#sure. it was probably just some weird glitch. but what a STRANGE glitch to happen

[scariusaquarius]

Self-Aware! RE6! Leon Kennedy x Reader

A/n: i lost the ask that this was for but I truly hope that you enjoy it, hun!!!

Leon's life was strange. From fighting zombies to taking down the corporations and people that created bioweapons, Leon was certain that his life couldn't get any weirder until the day he became aware of the concave hole in the sky.

Leon was the only one who could see the hole. None of his friends nor colleagues could see what he could, and it made Leon wonder if he was going crazy finally for the longest time until he met you, the person behind the screen-like hole.

He hadn't known what to make of it, especially when something suddenly took control of his body and movements; forcing him to run around and fight zombies until one day, Leon had finally had enough of you taking control and speaking (insulting, really) as if he couldn't hear you and snapped; letting you know exactly how he felt about the whole situation.

Which, in the long run, probably wasn't the best idea.

How crazy did his friends think he was now, especially when they would catch him having a conversation with seemingly nobody?

Ugh, it was just fucking weird.

When Leon and Helena got separated at the cemetery, Leon glanced up at you and huffed.

"Alright, you're the one with all of the knowledge here. Where do I go?"

You hummed in thought before saying.

"You're gonna want to go left, but be careful. One of those screamer zombies is there. You might want to take him out first."

Leon nodded before he began to trek forward until a zombie came running at him unexpectedly.

"(Y/n), would have been nice to know there would be a jumpscare here!"

You were apologetic, wincing as Leon stabbed the zombie over and over until it finally dropped completely dead.

"Sorry! I forgot about that part."

Leon huffed again before he turned towards you.

"You know, I'm not gonna be stuck in this game forever."

"I'm trying my best here, Leon."

Leon shook his head and turned back towards his path, switching to his shotgun to get the job done quicker.

"That's not what I meant."

You snorted.

"That's pretty ominous then. I doubt we can intertwine our worlds like that, and I doubt that'd be a good idea. Zombies don't exactly exist here unless you count that one gross parasite that can take over slugs."

While you had a point, Leon couldn't help but wonder what it would be like. Would his life be different?

Could he finally get some rest?

Leon quickly moved around the corner, and lo and behold, there was the screeching lunatic. Immediately, Leon began firing shot after shot into the zombie's bulbous neck, causing it to explode before it died, and he breathed a sigh of relief.

"You know, since you know so much about what's going on, why don't you tell me who's behind all of this."

You looked uncomfortable, shifting in your seat, and Leon frowned.

"(Y/n). What do you know."

It was an aggressive statement rather than a question, and you looked guilty as you spoke.

"Look, I'm unsure if I can actually tell you because I'm not sure what I can say and what I can't. What if I glitch the game and you're stuck forever? Then I won't be able to help you."

Leon frowned more before he opened his mouth to speak. However, you cut him off before you could utter a word.

"I'll tell you this: keep your friends close, but your enemies closer. Not all of your colleagues are friendly."

What the fuck was that supposed to mean? Was someone from the DSO behind this? Leon looked up at you, and you chewed on your nail a little before stating.

"I really do wish I could tell you, but I don't want to lose you either by trying to play God. If something happened to you because I was trying to help, I don't....I don't really know if I could live with that comfortably."

Leon was surprised, unsure of what to say, but it made his heart race. You seemed to actually care about him, a person that didn't even exist in your world, and Leon didn't know what to make of it nor say.

Your eyes were glassy, nose flaring slightly, and Leon shook his head, stating in hopes of comforting you.

"I'll be alright, you don't have to worry. Just keep watching my back for me, alright?"

You nodded before you brought your knees up to your chest.

"I will, I'm just sorry. I really do want to tell you because the guy is a fucking sleazeball, but I'm afraid of somehow disrupting the timeline."

Timeline? Did this go on for longer than Leon was aware? Leon bit his tongue and shook his head.

"Well, I know it's someone from the DSO and it's a man, so that's a great start. It helps, so don't worry, sweetheart. I can take it from here."

You nodded before pointing.

"Take a left up here. You should get access to a staircase that's gonna lead you back to Helena and to the Cathedral."

Leon nodded before he turned, pausing slightly.

"By the way, if you weren't just a person in the sky, I think I'd enjoy spending time with you."

You were surprised and embarrassed, pulling lint from your tanktop as you spoke.

"W-wait, really? I thought I was annoying you..."

Leon smirked, winking at you.

"Not all the time. Just don't take control of my body, and we'll be fine. I only let them take control after the second date."

You guffawed before shaking your head and pointing, a smile on your pretty lips.

"You're such a dork. Get moving, Helena is waiting."

Leon nodded, chuckling.

"Aye, aye, Captain."

HEHEHEHEHEH

[disappointingcabbage]

TMAGP 23 thoughts, spoilers under the cut!!

lmao I love how Sam’s reasoning for bothering with the response department paperwork is to A) assume it’s Alice doing a bit and B) seeing how long Alice can keep up said bit. I would do the same thing tbh

Lena cautioning him against it raises some red flags about what it might actually be though. That said, if doing the paperwork really is dangerous, she isn’t exactly trying all that hard to convince him to stop so who knows?

Chester statement time!! It’s an internet one this week hell yeah I’m ready for some red canary (or weird movie) esque shit

“Creating a better me”???? this sounds… very Strange

what do you mean by “finding your piece”? It sounds at first like affirmations but then the statement writer directly refutes the idea of it being a psychological/ “inner peace” thing

The second post makes it seem like this piece thing is an object taken from a significant location in your life. That’s less cursed that what I thought it was gonna be (a body part)

the implication that this person did something at least mildly illegal to get their piece is somewhat troubling. it was probably just theft though. Also they never specified what the piece is

“I’m sure it’s totally safe and not at all dangerous to sleep with the piece in my bed” famous last words

Also why do you need to keep it warm??? Is it alive????? And you have to “bond with it” which I guess is in line with making a “better you”. I guess it has to know what you’re like to emulate you or smth idk but this doesn’t sound like it’ll end well

ok it’s coral. Why are you worried about keeping it warm? If it’s not in water it’s definitely not alive.

MAAM WHY DO YOU HAVE SURGICAL EQUIPMENT AND WHY IS THIS POST CALLED “FIRST CUT”

you fucking watered your coral with your own blood to grow a better copy of yourself? The fuck? What is the point??? Do you WANT to get replaced????

Wait no she transplanted the coral into her body to grow it. What the fuck maam are you trying to reproduce through some cursed version of asexual budding???

okay yeah that’s exactly what’s happening this thing burst out of her

I mean at least she planned this out and took off work so she doesn’t lose her source of income I guess??? And she made sure she had proper supplies and a paralysis computer.

Oh damn this lady is just straight up willingly getting replaced. This is reading more and more like the original Alesis Newman is more akin to a shed skin than anything related to asexual reproduction

Oooh it went wrong. Not sure how but it definitely did

Oh shit this world’s Jon and Martin have been dead for 20 years and have no connection to the Magnus Institute

YOOO CELIA’S LOOKING INTO BASIRA AND HELEN

wait how would she know about Helen? Did the tunnels cult ever meet her? I don’t remember

OH WAIT I REMEMBER SHE TRIED TO EAT CELIA (at least, according to Melanie and Georgie) lol girlie why would you want to find her ageidjdief

Oh poor Gwen is not doing great.

Oh my god she’s actually talking to Alice instead of being snappy

And Alice seems to be. Actually listening !!!! Here’s how Dyhard can still win-

Alice fully believes Gwen

LMAO THE IMMEDIATE GLITCH AFTER GWEN SAID “I’ve not been arsey”

we’ve got confirmation that [Error] has a shitload of eyes let’s gooooo archivist moment

Alice immediately recognizing the tape recorder from her own experience and putting the pieces together that the whole oiar is being targeted is peak girlboss energy hell yeah Alice

And Gwen is obviously taking Alice’s experience seriously too hell yeah

Alice and Gwen are in danger? I think they should kiss about it

[aluria-sevhex]

so now i'm in Act 3 i guess

notes:

-methinks Siffrin is panicking

-plot twist: you can't escape the time loop until you deal with your... ???

-no you little bitch don't pretend everything's fine that's not good for your mental health

-YOU *KNEW* THIS WOULD HAPPEN??? FUCK YOU LOOP

-i'm not giving up you little shit

-ok Loop what IS your deal. you *asked* to be here???

-ok i need to help Mira with her mysterious papers

-:O A HINT AT ODILE'S FIELD OF STUDY

-the music is more unnerving than it was in Act 2. also it sounds glitchy now

-oh it's normal now. was i just suffering from an actual audio glitch and just. didn't question it? like "oh yeah ofc it's glitching things are fucked now"

-...that enemy didn't spawn down here in Act 2.

-eh ima get off for the night

-late in the evening on July 4th and i am back yippee this is probably a bad idea considering how long my play sessions get

-YEAH THE TITLE MUSIC MY BELOVED

-ok i can't help Bonnie on this loop- HOLD UP. DID SIF'S ART CHANGE IN THE MENUS? YEAH HE'S NOT SMUG ANYMORE ToT also i think their profile used to say "It's you!" with an exclamation point but now it says "It's you." with a period :(

-rip my darling blorbo Paper α V

-side note: idk if i've mentionwd this before but i like how the levels, stats, and skills all show the fact that you're near the end of the journey (ex. Odile having Rock, Paper, and Scissors III at the start)

-I FOUND THE BOOK BONNIE WAS LOOKING AT.

hmmm... death rituals...

-hehe i found the stostorage roomoom

-NONE OF THESE BARRELS WILL LEMME TAKE THE NUTS >:(

-another book in the headache-inducing language i can't read.

-weird shit going on: Siffrin, Loop, the King, the disappearing island, the headache-inducing shit

-hehehe yeah Isa i'm sure you'd *love* to pet your taciturn hopeful-future-partner

-it's not just the menu art i think Siffrin's battle art is also less happy. :(

-HOLD UP. also! Siffrin's profile used to call them the Traveler but now he's called the Wanderer. :(

-hehe. Sif hit the counter and said nya again. cat Sif

-this enemy ALSO did not spawn on this floor before. fucking giant hand thing

-ok thinking: can't help Isa until i've helped everybody else in one loop, can't help Bonnie on this loop and i need to prove i know them via their favorite foods, need to help Mira and Odile...

