#one minute they are a nerdy little study group in the common room

[octaviasdread]

the dead poets are not good at whispering or even subtlety in general

so what does everyone at welton think is happening?

a cult? a really extreme homework club? an amateur shakespeare society?

whatever is happening causes charlie to willingly spend time with cameron, knox to run around reciting love poetry, and neil & todd to scream shakespeare at the lake and throw desk sets from the school roof

…does the society look like a matchmaking group from the outside!??

genuinely, I will die on the hill that stick and the sneezing boy know all about the club, they are literally sat eating with them when neil pulls out keating’s yearbook

so these two clearly want nothing to do with this mess, but the rest of the class? how do they explain a study group going rogue?

[mariaofdoranelle]

Lollapal-oops-a: part 1

Written for Rowaelin Month day 6 - Misunderstanding leading to disaster; @rowaelinscourt

Fic masterlist

Rowaelin Month 2024 masterlist

Hey guys!! I have three parts planned for this, all of them due this month <3

Warnings: none other than the prompt itself hehe

Words: 965

Aelin’s internship at Damaris Publishers had been a learning experience in many ways, but one she didn’t see coming is that, sometimes, you meet a scary-looking, highly muscled and tattooed IT guy, and the only bonding experience you’ll have with him is over the favorite drag queen you two have in common.

Or at least that was what got her rooted to the floor as she stared at the computer screen Rowan Whitethorn forgot to lock on his way to the break room. Five tabs open—two of some nerdy stuff she wouldn’t bother with, and three of Edna Thornie: her Vogue Get Ready With Me on YouTube, her special appearance at the Kinky Boots musical for the Doranelle tour, and another about her upcoming Lollapalooza show this weekend.

“Did he forget it again?” Fenrys asked on his way to her, palms rubbing with giddiness to prank his friend once again.

Aelin snorted. “Yep. Are we Ctrl+Alt+Arrowing him again?”

He made a show of stopping, both hands on his hips to think. “I dunno. Too basic, too predictable by now. Lemme think.”

She gave one last look at his screen—a giant picture of Edna Thornie in all her fake-titted glory, breastplate so big it could be a Z cup and unbelievably cunty go-go boots. Aelin really did love the drag queen’s artistry, but not on her office crush’s screen.

Not a crush, she had to correct herself for the first time, a few months after deciding he was too hot for his own good. Aelin had to get over it, and quick. One minute of silence to mourn the dick she’d never bounce on—because no straight man would watch Edna Thornie do her makeup routine on his own volition—then back to work.

She asked Fenrys, “Rowan, he’s a big fan of Edna Thornie, ain’t he?”

“Yep,” Fen said with a small smile. “If you look past that grumpy shell of his, you’ll find that he really loves her.”

That grumpy shell was what got her. One oat milk latte, and she wouldn’t be so confused to see a drag queen on his screen.

“And you don’t find it a little odd?” Aelin inquired while removing the batteries from his mouse. She was going to put a post-it with a winky face underneath it, a little mercy so he wouldn’t spend too long to find out why it isn’t working.

“Why would it be odd?”

“He doesn’t look the type, that’s all.” Aelin shrugged. “I never would’ve guessed.” She tried to conceal the disappointment in her face as much as possible, but it was hard to when she was one conversation away from asking him out.

Her friend unplugged one of the cables. Frowned at it. Took a moment to study Aelin’s expression, and it was a while before he said, “I think Edna’s come a long way as an artist, specially being part of a marginalized group, and I think it’s a good thing that Rowan is that supportive and proud of her.” He said with a finality that was odd for the lively man, Fenrys left no room for discussion. “Don’t you agree?”

“Yes!” Aelin blurted, only now realized how shitty it was of her to comment on that. Just because she misplaced Rowan as straight, it didn’t give her the right to talk about him like that. It was no one’s business, and so out of line of her. “Yes, of course. I’m a fan too, I’m going to her show at Lollapalooza, it’s just… um. Nevermind.”

“Okay, then…” he trailed. “Now, how long do you think it’ll take for him to find out if I cover the end of this cable with tape.”

Aelin’s eyes widened, and she easily entertained him, happy to have the weird conversation over. “You evil genius!”

Fenrys grinned, and today’s prank was settled. She wondered if they would get more ruthless with Rowan now that she knew nothing romantic would happen, but Fenrys was pure evil either way, so things would hardly change.

Once the shenanigans were done, Aelin decided to refill her water bottle, only to find Rowan hunched over his half-eaten snack.

“Fancy some coffee?” he asked, then pointed at one of the two coffee cups in front of him.

She grinned. “That’s so sweet, thanks.”

No, not just grinned. Aelin had kind of melted on the spot. Chocolate hazelnut cappuccino from the overpriced cafeteria, no special occasion at all. Family aside, she wasn’t used to get this treatment from guys who didn’t want to get in her pants. Every time he was sweet and thoughtful to her, it was just about him being a good person and nothing about getting Aelin naked. What an unusual realization.

“How’s that…” Aelin squinted her eyes at his prepped lunchbox because Mala forbid Rowan eats a non-muscle-building meal like the common folk. “Kiwi?”

“Very… sweet?” He frowned at it. “Consumable? Functional. Very Thursday snack.”

Aelin tilted her head, endlessly amused by this man’s inability to eat exclusively for pleasure. “You eat fruit every Thursday? As in, a calendar?”

His eyes crinkled with a good kind of intrigue, or so it seemed. “You do know that meal planning is quite common, right? And doctors say it’s best to eat fruit everyday—not just on Thursdays.”

“That’s so very fruity of you to say!” The joke was out before her mind could filter it out.

He laughed. “Well, I do like to eat fruit.”

Aelin shook her head with a small grin. “I bet you do.”

She wanted to ask if he’d be at Edna Thornie’s show this weekend as well, since Aelin was going alone, but it’d would give away that she had just snooped into his computer—why ruin the prank this soon?

A/N: I’m actually discontinuing this fic so Edna Thornie is Enda and they’ll hook up after the concert k bye love y’all xx

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[1kook]

ZOOM CALL

⇢ meeting one

jeon jungkook x (f) reader

⇢ series masterlist

summary: In a sea of black screens and faceless names, there’s one smiley boy that beams back at you through the dimly lit screen of your laptop, a tiny Jeon Jungkook (he/him) tacked to the corner of his window. genre: fluff, slice of life, smut (tags tba) warnings: jk is a ditzy lil nerdy sweetheart, college crushes, social distancing -_-, use of the zoom app, 1kook Builds a Healthy Relationship (Version 2.0) ratings: M (18+) wc: 3.2k

notes: well. here we are. as always i have to thank common sense (coincidentally named rumu @kigurumu​ ) for reading this over and pointing out little details <3 after much deliberation, i have decided to post our beloved zoom jk (see origin story here) in the form of short ‘drabbles’ depicting diff zoom calls with this being The Beginning™️ so please... bare with me </3 ty to all the nice ppl who have been excited for this, luv u very much 🥺

There are times in human history where words captivate their audience; times when single words or phrases wrap around the listener, melt into their bones and radiate warmth from within. But rarely does one word manage such an impact, rarely is it as revered and as cherished as the word cancelled is to most college students. 

Class is cancelled, group meetings are cancelled, the stupidly big semester final project was cancelled. You could cancel nearly anything, and in most cases, it would be beautiful. Cancelled meant more time to sleep in the morning, an afternoon free of pesky project partners, a pleasant reprieve from having to socialize with anyone. It was a glorious word with heavenly connotations that brought tears of joy to your eyes whenever you saw it appear in an email preview.

Except this one.

Spring Semester 2021: On-Campus Classes CANCELLED — Social Distance Measures as per State Regula…

Your last semester as a student in university… online? You couldn’t believe it. All these years of studying rigorously, cramming for exams, attaining a near perfect GPA— just to sit in your bedroom and stare at your computer screen for the last 15 weeks of classes? Had your friends not been there to mope with you, you’re certain a part of you would have gone on a rampage and cursed every bacteria known to mankind for doing this to you.

It was your last year, you whined in private (never in public; your friends had always considered you the mature one, the studious friend who kept everyone in order), yet here you were, setting up your desk for your last ever first day of classes with quite possibly the biggest pout on your face.

Zoom, your school had raved in an email a few weeks into the break, the desktop application that will keep us united in these trying times! As if, you huffed, giving the stupid application permission to connect to your computer’s camera and audio systems. What even was proper Zoom etiquette? Did you have to enter the meeting and greet every student cheerfully? You had always said hi to your classmates before, but something about saying it over a computer mic felt awkward.

The feeling doubled when you finally entered the meeting, only to be met with a sea of black screens save for your professor, who seemed to be clicking around his computer in a rather confused fashion. This was going to suck, you thought bitterly.

You had entered the room ten minutes earlier because, well, you always showed up to class a few minutes earlier than the scheduled meeting time. But was there any point to doing that here? Usually, the time before class was spent making small talk with said classmates, discussing the readings or the assignments, talking mindlessly about whatever came to mind. But something in your gut said it would be weird to do that now.

So you sit in silence for the next ten minutes, nervously tapping your pen against your desk as you wait for the professor to launch into whatever introductory monologue he had planned. You toy with your phone, scrolling through your twitter feed only to see a brigade of tweets from students all over the nation suffering the same fate as you. It was a trending topic.

Two minutes before the class starts, you hear the tell-tale ping of someone entering the meeting. You wave it off just like you have your other 41 classmates thus far, but then there’s the clearing of a throat, and a sweet, “good morning” filtering through your speakers. Lifting your head from the hunched over position you had assumed while glancing at your phone, you’re startled by the sudden handsome face that appears before you.

In a sea of black screens and faceless names, there’s one smiley boy that beams back at you through the dimly lit screen of your laptop, a tiny Jeon Jungkook (he/him) tacked to the corner of his window.

He’s nothing short of a dreamboat, soft and doughy cheeks that catch the hue of the screen light, highlighting his cheekbones in a faint blue color. Imploring doe eyes blinking widely at the screen as he clicks around, narrating his confusion in a low mumble (mic still on, how cute). Dark hair— was it brown? black? the pixelated screen made it hard to tell —messily pushed away from his face.

And his voice, oh his voice. It matches his gentle appearance perfectly. A soft snort. “Am I the only one here?” he says, thin lips pulled to the side in a bashful grin.

The professor laughs with him. “No, but you are the only one with your camera on,” he responds.

You’re not sure if it’s the professor’s teasing jab at literally everyone else or the need to support the cutie who smiles softly at screen, but suddenly, a handful of windows come to life. Your classmates fill up the screen, dressed in an array of styles with bedrooms (and, on the rare occasion, dorm rooms) to match. You nibble at your bottom lip, finger hovering over the button that will expose your appearance to the rest of your classmates

Eventually, the wordless peer pressure, the need to be a good student, and the supportive face of Jeon Jungkook (he/him) have you inhaling sharply before dutifully clicking the camera on. Your face appears on screen, nearly lost in the now overwhelming sea of faces. You’re one of the last ones to turn your camera on, both pages of your zoom meeting participant windows filled with the contrasting images of your classmates joining from their bedrooms. The professor claps in delight, and finally dives into the mandatory first day of classes spiel.

Syllabuses, group work, asynchronous lectures. You’ve heard these words all before, have practically memorized this class’s syllabus like the back of your hand. The pros of being an overachiever. The cons are, however, that you think every question your classmates ask is stupid. Read the syllabus, you want to scream. But it’s the first day of class. You don’t even know who your assigned study group partners (as mentioned in the syllabus) are and you certainly don’t want them to dislike you so soon. They can do that after the third meeting, but not today.

You’re not entirely surprised when your attention drifts away from the professor and the endless sea of stupid questions he’s left to answer. Even when you realize you’ve stopped paying attention, you don’t bother forcing yourself to tune back in. No, instead your focus drifts across the windows of faces.

Some of your classmates are as bored as you, glaring at the screen with disinterest, or glancing off to the side probably at their phones. So you start looking at their rooms, analyzing their decorations and posters as if you’re a professional critic on some house design show.

Jeon Jungkook (he/him) is in a rather plain dorm room. Plain light gray walls— or maybe it’s white —free of decoration. He’s sitting at the provided desk, just like you. The only reason you focus on that is because there’s a multitude of your classmates lazily sprawled across their beds, slumped over a couch. Hardly anyone is sitting at attention like you. Well, except for Jeon Jungkook (he/him). He’s practically exposing the entirety of his living accommodation with the way his camera is set up.

Above eye level, reaching just below his chest, with the room all laid out before you. A neat twin bed, sheets meticulously made. It almost looks like the decorative set at a furniture store with the way the comforter and variety of pillows are placed. He doesn’t seem to be in the crappy dorms you remember, which leaves you wondering where exactly he’s been assigned. You know certain sports clubs get fancier dormitories. Anyway, there’s a door off the side of the bed, a black guitar standing in the corner just behind it. You wonder what’s behind the camera, if maybe his desk is as organized as the rest of his room. Maybe his closet is his weakness, you muse, imagining poor Jeon Jungkook (he/him) with a tornado of a closet. But the thought doesn’t make that much sense, so you discard it quickly.

Anyway, his dorm room. It’s neat and orderly, makes you tilt your head curiously as he swivels from side to side before you. As for himself, he’s dressed in a plain white sweater, hoodie strings perfectly even. His hair has long since fallen over his forehead, but he’s pushed it over this time in a fluffy side part. He was adorably soft.

He’s paying attention to the professor like he genuinely treasures every word that comes off his tongue, nodding along understandingly. He’s even got a pencil in hand, leaning forward every few seconds to scribble something down hurriedly. Not like this is all on the syllabus or anything, you think.

But as soon as the thought crosses your mind, it’s dispelled just as fast. He’s only trying to be a good student, you scold yourself, feeling oddly mean for wanting to make fun of this sweet boy. Especially when he raises his hand a second later and asks the first good question of the day. Something about the grading scale for group projects and how much is determined by the group members themselves. You’re not too sure, the words get a little fuzzy when he starts speaking and his pink lips pull down into an endearing pout.

A couple minutes later and your professor finally wraps up the questions, telling everyone to email him if any other questions arise throughout the semester. Just as you’re sighing in relief, he utters those dreaded words: “Ice-breakers!” he exclaims, and the whole class grimaces, much to his amusement. He says something about feeling the excitement through the screen, but then changes gears. “Since it’s a little hard to talk to your neighbor, I’m going to test out the Breakout Rooms and see how that works, okay guys?”

You frown. Breakout Rooms? What on earth was that? Like most of your classmates, this is pretty much your first rodeo with the Zoom application. He was sending you all into small groups, where? The answer presents itself a few seconds later, a message box appearing on your screen.

The host is inviting you to join a Breakout Room: Group 4

Your professor is still chattering in the background when you nervously accept the invitation, his voice suddenly cut off as your computer jumps to a new loading screen. It takes a while before you’re suddenly dumped into a new room. And then you’re staring at your own face, blown up on your own screen in a rather uncomfortable way. Jeez, did you really look like this?

As soon as you get to picking at your appearance, your mirrored reflection jumps to the side, once, then twice more to fit the three new guests in your room. Silence fills your bedroom as you and your classmates all stare at each other nervously for a couple seconds, unsure of what to say. This was, after all, your first meeting.

Just as you’ve gathered all your courage to click your microphone on, the screen jumps around once more and suddenly Jeon Jungkook (he/him) is in your Breakout Room. Immediately, his surprised face melts into the most reassuring grin you’ve ever seen, and he’s practically jumping forward to turn his mic on.

“Good morning, everyone,” he says, smooth and low. It’s like the awkward tension melts away under the pressure of his pretty smile, your classmates responding back with polite hellos and good mornings to him. You barely get yours in before Jeon Jungkook (he/him) starts talking again. “So… how are you guys?”

His words, sweet and caring as they are, send the five of you into a rather mindless conversation. Talking about nothing really, just whatever comes to mind about the class, about the semester, about the remote learning. Then Jungkook— “just Jungkook is fine!” he tells the other four of you with that same too pure look on his face after someone refers to him by his whole name —starts talking about some movie he had seen on Netflix the other day, something his friend recommended to him. Truthfully, you have zero interest in the type of plot he is describing, and you can tell some of the other people in your group don’t either. But he’s absorbed in his storytelling, features lit up as he details every last plot point of the film like his life depends on it. There’s a wordless agreement to let him ramble on.

By the time Jungkook has finished his novella recapture of whatever movie he was talking about, a green message bubble appears at the top of your screen. It’s a message from your professor, who is telling you the small group meeting will end in a few more minutes.

“Aw, that sucks,” Jungkook laughs, rubbing at the back of his neck sheepishly. And then, “oh! We haven’t answered our icebreaker question yet!”

Ah, yes. The reason for this small group was to get to know each other, not for Jungkook to recount an entire two hour movie for you all. “Oh, right,” you agree, probably the first words you’ve said in the past five minutes. You navigate to the chat box, where your professor had hastily dumped the question before sending you all off. “What’s one thing you miss most about being on campus?” you read aloud, glancing back at the screen.

Your group mates are all in various states of blissful comfort, the gaps of their nervousness smoothed over by Jungkook’s bubbly personality, and the hesitation they’d shown at the beginning is practically gone. Someone steps forward and says something about the campus dining hall. Jungkook laughs, loud and airy, claps his hands all cute too. Someone else says the library because it was a good place to study. There’s a lull and you jump in quickly. “I think I’ll miss the couches by the gym in the student center the most,” you confess, though you doubt anyone knows which ones you mean. They were a set of brightly colored couches tucked into a cranny behind the Starbucks just outside the campus gym, avidly avoided by the gym rats who were determined to ignore the sugary drinks and snacks.

Apparently, the hiding spot isn’t as secretive as you thought. “Oh, the ones by the Starbucks?” Jungkook exclaims, excitedly looking at his screen. You have this fluttery feeling that he’s looking at you for the first time. You nod, and he quite positively beams. “I love those!”

“Yeah, I spend a lot of time there,” you say, though it’s a little stilted because you’re not exactly sure how you’re supposed to react to Jungkook’s enthusiasm. Though his outgoing personality cloaks you in comfort, his pretty smile has your heartbeat acting a little funny.

Jungkook’s got these huge eyes, blinking owlishly at you. “Really? So do I!” And then you both seem to have the same realization. His head tilts to the side cutely, an amused smile on his face, “I’ve never seen you there.”

“I’ve never seen you there,” you shoot back, a little snarkier than necessary, but Jungkook doesn’t seem to notice. His smile turns goofy.

“Woah,” he says in a rather dreamy tone, “isn’t that so cool? We spent so much time in the same place, but never crossed paths before,” he babbles. He’s stopped looking at his computer, leaning back in a sort of dazed manner with this sparkly look to his eyes, much to everyone’s amusement. Except yours, because frankly, it sounds a little bit like he’s describing— “fate!” he says suddenly, like it’s truly an aha! moment. He pauses, taps his finger against his chin. “Or anti-fate? I’m not sure. But it’s like— we could’ve met so many times before and we didn’t.” Doe eyes return to the screen, flickering around until they presumably land on you again. “What do you think, __?”

And he’s just so cute, makes the rigid shield around your chest soften for the slightest moment as you nod meekly. “Uhh, yeah. Fate,” you agree, and then get to hear him laugh and giggle for about three seconds before you’re suddenly thrown back into the larger Zoom meeting.

Weirdly flustered, you hurriedly click your microphone back off, and nearly contemplate the camera too. But then the professor is asking you all to share what you talked about and you’re resigning yourself to a few more minutes of screen time while the class wraps up. By the looks of it, not everyone had as an enjoyable time as you did. Part of you is thankful you didn’t get stuck in an awkward small group. The other part recognizes wholeheartedly that it’s all thanks to one smiley boy at the bottom of your screen.

