“Ooh! Eugene - remind me how to say ‘very good’ in Italian?” He glanced up, quite certain that the grin on her face was as brilliant then as it had ever been. And with a little hand motion, he supplied:

“Molto bene.” Eugene was fairly sure she was clever enough to remember just fine and she just enjoyed hearing him say it, but who was he to deny her?

“That’s it,” she said happily. And underneath the table, he felt her foot suddenly move higher, until her sole was neatly resting on the bump of his knee. “Molto bene,” she practiced, applying gentle pressure against him. Eugene chewed his food quietly, a tilt of his head the closest he dared come to asking her about it in company.

And then she did ‘the look.’ A little ‘Smoulder’ all of her own, except that hers worked. A ducking of her head as she looked up through her thick lashes.

“I’m just interested,” she offered. “It’s such a pretty language. It’s so.. on point with everything.”

Eugene went ramrod still as he felt her tiny toes digging into his thigh. Ever since he had blurted out how badly she ‘turned him on’ during a heated, private moment, it had become Rapunzel’s little watchword. A sneaky, cute password that she used to tell him what kind of mood she was in. ‘This painting is so on,’ or ‘let me show you the book I’m reading - it’s on.’ It all came back to that evening when she rocked against him, giggling and purring and deciding ‘on’ was a very good word for describing how naughty and aroused she was.

“Aren’t all languages like that, Raps?” Cassandra asked, pushing more leaves and vegetables onto her fork. But Cass was (blessedly) unaware of the Princess’ leg under the table, stretched out and resting on her boyfriend’s lap as her foot brushed back and forth, higher and higher.

“I guess?” Rapunzel could have acted. She pushed another piece of her meal into her mouth and hummed, swallowing and looking for all the world like nothing more than a woman enjoying her dinner. Like a woman who wasn’t beginning to tease back and forth over Eugene’s privates with her toes. “But Italian is so pretty and everything has such a flourish! It’s like they make everything so… alight! So switched on.”

Eugene forced himself to eat as he felt himself reacting to it all. The slow, gentle teases. The coy remarks. The fact that she was doing it all in public while their friends were there. And judging from the coy, dazzling little look she gave him again from across the table, she knew very well what she was doing.

“Don’t you think, Eugene?” He was hard now. He was hard and she knew it because her sole was pressing flat against him.

“Well, Blondie, I’ll be sure to sit you down and teach you a few things if you’d like,” he managed to say, quietly patting himself on the back for doing it all without squeaking or moaning. Or from making some obvious scoot forwards to press against her.

“I’d love that - I think I’m a pretty fast learner,” Rapunzel grinned. It was so her. The sassy, confident girl who was willing to take on all challenges, royal or otherwise.

The girl who apparently knew how to lift her entire leg up and down without the table catching wind of it.

“Oh, I know you are,” Eugene answered back, forcing himself to look as innocent as possible. “You’re learning new things all the time, Blondie.”

In hindsight, he had watched her climb trees with nothing but her hair and her bare legs. ‘I’ve got strong feet!’ she had said with pride.

He really shouldn’t have been so shocked that she could turn around and climb him just as quickly and easily. But maybe it was just because she was Rapunzel - that cute girl who he was head over heels in love with and could turn him on at the drop of a hat.

Maybe it was the fact they were still in public.

“I’d tell you two to save it for the caravan, but I made it perfectly clear to the King and Queen that I’d keep an eye on you,” Cass remarked, swallowing another mouthful of salad. And then for good measure, she leaned across the table and gave Eugene a suspicious, squinted look. “No funny business from you.”

“Why am I getting the bad cop treatment over here?”

“Because I trust Raps. But you? You still have your moments.”

And Rapunzel giggled and smiled and looked for all the world like she was the most innocent person in it. “Sorry, Eugene. I guess you do have a little of that roguish reputation, still.”

And then she went ahead and slid her foot up and down along the length of his hardened cock, flexing her toes while she cut another piece of chicken and popped it into her mouth.

“Well, you are the innocent one,” Eugene said, schooling his face to remain as passive as possible. Forcing himself to carefully cut and eat his meal as Her Royal Mischief Maker kept stroking him up and down. Back and forth. Over and again in a slow, steady rhythm. It wasn’t bad. Heck, it was great, and anywhere else, Eugene would’ve been all for it. Underneath the dinner table, though, well…

He could handle the even stroke of her foot moving up and down. But because Rapunzel had magical mind-reading techniques (obviously), she would press harder or squeeze him whenever he was getting too relaxed.

“Mm!” he moaned when she pushed a certain way. “Oh, it’s.. good stuff. A little spicy, though,” Eugene tried to bluff as Lance gave him a sideways glance.

“Yeah - you’re looking a little flushed there. Whassamatter - comfy living making you soft?” Lance grinned, leaning over and nudging Eugene with a mighty elbow. But he was having none of it - even with the long, draping checkered tablecloth, he wasn’t about to risk anyone getting an accidental eyeful of what was going on underneath it.

“Thank you for your input,” Eugene ground out between clenched teeth, before lighting struck from on high. Slipping into a smooth, charming smile, he pointed off towards the polished bar that seemed to curve around a corner. “But you know what I’d really appreciate? Something nice and cold to drink. Go on, be a buddy. Think of it as payment for my poor potato.”

Lance rolled his eyes before moving to slide out of the booth. It was a tone of voice that Eugene broke out whenever he really wanted something, and was prepared to keep on needling him until it was done.

“Alright, alright, I’m off. Anyone want something else?”

They all did, and when it became clear that Lance was going to be balancing glasses and serving tins on top of his head, Rapunzel performed one of her little miracles.

“Cass, go with him and help? You’re almost done, right…?” There was a look of peaceful serenity on her face as she asked. A look that Cass returned with an arched eyebrow, pushing her very-empty plate away from her.

“Okay, I get it, my meal wasn’t very big,” she sniffed before lifting herself up as best as she could and wriggling off the bench. “Besides - without help he’s likely to drop the lot.”

“Take your time,” Eugene said, as teasingly as he always did.

“Shave your chin, Fitzherbert.”

He managed to wait until Cass’s bob of dark curls vanished around the corner before he let out a strangled whine. “Blondie! You’re killing me over here.”

“No, I’m not.” And all signs of Rapunzel the innocent, first of her name and well-known saint seemed to vanish. The hooded, playful bedroom eyes that gazed back at him seemed to grow more intense as her foot pressed firmly against his length. “I’m fairly sure I can feel your heart beating from here, Eugene.” She bit her lip and immediately giggled as, sure enough, the coy act did make him twitch that much harder.

“And if you keep going like that, we’re going to… I’ll have a mess to… we’re… Blondie.”

“Are you saying you want me to stop…?” Rapunzel ducked her head again. Her bottom lip stuck out just a little bit. The pressure beneath the table relaxed, her big toe slowly moving down his length. Eugene was fairly sure if she wasn’t royalty, he’d drop beneath the table, pull her under with him and kiss her until her pout vanished.

“Maybe a little bit…?” It came out as a pathetic squeak. He hated saying no to her - the times she was feeling so bold weren’t uncommon, but he loved encouraging them all the same.