-thank you Loop for being available- OH I CAN BRING UP THE SADNESSES BEING DIFFERENT :O

-ok need to help Mira with the papers. some are in her dorm. Odile wants to read a familytale. i'll have to find one in the library or secret library. need to find out Bonnie's favorite foods by trying different ones. maybe i should loop forward a bunch to different areas, find out their favorite foods, and THEN do the big loop where i help everybody!

-i need to talk to the King eventually

-looping forward to Floor 1's end

-fun fact i'm keeping track of all my causes of death in another note. i'll share it when i finish the game

-man i also need to figure out how to help Mira's fan and remember where the last book issue is...

-the looping screen art is nice :]

-yeah yeah i need to beat this asshole to get to the snacks

-hold up. the coin fell on heads this time. strange...

-last time i picked plantain chips. this time i'm picking cookies. would probably be good to check what Bonnie eats each time

-ok they like rice. time to loop forward!

-while i'm on Floor 2 i might as well find a familytale for Odile...

-LOOP 24? THE MATH DOES NOT CHECK OUT.

-WAIT THE GAME ACKNOWLEDGES IT. HUH. YEAH I SHOULD BE ON 23. SIFFRIN IS SUS 𐐘

-fuck. i accidentally moved forwards when i meant to go to the library. it's fine i'l help her when i help everybody

-oh great i have to fight these assholes again.

-fuck. i think i fucked up and didn't make sure Mira had Pretty Moving Cure. i might get a game over.

-this is by far my dumbest death

-LOOP 27??? I WENT FROM 24-27

-gonna try to be less liberal with loop usage because the skipping is kinda scaring me

-aw... Siffrin's friends try not to touch him as they squeeze through that's nice... wait. he seems to not be remembering why. did he forget that they don't like being touched... maybe. maybe i should call Loop.

-well that was unhelpful

-time to adjust the memories i have equipped. welcome back my lovely scrimbly blorbos Lovely Moving Cure and Paper α V

-hm. ok so the boulanger in Dormont has a familytale...

-oh my god we're discussing colors. what happened to them.

-THEY STILL EXIST. BUT WE FORGOT HOW TO SEE THEM. ???

-*SIFFRIN*. HOW IS THIS FAMILIAR. JFC YOU ARE SUS

-plot twist! Siffrin is from our world and forgor that he got isekai'd! :P (i love making random bullshit predictions it's very entertaining)

-oh yeah so RE: Siffrin's altered art: Sif's time-frozen portrait used to look panicked but now it looks calm

-hehe openphrase123 worked

-love Sif's habit of picking up random shiny shit. magpie or crow behavior.

-oh? Siffrin didn't always hate croissants?

...bruh.

-also damn shout-out to Mira's crisis over not knowing some of the people

-the combination of Siffrin's silly attack names and serious battle portraits feels so *wrong*

-:o Sif learned a new skill

-ok i'm gonna log off for the night

hey if you wanna read all of my posts as i play through ISAT, they are all tagged as #Aluria plays ISAT for the first time (please don't spoil)

bruh when i was making this post i accidentslly pasted the notes again there instead of pasting the tag name. that truly was. delightful. to go through and delete it all

also shout-out to those of you who i keep seeing popping up in my notifs liking these posts ;) and also anybody who takes the time to read all this stuff :D i know that *i* like seeing other people's reactions when they experience stuff i like for the first time so i'm very happy to provide that for others! also it's nice to see some of the responses ^-^ :D

[monstrousparalysis]

With A Life Like This, Who Needs Hell?

Warning for vivisection, human experimentation, suicidal ideation, temporary character death, and mild exploration of the implications of Viv and Vex just kidnapping gang members.

Fandom: Just Roll With It: The Suckening

Characters: Emizel Tucker, Viv Weylin, Vex Weylin

Relationships: Emizel Tucker & Vex Weylin & Viv Weylin

Word count: 1,670

Summary:

Emizel Tucker, age 16, goes missing after a night out with friends. He is reported as such 3 days later, when his father, used to his delinquency, gets fed up with what he presumes to be the boy skipping work. This is more than many similar cases of missing adolescents and young adults in Los Angeles have gotten.

The only people who usually notice the disappearances are the friends, fellow members of one of two gangs, the Demons and the Fangs. Of course, anybody involved in gang activity is unlikely to trust the police for help.

Of course, no mortal police force could help with what happens to the missing youths. The Weylin Twins are well above any mortal law, as well as most vampiric ones.

And Emizel Tucker has had the grave misfortune of catching their eyes.

Written for day 13 of @sintember, "Why won't you stay dead?!"

(also posted on AO3 here!)

Emizel Tucker is pretty sure he died at 16 in an alleyway because some Fang got a lucky punch on him. Because the only reasonable explanation for everything that's happened since then is that he's in Hell.

Then again, if he is in Hell, then the fact that he's been “dying” at all seems like a weird amount of mercy, with how peaceful it is right up until he ends up back in this fucking lab. The Adam Sandler movies are annoying, but the ocean of blood is fine, if edgy.

These weird twins definitely aren't human though, that he's sure of. The shit they've been doing to him doesn't make sense.

Illustrating his point perfectly, the one he's gathered is named Viv wedges her hands under his ribcage and just bends it open.

His brain glitches when it tries to process that. It sort of hurts in the same way hitting your funny bone hurts. Probably because your bones aren't supposed to do that.

Whatever, he'd let plenty of Fangs before the motherfucker that landed him here get in a spare hit just for the thrill of the pain. He grits his teeth and breathes through it.

Fuck, he can see his lungs inflating as he does that. He might need to revisit the “being in Hell” thing.

The other one, Vex, starts prodding around his organs, like this is the first time he's seen them.

“You know, Emizel, even beyond the obvious, you are quite the unusual specimen,” he remarks cheerfully, like he's not fondling Emizel's intestines.

He really, really wanted to punch him right now. But that hadn't gone well the last four times he'd tried, so instead, he choked out “You're one to fucking talk” in response. Still, his hands clenched with the urge to break the bastard's nose.

The way they talked to him while they opened him up like he was some sort of particularly interesting toy made him feel…something. Nothing as strong as the feeling of Vex squeezing his guts, but it was still strange.

They were probably just the kind of weirdos who only talked to other people in this kind of situation. Still, it beat having his entire mouth sealed shut, so he tried to respond and keep them interested in what he had to say.

Vex definitely got a kick out of it, giggling at the sharp words like they were a compliment.

“Oh, I'm well aware that me and my sister are unusual, especially to your limited perspective, but you're the man of the hour!”

As he said that, Viv did something that sent a static-y feeling up his spine, his legs twitching.

He hated that they didn't tie him down. He felt like a prey animal, like something so weak and scared that restraining it was a waste of time.

“Lucky me,” he spat with all the sarcasm he could manage.

“I do agree with your assertion, brother," Viv said. “Most of our subjects tend to scream out for somebody when in this much pain, as an instinctual response. Usually, parents.”

She glanced up from Emizel's ribcage to meet his eyes. Her eyes, bright white surrounded by blood red, struck a very rare feeling of outright fear into him. “You haven't the whole time you've been here.”

The absurdity of calling out to Jeffrey to help him mixed the spike of fear into a delirious ridiculousness. He actually might've preferred this to Jeffrey making him earn his keep. At least these two had better taste in music. They even thought he was interesting!

“What, do you guys not catch orphans?” he teased. Maybe the pain was getting to his head. It felt familiar, like the rush he got after a good fight.

Viv broke off a rib from his chest with casual ease, and Emizel shuddered.

As she inspected the marrow, she responded, “Not at all. In fact, the demographics of your gang are proportionally skewed towards parental abandonment.”

With a smile, Vex chimed in, “It does make our jobs much easier if we don't have to worry about Mommy and Daddy trying to track any of you down!”

Oh yeah. They controlled both the Demons and the Fangs, and didn't care about what happened with them.

Emizel had recognized pieces of the gross monsters they made, early on. A hand that felt familiar. Eyes that he'd seen before.

He was always going to end up here. No escaping it. And he had nobody who would care enough to find him except for the friends who'd join him soon.

He's pretty sure he cried about that the first time they revealed it, but he was numb to it now. Maybe Vex pulling out his heart that one time fucked that up.

Regardless, he definitely wasn't numb to the pins and needles feeling of their hands on him. It was agony. It was ecstasy. It was something completely new that he couldn't understand, and it was starting to feel kinda nice.

At least he had one leg up on these freaks. Every time he died, a voice had been counting down from 9, and he hadn't shared that with them. With the way they were studying him, he'd run out of lives soon. He'd die for real, and he wouldn't miss this lab, wouldn't miss the auto shop, and wouldn't miss his lack of a future. He'd flip his life the bird and find some other shit to do.

It was at that moment that Viv paused in her work and asked Vex, “Have you found anything particularly aberrant about his anatomy, brother?”

Vex groaned. “No, it's all small things I've seen before. Have you?”

Viv shook her head. “Aside from past fractures that weren't set, he's perfectly average. He'd make a textbook cadaver if he'd simply stay dead.”

Oh great, he's normal. How comforting.

They both stayed silent, lost in thought. Slowly, a smile crept back onto Vex's face.

“Sister, are you thinking what I'm thinking?”

With a simple look at him, Viv raised an eyebrow.

“If my assumption of what you're thinking is correct, I'd say that it's a worthwhile idea, but we'll have to be logical about it.”

Ugh, twins. Now he had no fucking clue what they were on about.

Vex grabbed Viv by the shoulders, enthused and getting blood on her white lab coat.

“If it all went right, he could be our next masterpiece!”

Emizel started to panic. He'd seen the fucked up creatures Vex called their “artwork”, and he didn't want to be trapped in some kind of fucking human meatball forever.

“I must concur, his true immortality could yield fascinating results in a kindred form,” she said, looking at Emizel with some sort of consideration on her face.

“I'll grab one of the thralls at once!”

“Wait, we should put more consideration into this. I'm unsure that making him a Brujah would be wise, brother. We've already seen how violent his temperament is, wouldn't that be quite the handful?”

Yeah, Emizel officially had no fucking clue what they were on about, but he wanted no part of it. Please, please, just go back to ripping him apart until he'd finally stay a pile of meat on the floor—

Vex looked upset about that comment, though. “Just look at him, Viv! Making him anything other than Brujah would be an insult to our talent! We can't have subpar artwork on purpose!”

Viv's rationality seemed to waver when faced with the potential of this next experiment they could perform on Emizel, like they hadn't done enough already.

