#something wrong with everybody here its AWESOME!!!!!

[opikiquu]

this school has blown up 3 days in a row ive counted

[wangxianficfinder]

Fic Finder

Feb 5th

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1. hi there! i remember reading this fic ages ago and i can't seem to find it again - lwj has dreams/nightmares about falling. one scene i remember clearly is lwj waking up from a falling nightmare, stumbles and wwx catches him and holds him. i think they were in an inn? it's either canon or post-canon. it would be awesome if you could locate this - i've looked through the various requests others have sent it for hc/touch-starved/nightmares but couldn't locate this particular fic.

FOUND? Bitter Plants Bearing Sweet Fruit by Kryal (M, 83k, WangXian, graphic depictions of violence, canon-typical horror elements, Worldbuilding, Desert, Misuse of Historic Setting, Original Character Death(s), Case Fic, aftermath of canon, ridiculously long author notes, Established Relationship, Nothing Explicit But Shameless Innuendo) It's in a later scene, but Lan Zhan kinda sleeps walks into WWX after his nightmare

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2. hello! looking for a canon divergence fic, set during the sunshot campaign. what i remember is a scene where jc whips wwx with zidian. wwx collapses (having no golden core). lwj, who already knows that wwx has no core, intervenes and brings wwx to the medical tent. if i'm not wrong, there were two versions of the chapter in the medical tent, with a version that's with more jc bashing? I think it's a pretty long read. thank you! @potatokunst

ah this is right thank you thank you! the other version of that scene is in another story in the same series :)

FOUND! these colours fade for you only by doodlebutt (T, 36k, WangXian, Canon Divergence, Fix-It, Fluff and Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Everybody Lives, Golden Core Transfer Fix-It, …eventually, Hurt/Comfort, Nightmares, bed sharing, Mutual Pining, Slow Burn, Sunshot Campaign) features Lan Zhan knowing about Wei Ying's missing core, Jiang Chen whipping Wei Ying with Zidian, causing him to collapse, and Lan Zhan rushing in to help him. I don't remember there being two versions of Wei Ying's treatment, though it's been a while since I read it.

as love and its decisive pain by doodlebutt (T, 1k, WangXian, Canon Divergence, Fix-It, alternate ending for chapter 8 of these colours fade for you only, canon-typical violence and injuries, Angst) (the other version if anyone is curious)

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3. Hello again!! This time I’m look for help finding two stories! A) was a 3 chaptered ao3 WIP with inventor Wei Wuxian who made (among other stuff) a spiritual hairpin for jyl, it worked with her pacifist cultivation and slowed or paralyzed fierce corpses… and B) an au that was maybe on tumblr where the empress/empress dowager showed up for wwx because his father was a hidden prince?? I don’t know how much of the story was part of the au and how much I daydreamed so I don’t have more details… @pinsluke

3A)

FOUND! Here Again (Spirits Rise, Unbroken) by TheDefenestrator (T, 74k, WIP, WangXian, Canon Divergence, Time Travel Fix-It, Slow Burn, Happy Ending) which is two chapters and a time travel, but definitely has inventor wwx with jyl has a pacifist/tranquility hairpin!

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4. HELP…

I read a fic cannot find WWX is working in an office LAN something and he brings A-Yuan to work still a baby and usually he sleeps in one of the drawers of the file cabinete, LWJ comes in and sees the baby and asks to what WWX says something about he’s, filled correctly , LWJ takes the baby and LQ and LHuan buy all kinds of designer clothing and on their way to the baby furniture store @bkpmystinen

FOUND? Threadfic by 0Pink_Blossoms0

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5. Can you help me find this fanfiction? I’ve never actually read it before but the summary was something about how WWX was forced to marry LWJ after the archery competition when he removed LWJ’s forehead ribbon, and then years later after an unhappy marriage, he finally calls HC and LBH for help. I think HC and LBH are his sworn brothers in this fic, also. @sagegreencomforter

FOUND? The Wrong Choice by XunMichoco (Not Rated, 32k, WangXian, XiCheng, XuanLi, BingQiu, HuaLian, ZhuiLing, LQ/YQ, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, YZY is nice here, JFM being best dad, best sis JYL, JC is protective, Dark LWJ, WWX wants LWJ dead, mentions of xy, Sworn Brothers, Mpreg, YQ respect, SS is nice here, Forced Marriage, LXC is Suffering, From Nightmares)

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6. I have two fics I'm trying to find again. I read them a while ago, so I'm only putting details I'm sure of.

A) Lan Wangji is travelling and comes across a little lost paper man. He finds the silent paper man very endearing and with a lot of personality. They learn to communicate as they travel, and Lan Wangji grows attached. The paper man is obvs Wei Wuxian.

B) a Cloud Recesses fic, based on The Untamed. A Caught At The Cold Pond and Now Arranged To Marry fic. Wangxian are sent to a cabin and isolated there for a little while. I remember one scene where Wei Wuxian is trying to draw and keeps moving Lan Wangji further out of the way because he's mad at him and it makes Lan Wangji cry. There was also a puppy involved and Lan Wangji helping Wei Wuxian participate safely in the puppy's life. There was also something about the house they're in being alive? I think maybe also a winter storm and a dragon.

Anything you can do will be greatly appreciated. You guys do great work. Thank you! 🙏 @feralplantwife

6A)

FOUND! a paper friend by soft_wanning (G, 4k, WangXian, Canon Divergence, Fluff, Paperman WWX, Identity Porn, Meet-Cute, Different First Meeting)

6B)

FOUND! Headband Wedding Bootcamp by gwynseren (M, 50k, WangXian, Accidental Marriage, Misunderstandings, Some Humor)

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7. I hope I'm doing this right, I've never sent in an ask before. Also don't know if what I wrote is appropriate.

There was this one fic, I think it was post-Sunshot campaign, where the abuse Wei Wuxian experienced under Madam Yu was exposed to the cultivation world. The details I remember are that the cultivators thought Jiang Cheng was continuing this abuse and even going further with sexually assaulting Wei Wuxian. The rumors/misunderstanding got to be so bad that Junior Lan Disciples actually stepped in to get Wei Wuxian away from Jiang Cheng after they witnessed a confrontation between the two and Wei Wuxian flinched or backed away from Jiang Cheng.

That's all I can really remember. I don't remember if it was a one-shot, part of a one-shot collection, or an unfinished fic. @freestrawberrynight

FOUND? 🔒chapter 15 of Vrishchika's Short Prompts

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8. for the fic finder! its a time travel fic where wwx falls off the cliff and finds himself in the past then raises his child self as if he were his father, been looking for a while but i just can’t find it myself 😭 @thwispsings

FOUND? In Another Life by SingingInTheRaiin (M, 21k, WangXian, Time Travel, but not the usual way, LWJ is smitten, WWX is a dumbass, LXC knows what's up, Portugese Translation Available)

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9. I’m not sure if it was Wattpad or Ao3 but I remember a scene where Wei wuxian is being stalked by a shadow/ mysterious figure but as the story goes on it turns out it was Lan Wangji from a different universe or time line that lost his Wei Ying so he decided to try to take this Wei wuxian. I think he was also getting memories or visions from far into the future and starts making references from the 20s century. I don’t remember if it was a time travel fic or a MDZS react fic.

FOUND?🔒我拿青春赌明天 / I’ll wager my youth against tomorrow by tombenough_and_continent (T, 37k, WangXian, Science Fiction, Historical, Time Travel, Enemies to Lovers)

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10. Hii, for fic finder. I've been looking in my bookmarks for a while but can't find it smh :( all I remember was Madam Yu hits a yuan with zidian

FOUND? Consequences by Remma3760 (Not Rated, 58k, WangXian, XiSu, XuanLi, Canonical Child Abuse, Abusive YZY, Good Uncle LQR, WWX is a Lan, Accidental Baby Acquisition, Bad Parents JFM and YZY) the whipping happens in chapter 25

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11. For a Fic Finder - I'm looking for a fic that i thought i had bookmarked. As usual, i can't find it, and don't recall the title.

It's set after Wei Ying loses his core, etc. The three siblings are back at Lotus Pier. Wei Ying is pretty drunk all the tome. So Yanli and Jiang Cheng write to Lan Zhan & adk him to take WY to Gusu to heal or detox. WY isn't happy but he goes. Then evades LZ's efforts to cleanse the resentment. One day he's in the back meadow & meets a tiny toddler Jingyi who is upset, i forget why. They make friends. There is a mystery about an array that kept Madam Lan stuck in her house (in the story it's not the Jingshi). I think WY figures out that her essence is still trapped. The boys end up freeing her, she borrow's WY's body long enough to talk to LZ. Turns out she's a Heavenly Official and LZ and Lan Xuchen are demigods. Before she leaves, she gived WY a part of her strong goldrn core. At the end of the fic, they confess, and the guys adopt little Jingyi, and obviously live happily ever after.

Any help tracking thid down is so much appreciated!

NOT FOUND! Practical Considerations by teawater, the_anthropologist (E, 97k, WangXian, JC & WWX, LXC & WWX, LQR & WWX, Arranged Marriage, Canon Divergence, Found Family, Spouses to Lovers, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst, Politics, Scheming, Lán Elders are assholes, BAMF WWX, BAMF LWJ, eventually BAMF LXC, learning to make decisions, Learning Self-worth, Self-Esteem Issues, Sweet Wangxian, Domestic Fluff, Fix-It, JC is a big asshole, he improves somewhat but it’s open-ended, WWX learns to stand up for himself, Quote: Come Back to Gusu With Me, POV wwx, POV LWJ, POV JC, Golden Core Reveal, Teacher wwx, Golden Core Transfer Fix-It, Alcohol as a Coping Mechanism, Past Suicidal Thoughts, Post-Sunshot Campaign, WWX Protection Squad, Feelings Realization, WWX protector of the twin jades, Protective LWJ, Protective WWX, Protective LQR, Demonic Cultivator WWX, WWX is Loved, Married WangXian, Genius WWX, Everybody Lives)

FOUND! if i had the strength by agloeian (M, 16k, WangXian, Canon Divergence, Post-Sunshot Campaign, Hurt/Comfort, Getting Together, Fix-It, somewhat of a case fic, Heaven Official's Blessing inspired gods & ghosts, Mild Alcohol Abuse, (see WWX's canonical coping mechanisms), Mental Health Issues, WWX is not in a great place for a lot of this fic, He Gets Better Though!, this fic is all about learning to give yourself the help you give others tbh, Baby LJY, recovery fic, Accidental Baby Acquisition)

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12. I remember starting a fic where LWJ stabbed himself and WWX through with Bichen before the 33 Lan elders could get to them and now I can't find it anymore. I pretty sure it was some type of time travel fix-it and I think LWJ apologized to Bichen for using it to hurt WWX or smth. If you could somehow find it I would be eternally greatful ♡

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13. I apologize if I have already sent this ask, I cannot remember.

For fic finder, I’m hunting down a fic that didn’t say it took place in Sacramento CA but almost certainly did. I remember almost nothing else about it other than the Jiangs live in the Bay Area, lwj lives in a town that “people don’t usually move to” and wwx moves to the area and lwj shows him around to things like apple hill or the costume mansion. This is like. A super specific and weird request but iykyk

Thank

FOUND? so hot you're hurting my feelings by isabilightwood (E, 40k, WangXian, JYL/WQ, Modern, Oblivious LWJ, Didn't Know They Were Dating, no moms were harmed in the making of this fic, mama lan took LQR in the divorce, LWJ Has Friends, all WWX characterization decisions were made to make LWJ pine harder for his own boyfriend, Fluff, Eventual Smut, Bottom LWJ, Halloween, WWX's birthday, Sub LWJ, Light Dom/sub, Spanking)

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14. Hi, I'm looking for a fanfic about Dragãoji and Foxxian where they were in a marriage contract because Foxxian was fertile. I only read the synopsis where Jiang Cheng said: if you marry him they will give us an army. Now I feel like reading it but I lost it. @quwieiidkd

FOUND? heavy is the crown by sweetlolixo (E, 58k, WangXian, High Fantasy, Dragon LWJ, Fox WWX, Romance, Dubious Consent, Warrior LWJ, Pregnant WWX, Language Barrier, Size Kink, Dark Royalty, Game of Thrones!Drogo/Daenerys Premise, Eventual Happy Ending, Breeding Kink, Arranged Marriage, Everyone Falls In Love With WWX At First Sight, Rape/Non-con Elements)

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15. Hi, I have a request for Ficfinder. I read a story awhile ago. I don't remeber much of it, just one scene where both Ln Zhan and Jiang Cheng were making soup for Wei Wuxian. Both were sure they were making his favourite, Jiang Cheng was making the lotus root and pork rib soup while Lan Zhan was making egg drop soup.

This was after the Burial Mounds, so Wei Wuxian had stopped eating meat. i think it was all about which one knew him best? Not really sure. Any help finding this story would be much appreciated. Thanks. @remma3760

FOUND! Where the Winds of Change Blow by merakily (G, 17k, WangXian, Angst and Humor, Canon Compliant, Post-Canon, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Golden Core, Family Bonding, Flashbacks)

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16. Hi I'm looking for a fic that I found through here lol. It's cssr & wcz survive but are very injured, wy is in a coma for a bit. They get to Lotus Pier to recover and it was a longer fic. That's all I remember 😅

FOUND? Building a home by R95irth (T, 586k, WCZ/CS, JFM/YZY, WangXian, JC/WQ, JYL/JZX, 3zun, BSSR/LY, MS/Sisi, Canon Divergence, Time Travel Fix-It, Everyone Lives, Angst with a Happy Ending, Horror, Nightmares, Canon-Typical Violence, Complete list of ships in the serie summary, Family Fluff, Found Family, Babies, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, but not done by the Lotus Pier squad, Also JGS exists so canon related things linked to him, Same goes for Lan parents)

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17. Hi I was looking for these two very specific fanfics that I think I read on Wattpad years ago!