“You once told me to have you checked by a doctor if you ever said you weren’t in the mood,” she countered, still pouting, but a little more of that familiar mischief crawling back into her voice. It was a discussion that had occurred one evening when he joked about it while they were helping each other undress. The look of horror on her face quickly smothered the mood that night.

It was a good talk. He made sure to go over all the basics so that they’d never again have another one like it.

“And we agreed that wasn’t serious, but Sunshine? Honey? This isn’t really the time or the pla-ce.” He was cut off again as she once again began to push against him.

“So you’re suggesting if this keeps going… you’d have to try very hard not to finish all over yourself? And then we’d have to worry about getting out of here without anyone noticing…?”

‘Finish all over your leg,’ Eugene wanted to say, but they both knew it was a bluff. He was still tucked inside his trousers, (mostly) comfortably. At best she would get the message, relax and he’d have a small wet stain to deal with later. At worst, with her pace and speed and surprise squeezes… yeah, there wouldn’t be any chance of hiding that.

“Yes, Rapunzel. You’re very, very good, and my briefs are getting a little too crowded, okay sweetie?”

Rapunzel’s eyebrows rose to her hairline, her eyes going saucer wide. ‘Finally,’ he thought, certain the message had gotten through…

… and then he watched with apprehension as gave him her little Smoulder. Like a cat, her gaze on him the whole time, she picked up Cass’s ignored knife and dropped it. Metal hit the stone tiles with a noisy clang!

“Oops. I’ll get that.” And with more flexibility and speed than a princess ought to have, Rapunzel vanished beneath the table. It was like watching her rappel down a cliff face with her hair all over again.

Eugene had a heartbeat to prepare before he felt her, hands flying over him in a rush. Expert flicks and practiced pulls that made him wonder just how good of a learner she was to loosen his belt and unbutton his fly so damned quickly and easily.

“Hn!” He hissed as suddenly he felt her. Warm, dainty little fingers reaching just inside and curling around his hot flesh. Lifting him up. Guiding him through the little escape passage she created. His hands curled into fists as he felt something moist press against this wet tip, and the muffled muah sound made it clear what had happened.

Rapunzel climbed back up from beneath the table, licking her lips and wiggling about in her seat. Looking for all the world like she had successfully picked up her dropped utensil and did not just pull her boyfriend’s cock out under the table and kissed the dripping head.

And neglected to tuck him back in again.

“Rapunzel…?” Eugene’s voice wavered somewhere between begging and disbelief. But she smiled and sighed and quickly turned her attention to her meal, pushing the last few mouthful’s of chicken through her sauce and popping them in her mouth. Stopping only to look up and smile wider as he felt a presence beside them.

His heart dropped as Lance strolled up with a sweaty glass of ale in each hand, followed by Cass holding a bottle of something and a pair of glasses.

“Okay - you two? You need to leave room afterwards, because their dessert menu is looking phenomenal,” Lance insisted, easing back into the booth and setting the glasses down. “Guaranteed some ice cream’ll cool that fire you’ve got going on, Eugene.”

“Gotta say - I can spare some extra calories too after my little dinner, Cass added, swinging herself back into the girl’s side of the booth. “How about you, Raps?”

Rapunzel grinned and speared her last bite with her fork. At the same moment, unseen beneath the tablecloth, her foot stretched back up and began rubbing Eugene’s hardness. Only instead of his trousers, she grinned as she felt every hot, solid inch.

“I could do with something sweet after this,” she said, swallowing her mouthful. “Maybe something with lots of cream all over it. Cream on it.”

Eugene swallowed another mouthful as she said her magic word. Small, strong toes curled around his sensitive tip and he swallowed to keep himself from moaning.

She was going to be the death of him, all over again.

[groomlakeprojects]

Crash(test) The Ballad of Faded Wolf

(Summary)

Barry Mick is a struggling tour manager for a young US rock band in his 30's working in the rock world and mainstream pop; but also works several part time real jobs. The band he is currently managing is a young band “Faded Wolf”; full of notorious stories and behaviors including sex,drugs, and rock and roll. Will they crash and burn? Or live and learn? Probably neither.

Crash(test) The Ballad of Faded Wolf

Story written by Joe Bruno

Edited by

Max Barksdale

There’s something peaceful about waking up in a moving vehicle. The scenery moving like an old movie reel as we make our way to the next destination is the best part, I guess. From what my folks told me when I was young, you actually had to dedicate a person, with a license, to controlling the vehicle; which sounds like a terrible idea looking around my immediate company.

“Tommy Rocks”, as he’s known, is in the next bunk over; putting his genitals on one of our roadies face while he’s asleep. Classic. The band I’m currently out on the road with, (for way less money than I should’ve negotiated; had I known the shit storm I had agreed to) Faded Wolf, are one of the new growing bands in the heavy metal scene. And they are all about attention.

These guys just cost the label $600,000 in damages; leading cops on a two hour chase after stealing a old school collection car from a classic car show, then proceeding to manually drive it onto the highway.

Fucking psychos I tell you. Especially in 2044.

A human messing with with our great, automated highways? It’s crazy they’d let anyone touch a real steering wheel. Thankfully the van doesn’t have one or I’d never sleep with this band around. Not that I do much.. From what I heard growing up, people died like all the time crashing these things it was something crazy like the plague, it was in the millions of people dead all of the time, senselessly. And you’ve got to be an idiot to get out on the roads with the old cars and attempt to drive with the cars we have today. Nobody stops and goes and burns gas anymore. The road system today is cars going everywhere all automatically timed to drive without hardly stopping. Except out here, there’s some drivers still not enough automatic services out this way yet.

Suddenly, there’s a loud pop and the van comes to a stop on the side of the road. We are somewhere on I-70 near Anywhere, Kansas. The van operator broadcasts on to the intercom, “Hey fellas, we are really sorry to inform you but your ‘Bandvan’ rental has had an internal problem with it’s charge system and needs repairs. With your insurance purchase, we will be covering stay at a hotel for you guys until we can get the next van in your area. The nearest one is a day away. Really sorry about the inconvenience. We can give you two free days on your next trip. Again, so sorry. Local tow resources are on their way and should arrive in 25 minutes.”

Damn. We had one more date for tomorrow in Colorado, then I was to catch the Interstate speed train to California; where my next job starts. A pop artist, “Yuki”, is playing the VENUE on Mars’ grand opening. This is like the big stadium time too; bigger than the theaters and bars that host Faded Wolf.

I was asked to smuggle some personal belongings they had left when they took off last week. Oh, and it’s going to take two months to get there. The band managers “great joy of the music world”, is basically being the babysitter to the most irresponsible group of people in the world.

Not now.

I have to figure out what we are going to do. The tow truck is pulling up now I guess I’ll go settle up with the service and oh hey it’s the gang is already around the front. Shit. Tommy, Jim, John, and Freddy are chugging beers and flashing their private parts to oncoming traffic. I used to hear stories about bands like Motley Crüe and Guns N Roses, in my grandparents younger days, who did this kind of stuff.

It was wild.

I think that’s what they want.

Shock value.