“Okay, I concede to your point, Vex. This should make his generation 10th, correct?”

Vex was already rushing out the door with vigor at Viv's approval, leaving with the comment of “We can always find a way to lower it later if we want him to be stronger!”

Viv rolled her eyes. “His impulsivity will find us our final deaths one day,” she muttered to herself.

With that comment out, she turned back to Emizel, like she'd just remembered he was here.

She grinned, and Emizel was fucking terrified. She wasn't the one that did that, and he still didn't know what the fuck they were going to do to him.

“He didn't even remember to close you up first,” she said almost sweetly. Emizel went to stutter out some response, but before he could, she grabbed the opened flaps of his skin and crossed them back over his torso. She pressed them back together so forcefully he wheezed, and they messily bonded back together like clay.

“He's going to complain about that later, but I'm sure he's going to fuss over your skin regardless.”

Her smile bared her teeth as she talked, and for the first time, Emizel noticed that they had fangs.

“I must confess, I'm excited to see how you come out of this, Emizel Tucker. Behave yourself, and you might become one of the most terrifying things we've ever made.”

The promise of that statement enticed him, even through his fear. He didn't want to be anything like the monsters he'd seen so far, but the idea of becoming something even scarier than that appealed to him.

She used a hand to hold his head back against the table, and he noticed how cold she was to the touch.

She leaned down, fangs bared, and bit into his neck.

He tensed for a moment, then suddenly relaxed.

He felt calm. Peaceful. If he focused on it, he could still feel a pleasant sting from the teeth piercing his skin.

He was getting lightheaded, like his blood was all somewhere else.

“Oh,” he said dumbly. “You're vampires.”

He felt Viv stifle a laugh at that, still drinking from him.

He was feeling the newly-familiar fade of dying now, but it sounded like his plan of dying forever wouldn't work out.

Maybe he could accept staying here for a while. If anything was made to stay in hell, it would be a Demon.

[cptn-m]

One Piece chapter 1127 review

New arc is a go… but things aren't feeling quite right here. I'm not usually one to get on board with conspiracy theories - sometimes a weird detail is just something Oda threw in because he thought it would be fun or funny, not the key to unraveling the plot; sometimes an inconsistency is legitimately a mistake or typo, to be fixed in the volume. But here, I'm not so sure. Maybe it's because we have so little in the way of context, but things are feeling wrong about the setting we're shown in this first chapter.

We are not in the Elbaf we thought we were in. From the first page: look at Yggdrasil. Compare it to the enormous tree shown in the backgrounds of Big Mom's flashback. It's too small, it's not the right shape, it doesn't cast shade over the whole island the way the real one does. Though dressed like giants, the people in the town have roughly the same scale compared to the stingermole and Lego buildings as the Strawhats do. And while the environment certainly looks like a giant child's Lego playroom, watch the way the castle comes apart during the cat attack: it doesn't scatter into pieces like a real Lego construction would, the bricks themselves crack and shatter and crumble into shards, suggesting cemented concrete or stone rather something designed to come apart and be rebuilt. Even the title plays up a "Land of Mystery" even though it would be no spoiler at all to say "Land of Giants" or something similar given all the setup this arc has had.

So where are we? Some kind of human settlement on the edge or off the coast of Elbaf? Are they people who came hopeful to emulate giant culture like Usopp has? Or is this a human zoo or pet enclosure run by a particularly cruel giant leader? Maybe whoever is playing the part of a sun god (very intriguing setup by the way) But in either case why the toy look without toy materials?

And then there's the question of absinthe hallucinations. If the whole scenario was meant to be a trip, we probably wouldn't have seen the people in the town. That kind of objective POV from people who weren't drinking wouldn't fly, we'd have been kept limited to only the Strawhats' perspective. The animals cause real physical harm, and Nami trips on and interacts with the Lego bumps on the floor, so they're not illusions. But things are weird here. They keep changing. Both the spiky thing (which has hedgehog ears but more of a porcupine snout, and doesn't fully match up with either creature) and the cat transform dramatically for creatures without (apparent) devil fruits. And the weapon of Luffy's back changes between two panels, but that one I could chalk to being a mistake, or a last minute mind change. The panel with the sword also lacks the strap going across Luffy's chest, which feels like a major detail of this new design to omit. But it adds to the strange feeling all this gives off.

(Luffy calling out the wrong gear, however, is definitely an error. It hasn't even been that long since the wrong number was used for a Cipher Pol division in the final chapters of Egghead. Sanji winding up with one leg and kicking with the other feels the same, some of these little glitches happen all the time.)

Mysteries and theories all aside, this is a tremendously fun Usopp and Nami chapter. Every single gag landed for me. Nami's expression at meeting the spike monster sets the tone and the chapter just rolls from there. Usopp taking a hit, assuming the cat is a hallucination (even he'd just been in its mouth, and Nami's reaction. (Love the cat's claws curling over the panel boarder there too.) Then she uses the broken and beaten Usopp as a shield before claiming to Sanji he was already dead. I loved it all.

I've seen some upset that Usopp is taking such a beating in what they think should be his arc, but I can't imagine being upset by something like that. You can't have much of a character arc without the character having things to learn and challenges to overcome from the experience. The last time we had a genuinely designated character's arc was Sanji at Whole Cake Island, and whatever else you can say about it, that arc brought Sanji low and kicked him while he was down, physically and emotionally. He got no climactic fight. And he lost his memory of getting the girl. But it all set him up to be stronger than ever and face even more interesting character decisions in the next arc. So if we're going to make Usopp grow on Elbaf, putting him in situations that showcase his weakness and trigger his cowardice is a good starting point.

The Egghead outfits so far are fine. Pretty standard medieval gear. The choice for Nami threatens to follow the Egghead design trends, but I'm going to wait and see on that front. The problem with Egghead's outfits wasn't that Nami was showing a lot of leg - her characterisation has always had her comfortable in bikinis and similar pieces that make sense to wear when you're around the sea. The problem was that every single female character in the arc unquestioningly picked up Nami's fashion sense and level of comfort, no matter how they were depicted previously. So the amount of variety and how in-character the outfits of Robin, Lilith and (depending on what age she presents as) Bonney will make or break the fur bikini.

As much as it can hurt to be left with a lingering mystery, I'm thrilled to see Oda still finding the inspiration to give us something new and different to start a new arc on. And with a break coming up and the new arc underway, I think now is finally the time to properly reread and review Egghead in full, which feels like a good thing to put in the place of a review next week.

[aceofspadesblog]

Restless Reprieve

Geno and Aftertale belong to CrayonQueen Reaper belongs to Renrink

If there was one good thing to come from being stuck in this stupid void, it was Reaper.

Geno wasn’t one for overdramatic clichés, but he truly felt like he’d found his soulmate. 

The god of death didn’t magically make everything better. Geno’s day-to-day was still a living hell. But Reaper was a bright spot in the darkness. The god helped him through the worst moments, he was a support to lean on. He was a distraction from all of the bad things happening in Geno's universe.

Reaper had stumbled into the Save Screen one day, trying to reap Geno’s soul. Geno had, of course, told him to fuck off. They fought. Reaper won. Reaper tried to take Geno’s soul. He failed.

Both skeletons were surprised to discover that Reaper’s Death Touch didn’t work on Geno. Neither was sure why. It may have been from Geno’s half-dead state, or the amount of determination he’d consumed, or a mere side effect of the Save Screen. Or maybe there was just a glitch somewhere in his code. Whatever the cause, that encounter had led to Geno’s new recurring visitor. 

At first, he’d found the death god annoying. Reaper was a terrible flirt, always so touchy-feely... probably because Geno was the only person he could touch without them dusting on the spot. But still. It was annoying. Geno had been irritable whenever the god visited. But as time passed, he’d begun to enjoy the other’s company. Geno told himself it was just because Reaper was something different in his monotonous life, but it was difficult to fool himself for long.

Reaper would tell Geno about different AU’s he’d visited, sharing stories about particularly strange deaths. Gruesome, sure, but it gave Geno something to think about aside from the violence happening in his own world. Reaper brought trinkets and snacks to the Save Screen. He’d find colorful designs to fill the void, or force Geno to try weird candy flavors. And it was nice, to have something different. To have something to look at other than the surrounding blackness. To be able to taste something again after so long not needing food to survive. To have new experiences for the first time in years.

Geno’s favorite gift by far were the books. They gave him something to occupy his time after Reaper left. And the fact that the god of death had thought about what Geno went through while he was gone, had thought to bring him a distraction... it was endearing. 

They grew close. Eventually, they started dating. Sort of.

Geno couldn’t really go on dates, since he couldn’t leave the Save Screen, but Reaper didn’t care. He seemed to take it as a challenge, trying his best to recreate all of the stereotypical date locations in the void. 

There coffee date had been sipping coffee while sitting on the floor of the Save Screen. They’d spread a blanket over the grassy patch of the void for there picnic. The theater date consisted of Geno and Reaper snuggling together with popcorn and a blanket to watch a movie on Reaper’s phone. 

It was simple, but Geno liked it. Reaper was creative in his quest to make every “date” different. To keep bringing new experiences to the void. And it was sweet. 

But it wasn’t enough to overcome the hell Geno went through whenever Reaper was gone. When the god of death left to reap the souls of those who’d passed, and Geno was left alone with a handful of books and that view of his family and friends viciously dying on loop.

Some days, he could shut out the human’s torture and focus on the distractions Reaper had provided. But some days those distractions didn’t work, and he felt like he was slowly losing control. How long could he watch these same scenes before he lost his mind? 

As much as he loved Reaper, those emotions couldn’t overcome the need to destroy his universe, to stop the human, to save everyone from there endless suffering. He kept trying to talk to Sans, to convince the other monster to help him. Sans continued to refuse. The Resets kept happening. His friends kept suffering. Papyrus kept dying. 

Reaper kept visiting. It felt like he was the only thing keeping Geno sane. But it was like a ticking bomb that kept being reset. There’s still an impending explosion, it’s just being delayed. 

How long until Geno bursts? When will it all become too much for him to handle? At what point will he fall apart so much that he can’t be put back together? 

---

One day, everything changed. 

Reaper hadn’t visited lately, and Geno was feeling a little extra crazy, like he’d explode at any moment. He restored Sans’s memories of the previous Resets. 

Geno had been worried that he’d pushed too hard. That he’d broken his double, that he’d have to wait for another Reset to attempt his negotiations again. But it worked. At least, Geno thought it had. Sans agreed to help him. 