A) The First one is like: (Alternative AU) Wei wuxian and Jiang chang go to this school together and they like each other but the other person does not know they like each other and then Wei wuxian meets the principle's son lan zhan and they fall in love but Jiang chang is still in love with Wei wuxian and the story continues. 

B) The second one is like: Wei wuxian time travels back to his past after he falls down the cliff and then tries to harm himself to stop the future from hapenning but his loved him stop him and the story continues.  (like angsty at first and then turns to comfort - also I remember Jiang chang after knowing the truth becomes super protective of Wei wuxian in this story)

I honestly appreciate all your help - I have been trying to find them for ages but they seem to have disappeared :(

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18. hi!! for the next fic, would would you mind finding this one fic of an alternate universe, modern setting? In this fic, Wei Ying was a single adopted parent to A-Yuan I think, and he takes A-Yuan to a hockey camp where there is a guest coach who turns out to be Lan Wangji. Wei Ying and Lan Wangji used to play hockey together in college or something but Wei Ying had to drop out to help out Wen Qing and raise A-Yuan and disappeared for a few years. Anyway that is most of what I remember for this fic but it was super cute and I really want to reread it. I’ve tried every tag I can think of but I just can’t find it. Looking forward to hearing back from you if you can find it!! Thanks! @roundhen

FOUND?🔒Never Have To Ask by literaryoblivion (T, 14k, WangXian, Modern AU, Hockey, Kid Fic, Mentioned JYL, Mentioned JC, Fluff and Angst, Single Parent WWX, NHL Player LWJ, POV WWX, Past Character Death, Minor Character Death, Mentioned WQ, Car Accidents, Pining, Love Confessions, Friends to Lovers, Reunions, Mentioned Junior Ensemble, First Kiss, Requited Unrequited Love, Requited Love, Flashbacks)

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19. Hi so I was trying to find a fic that I listened to a few months ago I have no idea where it is right now because I did not add it or bookmarked it so it's a podfic. I know it is it's modern setting with magic wwx is a demonic cultivator and lwj is a cultivator they work together or something and they were like on a case about a haunting of the some house and wwx get injured or something or he performed empathy and lwj is so worried so he takes him home to wwx's apartment and the apartment building is where the wen lives and he sees them talks to them for a bit and then went to wwx's apartment turns out wwx apartment is haunted but the ghost is just like harmless or something I remember one Pacific scene where lwj is laying down on the bed and the ghost is right above him and then wwx wakes up and says to the ghost "knock it off"or something along those lines that's all I remember @constancebloodstone

FOUND? when I look over my shoulder by cafecliche (T, 10k, WangXian, Modern AU, exorcist LWJ, medium wwx, vague The Conjuring AU, some horror elements, Pre-Relationship, Mutual Pining, Hurt/Comfort)

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20. Hello! First, great work. Now, I'm looking for a fic where LZ is de-aged by a deity during a nigh hunt close to the burial mounds and this results in the truth about WY being revealed and he gets his core back thanks to the deity too. I think LXC and NMJ are there too. Thanks in advance. @multitudeofmes

FOUND! A Child’s Wish by Hauntcats (Not rated, 13k, WangXian, WWX & Wen remnants, Celestial meddling, Not JC Friendly, Fix-It, Canon Divergence, Angst with a Happy Ending, Everyone gets what they deserve, Age Regression/De-Aging, Child LWJ)

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[the-algebra-thing]

the misogyny deal that I'm hearing about with the lesbian ship being endgame and everybody now discarding them and being more invested in the straight ship or the gay one is like. god like i get it I do. it is tragic it feels wrong. it's so fucked up that everyone is going utterly insane over jayvik and caitvi is kinda in the dust. we literally scored a show with a central lesbian relationship that is fully canon and in theory this should be insane and awesome, and in some ways it is, but it's somehow not nearly as exciting as it was supposed to be. and I don't think the misogyny is completely on the viewers, if at all.

the reason that people are not as invested in it now as they were in season one is because the writing ended up accomplishing basically nothing solid in the whole damn show, and there were no through lines to latch onto that had meaningful or new themes attached, and so now everybody is flailing for anything to grasp onto. and they just didn't write caitvi in season 2 to be a good handhold. they started a lot of cool things with them and then changed direction in the middle, maybe even several times, and I also feel like the fuckass end to jinx's storyline and involvement (which I have plenty of thoughts about that I shan't get into here) kind of wrecked anything they would've been able to salvage from it. it just wasn't written in a way that is easy to parse or navigate—the ship OR the show in its entirety.

and so people are reaching for the easiest things to latch onto: timebomb had a simple, straightforward storyline and tragic ending, and it was pretty cute I guess. jayvik had one of the most central storylines to the narrative, was supremely gay, and did the howl's moving castle thing. I'm sure you can see which of the camps I'm closer to LMAO but like. caitlyn and vi DID have lesbian sex in a prison cell and I think that was very important, and they had some other concrete things going for them, but beyond that?? they're still alive and together but now they're kind of physically and mentally destroyed, and grieving, and for what. what was their story even about. what was the theme here; what were we trying to say with this. that oppressed people and cops can get married to each other and we should be happy about it?? like I dont get it; it didn't DO anything. and that's why it's falling into the background. and that's not on shippers or any of us, that's on the writers, for failing lesbians Again.

a theme isn't just a word or a statement. you've got to say something new, or say something old in a new way, or point out something new in something old. none of those things happened. they just threw some characters onscreen and some of them had very meaningful relationships, but because those relationships weren't tethered securely to one of these things, they didn't stick. vi and caitlyn had nothing to stick to. I don't like it either but I think that's why this is happening. the idea about lesbians getting trampled on is still relevant, I just wouldn't blame each other so readily

[halothenthehorns]

Chapter 7: OFFERING A DRAGON A DINNER PLATE

Jason took his turn next with a vague feeling of relief just to see Leo’s name again, finally something to expect he wasn’t completely wrong about, even a stupid pattern in a book. Hopefully, maybe, that meant they got to see what Leo was up to just this one bit longer and they’d finally see what he and Chiron were talking about!

He still politely looked around to Leo and asked casually, “sure you don’t want a turn on one of yours?”

Leo could have said yes, and then lit the book on fire to stop all this in its tracks, or just skipped every other word he didn't want said aloud.

He could have, but he didn’t. There was just something about these guys he trusted for no good reason. Probably insanity. He’d never trusted anyone. Now he was just letting a bunch of strangers skim along his brain, a place he hated to be, let alone share with commentary!

But, well, it’s not as if he had anything better to do. He’d only been here a few days and heard the talks and whispers nobody tried to hide, of another war coming even worse than the last, these guys had killed a Giant or something, plus there was his dragon. If he made enemies now, he’d never get a chance to take care of that machine that he didn’t see as a problem but everybody else clearly disagreed. He knew how to play Texas Hold’um, and right now he was keeping the ace up his sleeve and he’d deal with the consequences later when that was inevitably revealed. His life had never been private, everybody he’d ever met had taken one look at the pieces of paper covering the many screw ups of his past and decided they knew him.

These guys, they hadn’t done that.

So he shrugged, and waved Jason on, and went back to his plans, moving farther ahead than these guys still stuck in yesterday.

“HOW DID HE DIE?” LEO ASKED. “I mean Beckendorf.”

“Well I’m glad you didn’t mean me,” Percy said with an awkward smile.

“Why add more ghosts to my collection before they’ve even punched in,” Leo rolled his eyes.

Will Solace trudged ahead. “Explosion. Beckendorf and Percy Jackson blew up a cruise ship full of monsters. Beckendorf didn’t make it out.”

There was that name again—Percy Jackson, Annabeth’s missing boyfriend. That guy must’ve been into everything around here, Leo thought.

“Against his will,” Percy sighed.

“I only force you to eat your vegetables, don’t go dragging me into this,” Will sniffed, to nobody's amusement but Nico’s, and Hazel’s small laugh!

“Oh gods, now there’s two of them,” Percy groaned in defeat.

“So Beckendorf was pretty popular?” Leo asked. “I mean —before he blew up?”

“He was awesome,” Will agreed. “It was hard on the whole camp when he died. Jake—he became head counselor in the middle of the war. Same as I did, actually. Jake did his best, but he never wanted to be a leader. He just likes building stuff. Then after the war, things started to go wrong. Cabin Nine’s chariots blew up. Their automatons went haywire. Their inventions started to malfunction. It was like a curse, and eventually people started calling it that—the Curse of Cabin Nine. Then Jake had his accident—”

The campers sighed as they looked out the window for their family. It somehow felt more brutal to just be casually said out loud like that, instead of the whispers the rest of them heard. The Hephaestus cabin was well known for solving their own problems and coming to the others with triumph. It was hard to realize, put so bluntly, how bad things had gotten. How sad Beckendorf would be to hear of all this, and he wasn’t around to help fix it anymore.

“Which had something to do with the problem he mentioned,” Leo guessed.

“They’re working on it,” Will said without enthusiasm. “And here we are.”

“I don’t know why we used to call you an optimist, you’re being damn depressing right now,” Percy gave him a shrewd look, but there was something in his tone that approved more than he was saying. He knew he couldn’t have explained all that miserable crap any better.

“More points off my score huh?” Will nodded.

“Got to do it man,” Percy agreed.

The forge looked like a steam-powered locomotive had smashed into the Greek Parthenon and they had fused together. 

Annabeth’s face gleamed with interest at that comparison, she even smiled a bit. She looked kind of nice and like an actual princess instead of wanting to stab Leo for a change. He wouldn’t be surprised to see her and her siblings being comfortable in there at any rate.

White marble columns lined the soot-stained walls. Chimneys pumped smoke over an elaborate gable carved with a bunch of gods and monsters. The building sat at the edge of a stream, with several waterwheels turning a series of bronze gears. Leo heard machinery grinding inside, fires roaring, and hammers ringing on anvils.

They stepped through the doorway, and a dozen guys and girls who’d been working on various projects all froze. The noise died down to the roar of the forge and the click-click-click of gears and levers.

Leo scoffed, just like he had then. He couldn’t imagine getting distracted from a project he was invested in unless someone dragged him off. This little doodle was barely keeping his mind from racing back out into the woods where he really wanted to be, and he was over fifty pages in now.

“’Sup, guys,” Will said. “This is your new brother, Leo—um, what’s your last name?”

“Valdez.” Leo looked around at the other campers. Was he really related to all of them? His cousins came from some big families, but he’d always just had his mom—until she died.

Jason read that with a nasty catch in the back of his throat, and Leo instantly knew. His mom was dead too. Probably all of them either had a dead parent, or one they weren’t going to go around expecting birthday cards from. 

It was why they hadn’t treated his cryptic hints of the fire or his mom as anything new. Like a part of them, of every kid here half expected your life outside of here to be just as screwed up as theirs. Percy really had been right about him belonging here.

Kids came up and started shaking hands and introducing themselves. Their names blurred together: Shane, Christopher, Nyssa, Harley (yeah, like the motorcycle). Leo knew he’d never keep everybody straight. Too many of them. Too overwhelming.

“I keep saying we should walk around with name tags or something,” Will sighed.

“Hand stitched shirts,” Hazel agreed half-heartedly.

“We’d go through a dozen a day for some people,” Thalia shot Percy a very obvious look. “They’d never last,” she shook her head.

“I say we just carve our names into a block of wood and string them on our necks,” Jason said with a weird face like he wasn’t kidding.

“Like those wouldn’t get burned and lost just as fast! Do you want Grover threatening to chop off your limbs,” Percy sighed.

“The overwhelming thing is normal,” Annabeth told Leo and Hazel. “You two are lucky being here now, it’s even more hectic during the summer.”

“Great,” Leo said without even trying to pretend he meant it. He could tell Nyssa and Jake apart as of now and that was about it.

None of them looked like the others—all different face types, skin tone, hair color, height. You’d never think, Hey, look, it’s the Hephaestus Bunch! But they all had powerful hands, rough with calluses and stained with engine grease. Even little Harley, who couldn’t have been more than eight, looked like he could go six rounds with Chuck Norris without breaking a sweat.

That at least got a laugh out of some of them, no doubt with the following argument of who Chuck Norris was the demigod and or god of on a better day.

And all the kids shared a sad kind of seriousness. Their shoulders slumped like life had beaten them down pretty hard. Several looked like they’d been physically beaten up, too. Leo counted two arm slings, one pair of crutches, an eye patch, six Ace bandages, and about seven thousand Band-Aids.

“Well, all right!” Leo said. “I hear this is the party cabin!”

He at least got a faint smile from Percy, more than he’d gotten at the time.

“You sure are something Leo,” Jason said as if this weren’t a real surprise, just confirmation. He’d been called worse.

Nobody laughed. They all just stared at him.

Will Solace patted Leo’s shoulder. “I’ll leave you guys to get acquainted. Somebody show Leo to dinner when it’s time?”

“Nah man, they’re all just going to leave him to starve in the woods,” Thalia looked at him strangely.

“They’ve done that before if they lose track of someone, now I know where! Probably down in those tunnels,” Will frowned.

“Final verdicts on those tour guide skills?” Annabeth asked innocently, with all the confidence of putting a crown on her head.

“Will didn’t make Leo cry, I say he wins by default,” Nico smirked.

“And Annabeth gave Piper a knife, that’s worth way more cool points than he’ll get,” Percy protested.

“A cursed knife, clearly,” Nico sniffed.

“I say fire them both, as neither bothered to give out an actual map of the camp!” Thalia rolled her eyes. She was literally sitting next to a dusty box of them, apparently forgotten to time.

“I’m ignoring you guys now,” Jason decided before this escalated farther.

“I got it,” one of the girls said. Nyssa, Leo remembered.