It sounded fun at first; but after two months of living it, breathing it, and smelling it with this group, it has lost it’s appeal. I can’t wait to go Mars and get away for a bit.

But what are you gonna do?

These guys want it all.

And unfortunately, they’ll do anything for the attention.

We arrive at a local hotel. It was one of these small mom and pop ones with a kind of old “Bates Motel” vibe; except this was Conways motel. It’s almost like a slasher film; but instead of killing you in the shower, you would step back in time to what the elders would call, “the eighties baby!” The room was filled with neon colors on the walls and 80’s movie and music posters on every wall.

A short older man, maybe in his 60’s, in black pants and a faded blue vintage nascar shirt approaches us. He introduces himself as Earl Conway and asks if we are the rock band staying the night. Tommy and the gang, the kind of wild living guys they are, of course are already shotgunning beers behind me with the roadies and some local fans who are also staying at the hotel.

They have also recognized the band.

I shrug and go into “manager mode”.

We get away to settle up the insurance at the front desk.

“Well, I know it’s y’all’s misfortune, but it is just our treat to have y’all stay with us at ‘Conway’s’ tonight. We never have too many city folk stay here; especially real rockstars. Let us know if you need anything; food, beer, some coke, ‘Ya know’,” Earl brags with a grin.

Well, at least I know these guys are mostly safe to party.

“Thanks Mr. Conley. I really hope we don’t need too much. Our next van will be in town around 12 tomorrow. And then, we are back on the road to the rockies. Though, I can’t speak for the band. It looks like they are already making friends.”

I gaze out the door.

The crowd partying with the band has tripled since exchanging info at the front desk. It appears Tommy and Freddy are now signing several women’s breast and taking some suggestive photos. They probably assumed I quit paying attention, went to my room take my sleep aid, and pass out.

What the hell could go wrong? This is what they do.

That’s not managing though.

I’m thinking I got to go break this up.

“Mr. Conley, I’ll make sure we keep the crowd and noise down,” I assured him.

“Nonsense Barry! You know what; on the weekends we have a 25 Acre track, just behind the motel, where we race good old human driving cars. I saw the band’s mishap with that car out in California on the news. Compared to that footage, I’ll gladly let them rip it up tonight!” Earl responded.

Well there goes my peaceful night.

It’s not even night, and two of the old classic cars that drove by earlier have rolled up to the growing party in the parking lot. Freddy, Tommy, and the gang, are now doing what are called “donuts” in the parking lot. I’ve seen videos online where the human controlled vehicles speed and then brake during a turn, to slide across parking lots at shopping centers and apartment buildings. I suppose it’s better they can do that here; instead of the theft and driving on automated highways charges.

I head to the room to try to get some peace and quiet. Maybe I can try to go over my lists for the Mars trip; which I’m surprised about it being a whole 4 month thing and I’m not that nervous yet. I guess it’s hard to think to that far in the future when you live in “Faded Wolf’s” now.

As I’m approaching the room, I can hear sounds of giggling. Nope thats moaning.

Shit.

Someone is having sex in my room.

Again.

I can’t really count at this point how many times this has happened. But I’m not surprised really. It’s Faded Wolf. What did I expect. At least I have my bag. I can work on some things in this old chair at the end of the hall.

Luckily, I brought my headphones to tune this out.

And they are dead.

Goddamn Bluetooth!

I really miss the older devices my grandparents showed me when I was younger, the headphones may have had to be plugged in; but you weren’t left hanging.

Well, i passed out in the hallway on the floor for couple hours and awake to Earl right in my face and shaking me “buddy I got other customers rolling in soon can’t have you here like this.” I agree. I startle but get up in a haze.. I haven’t really felt this low since i turned 30. The world keeps turning though, I get up and grab my bag and computer I used as a pillow. The room was cleared out and I can finally catch a shower.

There’s clearly cocaine residue on the dresser and all of the room beers are gone. As much as I’m disappointed they didn’t leave any to share, I’m guessing Earl may have to order more for tonight.

I finish my shower, get dressed, and head out to the tracks. It’s a sunny summer day, with green trees and a field view; not that Kansas is known for its landscapes. It was a nice break from the crowded cities we usually stay in.

The guys are all hammered and driving these cars, I’d say, 90 miles an hour back and forth through a loop called a “race track.”

I’ve seen these before on the web. This used to be a popular sport, and still has a strong presence in the south to this day.

More of the local community has shown up looking for a chance to party with this band of fools.

I finally take a seat in the stands, with my own beer, and a little cigarette of ‘grass’, as they used to call it. One of the cars with Tommy driving, and yelling something obnoxious out the window, suddenly turns too quick. It goes up sideways, and flips several times in a barrel roll before stopping on it’s hood.

I drop everything and run over to help.

Tommy quickly climbs his way out, soaked in blood and yelling out in pain; which seems to be coming from the arm he’s holding. I look over inside. One of the fan girls from earlier is inside; luckily with a seatbelt on, which is holding her up. Kind of dangling, but still not awake. She looks a little cut up and I can’t tell if she’s breathing.

This right here is why they did away with letting humans drive. This is what my parents used to ramble on about when I

was young and driving had just been banned. I can’t believe they did this for over 100 years. This is a horror movie in real life. The shock and anxiety. You know, cannabis can make you very anxious without any bad shit happening; but this anxiety was something completely new.

One of my clients may have just killed someone.

As the local ambulance and fire response vehicles roll up, so do several police cars.

This is it.

We are fucked.

I am fucked.

The mars trip, is super fucked.

There is no way we are getting out of this mess by the time our next van rolls in tomorrow.

The rest of the band and I stayed back and talked to the cops about what we saw. I look over to the medical team, and see the fangirl miraculously retain consciousness; with no visible broken bones. Just a few scrapes and bruises on her faces. When her eyes finally opened and she got up and walked off with her friends quickly to the ambulance and seemed to try to keep looking over seeing Tommy at the ambulance, my anxiousness subdued a bit.

But now, we had a new set of problems. The law.

Tommy was immediately arrested and was being charged with an older charge called a “DUI”, reckless driving, and driving without a license. Apparently, this whole track operation is mostly for skilled drivers who still get a thing called a “drivers license.”

After they take him away, local news crews start rolling in to film the documentary of the end of our careers.

I had to call the label to let them know what had happened.

Well look at that. Faded Wolf news travels fast. Tim, the A&R rep, is calling me.

“Hey Tim, buddy! How are you?” I ask, trying to cool tension. “What the fuck did you let happen Barry? You’re the manager! Do you know how much this is going to cost us?” He yelled.

“Look man; you know these guys! Okay? They don’t listen to anybody! I just clean up the mess, like always! But I’m gonna go down there and get Tommy out, okay? These people are super fans; so we might get lucky,” I explained.

“Try what you will Barry; but if you can’t fix this, you’re done.” He hung up.

Earl comes up, still shaken from the event. I immediately start apologizing.

“Hey man. I’m so sorry these guys are idiots, And that poor girl”

He interrupts, “It’s ok Barry, it’s my fault. I encouraged it, and we’ve had accidents from time to time. I could’ve done more to set some ground rules. You guys being here has just been the most fun we’ve had in a while. Look. I got a lawyer buddy who helps me with my books. I’m gonna call him for us. Would you like a ride to check on Tommy?” He asks.