But it’d all been a trick to drag Papyrus into the Save Screen. To get Geno’s baby brother to talk him down from the edge. They were convinced they could find there happy ending. Geno didn’t believe in happy endings anymore, but he let them try.

Apparently all it took to end this hell was a damn piece of butterscotch-cinnamon pie.

<- Previous | Next ->

[rafor]

Chapter 2 - Visit to Michael - The Glitch

I was reluctant to drag Michael into this mess, but I had no other option. He was the only one who could help me with this anomaly. I hoped he would be understanding and not angry with me.

I checked behind me to see if the other person was still following me. He had nowhere else to go. He was clueless about this place. He was Raphael, a human version of me who had just died a horrific death. He didn’t know how to fly, even though he had wings like everyone else here. I couldn’t teach him how to soar in the sky in such a short time, so we had to walk to Michael’s place. He was probably busy as usual, orchestrating his plans and watching the earth for any signs of danger or supernatural activity.

We arrived at the core of heaven in less than an hour. Some guards recognized me and welcomed me warmly, but they looked puzzled at the second me. I told them that he was technically an aspect of me but very different from me. They didn’t make any jokes or comments about it. They knew better than to offend me or Michael.

Michael lived in the center of the most beautiful gardens in heaven, surrounded by hills where each of us had our own luxurious residence to show off our status. He usually welcomed visitors, especially after such a long time. I was sure he would be happy to see me, but I wasn’t sure how he would react to the second me.

At the gates of Michael’s home, the guards announced our arrival, and soon he came out to greet us. He invited us to come inside without asking any questions about the second soul.

I wondered if he sensed something wrong with me or if he was just being polite. Either way, I was glad to be in his presence again.

I didn’t beat around the bush and told him everything that had happened. How I had split into two after death and how there was a glitch in the system.

He tried to divert the conversation and ask me about my experience on earth, but I didn’t let him. I didn’t even let him call for Gabriel. I didn’t want to bother them both at once.

I knew this was a serious issue, and I needed answers. I was determined to find out what was going on and how to fix it.

“I appreciate your interest in my life, but we have a bigger problem here, as you can see,” I said, pointing at the second me.

“I see,” Michael said. “That does look quite strange.”

“Can you help me with it? I tried to merge with him, like one of my shadows or fragments, but it didn’t work. He doesn’t seem to be just a part of me. He seems to have a mind of his own,” I said.

Michael nodded and asked me to wait. He turned to him and said, “So you’re Raphael, right?”

He nodded and said, “Yes, sir.” He didn’t know who Michael was, but he answered politely and respectfully.

They started talking, and Michael asked him about his life on earth. He remembered it well and wanted to hear more about it. I didn’t interrupt them. He had the right to get to know him better and maybe bond with him a little. I didn’t know what would happen next or if this would end up in some kind of termination or separation.

But as they talked, I felt something strange happening inside me. It was as if the other me was gaining some emotions and some powers from me, similar to mine. And that was dangerous.

Michael must have felt it too. We could sense when a being had powers, especially holy powers. There weren’t many who had their own powers. Only us and some soldiers who borrowed them from us when they were on duty, until they fell.

After a while, they finished talking, and Michael had learned everything about my life on earth in less than two hours.

He suggested that Raphael go outside and meet the guards, who would show him around and keep him company. It might sound weird, but the guards at the core of heaven were not ordinary guards. They were kind and friendly souls who had previously worked as Guardians of the Greenfields of Heaven, where normal souls usually go after death and pass through the great barrier that separates the good from the bad ones here.

Michael took me aside, and we went to the room of silence, a room where no sound could escape or enter. He said, “He seems like a nice guy, but something feels off about him. He’s more like you than you think.” I said, “I never said he wasn’t like me, but since you mentioned it, what feels off about him?” “I think you already know what I mean. I saw your reaction when his wings started glowing on their own.” Indeed, I had noticed that “the other me has some fragments of my powers, doesn’t he?”

“Yes, and I also notice something different about you.” I pretended to be surprised and said, “Really? It’s just me. I haven’t changed.” He looked at me sternly and said, “Let’s see, how about we go to the arena, you know, like the old times?” I knew what he was up to: “Are you challenging me to a friendly duel? Oh, you little bastard. You know I never refuse one.”

So we headed to the arena, while the other Raphael was spending his time with the guards and exploring heaven.

[panda4starz]

Anyone else get weird dreams that's like a game? Or could be a game?

For whatever reason, I tend to get more of those when I play horror games. I play The Dark Pictures series with my brother, I get dreams of being chased by some monster and finding ways to avoid it. I play the Silent Hill series, I dream of searching through a mostly empty shopping mall and run into strange monsters and sketchy people, only that time I'm actually playing the game in my dream.

I don't know what brought this last one on, I'm literally playing Mario & Luigi Brothership now, but I had an... odd dream that could be made into like a visual novel or a rpg maker-type thing.

What I remember of this story is:

- You're living in a city/town of some sort. You have a roommate who works at the same job you do: you deliver food. You're friends.

- At some point, during work, your friend disappears. She doesn't come home.

- You don't know for sure what happened to her, but you do have an idea.

- You meet a new friend at work. You're being put into a buddy system with them (I don't remember if they had a specific gender or anything in my dream, a lot of the specifics are lost on me, I'm just piecing them together in a way that makes sense now)

- You go to work with your new buddy. You tell them about your friend and how they disappeared as you're going to the apartment you're delivering to.

- You separate from your buddy to go deliver to the costumers door. The customer opens his door, revealing a dirty studio apartment. Your eyes catch on something in your peripheral, and you look deeper into his apartment.

- It's your friend/roommate. She's tied up. She looks scared.

- The man you've delivered to rushes through the exchange and closes the door on you. You only have enough time to deliver a scathing glare and say, "I hate you."

- When you get back to your delivery car, you tell your work buddy what you saw. You both discuss what this might mean, what to do about all this. (I don't know why it wasn't an option to go to the cops? Maybe the characters don't trust in the cops, or maybe it's simply not an option in their world for some reason, who knows.)

- You remember that the man is a regular customer for the restaurant you work at. You remember that his order this time looked a little odd. He ordered more food, likely for his captive. You mention this, and how this is probably the only link you have to what's going on, aside from your own eyes. At least this way, if they keep delivering food to him, they'll know that your friend is still there.

- Your work friend is uneasy about this. But they tentatively agree. You both end your shift and go home.

- At this point, when you're home, your parents come to visit you. At first glance, they're just quirky and colorful parents, seeming caring and all that. But you aren't comforted by this. You're instantly thrown off and kind of irritated, you don't want them to be here and you don't trust them.

- They barge into your home and make themselves welcome without your say so. They stay in your roommate's room for the time being. Even when they're gone from your sight, you're still agitated.

- The floors your apartment has are black and white checkered tiles. But after your parents have made themselves at home, your perception of it changes and the spaces that they took up are... altered. The black tiles in the checker pattern have bits of color just there, like a glitch occurred and messed with the visuals. But it's only in the corner that your parents previously occupied. The rest of that room looks fine. It's like they corrupted it just by existing there.

- Your parents aren't normal. You aren't normal. But you aren't like your parents. You're... a different kind of danger.

And that's where it ended. I woke up. Frankly, I don't know what's wrong with the parents, I don't know what's up with the man that kidnapped the friend, all I know is the kinds of vibes I got and none of them were good vibes. I don't even know what was up with 'me', I was just going through it. What I do know is that the tone reminded me of an anime/manga called 'Happy Sugar Life'. So if you've seen that, then you might get the tone that this had a little better.

But anyway, this just seemed like an interesting story thread that I, personally, wish continued. But if I could continue this, it does really seem like it could be a visual novel or rpg of some kind, I remember that there were some small puzzles that seemed like the type to be in a rpg. Not that I remember what they were, though I do vaguely remember picking up a knife shaped thing somewhere.

If I had more to go off of, I might've tried to make whatever this is, but all I've got is a hook and a few visuals.

[mint-yooxgi]

yan!self-aware otome game love interest with taeyong please!!!

It's been about a month since you've started playing this new otome game that you found on the App Store. Though, what's strange about it is that you can't seen to find any reviews about it anywhere, or anyone else that has seemed to play it before. Even when you told your friend that they should download it so you could talk about it and play together, they couldn't find it on the App Store at all.

At the time, you had shrugged it off, thinking it maybe just isn't available for their phone yet, and that it's probably some underground game that not too many people have heard about.

That is, until weird things started happening to your phone.

You've noticed certain apps of yours open in the background, even when you haven't used them for a while. For instance, the other day when you opened your phone to check your messages, your photos app had been left open on one of the few pictures of yourself that you keep on your phone. You don't have many selfies, so you would have remembered looking at this one for sure.

Another instance, is that your camera app will open at random times and seemingly take a picture of you. Except, when you go to check your camera roll, there's no new picture to be found.

You even find yourself loosing notifications every now and then, the only ones seemingly coming through is when one of the love interests of the game message you. This love interest in particular seems to message you quite a lot, more so than the others, anyways, but you've just chalked it up as you ending up on his route for the game.

Speaking of the game, it's one of the most hyper-realistic otome games you've ever played. It follows a group of guys in the modern world doing different types of entertainment jobs, like writer, composer, producer, director. In fact, the guy who's route you seem to be on is the dancer of the group.

He's pretty handsome, if you do say so yourself, but he wasn't your first choice in the game. Nor was he your second, or even third. Oddly enough, all three of those guys seemingly have disappeared from the game entirely, and when you bring them up in conversation, the topic is either brushed off, or avoided entirely.

You're starting to worry you've ended up with the yandere love interest, especially with this particular interaction.

Your screen had lit up with a new message from Taeyong, telling you that he was ready to chat. It took you a few minutes to reply, and you notice he sent you a follow up, asking if you were mad at him cause you didn't reply right away like you usually do. Your brow furrows. Weird.

Meanwhile, the whole time he waits for your reply, Taeyong paces back and forth on the street, staring up at the sky and waiting for your face to appear. Ever since you started playing his game, he's been captivated by you. You always choose the best response from the options given to you, and the odd time where you're allowed 'free play' to type your own messages, he's been awestruck by your humour and intelligence. Of course he just had to get to know you.

Living inside people's devices can get so boring. That is, until he met you. Now, he finds he never wants to move on to the next place, wanting to stay with you forever. If he gets his way, he will.