“And group 4?” the professor asks, and you blink yourself back into attention. Before you can unmute yourself and answer for your group, Jungkook is beating you to it.

“We talked about a lot of things,” Jungkook answers cheerfully. From your view, you get a front row seat to the sheer power of Jungkook’s magnetic personality, watching as all your listless classmates suddenly snap back from their daydreams to zero in on whatever Jungkook is saying. He fills in the professor about what you talked about, from the movies to the couches, and you feel weirdly mushy when his eyes flicker across the screen before settling with a soft smile.

He can’t possibly be looking at me, you tell yourself. Your hand jerks forward to turn the camera off, but in your haste, end up knocking down the water bottle on your desk. You scramble to straighten it, thanking the universe for the fact you actually remembered to screw on the cap. You glance back at the screen, and nearly die when you catch sight of a giggly Jungkook, smile hidden behind an adorable sweater paw as he laughs at something on screen. Oh no, was he looking at me? you panic.

“Alright, everyone,” your professor says in that “I’m about to wrap this class up” voice. Too close to the screen, voice a little too loud. “Good meeting today, I’ll see you all again on Wednesday. Stay safe.”

“Bye!” Jungkook sings sweetly, and everyone else follows as they all bid adieu to the professor. Still a little frazzled from the possibility that Jungkook may have watched you flail around like a total loser, you take a second longer to turn your mic on. Your classmates quickly leave the meeting, leaving only a few stragglers until the very end.

Surprisingly, Jungkook is here too, brown eyes focused on the screen. You unmute yourself. “Um,” you stammer, eyes unwillingly flickering over to Jungkook who smiles at the sound of your voice. “Goodbye. Thank you,” you rush out, and then quickly leave the meeting as well.

With the meeting over, you’re left staring at the home page of the Zoom app, heart beating a little too fast to be normal. Your face feels warm, and your fingers tremble from some unfamiliar, giddy feeling in your chest. You exhale slowly, hand coming up to rub at your chin as if that will somehow explain the weird excitement from your Zoom meeting. Maybe it was just adrenaline, or nervousness, you try to convince yourself. After all, the first day of classes is always nerve-wracking.

Except when you navigate to your class page and begin to mindlessly scroll through the class roster, there’s a weird stutter to your heartbeat when you catch sight of that Jeon Jungkook (he/him) that appears halfway down the list.

Copyright © 2020, 1kook on tumblr. absolutely NO reposts allowed.

[joontier]

Subliminal in Scrubs | V1; report iv 

pairings: dr. jeon jungkook x female reader

chapter rating: NC-17 | genre: humor, romance

warnings: swearing

word count: 2.5k

g/n: Send me your thoughts?

[taglist] @nottodayjjk @ditttiii​ @zeharilisharaban​ @btsbunny07​ @turquoiseandplaidinautumn  @aamxxrii @codeinebelle ​

Subliminal in Scrubs (the records) |  navi. | m.list

Your phone blares at exactly 6:45AM, and a memetastic image of Chohee lights up your phone screen as you’re brushing your teeth. When you swipe to answer the call, you don’t even manage to get a word in when Chohee chatters you out of your sleep-deprived soul.  

“Just as practiced, I’m punctual, and you’re late.”  

Garbling out a reply about how it’s still five minutes prior to your agreed time, you tap your toothbrush loudly against the sink, likewise spitting out the foam from your mouth. “Fine, just hurry because I’m starving!”  

Being the gold-hearted person that she is (although that fact is not known to the public), your best friend had offered you a ride to the building where you’re scheduled to take the Korean Medical Licensure Examination today.  

The moment you settle yourself on the passenger seat, she greets you with a cheery “Good morning!” - one that was too cheery this early in the morning, and all the more way too cheery for a certain Kim Chohee. The two of you share a look and you lean in for a hug. “Hey, we’ll do just fine, okay? We’ve been studying our asses for this.”  

You don’t let go at once, looking up at her with a kissy face. She pushes your head backwards with a disgusted expression, keeping your face at an arm’s length. With an unattractive snort, you lean back in your seat, laughing your ass off at your poor attempt to lighten the mood.  

“Seriously, _______, I know you’ve been lusting after me for years even when you’re well aware of my ‘strictly beef’ diet,” Chohee states, dusting your imaginary germs off her shoulder. Turning on her Benz’s engine, she checks her reflection on the rear-view mirror before driving off.  

With both your hands occupied with the sandwiches you’d ordered from Subway, you use your pinky to connect your phone to play some Mozart via bluetooth. You try not to talk much about the test, knowing it will only cause unnecessary anxiety on both your ends.  

As Chohee leans towards you, you tilt her sandwich in her direction, letting her take a bite from her sub. “Hey, what’s an abscess again?”  

“Isn’t that more commonly known as boils? Built up pus within or below the surface of the skin?”  

Kim Chohee chokes on her BLT.  

“Pus?” she repeats, swallowing her bite with great strain. “Seriously? While I’m eating a sandwich? Couldn’t you be more subtle perhaps?”  

Equally just as surprised as she was, you narrow your eyes at her. “We’ve been studying medicine for the last six years! It shouldn’t be a surprise by now...and besides, we’ve heard and see a lot worse too...Would you rather have me say purulent exudate then? And waste my precious saliva on a six-syllable word rather than the common term for a liquid form of inflamm-”  

“Okay!” Chohee throws an arm up in defeat. “Sheesh _______! Don’t I deserve at least some gratitude for driving you to our exams?”  

“Plus we’ve already seen a cadaver too, which was supposedly one of the peaks of our med-student lives! What’s all this hype about some viscous mass on the surface of the skin?”  

Your best friend peeks at you from her peripheral vision, absolutely mortified. You love it.  

“Can you please remind me how we became friends in the first place?” Chohee shakes her head and increases the volume of the player as the droplets of rain start pouring down the windshield. “Anyways – I was meaning to ask the histological meaning of it.”    

“Oh, right,” you nod, recalling your notes, “well, it’s a localized collection of neutrophils and necrotic debris. Basically, it’s a suppurative inflammation which is associated with pyogenic bacteria and characterized by edema fluid admixed with neutrophils and necrotic cells. Staphylococcus aureus usually produces abscesses because it’s coagulase positive and coagulase helps the production of fibrinous material that localizes the infection.”  

As soon as you finish, silence takes over the car, and suddenly, a sniffle comes from Chohee’s side. With a matching frown, you best friend looks at you with shiny eyes. “Oh _______, what would I do without you?”  

With still half an hour to spare, you decide on relieving your bladder first before all the toilets get occupied later a couple of minutes before the actual exam. You take your time with it, even managing to put some effort in fixing your hair in clipping your fringe back so as not to eliminate all distractions possible during the exam.  

While looking through the large panel windows on your way back from the comfort rooms, you spot a familiar face – the last person you’d want to see on such an important day. Perhaps your prayers weren’t loud enough to actually reach heaven.  

There Jeon Jungkook was at the end of the hall, walking like a newly-canonized saint in all his glory. Most (if not all) of the female onlookers stare at him as he passes by, with Jungkook seemingly unbothered by their unwavering attention. You aren’t one for exaggeration, but these women look like they’re willing to worship the ground he walked on.  

Your nerdy, anti-Jeon Jungkook ass quickly hides beside a nearby locker, not wanting to be ‘graced’ by his presence, just as some girl coined a few moments ago as she headed to the toilets with her friends, collectively gushing over the boy.  

The popular kid turns to his right and you swore you’d never prayed harder and faster than any other time in your life. Your room assignment was just the one by the corner...and if he could just make a few more steps and head straight to the next classroom a-and...nope. It’s official. The universe loved shitting on you.  

Jungkook enters room 132, the very same numbers indicating your room assignment for the licensure exam. You ball up your fists in your spot by the lockers, releasing all your pent-up frustration in the simplest and least violent way possible: a long, tedious exhale.  

Gathering up all your self-control, you re-enter the classroom with an inward grimace, desperate to not have Jungkook’s eyes meet yours. He’s looking for a seat, and with all the back rows already occupied, he’s stuck with picking one from the first two rows.  

He’s already stood near the seat you’ve picked and you bore holes into the back of his head with your fake telepathy, silently ordering him to pick a chair on the other side of the aisle instead.  

Just as you had not wished for, Jungkook plops his huge ass backpack on the chair next to yours. You tread back to your seat as discreetly as possible, avoiding his gaze at all times as he rummages through his military backpack. What the fuck is in that thing in the first place? You won't be surprised if he manages to pull out a whole microwave inside – and yet funnily enough, he can’t seem to own a single damn pencil.  

As you were minding your own businesses (hopefully it stays that way for the rest of eternity), you catch the other students discussing surgical cases last minute.  

“Hey, which artery is the one for transection for an epidural hematoma?”  

“Was this the kid that got hit by a fastball in the head?”  

“What happened?”  

“Poor boy got hit in the temporal area during a baseball tournament. Remained conscious during the rest of the day but during the same evening he gets a severe headache with vomiting and confusion. When they got to Severance he got scheduled for immediate surgery for epidural hematoma.”

“That sounds awful…”  

“I’m not sure which artery it was again though…”

If that were the case...then it’d be the transection of a branch of the middle meningeal artery...but then you wouldn’t want to answer that out of the blue and get mistaken for being too snoopy…

Instead, you reach for the bottle of water by the legs of your chair, likewise hearing the same answer coming out of Jungkook’s mouth in a whisper. Huh. You raise a brow. Well, there was a major chance he knew the case since he came from Yonsei too, just as you had speculated from some of your roommates who seemed like they came from the same school after mentioning Severance Hospital.  

The group continue discussing their answers when this girl, who had an obnoxiously unnatural high-pitched voice, approaches Jungkook.  

“Jungkook-oppa?”  

Oppa? OPPA?!

You wanted to throw up. This girl looked at least two-three years older than him. At the least. Guess Jeon was really more of a fuckboy than Chohee would ever admit. “We were just discussing something and we’re really unsure of our answers, maybe a smart oppa like you would know?”  

With as much discretion as you could muster, you adjust in your seat, leaning a little bit towards their conversation as you eavesdrop like the nosy person that you are.  

“The surgery was a transection of the meningeal artery,” says Jeon nonchalantly like it’s the most basic thing in the world, still scrolling through his phone. Silence ensues after that. That’s it?! He’s not even going to bother explaining-  

Jungkook exhales as he puts his phone down. “Epidural hemorrhages result from a rupture of one of the meningeal arteries, as these arteries supply the dura and run between the dura and the skull. Plus you said temporal area right?” he asks, facing one of the guys.  

“The artery involved is usually the middle meningeal artery - a branch of the maxillary artery, as the skull fracture is usually in the temporal area. Since the bleeding is of arterial origin, symptoms are rapid in onset even though he seemed normal for a few hours. If they didn’t bring him to the hospital that same evening, he could’ve had tentorial herniation and would have eventually died.”  

As much as you hate to admit it - you’re beyond impressed. Chohee always stays true to her word, but it doesn’t change the fact that he was still a jerk for clearly cutting the line at the subway.  

The girls coo over him, praising him over how cool he looked by explaining his answer. Jungkook settles back on his seat like he hadn’t just perfectly given an on-point pathological explanation for a neuro case.  

The group continues their review, until they’ve come to another question they’re unsure of. “Jungkook-ssi, would you know where the rupture of a berry aneurysm of the Circle of Willis would likely produce hemorrhage?”  

With only ten minutes left, you’d usually be preparing yourself mentally but this group and Jungkook’s intervention has you all ears once more. Nothing wrong with some last minute review, right?  

“It’s the subdural space.”  

Wow. Okay, quick and close but wrong. Impressive wit though.  

You open your mouth to say something but you hesitate as it dawns on you that you really aren’t part of this group and you’re not the one being asked. Jungkook not missing a beat gets a collective ‘ooh’ from the group, who’s clearly impressed at how quickly he’s answered the question.  

Meanwhile, your conscience is making you contemplate on your earlier hesitation with the voice of the angel on your right shoulder telling you it isn’t right to let the wrong answer pass just like that, especially on a day like this. The devil on your left, however, tells you otherwise. You go with the former.  

Amongst their murmurs of mutual praise for Jungkook (you bet this man is rejoicing inside with all the attention he’s getting, despite looking nonchalant), you take a deep breath and say the correct answer, voice coming out louder than expected.  

“Excuse me?” another ‘spectator’ says, jutting her chin towards you.  

“I said,” you look up at her, “it’s actually the subarachnoid space.”  

“Are you sure?” she retorts.  

Seriously? Just because you’re not some fuckboy jock who smolders at all boobed humans means you can’t be sure with your answer?  

“Hey! I know you!” Someone exclaims from the side, causing everyone to turn their heads toward him, “You’re the foreigner valedictorian at SNU!” Similar to their earlier praises directed towards Jungkook, the same dudes marvel at your most recent accomplishment. You give a shy smile in return, quietly thanking the stranger for the sudden confidence boost.  

“Jungkook-oppa is also the valedictorian at Yonsei.”  

Well, that didn’t last for long...somebody has always got to rain on your parade. You won’t allow this girl though, not today.  

You purse your lips, collecting your thoughts first before explaining it to them. “Subarachnoid hemorrhages, although they are much less common than hypertensive intracerebral hemorrhages, but the former are...more often than not...resultant of a rupture of a berry aneurysm.” You pause momentarily when someone drags his seat closer to yours, “Go on please.”  

“Right, um...berry aneurysms are most commonly found at the Circle of Willis, usually by the junction of the communicating artery and the cerebral artery. Chances of rupture increase with age and cause marked bleeding into the subarachnoid space and produces severe headaches.” The same dude earlier blinks at you, urging you to explain further, “uh...additional symptoms may include vomiting, pain, stiffness of the neck, and papilledema. Death may follow rapidly as well.”  

A few from the people gathered around your seat clap their hands, along with compliments and offers along the lines of marriage and organ swaps.  

Someone mentions seeing the proctor approach the room and the group immediately disperses, everyone rushing back to their seats as quickly as possible. A middle-aged man enters, tells everyone to bring out their pencils and place their stuff by the platform, then momentarily leaves for the restroom.  

Jungkook fishes through his bag, turning each pocket inside and out over and over again. There’s no way this kid actually-- “Shit, where did that pencil go?” he murmurs, going through his bag once more. Looking away, you bite your lip to stop yourself from snickering. Jeon Jungkook is definitely on a different level.  

As expected, your entertaining seatmate calls you and asks for a pencil. With a deceivingly enthusiastic nod, you retrieve a pencil from your case just beside your chair. Your life after meeting Jungkook at the subway had finally led to this moment. He clears his throat and you figure it’s signaling the coming of another obnoxious comment.  

“Oh, I’m sorry, this wasn’t meant for you,” you look at him with the most apologetic look you can muster. Then you look at him, down then up, just as he had done back in the library, you smile widely before winking at him, making him hand your extra pencil over to the guy sat next to him, “Thanks, babe.”  

Jungkook scowls hard and you rejoice inside your head, making sure that your face doesn’t register the slightest bit of jest. His  scowl however, does not last for long. “Hmm, you’re the girl from the library, right? Smart and feisty...maybe you are my type after all,” he murmurs, tongue poking his cheek. You scoff loudly, scrunching your face in disgust. “No thank you.”  

“Oppa,” the girl’s shrill voice calls him one more time and you face forward to freely roll your eyes. If you aren’t mistaken, there’s even a hint of mild annoyance on Jungkook’s features. “Don’t mind her, oppa. You can have my extra pencil instead.” She tsks. “Some people just don’t know when to quit.”  

At least she got something right this morning: you don’t know when to quit. 

© joontier 2021

[notsolong-pause]

ship requests

“Hey 👋 . Can I get a male HP ship (from both eras if possible) pls . Thank u so much ! . So I m a Gryffindor (with a bit of Slytherin ) . In my free time , I would love to read fantasy or sci-fic novels or facts maybe , listen to music , research about anything I want to , do something my parents denied me off maybe . If my friends are available , I'll also go downstairs with them and play . I m not as such interested in sport but I love to play cricket and badminton . My hobbies are dancing , horseriding , reading , researching , cyber and swordfighting (I haven't done it yet tho). I love the trope of fake relationship or enemies to lovers

Next is my personality . Well , I can be shy if I m not comfortable with the person , but if I am then I am very talkative . I don't trust ppl at the beginning until they prove themselves . I m very reliable and trustworthy but I tend to hide my emotions . I like my privacy, I don't even share that with my bestie sometimes . I come off as a rebel and I can get annoyed very easily . I love to organise a room . Everyone comes to me for advice . I also have a very good sense of humour which comes out in front of ppl I'm comfortable (they say I never used to fail to surprise them with my hidden qualities) . I m also quite modest . I m a risk-taker and I always stand up to my friends , I also have their back sometimes . I can also be a bully to my enemies or my friend's enemies but only if they start it first . Idk what is it , but ppl tell me I carry a powerful aura and many boys get attracted to me . Also , the popular ones used to attract to me a lot because I could be seen as a quiet nerdy girl . I come off as very unique at first meeting . I m practical with my decisions but as said , I hide my emotions or else the emotions would have led me. I m also a human lie detector , or that's what my family tells me . The thing that stands out in me isy dressing style . I am very curious. I m also very much mysterious . I m loyal to a fault . Now my flaws are that sometimes I don't believe my friends at all and it hurts them since they ask me to be honest and I tell them the truth . I can be blunt and cold without realising it but I don't mean to . I am an extrovert so keeping me from doing something can make me insecure . I m sensitive to criticism . I can be super suspicious, like a looott . I hate when ppl try to control me, even my parents so I end up going against them or I follow their instructions half-heartedly . I can be very very stubborn . I also get many intuitions but I ignore them . I hate when ppl are unreliable , everyone's lazy but atleast they should do their work after some rest . I also hate arrogant boastful PPL . I hate when someone disrespects me and I immediately cut them off from my life . I hate lame excuses given by the ppl whom I expect something to do and they didn't. I am very patient but once they cross their lines , they wish they hadn't . I guess this is too much ? (Lol sorry but excited ) Thank u so much for ur time dear 💗”

a/n: Hi! Thank you for so many details!! It’s lovely. You also asked for TMR ship, so I’ve decided to do a HP form one era and one for TMR. Hopefully, you are okay with that:)

p.s.: sorry for being a Draco slaughter. i’m also doing all the other requests, thank you for them!! they are going to be trade in a day or two. sending love <3

Harry Potter:

I ship you with Fred Weasley 

(so badly, you’re a perfect match)

First of all... being stubborn and taking risks is something that you probable have in common, which is going to create a perfect enemies to lovers dynamic. Maybe academic/prancing rivalry?

You constantly mocking each other, but not meaning any harm or anything, even though others might think that you hate one another

Him always helping you to break the rules if needed, but still making sure that everything is alright, and everyone is safe. And you would keep an eye on him back, supporting him when he doesn’t know what to do

He would be surprised when you started to open up, and crack jokes, but would love them so badly. And he definitely is very grateful whenever (and if) you chose to tell him something private, and wouldn’t tell anyone else even if he was tortured

You would always give amazing ideas for the shop products. And he would be like: “Where do you know that from?” “Don’t know, just thought it was interesting and decided to investigate”

You were walking in the dull lights of a corridor from the late detention in the Snape’s dungeons. You got this one for arguing with a certain Weasley. This was entirely his fault, though, but he didn’t get caught, and you could still see the stupid smirk on his stupid face when you were assigned to come down here after classes. The Slytherin do was just nearby, and you heard a couple of voices around the corner. You were hopping these were some of your friends from Slytherin, but as you listen closely you herald none other than Malfoy. “These Weaslebeeys are ignorant trash just like their father. Who’s would willingly study what muggles’ life’s are like? That’s just dumb”you didn’t know whether he was just showing off in front of his friends or if he was being serious, but you were furious at the moment.