“Of course man! That would be amazing. I actually don’t know how to drive; really none of us from out west do.”

The rest of the crew stayed back.

The buzzkill shook everyone into retreating back to the rooms.

The parties over.

The drive was quiet.

The local radio report is already talking about the accident. I had to change the channel and the next station is, of course, a rock station ironically playing the “Faded Wolf” song “Crash”. I change it again, and finally tune into some obscure classical channel.

It was finally peaceful.

We get to the police station and go check in.

You know in jail movies, this part always sucks. Going to meet your friend or family member; locked up in the jump suit.

It is an all around shitty experience.

It also has be somewhere around 1 AM; about 12 hours away from our van departure schedule. At this point, I feel we are not gonna make it. And I’m not gonna make that Mars trip. We get to the front desk and ask for Tommy.

The desk lady grins and says, “We are hanging that mugshot up in the break lounge; as soon as we get it autographed. We’re holding him a bit longer. You know, y’all are so lucky that girl and her family likes him. He could’ve been here a while.”

I reply confused, “So he’s getting out?.”

“Well, yeah. Some lawyer came in representing that girl. Says she’s his daughter and he settled up with the judge. He will be free to go in just a bit”.

I look to Earl, “Dude, your lawyer is the girls dad?”

He looks shocked, “Shit I had no clue. I hope he doesn’t shut me down.”

The lawyer pops around the corner. “No real harm, no foul; I suppose. We live a little wild out here with these cars, and have accidents from time to time. Regardless, my kid, for some godforsaken reason, has been obsessed with this band for years now, since her high school days, and says it would be the most embarrassing thing to put you away for this. She just wants this to go away. And she really likes this “Tommy” guy, so we’ve made a hefty financial settlement that will take care of her, myself, and get some money flowing down at city hall again. Anyways, we will be in touch with the label for payment soon. And, please. Never. Ever. Let Tommy, or the rest of the band, drive. Or maybe never come here again. I’m serious. Goodnight, gents.” He leaves the station.

Well only in this rock and roll world can such scenario play out. Apparently everyone in this jail is a Faded Wolf fan even the judge. Tommy finally comes out of the back putting his shirt back on and a little bandaged up it seems. He signs a few copies of his mugshot for the station employees. Tommy then comes running at us jumping “ dudes I can’t believe it they love us here, apparently that girls dad is a lawyer, and begged him not to let me stay locked up and pay a fine instead” I reply “ so what’s the damage how much is this going to cost us?” Tommy smirks “ well let’s just say the label is not going to be happy about it and I’m sorry Barry if they blame this on you” I reply “ blame what?” Tommy deeply inhales and answers “eh it’s gonna cost about 20 million or so”. Well in my mind I was thinking a lot worse but that is still probably enough that it’s coming out of the next albums check and probably my check too. He continues “ it’s all good Barry we are getting that next advance and the last album just hit platinum”. This guy has no clue how completely fucked we could’ve been. But how could he? We let this happen and now by paying it off we encourage it.

We all get back to the hotel it’s probably close to 4 AM everyone’s passed out. Earl comes by as I’m packing things to be ready to go in the morning. “ well I’m glad it all worked out for you guys and I’m sorry about letting this happen” I interrupted “ look Earl these guys like to do crazy things and don’t think much, don’t blame yourself

We are all lucky it wasn’t worse.

And crazy lucky that the girl’s dad was lawyer; in our favor.

“You’ve been a great help to us! I’ll make sure to send you a postcard from the new venue on mars!”

He sort of gets excited, “Mars? No way! Is that the pop star everyone is going crazy for? ‘Yuki’ right?”

I replied, “Yup! That’s the one! I actually have to bring some things they forgot when they left the other day.”

Earl grabs a postcard from his folder he was carrying. “Well, could you show some love to the motel up there?”

I look at the picture of the motel which had several cars driving in the background, “You bet Earl, thanks for everything”.

I caught some sleep and woke up just in time for the “15 minute warning” for the vans arrival. We all loaded in and waved goodbye. Tommy was, of course, holding up the show and making out with the girl Alice. You know, the girl he nearly killed last night. I think that’s what her name was. Actually, I’m not really sure what her name was; but I guess it’s best we leave town on a good note.

And there we were; back on the road, heading to Colorado, cracking jokes trying to laugh off the bizarre events from the night before.

Tommy leans from his seat to me, “Barry, man, thank you for being there. We all appreciate it and I promise you that I’m never driving again! Well, unless I come back out here and see her again” he chuckles.

It had been on my mind all morning though, that maybe it was time for a career change. Possibly something with less responsibility for those least responsible. Maybe I’ll start my own band or label and just be in charge of myself. Who knows?

The Colorado show went off without a hitch; other than arriving right as soon as the band was scheduled to be on in 30 minutes. I’m glad we made it, but also just as glad to be out and not in charge of these maniacs for a long time. I left early to catch my train to the launch pad in California.

I can’t believe I made it.

Still sleepy and still taking in the events of the last two days, I figured it was a perfect time to take a sleep aid; seeing as I’ll be boarding a space shuttle to live in (which is basically a hotel lobby) for two months.

From what I’ve read, these launches can make you feel sick quickly; so it’s probably best to be passed out for that part. I get through security, get my bags checked, then board the ship. As I’m seated and buckled, I lay back with freshly charged headphones and some classics playing.

I slowly doze off.

I wake up, and I’m not in the ship anymore, but back in the port at the launchpad in a wheelchair. A flight attendant is near me, sees that I’m awake, and jumps up.

“Sir we are so sorry to inform you like this, but our ship had trouble taking off and was grounded. A second ship left later

in the day, but you have been out for about 10 hours and we could not get you into the next one passed out like that.”

I feel ambushed by the whole situation.

I’m still waking up but I take a second to process it “So when’s the next one?”

She replies, “Unfortunately, the Mars shuttle only flies three times a month, twice a day. That was the last one, and there are currently no options for two weeks. I’m so sorry for the inconvenience”

I’m still processing, but try to negotiate with her, “So what else can I get? my clients need their package.”

She responds, “Well your boss, Tim I believe, has left a package and note for you about that.”

I open the packages and letter.

“Hey, Barry. Give me a call when you get this. You’ve got a new mission. You're now taking the daily flight tomorrow to the moon for ‘Faded Wolf’s’ surprise show next week for the moon colony at the Lunar Lounge.

PS: Mars mail carrier will take the package; don’t worry. But you gotta watch these guys again!

You owe me!

And the label!”

Really? I quit.

[asterinjapan]

Another day, another castle

I mean, I could apologize for the implications of that title, but I wouldn’t mean it, so…

Anyway, good afternoon after a short but no less fun day! Since tomorrow will be very busy and I’ll be making the long trip to Tokyo the day after, I didn’t want to cram too much on my Friday. There was one thing pretty high up on my wishlist, but I’d heard a lot of walking was involved… then again, I’d say my feet have had enough practice now to put up with a shorter day of walking, haha.