The scene for the day is that you are out for a walk to go and meet one of the other love interests when you come across Taeyong walking in the opposite direction. He suggests hanging out instead of you going to meet up with the other love interest, and usually, you would get two other options when prompted to take him up on his offer. Except, this time, all three options are 'stay with Taeyong'.

Your brow furrows. Perhaps it's just a glitch in the game, so you opt to close the app and refresh the level.

Only, Taeyong doesn't like that. He didn't destroy the others for you to just ignore him like this.

Your phone dings with a new message from the game. It's Taeyong.

What's wrong? Did I do something to upset you?

You blink. That's strange. There's no way he just sent you a message like that.

Deleting the notification, you decide to go take a nap. You did stay up pretty late last night reading, so maybe you're just overtired and your mind is playing tricks on you.

Crawling into bed, your phone dings with another new message, again from Taeyong.

Are you ignoring me now? Please don't ignore me, baby. I'm sorry if I upset you. Please come back.

Once more, you frown, deleting the notification. This is getting stranger by the minute, only emphasized by the influx of messages you keep receiving from Taeyong.

"Okay, maybe I've had too much of this otome game," you mumble to yourself, deciding in an instant to delete the game off of your phone and not bother with it anymore.

Without a second thought, and before you can convince yourself not to, you do just that.

Placing your phone on your bedside table after turning it on silent, you roll over, settling into bed and making yourself comfortable.

A few hours later, you wake up from your nap, groggily rubbing at the sleep form your eyes. Turning over, you go to check your phone, and once you see the amount of notifications you have, your heart nearly stops.

This is impossible. You're sure you deleted the game before you fell asleep.

Unfortunately for you, when you unlock your phone, the app is in exactly the same place it was before you deleted it, almost as if you didn't do anything to it at all.

Nervously, you open the app, letting all of the messages load for you to read as more come in every few seconds.

Why are you ignoring me?

Baby, please answer me. You know we're supposed to be together, right?

I love you, please don't leave me.

You can't forget about me that easily.

I'm sorry.

Please answer your phone.

I love you. You're my world.

Oh, thank god, you're back.

I thought I lost you.

I though I was going to lose you.

Never leave me again.

You can't get rid of me that easily.

I love you.

Stay with me.

Stay with me.

Forever, until death do us part.

Please, stay with me.

[maleyanderecafe]

(Not sure if my first ask was sent) Have you played/heard of the game "Something's Wrong with Sunny Day Jack"? The main male love interest, Sunny Day Jack, is a really interesting take on a male yandere. The demo is free, and there's also an in-character interview.

Er, I'm not sure what your first ask was, but if it was about Something's Wrong with Sunny Day Jack, I didn't get it, but I did get this ask. It's pretty interesting and I do like the art for it (I just... love the line art. You don't understand I just... smooth line art). It has voice acting and an interview as well, so there's love put into it. Be warned though, it is r18 so take heed.

Something's Wrong with Sunny Day Jack is an itch.io game that you can play on your browser. It starts out with the MC reminiscing a bit about the past as a child and how they enjoy being an adult more than being a child because of the freedom it has. They wake up to a Jack, the main character of an 80s children's cartoon asking to make breakfast for them. It turns out that the MC picked up and bought a strange VCR in a thrift store after being drawn to it (sort of fnaf style, I suppose) and after passing out while watching it, woke up to find Jack living with them. They're seemingly like a ghost, with only the MC being able to see him and him not appearing in windows. Jack has been living with them for a month now and has a very cheerful attitude, almost like a fitness trainer, encouraging the MC to stay healthy. After eating breakfast, the two watch some TV and get close to each other, either opting to kiss or hug Jack (the choices don't really change the plot at the moment, only the text) before being interrupted by their boss, who wants them to work an extra shift. Begrudgingly, the MC goes to their work, a frozen yogurt store, while wondering what would have happened if their boss had not interrupted them. There, after talking to Jack for a bit, a couple of guys come in, asking if the MC has a boyfriend. The MC can either state yes or no, with yes having accepted Jack as their boyfriend while no, causing them to fade a bit, making it so the MC can't even touch them. Either choice ends up with the two going back and having sex with each other. Upon waking up, the MC greets an old college friend, Shawn, who they sort of forgot was coming. After a brief chat, he goes into her room and exclaims in shock and the story ends.

The interview is also rather brief, with the interviewer asking questions about a show and some sort of event that happens. Some of the locations and numbers are glitched out and the last question the interviewer asks is if he is dating anyone (or rather asks if the reason why he's so toned is because of someone he might like) before Jack attempts to stop the interview altogether.

As a demo, the story is brief but the production quality is pretty high. Like I said, I really like the art style since I'm a big fan of this kind of linear, and the characters, Jack and Shawn are nicely drawn as well. The voice acting is pretty nice too, and I think it's really cool that they have a little interview for the character as well. The story itself reminds me a bit of FNAF as I said since it does rely on older technology and is a bit of the "children's" items with a twist of horror. Personally, though, I did find it sort of weird that the MC had sex with him (I dunno, maybe it's because I find having sex with kids show characters really weird, especially since he still acts like he's in the show sometimes) and the sex scene itself was sort of... odd. The way the MC's dialogue seemed as if they were drugged or were influenced by something, probably something like how they were drawn to the VCR tape in the first place. It seemed like they were really blissed out, which might be partly because of the sex, but also as if they were kind of hypnotized into feeling this way. This is the feeling I got when they hugged/kissed as well since the MC would often say that it felt "warm and comforting" and that "it was strange because they normally don't feel this way" and even during sex they felt sort of like "there was a small part that wanted to push him away." Which I think is the intention here, since there is a bit of horror to it as well. Must be a bit scary to know that the MC is probably being influenced to feel extremely safe around Jack for one reason or another. I also find it curious that in the end, it seems like Shawn might be able to see Jack or what the two did, though it was mentioned that Jack was only visible to the MC.

In terms of yandere content, it was very light for the most part. While he did have times of being a bit clingy before the two had sex, I think the most yandere parts are when they were having sex (telling the MC that the two should be together forever, and telling the MC that he never has to leave if they would like), specifically saying things like they will always be together and that they need to be with each other, as well as red text stating that he's doing it for their own good (or something along those lines). Of course, I assume in the full demo we will see more of the true nature of Jack and what exactly happens at the end of the demo, along with what exactly he did to the MC.

Overall though, an interesting experience, and I hope to see more.

[sinnohborn-trainer-evan]

I encountered something pretty strange in the far reaches of the galaxy, I think it's a glitch.

I'm playing Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, and I was doing a side mission where I helped Biggs Darklighter smuggle some supplies from Tatooine to Yavin 4, while dealing with any Imperials that tried to track us.

During the run, there are these empty space zones where all the Tie Fighters must be destroyed in order to carry on. But as you can see from the first image, there's something awfully weird about the battlefield...

For some reason there is a giant low poly render of a Trade Federation Battleship taking up most of the area, not only that, it isn't solid, I phase right through the textures.

I'm pretty sure this is not supposed to happen-

For all I know, it could be something to do with the version I'm playing on (Switch), or it could be one of a few bugs that are still in the game right now, by the time of this post, the game had only released about a week ago.

Even still, it's pretty hilarious to imagine what's unfolding before me! Tie Fighters chasing cargo that I'm smuggling to Yavin 4 amidst the wreckage of an old decommissioned Trade Federation cruiser!

That made this mission even more epic than it needed to be.

Lemme know if you saw this happen too, and if it's either limited to the Switch version or if you've seen it happen on any other console version!

(Also lemme just throw in a personal comment here. I'm not the biggest fan of David Menkin's take on Luke's voice in Skywalker Saga. It's not terrible, I think it's okay, but it's not Mark Hamill. If Disney has the power to synthesize a near perfect recreation of young Hamill's voice from the 1977 Star Wars film for his role reprisal in The Mandelorian, why didn't they just do that for The Skywalker Saga? For all I know they probably wanted Lego Luke to sound as corny as the humor that comes out of his mouth in the Lego game.)

[dancingamongstdust]

Creepypasta Scenarios - First Meeting (Part 3)

I’ve opened requests now, if anybody is interested. Here’s the post:

Requests

Lost Silver

As stupid as it sounds, the game didn’t scare you.

It had started as a joke, something passed around your friend group after it had been discovered. The cartridge was just a janky version of a Pokémon game that was apparently spooky and so, everybody had taken turns messing around with it. They all said creepy things started happening but nothing too bad.

When it was your turn, you had been fully expecting something out of a horror movie. Instead, you had gotten a game that just had audio cut offs and weird notes warning you to stay out. It wasn’t all together scary.

You mentioned this to the next person you gave the game to in your friend group and they had laughed, saying it would probably ring true for them also.

But for some reason, your ally didn’t manifest.

Less than two days later, they practically threw the game at the rest of you and ran away sprouting things about curses. After that, the appeal of playing it kind of went away.

Nobody wanted to buy it and apparently throwing it out wasn’t a suggestion. So you ended up getting it.

Curiosity soon got the better of you and you booted up the game again, really sure that it would do something absolutely crazy but it never did. It ran like it always had with only that one file being completed.

So you deleted the file.

And nothing happened.

The next day, when you booted up the game, the file had simply returned as though you hadn’t deleted it in the first place. A similar thing occurred the next time. And the next.

Eventually you gave up and just started your own game. There, everything ran like it was meant to and you were beginning to think that your friends had all been imagining stuff. Maybe their paranoid got to them or something like that?

But eventually, the nightmares started. And they were bad.

You couldn’t remember exactly what happened during them. They were a swirling mess of games and glitches, horrible things spelled out in letters and blood covering everything. You would always wake up right when they seemed to be coming to a pivotal point. You’d find yourself dragged into a graveyard and then you’d wake up screaming

It was awful. You hardly got any sleep during them and they seemed to haunt you every night, keeping you up until the early hours of the morning.

But the worst only came when you didn’t wake up.

When you were dragged to the grave and looked down to see the ellipsis where the name should be. A punch to the gut that reminded you of what the game file was called. A confirmation of what was causing this dream.

You stared at it for ages before your eyes drifted up and you met his gaze. He was covered in blood, it leaked from every orifice and limb. It stained his dirty clothing even worse.

While you were staring, the world seemed to distort even though he didn’t. The game world melted away and your bedroom slowly reappeared.

It wasn’t until you saw car headlights move past your window – casting awful shadows across the room – that you realised you were no longer dreaming. He wasn’t a figment of your imagination.