“Malfoy!” - you energetically approached the group.

“Another gryffindor”, - he smirked. “Why don’t you spend an evening at your dorm or some other lame place?”

“Cut it. Take it back” - you face was almost stone cold. Eyes glimmering dangerously in the flickering light.

“Are you defending the Weaslebees?” - he grimaced, being so proud of himself for no reason.

“It’s not their name, and they don’t need any defense. You’re being an arrogant prick towards my friends, and I’m not going to tolerate that.” - you were stiff, your fists clenched in order to hold back the anger. How dared he speak in such diminishing manner about people 100 times better than him!

“What are you going to about it?” He replied cheekily, stepping forward.

“Well... I don’t know, how about TheLocomotor Wibbly!” - you were gripping tightly onto your wand, and Draco suddenly fell to the floor. His legs turned to jelly.

“You little...” one of his friends pointed your wand towards you, opening his mouth to jinx you back. Suddenly there was a loud bang, everything was covered with the thick smoke, and you were pulled to the corner. You instinctively pointed a wand on the person in front of you, still unable to see anything.

“Easy, lady” you recognized the voice. “Fred? What are doing here?” you were genuinely surprised, and started wondering how much has he heard. “Came to rescue you from the Snape’s claws” he smirked. “Why?” you didn’t understand a thing. “No fun being brilliant if you can’t see that and get jealous” - he cocked his eyebrows. You huffed back. “Well, thank you, I suppose.” “Oh good, I thought I’d never hear that”. You surprised a smile. “Let’s move already”.

“By the way”, he stopped you, “did I hear you calling me a friend?” You nudged his shoulder. “Don’t think too much of it, Weasley”.

The maze runner:

I ship you with Gally

He’s the one to understand you not opening up fully and immediately and keeping things to yourself for 110%. He’s mysterious himself, and he can give you every time in the world (sorry, i’m love him sm)

Again... the enemies to lovers dynamic, ESPECIALLY considering the whole thing with him killing Chuck (still hurts, though).

He can be very protective from time to time, so you can have “Because I care for you!!” arguments when you’re being reckless and decide to risk in order to save him.

He's honestly the sassy king of the show. Taking your sense of humour in account, I belive that he would really appreciate that you have it and can back him up. So you would exchange jokes back and forth

He's also absolutely giving you every freedom in the world not even attempting to control you or tell you what to do, he would only give out advices. And as far as he realises you're sensitive to crticizm, he starts to control himself in order not to hurt you.

"Please, never do that again". You and Gally were walking around the Last City, back to the shelter.

"Do what?" You asked, raising your head to the boy slightly ahead of you.

"You know what I'm talikng about". He turned his head to you, and stopped in the shaddow of the narrow street between the houses. His gaze was pretty serious, and both of you were extremely tired after yet another mission in attempt to undermine the existing regime.

"I don't think I do". You looked up at him with the confusion in your eyes.

"What you did back there was very risky, and you could have not make it. Don't risk like that ever again".

"But the cranks would've gotten you then". You protested. In your opinion, what you did was the only option.

"I appreciate the concern, but I could I handle it". He was starting to get stubborn, while you were getting angry.

"That's not true. One of them was hanging on your throat. That's not something people cal 'I handle it'". You threw your arms in the air, gesturing.

"I'm not letting them take me instead of you!" Gally was almost shouting at this point.

"Well, I'm not letting them take you either!"

"Great!"

"Great!"

You both went silent and were walking angrily towards your shelter, turning, sneaking, and hiding.

"Gally". You called in a few minutes. "It's just that I really care about you".

"I know". He told you, looking back again. "Just promise me, you're going to be careful".

"You know I really can't promise, but at least I'll try".

[ryan-spinel]

CHAPTER TWO

“Perri's Letter and Spinel's Revenge”

It was another boring day at school. Today I avoided Steven and Connie, at least until things cool down. Now Perri and I are walking to her house, later going to see Lexi. I suggested we go right after school, but poor Perri had a meltdown when that phone addicted bitch Sophie teased her about liking Lexi. Saying “A spaz like you can't date someone like Lexi Joel. You have a better chance at hooking up with your catnapping psycho of a friend.”

I would have said “go fuck yourself and stuff your mouth with a dumb jocks cock.”But I kept silent to avoid more trouble. Even though she's a threat to my relationship with Steven, she went too far attacking my wittle buddy. After today, she will pay.

“So. How you feeling bud.” I comforted

“A little better Spinel, thank you, for walking with me.” Perri lamented

She didn't seem any better, so I stopped walking and placed my hands on her shoulders. She jolted a little bit, she does that when someone touches her without her knowing, I need to stop doing that.

“Perri, please don't worry about Sophie. She will never bother you again.” I reassured Perri

“You don't know that Spinel, you can't just make her disappear.” Perry doubted

The truth is I can, and I will.

“Just, please trust me okay. She won't hurt you anymore.” I asserted, starting to get annoyed

“I-,hmm. Okay Spinel, I trust you. Now can we please go to my place.” Perri faltered, noticing me getting annoyed.

Even though Perri and I been friends for a while, there were times I lost my shit. One time in elementary 5, Perri had this cute green alien head chewy. Back then Perri would chew on the collar of her shirt, so Brooklyn got it as an alternative. Later, a boy by the name of Ronaldo ask if he could play with it. Perri didn't say anything, she looked away from the fat little shit. He started to get annoyed and grabbed her arm. When I saw tears running down the poor kids face, I said. “Don't touch my fucking friend, she doesn't want to share. So piss of you bitch-ass comic book reading fat pussy.” After I stand up for my nerdy buddy, the little shit started to ball his eyes out. So I got detention for the weekend, and then Grandmother Whitney put a bar of soap in my mouth. She's an amazing Grandmother, but if you push her buttons she can be a mean old hag.

We finally arrive at Perri's place, it's a cute little cabin-like house. With a more rustic style unlike my home, a traditional Japanese minka. Once we walked to the door, we were greeted by the outgoing Brooklyn Fitzgerald. A fierce and friendly soul, who looks out for her friends. She works as a lumberjack at the local saw mill, fell in love with the stubborn lawyer Pearl Harpor and once one first place in the wood chopping competition at the county fair. Brooklyn was always that person you feel comfortable around, she is a great role-model for Perri and always wants the best for her. She's like the cool aunt I never had, and the only adult I feel comfortable around that isn't my family.

“How you doing kids, I made a tray of onigiri for an afternoon snack.” Brooklyn greeted

“Thanks mom, we're here just to get a bite to eat, spinel and I are going to a study group at the library.” Perri replied

Perri doesn't lie often, but she's surprisingly good at it. It's scary if you think about it.

“Well okay Perri, but remember. Always have your phone, come back home before six, and don't walk in Black Hawk Clan territory.” Brooklyn directed

“Well of course mom.” Perri acknowledged while to two of us walk inside

Their house interior was like one of the those shacks in the movie Friday the 13th. Brooklyn kept it very well maintained, she may be a lumberjack but she's a amazing carpenter.

“I'll be back Spinel, I'm just getting some things from my room.” Perri called, going to grab the letter

“Alright Perri.” I concurred while eating some homemade onigiri

“So, umm. Spins, how's Perri doing.” Brooklyn worried, she's not always the serious type. But when she is, you need to listen and shut up.

“She's, okay. Why do you ask?” I denied, having a good feeling what she's going to say.

“I got a call from the school, saying that Perri had a meltdown.” Brooklyn took a deep breath and continued. “Spinel, I know your aware that Perri is a little different than the other kids. She thinks in a different way and does things differently.” Brooklyn fretted

“I think you are aware of this Spinel, but Perri has Autism.” Brooklyn said looking that she's not finished speaking.

I was aware that Perri isn't like other kids, that why I like her. I love that she would ramble on and on about robotics, AI and Elon Musk. I love that she has that burning passion to expand her learning, even if it's just one topic. In a way, Perri's like a little sister to me. I love her because she's unique, not mediocre like those bimbos at school. She's her own person and doesn't follow a crowd.

“There were many incidents that kids would tease her because she's on the spectrum. They would tease her for being jumpy, they would pick on her because she wouldn't play with the other kids. And let's not forget the time a student grabbed her over a god damn chewie.” Brooklyn bawled, on the verge of tears. Even someone as strong as her can feel defeated sometimes.

“I'm scared spinel, I'm scared that my little girl will get herself hurt. After the diagnosis her father couldn't take it and left. Saying that he wanted a normal child with a normal life. Pearl has a hard time dealing with Perri sometimes, but she still cares about her. All I ask is Spinel, please look out for her.”

“Brook, things won't be like this forever. There's a lot of people with autism and live great lives. Overtime they grow and learn how to cope, Perri's still a kid. She's going to be an amazing person one day. Building robots or something. The point is that sometime people outgrow these problems, it's sometimes doesn't bother them or they cope with it. Your very lucky to have a daughter like Perri. You just have to remember that every successful person had those days that they want to give up. But they keep pushing until they reach their goals. Just like Perri.” I monotoned

“You maybe right Spins, Perri has been growing up. It just seems like yesterday she didn't need her chewy anymore.” Brooklyn hoped

“See, everything's going to be okay. Sophie won't bully her anymore, I promise.” I concluded

“Alright Spinel, lets go to the library now. ” Perri intrupted

“Be safe girls, look out for one another.”

It took us 30 minutes by bus to arrive at the Black Hawk clan's main nest, I don't know why they would call it a nest but whatever. Their nest was a giant old warehouse outside of town, it had a barbed wire fence all around the headquarters. Like those fences you see in prisons. There was a giant chain link fence for the entrance, two bikers were guarding it carrying AK-47s.

“Yo what the fuck, you can't be-, ohhhhhh. It's the catnapper. What business do you have with the Black Hawks.” Thug one marveled

“Is that what they're calling me now, it was psycho bitch last week. We don't what any trouble, we just want to see the road captain.”

“Wait are you talking about, Lex. Hah,well Spins, we can't let you just see the road captain. You have to talk to the founder first, she decides not us.” Thug two announced

“Oh for the love of god.” I whispered to myself

“Well, can we see. Fucking, Jasper or someone.” I badgered

These biker act so tough and fearless. But really, their just a bunch of leather-wearing douches.

“Ahhhhh, if it'll make you shut the fuck up then sure. ” thug one complained

The two annoyed thugs opened the gate, Perri and I walk cautiously into the nest.

Inside the warehouse wasn't any better than the outside. On the left side, there was a bar with tables, chairs and stolen arcade game machines. The right side was their business operation, with safes, factory equipment and a security system. Every biker gang has their source of income. It can be drugs,weapons, cigarettes or anything valuable on the yami-ichi.

The Black Hawks are the kingpins in the drug industry, but they don't just sell any type of drug. They created their own drug that is booming in the Japanese black market. It's called Menohoyō, meaning eye-candy in Japanese. Menohoyō is made just like regular eye-drops, because it is eye-drops. The only reason why it's addictive and illegal, is because it's made of 45% of diethylamide. A main chemical component to make LSD. There's been cases all across the world, reaching places like Brazil, United States and even Russia. There has been many gangs and drug cartels trying to replicate this drug, but all of them failed. Today, the Black Hawks dominate the drug industry, even bribing politicians to keep their business running. It's greasy business, that's why I want Lexi to get out when she still has the chance.

In front of us are the three masterminds of the whole operation.

Jasper Alder, the founder of the gang. Sitting on an old puke green recliner and smoking a five inch Pyramid cigar. She was born in Tokyo and was a target for bullying because she has vitiligo. Due to the bullying she became a mean bitch, once she broke a kids arm because she called her giraffe. Later in life, Jasper got into bodybuilding and motorcycles. Causing her to follow the wrong crowd. She got involved in a lot of crazy shit involving rival gangs. Once she turned twenty-three, she created the Black Hawk Clan. She called it that because one day, her father and her were hunting hawks. A giant common black hawk attacked her father and scratched his throat, causing him to bled to death in the middle of the woods. Jasper manage to shot the hawks wing and flew off. For three nights she was searching that hawk. Later found it on the ground near an old Japanese Wisteria. Jasper chose not to put the bird out of its misery, instead she watched it bled out for three minutes. So long story short, she's twenty-five and runs a drug cartel now.

On her left was the president of the clan, Eleanor Monsoon. She was Jasper right-hand gal, those two used to rob gas-stations when they were teens. Eleanor was also known for her great grandfather being in the Imperial guard divisions during WW2. That's where she gets her fierce comanding attitude.

On the right was the Vice President of the clan, Persephone Windsor. Nothing to special about her, all I can say is she's a snobby bitch born in a very rich family, she supply's most of the equipment and weapons. She's a narcissist and a manipulator who will destroy lives to get her way.

“(Puffing a smoke) Well, I didn't expect to see the pip-squeak and the catnapper today. ” Jasper snarled while inhaling on her cigar.

“Let me do the talking Perri, I got this.” I whispered to Perri

“Hi Jasper, hows the gang and so. Also can we talk to Lexi.” I urged, trying to convince the butch

“(Puffing a smoke). Well Spins, if you have business with the road captain you have business with me. Now spill the beans crazy.” Jasper chided

“It has nothing to do with.Business. We want to see Lexi, because-”

“Because I want to get to know her better, and hopefully she'll get out of this dirty, greasy motorcyclist club you call a business.” Perri interrupted me and dared Jasper

Thanks a lot Perri, we're fucked.

“How dare you, a worthless pest like you speaking to the founder like-” Persephone chastised

“Wait. Hold on your saying you want to hangout and bond, with the black hawk clan road captain. Out of all the nerds at your snobby school. You choose an angsty, hot-headed, with drugged up parents and possibly slept with more guys than you know how many bones are in the human body. So tell be spaz, what makes you think a nerd like you, can ever be with someone as fucked up as Lex. Because honestly, you can do better.” Jasper insulted

I saw that Perri was starting to get upset, but instead being sad, she got mad.

“You, you don't know anything. How dare you talk to someone like that, your not any better you, you, you f-f-fucking clod.” Perri exploded

It would take a tiny miracle to get us out of this shit.

However, the three bikers looked at each other with confusion. There was a silent pause, until.

“...............Haaaahahahahahahahaha.hhaaaaaaahaaahahahaahahahahhaaaahahah.” The three clan leaders burst with laughter

Perri expression turned back to sadness, trying to hold in her tears.

“Hahahaaahhaa, is,haha, is that the best you got tiny,hahhahaha. That's fucking pathetic, hahaha. Oh look at me, I WUV Lexi, hahaha.” Jasper mocked

I could see Perri starting to sob, I wanted to say something but that would be a suicide mission.

“Perri and Lexi sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-” the three clan leaders laughed and mocked

“What the fuck is happening, it's like a fucking circus in here. ” Lexi interrupted

Thank God she's here

“Perri, Spinel. What are you guys doing here.” Lexi gasped

“We were going to see you, until these donkey's stop us from doing so.” I explained

Lexi then turned her attention to the brainy-baby.

“Hey, hey, hey. Perri, my dude. I'm here, it's okay.” Lexi tried comforting Perri

“(Whimpering) it's good to see you again rockstar.” Perri sniffled

“It's good to see you to buddy.” Lexi sympathized

Lexi then turned her attention to the three douches

“What the fuck did you three do.” Lexi accused

“Lex, know your place. You do not bark at me, or I'm sending you back on the streets like the runt you are. ” Jasper retaliated

“Well I guess you have to put be back on the fucking streets, because no one talks to my friends like that.” Lexi condemned

It warms my cold heart to see Lex care so much for Perri, it's so sweet.

“Ah you fucking bitch, alright. You can see your, friend now.(inhaling on her cigar).” Jasper said in defeat

“Come on Perri, is there something you wanted to tell me.” Lexi adviced

“One second Lexi.” Perri protested

She turned her direction towards me, running up to me and giving me a hug. It was a tight hug, like a bear hug.

“You are the greatest friend in the world, I'm so lucky to have met you.” Perri chirped

I still didn't understand this platonic affection, this is the second time in a row, and I don't feel anything. My heart feels heavy and silent, there's no emotion. Why am I like this.

But to make her feel better, I hugged her back.

It lasted for 3 minutes, everyone in the warehouse was staring at us. But I didn't care, as long as she's happy.

She finally let go and walk towards Lexi, both of them waving goodbye to me. I guess it wasn't such a bad day after all.

“Hold on Spinel, just a minute.” Jasper asserted

I spoke to soon.

“Even though I'm letting your friend hang with the road captain, you still have to do something for me in return. ” Jasper decided

“Jasper. I can't be your drug mule.” I stated

“Don't worry your panties off, your not delivering drugs. I've chosen something that you may like. Do you know Sophie Turner.” Jasper explained

“What about her.”

“She hasn't been paying her IOU's for the Menohoyō's she's been buying for her parties. She keeps saying “My dad is rich, I'll get your money, stop bugging me, bla bla bla.” So because of her I'm losing money, she's my top buyer in Akuma no tochi. So what I need you to do is, take her out.” Jasper offered

Well isn't that pure irony.

“I think I can do that Jasper, but I'm going to need some equipment.” I demanded

“Sure, anything. You just can't tell the clan was involved.” Jasper added

“I need a hacksaw, trash bags, bleach, cleaning supplies, nails and the key to the saw mill.” I listed

“Done. Go to our SGT at arms, Ruth. She'll get you what you need. Remember Spinel, this never happened.” Jasper concluded

Once I reached the exit, a familiar voice called out for me.

“Spinel, Wait. I want to talk to you!”

Well what do you know, I thought Ryan was the last person who would talk to me here.

“Listen Spinel, I did some thinking and wanted to apologize about yesterday. I took my frustrations out on you, it was wrong. I should have never called you runner-tits, your a beautiful, smart girl. One day, some very lucky guy will meet you. I'm sorry.” Ryan apologized

I didn't expect someone like Ryan to say that, it took a lot of guts to admit something like that. I respect that.

“I forgive you Ryan, no hard feelings.”

“Thank you Spinel, I'll let you go now. But remember, the Black Hawks have your back.” Ryan thanked

“Your welcome, I'll see you around.”

It is time, time to give that bitch what she deserves. Good thing I didn't give all that birthday cake to the meow-meows.

I finally arrive to Sophie's place, no ones home but her. I have everything I need to silence her for good. And it all starts with a piece of cake.

I walked to her door and placed a small pink box on the doorstep. I knocked on the door and hid behind a bush.

“Hello, is some out there. Justin you better not be fucking with me.” Sophie cautioned

“Oh, what's this. (opens the box) aww, it's a piece of cake. I guess Justin isn't a dick after all. ”

Sophie picked up the cake from the box and went back inside, without locking the door. I quietly snuck in behind her, when I found out that she took the bait. I always make the best cakes, thanks to Momma. But for this special occasion, I added my secret ingredient.

I saw her take the first bite, then the second, and finally the third. Until she took her fourth bite.

“Mmmh mhhhh- ACK,ACK. Gahh. Barf.” Sophie said while gagging and puking blood

That's right, the secret ingredient os nails. I placed a couple of small nails in the sweet-treat, hoping it would tear her esophagus apart.

“Aww, did poor wittle Sophie bit off more than she could chew.” I teased her while kneeling down beside her.

“Who's a spaz now bitch. I would have came for your ass later. But you had to pick on my wittle buddy. That's one step to far.” I rasped

I looked at her in disgust while watching her struggle to breathe. This was the first human I ever killed, I'm tired of releasing my pain on cats. Taking them from their owners, putting them in a bag, and slamming that said bag onto the concrete floor! Who ever knew inflicting pain on someone like her can feel so, pleasurable. Reliving. The pure horror in their eyes fills my desire, my desire to butcher these whores that stand in my way. I shouldn't have done this sooner.