She wore camo pants, a tank top that showed off her buffarms, and a red bandanna over a mop of dark hair. Except for the smiley-face Band-Aid on her chin, she looked like one of those female action heroes, like any second she was going to grab a machine gun and start mowing down evil aliens.

Hazel giggled softly at this, much to Leo’s pleasure. 

“Cool,” Leo said. “I always wanted a sister who could beat me up.”

“I believe that, you seem like a masochist with that mouth,” Thalia rolled her eyes.

“Only if you’re the one tying me up,” he grinned.

“Knock it off,” Thalia said with a sharp firmness.

Most of her hotness melted at that. Clearly the girl was not just joking about playing hard to get, and there was no fun if she wouldn’t play back, so he turned away for the last time. She was out of his league anyways.

Nyssa didn’t smile. “Come on, joker boy. I’ll show you around.”

“Between you and Harley being there, Camp might have a whole other problem,” Percy chuckled.

“I promise never to burn money, I’m not that kind of crazy,” Leo grinned.

Leo was no stranger to workshops. He’d grown up around grease monkeys and power tools. His mom used to joke that his first pacifier was a lug wrench. But he’d never seen any place like the camp forge.

One guy was working on a battle-ax. He kept testing the blade on a slab of concrete. Each time he swung, the ax cut into the slab like it was warm cheese, but the guy looked unsatisfied and went back to honing the edge.

“What’s he planning to kill with that thing?” Leo asked Nyssa. “A battleship?”

“You never know. Even with Celestial bronze—”

“That’s the metal?”

She nodded. “Mined from Mount Olympus itself. Extremely rare. Anyway, it usually disintegrates monsters on contact, but big powerful ones have notoriously tough hides. Drakons, for instances—”

“You mean dragons?”

“Similar species. You’ll learn the difference in monster fighting class.”

“Monster-fighting class. Yeah, I already got my black belt in that.”

“Lucky!” Percy laughed. “It took me years just to get out of beginners!”

“You’re still in intermediate,” Annabeth agreed.

“Oh come on, I should have at least earned a blue belt by now,” Percy said with no clue what he was talking about. He was pretty sure there was a blue belt anyways.

Annabeth just rolled her eyes and shook her head at imagining him doing kicks and flips with Leo in the yard later with a laugh.

She didn’t crack a smile. Leo hoped she wasn’t this serious all the time. His dad’s side of the family had to have some sense of humor, right?

Percy rubbed the back of his neck, somehow feeling guilty for laughing while the rest of those guys were so miserable.

They passed a couple of guys making a bronze windup toy. At least that’s what it looked like. It was a six-inch-tall centaur—half man, half horse—armed with a miniature bow.

One of the campers cranked the centaur’s tail, and it whirred to life. It galloped across the table, yelling, “Die, mosquito! Die, mosquito!” and shooting everything in sight.

“Clearly it’s in perfectly working order,” Nico said blandly.

Apparently this had happened before, because everybody knew to hit the floor except Leo. Six needle-sized arrows embedded themselves in his shirt before a camper grabbed a hammer and smashed the centaur to pieces.

“I’d buy one,” Percy agreed. It was a better shot than him and would eventually hit the bug.

“Stupid curse!” The camper waved his hammer at the sky. “I just want a magic bug killer! Is that too much to ask?”

“Ouch,” Leo said.

Nyssa pulled the needles out of his shirt. “Ah, you’re fine. Let’s move on before they rebuild it.”

Leo rubbed his chest as they walked. “That sort of thing happens a lot?”

“Lately,” Nyssa said, “everything we build turns to junk.”

“The curse?”

Nyssa frowned. “I don’t believe in curses. But something’s wrong. And if we don’t figure out the dragon problem, it’s gonna get even worse.”

“The dragon problem?” Leo hoped she was talking about a miniature dragon, maybe one that killed cockroaches, but he got the feeling he wasn’t going to be so lucky.

Thalia realized she might be about to find out what happened to that dragon Percy and Annabeth had resurrected, and it didn’t seem to be a great ending to the story like last time.

Nyssa took him over to a big wall map that a couple of girls were studying. The map showed the camp—a semicircle of land with Long Island Sound on the north shore, the woods to the west, the cabins to the east, and a ring of hills to the south.

“It’s got to be in the hills,” the first girl said.

“We looked in the hills,” the second argued. “The woods are a better hiding place.”

“But we already set traps—”

“Hold up,” Leo said. “You guys lost a dragon? A real full size dragon?”

“It’s easier than you think, they’re pretty fast,” Will sighed.

“I just want it on record, this one wasn’t my fault,” Percy raised his hand.

Jason lowered it and gave him a ‘you've got to be kidding me look.’ “You and Beckendorf turned a game of Capture the Flag into this, it is at least partially your fault!” Then he turned to Annabeth with sudden excitement as he recalled, “you knew, right!? You found this thing before the game and led them here!”

“Yeah,” she agreed, “though I never dreamed Beckendorf would get taken by the Myrmekes for it. So, Percy’s right, it’s actually technically my fault.”

“You’re forgiven,” Leo had clearly decided to bless himself with this ability and expunge them at will. Nyssa had told him the story of Percy Jackson and Beckendorf resurrecting this thing the first time as part of the reason for their curse. It was one of the major reasons he’d been so curious to come up to this attic and meet him.

Annabeth gave him another of those calculating looks like she could see the numbers inside his head as he gulped and turned away back to his drawing. Not yet, they couldn’t find out yet until he knew how to fix him! Wings obviously weren’t going to be good enough, since they’d all arrived on flying horses…

“It’s a bronze dragon,” Nyssa said. 

Nico’s face still twitched in particular disgust for the general existence of this thing being at Camp. He hoped Leo’s fabled future would be to kill it quickly.

“But yes, it’s a life-size automaton. Hephaestus cabin built it years ago. Then it was lost in the woods until a few summers back, when Beckendorf found it in pieces and rebuilt it. 

Percy looked mildly offended Annabeth hadn’t gotten at least partial recognition that she deserved for turning that thing back on, but then again, he’d probably somehow turn around and get the blame for this curse, so he let it be. Annabeth just crossed her ankles and began braiding another chunk of hair without concern. That thing had been Beckendorf’s baby, she’d just flipped the switch, so she obviously didn’t care either about him retaining the credit.

It’s been helping protect the camp, but, um, it’s a little unpredictable.”

“Unpredictable?” Leo said.

“It means sometimes it likes to show up and remind us what buildings look like on fire,” Will told Leo in exhaustion.

“No worries here, I’m the definition of unpredictable,” Leo somehow managed to say that like it was a good thing.

“It goes haywire and smashes down cabins, sets people on fire, tries to eat the satyrs.”

“That’s pretty unpredictable.”

“Not really, what do you expect giant monsters to really do otherwise? Start croquet clubs?” Percy asked.

“Next time the dragon shows up Percy, you can take a hunk out of his toe again and set a schedule for his next visit!” Will told him in exasperation.

“That was you!” Leo blurted before he could stop himself, he’d already drawn up seventeen new claw designs for his poor Festus.

 He got all the looks for that.

“Nyssa just said someone helped Beckendorf subdue it once, your name wasn’t mentioned,” he swiftly lied.

The game had ended with Percy being Annabeth and Silena’s prisoner after he’d been chased across the forest by that thing, so Percy wasn’t eager to share the whole story and quickly let it go. 

The mild admiration and slight disappointment in Jason’s voice reading about all this surprised Leo a lot. Clearly not everyone around here considered Festus a bad thing on principle.

Nyssa nodded. “Beckendorf was the only one who could control it. Then he died, and the dragon just got worse and worse. Finally it went berserk and ran off. Occasionally it shows up, demolishes something, and runs away again. Everyone expects us to find it and destroy it—”

“I really don’t see why,” Jason said with a sardonic smile. “Sounds like perfect training, a surprise attack nobody can plan for at all hours!”

“I’ll be sure you can say thank you personally when he shows up again,” Percy rolled his eyes.

“Destroy it?” Leo was appalled. “You’ve got a life-size bronze dragon, and you want to destroy it?”

“Leo, just because trouble comes to visit, doesn't mean you have to offer it a plate at the table,” Will groaned. “Southern hospitality has some restrictions!”

“I don’t know, we keep Percy around and he’s ten times more destructive than that thing, we could cut Leo some slack,” Thalia smirked, though this time Leo had no delusions it was so much for his benefit as Thalia just not passing up a chance to tease her friend.

“Half the time I don’t even get a plate, just left over scraps,” Percy was apparently agreeing for some strange reason.

“It breathes fire,” Nyssa explained. “It’s deadly and out of control.”

“But it’s a dragon! Dude, that’s so awesome. Can’t you try talking to it, controlling it?”

“We tried. Jake Mason tried. You saw how well that worked.”

Leo thought about Jake, wrapped in a body cast, lying alone on his bunk. “Still—”

“Credit for determination,” Annabeth sounded actually impressed too. He tucked his next piece of paper into the stack and kept on going, the cramps in his hand somehow easing up with the stress in his shoulders.

“There’s no other option.” Nyssa turned to the other girls. “Let’s try more traps in the woods—here, here, and here. Bait them with thirty-weight motor oil.”

“The dragon drinks that?” Leo asked.

“Yeah.” Nyssa sighed regretfully. “He used to like it with a little Tabasco sauce, right before bed. If he springs a trap, we can come in with acid sprayers—should melt through his hide. Then we get metal cutters and … and finish the job.”

They all looked sad. Leo realized they didn’t want to kill the dragon any more than he did.

Hazel didn’t think this sounded any more strange than her own curse, metal dragons, sure, cars were enormous loud beasts that could kill you too. No, she was actually wondering what tabasco sauce was more than anything as she watched Leo-Not Sammy strike something out and then draw it identical to her eyes right beside it. 

‘If it walks like Sammy and talks like Sammy…’ but Nico had given her a strange look and promised he hadn’t brought anyone else with her. So she told herself to just be content with a brother and living in a mixed community where nobody told her to get away from their water fountain for now.

“Guys,” he said. “There has to be another way.”

Nyssa looked doubtful, but a few other campers stopped what they were working on and drifted over to hear the conversation.

“Like what?” one asked. “The thing breathes fire. We can’t even get close.”

Fire, Leo thought. Oh, man, the things he could tell them about fire… But he had to be careful, even if these were his brothers and sisters. Especially if he had to live with them.

Percy quirked an interested brow at that if he’d found another person prone to setting all manner of things on fire. It would be nice to switch that up.

“Well …” He hesitated. “Hephaestus is the god of fire, right? So don’t any of you have, like fire resistance or something?”

Nobody acted as if it was a crazy question, which was a relief, but Nyssa shook her head gravely.

“It’s a fair question, it surprised the heck out of me when I heard otherwise,” Percy agreed. After casually finding out he could breathe underwater, he’d thought so too.

“Apollo kids do get sunburned, by the way,” Will rolled his eyes. “You just seem to forget you’re over powered insanely Perce.”

He didn’t, actually. More often than not he walked around the grassy hills feeling like a fish out of water, and his curse had only reinforced that. The way kids would wince and raise their shields far too early in sword practice, so he didn’t even practice with them. The way they stared as he immediately started eating his dinner and realized it was probably too hot for them.

Chiron had once warned him that a child of the big three arriving meant trouble on the horizon, and somehow he’d never gone long without that coming true. How could he forget he wasn’t actually like everyone else in his home, the one place he was supposed to feel normal.

What he said was, “yet another thing I forgot about, man, someone should write all that down,” with a roll of his eyes and getting a laugh out of his friends.

“That’s a Cyclops ability, Leo. Demigod children of Hephaestus … we’re just good with our hands. We’re builders, craftsmen, weaponsmiths—stuff like that.”

Leo’s shoulders slumped. “Oh.”

A guy in back said, “Well, a long time ago—”

“Yeah, okay,” Nyssa conceded. “A long time ago some children of Hephaestus were born with power over fire. But that ability was very, very rare. And always dangerous. No demigod like that has been born in centuries. The last one …” She looked at one of the other kids for help.

“Sixteen sixty-six,” Annabeth rattled off like someone had just put a flashcard under her nose. “His name was Thomas Faynor, he started the Great Fire of London.”

“You’re not one of my sisters are you?” Leo asked in confusion. He hadn’t seen her in his cabin last night, but it explained that look he kept seeing reflected back.

“No,” she grinned, “child of Athena, goddess of strategy and crafts. I’m no stranger to building my own plans from the ground up, but I’d never make something as good as you could with a hammer.” The proud smile had quickly withered right off her face. Something bad had happened recently. Something she’d made that hadn’t gone according to plan. Maybe the curse was contagious.

Leo went back to his drawing, refusing to let his hand shake as he knew what was coming at the end. He’d given himself one private moment to show off, to draw confidence in himself…and then the real show would begin.

“Sixteen sixty-six,” the girl offered. “Guy named Thomas Faynor. He started the Great Fire of London, destroyed most of the city.”

“Right,” Nyssa said. “When a child of Hephaestus like that appears, it usually means something catastrophic is about to happen. And we don’t need any more catastrophes.”

“Been there, done that,” Percy sighed he could understand why they wouldn’t be jumping for joy at the idea.

“I wouldn’t put much stock into those old superstitions, you guys seem to jump at everything,” Jason grinned. He instantly decided he didn’t like that perspective Nyssa offered.

“Traditions are just peer pressure from dead people, and I will not be intimidated by ghosts,“ Leo sniffed, but it was entirely false bravado. Even here at this place, he was somehow the freak.

Leo tried to keep his face clear of emotion, which wasn’t his strong suit. “I guess I see your point. Too bad, though. If you could resist flames, you could get close to the dragon.”

“Yeah, and if we could all turn each other into jackalopes we might be a little nicer to each other, but alas, we have to rely on greater powers for the best things,” Thalia shrugged with a smirk at Percy.