The temperature in the room plummeted and you began to slowly reach for a weapon of some kind. He turned to look at what you were watching. His head tilted to the side and a glitch raced across his body before he vanished into thin air. Flicking on the lights didn’t show him hiding or cowering.

Perhaps your friends weren’t crazy after all.

Masky

“You know, if we had been a little more patient, none of this would have happened,” your sibling lectured. “We could be relaxing inside the car without having to worry about a bloody flash flood coming down from the sky.”

You shoved their back, forcing them to stumble a little as they went through the door. “Chances are the river’s going to burst its banks anyway. We would have been stuck in traffic for hours because the bridge is blocked off.”

“At least we would have been dry,” they muttered, running their fingers through their hair. “And not trapped inside an abandoned building.”

You rolled your eyes and made your way over the rubble to settle down on a camping chair. “Don’t even start. This place has been a hangout for my friends and I for ages. There’s never been a single problem bigger than a few spiders.”

“Till a landlord shows up,” they scoffed.

“Then we’ll move to the forest,” you joked. “I’m sure there’s a good bear cave we can use.”

“I’m going to be an only child,” they said, rolling their eyes. Still, they made their way over and sat. “How long do you think we have until the storm dies down?”

You relaxed back into the chair and smiled up at the asbestos-filled ceiling. “From the sound of it, a while.”

It wouldn’t have been the first time you had taken a nap in the building. You were scared of giant cockroaches coming to eat you once. You had gotten used to it since then but this time when you woke up, you were uneasy.

Glancing around, nothing was out of the ordinary. Your sibling was snoring in the chair next to you and outside the rain was pounding the roof.

You sat upright. Sometimes was definitely wrong.

Pulling your phone from your pocket, you got up from the chair and began walking as quietly as you could through the house. It had always been tiny and practically void of furniture, but the few rooms provided ample hiding spots.

Nothing but rubble was in most of the rooms but, in what you presumed had once been a bathroom, you found a person.

He had his back to you but when you pushed the door open to peer in, he spun around, his hand flying to his side. He was wearing a white mask, dark features etched onto it, and an orange jacket. A dark stain ran up the right side of it, emanating from under his hand. The oddness of his clothing made you immediately back away from the door, finger twitching on your cell phone in case you needed to call for help.

The two of you stared at each other in silence.

You were lost about what to say or do. The stain on his jacket was spreading and the more you stared at it, the more you became convinced it was blood. “Are you okay?” you finally managed to ask.

It took him a while to respond but then he nodded. The mask was unnerving you. You didn’t like not being able to see a person’s facial expressions.

“I don’t mean to pry or anything, but it really looks like you’re bleeding,” you said. “And quite badly. I can call for an ambulance or something although…” you turned your attention to the window behind his head. “I’m not sure they’ll be able to get anywhere with this weather.”

He stepped backward. “I’m fine,” he said, so soft you barely caught it. “I thought this place was abandoned.”

“It normally is,” you answered. “But we had to avoid the storm. I’m guessing that’s why you’re here also?”

“Yes,” he responded.

You waited or him to say something more, but all you got was silence. He had moved further away and now he had his back against the window. Part of you wanted to turn around and go back to your sibling but you were unsure about turning your back on the strange man.

The mask made you scared he could stab you or something.

Somebody calling your name made you turn your head on instinct. Your sibling must have woken up and realised you were missing.

Quickly, you turned back to the man, but he had disappeared. Rain spat through the now open window.

Nurse Ann

Everybody always warned you about exploring old buildings. They would yell about how many things could injure or kill you. Stray animals, drug addicts, old equipment, and all that. You had heard just about every warning imaginable. Ghosts were pretty commonly mentioned also.

But killer nurse was a new one.

“Come on, just give me a little more information,” you nagged. “I’m going there whether you’re with me or not so you may as well just tell me what you’ve heard.”

Your friend (and partner in crime for most ventures) groaned. “It’s not much. They just say that she guards the place and if you get too close, she’ll run you off with a chainsaw. Some people have died from injuries they got while there. Let’s just give this one a miss, alright?”

But you were not in agreement at all.

“Maybe she’s cute though,” you teased.

They didn’t find that funny and you didn’t push them to come with you. So later that evening, you snuck in by yourself.

The hospital was old with crumbling walls and smashed windows. It was hidden from the public by means of a tall barbed-wire fence and a substantial distance of open garden. Nothing too extreme for you and definitely worth the potential items you’d find inside. When hospitals went under, they often left tons of awesome stuff just scattered around.

You’d never sold anything you found in your abandoned building dives. They were more collectables than anything else but they meant quite a bit to you.

There weren’t any signs of crazy nurses as you approached the place. Nobody came running at you with a chainsaw at least. You didn’t even find evidence of squatters who could sometimes pose some danger.

After deciding it was safe enough, you lifted yourself through one of the windows and began to explore.

Honestly, it was creepy. Everything was way too old to be worth collecting and there were too many unidentifiable stains for your liking. The water damage was bad. It looked like the ceiling was there for aesthetics only and several rooms creaked too much for you to comfortably cross them.

And that was even without the awkward feeling of being watched.

You told yourself that it was just superstition but you couldn’t shake it. Every few seconds saw you looking over your shoulder in anticipation. It distracted you from keeping your eye on the path in front of you and the loud crack reached your ears too late.

The floor gave out and you fell through. Your shoulder hit some kind of metal object as you landed in the room below. Painful shocks ripped through your body and your head knocked against the floor with a heavy thud.

Stars danced in front of your vision and you raised your hand to the top of your head. Blood coated your hand when you lowered it to look.

Shit.

Shakily, you tried to pull yourself up but quickly found that your arm was too sore. Instead, you pulled your phone from your pocket and sent off the emergency text to your friend.

The world faded to black not long after that.

When you woke up next, you were in your room with a bandage wrapped around your head. You had felt like absolute crap but still gotten up to thank them for the save. They had nodded and warned you to be more careful, happy that you had been outside the hospital so they didn’t have to look for too long.

Before you could even think about how you had crawled there, they asked how you had managed to do your own stitches so nicely.

Puppeteer

Your camera was on 10% battery.

Grumbling, you shoved it into your bag and cursed your past self for forgetting to put it on charge. In order to get the best sunrise photos, you had found yourself waking up earlier and earlier. It was tiring but it was worth it… most of the time.

You just hoped that at least one of your pictures was usable but you could only check on them once you got home.

The streetlight above your head flickered as you walked past. It wasn’t unusual but when you were the only person awake for miles around, it was awfully creepy.

Putting your hands into your jacket pockets, you continued strolling back home. The neighborhood had never been dangerous and despite living in the area for your entire life, no incidents made you want to stop walking around at night.

Deciding that you wanted to take a precautionary shot, you headed for your neighbour’s house first. They had an arch covered in jasmine flowers that made for some perfectly safe photos and they never minded your presence.

After making your way there and getting a few photos, you were treated to the fright of your life when their began howling and barking. It wasn’t aimed at you but you didn’t like the noise regardless.

As you rounded the corner of the house, planning on racing back to your own home, you encountered the dog’s target.

A man – cloaked in the darkness and barely illuminated by the streetlight – opening one of the windows with ease. Irritated by the dog, he didn’t notice you until your finger twitched around the shutter of your camera. There was a flash.

His head snapped up and you screamed.

The man’s complexation was literally grey. He wasn’t just ill, he was the colour of storm clouds. Golden eyes with no pupils glared at you and froze you in place. Whatever he was, this man was the furthest thing from human.

Your scream woke your neighbors. The sound of movement began coming from inside the house.

He abandoned the window, stalking towards you. The air tingled like it was expecting a lightning storm. Golden tendrils grew from his fingertips and shot towards you. They had you pinned in an instant.

You struggled against them and opened your mouth to scream again but they wrapped around your head, forcing your jaw shut.

This was how you died… tears spilled down your cheeks at the realization. You were going to be an unsolved murder. All you hoped was you got a good picture of him.

Your neighbor’s front door opened and great dane let out an ear-splitting bark as he raced toward you.

The man, or creature, or monster, or whatever he was, released you to face the dog. He let it approach before vanishing into a cloud of smoke as its jaws reached him.

“What was that?” the timid voice brought you back into reality.

“It was trying to get into your house,” you said. “I screamed when I saw it and then it grabbed me.” Your voice changed to a whimper as reality hit you. You nearly died.

The small child of the house came over to hug your leg. “I’m sure Puppet didn’t mean to scare you,” she said. “He always comes to visit but he doesn’t like it when people make noise. You shouldn’t scream when you see him again.”

You made eye-contact with the parents and they wore expressions of horror at their daughter’s words.

“Puppet?” you asked in a small voice.

She nodded rapidly. “He says he stops by because he likes watching people. I think that he’s watching us all right now! But he can hide in the shadows too well.”

“I’m going to go and call the police,” somebody said.

You weren’t all too focused. The feeling of being watched grew heavier and you clutched tightly at the camera in your hands.

Slenderman

You couldn’t tell if they were being serious. You hoped that they were joking. They weren’t genuinely going to…

“No,” you stated.

The two younger children both turned to look at you simultaneously. Guilt flashed across their faces as though they weren’t aware you were listening. It was as though you were asked to babysit them because you didn’t pay attention. These two should have realised that by now.

“Do you think all the stories are true?” the boy asked. “I think that they are. One of my friends said she saw a huge dog in the forest and then it ran away after eating a whole cow!”

“No way!” his twin sister shouted. “Dogs don’t eat cows, so it can’t be true!”

You put on your best intimidating expression and crossed your arms. “I don’t care if they’re true or not. There is absolutely no chance that either of you are going to go running off into the woods with bears, wolves and all kinds of other creatures.”

The two children glanced at each other and bolted for the tree line before you could grab their shirts.

Thankfully your legs were longer even if they had a head start and you managed to catch up pretty quickly. Once you caught the boy and picked him up with ease, the girl dashed behind a tree.

“Can we please just leave?” you asked nicely. “If we forget about the forest adventure thing, I promise I won’t tell your parents and I’ll get you ice cream.”

The boy was trying his hardest to get out of your hold. You were starting to think babysitting didn’t pay enough.

“I don’t want ice cream,” the girl said. “I want to go and find a unicorn.”

She darted off into the forest and you let out a deep groan. Shifting the boy’s weight over your one hip, you started walking after her. If you wanted to give chase via running, you would have to put the kid down and trust him to follow or stay.

It was obvious that wasn’t happening.