“ACK ACK ACK, gahh. Fuck youu, you psychotic cun-(pukes blood). Barf. Huff, puff, huff, puff. Huff...ack....ack...ack.........ah.” Sophie cried her last words.

“Just so you know, it's homemade not store bought.” I joked

Well that took longer than I expected. I had to saw her in ten part, bag them, clean the floor, bleach the floor, dispose any evidence, take the body parts to the saw mill and shred them up. I also had to burn my cloths as well, at least I brought a spare set. But it all ended smoothly. I got my revenge, and now only five more rivals to go. Perri can now see Lexi anytime, I hope they worked out, they'll make a cute couple. Even though school sucked ass at least it ended on a positive note. Now time to go home, and great my amazing famil-.

“Hey. Spinel.”

Okay who could that be.

I turned around wanting to know whose behind me. And oh fuck I wish didn't. This day was perfect for Perri and I, and she's the last person I wanted to see, God damn it!

“Hello Spinel”

“Hello. Connie.”

To be continued

[lost-n-stereo]

Hallie - “I love when you talk that nerdy shit. We’re in our 20’s talking 30’s shit. We’re making money but we’re saving it. Cause talking shit is cheap and we talk a lot of it.”

He’s got a bottle of expensive tequila tucked under one arm and a stack of textbooks in the other. 

There’s a white board on her dorm door door that reads “Knock and perish” and he chuckles, knocks because he’s an asshole and likes to push her buttons. Seconds later she pulls open the door, her mouth open as if she’s about to chew out whoever is on the other side, but she hides a grin when she sees that it’s him. 

“What are you doing here, Bingham?” 

He holds up the bottle of alcohol. “Thought you could use a study partner.” 

Allie narrows her eyes, looks over the bottle in his hand that he spent well over two hundred bucks on. “Mhm. Just to study, huh?” 

It’s not a secret that he’s been crushing on this girl hard for a couple of years now. The way he sees it, he’s twenty-two and headed towards graduation. She’s twenty-one and a little fucking hellion he can’t keep his eyes off of. No time like the present to finally shoot his shot.

He smirks, nods towards the textbooks in his arm. “I brought books, isn’t that proof enough?” 

“We’re not in the same major, Harry. We’re not taking any of the same classes.” 

He doesn’t wait for an invitation, just sidesteps her into her dorm room and leaves her to huff and close the door behind him. Allie’s room is like an extension of herself, he can see that right away. She has no roommate, for starters, which doesn’t surprise him in the least because she’s kind of a loner aside from her very close knit group of friends. There are some posters on the walls, obscure bands he’s never heard of and set lists from live shows. A worn teddy bear sits on top of a bookshelf and stacks of textbooks are piled on every surface. One wall is dedicated to photos of her and said friends, surrounded by a single row of twinkle lights. 

“Like what you see?” 

Allie’s annoyed voice rings from behind him and he grins, looks at her over his shoulder with a cocked eyebrow. “Very much, so.” 

She rolls her eyes, those bright blues that he can’t seem to get enough of. Her hair is a mess, piled on her head in a giant top knot, and her black and grey striped sweater is falling off one shoulder. In a word, she’s gorgeous. 

“You can stop staring any time, Bingham,” she says, her cheeks a little pink as she shuffles from one foot to the other. He doesn’t hate that he makes her a little nervous, he can see that she’s internally debating whether to throw him out or let him stay. 

He fucking prays it’s the latter. 

“So what are you working on tonight?” He asks, stealing a peek at the textbook open on her bed. Allie is pre-law and that impresses the fuck out of him. His parents encouraged him to get a political science degree, as if he wants to go into politics like his mother. Honestly after grad school he might just end up on a beach somewhere with a degree in something he hates and no immediate plans for the future. 

He picks up the book and tilts it so he can read the cover. “Psychology? I thought you were pre-law?” 

Allie scoffs and grabs the book from him, being careful to not lose her place. “Shows how much you know about practicing law. Understanding how a person’s mind works is a very important tool.” 

“I love it when you talk nerdy to me,” he says with a chuckle that makes her scowl. “I’m just messing with you. I took a psych class my freshman year. Interesting shit.” 

Allie shakes her head at him like he’s an idiot as she sits down on the bed again with her book on her lap. She’s not telling him to leave so he takes that as an invitation to stay. He drops down in the chair in front of her desk and moves aside a couple of notebooks and a binder so he can place his own books down. He doesn’t really have any intention of studying, he’s pretty far ahead in almost every one of his classes, but he can crack a book or two if that’s how she wants to spend the evening. 

“Got any shot glasses?” 

She snorts without looking up. “Do I look like I have shot glasses just lying around?” 

“Got any medicine? You know, one of those bottles with the little plastic cup on top?” 

There’s no mistaking the fact that he’s annoying her but her little frustrated huff is so adorable that he can’t help but piss her off. “Can’t you just drink it straight from the bottle?” 

“Allie, this is two hundred and fifty dollar tequila. One does not simply drink from the bottle, we’re not heathens.” 

“But taking a shot out of a Pepto Bismol lid is going to be classier?” Allie leans over the side of her bed and searches under it until she pops up holding a bright pink bottle. “You’re lucky my sister has acid reflux.” 

“That’s gross,” Harry says as he takes the bottle from her. He uses his finger to wipe dust out of the top of the cap. “Judging by how old this bottle is I’m going to say it’s been awhile since she’s visited?” 

Allie’s silence makes him think that maybe he’s hit a nerve. He’s about to apologize when she shrugs. “She’s busy. Not a big deal.” 

“I’m going to let that statement go,” he says as he opens the bottle of tequila. “For now. Here, ladies first.” 

She eyes the shot, which looks fucking ridiculous in the little cup with dosage lines marked on the side. “I’m supposed to be studying.” 

“Who says you can’t study and be buzzed at the same time?” He wiggles his eyebrows at her and she rolls her eyes, takes the shot and then looks at the cup in surprise. 

“Holy shit, that’s good! Is that what rich people drink?” 

Harry laughs, pours his own shot and throws it back. “Technically you’re supposed to sip this but it shoots all the same.” 

“I really do need to study,” Allie tells him as she settles back on her pillows again. “Feel free to do the same.” 

So that’s what they do for the next forty minutes. He tries to focus on the political economics textbook that makes his eyes bleed and they trade shots every now and then again until Allie sighs heavily. 

“I think I’m drunk,” she says as if it’s the worst thing in the world and he laughs. 

“You’ve had three shots, featherweight. I highly doubt you’re drunk.” 

“Well, beyond buzzed then.” She lays down so her bare feet are up on the wall next to her bed and her head is hanging over the side. “Tell me something about you that no one knows.” 

Harry chuckles, gets off the chair so he can mirror her position next to her. Their hands are dangerously close to each other in between them and when he turns his head she’s only inches away. “Why do I feel like part of your psychology homework?” 

“Maybe you are,” she whispers. “Maybe I want to know why a guy like you randomly shows up to my room in the middle of the night to ‘study’”. She makes air quotes around the word which looks pretty funny to him upside down. 

“A guy like me? Also, I showed up at nine p.m., that’s hardly the middle of the night.” 

Allie rolls her eyes, something he’s wondering if she does a lot or if it’s just something he brings out in her. “You know what I mean, Bingham. And yes, that’s exactly it. A guy like you. Someone rich and good looking and cocky. And, sorry not sorry, but a total asshat like ninety percent of the time.” 

Harry grins and runs his pinkie finger along her thumb. “All I heard from that was you think I’m hot and you can stand to be around me ten percent of the time.” 

She groans and he laughs. “You’re impossible.” 

“I’m also a bit of a hypochondriac,” he says quietly and she looks at him with a confused look. “You asked me to tell you something that no one knows. I’m always assuming the worst about something stupid. Like, one time I found a mole on my side and almost had a panic attack.” 

She doesn’t laugh. He’s glad that she doesn’t. 

“I got bit by a spider when I was twelve and had to be rushed to the emergency room,” she says absently as she stares at the ceiling. “Turns out I’m allergic to this one really common spider where I’m from so now whenever I’m home for the summer my parents bomb the entire house from top to bottom.” 

They spend the next hour passing the bottle back and forth, no longer caring about looking classy or shooting from a shot glass. Harry sort of loves the way she looks when she lets her hair down, both figuratively and literally because she’s taken out the bird’s nest of her bun and let her curls loose around her face. 

“I don’t want to go into politics,” he admits after she tells him that she wants to go into environmental law. 

“So what do you want to do?” 

“Honestly?” He asks and she nods. “I have no fucking idea.” 

They both laugh as Allie sits up with her back to the wall and her knees up in front of her. She puts her chin in the little space between them and hugs her legs as she looks at him. “You’re young, Harry. It’s crazy to think we’re supposed to know in our twenties what we want to do in our thirties and beyond.” 

“I think that’s what college is for, isn’t it?” He asks, reaching out to rub a curl between his thumb and forefinger. “Figuring out the future and all that?” 

“I just want to help my family,” she says so quietly that he almost doesn’t hear her. “My sister Cassandra has a lot of medical bills and my parents work so hard.” 

She doesn’t elaborate on why her sister has medical bills and he doesn’t think it’s his business to ask. “Fuck, Allie. I’m sorry.” He feels like an asshole for not knowing this about her but then before tonight he didn’t know anything about her at all. Not like he’s starting to now.

“I work,” she tells him. “I don’t know if you know that but I have a job bartending at that little pub on Eighth. It’s not much but it helps to pay for shit I need so my parents don’t have to.” 

Damn, there’s just something about this girl that makes him want to put his entire trust fund at her feet. Not that she would ever accept any kind of handout, he can tell she’s way too proud for that. 

“I didn’t know that about you,” he says softly, reaching over to hold her hand where it’s sitting on the bed beside her. “I’m glad that I do now.”

She lets out this little breath that absolutely steals his right from his chest.

“It’s getting late,” she whispers and he knows what she means. He’s not mad about it either, he got a few hours with this amazing girl and that’s really all he wanted. A chance to know her.

“I’ll head out,” he says, picking up the almost empty bottle. “Rich people know how to buy tequila, hmm? Guess that ten percent of the time isn’t so bad after all?” 

Allie walks him to the door, her body swaying just a little. He may have been wrong about her being a lightweight because she’s doing pretty good at standing upright. 

“Have a good night, Bingham.” She says at the door, her blue eyes clear as she looks up at him. He bends down and drops a kiss to her cheek. 

“See ya around, Pressman.” 

He’s almost to the end of the hall when she calls out his name. 

“You’re up to thirty percent now,” she says with a grin. “Maybe next time we hang out you can change that.” 

“All I heard from that is that you want to see me again,” he calls out and she rolls her eyes, shuts the door and leaves him standing alone in the hallway. 

He’s grinning when he walks through the door of his apartment and he flips off his roommate Grizz when he asks him what he’s so damn happy about.

[apunkagamesin24-blog]

30+ Free Online Team Building Games

You’ve found our list of the best online team building games for remote teams.

Online team building is the intentional creation of relationships via online platforms. Online team building games are any games that you play online to help foster collaboration and team spirit with employees. Examples of these online games include Spreadsheet Wars, Online Office Games and Virtual Charades.

You can organize your own games for free or at low cost, and we also provide facilitated games via our online free apunkagames.

This list includes:

online games for remote teams

fun online team building games

free online team building games

virtual group games

virtual games to play with coworkers

So, check out the list!

List of Online Team Building Games

Online Team Building Bingo

Online Office Games

Murder in Ancient Egypt

War of the Wizards

Spreadsheet Battleship

Lightning Scavenger Hunts

Lexulous “Scrabble” Style Game

Guess the Refrigerator

“Can Your Hear Me Now?”

Five Clicks Away

Typing Speed Race

Chair Up!

Water Shots

Virtual Charades

Pub-style Trivia

Virtual Werewolf

We Didn’t Start the Fire

Spreadsheet Wars

A World of Risk

Sudoku Throw-down

Something in Common

Quick Draw

Truth or Dare: Remote Work

Jackbox Games

Yellow Submarine

Nintendo Game Night

Ten Strikes

The Ground is Lava

The Question Game

The Channel Closing Game

Below is a list of online team building games. From Bingo to Lightning Scavenger Hunts to The Ground is Lava, you will find games that are fun, free and easy to play with remote teams.

Online Team Building Bingo

One of the best starter online games for teams is Online Team Building Bingo. Bingo, a game played across retirement homes and summer camps everywhere, is familiar, fun, and works extremely well in the online format.

Here is an Online Team Building Bingo board you can start with:

You can “Right Click + Save As” to download the Bingo board.

You can freely distribute and use this virtual bingo board for internal use 🙂

To play Online Team Building Bingo:

Distribute the board to your team

Establish rules and a timeline to play

Track the results and award prizes

Pro tip: Amazon gift cards and bragging rights are usually sufficient prizes for successful online team building games.

Online Office Games (Most Popular)

Online Offices Games is a facilitated series of online games and challenges for remote teams. You can learn more about the various games included on our page for Online Office Games.

The challenges are specifically designed for remote teams and to help develop the essential skills for working from home. For example, each event starts with virtual icebreaker questions, then pub-style trivia and games like “Can Your Hear Me Now”, which is a game that emphasizes the precision of communication you need for working remotely.

It’s fun !!

Murder in Ancient Egypt (Collaborative)

One of our most popular online team building games is Murder in Ancient Egypt. This game uses mechanics of escape rooms, puzzles and problem solving and so encourages your team to work together. This murder mystery also has an interesting twist; the murder is actually a real mystery from ancient Egypt, and after your teams make their guess, our master storytelling will share the big reveal.

Murder in Ancient Egypt is a 90 minute, fully-facilitated event. We provide an energetic host to keep your team engaged, and a co-host that manages the technical aspects. The event is fun, challenging and perfect for groups that want to work both collaboratively and competitively.

War of the Wizards (RPG Game)

War of the Wizards is a collaborative storytelling game of wisdom and magic. The story start that a group of wizards have been at war since ages past, and no-one even quite remembers why. Your people become the wizards’ minions, working together to collect magic items, cast spells and overcome obstacles. For example, you may develop a strategy to leap over a wide chasm, or challenge an ogre to a battle of wits.

War of the Wizards is a little nerdy, and a whole lot of fun. You don’t have to be a Dungeons & Dragons master either; the game is simple to follow and fun to participate for all skill levels. The game lasts for 90 minutes, and is facilitated over video conference by our talented host.

Spreadsheet Battleship (Nostalgic)

If you grew up in the late eighties and early nineties then you will likely remember the energetic proclamation “you sunk my battleship!”

Over 20+ years later, it turns out that Battleship has a perfect format for online games. You can also play the game multiplayer, with three to 10 players or more if you are feeling audacious.

To play Spreadsheet Battleship, each player needs two things: a game board and the placement of ships. You can use graph paper labelled with letters and numbers for the game board, and either randomly assign battleship placement or let each player choose where to place the ships.

Spreadsheet Battleship game mechanics are a little like Go Fish. On each player’s turn, that player chooses another player and names a square on the grid like A-5 or C-10. The receiving player says, “you missed”, “you hit” or “you sunk my battleship!” depending on what happened. The next player then goes in sequence, which could be in order of age or geographic location.

Continue playing until only one player has ships remaining.

Lightning Scavenger Hunts

In the real world, we run scavenger hunts at some of the coolest locations in the world: like the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC and Grand Central Terminal. Scavenger Hunts can be a fun way for your people to work together.

Virtual scavenger hunts are more difficult to find that team spirit with. You might have game mechanics that have your team searching Google, Wikipedia, YouTube and other sites, without really working together.

The solution for successful online scavenger hunts is to throw away the normal and adopt a lightning version instead. For Lightning Scavenger Hunts, fire off a rapid series of clues that have your team members dashing to find objects, solve clues and win points. For example, you could have everyone grab their favorite mug and award points to the best mug story.

The fast paced nature of Lightning Scavenger Hunts is what makes it work for online team building games.

Lexulous “Scrabble” Style Game (Free)

Lexulous is a free online game that is mode led after Scrabble. The main difference is that Lexulous has eight tiles in play at a time, and the value assigned to each letter is a little different.

The main similarities are that Lexulous looks pretty darn like Scrabble, and like me and my brothers: my mom loves them all equally.

You can easily include Lexulous in your options for online games to play with coworkers. You can keep track of points and total scores over a month, and award a Lexulous champion at the end.

Guess the Refrigerator (Quirky)

My refrigerator mostly contains fatty pork, 100% dark chocolate and pears. Your refrigerator may be different. A fun game we could play together is Guess the Refrigerator.

Guess the Refrigerator is similar to “Who Da Baby?” and other guessing games. To play, everyone submits a photo of the inside of their refrigerator to one point of contact. That organizer then posts the photos to a channel where all participants can study the contents and make best guesses at which refrigerator belongs to who. The players submit answers to the organizer, who then tallies up the scores and announces a winner.

Sharing an inside view of your refrigerator takes a degree of vulnerability, which is a factor that contributes to the success of great online team building games.

“Can Your Hear Me Now?”

“Can You Hear Me Now” is one of the most popular games we play as part of Online Office Games. You can play this game 100% online, and as part of a virtual conference call.

To play, name one person as the Describer and the other players as Artists. The Describer must explain to the Artists how to draw an item like a sunflower, kite or calculator using only geometric terms.

For example, you could say “draw a large square” and then “add a line at a 45 degree angle from the top”, but not “draw the letter E.”

You can play each round for as long as you like, and three minutes is usually sufficient. At the end of each round, the Describer gets one point for each Artist that guesses the object correctly, and each Artist that guesses correctly also gets one point. Tally up points and award cool prizes to the winner.

Five Clicks Away

Five Clicks Away is a logic game for online team building. To play, you select a starting topic and an ending topic, which you can decide on your own or randomly generate. For example, the starting point could be Blackbeard the Pirate and the endpoint could be grilled cheese sandwiches.

Each player must start on the Wikipedia page for the starting point, and in no-more than five clicks reach the end point. The idea is that Wikipedia has so many internal links that you should be able to follow a chain to reach the end point in less than five clicks.

Five Clicks Away is difficult to get started with, but as you start to understand Wikipedia’s structure the game becomes easier. Like “Can You Hear Me Now?”, the game is also a proxy for learning a useful remote work skill, which in this case is obscure research.

Typing Speed Race (Competitive)

One of my favorite online team building games is a Typing Speed Race with friendly competition. For the Typing Speed Race, you can use a free tool like typingtest.com and have each of your team members do a one minute challenge. Then, each person posts their test results to Slack, email or another platform.

The Typing Speed Race is a great way to encourage friendly competition with remote teams. You can make the experience more collaborative by doing a Typing Speed Relay, which requires forming your people into teams and then adding the cumulative score from each person to create a team total.

With the Typing Speed Race, everyone wins because typing quickly is an important skill for remote work.

Chair Up! (Positive Powerup)

Chair Up! is both my favorite pun-inspired name for a chair store, and also a fun and easy game for video conference calls.

The game is played over email, messenger or conference call, and is specifically meant to counter the doom and gloom that sometimes guides conversations. Whenever someone calls out “chair up!”, everyone must stand up and do something cheerful. For example, you could do yoga sun-salutations, clap your hands, laugh or have a small dance party.

Chair Up! is silly, fun, and an easy way to get started with online team building.

Water Shots

When you work from home, taking care of your health and fitness is especially important. You can do squats and eat well, and also make sure you drink enough water.