“Like you’ve ever needed a goddess to threaten me,” Percy rolled his eyes.

“It would still be nice to change you back and forth, might teach you a thing or two,” Thalia said.

“Not with the kind of slow learner who gets dating tips from dolphins,” Annabeth sighed.

“I told you I was joking about that,” he frowned.

“Then it would kill you with its claws and fangs,” Nyssa said. “Or simply step on you. 

“Got to love a monster that comes with a variety pack?” Will said half-heartedly.

“Speak for yourself,” Percy groaned.

No, we’ve got to destroy it. Trust me, if anyone could figure out another answer …”

She didn’t finish, but Leo got the message. This was the cabin’s big test. If they could do something only Beckendorf could do, if they could subdue the dragon without killing it, then maybe their curse would be lifted. But they were stumped for ideas. Any camper who figured out how would be a hero.

“That something you’re aspiring for Leo?” Jason asked casually. No judgment in his voice, just something he’d apparently asked numerous people. It gave the impression he’d been in a position of authority much more than Percy slouching in that beanbag ever could.

“All the ladies love a hero!” Leo agreed.

“If Percy can go from zero to hero, anyone can,” Annaetbh smirked at her boyfriend.

“That is devilish, how dare you compare me to Hercules,” Percy looked at her in betrayal. “You know what, Will gets to be the official tour guide.”

“Yes!” Will smirked while Annaebth gave him a look promising this would never be forgiven.

A conch horn blew in the distance. Campers started putting up their tools and projects. Leo hadn’t realized it was getting so late, but he looked through the windows and saw the sun going down. His ADHD did that to him sometimes. If he was bored, a fifty-minute class seemed like six hours. If he was interested in something, like touring a demigod camp, hours slipped away and bam—the day was over.

“Preach!” Percy said enthusiastically.

Leo laughed and cleared his throat, they had a bad feeling Percy had just summoned an entire sermon upon Leo. Thankfully other minds prevailed before that went too far.

“Dinner,” Nyssa said. “Come on, Leo.”

“Up at the pavilion, right?” he asked.

She nodded.

“You guys go ahead,” Leo said. “Can you … give me a second?”

Nyssa hesitated. Then her expression softened. “Sure. It’s a lot to process. I remember my first day. Come up when you’re ready. Just don’t touch anything. Almost every project in here can kill you if you’re not careful.”

“No touching,” Leo promised.

“I don’t believe you,” Nico decided.

“That’s fair, most people think I’m crazy,” Leo shrugged without looking up.

Hazel huffed at him to be nice, but Leo really wasn’t paying attention, his skin was tingling in a telltale way that he knew better than to let himself pay attention to. If he scratched, he’d burst into flames. Not here. Not yet.

His cabinmates filed out of the forge. Soon Leo was alone with the sounds of the bellows, the waterwheels, and small machines clicking and whirring.

He stared at the map of camp—the locations where his newfound siblings were going to put traps to catch a dragon. It was wrong. Plain wrong.

Very rare, he thought. And always dangerous.

He held out his hand and studied his fingers. They were long and thin, not callused like the other Hephaestus campers��.

Leo had never been the biggest or the strongest kid. He’d survived in tough neighborhoods, tough schools, tough foster homes by using his wits. He was the class clown, the court jester, because he’d learned early that if you cracked jokes and pretended you weren’t scared, you usually didn’t get beat up. Even the baddest gangster kids would tolerate you, keep you around for laughs. Plus, humor was a good way to hide the pain. And if that didn’t work, there was always Plan B. Run away. Over and over.

“Humor is the worst defense mechanism, anyone can cut through that with sarcasm,” Thalia smirked.

“I think the more important lesson there was that if we eradicate bullying we could finally put a cork in Percy and Leo,” Nico rolled his eyes.

“Exhibit A,” Thalia chuckled.

Leo blinked and found himself looking at Percy wondering if they were all nuts. Where were the tears and sobs and hugging him like a poor little infant some crazy councilors had tried? Where was the cold indifference of the court appointed counselors telling him to try harder at being normal?

Percy shrugged. This was just their normal. It felt good.

There was a Plan C, but he’d promised himself never to use it again.

He felt an urge to try it now—something he hadn’t done since the accident, since his mom’s death.

He extended his fingers and felt them tingle, like they were waking up—pins and needles. Then flames flickered to life, curls of red-hot fire dancing across his palm.

“I knew it,” Annabeth said in triumph, staring at him across the flames.

Leo crumpled up his plans, designs, and maps for Festus, his upgrades and new chip and laser eye mode, and tossed it all into the large cookie glass jar of fire.

The flames roared with pleasure, shooting up to the ceiling and sending sparks in all directions and raining them back down in all colors of the rainbow. He still expected the screaming, the fear and running.

He was pleasantly surprised at Hazel squeaking in surprise while the others just kind of, looked at him like he’d belched too loud.

A large chunk had landed right on his hand, the paper curling up with a doodle for a hatchet crossed with a snorkel device. He gave it a puff of breath that knocked it back into the fire. 

[bonefries]

I extremely apologize if there will be something wrong here, English is not my native language

You guys are really cool and I really enjoy reading about Lizzy. She's awesome and I'm inspired by the way you chat about your OC and I want to work on mine (but unfortunately work doesn't give much free time). Thank you for talking about your OCs and ocxcanon stuff a lot

you're cool👍

It's all good! You never have to apologize to me for language m'love. English is hard, and this means you speak way more languages than i do and thats mad respect.

Ty so much for reading my babbles <3 Writing isnt my strong suit, or rather has never been. Ive just been enjoying my time being able to share with everybody and get/give feedback! I know its hard to find free time, i only have some now because im still home recovering. But when you can find that time, absolutely try and find some room for your passions. Working on them even if its in little spurts, even if its once every few days, even if its little itty bitty stuff while youre sitting playing on your phone. Chipping away at stuff gradually is still just as good! And its better to take your time and not rush yourself anyways c:

<3 Thank you for your love and support, youre way cooler!

[joyswonderland1108]

Ara Ara

I’m just popping in to “clear” a debate, as i said before it’s exhausting to write long posts but my hands itch to write something anytime i see stuff going on. One of the reasons why it’s always better to be in the “not sure” zone instead of completely denying something that one may not even have knowledge about. Let’s get started shall we? 

So Jimin, precious Mimi, beautiful Jimim, my beloved child (he’s older than me but shush) came live yesterday to share his emotions with us about his amazing achievement, his well deserved achievement, the slap on the face of haters who instead of working on making their favs rise to some level they decided to invest time and energy into trying to make other people win just to not only fail but let down their own favs 🤦🏻‍♀️ Well Jimin said “Fuck all your opps” anyways so

Now i don’t want to focus on the part where you can oh so very clearly hear a “ 빨리가“ at the very beginning (Surprisingly enough this girl actually understands some Korean don’t underestimate her) i wanna be realistic here, while i’ve seen some people wondering if they’ve heard a ppo-ppo sound i honestly don’t think so at all, i’m sticking with the the first one and the lights situation going on too but even that i’m not gonna focus too much on it, and for reference : 

Moving on to our main subject which is the gaming chair, or chairs in that case

And as my bestie said and i quote “It doesn’t mean anything yet Jimin grabbed the phone like a hot potato“ i mean chile why would he panic, it’s just a chair right? WRONG! 

Just to clarify, for people who may have thought that was JK’s chair from the studio, Jimin’s chair is an Arena and JK’s chair is an Akracing.. With an Arena cushion 👀

Well the point is no it’s not the chair from the studio but does that change the fact that Jimin has a second GAMING chair? No. Well, yes and no, lemme explain. 

“It’s just a second chair he could be having one for if friends come over” key word here: IF. You may or may not know that there’s this unspoken rule where, despite having a spare chair or even 10 spare chairs, they don’t go with the setup, they go to a storage room or the garage or wherever you can put it away and take it out when needed, because why tf would there be a second or third chair chilling out there when the possibility of having gamer friends coming over is always questionable. 

Speaking of gamer friends, have y’all seen a gamer in real life? they don’t even need to be in the same place everybody plays from home and they chat through their headsets. No matter how rich you are or how much you can afford expensive gaming chairs, a gaming set up is precious to its owner, one just doesn’t mess up with their set up, if you’re alone, you game alone, you put ONE chair. If you do happen to have a spare chair and a gamer friend decides to visit you THEN whip out the chair from where it was stored if you don’t have a spare one, the friend can literally sit anywhere, on the floor for all i know who tf cares. 

Now i’ll be sharing this link with y’all so you can check it out yourself, just not to say that i picked out what i wanted or what fit the narrative and left out the rest : 

See how gorgeous the set ups are? See how very expensive looking they are? (Well as a matter of fact they ARE expensive) See how neat they are? Notice something? Well actually you’ll notice two things :

1- Almost all of the setups have one chair like this one : 

And where you can’t see the chair are tinier desks that can so very obviously fit one chair 

2- The three setups that are designed for a “pair” are the following ones : 

“Side-by-Side Couple PC Setup“

“His and Hers Wall-Mounted PC Setup“

“Father-Son Star Wars Gaming Room”

Notice something in common there? Basically all the “pair” setups are meant for two or more people who game and are living under the same roof, a couple, siblings, or parents-kids. Mind you even if you do have a partner but they don’t game, your setup will NOT be a “pair” setup, as i said above, those are precious, they’re almost sacred lol there’s an aesthetic to them, there’s a whole architecture going on there, so we’re not messing that up by adding a random second chair for a friend or friends who are barely there. 

Do whatever the fuck you want with this information, but i hope that with this added “knowledge” people would stop with their “that’s not a big deal” bullshit, i see you, that one person who posted that lame ass excuse on Twitter. With that being said.. STREAM FACE!!! 

[clutzicone-dts]

Season 1, episode 6-the snake king

Yeah so I accidentally misspelt king and kink. Anyway I can’t at all remember which episode this is

OH ITS THAT EPISODE!!!

Ooohhhh pretty city pretty city, I’m sure this will show up plenty of times after these next few seasons are over :)

Ah, the new uniforms, one of my favorite ones

“Umm… you get.. the box?”

Nya how did you get here. Wu how did you get here?? WHOS WATCHING LLOYD

“Metal menace!” Oh he doesn’t know.

I love Jay crossdressing,

Kai honey, please don’t leave Lloyd unattended he’s going to get kidnapped

I love Lloyd in cosplay

SLITHER PIT SLITHER PIT SLITHER PIT!!!!

Heh, get sacred fluted

I FUCKIN TOLD YOU HED GET KIDNAPPED

Kai did you not go back to pick him up. Kai. Kai you’re forgetting something.

Awesome ancient city by the way, love that ancient city :)

I’m sorry are you assuming that metal samurai’s gender

TORNADO OF CREATION YEEEEE I TOLD YOU IT WOULD COME BACK!!!

Oh n-SAMURAI X you could do me no wrong

Oh my god Kai’s dea-oh nevermind hes alright false alarm everybody

Sigh, they’re siblings :)

Okay so Wu definitely knows, but does Lloyd?

[ni-kol-koru]

KnB 30-Days Challenge

Day 13 : Favorite Member of Seirin

Izuki Shun ❤️

This was tough... It was hard for me to choose who my favorite member was beacuse I just love so many Seirin boys. Shinji, Shun, Taiga, Teppei, Rinnosuke, Tetsuya... But in the end I chose Shun. I chose him mostly because I always liked him, which I can't say for some of other Seirin boys. Unfortunately, I used to be a bit of a Seirin hater when I was younger, heh... Never hated Shun, though! Always loved him and always found him cool! I mean, let's be honest here... How can anyone even hate a person like Shun? He is really good-looking, he is very intelligent, really cool, easy-going, and a very skilled basketball player. Also, I actually find him to be quite funny!

Since he first got introduced, he caught my eye. In the beginning, it was literally because of his eyes. I kept looking at them because he didn't have pupils like everyone else, which I found pretty strange. I couldn't help it, they kept drawing my attention to him. Then, his special ability, Eagle Eye, got introruced, and I was pretty amazed! Being able to visualise, rotate and change points of view of a 3D space and predict where objects that are out of one's sight are is very complicated, consumes a lot of mental energy, recquires a big spacial intelligence, fast decision making, all at once! It's not just something everybody can do. This guy became a genius in my eyes.

Throughout the show, he just kept getting more and more amazing. Finally, when he was matched up against Kotarō, an Uncrowned King, and outsmarted him and stopped him, my jaw dropped. Instead of being angry that my favorite character got beaten, I was amazed by Shun. In the last seconds of the Rakuzan-Seirin match when he pulled that steal... I was, once again, stunned. Seriously, he is just that awesome. He is a fantastic player because of his smart brain and cool attidue.

Other than being such a weapon on the court, can we talk about how good his personality is? He is cool, chill and smart, and then he just reveals he likes puns. It's kind of awkward, because he always seems to come up with them in the wrong moments, but it just gives him some oddly specific and necessary flavour. I find most of his puns and jokes quite funny, and honestly, whenever people tell him he should stop making them, I get a little pissed off. Being able to make puns and jokes on spot is a skill, it showcases how intelligent, creative and fun he is. I am just not a big fan of how everybody keeps telling him to just, cut it out. Let him have fun! Let his brain do its thing! Let him shine! He deserves more appreciation, seriously. When it was revealed his mum and sisters like puns, I was sort of relieved. At least somebody supports my boy in his hobby!

If I could, I would listen to him make 100 puns in a row. ❤️

[female-buckets]

“Felt good being back,” Griner said. “It’s everything I wanted it to be…It was funny because I was talking to two of the rookies and they asked me about coach and I was like, ‘Well, I was locked up, so I don’t really know too much.’ I guess I’m a little bit of a rookie in training camp right now.”

After her wrongful detainment in Russia that lasted 294 days, seeing Griner on the court again is not something to be taken lightly.