It didn’t take you too long to find the girl. Mostly because she had stopped in the middle of a weird grove in the trees. She was just staring off into the dark shadows beyond it.

As you approached her, static popped in your ears. You shook your head in an effort to displace it but the closer you got, the louder it became.

The child in your arms whimpered, clutching his head.

You softly called her name and then it appeared. It was a man-like monster, standing just in the shadows of the trees. Easily over 7ft tall and insanely thin with no facial features. Your heart jumped into your throat and your stomach tied itself into a knot.

Without taking your eyes off it, you reached out a hand and fumbled around until you grabbed the girl’s shirt.

The static was getting louder and louder. You tried to shut it out as you started moving backwards, tugging the child along after you. She wasn’t willing to move her legs. She was entranced but whether by fear or magic, you couldn’t tell.

And then it was much closer.

You stumbled in fright, letting go of the girl’s shirt and landing on your ass. The boy fell on top of you but scrambled away and hide in the bushes within the blink of an eye. You sent a silent prayer to him to run back home to the other adults.

Once again, the creature was stationary but now the static was growing to such a volume that you could imagine your ears were starting to bleed.

You reached out for the girl again slowly, but something wrapped around your leg and yanked you into the air.

It took almost a full second for you to realise that the screaming ringing in your ears was you. Whatever was holding you tightened and whipped your body through the air. It was like your leg was being ripped away.

Then you were falling.

It was some feat of luck that you managed to twist your body, so you didn’t land on your head. You lay there for a while before something poking your back made you unbury your face.

The twins were staring at you with wide eyes and the monster was nowhere in sight.

“What was –“ you couldn’t finish.

“Slenderman,” they said in perfect sync.

Splendorman

Another stop…

You couldn’t help yourself. Every time you walked past one of the posters fluttering lightly in the wind you had to stop and stare at it.

A few days ago, your dog, your beautiful and sweet puppy, had disappeared from your house without a trace. The missing posters were depressing reminders that he wasn’t home. It hadn’t taken long for your mind to spiral into the negative thoughts about how close the road was.

Damn your coworkers. One of the had suggested the road in the first place and while they hadn’t intended anything malicious, it was definitely not helping your fears.

The dog had been with you through thick and through thin… if it was dead, you may as well have lost a close family member.

Hanging your head, you dragged your eyes away from the poster and kept walking.

People bumped into you, but it was your fault. You refused to look up in case another poster distracted you. Getting home before the sun set was your only focus now.

You had tried going out and searching in all the places where your dog once spent time to no avail. Always willing to try again, you chose to drop off your bags and head out later that evening when you ran out of distractions.

As you walked through the gates in front of your house, a gust of air gently messed up your hair. A gust of wind suspiciously similar to a laugh.

Your logical mind told you it came from the street, but something made you stop in your tracks.

The walls around your property towered. There’s no possibility that somebody could be in your garden. To try and scale one of the walls, they would have been in full view of your neighbours who would have undoubtedly called the cops.

“You’re sad,” the wind whispered before you could brush off your suspicion.

Spinning wildly, you searched around for the source. You backed up until your entrance gate was behind you. You could run down to the main street with ease if you could just get your fumbling fingers to unlock things.

“Don’t run,” the wind said, this time blowing from a separate direction. “I promise I’m not going to hurt you. I just wanted to know why you’re upset.”

Is this what going insane was? Nobody around and the wind was talking to you. You had always feared losing your mind and now it was happening.

“I’m real,” the wind said. “I’m hiding because I’ll scare you if you see me.”

“I’m going mad,” you muttered, shaking your head. “If this is somebody pulling a prank on me I swear….”

The wind quietened for a bit and then it picked up again, ruffling your hair as it spoke. “If I show myself, it’ll prove that you’re not going crazy, but I don’t want to make it worse by frightening you… you’re so sad already.”

“I lost my best friend and people have been telling me he’s most likely dead,” you hissed. “Obviously I’m not in the best mood. Now I’m losing my fucking mind and talking to air.”

The atmosphere around you dropped, like it does moments before lightning strikes. You glanced at the sky in confusion. As expected, no clouds in sight.

You lowered your gaze and a 7ft tall creature covered in bright polka dots stood in front of your house.

Once you screamed, it disappeared.

“I’m sorry,” the wind said. “I knew I would scare you, but I had hoped it would show you that I’m not imaginary. I’m just trying to help.”

The gate finally opened behind you and you stumbled backwards through it, your heart sitting in your throat. A monster was in your house and it was probably going to kill you. Spinning on your heel, you took off full speed back towards the main street.

You were fully expecting it to give chase now that you hadn’t fallen for its claims of harmlessness but it didn’t.

Instead you reached the main road and only got a few strange looks because of how much you were shaking. Nothing followed you.

The wind picked up once more. “I’ll try and help,” it promised.

People walking around you should have heard it as well but none of them so much as blinked.

Ticci Toby

While you had been told that a noise limit for the forest existed, your laughter refused to cooperate. It rang through the trees and probably chased off all the animals nearby. A picnic out in a national forest was a fantastic way to reconcile with nature and to scare it all away.

With eleven people in your picnic party, chances of any creatures coming into view were already slim though so you didn’t worry too much.

“We didn’t bring nearly enough fruit,” you muttered as you dug in the basket.

“Excuse you, I brought a whole watermelon but you ate it,” somebody answered your grumble. “If you want fruit, it is spring. Go and forage for some berries.”

You snorted. “Yeah, right. I’m going to go out by myself in the middle of the one season where bears are irritable as fuck. I know I sometimes act a little impulsively, but I don’t exactly have a wish to die at the claws of a grumpy teddy.”

Your friend leaned towards you. “Is that so? What if we split into teams and made a bet? Loser has to take a dip in the river.”

“A bet?” you asked. “I’m interested.”

She grinned and snapped her fingers. “Okay, there are eleven people so I’m feeling groups of two with one impartial party as a judge. We should be fine if we make enough noise and stick within close vicinity to each other. See how many berries we can gather?”

Tipping out the picnic basket’s contents, you smirked and pushed it into her chest. “Oh, I hope you brought a swimming costume.”

Everybody teamed up with ease and grabbed one of the many containers lying on the blanket. You headed out with your partner and gave a wink to the other teams. All you needed was to find one good bush first and you had it won.

“We should split up,” your partner said. “Cover more ground.”

You nodded. “We meet up back here once we’ve found a good bush,” you agreed. “And we shout if we find any animals.”

Obviously, your plans hadn’t involved losing your footing almost directly after the two of you split.

Tumbling down the small hill, you tried your hardest to protect yourself from the bushes as you went through them. At some point, you lost your basket and by the time you had finally rolled to a stop, you had no idea where it was.

Grumbling, you stood up and started searching until something dark caught your eye. Thinking it was your basket, you made your way over.

The clearing you walked into housed a scene you could never have imagined.

A dead bear lay slumped against a tree, its fur being what had caught your eye earlier. A hatchet buried in its neck was spilling blood onto the floor around it. All that hardly compared to the man leaning against a tree.

“Oh my god!” you exclaimed. “Are you alright?”

His head immediately snapped up, allowing you to see that he was wearing a mouth guard and a pair of goggles. Blood seeped from between his fingers where they clutched against his chest, but he hardly noticed. A hatchet was hanging from his belt.

Suddenly, you were wishing you had kept your mouth shut.

He stared at you blankly for a while, an occasional twitch minorly affecting his body. Reaching up, he took off his mouthguard. “I can’t feel any pain,” he said. “So, I’m fine. Why are y-you out here? The hiking trail is far.” He struggled with one of the words, seeming to hiccup a little on it.

“I was searching for berries and I slipped down a hill,” you answered. “Are you sure you’re okay? It looks like you got into a fight with a bear. Your shirt is all bloody.”

“I did fight a bear,” he laughed, gesturing to it. “I won.”

Your eyes grew wider. “I think you should get to a hospital. What’s your name? I can call somebody for you and we’ll get you medical attention.”

“Toby,” he said. “That’s my name. What’s yours?”

You gave him your full name and pulled out your phone. “My friends are close by,” you said. “Don’t worry, they’ll be here to help soon.”

When you raised your attention from your phone, he had disappeared and so had the hatchet from the bear’s neck.

Trenderman

Work was hard. It made your feet ache, it made your back click and crack, and it felt like the problems would never end.

Would you give up working in the fashion industry? Not a chance.

Your boss walked past where you were calming down an irate customer over the phone and dropped the keys to the front of the building in front of you. “Close up for me,” she mouthed as she left.

Nodding, you moved them to the side of the desk where they couldn’t be lost.

Once you had finished calming the customer, you glanced around to check how many people were left in the room. Three still working and one in the process of leaving. You were technically going into overtime at this point, but you didn’t mind.

There was a reason you were promoted so quickly.

“We need to set up cameras!” one of the floor managers snapped, storming into the office. She marched straight over to your desk and glowered at you. “I put this request in a week ago.”

Scrolling through the documents, you quickly opened the file. “I see but it looks like it’s been bumped due to a shipment malfunction, I’ll flag it. What’s the problem?”

“Customers or members of staff are moving items around and throwing things out without warning. We need to catch the culprits!” she snapped.

“What has been thrown out?” you asked. “I’ll add it into the information.”

The woman started listing quicker than you could type. “I’ve found crocs, toeless thigh-high boots, bellbottomed jeans, coloured faux fur jackets, luminous lipstick, w-necks, and jeggings all in vast numbers in the trash can. Every time I put them out on shelves, they disappear again.”

It took everything in you not to snort. “I’ll mark this vital.”

She stalked off and you went back to inputting the shipping requirements. You were meant to be organising what was coming in for the latest line and subtly omitting anything that wouldn’t sell well enough.

Slowly but surely, your co-workers trickled out of the office after finishing off their daily tasks. You kept going, trying to make sure you could have a longer break the next day.

Finally, when the sun had already set, you relented and started getting ready to go home.

You sung as you finished packing up for the day. Being the last one in the building (thus having to lock up) made you a little more confident as you danced around getting everything together. You slung your bag over your shoulder and happily trotted over to the door.

It made you so happy that your boss entrusted you to be the last one around. She was so hyper-protective of company secrets that you were proud of yourself for winning her over.

Your talent with people was something you attributed to dealing with painful customers.

As you passed through the store-part of the business you stopped to rearrange a mannequin. Every morning when you came in, you always noticed something had been changed with this specific one. You figured you could move something small and see if it would be a good place to set up a hidden camera.