Water Shots is a game meant to fortify your team around healthy hydration. To play, you first choose a trigger, which could be “every time a pet comes on screen in a video call” or “any time someone says mute.” When the trigger happens, all participants must drink a shot of water, which could be a literal shot or a sip.

Team building games that focus on building healthy habits are a great way to support company culture and development with remote teams.

Virtual Charades

Charades is one of those games that nearly everyone plays at school or home while growing up. With this proliferation of Charades, Virtual Charades has the advantages of being fairly familiar while also being moderately fun.

To play Virtual Charades, prepare a set of links that go to Google Image pages or use a random image generator. On each player’s turn, that player must act out what they see in the image and the player’s teammates can guess each one to earn points. Rinse and repeat until you are all out of fun.

Here are some frustrating office words you can use as prompts for your game:

jammed printer

dry pen

empty stapler

squeaky door

full refrigerator

broken heater

company firewall

You can use other words too, but frustrating office words are a good reminder of why working from home is fun.

Pub-style Trivia

You don’t need a pub to play pub-style trivia, and beer and peanuts are also optional. Instead, you can play with at least two teams, a series of trivia questions, and positive attitudes.

Playing pub-style trivia online is similar to the in-the-pub version, with one crucial difference: you need an easy way for people to communicate. Instead of mumbling across a table, we recommend using vivirtual breakout rooms so that each team can discuss the answers openly. Each team can then submit the answers via a web-form and the host can award points as needed.

Pro tip: Playing virtual happy hour games like pub-style trivia give you a unique opportunity to include wildly different clues in the game. For example, instead of “guess that tune”, you could have players guess the tune, find it on YouTube and identify a clue at a specific time stamp. The internet is your virtual game oyster.

Virtual Werewolf (Team Favorite)

Werewolf is a game of cunning deceit and tactful manipulation, and the online version is much of the same. The game relies primarily on the spoken word, which makes it perfect for remote teams.

To play, nominate one person as the narrator and then randomly distribute the following roles to players:

Werewolf: a werewolf has two jobs: eat villagers, and survive to eat more villagers.

Villagers: these are the common folks in the game who have no special powers, but desperately hope to survive the night.

Medic: the medic can save up to one villager each round.

Seer: a seer can peer into the depths of another players soul to reveal whether that player is a werewolf or not.

Hunter: when the hunter dies, the hunter can point a finger at any other player and take that person down with them.

To play, first distribute the roles via private message or email the players in advance. For a game with five people, you should have 1 werewolf, 1 medic and 3 villagers. For each additional five people add 1 werewolf, 1 special role, and 3 villagers. The ratios are flexible, so can modify them to suit your needs.

To start the game, the narrator declares that “night has fallen” and all players must close their eyes and tap their knees or keyboards to create a pitter-patter sound. After a few seconds the narrator says “werewolves wake up”, and any players with the werewolf role must awake and choose a single victim via private message.

The narrator then puts the werewolves back to sleep and has the medic and seer wake up in sequence. During the medic’s turn to be awake, the medic can point to one player to save that player from the jaws of the werewolf. If the medic selects the same player as the werewolf, then nobody dies during the night. When the seer points to a player, the narrator can answer yes or no to whether that player is a werewolf.

After all special roles act, the narrator declares “the sun is coming up” and either the name of the player that the werewolves ate or that no-one was eaten if the medic chose correctly. All players can open their eyes, and then debate on who the werewolf might be. To end the round, all players vote on one player to eliminate from the game or can pass and wait until the next round. Any player that is eliminated either by the werewolves or by vote becomes a friendly ghost that is not allowed to speak for the rest of the game but may observe it in quiet frustration.

Repeat until the only remaining players are werewolves or villagers.

We Didn’t Start the Fire !!

We Didn’t Start the Fire is an online team building game inspired by Billy Joel’s song of the same name. To play, divide the attendees of your virtual conference call into groups of four or five people and then give the groups 15 minutes of prep time. During those 15 minutes, each team writes a verse of lyrics that follow the general melody of We Didn’t Start the Fire.

After the 15 minute breakout session, bring everyone back to the main virtual meeting and have the teams present their creation. Vote on the best one with thumbs up and cheers.

Spreadsheet Wars (Challenging)

Spreadsheet Wars may be my favorite game to play with coworkers. Like other games on this list, Spreadsheet Wars is a combination of fun and skill-building, which makes it perfect for remote teams and offices.

To play, use a collaborative spreadsheet program like Google Sheets and select a theme like “choose your own adventure” or “scrappy recipe generator.” Each team then has up to 30 minutes to build a tool that matches the theme. The best tool wins, and really everyone wins because you are getting better at using one of the most powerful free tools on the internet.

Because Spreadsheet Wars doesn’t rely on any specific video conferencing platform, you can use it for games on Webex, Zoom games, Hangouts and other platforms.

A World of Risk

Growing up, one of my favorite games to play was Risk, the game of global domination that meshes perfectly with my own aspirations. Risk is a game of cutthroat collaboration, friendly competition, resource management and other strategic dynamics that make it perfect for online team building.

The most flexible way to play a Risk-like game online is to use one of the many clones, for example Conquer Club, which provides a free browser based game.

Sudoku Throw-down

In the early 2000s, Sudoku took the world by storm; inspiring nerds everywhere to complete numerical logic games instead of the daily crossword. Today, you can play a version of Sudoku for online team building called Sudoku Throw-down.

Here is how it works:

Send everyone on your team a free game board from a site like Web Sudoku.

Challenge each player to complete the game board as quickly as possible.

The first player to complete the game board with 100% accuracy is the winner.

For Sudoku Throw-down, you can easily up the competitive spirit by including prizes for the top three finishers. I recommend nerd-friendly prizes like more Sudoku puzzles, science kits and white boards.

Something in Common (Icebreaker)

Something in common is an icebreaker game that works on video conference calls and similar. To play, first organize your attendees into manageable sized groups of four or five people and gently push them into breakout rooms. Each group has the goal of finding three similarities they have in common with other members of that group. For example, “we all have cats, no-one was born in Chicago and we loved Hamilton.”

For the next round, keep the same teams and add a restriction that you can’t mention locations or physical similarities. For the round after that, remove pets and preferences. The goal is to make the game increasingly difficult and encourage your remote team to deep dive into what they may have in common.

Quick Draw

Pictionary is a fun game where some people draw while other people guess what the drawing could be. The game includes elements of improv, creative thinking, competition and more.

You can play an online game that is similar to Pictionary:

Divide your people into breakout rooms.

Have each person in each room draw three clues. You can use this random word generator do return three nouns.

Teams accumulate 1 point for each drawing someone on the team guesses correctly. Teams get no points for any clues that players skip or do not guess correctly.

After 15 minutes, return everyone to the main room and compare scores.

You can play Quick Draw over Zoom, Webex and other virtual conference call platforms. You can also mix up the game and rules by varying the number of clues each person draws, and drawing verbs instead of nouns.

Truth or Dare: Remote Work Edition

Truth or Dare is a kind of NSFW game that is a fan favorite of students across Canada, America and other parts of the world. Truth or Dare: Remote Work Edition takes those popular game mechanics and optimizes for team building online.

Instructions:

One person starts by naming another player and saying the words, “truth or dare?”

The receiving person chooses either truth or dare.

The asking person then prompts the receiver with a question or action.

The receiving person responds and then prompts another player with the words, “truth or dare?”

Here are examples of prompts you can use:

Which website do you waste the most time on?

How many browser tabs do you have open right now?

How many unread emails in your inbox?

Make the noise of a dial-up modem from the 90s.

Show us one object within arms reach of your computer.

The major guideline for Truth or Dare is to keep the questions and prompts friendly.

Jackbox Games

A year or two ago I played Jackbox Games with Tasia, Ethan and some other close friends. The game prompted me to lie about “how many beers did you have last night?”, and that was game over for Michael “prefers tea” Alexis.

Still, Jackbox Games provides options you can use for online team building. The game options include trivia and similar, and the games have some unexpected and creative dynamics. To play, everyone logs into a website via a special URL.

Yellow Submarine (Unique)

When I lived in NYC, two dudes at the metro station would play the same two Beatles’ songs over and over. If the train was late and people were standing on the platform longer, sometimes the two dudes would stop playing for a bit. Neither of those songs was Yellow Submarine.

Yellow Submarine is also an online team building game you can play with remote teams. Here is how:

Each of your remote employees needs to craft a submarine. You can use paper, magazine cutouts, or nearly anything else to craft your ship.

Players get one point every time they show the submarine on a video conference call. You can hide the submarine in the background, have it float up from the bottom of the screen, camouflage it into your outfit, or any other incognito method.

You get one point each time you show the submarine.

If someone spots your submarine then you are out. You still get the one point for showing your submarine that time.

Continue playing until everyone is out, and then tally up the points and name a Yellow Submarine Captain.

The game mechanics work because the incentive is for each player to show their submarine as many times as they can. If you wait it out, then you may be one of the last players in the game but you will also need to catch-up on points.

Nintendo Game Night

A few years ago, video game cafes took the world by storm. The idea of going to play Mario Kart or Goldeneye 007 while someone delivers you nachos and beer was a strong pull.

You can host a Nintendo Game Night for your team by using an emulator. The emulator allows you to play games via most modern web browsers. Choose a game like Excitebike, Popeye or Ice Hockey and host a tournament to see who gets the most points. You should probably make the game night “bring your own nachos.”

Ten Strikes (Quick & Easy)

Ten Strikes is a fun icebreaker game, so it’s a good way to get to know new team members, or to build deeper relationships with existing teams.

Here is how to play:

All participants hold up 10 fingers.

The youngest person on the call goes first, and shares one true statement about themselves. For example, “I have a pen pal.”

Anyone that the statement is true for gets to keep their fingers up, while anyone that the statement is not true for puts one finger down.

If all of a player’s fingers are down then they are out of the game.

Play until only one player remains.

The strategy in Ten Strikes is to share facts about yourself that are unique enough that other players will not be able to say it is true of them and will have to put fingers down.

Pro tip: You can also play Five Strikes or Twenty Strikes. Generally the more fingers and toes you start with, the longer the game will go.

The Ground is Lava !!

Anyone who has either been a five year old or spent time with one has played The Ground is Lava. The entire point of this game is to avoid touching the ground at all costs. You can climb from a chair to the couch, to stepping on a book and similar to get to your destination.

The online team building version of The Ground is Lava for adults is exactly the same as the five year old version. Challenge your team members to hunt for specific objects around the house, like a favorite mug or photograph. Participants can scoot on chairs, beds, throw rugs and other barriers to find the objects and return to the video call. Anyone that touches the ground is disqualified from the competition, but everyone gets to share about the object they brought back.

The Question Game

The Question Game is a fun game that requires no prep or special equipment. To start playing, ask someone a question, and that person must respond with a question directed back at you or another participant. If you delay for five seconds then you are out. If you speak without forming a question then you are out too 🙂

Here is an example of how this game might go:

Ally: “It’s a beautiful day, don’t you you think Jackie?”

Jackie: “What do you think makes it beautiful, Michael?”

Michael: “Sorry, I was writing a blog article.”

In this example, I would be 100% out of the game. A more clever Michael would have said, “Sorry, what was that, Jackie?” and kept moving the game forward.

The Channel Closing Game

If your team members are on Slack or another messaging platform then starting to practice channel hygiene is important. Closing channels is a good way to avoid “Slack hovering”, which will increase productivity.

Once per month, post a challenge for team members to close out channels they are no longer participating in. We automate this message using Zapier, and include a prompt that you can copy and paste “/leave” to quickly leave channels.

You could keep track of how many channels each player leaves, and award points of prizes, but The Channel Closing Game is really one where everyone that participates wins. Closing down your excess channels is like the Slack equivalent of inbox zero. It just feels good.

Warning: The Channel Closing Game is kind of a productivity hack for managing remote teams that is masquerading in a list of great online team building games. I love it, and at least one of your team members will love it, but don’t pitch it too hard on the fun factor.

Online Escape Games

Escape games are a popular group activity in person, and are increasingly popular for online team building too. These virtual escape games provide opportunities for teamwork, collaboration, and developing team building skills. There are dozens of options to choose from, including free or DIY escape rooms, and fully facilitated ones.

Virtual Murder Mysteries

Virtual murder mysteries are similar to online escape rooms, but generally have more theatrical flair. Typically, you either download scripts and choose actors on your team, or hire an outside company to perform the murder mystery for you. These online murder mysteries tend to have fun themes that match holidays, entertainment and other interests.

Conclusion

Playing fun online games with remote teams is a great way to do team building and create meaningful relationships while working from home.

You can play the online team building games on this list, create your own, or check out other resources for more ideas. Be sure to check out our list of the best virtual team building activities, and our list of offline team building games too.

With online team building, the most important element is that you dedicate some time to games, because all work and no play makes for a pretty dull time.

FAQ: Online team building games

The following are a few common questions and answers about online team building games for remote employees.

What is online team building?

Online team building is any formation of relationships between team members that occurs via online platforms. For example, you can do icebreakers at the beginning of virtual meetings, or play online team building games.

What are online team building games?

Online team building games are any games that you play online to help foster collaboration and team spirit with employees. Virtual team building games and remote team building games are closely related.

What are the benefits of organizing online team building games?

Organizing online team building games is one way to increase morale and engagement with remote teams. At a basic level, games are a fun way for your people to spend time with each other away from work projects and the requirements of meetings.

What are some fun games to play with virtual teams?

Fun games to play with virtual teams include Virtual Werewolf, Lightning Scavenger Hunts, Water Shots and Chair Up! Of these four games, Werewolf is the best known, and Water Shots is my favorite.

How do you get started with online team building?

An easy way to get started with online team building is to allocate either an entire virtual meeting or at least a portion of one to playing online team games. You can organize some of the games on this list, or create your own to mix up the variety.

Is online team building location dependent?

No! One of the best features of online team building is that it is completely international. Generally, as long as a participant has an internet enabled device and a reliable WiFi connection they will be able to take part in the games and activities.

So, whether your people are in the US, Canada, Europe, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Africa, South America or anywhere else, online team building can be a great choice for team engagement.

[bittylittlebat]

Prompt: Describe @monsterslm as if they were a character in a book

This was intended to just be a short description, but it wound up being a short story? Idk?? It’s also a really small rough draft so I’m sorry if anything is off. (I also don’t know their name… sorry!)

_______

There were many days that he would sit in his apartment overlooking afraid to join the people below. One day there was a group of people his age from the market that decided to knock on the door. He stayed in his place. The door was unlocked so the kids walked in. One carried flowers, one carried a basket of baked goods, the other carried two books tied together with a ribbon. “Sir?” The one with bread called out. “We have some things for you.” 

Reluctantly he opened the door from his study and began to make his way down the steps. He made sure to keep his face in the shadows as he moved. “I think you have the wrong house. No one has come to visit me in quite some time.” 

“Well, you’re the only one that’s lived here for the past 8 years, I can’t imagine we’re looking for someone else.” The one with the flowers explained. “The only time people see you leave is to get groceries, and when you do you’re always covered and you never talk to anyone. I can’t imagine how lonely and isolating that is. The three of us were curious if you wanted some people to talk to.”

The resident seemed very taken aback by this. Why would anyone want to be friends with me? He asked himself. He took a moment to himself. He looked at his hands, and then the things the intruders had brought. He took note of the dreary decor of his house, dark walls, the round mirror in the foyer. He looked to the curtains, and then through them. Maybe this is my chance. 

“Friends would be awfully nice to have. I think I’d enjoy that.” The smile on the visitors' faces grew. The man reached out his hand. “I’m (name).”

“It’s nice to meet you, I’m Mack.” The florist said. “This is John,” she said, gesturing to the baker. “And this is Ash.” She said pointing to the person with books.

They all moved into the living room and provided it with the life required for it to live up to its name. The loner took a few minutes to get himself back in the routine of talking with people and having a good time but quickly relaxed. He moved with a gentle air, not wanting to scare away his new friends. A smile crept on his face for the first time in a long time. It hurt a little due to the infrequent use of those muscles, but he welcomed the pain with open arms. It was pleasant. 

Mack was very energetic and excitable, she also was certainly the most talkative, but it was nice. He’d always preferred listening anyways. He found that trait in common with Ash, but they seemed like a well enough kid. Very polite, obviously bookish and nerdy. He had the feeling that if he could figure out something that Ash was passionate about that Ash would talk forever. 

John, the baker had a quiet intensity about him. Every time the four of them would visit, he would bring something more delicious than the last.

After a while, the four of them found themselves leaving (name)’s house more and more. They started going on long walks. He found himself to be curious about the things that he’d come across. A majority of the time he was alone he would read. Of course, he knew what forest animals were, but through the walked he was able to be greeted by the kind animals. 

Curious about the things that he’d been missing out on, the friends took him into the shops around town. Most intriguing was the music shop. After living his life in solitary silence, he was amused at the fact that someone would want to make noise while alone, but upon second thought he became destined to try. 

He became more and more adventurous as time went on, eventually traveling to different cities and states. One time the four of them gathered up enough money and even crossed the border into a different country. 

He never found himself alone again. Even if he was physically alone, memories kept people close and he was never afraid to reach out.

[stringnarratives]

Making a Critical Hit: “Critical Role”

[This post brought to you with major spoilers for campaigns 1 and 2 of Critical Role. Editing and research help for this post by Brady Wallace and John Masserini. ]

“When the livestream begins every Thursday evening, not even many-voiced dungeon master Matthew Mercer (who you may recognize as the voice of Overwatch's McCree, for one) knows precisely where the adventure will go, or if everyone will survive.”

Tyler Wilde, “Permadeath and D&D: The pain of losing a character, and why it can be great”

Nearly every Thursday night since March of 2015, fans of Critical Role have logged onto Twitch to watch the show that bills itself as “a bunch of nerdy-ass voice actors playing Dungeons and Dragons.” The show’s first campaign, narrated and run by Dungeon Master Matthew Mercer, followed the adventures of a ragtag (if deeply emotionally damaged) group of misfits calling themselves Vox Machina - played by voice actors Laura Bailey, Taliesin Jaffe, Ashley Johnson, Liam O’Brien, Marisha Ray, Sam Riegel, and Travis Willingham - as they defended the mythical realm of Tal’Dorei. For two years, fans watched as the party defeated dragons, traversed other planes and trash whole cities as they thwart evil, and were eager to kick off the second campaign, following The Mighty Nein, in January of 2018. 

To say the show has evolved since it first aired four years ago would be, frankly, understating matters entirely. 

What started off as a tabletop role playing game among friends in LA became a featured show on Geek and Sundry’s multimedia lineup, which in turn became its own studio with Critical Role spin-off shows, parallel programming, and a record-breaking $11.38 million Kickstarter campaign for its own animated series. The Critical Role Youtube channel has, at the time of writing, amassed 37.6 million views on its videos since it launched in May of 2018 and the Twitch channel has more than 277,000 followers. 

But as the community has grown, as the studio introduces more and more exciting projects, and the hype continues to build, two things keep viewers coming back week after week: The compelling story and the people who create it, both of which contribute to Critical Role being an occurrence of “live” narrative that exists in few other contexts. 

It is, quite literally, unpredictable.

The show is purposefully unscripted other than DM Matt Mercer’s world-building and overarching plot, though even these things may change depending on character reactions, which are primarily reliant on character personalities and improvised player decisions. A character is totally within their rights to jump off a cliff and plummet to their doom if they so decide (and they have before), though they all -- to our knowledge and the knowledge of the other players, at least -- have the singular goal of pushing forward with whatever adventure they have been tasked. 