“I knew it would come eventually,” Griner said. “I didn’t know when it was gonna be. I had already made up my mind that October 25th, 2030, if it was the full nine [years], that would’ve been my release date. Would’ve been a lot different.”

“I don’t really live in like the fake optimism of the world that we live in, so I didn’t think she was coming back,” Diana Taurasi said. “I lived in Russia for 10 years. I’m glad she’s here.”

“Did you see her practicing today? It’s a miracle,” head coach Vanessa Nygaard said. “Let’s not forget. I’m just so happy to see her today. Welcomed her back today. Almost cried.”

Few were more excited than her longtime running mate in Taurasi, who’s entering her 19th season in the WNBA.

“She was annoying as always, so she hasn’t lost that,” Taurasi joked. “I’m happy she’s back on the court. I’m happy to see her with a smile on her face. Now, it’s time to do a lot of work.”

“I knew the fossil comment was gonna get her but I had to,” Griner said. “How many times do you get to have one-up on Dee. I’m sure she’ll get me back a thousand times during the season.”

“The beauty about that is we’re all gonna get old, so I’ll be there when it’s her turn,” Taurasi responded.

Griner’s positivity has been felt across the franchise.

“To have her vibe, her smile, her warmth, and her experience is a total game-changer,” Sophie Cunningham said. “She’s the best in the world – just to have that presence back is awesome…People are happy. It’s a new year.”

“She’s easygoing,” Taurasi said. “Nothing ever gets BG low. To have that lightness is really nice.”

On the court, Griner has continued to build back up to full strength.

“We had a 100-day plan to get her back to today,” Nygaard said. “She was super diligent in that work and she was able to go fully through practice today. We’ll continue to push her as she can tolerate.”

“I know what I can do,” Griner said. “Am I where I want to be? No…As much as I want to be Finals BG right now, that’s not the case. Kind of giving myself some grace, and my teammates picking me up, but I feel like I’m at a good spot to start training camp.”

It’s not just Griner who’s playing catch-up, but new faces like Moriah Jefferson, and soon, Michaela Onyenwere, will need to mesh with their new teammates as well.

“Just getting to know everybody,” Griner said. “Finding where people want the ball, how they like it, do they want a screen, do they want an ISO, just all the little things until it becomes second nature when we’re out there…It’s kind of exciting – so many different personalities on the court, off the court. A lot of UNO nights coming up.”

“To me, it’s really looking around and seeing how each person can really fit a piece to the puzzle,” Taurasi said. “At the end of the day, it’s a bunch of little pieces, they’re all equally important to fill the puzzle and can we find those 11 or 12 players?”

If you’re wondering whether Griner will be ready for the season opener on May 19th against the Sparks, wonder no more.

“Hell yeah – I’m gonna be ready for that game,” Griner said. “It’ll be fun. I’m sure it’s gonna be just a lot being back at it. I’m really looking forward to that home game [May 21] – being in front of the X-Factor.”

If anyone knows about championshiop DNA, it’s Taurasi, and while hopes are always high, it comes down to a ‘brick-by-brick’ mentality for the league’s all-time scoring leader.

“Every single team is saying, ‘We want to win a championship,’ but if you look too far ahead, you might stumble,” Taurasi said. “I’m always about doing the work that’s right in front of you. If you deserve to be there, if you’re lucky enough, healthy enough, and you have a chance to win a championship, it’ll come your way.”

[allianettemie5]

did I see correctly that you listed at least one Star Wars wip in your post?? say more 👀👀

Your eyes do not deceive you.

You may or may not have seen a work by me named "Lonely Padawan" (which is also listed here).

"Lonely Padawan" is the core work of this AU, and all the world-building aspects of this AU were actually written out for the first time for this work.

The celebration of ‘peace and prosperity’ — that is what the public relations council said the Parade of Community was about. A day when the new King was elected on the throne of the Palace, when the High Queen blessed the planet with her visit, and when all disputes and debates were set aside in favour of the commonwealth. Fancy words to cover the events, Chilled always thought of it, recalling his own misadventures on that terrifying day. And Chilled understood, really: people of Siko needed that kind of reassurance after decades of conflicts.

“—And now the dark age of our war-tired planet is over!” The crowd was cheering and waving the bright colourful flags. “The time has come for the discords of the past to be forgotten and the new life of kindness and freedom to begin!”

After all, Jeremy was himself bitter when people elected him to lead the planet. “This all feels so kriffing wrong,” were the first words Chilled received from him after Jeremy’s speech on the coronation. In their rare holocalls the young king seemed exhausted more often than not, praising his wife for her being awesome or letting out all the frustration and stress.

Chilled didn’t really acknowledge the moment they became friends; maybe it was their close age, maybe the shared near death experience kicked in and bonded them. Or maybe it was their personalities being compatible with one another.

To the same AU belong these files:

SW!AU Cheesy, Chilled, Order 66

“Where are we going?” Cheesy’s voice was quieter than a whisper.

“You’ll see in a minute, my young padawan,”

“Ah, Chilled, what a pleasure,” “We thought your duties completely tore you apart from our little meetings.”

“Senator.” “Let me introduce to you my companion,” “this young man is my padawan, Cheesy.”

“Tay?..” “Who’s that?”

“It’s Chilled!” “Come on in,” “there’s everybody besides you and Apollo.”

“He was still at crèche when we were leaving,”

“How’s it going?” “How’s the green frog?”

“Still talks backwards.”

This is some sort of flashback

SW!AU Ep-1 (SupDog)

Two figures were present in the cell.

One was standing still, blocking the light coming from the exit. Its arm was raised and the fingers were pointing in the other figure direction.

The second figure was floating in the air with its hands on its neck.

“I may not be useful this much, Count,” Steve managed to say through the Force grab, “I’m a disappointment to my planet, I’m afraid.” He tried to reach the floor with his leg but miserably failed. “I can only offer some therapy, I got the diploma… If you need it of course…”

“I like your sense of humor, Senator,” Dooku grinned at him, loosening the grip, “But my interest is not focused on your planet in the first place right now.”

Steve smiled weakly, “Oh Count, I’m blushing. You could’ve just asked me out if you wante…” He felt the air tightening around his neck again.

“Oh… I s-see… You like p-power play…” Something said inside his head that it was a bad idea.

“Enough,” Dooku thundered and the second after that Steve felt himself lose consciousness.

A fun little scene about Senator Suptic being captured by Separatists. Guess who's the valiant knight that will save him?

Lost Papers (side-fic/sequel idea)

This one is actually more of an idea than a draft. Its main idea is to help Knight Chaos and Padawan BlueNips with bonding experience.

[blorbobarbie]

The biggest difference I’ve noticed between how trans folks talk about their genders and how cis folks talk about us talking about our genders is that everybody seems to think that our transition goals are like. We want to look like Barbie (from the movie Barbie) or we want to look like Ken (also from the movie Barbie).

Which, don’t get me wrong, those are perfectly cool and excellent ways to present and be and are awesome genders to have.

But in reality if you get into any sort of gender fuckery based group chat, people are trading pictures of celestial entities like the moons of Jupiter or large swatches of the inkiest parts of the sky, littered with pinpricks of light that have somehow slipped through oceans and tundras filled with darkness and going “that’s what I’m gonna be. THAT’s my gender. There is nothing you could possibly understand about where I’m going, and there is absolutely no way you can stop me from getting there”

And then a bunch of other random non-cis people are like “oh yeah same bud we’ll meet you there, don’t hog all the starlight and slowly burning warmth if you get there first”

Like, yeah. People want to be hot. Most people want people to think they’re hot, it’s a thing. But that isn’t the ultimate goal, in my experience, when trans people set out to change their relationship with their bodies.

The point isn’t for other people to want us. It’s for us to finally be able to look in the mirror and want ourselves. To stare into our own eyes and feel at home, or something even remotely like it.

Stars and moons do not shine for us to see them, they do not exist for the consumption of those far from their own light—they burn because they must. Their radiance is an inherent part of them, their heat and glow and fire are part of how the universe created them to be, and no amount of suffocating dark that surrounds us will ever truly be able to put us out.

So like. Yeah. I guess I’m happy when people tell me I’m attractive. But the words that light me up, that feel like coming home, they are never about how much I might make other people want me. When someone tells me I shine, I glow, I radiate happiness and warmth and kindness, that’s when I feel the most seen, and in ways that do not feel like a precursor to violence.

I have created my own home here, safe, inside my skin, despite never really having one before. And I can look out from its windows, see the passersby as they wave or scowl or meander past, knowing that it is mine. I built it. I am a being of my own creation, aided by those hands who lovingly help me craft myself. Not everyone is gonna understand what that means, and that’s okay. You don’t need to know how a home is built to be aware of the shelter it provides, of the warmth emanating from the hearth as the world breathes icy cold around it.

This is a lot of words to say that I am glad you are here, no matter what stage of your own creation you are in. I am happy you are choosing, still, to burn.

[the-firebird69]

Watch "Wooden Ships" on YouTube

It's out there and wants to build these stupid ships and you're supposed to use it for a maneuver and they would have worked okay instead you want to be a huge dick and toss them out and we don't want to watch you do this s*** anymore you're so dumb you can't you can't keep your train of thought for more than 3 seconds and get the hell out of here. This is horrible you're such a f****** jerk to our son too and you're the one who's wrong we hate you your people hate you all of them except the idiots who are stupid enough to try it the ships are huge it gives them a feeling of power they have a Giants on them and stuff they think they can do something so you don't like 30 miles an hour on the highway in Germany thinking about it but really they're sitting there fighting people you didn't kill him the number 1% is where it's at right now couple hours it's going to be 0.8% and they're in the cities and we're going to start slaughtering them in a minute once those ships leave the other fleet left earlier at 5:00 p.m. the second way of left 2 hours later the third wave 2 hours after that and they're all going to be there pretty soon at 3:00 a.m. and the ships up when they're in the atmosphere will only a thousand miles an hour it takes them 3 hours so 4:00 we can hear about you all dying huge chunks of them will come raining down on your fleets on fire. That sounds Lafayette you because you're dancing on his dad's grave who brought you up like his own to try and help you and he knew that you are dead man when he saw you dancing like a fool in front of everybody they all know you're a stupid piece of crap mentioned the two in the way out so did you see that freaking retard and wouldn't sit down his dad said he's a stupid as hell so this is dumb as hell and dangerous and his dad felt bad cuz he knew what they're up to and his stupid s*** now we're going to kill you you make sure you know that and you're killing your own people cuz you're a freaking idiot right now in the Western hemisphere your base is being annihilated and your people so they won't be able to do anything cuz they keep doing this under nonsense instead of staying here to work the other side. And an evacuation is on and it's going to be a huge one after you lose practically everybody will leave of your kind and race Trump's too they're a bunch of boobs you can't believe that people are trying to keep them around to do jobs they discovered that he didn't on its own too because it was a risk he could have just shot Tommy f and we're trying to figure out what the hell is wrong with you people you see if you're infected or are you connected to something you look at you and you're just an idiot so you're fired we're not going to help you with any projects if your people are led by you they're doomed same with Trump we don't want to deal with them anymore and no he's not going to build any of our cars now there's Dan none of that stuff they're complete delusional freaks this is going to set off a huge series of movies that we're not set off until now and it's because you're almost all dead. And it gives an example of just how easy you are you let the fire go out the middle of the night and it's too cold to get it I hope the door in your free solid we had to worry about that and some nights the fire was out and you could leave bad and you had to sit there and I hope you're warm enough I'll tell you what those bear skins are awesome and our son had to get some extra and we'd share them if we had to in a big freeze come and all be in one cabin and it works I don't like you people cuz you don't try and he tried and you're just disgustingly mean like him trying is a slight and he hates you for that so bad and his dad helped you and he says I don't want to help them anymore and get hurt it's not even by everybody else despite these idiots the thing is bad it's going to be bad them being here in any way will get them killed them looking at me wrong it's going to get them killed and ask him for stuff I'm going to start enforcing that cuz that's what works

Thor Freya

What a tragedy you people are nasty to him and to me and to everybody even found out to be the problem and you won't leave alone you're just sitting here bothering him cuz you're stupid and you're making huge mistakes no he didn't contribute to it at all and it hasn't happened yet the mistake is that you want to attack the United States and you're going to lose and it's a special weapon it has to be protected and you are a piece of s*** I've never seen someone as irresponsible and the stupid as you and my entire life bja I hate you you're a massive loser it's going to help me a little bit not much it's for like there's no distraction you don't understand that I mean what the f*** and I don't have you don't have a chance to build all those ships back I guess anyways

Tommy f

Well we care and I'm trying to educate people and I sent it out to other leaders like Jason and other people he knows instead they said why the hell are we doing that we're just going to get wiped out the ships up there and we don't have enough shifts you have hardly any spacious these foolish things don't have any armament this comparable and so I'm getting a bunch of them together I'm going to float off in different way I don't want to get annihilated up in the sky cuz I'm a sitting duck and they're actually meant for something else they put effort into having us build them found people who build these ships and they're helping us from Indonesia and the Philippines I can't believe how weird this is that you're such a huge loser to him you spent all that time in the house you don't even know him at all this huge piece of s*** and you're running pretty okay well it sounds like the mass we're now the Redcoats

Brad

[rocksanddeadflowers]

First off awesome!! Hoe your scheduling aligns perfectly (I am very horrible at getting schedules and dates and deadlines right so don't take after me on that :) ) Also glad my rambling wasn't actually annoying lol.

Ooooo Carmilla purposely trying to find the guy she heard whispers about being convicted for witchcraft.............. finding frayed shredded rope from an escape and a trickle trail of blood in the snow leading to his mangled body.... knowing he didn't do anything wrong by intuition and Sight and being so sad and pissed on his behalf and the behalf of people like her. That people want to do this to her for a natural thing she can't control having or not having, that they accuse others of it and do this to random innocent people. She probably messed that town up and took what she needed in order to save him. Because surely, he was dead- his body was mangled beyond recognition, and all the blood... yet closer inspection revealed his heart to still beat. So faint and slow as to be undetectable, but there. She knew then what to do.