And so, I had reserved a ticket last night on the Shiokaze train down for Marugame! And yeah, this is another long report. Sorry, me and castles…

Marugame is one of the first cities on Shikoku if you come onto the island via Okayama and the Seto Ohashi bridge. I had actually passed the station when I went to Matsuyama earlier this week, but since that was such a long trip, I couldn’t combine the two. Since Marugame is a good 40 minutes removed from Okayama, I could sleep a little longer in the morning. Or I could have, if I didn’t wake up at 4 AM, and then again at 6… I kept hearing tinny music, so loud I thought my phone or alarm was malfunctioning, but I think it must have been a neighbor in the hotel anyway. Either way, I was determined to at least rest until 8 AM, so I did just that, haha.

After a good breakfast, I made my way to the station to find the Shiokaze already waiting for me. I noticed all Shikoku bound trains have theme naming: Shiokaze means salty/sea winds, then you have the Marine Liner, and then there’s also the Nanpu (southerly winds) and Uzushio (whirling tides). Train names are very poetic in Japan, haha.

Anyway, the sea wind train brought me to Marugame, where the skies were also grey. I hurried from the station immediately to find the castle. It was super easy, basically one straight road ahead, and then – wham, the castle comes into view. The main keep is rather tiny, but it sits on top of Kameyama (turtle mountain) at 66 meters high, and the mountain has been covered in stone walls. So much so that you can be forgiven for comparing it to a pyramid, actually. These walls are imposing, wow. They’re one of the reasons this castle stands out. Another is that it is one of the twelve original main keeps still remaining, with both Matsuyama castles from this trip being other examples. The main keep is the smallest of the twelve, but these walls might actually be the highest in the country.

Anyway! Just as I made my way through the Otemon gate, it started to drizzle. I was taking out my umbrella already when I noticed the nearby information center also offering something fun, so I figured I’d go in first, if I was going to walk through the rain anyway.

You see, Marugame is famous for the uchiwa fans, and apparently produces about 90% of all uchiwa fans going around. They’re the type of round fans made from bamboo and flat paper, so not the fans you can fold back. And here in the information center, they were making them, still by hand – and for thousand yen, you too can make your own uchiwa fan! Obviously, that sounded like way too fun an opportunity to pass up on (and if you buy a fan, they’re usually around that price class anyway if you want one with a nice print). And so, I applied – and could get started right away!

The bamboo crosspiece was already prepared, so I got to pick the paper I wanted and get gluing. They asked if Japanese instructions were okay, so I said they were if they could speak a little slowly, and they were very accommodating and helpful. I suspect small children want to do this too, so they have some practice with uhm, my current levels of Japanese, haha, but I knew what I was doing now in Japanese! Once the paper was glued on and had to set, I was guided to the area where the crosspieces were created. I received a bamboo handle, and got to cut it into a crosspiece myself! This was kind of tricky, because the instruments are very right-hand oriented while I’m a lefty, but I got hands-on guidance, so I didn’t injure myself as I cut up the bamboo into tiny, tiny strips. After a lot of bending back and forth, the crosspiece was more or less done, and I got to pose for a picture with it after writing my name on it, haha.

My glued fan had dried by then, so I was given a hammer and a sickle to cut it into shape. That’s a good way to get any aggression out, by the way. You trim both the paper and the bamboo parts with the sickle, so you have to beat down that hammer hard. Almost done now! I got to choose a paper hemming and pasted it along the edge of the fan to smooth it and decorate it further, and topped it off with two small pieces at either end to keep them in place.

Now, since these fans aren’t the kind you just stick in your handbag, I got to leave it behind for now while I went on my way to the mountain top. I was given a map, a lot of generous instructions (they really are super kind patient here) and went out the door – to find the last drops of rain had just fallen, and it was dry now. Nice!

I had read warnings about the steep climb, but honestly, after Bitchu-Matsuyama castle and Onomichi these past few days, I was barely fazed, haha. Okay, in all fairness, these are some steep roads, but they’re not that long if you take the quickest route up, and there’s plenty of space in between as you go through the third and second bailey on the way up. There’s even a slope called Mikaeri zaka, which means ‘slope on which you look back’, which you definitely want to, because the view on the walls is great. And the views on the look-out points, oh wow! Of course, the castle was built in a strategic spot, overlooking the Seto Inland Sea. Supposedly Marugame is at the coast of the narrowest part of the sea, which means that no-one could sail here without being seen from the castle top. In the distance, I could spot the Seto Ohashi bridge, as well as the interestingly shaped mountain Iinoyama and tons of tiny islands dotting the sea. In fact, the weather was getting clearer and clearer as I moved up, giving me better views.

Once I’d made my way past the defenses, I had finally reached the main area with the keep – and the sun had come out! I couldn’t believe my luck as I got to take pictures of that sweet, white little castle against a blue sky, the sea in the background. Wow. I don’t know which deity here I have pleased what with the amazing weather I’ve had so far, but I have to find out to give them my offers, haha.

You can enter the keep for 200 yen, which, to be fair, is reasonable considering how small it is on the inside. There’s a small exhibition, with tiles featuring fans on display, and the second floor had pictures up of all twelve original keeps, of which I have seen seven now, haha. Actually, the first version of this castle only existed for a couple of years. It was dismantled in 1615, as a new rule stating only one castle per area was allowed, so nearby Takamatsu castle got to stay while Marugame had to go. After a small fief was granted, there was allowed to be a castle once more, and so, the castle was rebuilt in 1641. Most buildings burnt down over the centuries, but the main keep remains standing.

There’s also a stamp rally going on inside the castle, but you needed to have bought the 200 yen sheet for it back at the information center, which I missed. I’m still a bit sad, because if you collect the stamps in order, you basically created an ukiyo-e painting: layer of color over layer of color to produce a full color stamp of the castle. Lesson learnt for next time!

Since the weather was still nice enough despite the forecasted rain, I took the long way down to take in the sights, as the walk was lovely and quiet. It’s not a super touristic castle, at least not today, although I’m sure the weather and it being a weekday had something to do with that. Anyway, I came across a well at the second bailey, which is apparently 65 meters deep! And since it’s almost Halloween, there’s a creepy story attached to this well.

My pamphlet nicely narrates the story of Juzaburo Hasaka, the stonewall designer who worked very hard and had earned the nickname of ‘Juza the naked’, since he, eh, worked wearing only a loincloth. Thanks for that detail, pamphlet. Anyway, the lord was very impressed with his work, going “ha, now nobody can get over these walls unless they’re a bird!” To which our naked buddy replied: “oh, actually, you can totally climb them. Just give me some iron bars and I’ll demonstrate it, easy peasy.” And so he did, and the lord’s eyes probably all but popped out. (I mean, I know mine would – these walls are high.) Since he was so impressed, the lord then said to Juza: “dear upstanding and oh so naked gentleman, would you please go down this well to do research down there? For, you know, Reasons?” And Juza, ever the hard worker, went down into that 65 meter deep well. For, you know, research reasons.

And then our nice lord promptly threw rocks on him until he died so he couldn’t spill the secret of climbing the walls to the enemy. What a cute little intermezzo! Honestly, I peered down into the well, and that’s – deep and dark, wow. I’m so sorry, Juza the Naked Man. You did an amazing job on those walls, if that’s any consolation.