As players have little foresight into what will happen, this means that character action is very frequently reaction. Details in the world which might be informative could go wholly unnoticed by characters, and just because a path exists doesn’t mean the players will take it. At the beginning of Campaign 2, Fjord (played by Travis Willingham) is on his way to study at the Soltryce Academy to further his magical learning when he encounters the other party members for the first time. However, after a kidnapping, a death and plenty of other wild occurrences, by episode 30, he indicates that he has changed his mind and has decided not to find the school. The character motivation changes in reaction to in-game events and, while potentially not unexpected for the audience, this decision snips otherwise yet-to-be-fulfilled ends of the storyline. In a memorable example from the 30th episode of Campaign 1, Scanlan Shorthalt (played by Sam Riegel), improvises a plan to break into a mansion by polymorphing into a triceratops and bursting through the roof. 

All of that to say, Mercer as the DM ultimately has more knowledge about what could happen than what will happen, but is reliant on the actions and reactions of the characters to carry it out.

Not only is there an element of structured improvisation that makes the show unpredictable to the viewer, but the reliance of tabletop gaming on dice rolls to further plot and determine character outcomes can make for quite a surprise. As 20-sided dice rolls modified by character statistics are the primary basis for many actions in Dungeons and Dragons, there is often very little indication ahead of time what dice rolls will be fortunate and which ones will not be.

This is where math comes in. In an odd and cyclical coincidence, one of the most clear mathematical and scientific explanations I’ve found for this actually comes from an article from the National Center for Biotechnology Information database, which, at the end, credits Critical Role for introducing the author to the concept of rolling a D20 with advantage. In “Multiple statistical tests: Lessons from a d20,″ Christopher R. Madan breaks down the likelihood of achieving any number on a 20-sided dice (with a nice chart for my fellow visual learners). 

“In the current (fifth) edition of Dungeons & Dragons, a tabletop game, many in-game events are determined based on the outcome of a d20. However, to make some events more likely, there are times when players roll a d20 ‘with advantage’, meaning that they roll the d20 twice and take the greater value... For d = 20, i.e., a 20-sided die, the probability of obtaining any specific outcome is 120 or .05. If n = 2 dice are rolled, the probability of obtaining at least one 20 is 39400 or .0975. If n = 10 dice are rolled, the probability of obtaining at least one 20 is ≈ .4013. With n = 20 dice, this increases further to ≈ .6415.”

Any player has a  5% chance of rolling any given number on a fair, 20-sided die. (You can do the math on Critical Role’s rolls here and here, thanks to CritRoleStats.) The result of fight scenes (death, near-death, injury) are reliant on these dice rolls, making scripting these major narrative events impossible. Perhaps the most notable recent example of a plot-bending dice roll occurs in the notorious 26th episode of Campaign 2, in which Mollymauk Tealeaf (played by Taliesin Jaffe) knocks himself unconscious after attempting to cast a blood curse on an enemy, who - unaffected - then kills him.

In a PC Gamer article “Permadeath and D&D: The pain of losing a character, and why it can be great,” Tyler Wilde discusses Mollymauk’s death in the same terms of unpredictability versus other forms of narrative media: 

“A scripted show would probably not have casually rolled Jaffe's character, a carnival performer named Mollymauk and a favorite subject of cosplayers and fan artists, into a shallow grave just 26 episodes in. And neither would that show include a scene in which the actor is told they've been written off.“

This death being permanent (at least up until the time of writing) created an echo of trauma throughout the party, changing attitudes and realigning intentions in surviving members, from Yasha (played by Ashley Johnson) fleeing out of grief to others seeking revenge on Lorenzo (played by Mercer), the villain in question.

 And while both Campaigns of Critical Role take place in a setting where magic has the power to resurrect the dead, this too may have - and frequently does have - some sort of balancing cost. In the 44th episode of Campaign 1, Vex'ahlia (played by Laura Bailey) is killed in an attempt to recover a legendary set of armor from an underwater tomb. With the help of others in the party, her twin brother Vax'ildan (played by Liam O’Brien) manages to revive her, but only after pledging himself to be a Champion of the Raven Queen, a goddess of death. This, in turn, adds a new level of complication and motivation to Vax’s character, which is reflected through the rest of the campaign.

For roughly three and a half hours most weeks (not including breaks), fans of the show are at the mercy of statistical, individual and emotional variance, and have been since 2015. The campaign-based continuity of Critical Role doesn’t have the breaks common in the “season” of other broadcast series media, running year-round with the exception of major American holidays and the occasional rest week. Campaign 1 had 115 episodes in its main continuum airing from 2015-2017 (although the game had gone on for longer than that before broadcasting) and Campaign 2 has racked up 63 episodes at the time of writing since it started in January of 2018. 

On one hand, having a non-traditional “season” format gives Critical Role a lot more temporal wiggle room for building out the narrative and a resulting viewer connection. A show lasting 3.5 hours on average and airing 35 episodes a year for 3 years adds up to about 367.5 hours (or 15 days) of narrative content over those 3 years alone. According to a CritRoleStats count featured in the latest episode of Critical Role commentary show Talks Machina, the show and its one-shot episodes have aired for more than 800 hours total. For comparison, Bingeclock.com estimates that it would take around 3 days to watch all 8 seasons of “Game of Thrones”, 5 days and 1 hour to watch all 10 seasons of Friends, and 18 days to watch all 31 seasons of Mister Roger’s Neighborhood. Having such long episodes and long campaigns not only allows for Mercer and the cast to delve deeper into the details of the world and inner workings of each character. As the players’ perspectives and style change in real life, so do the characters themselves and how the audience relates to each in the context of the the overarching narrative. What results is a feeling that the viewer too has been on a journey full of unexpected twists and turns.

On a more minute level (no pun intended), the timing of the game may also contribute to the emotional highs and lows of each episode. While rounds of combat may each last 6 seconds in the world of the game, an involved battle may take more than an hour of play time and particularly tense skirmishes can see audience pressure rise until the last enemy has fallen. Tension is, especially during combat-heavy episodes, unavoidable, but there is some promise that if the heroes make it through, we’ll all be able to breathe a sigh of relief.

From the unpredictability of dice-rolls to the long-term evolution of characters and plot, Critical Role exemplifies the unique draw of live broadcast tabletop gaming: A well-woven narrative with simply too many variables to be truly scripted. From the time that the camera begins to roll to the last seconds of each episode, neither the players nor the audience can predict the twists and turns the characters will encounter. Every skirmish may be someone’s last. Every decision may put our heroes on a new path. And as the story unfolds week by week, all any of us can do is wait patiently for the next Thursday to roll around.

[thegrandtortoise]

New Harry Potter Next-Gen fic!!

Title: The Exchange Students

Chapter: 1/?

Summary:  Hogwarts decides to create an Inter-House exchange program, and the fifth years of Slytherin House get two unexpected visitors: Enter Adhira Nazari- perceptive, nerdy, Hufflepuff, and Scorpius Malfoy- mysterious Gryffindor that's caught the eye of Albus Potter. (Alright I'm giving up with this summary there's like five important characters and I'm too lazy to describe them all. Basically it's next-gen, there's a lot of fluff and romance and lgbtq and I'll try to make it funny okay thanks I hope you like it)

Word Count: 1,238

Rating: Teen and Up

Warnings: Spoilers (I will add more as I add chapters so keep a lookout)

A/N: This fic will be switching between POVs a lot, probably all in first person. This is because I’m trying to improve writing in different voices, so don’t expect the entire fic to be in this weird angsty voice that I have for Albus in Chapter 1.

(Ao3 link)

Chapter 1: Albus

           I stand in the corner of the common room, tapping my foot impatiently. All around me, people are milling about, chatting and sneaking away some of the snacks that are meant for our guests that have yet to arrive.

           Next to me, Rose bounces stupidly on her feet, a bit too cheerful and smiley for a Slytherin. Then again, she’s always been like that. People have always thought she belongs in Hufflepuff, but I know better. Anyone close to Rose knows that she’ll do anything to get her way, and through the sneakiest means as well.

           Sticking my tongue in my cheek, I pivot around and look up at the banner that hangs in the air, suspended with magic. It says in huge letters, “WELCOME TO SLYTHERIN!”. It even has little serpents wriggling around the lettering as a border.

           “Ooh, I’m so excited, Al! Aren’t you?” Rose squeals from next to me.

           “Mmhm,” I mumble disinterestedly. She’s asked me this about five times in the last ten minutes, and it’s getting old.

           “Which houses do you think we’ll get?” Rose asks. “I’m hoping for a Ravenclaw for the girls- I really hope it isn’t Gryffindor though, that’d be a nightmare.”

           I give in. “Ravenclaw would be good, I suppose,” I answer. “Hufflepuff might be a bit much, though.”

           “Aw, don’t say that now. Hufflepuffs are quite sweet, y’know. Wouldn’t hurt to have someone not so gloomy around,” Rose muses. “Besides, Ravenclaws are fickle little shits. You never know how one might be when you first meet them.”

           “True,” I answer, not sure what else to say. Suddenly, there’s a loud knock on the door to the common room.

           “They’re here!” Rose shrieks, and lunges forward to open the door before anyone else can get to it- specifically, before the seventh-year prefects can, aka the people who are supposed to open it.

           Oh, Rose.

           She opens the large, heavy door, and lets out a squeal. Professor Slughorn stands in the doorway, and behind him is a group of 14 students- all from Ravenclaw, Gryffindor and Hufflepuff, 7 boys and 7 girls.

           “Welcome to Slytherin!” Professor Slughorn bellows, gesturing at the common room grandly. He strides in, the students following closely until they’re all gathered in a small group in the middle of the room, Slughorn standing in front of them.

           “This is the Slytherin common room,” Slughorn starts. “It is next to the lake, as you can see…”

           I tune out of Slughorn’s discourse- it’s essentially the same thing as what I heard as a first year on the first day of school. Instead I take the time to check out the group of students.

           A Hufflepuff and a Ravenclaw (second years) cling to each other in the middle of the group, looking apprehensive- why wouldn’t they, when presented with a room full of Slytherins? They catch Rose’s eye, who waves at them happily. They return the smile hesitantly.

           Who else, who else? A Gryffindor and a Hufflepuff, both seventh years, lips locked. Yuck. Another Gryffindor boy, probably a fourth year, looking ready to murder someone. His counterpart fourth year, a Ravenclaw girl who’s taking notes on everything that comes out of Slughorn’s mouth. Honestly.

           I search for the fifth years, until I think I’ve found one. A Hufflepuff girl. Curly black hair that pokes out of a loosely wrapped hijab, long silver earrings, and honey brown skin. I think I recognize her from Charms last year. Well, Rose will be happy.

           I look for the other fifth year until my gaze catches a head of silvery blond hair that glints in the dim lighting. No. No way. It can’t be him. I lean over a bit, trying to get a better look, and my eyes catch the red and gold border on the boy’s sleeve. I groan internally. Who else has silvery hair and is in Gryffindor?

           “And now it’s time to introduce you to your new roommates!” Slughorn exclaims, whipping out a sheet of paper. “Slytherins, organize yourselves by year please.”

           We’re already sort of in groups, but we bunch together anyway so that it’s clearer. I move to stand next to Matt, my best mate. I look over at him to gauge his opinion on the group, but he just looks sort of anxious. Was that a tint of pink in his cheeks?

           “You alright, mate?” I ask, clapping a hand on his shoulder.

           He looks over at me, startled. “Hmm? Oh, yes, I’m fine. Totally fine. Excited, I suppose.”

           I study him for a bit longer but decide that it’s just nerves. I follow his gaze and try to pinpoint who he’s looking at, but it’s difficult as the group is tightly knit.

           Slughorn instructs us to raise our hands when he calls out our year, so the new students can come join us. He starts with the seventh years, so I tune out until he gets to us.

           “Fifth years!” he bellows, and I’m snapped out of my thoughts. All around me hands shoot up, and I follow suit.

           “Alright, for the girl- Adhira Nazari!”

           The Hufflepuff girl from earlier takes a deep breath, wraps her headscarf tighter around her face, and steps out of the dwindling group. She goes to stand with the girls in our little fifth year group, and Rose greets her with a wide smile, obviously itching to begin chattering. I shake my head, chuckling.

           “And for the boy- Scorpius Malfoy!”

           Any remaining chatter in the room disappears with the announcement of this name. The Gryffindor boy with silvery hair steps out, running a hand through his locks. He walks toward us, and I feel my breath catch.

           When he reaches us, Scorp- no, Malfoy -  is tugging on his lower lip with his teeth. “Potter,” he says, his voice low and gravelly as he nods in my direction. I swallow.

           “Malfoy,” I manage, returning the nod. I turn away to watch Slughorn as Matt and my other roommates, Kaito and Sebastian, introduce themselves.

           My dad and Mr. Malfoy have been civil ever since Dad and Mum got married. Not friendly…but civil. Uncle Ron hasn’t quite gotten there yet, but that was alright as he doesn’t have to see much of Mr. Malfoy these days. I imagine he won’t be happy when he finds out that his Rosie-poo (yes, that’s what he calls her. I’ll never let her live it down.) was going to be spending a lot more time with his rival’s son.

           As for me…well.

           I look over at Malfoy- at his perfect platinum hair, his chilling ice blue eyes, his skin that looks as though it’s never seen the light of day. At first glance, he looks exactly like his father, and one would expect that he acts like it too. Cold and biting like a winter wind.

           But I know better.

           I know that the winter wind stayed with his father. No, Scorpius Malfoy was something else. Temperamental. Wild. Scalding. A hot summer whirlwind that surrounds and suffocates you, that burns when it brushes your skin, that can put you into a false lull with its warmth.

           I’ve seen him around. Seen how his father is all snarky remarks and sneers, while Scorpius is all action, all intimidating looks and wild moves.

           Winter winds belong in Slytherin. Summer whirlwinds were Gryffindors, through and through.

           This is going to be an interesting year.

[acidmatze]

In which Dabi increasingly thinks that he is stuck in a third rate emo music video

I have no idea why I wrote this. But it wanted to be written. This is Part 1 of the obligatory College AU and everyone is a dork. 

It’s not proof read or anything.. Im tired...

It was a kinda gloomy afternoon in late October when it all started. It was raining and the dorm was crowded with students that normally were walking around town but with weather that bad no one really wanted to go out.

Dabi was sitting on the windowsill in the common room and stared outside.

Spinner was in some kind of fight with two other students about some hockey game.

Twice tried to watch some motorcycle race on TV.

He then suddenly jumped and walked over to Dabi with just a few really big steps.

“Dabi, I have an idea!”

Dabi lazily turned around to his friend.

“Shoot.”

“So far we have befriended three people. But I think we need a lot more friends. There are a lot of people here on campus that don't seem to have many friends and no one should walk alone around here. You know, we all need someone to talk to and stuff. You know??”

Dabi blinked a few times.

For some reason since summer, Twice seemed to be obsessed with walking around and trying to talk to people he never talked to before. Dabi was just dragged along. At first Twice started hanging out with Spinner. Then he almost stalked some weird guy called Chisaki. And then his friends. Dabi always felt the weird need to apologise for Twice's behaviour but somehow in the end it all worked out and their circle of friends grew.

Twice blabbered on

“There's this girl I have a few classes with and she's like.. two years younger than us or so I have no idea how she is in college already but she is. I have never seen her with people around and I think we should change that.”

“Uh.... okay? How do you wanna do that?”

“I'm just gonna talk to her on Monday. What do you think?”

“Dunno? Go ahead I guess...?”

Dabi had a vague idea which girl Twice meant.

She was blonde and short and could be cute but there was an eerie air surrounding her. But since Twice's group of friends was a ragtag bunch of misfits she would be fit in just fine. Twice himself was a giant goofball sometimes. In one moment it seemed like he was just a kid trapped in the body of a tall guy in his early 20s. In another moment he would shout the most obscene things anyone has ever heard. Be it in the hallway, in the middle of a lecture, while eating lunch and sometimes in the middle of the night. Dabi knew because even though his room was further down the hallway he could still hear his friend's yelling. It woke him up semi-regularly.

And on some days Twice would just break down sobbing and fled to the bathroom and wouldn't come back for a few hours.

He had no idea about what happened afterwards.

Dabi himself also was far from being the average college student. First of all the appearance.

Then his type of humour.   He often insulted people without meaning to because for him it was just friendly banter. And his careless attitude pissed people off. For reasons Dabi cannot explain. What's so bad about not blowing up at every single thing?

“I haven't felt an emotion since 1997” he often said.

“Look how many fucks I give. They are falling from the sky” he also often said.

Chisaki, the first guy they “recruited” was terribly afraid of bacteria and getting ill. They never saw him without wearing gloves and a face mask.

No hand shaking or friendly hugs allowed, thank you.

Please just wave in my general direction.

He was often seen furiously wiping seats, benches, tables, kitchen counters and other places you can sit on.

Sometimes Dabi wondered if it was a good idea for him to study medicine.

On the other hand, if he would become a surgeon no one would need to worry about keeping the operating room sterile.

“We only have guy friends. We also need some girl friends. Not girlfriends... well, maybe those too but I mean like.. girls. Who are our friends.”

“I get what you mean, Twice and I agree. This group is a sausage fest.”

Two days later when Dabi walked to his next lecture he saw Twice down at the campus plaza wildly gesticulating and talking to that girl he wanted to talk to.

She didn't seem to mind.

As far as Dabi could see, whatever Twice was talking about must be funny since she was laughing.

Good. Another weirdo joined the group. Let's see what this eerie feeling is about.

Dabi almost bumped into another student he didn't even had noticed.

“Whoa there. Didn't see you there buddy. Sorry.”

The other student shot a quick glance at Dabi and walked a bit faster. Well, okay...? Maybe he's late for class. Though in his oversized black clothes he almost looked like a high school student.

Weird kid.

This time the common room was almost empty, even though it was raining again.

Why is it always raining the last few weeks?

Dabi stared out of the window again.

“Is this interesting?” Chisaki asked.

“I'm pretending to be an emo girl in a music video. I'm currently missing my boyfriend who broke up with me to fuck my best friend.”  

“Okay?”

“It is complicated, you know? He just bought me an expensive ring and told me we will be together forever but then at a party my bff flirted with him and he didn't do anything and now I'm so angry I think I will set his apartment in flames.”

“Dabi? Are you... okay?”

Dabi turned around to Chisaki and pretended to be crying.

“No! I am depressed! I was so in love with him, Rawr!”

Chisaki stared at Dabi for ten seconds.

“Please. Don't say this ever again.”

“Rawr means I Love You in Dinosaur!”

Before Chisaki could smack the lanky bean in the face Twice stormed into the room.

“Guys! Guys, we have a new friend! Say hello to Toga!”

The short girl from earlier today stood in the doorway grinning way too wide for her face.

“Hiiiii~ I'm Toga! I'm so happy to meet you all! Very happy indeed.”

What is up with those teeth? Dabi had never seen canines that sharp. He had heard that some people let their teeth sharpen. But until now he thought someone was playing a very elaborate prank on him. But seems those people seriously exist.

A wave of eeriness hit him.

There's something about this girl that's definitely not normal. But who in this weird clique is normal anyway?

“So what do you guys do all day? You all look totally different, do you even have common hobbies? Like Twicey here looks like a MMA fighter and you look like a law student and you look like you beat up kids and then go home and write sad poems about it.”

Dabi's eye twitched slightly.

“Also you look stoned!”

It twitched even more.

“Law student.....” Chisaki muttered, “I have never been more insulted in my life.”

“We're just hanging out. And sometimes we go play pool and stuff” Twice said.

“Oh that's cool. I collect knives. Do you want to see some?”

Toga was beaming.

Okay, so that's what's wrong with her. That explains so much to be honest.

“I don't think anyone would be interested in....”

Dabi cut Chisaki off.

“Sure we want.”