Yes!!! He finally got his heart he won't give it up easily!!!! Feels so Howl's Moving Castle movie too... Sophie finding and returning Howl's heart. "Why do I feel heavier?" "A heart is a heavy burden". Also Howl being too cowardice to fight much and preferred using his power to run and hide (according to himself!!) until Sophie came into his life. "Sorry, I'm tired of running away. I have something to protect now. Its you." Also Howl giving away his heart as a child so it never grew with him. "His heart is so small." "It's still the heart of a child." (Also thinking like... Neither a Servant Nor A Manwhore Marius von Raum. Or maybe call him von Wäldern, as von Raum is German for "of space/from space" but von Wäldern is closer to "of woods/from forests". Doesn't have the same ring and I used google translate but still think that's neat.)

The castle owner thing is so accurate. The Beast always going about saying he's the master of this castle and yadayada. Jonny goes on about being the master or owner or ruler and everyone instantly arguing with the statement. "I am the master of this castle and you will lis-" "Sorry you're literally the youngest child of your family. ew. no." "AGAIN YOU LITERALLY JUST LIVE HERE LIKE THE REST OF US" (Aurora creaking in protest)

SO MANY THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS ABOUT THEIR COMBINED BACK STORIES!!!! First it's very Rose and Cinders esque, with how King Cole's army (including Rose) destroyed Cinders' home, but when Cinders, as a prisoner, met Rose, she fell in love and soon Rose in return. (At least I'm fairly certain that's what the lyrics meant in Cinders' Song. I haven't read much of the fiction- I know, shame on me.) (Also I love how Lumiere kisses Cogsworth when he's excited, and also how Cogsworth kisses Lumiere once during the ending. That dynamic would be hilarious for Lyf and Tim.)

Second, okay I see this as very- "drafted into a 'war' they had no desire to fight + both kingdoms kinda sucked ass anyway" -at least from their POV. Make a statement and screw everybody here, burn everything down. Certainly not the best way to go about it, but it was their way. Finding Lyf somewhat snapped them out of their "fuck the world lets run away together and burn everyone along the way" stupor. Seeing the direct impact of their actions, as well as their government's actions, and seeing this completely shook and traumatized person still standing clears their heads a bit. Actually, they can make things work, make what they have work, and take care of this new person cause its literally the least they could do.

I also think that, while the nations were likely both at war with each other, Lyf's was much smaller than Tim and Bertie's, and the duo's nation was the one to initiate the war (mainly just for the land, their government wanted the land). It was subdued easier, and Lyf suffered more intensely than Tim and Bertie did during the height and end of the war. Also, I fully think their post war meet cute (<- will use that term for any characters meeting each other bc its funny) involved Lyf ambushing them and fully kicking their asses somehow (they were caught off guard!!! honest!! Lyf cheated somehow!!!). The duo probably get the upper hand over Lyf at the end of their fight, but Lyf scared the ever-loving shit out of them.

You gotta picture: Tim and Bertie's POV is wandering the ruins of small town or running around in the nearby woods when someone from the opposing nation/kingdom they thought died out entirely jumps them. This person is ragged, injured, malnourished and/or sick, and absolutely feral at this point. Tim and Bertie are fairing better off, though not by much. The main thing keeping them going is that they have each other. They can't picture a world were they're drafted into a meaningless war only to lose each other. Or, they could, but they refuse. Lyf doesn't have that. They're left with no one on their side. No one left at all. And, well, that's kinda partially their fault? Sort of? So they can't just leave them like this. Hence a DND party of two war criminals adopting their first unwilling NPC into their party! One of the guys!!!!

Lyf's POV is more like... they're scared and pissed. They're all alone, and left with next to nothing except possibly of bag of random trinkets from their kingdom before it's total decimation. They're alone and weak. They see two people in the uniform of the enemy, and attack out of desire for revenge yes, but mostly for fear of discovery. Attack while you have the upper hand. Then the dust settles, they still go down (it's two against one and Lyf was never a soldier or even someone who fought physically), but this pair is like "Aw, shit mate, sorry about this. Wanna tag along? We have some extra rations somewhere I'm sure." And what are Lyf's options at this point, really?

I also feel like this makes Tim and Bertie especially protective of Lyf. Mainly just that they'll tease and bully them (that's mainly Tim) but if anyone actually were to bother, upset, or threaten Lyf in any way. Violence isn't the answer, its the solution. This is my proposal that these two tease Lyf relentlessly about Marius but give Marius the most intense shovel talk he's ever endured, and the threats stick lmao. (Marius and Lyf are hanging out, and Marius spots Tim and Bertie snooping. One does the cut throat motion and the other a finger gun motion, or any other threatening things. Lyf turns around to look at them and they immediately 180 into doing the "arms on your own back making smootchie sounds" thing, mouthing the sitting in a tree song, or they both theatre kid makeout together.)

Also this makes me think that Jonny and Nastya's parents (cause in this AU I'm vaguely picturing they're legally siblings, whether by blood or if one or both was adopted) are like that typical trope of royal predecessors who were benevolent rulers that were struck down in their prime (assassination or illness) and left a mystery. It's a fun detail to add and specifically because I think all the main staff had insane backstories so these two mystery parents just took in strays as their staff like all the time. Idk about the details for that kinda backstory but i love the idea that the staff are all strays and weirdos and criminals that are taken care of under Aurora's roof. It matches the mechs canon material too.

Couple of random tidbit additions:

Brian putting little braids into Jonny's fur. Maybe he braids in beads or trinkets? Also Brian may have picked up a few minors charms from Carmilla here and there including some knot magic like stuff so Brian weaves nice things into the braids like that.

Marius first entering the castle alone a couple days or weeks after Brian's arrival, shouting and looking for him- well, the staff and Aurora are already invested in Brian breaking the curse, better shake this guy up. They work together to knock him out and drag him to the dungeon (I think Marius being conked on the head too many times Marty McFly style is hilarious sue me). After interrogations and stuff (<- stuff being Marius meeting Lyf. The parrallel of Marius meeting Lyf for the first time while behind bars.......!!!) they're like "Eh we guess you're cool, just kinda dumb. You can leave, but never breathe of word about us, and never return!". They kick him out and immediately find him somewhere else in the castle. They literally can't get him to actually leave. Some staff point fingers at Aurora and she creaks about quite upset, trying to explain that his bastard has a narrative shield (curse Jonny's worship of narrative flow) and won't be forced to leave if he doesn't want to but no one understand her.

Loose idea of Ashes' backstory! Delinquent orphan teen in the kingdom. They have committed so many crimes (mostly in order to take care of themself, but some for fun) but they're only managed to be convicted of minor vandalism because that's the only one with any proof. So they're taken in to do an equivalent of community service by being temp royal staff. They end up liking the people, job, and perks enough to want to stay, and they do their job so well they're welcomed to stay with open arms. I think in this case they're the oldest of the staff, and mature pretty quickly and trains new rescues hires. (They're still scary wild insane but they know the time and place for each.) Vibes similar to our oldest cat at home who was an insane kitten (like so violent and energetic oh my god) (also was an orphan baby found outside during a storm) but grew up into the sweetest lay and nana cat bc she loves kittens and younger cats. Never had any of her own, but always mothered other litters and adopted kitties. She's the Resident Senior so everyone has to respect her too lmao.

Nastya wanders her own path for a while but always thinks of home. (Also maybe she's more of a carpenter or whatever correct career path to mend a giant old castle, since she always mended Aurora in canon.) She'll wake at night to a heavy storm, and hope Jonny's doing okay during it, even if she's too far away for him to experience the same storm. She sees high quality lumber and things that make her yearn to mend Aurora again and chat with her. She'll see small trinkets in markets and think of how each thing would be the perfect gift for a specific staff member. So on and so forth.

A week or so into Marius's stay the wind key thing happens. Marius comforting Lyf after the wind key thing by asking if he can hold Lyf, and just holding them close while sprawled across a small loveseat couch in a common room. They talk for a bit at first, a distraction Marius is good at. After the calm washes in, their chatter slows. He hums softly to any song that comes to mind, the fire crackles soothingly and a gibbous moon shines light through ancient windows. Lyf isn't certain any of the cursed truly sleep, for no one has ever dreamed since the transformation, and none ever feel the need to sleep. Many do something like sleep, though. A sort of quiet trance. And tonight, that's what they allow themselves do. Marius falls asleep curled protectively around a small clock, and the clock almost things it dreams of song and dance. Almost. Joy is far off or long gone, but tonight they have peace, and they'll take what they can get.

And yes, this is extremely long and I'm proud of us for that actually lmao. We just keep piling on lore.... it is very hard to scroll through so I keep using my laptop instead. Also I still have so many other ideas and snipbits for this AU still that I can't remember all at once to write down. But this was already a lot and I am very eepy. Goodnight <3

Beauty and the Beast, but it's the Mechanisms.

Jonny must be the beast because feral Jonny and the whole heart thing... prove me wrong.

Tim or Brian is Belle.

Rest of the Mechs are the servants in the Beast's house. With an exception for Marius as Gaston cause I can totally fucking see it. He would suck at it though because it's Marius. And also, short Marius HC.

This is probably not new. But it's been brewing in my head for a good few months, ever since I put my Mechs OC in the iconic Belle dress.

[apparitionism]

Tabled

Hi @barbarawar , and happy Gift Exchange to you! Here’s what you said to anonymous-me: “Okay, so we know up until Instinct HG wasn’t in contact with Myka, but after it seems maybe they were from Myka’s reference to HG’s girlfriend in the finale for example. Did they ever get that coffee? Do they talk regularly? If you could do something with that that’d be awesome!”

First, I should say that from Instinct onward, the show seemed committed to forcing its characters into shapes that fit (or “fit”) an apparently predetermined, clichéd outcome, and I share the resentment that many feel about how awful that was. However! For the purposes of your gift, it’s that sense of “fit,” in quotes, that I’ve set out to push at in this piece. When people (well, characters) are forced—or feel themselves forced—to “fit” into particular narratives, what damage is done? How much of that damage is irreparable? And what does it mean for damage to be irreparable, anyway? This story offers some maybe-answers.

(P.S. This is going to be two parts, both because I’m incapable of being succinct and because I would like to get it right. Right-ish. Second part will appear in due time, with apologies for making you wait.) (P.P.S. The book referenced herein is real, which I hope comes as no surprise.) (P.P.P.S. Much gratitude, as always, to @kla1991 for the @b-and-w-holiday-gift-exchange management!)

Tabled

Myka sits at tables and tells lies.

She wouldn’t have imagined she’d take up these conjoined activities—an irrational hobby if ever there was one—but: here she is.

At times, this joint doing is an obstacle course, but today it’s simple. Artie, stationed across from her, asks, “Are you making unauthorized use of an artifact?”

He’s asking everybody, one on one; Claudia had been the first interrogatee, and she’d told Myka to brace herself, with a groan of “Why does he have to turn into Torquemartie like this? ‘Oh, the ping’s coming from inside the Warehouse!’ Dude. Artifacts get weird. They make pingy noises. Doesn’t mean we’re running around punching our downside cards.”

In the past, Myka wouldn’t have needed the heads-up, for she would have been innocent and indignant. And in fact she doesn’t need it now, for now she’s a practiced liar, so: “No,” she says (innocent), and “of course not,” she adds (indignant).

“If you run across anything that... strikes you,” Artie says.

“I’ll tell you.” Also a lie. Things that strike her, she keeps to herself.

Unlike her table-set lying, that’s not new.

“I think I might be a writer,” she’d said to her father, before she was old enough to have learned better. Eight. She’d been eight, and in school she’d written a story about a girl who tamed a lion. Her teacher had asked her to read it aloud to the class.

“You know nothing about that,” he’d snapped back, and the sting of it taught her: if you love something, if it sets you on fire, that’s wrong. Kill it.

And if you can’t? Then hide it.

Myka, having discovered after much effort that she had no talent for killing her love for anything, had become adept at hiding it, particularly from her family: she’d hidden her love of writing, after that first young cut; later, she’d hidden her affinity for law enforcement, every scrap of satisfaction she took in the accolades she received for valor, dedication, marksmanship, all of it; she’d even hidden the perverse pride she took in her adept ability to hide.

She hid everything, from her family and then from everyone, and she was adept at the hiding. That didn’t keep her clandestine investments from going south—witness Sam—but she was adept.

Until Helena.

Helena short-circuited Myka’s hiding mechanism. So much fire, so uncontainable, and it all spilled out, so loud, so open. So... unhidden.

So Myka has reasserted her old ability, augmented as it has had to be, here where she dwells in so many layered aftermaths. She’s hiding—which, fine, maybe that’s passive lying, but at least it’s a sin of omission. And she’s uttering (but not only uttering) untruths: this new, committed sin.

If she were paid by the lie, she could retire. Oh, and if she retired now, how about this: evil, crazy, dead; she’s got the trifecta too. Evil because she tells lies, which is no good in any cosmos; crazy because that’s what those lies render her in her head; and dead... well.

She could lie to herself and chalk that, too, up to those table-lies, but what would be the point? She wouldn’t believe herself. She remembers too much about what being alive felt like. She can’t fail to understand the contrast now.

****

“Just coffee next time,” Helena had said, and while Myka had counterproposed “save the world,” she hadn’t explicitly turned down the coffee proffer, and that had resulted, via a weird press of obligation in her head that hurt like hope, in her having to accept it when it was in fact proposed.

When Helena had contacted her—by text, and the Helena of before (before, oh, before) would never have begun “R u available,” so the texter seemed from the start a stranger—Myka had thought, Sure, I can do this, only to think, T–minus five minutes, I can’t do this.