I’m surprised there isn’t a ghost story about him, but there is another one that my pamphlet also lists. My pamphlet is a little macabre, actually. Anyway, since we’re already at it to keep up the Halloween mood: apparently the construction workers were having a tough time on the castle, as it kept raining, so they were all but about to call it quits when a tofu peddler came by to sell his tofu. “Tofu, tofu!” He kept shouting. I mean, makes sense, construction is hard work, surely they’d want a bite. These workers seemed to hear something completely different than ‘tofu’, or maybe just really hated tofu, I don’t know. Either way, they heard ‘sacrifice me so that the rains will stop!’, which is a lot longer than tofu, but that’s – exactly what they did. They buried him alive as a human sacrifice to the castle, and it is said that on rainy days, you can still hear a muffled ‘tofu, tofu’ coming from what sounds like underneath. That poor guy, cursed to sell his tofu until the afterlife…

Well, it wasn’t rainy and I think the well was located in the area that was closed off for reconstructions (… or was it for reconstructions, hmmmmmm), so I didn’t hear him selling tofu, but I was getting hungry, so I made my way down, through some lovely forested areas filled with tiny butterflies, and crows, and HUGE spiders, and EVEN HUGER hornets, which I quickly ran far, far away from. They had warning signs up, and they were not exaggerating, help. I think I prefer the huge spiders, provided they eat the huge hornets.

Inside the gate I had come through was a small exhibition, so I sped through it (hey, it was free), and then I also came across the front gate of the lord’s residence and the guard house, the kabuto (helmet) rock, before I hit a dead end and finally returned to the information center.

Apparently they had gotten a bit worried I had forgotten about my fan, haha. Nope! Just me losing track of time when exploring castles! I watched as one of the ladies here expertly tied a string through my previously cut crosspiece, and then I got to keep that one too, so I can either stick my own paper on it back home or use it for decorations: they showed me an example of one put up against the wall with flowers pinned through, which does indeed look lovely, so I might just do that. They then realized I’d have to take them back home with me, so they rushed to get some cardboard and cut it to size, giving me some bands to keep it in place. They absolutely didn’t have to go through all that effort, but they absolutely went above and beyond here, wow.

 So that was a really fun day, as you can tell by the length of this report despite it only being 2 PM now, haha. Still, that means I spent around 3 hours at the castle if you don’t count the time I spent on the fan, oops… Needless to say, I absolutely recommend this castle. Sure, the walk up is steep, but the short path really is just that, and there’s plenty of space to catch your breath in between. Dang, I really love the castles I’ve visited so far, plus their surroundings. Thank you castles of Japan for introducing me to lovely cities with lovely people! I got to speak a lot of Japanese today, since I stood out a little as a foreigner making a fan, so a group at the main keep asked me if I was indeed that girl, haha, and we chatted for a bit about my trip.

 Anyway, I still hadn’t eaten, so I picked up lunch at the convenience store at the station and hopped on the Nanpu train with it. This one is just as fast and brought me back to Okayama, where skies were getting grey. I think I felt the first rain drops as I made my way to the hotel, so I am really lucky, whoa.

I’m gonna get an early night so that I’ll hopefully be well-rested tomorrow (I’ll wear ear plugs if I have to, stupid tinny music), since that will be a busy, busy day, but also very fun. And then it’s off to Tokyo already! Time really flies. I always look forward to Tokyo, although I’m not sure how many of my daytrips from there can actually go through. But you know what? I’ve already been so, so lucky, I honestly don’t dare to complain. And if all else fails, I definitely know how to entertain myself in Tokyo for a week, haha.

Good evening for now, and see you tomorrow! (Or Sunday, if I’m too worn out to type out my report, haha.)

[killscreencinema]

Castlevania III:  Dracula’s Curse (NES)

I was OBSESSED with this game when it came out in 1989.  By this point, I had become a diehard Castlevania fan by virtue of playing SImon’s Quest, despite never knowing what the holy hell to do in that game.  The atmosphere, music, and the general story of a vampire hunter tasked with killing the biggest, baddest vampire of them all, Count Dracula, was enough for me to be onboard.

However, this was the first Castlevania game I played that introduced the notion that killing Dracula is a Belmont family trade, kind of like smithing or haberdashery.  The Belmont family crest probably says something like, “We kill Dracula, over and over again”.  In Castlevania 3, you play as Trevor Belmont, ancestor of Simon and the first of the Belmont clan to fight Dracula (until Konami would retcon that in Castlevania:  Lament of Innocence, which reveals that Trevor’s ancestor, Leon Belmont, was war buddies with ol’ Vlad Teppish before he became Dracula). 

ANYWHOOZLES... it was a neat concept to me that each Castlevania game could be about a different Belmont family member in a different century.  Although I was confused because I assumed Dracula’s Curse was a direct sequel to the first game because the Belmont sprites looked so similar.  I didn’t realize until much later in life that Simon is the character in the first Castlevania game, despite looking completely different in the sequel. 

Stupid me, the difference is obvious - Trevor has a headband!  I was not only thrown off by the similarity in sprites but because the gameplay in Dracula’s Curse is more similar to the first game than the RPG elements in Simon’s Quest.

Which is a big reason why I loved this game at the time - so much simpler to grasp than the vague, moon logic puzzles of Simon’s Quest.  I actually felt like I mad PROGRESS with Dracula’s Curse... very, very little progress as the game is RELENTLESSLY difficult, but progress nevertheless.

As mentioned before, the game follows Trevor Belmont, a vampire hunter who is roused out of banishment to put down Dracula before his dark forces overwhelm the world.  However, unlike his descendants, Trevor doesn’t have to face this threat alone - along the way he is joined by allies such as Grant, the acrobat; Sypha, the mage; and Alucard, son of Dracula.  Throughout the game, you can switch to these other characters, who all have different strengths and weakness as compared to Trevor, but let’s face it, Sypha kicks all kinds of ass.  Her magic spells are devastatingly powerful, only deplete one heart per usage, and once you acquire the holy crystal ball spell, which target every enemy on the screen, the becomes slightly nerfed.

When I say “slightly” though, I mean VERY slightly, as the game is extremely hard.  So any small advantage, such as traversing entire platforming areas as a bat (which is Alucard’s special ability) feels like a freaking godsend.  This game isn’t fucking around.  More often than not, the boss battles end up being gauntlets, where you have to fight 2-3 bosses in a row or a boss will have an alternate form after you take out its health the first time.  As if the game weren’t hard enough, should you die, you are cruelly sent back significantly far in the level, having lost both your secondary weapon and all hearts (a particularly depressing situation if you had Sypha’s crystal balls, which can make a crucial difference in defeating most of the bosses in the game, especially Dracula himself). 

What makes the difficulty worse is that it is often unfair.  For example, there is a level where you are suddenly thrust in a situation where you have to patiently, PATIENTLY, wait for falling blocks to fall so you can slowly, arduously climb them up to the exit.  They fall with seemingly no discernible pattern, or if there is one you hardly have enough time to figure out before the blitzkrieg of blocks either kill you by knocking you into the pit or by just depleting your HP. 