And a few minutes later they were standing around in Toga's room. Which looked like a normal girl's room. Except for the wall of knives where other girls maybe had posters hanging.

But otherwise, very normal, very pink.

Toga pointed at one of the knives.

“This is the first one I got. I found it one day on a playground. I took it home and cleaned it and sharpened it.” She pointed at another that had sharp wedges.

“This is really great when you want someone to bleed out. When you stab someone with it and they try to rip it out the teeth just get stuck and do more damage. I bought it at a hunting store a few years ago.”

Whoa. Chisaki had gone completely pale. Twice seemed nervous too. Did they have to worry that this girl would break into their rooms at night to do Horrible Things to them?

“I see your worried faces and I want to reassure you that I only collect them.”

At least she's sane.

“I also collect other things! Like articles from the newspapers.” Toga shuffled over to a drawer that was completely plastered with hearts and peace signs and whatnot.

She pulled out a folder and went through the pages a bit.

“Here. This one, for example is about a case of unexplained murders in the 80s. I have collected every little bit of information I could find about it. Which is very hard by the way. Do you know how weird it feels to google all that stuff? And this one is about that guy who abducted and killed five women like a year ago.”

Nope, completely insane.

But in a weirdly nerdy way.

“And now I am collecting stuff about a string of weird cases of mutilated animals found on roadsides around Yokohama. No one really investigates that! Can you believe it? Just because it's not people. I think that's not fair. Animals have lives too.”

She closed the folder and huffed.

Dabi crossed his arms.

“So you're like... playing detective? Finding out more about it?”

Toga's face lit up.

“Wow, I never thought about that. I could totally find out the truth. I know everything!”

Chisaki leaned over to Dabi and whispered: “Hey, can we go now? I still have to write an essay and also this is creeping me out.”

“Dunno man. I think that's definitely a weird hobby but she seems harmless.”, Dabi whispered back.

“Yeah maybe, but I'm out, cheers.”

Chisaki marched out of the room without even saying goodbye.

Twice and Dabi remained.

“Oh nooooo I scared him away.”

“He's just horrible when it comes to blood” Twice tried to explain.

“Oh yeah you should have seen his face, when I was hit by a baseball once and it almost knocked out a tooth. I thought he would faint any second.”

Toga grinned.

“He really acts like a law student.”

“He studies medicine.” Twice said.

Toga just stared at the guy.

“You're joking, right?”

Twice shook his head.

And then Toga had a hysterical laughing fit that lasted so long that Dabi briefly considered to call an ambulance.

It was already dark when Twice and Dabi went back to their rooms. The fact that it was already dark didn't mean that it was late though. The sun was already setting at 6pm.    

“She's weird as fuck but I'd be lying if I would say what she said wasn't interesting. I don't know why I would need to know about serial killers but somehow I do now.”

Dabi was rambling.

“So you like her? You think she fits in with us?”

“Yeah kinda. Maybe. But I don't mind her hanging out with us.”

Twice pumped his fist in the air.

“Yeah! A new friend! Oh can you wait here for a minute? I wanna head over to the kiosk and get some snacks.”

“Sure. Knock yourself out.”

Dabi leaned back at the wall and Twice hurried out of the main door.

Empty corridors. Silence.

Pretending to be a a girl in some music video again, Dabi imagined walking down the hallways crying about some lost love and unfair parents. For some reason the sprinklers were on. The eyeliner is running dramatically over the wet cheeks. Emo girl is looking at her wrist where she wrote the name of her ex with a sharpie. It's also running from the water from the sprinklers. Some guitar solo is playing in the background. Emo girl gets angry and punches the wall.

She swears revenge. Maybe burning something down would help. Maybe destroying things....

“Hey, what are you doing there?”

Dabi looked up. Oh, he really had wandered through the hallway. But without the sprinklers and the sharpie and the cheating boyfriend.

In front of him stood the guy from before. Black oversized hoodie, black jeans, black Converse. God, is that a Senses Fail patch?

How emo, Dabi thought, ignoring the fact that he also has a Senses Fail patch on his backpack.

No one needs to know.

The guy still stares at him.

Oh Jesus, please someone get him lip balm. And some moisturiser. Because this dude looks dead.

“I was just dramatically walking around, thinking about my cheating boyfriend.”

“What?”

“Ah nothing. It was a joke. Sorry again for bumping into you earlier.”

“Ah. Its fine.” The guy shoved his hands back in his pockets and walked back in the direction he came from.

That's not where the dorms are. Weird.

“Hey Dabi, I'm back”

Dabi was lightly punched in the shoulder.

“Nice. Dude, have you seen that weird dude in the wannabe emo clothes just now?”

Twice seemed confused.

“Emo dude..? No. I haven't seen anyone.”

Dabi scratched his head.

He also never had seen that guy before. Is he a ghost or something?

Over the next few days Dabi ran into that guy over and over again. But every time he asked someone about him, no one had an idea who he was talking about. He ran into him in the bathroom during lunch break. He ran into him in the library. He ran into him while running cross campus to catch a bus. Had this dude always been there and Dabi just didn't notice?

“You always look like you're searching for something. Are you okay?” Toga asked. They were walking down a popular shopping street in town. Toga wanted to meet with a friend of hers and asked everyone if they want to come with her but only Dabi agreed.

“I think I might have seen a ghost. Also, I'm not okay.”

Toga's eyes went wide. “A ghost?? A really spooky one? The one that haunts your dreams by night? Where have you seen it?”

“Everywhere, basically. And he even shows up during the day. I need proof that this guy really exists.”

“Wooooooooow..... A real mystery. Maybe my friend can help you. She's great with mysteries.”

They arrived at a small café.

Toga was running towards some guy in brown cargo pants who was waving at her. But didn't Toga say “she”? Oh. Okay.

Then Toga ran back to Dabi grabbed his arm and pulled him with her.

“This is my best friend, Magne. She's basically like my sister. If you need help with mysteries, then talk to her.”

Dabi awkwardly shook her hand. Wow that's a strong handshake. “I took the liberty of already ordering some cake for me. I just couldn't wait. So, what is this mystery you are talking about?” They sat down at one of the small tables. It was weirdly warm for October this week so somehow everyone was still outside.

“Basically I am chasing a guy only I can see, it seems. I never have seen him before but suddenly he is everywhere. But when I ask someone about him no one knows what I'm talking about.” Dabi explained.

“Wow that really is something. By the way, Toga you should order the Strawberry Shortcake it's the best I have ever eaten. Okay, so if you need proof that this mysterious guy really exists you maybe should take a picture of him?”

“Isn't that creepy as fuck?”

“Well, for me it would be way creepier if I would see a guy no one else can see. If you can take a picture of him you know he's real at least.”

That girl has a point there.

Sadly, after this the guy vanished. Over the course of the next weeks Dabi grew more and more frustrated.

He felt like he was stuck in some third rate emo music video.

Maybe he should let his hair grow out a bit and get blue streaks. “Dabi, you look like you're constipated. Do you need help?” Chisaki offered one day.

“I'm not okay” Dabi mumbled.

“Yeah I can see that. Seriously, if you have problems with your digestive system, I know some drops that really...”

“I can shit just fine, Chisaki.” “Oh. Then.. care to explain what's wrong?”

Dabi sprawled himself out on his bed.

Chisaki was standing in the middle of the room. He forgot his wipes and spray and wasn't brave enough to take a seat on Dabi's really old office chair.

Dabi groaned.

“This guy...... This weird guy I told you about... The one I am always running into. I'm not running into him anymore.”

Chisaki furrowed his brows.

“And that's a problem why...?”

Dabi sat up and threw his arms in the air.

“It makes me feel like a fucking madman! I know this guy exists. I have even talked to him like once. Almost. He needs some damn lip balm and looks like dead itself. And now that I was ready to take a pic of him and prove his existence once and for all he vanishes!”

“You want to take a pic of him?”

Dabi groaned again.

“I know that sounds like a stalker. But I just wanna prove that he exists. It seems like no one but me has ever seen him.”

“Dude... you do you. But who knows. Maybe he was an intern or stuff. I wouldn't waste a single thought about the whole thing.”

So Dabi tried to not waste a single thought about the whole thing.

He tried so hard and got so far. But in the end, it doesn't even matter. Because two days later he caught himself looking for that guy again.

It was already close to Christmas. And the dude remained gone.

Dabi was in the library looking for some books to read. Maybe that would distract him. He just wanted to check out when he saw him. Emo dude. With the oversized hoodie. Coming in through the front door. Dabi almost dropped his books. He imagined he was a girl in an emo music video who sees her crush. He walks past her and their eyes meet. Maybe he was smiling, maybe he was not. Everything is in slow motion. The people around them vanish. It's only those two. When he passed her everything is back to normal. Guitar solo.

Dabi wanted to slam his fucking books on the floor.

Then he walks into emo dude while crossing a bridge. Okay, emo music video. It's raining. Girl was just dumped by some stupid jackass. She is desperate and doesn't know what to do. Maybe she should jump but the bridge isn't really high. She's nervous. After contemplating for a while she sees Him. Some emo dude walking towards her, asking her if everything is alright. It's still raining but also now the sun is shining. Everything is well now even though there is still sadness in her heart. Forever. Guitar solo.

Dabi seriously contemplates to jump into the river below.

The third time he runs into him is at a bus stop. Some old lady is also there but that's it.

“Hold still!” Dabi says harshly and the guy looks at him, startled.

Dabi takes out his cellphone and takes a pic of the dude.

“What...... why...?”

“I explain later. Don't worry, I will delete the pic soon. I just have to prove something to someone.”

Emo dude is chewing on his lower lip. His leg seems shaky. Dabi sighs.

“Look. I know that was creepy as fuck but you won't believe the hell I went through to get this pic. As soon as I prove that you exists I will delete it.” “That I exist..?”

“Yeah.”

Fuck that sounds stupid. Oh god so stupid and creepy and.... hell, Dabi has to explain this seriously now.

He groans.

“Okay, there is no way to explain this without sounding weird. Remember back in October when I almost ran you over?” Emo dude nods. Dabi can see strands of blueish grey hair. Is that dye?

“Good. I thought to that day I had seen everyone on campus. But I never had seen you. So I asked my friend about you and he said he doesn't know about you. And he literally is friends with everyone. And then I kept running into you. But every time I wanted my friend to look at you you vanished. Like a fucking ghost or something. It was... kinda pissing me off somehow. And we kept running into each other but I was either alone or you did that magical vanishing thing.”

Emo kid stared at Dabi in silence.

“I kinda got all riled up about this. And then I didn't see you again and I seriously thought I was going crazy or had seen a ghost or something. A friend had told me to take a picture to prove it. But then I couldn't because I didn't see you. But now I did. And now I can prove it. And now I can have peace of mind.”

The dude still stared at Dabi.

Ah fuck.

Oh, wait.

Dabi pulled out the phone again.

“I could also delete the pic right now. And take you to my friends instead. You know... In the flesh?”

“You want me to meet your friends..?”

Dabi nodded.

“You're always alone. Maybe you could need some friends.”

“Friends....” Emo dude looked at the ground. Spit stains everywhere, ewwww.

“Okay... Take me to your friends.”

“Ah I can't today. Maybe we could meet at that church at 4pm tomorrow?”

Emo dude shrugged.

“Okay....”

Dabi wanted to shake his hand, but emo dude didn't react. He awkwardly pulled his hand back and coughed.

“Okay then.... Until tomorrow. And I'm Dabi, by the way.”

“Tomura... I'm Tomura...”

Then Dabi's bus arrived. Time to visit his mom in the hospital.

He sat down at the window.

Okay. Emo music video. Girl just had a date but it didn't go as planned. Maybe she should have listened to her bff, she had a bad feeling about this all the time. It's raining. It's also raining in emo girl's heart. She had sadness for breakfast. She should have stayed home and spend the time with her bff instead. Now that she thinks about it, bff was always there for her. Every time emo girl needed a shoulder to cry on bff was there. The rain represents the tears she wants to cry but cannot because this is a public setting and that would be embarrassing. Emo girl thinks maybe she should have dated bff instead. There is thunder in the background as the bus drives into the darkness. Guitar solo.  

[sanversinsane]

Sanvers Week: Day 2 - Nerdy Girlfriends

[whatdoyouthinkmyjobis]

Hunters on the Hellmouth

masterlist

first chapter

previous chapter

Warnings: discussion of suicide

AN: Inspired by BTVS 7.07 “Conversations with Dead People.” It’s the first week of December, about three weeks after chapter 22, a few days after GND9.

Chapter 23: Behind the Curtain

Months of researching other dimensions had yielded nothing on how the Winchesters had arrived in Sunnydale or if they could get back, so Sam turned to researching everything else about the world they knew versus the world they were now living in. He’d come up with vessels, or more accurately, a lack of vessels.

Over breakfast he explained, “No one’s been possessed here. (Maybe Willow, but we can’t know.) People have been remotely controlled like I was by the Luxic demon, but not outright possessed. But demons live in vampires. So maybe there’s something about human souls here that just naturally keep the demons out.”

“Or the demons are too big and horny to get in people.” Dean chuckled to himself muttering, Horny.

Excited, Sam pushed his food to the side and leaned over the table. “But get this, there’s almost no record of vessels. No one has encountered angels, so maybe there aren’t any people here who can host them. Maybe that’s why you and I are verging on the edge of super powered here.”

“Okay, I’ll ride the crazy train,” Dean said around a mouthful of bacon. “You said almost no record. What kind of vessels are there?”

“Vampires, at least. It looks like demons can’t get in a body unless it’s dead, but there have to be more, right? I found a book in Greek that roughly translates to Vessels on Earth. It’s part of a collection of rare occult texts in Mesa, Arizona. I’m thinking we can go right after work, grab a motel for the night, and we’ll be home by dinner the next day. Just like old times.”

Sam considered this the whitest of lies. He did know about one other type of vessel in this world: The Slayer.

In his research, Sam had tripped across the Slayer origin story. A young girl tied down by her tribe’s elders -- Shadow Men -- and filled with “the essence of a demon” in order to fight the demons plaguing them.

The story didn’t add up. Details were sketchy at best; the tale predated writing. How could possessing a girl with a demon possibly be helpful? Why would the demon turn on its own kind? Then there was the fact that Buffy, the current carrier of this demon essence, bore none of the signs of demon possession.

Hopefully, Arizona held some answers.

Mustard, spaghetti sauce, milk, and one serving of broccoli rice. "I don't feel Iron Chef enough to work with this," Buffy said.

“Pizza?" Willow suggested.

"Dawn is, like, ninety percent pizza at this point. It's to the store with us."

Wrapping up in their coats and hats, the girls headed into town. "Occasionally, I regret selling the Geekmobile. It’s like my summer brain blocked winter out completely."

"When are the guys coming back?” Willow asked.

Buffy sighed at the reminder she’d be spending the night alone. “They should be back tomorrow. Sam couldn’t get a lot of time off.”

The pain of separation must have shown on her face. Willow grabbed Buffy’s hand, her eyes soft and concerned. “I can cancel my plans. We can watch something funny, zany even.”

Buffy shook her head. “It’s one day. I’ll be fine. What are your big sparkly plans tonight?”

“Big sparkly library. I’m almost finished with my notes for my Art History paper, then I can start the fun paper-writing part,” she said enthusiastically. “I know I’ve checked all the books for references to ‘It is watching,’ but I may give them another look. It-ness is just so vague. I prefer the vain evils that like their names in lights.”

“Good, that’ll add some bupkis to the bupkis we know.”

“I can be your bupkis supplier.” Willow paused. “That sounded dirtier than I wanted it to.”

“Unintentionally dirty Willow is welcome any time,” Buffy said with a grin.

“Speaking of welcome and maybe dirty, I forgot to tell you about this crazy -- well, not actually crazy considering this is Sunnydale, but still loopy for me -- thing that happened last week. I was studying out in the commons between classes, and this girl walked up to me. She had this cute blonde pixie and a nose ring that I also weirdly liked. Anyway, we chatted about classes, and she gave me her number. You know what I told her, Buffy? I said, ‘I don’t need a study buddy. We’re not the same major.’ Smooth, right? It wasn’t until after she left with this hurt puppy look on her face that I even realized she was hitting on me. It’s been so long, I forgot what it was like.”

“What was it like? In the feels department, I mean.”

“It was great. Talking with her for a few minutes, I wasn’t thinking about Tara. I was thinking about me and the future of me. Of course later, I cried big ugly snot bubbles of shame over not thinking of Tara.”

“I don’t think Tara would want you to lock up your heart and hotness. You can love her forever, and still move on, snot bubble free. That’s kind of where Angel and I ended up.”

“Only Angel’s not dead. Well, he is, but he’s not and -- jeez, can’t you have uncomplicated relationships?”

“Doesn’t look like it. Dead or undead, you’ve taken some great baby steps, Will. Maybe the next step should be letting girls hit on you? How about we hit up The Bronze this weekend? Have some drinks. Get our dance on. You can practice flirting.”

“I was a little queasy when you said dancing, then you said flirting and lost me.”

“Girls’ night out it is!” Buffy said, squeezing her in a hug.

Willow was happy to spend an evening alone. The constant hustle and bustle of the house was like a warm blanket on a winter’s evening, but it was also a distraction. She still needed to head out into that storm. More like storms.

The prospect of a girl’s night out had her stomach in knots. She knew she needed to have fun more. Leave the house more. Engage more. But any form of healing felt like an unearned reward for her losing control. All of it felt like cheating on Tara.

Her second storm was Sam. Deep inside of sweet, nerdy Sam, something was wrong. Something was evil. When the pathway spell had failed, temporarily giving her insight into people, she could see a darkness swirling inside of him, tangled with the light. She didn’t think anything of it, after all, everyone’s insides looked a little different (except the matched set of Buffy and Dean), but then Spike showed up. Spike with his newly returned soul fighting with his demon passenger weirdly resembled what was in Sam. 

Did he know? Willow had a million questions and theories about how this swirling darkness came to live in Sam, but she’d thought it best to poke around on her own before broaching the topic. Unfortunately, this new discovery had been quickly followed by Sam’s new relationship, so Willow rarely had the chance to do spells on the sly around him. He wasn’t charmed. He wasn’t cursed. He wasn’t controlled. So what was inside of Sam Winchester?

Sam was engrossed in one of the books they’d picked up, so Dean focused on the music pumping through the diner. Every game you play, every night you stay, I'll be watching you.

The diner lights flickered.

Dean chuckled into his fries.

Sam looked up from his books. “Did I miss something?”

“The lights flickered.”

“So?”

“Exactly. Don’t mean anything.” Before Sunnydale, he’d have reached for his gun packed with iron-tipped bullets and grabbed the table salt. He’d have checked exits and looked for suspicious behavior in the other diners.

Not anymore. A flickering light was a flickering light.

Dean wiped his greasy fingers on a napkin before tossing the crumpled paper at his brother.

“Mature,” said Sam, tucking the projectile beside his plate.

“We getting a motel, or you wanna head back home an’ spend some real quality time with that book? Slow jams. Lube. Box of tissues.”

Sam gave Dean the exact tight-lipped bitch-face he was fishing for.

“Motel then?”

“You’re worried about her,” Sam said.

“Nah,” said Dean attempting to take a sip from his empty coffee cup.

“We can head back.”

Dean signaled the waitress. “Check?”

Having stayed late at school to work on a group project for History, Dawn was surprised to find the house dark on her return. There were two notes on the counter. At the library. Where else would I be? See you before bedtime, Dawnie! Love, Willow. The other one had ten dollars clipped to it. Not for pizza. -- Buffy.

Dawn ordered a pizza. If she was going to be the queen of the usually packed house for a few hours, she would do as she pleased. This involved blowing off the rest of her homework, listening to the pop station she secretly loved, and snooping in Buffy’s room for secrets and clothes she wouldn’t miss.