Because she’d compartmentalized, until that zero-nigh moment, the implications of what had brought Helena near: a forensics conference in Nebraska, which had to mean Helena was still working that... Myka tried to say “job” in her head. Instead it came out “con.”

Thinking that word, doing the work of thinking it further into a sneer, helped paper over at least enough of her panic to allow her to walk into the designated coffee shop, a walk she tried to take with no expectations or intentions. I will see Helena. That was all. I will see Helena.

And see her Myka did, her face in profile against a window that offered, in stark contrast, a plain gray Nebraska sky. Its neutrality set Helena’s beauty in high relief. She was striking enough, as always, to instantly take a heart and break it, and yet to Myka’s gaze, this first sight after a length of time, she struck uncanny, like a painting of herself. Or not even that: instead some inartistic facsimile, an AI-generated irreality unworthy of her name.

Even so... even so, Myka could have regarded Helena forever—show me her, any version, and I will hungrily look—but looking, now, seemed an endpoint, not at enticement. Before (before, oh, before), Helena had been a magnet, aligning Myka’s entire compass of being to her true-north pull.

Now, with Helena dead metal, Myka had no way to orient herself.

She stood in the coffee shop’s entryway, trying to decide, and I can’t do this echoed in her head. Doing this, making it real, would put this fake-Helena in place of the ideal-Helena to whom Myka still, even after the Boone-crash, clung. I shouldn’t do this.

Her body gathered itself to leave, so as to not do this, but Helena—as if she sensed both Myka’s presence and her ambivalence—moved her even-now-so-beautiful head, turned to catch Myka’s gaze, and there was no escape.

So Myka sat at a table across from Helena. Having coffee. What wouldn’t she have given for this chance, this quiet chance, at so many hinge points of their history?

“Are you well?” Helena asked. Her voice was as uncanny as her face, emanating from an elsewhere that admitted none of that history.

There Myka sat, at a table across from Helena, hating the chance, hating that she now hated the chance. And from the depth of that hate, she told a lie: “Yes,” she said. She did not know—could not have known—that it was the first of many.

She had tried to logic herself out of culpability, there in that first lying moment, away from what exams and scans seemed to be revealing. What does “well” really mean, anyway? She’d driven a car to get here, and she hadn’t committed any moving violations while doing so; she was drinking coffee (terrible coffee that tasted of slag) without spilling it on herself; words emerged from her mouth in a language she spoke with reasonable fluency. She was functioning, and any reasonable person might consider the ability to function a measure of wellness, so, “Yes, I’m well,” she reiterated. Re-lied.

As their conversation, if that was the word for it, continued, Myka’s first impressions were borne out: Helena’s aspect was wrong, as in the lab in Boone, when she and Pete had witnessed her strange matter-of-fact performance of something that didn’t quite rise to the level of amnesia: rather than lacking her memory, as in the first Emily Lake disaster, in that lab she’d had no depth. H.G. Wells with no depth! The first of so many Boone sacrileges...

And there in Nebraska, the sacrileges had continued. “Home” was a word Helena used, over and over, and Myka experienced each utterance as an accusatory taunt, as if Helena were saying, with emphasis: You told me to do this, so I did.

Had Helena made the accusation aloud, it would of course have been no lie. Myka had said the words; the responsibility was hers. She deserved this punishment. Because that, some snake agreed in a whisper, was when your lies truly began.

Once their conversation (that was not the word for it) had petered out—leaving Myka mourning their ability to talk for hours before (before, oh, before)—the goodbye was awkward: in its too-formal words, for they clanged against the intimacies of the past, but also in its estranging absence of physicality. The latter was Myka’s doing, as she made sure to keep the table between their bodies. She’d made the mistake of touching Helena in Boone, there at that bitter end. She was certainly not going to do that again. Those burns on her body had not healed.

Driving back to the Warehouse, she tried initially to keep her composure, but it was no use; she gave up and yelled at the Helena in her head: Why couldn’t you be yourself! Make sense! Break through! (She aggressively refused to understand that she was yelling just as loudly at whatever lying version of “Myka Bering” she’d been performing, there during “coffee.”) She told herself the car-yelling was perfectly normal, or at least—in keeping with her justificatory theme—perfectly functional: she was getting Helena out of her system, so she could fit herself back into her nothing-is-the-matter Warehouse suit.

As if she were ever going to get Helena out of her system.

“How was your... coffee?” Steve had asked her, back at the B&B.

Myka hadn’t confided in him, not fully, but he had a tendency to ask discerning questions, and she had a corresponding tendency to answer. Sometimes, it was a relief.

This time it was not. “I don’t want to talk about it,” she had said.

He whistled, a muted but sharp little inhale. “Ain’t that the truth,” was his verdict.

Myka laughed. It hurt.

****

Artie’s concern about unauthorized artifact use is surprising to Myka only in that he took as long as he did to realize it was occurring: for personal enlightenment (if not gain, but really, what was “gain”?) Myka has twice consulted a book. Its title is The Fortune-Teller; or, Peeps into Futurity, and its publication date is 1861, but neither that title nor that date is its salient feature. No, its salience lies in the artifactual ability of one part of it—known as “The Ladies’ Oracle”—to predict the future.

These consultations had begun as a result of that initial “coffee,” which had rendered Myka bereft, even more so than Boone had (as if her bereavements were rankable). In its wake she’d needed something, anything, to grasp and hold. She knew she couldn’t find comfort in the past, that treacherous country, and the present was merely something through which she was struggling to swim. That left the future.

So she had researched, furtive but diligent, until she found her little candidate.

You’re doing this because turning back time didn’t do what you wanted it to, did it, some truth-insistent fold of her cerebral cortex had jeered when she’d first considered using the book. You’re praying this direction will be different.

The accusation was fair. Reasonable. Thus, standing before the book, considering its perils, its unknown downside, she’d tried to resist: Don’t, she told herself. She’s alive and in the world. That has to be enough.

But it isn’t, said the lizard at the bottom of her brain.

It sounded like Steve.

The book’s divination process was elaborate and, in its way, entertaining, entertainment being what the book was initially intended to provide: Myka read that she was first to choose a numbered question from the list of sixty in the book, then close her eyes and touch a pencil to a chart on the following page. From that chart, her blindly directed point of lead would select a symbol, one of twelve, each comprising small circles in a distinct mantic-pebble pattern. Her next series of tasks: look up the page associated with her question’s number that corresponded to that symbol, turn to that page, and discover her pebble-pattern-designated answer.

At first she thought to be clever, to game the outcome, working backward from desired answer to symbol to question, so as to contrive a prediction that would yield some light. The book resented this idea enormously. In the wake of her considered (not even attempted!) subversion, it refused to open to “The Ladies’ Oracle,” instead offering her pages related first to the reading of cards, then to the interpretation of dreams. She knew from her research that these pages had no artifactual significance. These seem more suited for a charlatan such as yourself, the book was conveying, with what Myka took to be great disdain. You don’t deserve the access I afford.

“I’m sorry,” she told it, and that was entirely true. “I really want to know.” That was true too—or true-ish. She wanted to know... but only if the knowledge would help.

Beggars can’t be choosers, said another lizard. This one sounded like her father.

The book took its time deciding whether to believe her... no doubt sensing some residue of her dishonesty, adding that to her offense against its power. But rule in her favor it did, riffling to its oracular pages with a sigh of surrender. Or was it triumph?

She chose her question, that first question, based on her overall disquiet.

The question was numbered twenty-five. It read, “Shall I long remain as I now am?”

Pencil in hand, Myka closed her eyes. She moved the lead until it encountered bookish resistance... the symbol on which it rested, when she opened her eyes, resembled a little pebble cairn, upright, proud. She consulted the page-map and learned her destination: page thirty-seven.

The book, unmoved by her anxiety about what she would discover, allowed her to turn only a single leaf at a time.

Show-off.

On page thirty-seven, the pebble cairn nestled at its very bottom.

Its prediction—Myka’s future—her fate.

“That is impossible; so much the worse.”

****

For some time, Myka had thought the book must have been wrong—maybe it had decided in the end to withhold true knowledge of her future out of spite?—for her status remained quo. Artifacts. Retrievals. Warehouse business, world-shaking in the strangely run-of-the-mill ways it tended to be.

The looming presence of cancer as a possibility had kept her tensed for “the worse” to emerge from that quarter... and she did on some level find it hilarious that the likelihood of having some you’ll-probably-die-soon disease hadn’t been enough to push her to seek an oracle, but an emptied-out Helena had.

But then, abruptly, cancer had been removed from the table.

Myka had tried not to dwell on how wrong that removal could have gone, given what Pete had done. She had tried to be content that the most significant upshot of that entire series of episodes seemed to be the adding of a benign category to her catalog of untruths: she sat not at but rather on a table and told a lie. “I guess I’m just lucky,” she had said when her oncologist’s PA expressed the team’s surprise at having found no malignancy.

But then Helena had texted again. “I’ll be in South Dakota soon, relatively near Univille. Can you believe it?”

As if belief had any right to be any part of anything anymore... but Myka should have believed the book. The second coffee (“coffee”) had not allowed her to remain as she was. It was, truly, so much the worse.

This one happened to happen on Valentine’s Day, a fact on which neither Myka nor Helena remarked, despite what Myka couldn’t help but read as its bracing irony.

And speaking of bracing. Myka had braced herself for more extollings of “home,” its charms, its warm certainties...

...but: “Oh, that ended,” Helena said. Dismissive. Breezy.

Myka had put so much anguish into making Helena’s “home” in Boone make whatever tortured sense it could... justifying it as Helena needing to make her own choices about what she could face and what she couldn’t, what she could wake up to every day and what she couldn’t, what she could bring herself to need every day and what she couldn’t... and Myka had further worked very hard to keep all of that torturesome rationalization from spiraling into “why not face me, why not wake up to me, why not need me.” Her hard work there had failed to hold, so: Because you are not Nate, she told herself, again and again, in cut after cut. And because you don’t have a daughter. Cut. Cut. You. Don’t. Have.

Yet here, now, Helena had simply waved her hand at the entire chapter. It unmoored Myka—was this a weight lifted? or was it yet another burdening betrayal?—such that she for a moment couldn’t speak, and for that moment, she didn’t understand that Helena was waiting for her to speak. Eventually: “Ended,” she managed to echo, and she did not recognize the sharp breath she then took.

“Yes. Because there’s someone else.” As Helena said that, she was not performing the uncanny copy of herself—instead, she sparked.

The spark smashed Myka with the realization that her breath had signaled hope. Stupid, naïve hope. And she was defeated, bitterly, both by that hope’s instant dashing and by the knowledge that it still could spring. Would spring. Would, apparently, always spring.

“Is there,” Myka said, as blankly as she could.

“A woman,” Helena said.

She might as well have pulled out an actual knife, but Myka was ferally not going to let that show. “That’s great,” she said, reaching for something beyond blank, something even more resistantly telling, trying to channel Steve at his most calm, like water unsubject to weather.

To that, Helena’s reaction was to sit back and say, as if she resented the idea, “Yes, it is.” Then she said, “Shall I tell you about her?” Still sparking. A challenge.

I don’t need any more challenges. But: “Sure. Why not,” she said. At this point, Myka was certain she could sit through anything. “What’s her name.”

“Her name...” and Helena tightened her jaw, making Myka think she was trying not to unleash an incongruously outsize grin, “is Giselle.”

And Myka said Sure; why not again, but under her breath.

Helena had then begun to relate seemingly endless anecdotes conveying the attributes of this apparent wonder of the world named—sure, why not—Giselle.

You should be enjoying this, Myka told herself as the accolades unfurled. The one and only H.G. Wells is deigning to tell you stories, but here you sit, getting picky about content, all surly and—

“You know what? I’m happy for you,” she interrupted, because she could not, in fact, sit through anything. She could not suffer more, from herself or from Helena. Steve would have clutched his head and screamed at what she’d said, but at this point, what did lies matter?

Driving home this time, she did not yell. Instead, she practiced. “Helena is with a woman named Giselle.” Over and over she said it, to make sure she understood it, and to make sure her mouth knew how to repeat it, because someone, Steve or Claudia or even Pete, would ask, and she would need to say. Out loud, she would need to say these words that told the harshest of truths (though she wished she could sit, at or on a table, and lie that truth away): Helena wants a woman, and that woman is not Myka Bering.

So much the worse.

****

“Well, book,” Myka had said late that night, facing it, facing up to it, “you were right.”

Did the acknowledgement prompt it to offer a self-satisfied ruffle?

She had then asked, “Where do we go from here?” She wished she could have asked it of Helena...

This occasioned something legible as a sort of shoulder-shrug: the book opened to the first of its question-pages.

“You think I want to know more?”

Provocatively, the page turned, as if catching the waft of some future-breeze.

Scanning that next of the list, Myka’s eyes—and her mind—were drawn to, were powerless but to settle on, question 37: “Is a certain person thinking of me?”

That was about the present, not the future. The book wouldn’t really know. Would it?

But Myka was powerless to resist divining the answer. This one corresponded to a pebble nabla (Myka could not help but think of slopes and slipping): “Some one is thinking, dreaming, and talking unceasingly about you.”

Upon receiving that statement, she had suffered another of those stupid hope-leaps... “some one”! Never mind the future; if it could be true in the now: “some one!”

She had soon been forced to realize, however, which “some one” the book must have meant. That was made painfully clear by the events of the most improbable, yet to date consequential, table: that voracious, hateful Round Table. It had brought Myka’s lies home. Literally.

Sitting at that table, Myka had prepped for more lies, these to sell a supposedly “defining” story, for she of course could not allow her definitional truth to be seen. Worse, extracted. She had tried to maintain confidence about being able to exert her will: My brain might not be as big as some brains but it’s big enough to beat you, table, she sneered. But then she admonished, Don’t sneer. No attitude. Because who does attitude make you think of?