If the level design isn’t killing you, the stairs almost certainly will.  That’s right, the worst enemy you’ll face in Dracula’s Curse isn’t the Medusa heads, the Frankenstein monster, the Grim Reaper, or even Dracula - it’s the goddamn stairs.  I want to say this is a problem that is specific to this game, as I don’t recall stairs being so hazardous in any other Castlevania game.  The stairs are dangerous for one of two reasons:

1.) If you’re being attacked by enemies while using the stairs, which you will be on NUMEROUS occasions, you are basically a sitting duck.  You can use your basic attack, but if the enemy is too far above or below you, you’re gonna take a hit.  Special attacks, which are really  your best offense in moments like this, don’t seem to work until you’re far enough up or down the stairs.

2.) And this is the worst by far.  If you don’t push down at the precise moment to go down stairs, you will drop to your death.  I mean you drop like a fucking rock too.  It’s the most rage inducing part of this whole game.  Nothing like doing well, keeping your health up, having the weapon you want, and preparing to face the boss, only for it to all be undone because you didn’t push DOWN at the right point to go down steps.  Unbelievable.

Anyway, all complaints aside, Dracula’s Curse is good game and well worth checking out if you’re a Castlevania fan.  Just don’t go into lightly - the game will own your ass.  As a kid, I remember appreciating that you can choose your path, as it gives you an opportunity to “pick your poison” insofar as avoiding the more difficult levels are concerned.  Also, the multiple paths make the game more replayable than most NES games at the time.

Speaking of Castlevania 3, the Castlevania series on Netflix is specifically based on this game!  If you want to hear my thoughts, as well as the opinions of my co-hosts Kent and Loren, on both seasons of the series, check out both episodes below or look up Killscreen Cinema on iTunes! 

https://soundcloud.com/the-dnn/killscreen-cinema-34-castevania-season-1

https://soundcloud.com/the-dnn/killscreen-cinema-68-castlevania-season-two?in=the-dnn/sets/killscreen-cinema

[pinkyiepumpkin]

I’ve been working on a project for a long time for the love of god someone read this

((This is for a comic I’m working on called Sakuma. I’m not gonna give away what it’s about but I’m trying to write out the first volume which is basically a prequel and IDK WHAT IM DOING BUT IF U LIKE 2 READ, HERE U ARE))

It’s storming late at night in Kuribetsu. Taro Hamano, a merchant, is waiting in the other room as his wife struggles to give birth. He sits with his head in his hands as worried midwives rush in and out around him. Finally, everything goes quiet, but there is no crying. One of the midwives comes out of the bedroom, greeted by a concerned Taro. She wearily shakes her head at him, sending him into tears. “I’ll leave you alone for a moment,” she said quietly. After she leaves, Taro stands and wobbles unevenly outside for some fresh air. He sobs for a moment, until a faint whisper greets him. “Taro…” It whispers. He looks around, but is accompanied only by his shadow. “Who’s there?” he shouts, confused. “Down here, Mr. Hamano.” The voice comes out slightly clearer than a whisper. Taro looks down at his shadow, thinking he must have lost it, until the shadow grows taller and smiles at him wide and maniacally. “Hehehehe! You must think you’re crazy, don’t you?” Taro speechlessly nods at his shadow. It jeers at him. “Don’t be scared of me. I come offering a deal.” Taro jolts backwards, aghast. “You’re a demon! Begone from here!” He turns his head as if the inability to see his shadow could make it disappear. “Ah! You insult me, Taro!” it exclaims. “I am much more powerful than a demon. Listen closely, Taro. I cannot save your wife, but I can still give you back your son. In exchange for something else, mind you.” 

Taro reluctantly raises his head to face the monster. “What do you want from me, ghost?” He can barely mutter the words. The shadow peels himself from the wall, moving closer to Taro to whisper in his ear. “I want to see Aushire fall.” This information confuses Taro. “The neighboring country? What do I have to do with Aushire?” Again, the ghost finds this incredibly hilarious. “Think about it, Hamano! Aushire, the kingdom protected by the goddess. HA! While the people of Aushire prosper in a modern age with cars and electricity, you, a lowly merchant, wait for your wife to die with no medicine and no hospital to save her. Doesn’t that seem unfair?”

Taro shakes his head. “It’s the way of tradition.” he sighs. “Tradition?! Your emperor demands you live in a bygone age, suffering in poverty and famine, all for some silly god who has obviously abandoned you. But I’m here now, and I’m offering you a new way of life. It’s a win-win, Mr. Hamano! You get your son back and you get to avenge your wife. What do you say?” Taro peers into the window, staring sadly at his wife’s lifeless body through the window. He stands up straight, lets out a sigh, and faces the shadow on the wall. 

“Alright. Deal.”

The shadow grins wildly, then suddenly bursts into a line of smoke, which shoots through the middle of his head. It leaves behind a small mark, shaped much like an eyeball. Taro gasps and doubles over, but quickly forgets about the shadow when he hears crying from inside the house.

*    *    *

In the basement, Taro is painting something on the wall. He meticulously, yet crazily, slaps shapes and lines together. He delicately places candles on the tub beneath the wall, lighting each one with a match. He steps back and admires his work for a minute, only to be disrupted by the cries of a baby coming from above him. He sighs and leaves the basement through a trap door at the ceiling. Sleepily, he goes through his regular routine, lighting a small fire, warming up some milk, and then raising his child from the crib. He gives the child it’s bottle, and it coos back at him, coercing a small smile from Taro. “What’s wrong little Kenichi, did you miss your papa?” While Taro rocks his son and watches the snow fall outside, Chaos watches through the eye Taro painted in the basement.

*    *    *

��Aw there he is! What’s up little Ken?!” A large man tosses up a now 6 year old Kenichi into the air. He laughs wildly. “Where’s your old man, huh?” Kenichi can barely answer between breaths of laughter. “Papa’s in the basement with everyone else!” The man smiles at him and sets him down, giving him a little nuggie. Kenichi’s smile fades as he walks away, opening the trapdoor and descending into the basement. The man pauses for a second, noticing Kenichi’s glum face. “Hey buddy, don’t look so glum! One day you’ll be old enough to see what’s in the basement, so be patient, okay? We won’t be long.” He smiles at him a bit and resumes climbing down the ladder. When he closes the door, Kenichi rushes over and listens through the door, trying to gather any understanding from the conversation.

“Do you have it?” Taro says quietly. “Yes” whispers another man. “Good. Now, it MUST have some sentimental value to you, a special memory, or it won’t work. Do you understand?” “Yes. It belonged to my daughter,” sighs the man. He hands a small decorative hair comb over. Taro holds it and looks fondly at it for a moment, and then touches the ring around his neck, reminiscing about his wife. “Okay. Let’s begin.” Taro spins around to face the tub, which is full of a peculiar black liquid. As Taro is about to drop the comb into the tub, the man stops him. “Wait! Wait--is...is it going to hurt?” Taro chuckles a little. “Yes. A little. But it’s only for a second.” They resume the procedure. Up above, all Kenichi can make out is a flash of light and a yell from the man with the comb, which startles him enough to run into his bedroom and hide under the covers. A minute later, the men rise from the basement, and Kenichi notices the man with the comb has fresh burns on his arms. They’re burnt in a shape, one that is much like the symbol on Taro’s forehead.