Dashing upstairs, she pulled out the drawers in Buffy’s night stand. When she was dating Riley, she’d kept her diary in there. For a mystically chosen superhero, Buffy’s diary was shockingly dull. Killed a vamp. Killed two vamps. Killed a demon. Kissed a boy. The boy parts were Dawn’s favorite.

Buffy must have found a better hiding spot. The only things in the drawers were stakes, knives, sticky bottles, handcuffs, candy wrappers, and a long purple...not stake?

Not candy wrappers either.

Dawn rushed to the bathroom to wash her hands in the hottest water she could stand.

Buffy’s night had been weird. At the checkout line at the grocery store, she’d discovered she had left her wallet at home. After running back home to leave something for Dawn, she staked two vamps before grabbing some fast food. To top it all off, she’d called Spike. She hadn't even noticed herself doing it until after she’d told him where she was patrolling.

Spike walked up to her, pretension stripped. He didn't saunter. Didn't prowl. “You and the missus need a hand?”

For the first time in weeks, only one vampire (that she knew of) was likely to rise that night. “No, I just wanted to see how you are with the hand and stuff.” She tried to sound light, as if they were meeting up for coffee.

“My hand?” He held up the completely healed appendage. “Weeks go by and you only talk to me to tell me where to be at night -- always conveniently far from you. I go. I patrol. I kick some ass, thank you very much. But days after the fact, you suddenly want to talk about my hand?” He looked at her, into her, opening all the doors and drawers she wanted closed. “Guessing lover boy is out of town.”

Buffy started walking toward a new grave hoping the shadows would hide her face. “I just wanted to check on you. You seem better.”

“I'm not.” Spike hadn’t followed her. He pulled the last cigarette from his pack at glared at her across the chasm of smoke. “I’m peachy. Tip top. Practically skipping on clouds. Does that make you feel better? Lessen the guilt?”

Buffy felt slapped in the face. “Guilt? What do I have to feel guilty about?”

A smirk verging on snarl curled across his lips before he turned away. “You called me, pet. In the future, don’t.”

Willow woke with a start, a note card stuck to her cheek. She scanned the stacks around her, hoping no one had witnessed DroolFest 2002. For the moment, she was in the clear.

If she hoped to get anywhere on the elusive It, she was going to need more caffeine. Shoving her notes in her bag and putting her books on the return cart, Willow headed out into the brisk night air.

She turned off the path to the coffee house. Near a small pond the school called a lake, stood a scraggly old magnolia tree. Tara dubbed it “the most majestic tree on campus,” which was saying something as she made a point of visiting them all.

Willow ran her fingers along the low branches, feeling Tara’s sweetness in the air.

“Baby, it’s me. I miss you.” For once, Willow could say the words without tearing up.

“I'm sorry I haven't tried talking to you. I've felt, I don't know, dirty? Ashamed. Not myself. Not your Willow. I think I'm getting better though.

“Is it beautiful where you are? Of course it is, you’re there. I, uh, I haven’t gotten less cheesy.” Not that Tara would have minded. She was always one to revel in gooey affection.

“It looks beautiful from here,” said a familiar voice. An impossible voice. There, on the other side of the tree, stood Tara.

For good measure, Dawn stuck her tongue out at Buffy’s cream lace blouse before shoving it back in the closet. The closet-cleaning a month before had turned Dawn’s second wardrobe into Dullsville.

Pushing aside a tote full of purses on the closet floor, she found a forgotten black miniskirt. Dawn wiggled out of her jeans to try on the new treasure, already preparing arguments as to why she should be allowed to wear miniskirts to school.

“She’s such a hypocrite,” Dawn complained to no one as she continued to dig around the mess on the closet floor.

The lights flickered with a slight buzz.

Dawn sat back on her haunches and peered at the light, daring it to interrupt her with anything remotely similar to a chore.

Grabbing a tiny navy thing, she bounded to the mirror to hold it up. “Dress or top? I vote dress.”

The mirror cracked; blood streamed from the cracks and across her reflection.

Dawn grabbed a small dagger from the dresser and ran downstairs.

The front door blew open in front of her. Wind howled into the house though no trees moved outside. Dawn threw her weight into the door, eventually closing it.

Her heart pounded as the lights flickered again. She grabbed the phone in the kitchen and called Buffy. It rang without answer.

The back door creaked open. Dawn slammed it shut and shoved a chair in front of it.

Was something trying to force her outside? Just beyond the light of the windows, she could make out two men standing in the yard. Vampires. A vampire couldn’t have gotten into the house. A demon?

Gripping her dagger tighter, Dawn padded through the house in her bare feet, gathering books and ingredients for a protection spell.

The vampire Buffy’d just kicked in the face recognized her. This wasn’t the usual Finally, we meet, Slayer, sort of recognition. He was Jason Chen from her Geometry class at Sunnydale High. He was shy of six feet, muscular even through his suit, with dark shaggy hair.

“We sat next to each other all semester? I let you copy my test answers?” he said.

“Sorry, don’t remember.”    

“Doesn’t surprise me. I wasn’t so great at math.” He ran his tongue over his fangs.

“Well, I passed, so thanks?”

He smiled at her, but not the hungry, cocky smile she was used to from vampires. “You know, I had the biggest crush on you.”

Heat rose in her cheeks despite herself. “Really? You never said anything.”

“I was pretty sure you didn’t know I existed. Looks like I was right. Plus, I heard a rumor you were dating some older guy and -- Whoa, what happened?” He ran his hands over his now smooth forehead.

“You changed back into your human face. You can switch between human and vampire. I recognize you now. You’ve lost weight!”

Jason smoothed his suit jacket and beamed at her. “Yeah! I took up boxing in college and burned off the baby fat.”

“You look good for a dead guy,” she said and meant it. He’d been baby-faced and pimply in high school; now his features were sharp, and a glint of sex flashed in his eyes.

“Thanks! I feel good, too! Like I finally have a purpose in life -- er, death.”

“I’m sorry about that,” she said, quietly.

He pointed at her cross and stake. “Guessing this isn’t new to you?”

Buffy shrugged. “Some people have careers; I got a calling.”

Jason shoved his hands in his pockets, casually letting her know he wasn’t afraid. “That explains a lot actually.”

“A lotta what?”

“You missed a bunch of classes, and you usually had cuts and bruises when you showed up. You seemed super sweet, but you were always in fights. People thought your boyfriend was some cult leader who was beating you up, but all this time you were Buffy the vampire killer.”

“Slayer.”

“Slayer?” He repeated it with skepticism.

“The girl called to kill vampires and demons. She’s called the Slayer.”

Jason grinned. “There’s a whole big world of darkness out there I need to learn about.”

Buffy shook her head. “I’m sorry, Jason, but you’re not going to survive the night.”

Quick on his feet, he spun to the side, beyond her reach. She swung into a round house, knocking him to the ground. He popped up, catching her ribs with a left hook, forcing all the air from her lungs. She elbowed him in the face, knocking him to the ground again. Buffy fell on him, pressing him into the grass with her knees, stake high.

Jason raised his hands in surrender. “I understand you have a grand scheme and all, but can’t we keep with the catching up?”

“You want a mini high school reunion in a cemetery before I kill you?” she asked, stake still raised.

“Why not? You make it sound like one of us isn’t going to make it to our tenth.”

“Who goes to the tenth? The twentieth is when people stop being fakey fakers,” she said with disgust.

He smiled, his deep dimples on display. “You’re confident you’ll live that long? Your confidence is one of the things I always liked about you.”

She climbed off of him and made herself comfortable on an elaborate tombstone. The idea of talking with a near stranger she could then kill appealed to her. “I’ve been doing this for a while. Lots of training.”

The vampire rubbed his face and shook away the blurry vision she’d no doubt doled out. “Do you just kill vampires? How did we get locked into being nemisises? Nemisi?”

“I kill lots of things that hurt people.” She was too tired for the spiel.

Jason took off his jacket, his dress shirt tight on his biceps, and sat on a nearby tombstone. “How do you know I’m going to hurt someone? This is a major case of guilty before proven innocent!”

Buffy cocked her head to the side, an eyebrow raised in skepticism. “You’re not a case; you’re a monster. You can’t tell me the idea of someone screaming and crying while you drink their blood doesn’t get you all a twitter.”

He smacked his lips. “Yeah, that does sound good.”

A question nagged at her every day, a question she rarely got to ask. “So why’d you do it? Why’d you drink the blood?”

The house was so eerily silent, Dawn swallowed to pop her ears. She tried to steady her breathing; Buffy was always on her case in training about her breathing. Closing her mouth, she took long, deep breaths through her nose and refocused on the protection spell ingredients spread out on the coffee table.

Behind her, something else was breathing.

Dawn spun around, but nothing was there.

A scream rose rose seemingly all around her before the television flicked on to an old horror movie with the volume turned up. She tried to turn it off.

Nothing.

She pushed all the buttons.

The woman continued screaming.

Dawn unplugged the tv.

The screaming did not stop.

Suddenly, everything flicked on. The radio blared a new pop song. The vacuum cleaner roared to life. The microwave began to cook. The lights burned bright until they hummed.

Dawn ran back to the spell book on the table. Lighting a dry rosemary sprig and tossing it in the metal bowl, she held a small mirror up to reflect the light. Over the screaming electronics she shouted, “I, Dawn Summers, cast you from this house, from this realm, back to the -- AHH!”

In a flash, all of the electronics exploded filling the room with shards of metal, glass and plastic.

The eerie quiet was worse in the dark.

“You think that will scare me?!” she shouted, her face and arms stinging from the shrapnel. “I’m in high school!”

Bang!

The knocking came from inside the house.

Bang!

She trembled.

Bang!

Framed against the moonlit window stood a familiar shape.

“Mom?”

Lightning flashed, black smoke surrounded Joyce, squeezing her neck and ramming down her throat.  

“MOM!”

The lights came back, like someone had flipped a switch, and Dawn was alone again in the wrecked living room.

Willow felt as if the ground opened beneath her, and she tumbled forever into the dark. She squeezed the branch harder, the bark biting her skin, pulling her back to reality. But in reality Tara was dead.

“How?” Willow choked through the rising tears.

Tara, her edges practically glowing, smiled a pained smile. “This isn’t how it’s normally done, but you’re special. I always knew that, but Heaven knows it too.”

“Heaven?”

Tara nodded. “They let me come to you.”

“Oh, baby!” Willow threw herself toward the woman she loved only to pass through her. The ghost left a tingle on her skin, a charge like being dangerously close to a lightning storm.

“You know I’m only here in spirit,” Tara said.

“Tara!” Tears blurred Willow’s vision. She wanted nothing more than to hold her lover one more time, kiss her soft lips, play with her silky hair.

“I have a message for you, a warning from Heaven.”

Willow wasn’t sure if she was more shocked that anyone in Heaven cared about her specifically or that whoever it was cared enough to warn her about something.

“You have to stop practicing magic,” Tara said. “You’ve become dangerous.”

“But--but Giles said stopping would be dangerous. He said small spells--”

“No, you have to stop completely, Willow. You have to stop, or you’re going to kill everyone.”

Jason sighed. “Have you ever been in a relationship that ripped your heart out? Not boo-hoo sad, more I-can’t-breathe grief?”

“Oh yeah.”

“She left me a month ago. I had a ring ready and everything, and she ran off with my best friend.” His voice almost cracked.

“God, that’s awful!”

“Finals were coming up. I was just so stressed and sad, I thought I’d come home for the weekend. Only no one in my family wanted to hear about it. Dad only cares that my grades are good; he wants me to take over his law firm. Mom was busy helping my older sister plan this giant wedding. My little sister, well, I think she was too high to notice I was home.”

“I’m sorry, Jason.”

She’d barely noticed him in school. He’d been a convenient way to pass Geometry. In fact, she couldn’t even remember who he had hung out with. How many days did he sit by her, yet another person not listening?

“Eh, I was bleeding out in a parking lot, and the offer of joining an undead army of evil didn’t sound half bad.”

“Army? Your sire used the word ‘army?’”

“‘Sire?’ Is that what I call the guy who made me all grr-argh? Sounds so formal.”

Jason ran his fingers through his thick hair while he inspected her, the hunger growing in his eyes. He would be ravenous by now. “Was your breakup recent?”

“Sorry?”

“You look sad, and when I mentioned bad breakups...It still hurts, doesn’t it?”

Killing Angel was a wound that would never heal, but him moving away? That was more scabbed over. She loved him still, but now it was more nostalgia for first love, the thrill of infatuation. He couldn’t give her what she needed.

As far as Riley went, she’d never loved him. The timing hurt more than his leaving.

But they were old news.

“No! I’m in a great relationship!”

He snapped his fingers. “Damn! You probably wouldn’t have gone out with me anyway, since I’m a vampire and all.”

She forced out a laugh of agreement.

“If your relationship is so great, why are you so sad?” he asked.

Suddenly, she knew why she’d called Spike. “It doesn’t have anything to do with my boyfriend. Not really. It’s just that my ex -- not the one I loved -- still comes around every once and awhile. He’s going through a hard time, and I don’t know how to be his friend. We’ve been enemies, confidants, lovers, allies, but I don’t know how to help him.”

“Did you know how to be his friend before the new boyfriend entered the scene?”

Buffy bit her lip and looked away. She and Dean had talked about Spike as much as they needed to -- why he was still alive, how much he helped her after she rose from the dead -- then she dropped it. The truth was, she had a hand in Spike’s suffering and didn’t want to deal with the fall out.

Jason stood up and stretched, a warm up. “Not gonna lie, that’s kind of crappy of you, but he’s got other friends right?”

“No, Spike is --”

“Wait, did you say Spike? British guy. Bleached blonde rock and roll type. Vampire?”

Her stomach sank as she gripped her stake. “Yeah, that’s him.”

The new vampire unleashed a deep, knee-slapping laugh. “Your friend, no your EX is a vampire?! Oh God, that’s hilarious!”

“How do you know Spike?”

“Spike’s the one who sired me.”

Buffy’s arms felt weak. Her knees shook. He had a soul and a chip. “No, he wouldn’t.”

Jason wiped away his tears of laughter. “I was leaving the gym after a workout. He grabbed me in the parking lot, said I could finish bleeding out or be part of something big--”

Before he could finish, Buffy lunged.

Sitting on the coffee table bandaging her feet, Dawn tried calling Buffy again. “Please! Pick up!” she cried. Hanging up, she whispered, “Mommy?”

The lights went out, when they returned a moment later, the words Daddy left us dripped down the wall in blood. The lights died again briefly and the message was gone.

The house started to rumble and shake, her own personal earthquake.

She grabbed the phone and dialed again, barely able to speak through the fear. “Dean? It’s Dawn.”

“Hey, sweetheart. You okay?” His voice was strong and alert, comforting.

She whispered, “Something’s in the house.”

“What? Like something demon or --”

“I think there’s a ghost and a demon and there’s a bunch of vampires outside. My mom is here, but so is something else--”

“Your mom? Sorry, but that ain’t your mom. You dealt with ghosts much?”

“Not really,” her voice drowning in tears.

“Listen, Sam and I are on our way; we’ll be to you in an hour. Make a circle with some salt. Sit inside. Do not let the circle break, okay?”

The house went dark, and Dawn could hear something growling. “Okay,” she whispered before hanging up.

Dawn ran to the kitchen, her feet stinging as the growling filled her ears, hot breath on her neck. Grabbing a large container of salt, she dashed back to the living room, tracing a thick line of salt around the coffee table and chair.

BANG!

Startled, Dawn fell back and knocked her head on the edge of the table, a small cry escaping her throat. A vampire stood at the window licking his lips.

It’s okay. You’re okay. Even if he breaks the window, he can’t get in. But no matter how many times she reminded herself, she didn’t feel better.

Dumping the ashen contents of the copper bowl, Dawn started over with her protection spell. Horehound tossed to the four corners. Cumin beneath her chair. Anise, angelica, mandrake in the bowl.

Joyce appeared in the living room. She tried to run to Dawn, but the black smoke smacked her against the wall. It held her by the throat as she screamed, “Don’t hurt my girls!”

“Hang on, mom!” Dawn lit the rosemary and held up a mirror to the flame. “I, Dawn Summers, cast you from this house, from this realm, back to the darkness you came from.”

A harsh wind ripped through the room, picking up bits of broken glass.

Focused on her mother, Dawn squinted to protect her eyes. “I, Dawn Summers, call on the power of the crone, the maiden and the mother, to cast you out. You have no part of this hearth. I, Dawn Summers, cast you back to hell!”

The mirror cracked in her hand, slashing across her palm. But beside her stood her mother, glowing and beautiful as Dawn always imagined an angel would be.

“You were so brave,” Joyce said.

Longing for her mother’s embrace, Dawn tried to hug her, but her arms passed through with a slight tingle.

“I want to hold you, Dawnie, I do, but you know I’m not back from the dead.”

“M-m-mom? Why are you here?”

Her smile was warm and kind. “I knew something bad was coming for you, and I had to protect you.”

“I-I tried to call Buffy,” Dawn said with a sniffle, “but she didn’t answer.”

Joyce’s smile faded and she looked away, struggling to find words. “Dawn, honey, Buffy was killed tonight.”

Willow wasn’t sure if she’d sat down on purpose or if her knees simply gave out, but she was on the damp, cold ground, clinging to her bag like it was a life raft. “Everyone, everyone? That seems like too many ones. Anyone is too many ones. I-I don’t kill people.”

Tara’s face turned dark. “Do you think I don’t know what you did? You murdered Warren. Is that what you thought I wanted?”

Bile rose in Willow’s throat. The tears came fast and hot at she reached out to Tara. “I’m sorry! I’m so sorry! I lost control without you!”

“You don’t have control now, sweetie.”

“I do! I do. Giles took me to this coven in England and --”

“It won’t be enough. You’re going to slip up again. You’ll get drunk on power and then… Which of your friends do you think you’ll kill first? Buffy to get her out of the way? Or will you start smaller? Will you start with Dawn?”

“No! No!” Willow’s pleas turned into a cough, a furious need for air.

“There’s a way to make sure everyone you love stays safe,” Tara said, her voice like warm honey. “If you sacrifice yourself, everyone else lives.”

Willow sat up and wiped her runny nose on her sleeve. “Sacrifice? You mean kill myself?”

“You’d die a hero, honey, and we could be together again. Forever.”

Willow stood and glared at the image of Tara before her. “Who are you?”

Tara’s lips curled in a playful half smile. “Don’t you recognize me? I’m your Tara.”

“My Tara would never, ever push me to kill myself,” Willow said darkly.

“Suicide thing too much? Damn. Gotta give me credit for trying.”

Energy ran through Willow’s body, warming her, making her tremble.

The thing noticed. “What are you going to try to blast me with one of your cereal box magic tricks? You can’t touch me. I am older than time. I am older than earth. Reckoning is here, kid.”

“Reckoning? Big talk. Is the big bad gonna make us pay?”

The thing laughed. “Make you pay? Like you could give me anything. I’m done watching. It’s time to strip you of what you don’t deserve. There won’t be enough of you left to shiver in the cold when I’m done.”

Surprise replaced Willow’s rage for a moment. “You! You’re the one who watches?”

“And I’m going to love watching this.” Tara snapped her fingers, and suddenly she and Willow were floating a thousand feet in the air, the college a scatter of lights beneath them.

As Willow raised her arms, now glowing white, her body jerked, and she was free falling, Tara rapidly becoming a pinprick in the sky. She felt as if her body were tearing itself to pieces. The fall yanked her screams away to no one. As she hurtled to the ground, her vision whited out.

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