She felt herself almost almost almost picture, almost almost almost name, her attitude-ideal...

And so Myka had redoubled her thought-efforts, thrusting every shred of attitude, every shard of emotion, every bit of real definition, from her mind, forcing it to produce for consumption the most anodyne memory possible: something she’d come as close to forgetting as she ever could, some ridiculous ninja-something that wasn’t worth the neurons firing to deliver it to the table’s dumb demands.

But then... everything had gone wrong. Not in the way she’d feared, but in a way that, given the book’s answer, she should have thought to fear. Her imagination had failed her, for the taking of cancer off the table had been the salient change after all: not what Pete had done, but instead, why he’d done it.

Sitting at that selfish table, Myka had at last come to understand the expectations surrounding her response to that why. With Mrs. Frederic and Steve both looking like examiners at the worst imaginable viva voce, she knew what she—she who had never failed a test in her life—had to say in order to pass.

So she’d said it.

The roiling in her gut had come as a surprise, for shouldn’t her soul have been resigned by now to endless perjury? She resented this unwelcome vagus-nerve stimulation of her earlier, righteous self.

In the immediate aftermath she’d stumbled away, trying to find a space to breathe, to assess, to plan how she would act a convincing version of the play she had stupidly—or, no, functionally; she needed to know it that way—let begin. The aisle in which she stopped was dim, its shelves full of metal, pieces of things, things she wished she could herself wright into a bunker of such artifactual strength that no one would dare approach her. Ever. No one.

She hadn’t realized Steve had followed her until she heard his voice. “Are you okay?” he asked, quiet behind her.

So much for her wish: his question, and his solicitude, were absurd. He’d seen her state; he’d encouraged her state. “Obviously not,” she snapped. He had the grace to wince. But because it had all gone so wrong, because she was still so angry that he had helped all that wrong along, she said, harsh, “What was with that ‘hello’? Why did you start that business about my face?”

His face spoke of pain. “I had to. I had to. Because today, honestly: today Mrs. Frederic had to hear what she wanted to hear. From all of us.” His desperate sincerity rang very true.

Myka breathed. Metal coated her throat; further hard words would snag and twist on it, wounding her more than Steve ever could. “I’m pretty sure she’s been wanting me to say that for a while,” she conceded.

Steve winced again. “You looked like you might throw up, and I felt like I would, hearing you... saying what you said. I wish I could’ve given you an out.”

Myka didn’t, now, doubt him. “Me too. And I wish I could’ve taken it.” She meant it, but that was all it was: a wish. For a different world. A different timeline? She said, with a wince of her own, “But I think I have to play along.”

“I see that, from the Mrs. Frederic angle. But you sound like... like there might be something in it for you. Not what I said there was—and I’m sorry I had to say it, or felt like I had to, or couldn’t figure out how not to—but something.”

“Backup,” Myka said immediately. It was the only answer.

“Backup,” Steve echoed, and “backup?” he said again, as if it were a word from a language in which he was not fully fluent.

“I need something—I need something—reliable.” Another hurt: that that was what she needed. So short a time ago, she would have claimed a different need. Such a crashingly different need.

“Need,” Steve said. “Not ‘want’?”

“No.” And Myka admitted: “That’s too dangerous.”

“I have to ask you about it though. Want.”

Myka braced herself. She braced herself, even as she thought on how tired she was of having to brace herself.

“Do you want me to keep protecting you? Primarily from Mrs. Frederic, but...”

It was a less dangerous ask, about a less dangerous want, than she’d feared. Or maybe it was the same want, the same danger, but more gently expressed. “Yes?” she said.

“Mrs. Frederic aside, the problem is that if you do play along, I don’t know what ‘protect’ means. Should I keep covering your lie or tell Pete the truth?”

“I don’t know either.” Another admission. She wasn’t proud of it. “For now, just let it... lie. Sorry.”

At that, he didn’t wince. “Tell me when things change. In whatever way they do.”

“If they do.”

“They always do,” he said.

“So I guess I’ll be telling you.” But she believed neither him nor herself.

Steve said, “If you could be happy.” Helpless.

Sweet Steve. Helpful, helpless. Myka gestured into the air. Conjuring speech took her a minute, and even then, all she managed was, “If I could.” Steve just kept looking like he looked, with his base of sympathy (and she had never so appreciated, or so responded to, sympathy), so she asked, because she didn’t know, “Why don’t you want to protect him?”

He offered her an exhausted smile. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but: you said ‘need.’ Who needs protecting? I like Pete, but if it comes down to it, it’s you.”

Leave me alone! she wanted to yell. But she also wanted to curl up in Steve’s protection. Backup. Backup.

****

Even as Myka found Artie’s interrogation easy to lie through, she knows that her lying footing as a whole is becoming unsteady, even vertiginous. If she could have restricted her lies to those sitting utterances... but the expansions are depleting her, and she is trying to resign herself to what she sees as her only realistic option for narrowing her scope. As for any objections her heart might be raising? She is shutting those lights out, one by one.

****

“I think I have to play along,” Myka had told Steve, and she had continued to convince herself of that necessity. So she had taken the initiative and done it, in at least the first of the ways she knew she would have to, in order to act her role.

To act your role? Really? No. To sell your con. Was that a lizard or a snake?

No matter. She sold it. She was not sitting at a table, but a kiss was a lie that was worse.

So much the worse.

After that—that demonstration, that acted untruth—she could not reach her lifeline fast enough. After that, she ran.

“Book,” she said, facing it. “Book.”

Her third try was not the charm; rather, it was the compulsion: Tell me something, anything, that I can’t already see about what’s next. Because an oracle must know more than I do, must know different. If not... Myka had not been ready, not then, not yet, to think on any consequences.

Some days—certainly that day, but not only that day—what she wanted more than life (literally, more than life) was to go back to protecting the president. If a bullet, then I take it. Simple. Clean.

She hated how resentfully, brokenly beholden she had become to people for saving her life. They set her up with the saving, but they didn’t bother with the consequences: with the fact that she had to keep on living. And nobody seemed to be interested in saving her from that.

So: “Book,” she said again, and if that word had never before meant “save me clean,” it did that day.

But struggle as she might, with increasingly desperate fingers into which she tried to wish and pray prying strength, the book refused to open.

Was this the downside? No response in one’s hour of true need?

“What am I doing wrong?” she begged.

But if that was her question, then of course the book was right: it could reveal nothing to her. She knew the answer.

Everything.

TBC

[antiloreolympus]

10 Anti LO Asks

(Note: All of these asks are before episode 206 (Season 2 finale) so some may be dated.) 1. tbh rachel wouldnt need to add in random lines about how capitalism is bad and having internalized misogyny at age seven if she didnt claim to the high heavens that shes actually a feminist goddess telling the most progressive story ever. talk about creating your own problems.

2. Never thought I'd say it but Zues spitting facts fr 

3. No but why is Zeus framed as in the wrong😭 Like I understand in myths he’s supposed to be an asshole and at first in LO I could understand why he was an asshole, but Zeus is literally in the right in punishing Persephone. Like I’m rooting for him over HxP at this point man

4. this isn't even just the fact hades is a manipulative slave owner with an oedipus complex but zeus also just looks more aesthetically pleasing?? like his colors are much nicer and he has drip and pretty hair?? also like he doesnt lie about who he is, he will happily admit hes a dick, but hes fair when he needs to be and can stand by for those he cares about (yes hera i mean you after your kronos nightmare!), meanwhile with hades its like rachel dont lie to me hes elon musk at BEST

5. Alright I got some concerns over the new chapter (not fp) -

The idea that Persephone is SO important and that her unfair punishment is basically f*cking over everybody because Zeus is being too stubborn to realize what a hard working angel she is... Doesn't sit right with me.

Idk how to phrase this to make it make sense but everyone is being passive aggressive (sort of understandably) towards Zeus because his decision to punish Persephone. Like that satyr is basicslly saying "if only Zeus would lighten up and let hades and persephone be married and cater to their every whim then people / the world would be happy"  - like the way the trial / punishment is written is that Persephone is the single most important character Ever whos life and choices affect everyone all the time and everyone is invested in hades and persephone being together because their lives basically depend on it - like hades is now supposedly messing up his own economy / citizens over not being able to see Persephone.

Also - I like that persephone seems to be standing up for herself finally, but it took 10 yrs to do it?? 

6. NGL I'm obsessed with that panel revealing Persephone's underworld citizenship went through bc 1) are we just supposed to ignore her immense privilege of getting a sped through process in a few DAYS, bc I won't! but 2) it feels like such an unintentional mockery of the actual immigration progress, where so many of us were/are trying to flee war, violence, and trying to find a better life, meanwhile SHE gets a sped through process so she can avoid the law/hook up with her boss. Love that, Rachel!

7. Also now that Cerberus is here I guess plot wise Persephone HAS to go see Hades despite the rules in place, she now has an excuse to go to the underworld and idk I read somewhere that some of the gods are in a sleep coma?

So heres a prediction - maybe kronos is up to something and zeus hasn't been affected yet because... Reasons? I bet its so that everyone is gone so oh no, whos going to save the Olympians from the dreaded kronos? Persephone of course! And zeus will finally have to admit how awesome she is and how great at everything she is and how wrong he was to punish her because only she, a fertility goddess, can save them and at the end everyone will be so mad if he doesn't forgive her because she saved the world to prove her worth that he'll have no choice but to lift the punishment and she and Hades can finally bang, I mean get together, and be married and everything goes back to normal and our protags get a happy ending and idk about everyone else - maybe Apollo is thrown into jail for rape and zeus is kept as king of the Olympians for a good show of faith but Hades and Persephone keep a close eye on him and basically control the strings so hes more like a puppet, and maybe hera and echo get together idk. Everyone else is secondary to the hades and persephone story so I don't know about them, cause despite it being called Lore Olympus only occasionally do we see storoes that pertain to outside of persephone and hades pov.

8. does that one anon think we critique  rachel/LO because she's a woman 😭 the majority of lo critics are women?? yeah her being a cis white woman does effect how we look at her work, the ideas she puts into it, and how others treat her (especially compared to actual marginalized female webtoon creators), because that does play a huge role in why LO is full of problematic things and rachel's coddling by her fans. if we were calling her a bunch of gendered terms that'd be one thing, but we're not.

9. sorry but anon going "youre being WOKE" is such a giveaway theyre assholes w conservative opinions but dont want to admit it. like these are LO fans?? people who bemoan "woke" critics, who tend to be in the oppressed groups rachel is speaking over while claiming she's the actual progressive feminist?? like you guys cant have it both ways, if you want to claim LO is some feminist masterpiece then you cant shut down ppl who point out it consistently fails to meet up to even 1 progressive ideal 🤧

-----SA Discussion Below-----

10. FP SPOILERS///Sooo um Rachel made an episode with literal sex assault and wrote it off as a joke? Wow that's some big pro-feminism shit for you. It's not just stupid, it's disgusting and dangerous, bc what the hell are you implying as a writer when you write a scene where one character sexually assaults another for LAUGHS???? ARE YOU SERIOUS RACHEL???? I-I can't I really can't, somehow she makes literally everything 10x times worse with each new episode

[voxblade]

SPOILERS FOR V3

Much of V3's cast has a "running gag". Kokichi is lying at every chance he can get, Tenko's racking up misdemeanor charges against men like whackamole points, Miu is horny on main, etc.. Kibo's gag is him being upset by things and declaring them "robophobic". While this seems kind of funny on a first glance, it has always rubbed me the wrong way, as in actual practice... it feels mean? Like actually kind of mean, the way the game implements it?

For reference, our little silicone friend here is as sentient as anyone else. By all accounts, he has as much personality and need for validation as any teenager, while possessing a kind soul, but... everybody is always disappointed by him. Why? Well you see, despite Kibo being a technological marvel (having actual personality, opinions, emotions, a working body capable of fluid movement down to even facial expressions, the ability to memorize lots of information, a good power system, etc.) he can't do awesome things like a mecha in shonen manga or whatever the fuck. He has a built-in camera that helps them during a case? Lame, it uses film! He records audio that helps corner someone when they're lying during a trial? Lame, anything can be a playback recorder! He has flashlights built into his eyeballs that help during an investigation in a dark place? Also lame, anybody can just pick up a flashlight! Seriously, the dude comes through to save everybody so many times, and they treat him like shit for it, constantly expecting him to do better when he's already the reason they're all alive during the trials and much more technologically advanced than almost any of them could even hope to make. Oh I'm sorry guys, did you happen to bring a flashlight to the crime scene that takes place under the floorboards and has no real light source? No? Then shut up!

This would be kind of annoying on its own, except the game goes even further. Many times Kibo experiences outright harrassment or is seen as a lesser person just for being a robot, when it clearly causes him distress. Part of his introduction is Kokichi asking point-blank if he has a robot penis, ffs, which makes Kibo clearly uncomfortable. During the lategame, despite having had him around for all the earlier chapters to bond with him, Himiko outright tells him to blow himself up to save them all without a moment's hesitation. Even sweetheart Gonta is easily convinced Kibo is less of a person and uses him like a fucking battering ram to open a tank of water at one point by throwing him at the glass!!! HE DIDN'T EVEN KNOW HE WAS WATERPROOF FOR FUCKS SAKE.

Nearly every time Kibo declares something is robophobic, it feels less and less like an absurd thing on its face, and more like an insecure teen trying to get his peers to stop being insensitive and bullying him already.

Oh yeah this isn't even getting to the end of the game. After all that, he's revealed to have been nothing more than a self-insert for the audience, and after being freed from having his free will temporarily removed in the climax, he basically commits suicide to make sure everybody else can escape the game. Yaaaaay.

Round 1: Left Side - Finn (Star Wars) vs. K1-B0 (Danganronpa)