[rarestereocats]

Amelia departs on the enemy ship,  working out her payment with them so they can drop her off on the shores of some other port town.  She's to go on a diving expedition and explore a cave for some treasure to pay them back,  so with there still being a day of travel for her until they reach the landmark above said cave,  she gets situated in her quarters and meets her new roommates.  An interesting man with bronze skin and hair that seems to flicker like flames named Anayo and a snake-like lady named Lux.  When they all ask her about why she's in the predicament she's in currently,  she makes up a lie about how we mercilessly killed her boyfriend in front of her and then locked her in a cage with zombies.  You know,  just a typical Friday night for somebody out there.

But anyways,  she's somewhat sad to be leaving us all.  So as one should always do in times of stress,  take it out on your hair and ring in the emo new year.  She has Lux assist her in dying her beautiful,  rainbow hair that I spent a lot of time helping her maintain;  jet black instead so if we ever cross paths with her,  we won't recognize her that well.  After,  she has some poor man's dinner that only rubs in the fact she'll never see us again and makes her miss our darling cook,  Stabby.  Basically,  this entire day is a 90s sitcom montage of her time with us set to Green Day's "Good Riddance" and if this were played in front of a live audience,  this is the part where you're all supposed to obnoxiously go "aaaw" and mail us angry letters for making you sad.

Come the next day,  the enemy ship reaches the landmark and Amelia dives down into the waters and reaches the cave with Lux and Anayo.  Meanwhile,  the rest of us are messes in our own ways.  Owkbanok is busy learning some new spells,  but it's hard when he's entered Mom Friend Mode and is worried sick for our girl.  I'm a little sad cuz I really thought me and Amelia were becoming good buddies,  so now I'm trying to go through everything we have at our disposal to track her down.  TT is also working on tracking her down,  but she's pissed as all hell and wants to stab Amelia for being a traitor and a coward.  With some charts and TT's navigation skills,  we follow the path the enemy ship to a port town a day away,  but when we reach land,  there's no sign of the ship or Amelia anywhere.  We figure they must've dropped her off in the night and moved on,  so we head on down and begin to argue over the fate of our buddy.

TT's convinced she's sold our secrets (what secrets??) to nobles and is gonna use as a scapegoat to save her own her ass,  so she votes we stab her.  Neither me nor Owkbanok wanna go stab happy on Amelia and would honestly like to have her back in the crew,  so after some more arguing,  we come to an agreement.  We'll bring her back on board,  figure out what the hell happened,  and beat her up.  With this solid plan figured out,  I decide it's time to start whipping out some of my more disturbing magic to track her down.  She made a very crucial mistake in leaving her bleeding skeleton,  Romero,  behind when she fled,  so after ripping out his heart;  I use it to cast carrion compass,  which will take us to his leader.  His heart is creepily animated and floats up to lead on,  going right back out to sea,  which wasn't what any of us anticipated or wanted;  but after some complaining,  we file back onto the ship and hit the seas once more.

TT tries to say my pay should be docked for not whipping that spell out from the get-go,  but I was worried it wouldn't work over seas.  I make a point for myself that such magic isn't easy and when everybody who doesn't use magic immediately has an opinion that states otherwise,  most notably TT,  I go ahead and rip out Romero's new heart that he regenerated,  slap it in her hands,  and tell her to give it a go.  She sneaks off to go invisible to try and pantomime this shit,  but Owkbanok easily calls her out and it's finally settled that it is indeed not easy to do and my paycheck is safe...for now.  In the wise words of Celine Dion in a song made famous for a movie everyone pretends to enjoy;  the heart does go on...and leads us to a rock,  which it proceeds to slam into over and over again.

 Amelia's not in sight,  so we take this to mean that she has been tossed away to a watery grave,  but we still need to turn her body in for that reward money.  As I grab the heart and throw it into the ocean,  it dives on down,  so we do the same;  following after it as soon as we pull TT out of a rip tide.  Back to present time where our timelines finally meet up,  Amelia is standing in the cave with her new friends when in a disturbing turn of events,  the heart shoots out of the water and slams into the back of her head.  This understandably unnerves and startles not only Lux and Anayo,  but her as well as she whips around to punch it and then sees the rest of us climbing back onto land.  It's a very awkward and tense reunion,  TT jumping the gun and telling Amelia we're here to arrest her,  but Owkbanok clarifying that isn't the case at all.  After we catch onto too many of her lies,  Amelia finally comes clean and tells us she left cuz she didn't want to go back to her hometown of Carlo Rose or they'd have her killed.

She accidentally killed her father when her magic first manifested during an argument the two of them had.  With Anayo and Lux trying to shove their way into the conversation and our patience wearing thin as we wanna take Amelia and run,  Owkbanok kicks off the fight so we also take off with the treasure they claimed was down here.  While Lux tries to stop the fighting at one point and urges us to make a truce,  we're all stuck in the heat of the moment and soon;  she simply teleports her and Anayo away.  We wanna chase them down,  but we're as injured as they were,  so we head back to the ship to rest up and decide what our next course of action is.  We're not sure what to do about the fact that the lost princess is indeed our crewmate,  so Owkbanok suggests we all just gather some of Amelia's things to turn in and tell the nobles that that's all that's left of her and collect the reward.  It's straightforward enough,  so we move onto the next issue.  Treasure.

Lost in the cave somewhere and waiting for somebody to lay claims to it,  so we decide that Nathan will go down as a "peace offering".  He'll give them false potions of health that are actually acid and tell them that their ship sent him to help them out.  While he does that,  the rest of us will get into position to kill them both.  Another simple plan,  so it should go off without a hitch,  right?  Most of us get into position with no problem,  but as Amelia goes to get ready,  she trips on a rock and yells out;  alerting both Anayo and Lux to our presence and they immediately start wailing on poor Nathan.  Despite the earlier fight going terribly for us,  we turn this one around and with Anayo slain,  Lux races to his side and falls to her knees,  accepting her fate.  With an arrow to the head,  she falls and we do as we do and l o o t  t h a t  s h i t.

It's also apparently show and tell for demented ass spells today as Owkbanok goes and drinks a pint of Anayo's blood to learn a spell from him.  Could've been easier to swallow if he just asked the guy while he was alive,  but you know what?  If a man wants to drink a pint of another man's blood for the pursuit of knowledge,  who are we to fucking judge?  Not one to be shown up like that however,  I go and flay the skin right off of Lux's back because with my magic,  I'm gonna turn her ass into a treasure map.  I assure you,  this is all perfectly normal,  I say as I roll that skin map up and tuck it away in my bag of holding.  Even Amelia,  the literal necromancer,  is horrified by our joint display of the macabre.  Before we leave though,  she disguises Lux's corpse as herself;  flayed skin and all,  just to throw the enemy crew off our trail and discourage them from following us.

Cuz really,  who wants to go after the crew that apparently has blood-sucking half-orcs and tieflings with an affinity for making rugs out of flesh?