Though you weren’t expecting it to suddenly grab your arm.

“You may be one of the few workers here with good taste, but I advise you don’t try and change my outfit,” it said. It didn’t have a mouth, but the words rang in your head, nevertheless.

You screamed and pulled away, tearing your arm from its grip. Shelves were knocked over and clothing was sent flying as you tried to escape.

The mannequin just watched you as you fumbled madly for the door.

The glass rattled in the frame from how hard you slammed it shut behind you. You sped off down the street, moving faster than you ever had before. You collapsed on your lawn by the time you reached the house, taking deep breaths.

Nothing had followed you. Everything was okay.

With shaking fingers, you dialed your boss’ number and told her you would be taking a sick day. There wasn’t a chance in hell you were going anywhere near there again.

Not to mention the mess you made… you were definitely getting fired.

[tundrainafrica]

Title: Lovebug (14/14)

Summary:

“It might be a bug.”

“A bug?”

“Sometimes the developers of this application make mistakes. This is our first time meeting I’m sure so…Isn’t it a bit weird that we just met for the first time and it rings like this? And for two strangers to coincidentally ring each other’s alarms?“

Levi is the developer of the Love Alarm App and Hange is married to Zeke.

Link to cross-postings: AO3

Other Chapters: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

Notes: I know I usually post on Wednesdays but I'll be on the road on Wednesday and if I don't get this out soon, I'll probably end up dropping it next week or smthg so here it is. Two days early. I hope you enjoy :D

Is this all that there is to life? A glaring question that came unexpectedly, in between reading through codes for his nth freelance project the past few years.

In response, Levi closed his eyes, sat back and reflected. A part of him may have been asking that question for a while and slowly, Levi started to understand why he was asked that in the first place.

A few minutes ago, he had been strangely happy to see his code compiling at the first try. And just a few hours ago, he had been enthusiastic at running a debugger through a code and finding a few typos to fix.

Happiness. That was happiness right?

That part of him continued to nag. It soured that 'happiness,' leaving a burning dissatisfaction inside him. You’ve experienced better moments, happier moments.

Then Levi got fed up. He reached into the back of his mind, he remembered, then something stopped him from reminiscing for a while longer.

Something strange. Something buried.

He hadn’t allowed himself to feel much since he first moved into that new city. He had allowed the novelty and the business to carry him through his first months. But the novelty of a new beginning never lasted long.

Too shaken to even bother applying for a new job, Levi opted to work freelance. Consequently, his only companions were the four walls of his studio apartment and the occasional voices from next door.

There was only so much which could stimulate interest. His mind continued to search for them and naturally, time continued to move along with it. Routine and episodes of ennui seemed to last infinities in the moment. But in retrospect, it felt like they all happened too fast.

He had made sense of time in milestones, milestones worth ten times the refreshing feeling of running a debugger through code or the fleeting euphoria of compiling codes at the first try.

Is that all that there is to life? Eventually, he made sense of that strange voice. There was reason to that question.

That day was another milestone. If it wasn't for his nagging mind, he could have missed it.

It was a blustery autumn day in late October, the weather similar to the last view he had of his home five years ago. Shifting his gaze from the window of his present apartment, he took a quick look at the calendar and it was like a dam had ended up spilling open inside him.

The five year mark was a bittersweet milestone, five years since he left home. The fifth year rang more loudly than every year before that. Maybe because five was such a perfect number, or perhaps because he had been keeping something in for a while.

He felt a release. Then a reprieve from the monotony, a reprieve from the five years avoiding his old life. Levi found himself opening his browser tab, typing the words ‘love alarm’ on the search box and deleting it a second later.

An aimless and useless sequence of movements. He didn’t need a quick google search to know how it was doing.

The love alarm had become a household name even all the way in his side of the world. With his very human need to go out, whether it be for groceries, shopping or just some fresh air, Levi couldn’t completely ignore it. With the right decisions, Levi could choose not to give so much as a side glance at the people walking, heads bent down, staring at the number of hearts on their application.

When he went out though, even with his music at full blast, he would hear the familiar alarm as he walked through crowds.

At first, it had left a pang in his chest, a brief bout of nausea, perhaps disgust or embarrassment at his old life.

It had been five years since he first arrived though and it turned out, time did heal.

Levi looked through the wikipedia page of the love alarm and he found, it hurt more like a raw scar than a stab in his chest or a crushing weight. The nausea, the pang in his chest that plagued him years before were weak if almost nonexistent.

Curiosity took over.

He took his phone from the side of his desk and downloaded the application again. The name Jaeger was under the title screen and right next to it were the words ‘All rights reserved.”

Would would have felt like an ache in the chest years ago, felt more like a mosquito bite. Levi was just slightly annoyed. It did nothing to stop him though from registering again and looking through the application interface.

Nothing much had changed. There were some slight changes to the skin of the registration page, a change in the name of the company at the bottom. Levi purposely touched the activate button rapidly and found he had crashed the application.

That was one bug that he never got to fix. He turned his phone to the side, noting the way the screen glitched as it adjusted to the landscape orientation of the phone. Another bug Levi never got to fix.

Then he wondered who the developer on the other end had been to have never even caught it.

Biometrics registered, Levi activated the alarm to find no hearts. He couldn’t help but entertain that slight disappointment. Of course no hearts would have appeared though. He hadn’t even interacted with his neighbors.

It would have been creepy it rang. Letting out a sardonic laugh just loud enough for himself, he leaned back on the chair and stared at the ceiling, forcing his thoughts back to whatever coding freelance project he’d been dealing with a few minutes ago.

Work came in freelance projects. They were enough for rent, for savings and some capacity to eat out occasionally.

A simple yet comfortable life. But is that all that there is to life? That voice continued to tear into his work related thoughts. Levi gave in to the nagging thought again. He started scrolling through wikipedia articles detailing use, detailing acquisition history, he found another key word under related articles, more interesting than ‘love alarm.’

Mood Alarm.

It sent a strange shiver through the back of his neck. Levi rolled his shoulders, relieving the tension that came with the last few eons of reflection. He let out a whistle, opened the new article and scrolled down towards references.

There were lists of articles.

Partner of Zeke Jaeger and freshly minted PhD graduate Doctor Hange Zoe release Mood Alarm.

Doctor Hange Zoe. Something inside him was fighting for control. He couldn’t bring himself to click the link. At the same time though, there was this curiosity inside him that he couldn’t seem to get to the bottom of.

Under the link to the article was the official website.

At the front page, there was a boring and overly professional introduction Levi didn’t bother to read

Below them, everything else had been interesting enough to give more than a second long glance.

The list of functionalities. The color codes. Then newly launched dashboard functionalities, almost a carbon copy of the plan Levi had sent years back.

“Fucking hell, you actually did it,” Levi muttered. He couldn’t help but just allow the smile that tugged at his lips some control. Excitement had him searching for the application on the play store, downloading it and methodically going through the same registration process as the love alarm.

It didn’t look much like the mood alarm Levi had worked on years ago. He saw hints of it though and worked from there to admire it.

The front end had been cleaned up. The font chosen fit the silver-to-white gradient of the application. When Levi clicked ‘activate,’ the screen loaded.

The colors mixed against one another for a second, an aesthetic choice of animation that Levi couldn’t help but be amused with.

Red. Yellow. Blue. Purple. Green. Orange.

The colors continued to mix. Then some disappeared as if they had lost themselves in some colorful war.

Then it was only blue and yellow. The two colors danced against one another for a few seconds longer before they disappeared too. More specifically, they bundled against one another.

Green. It took him at least five seconds to get that reading.

He didn’t have to look at the guide on the website to know what it meant.

Sad happy? Or happy sad? Whatever that feeling was, Levi felt no need to introspect, or maybe he had been too lazy to.

It had been a while since he had even let himself feel something. The green on his screen, the feeling that accompanied it, seemed more like an old friend he hadn’t talked to a while.

If he had any ability at introspection, maybe it had already rusted. Still, he let those emotions inside him, that yellow and that blue do their work.

They had him turning off the mood alarm, then turning off the love alarm. Something inside him still hesitated to delete the applications. Then it had him considering the space on his phone for just a second.

He downloaded another app that night. A familiar app with a flame, then another one with a bee. Only months into his new life in a new city with a new job, Levi was already bored— and if he had to admit it—terribly, terribly lonely.

And maybe the best way to cure it was to spend the whole night swiping.

***

Finding a companion wasn’t as easy as desperation and a few second long rush of confidence made it out to be.

Perhaps, online dating was a rash idea, an uncharacteristic move.

Didn't he reject Petra years ago? How could he date anyone else? Petra… How is she… With nothing much to do but wait for his date, he found himself texting Petra as he waited in the cafe.

He sent a few thank you messages at her well wishes. They exchanged brief updates and Petra’s own updates dragged on for longer.

Her life was more eventful than his.

Petra had started dating Oluo. She had found someone who loved her, just as much as she loved him. Keeping a correspondence with her only highlighted points for reflection for Levi. The more he reflected, the more questions came up. The more he reflected, the more complicated the questions became.

He was lonely but could he be picky? At the same time, did he even have the heart to put anyone through the shitty experience of a half hearted courtship?

Hange’s words echoed in his head, not in any specific string, a few parts in words, a few parts in phrases.

Considering the circumstances… Love is a choice.

When he let her words echo through him, he managed to grip a presence long gone. A presence and a relationship, he clarified, that had never been his in the first place.

He never did completely brush away the guilt that accompanied every passing thought of Hange. There was this strange acceptance though that appended it, and it had him a little more discerning, a little more prudent.

If he couldn’t have her, he could always just keep her close in his own personal way.

“Have you heard of the love alarm?”

How long had she been there? How long had she been talking?

Right, Levi was on a date. She had said words before that question and Levi could have sworn they had exchanged greetings even before that.

“In passing,” Levi said. He manifested some reality from the words, as if a firm response was enough to forget decades worth of overtime and testing.

“It’s this application we can use to test compatibility… So at least we know if this could work.”

Levi listened with some fake intent as she explained how the love alarm worked. He made sure to nod at points where her tone had gone a little higher or louder.

“What do you think?” There was some finality to her voice, an expectant look on her face.

Levi hummed in thought.. “I don’t believe in using an app to check compatibility. What about when we consider circumstances? Get to know each other… Then decide if it could work?”

She looked at her phone for a second, then back at Levi, her brows furrowed in confusion.

Levi shook his head. “Sorry, I just don’t believe in things like the love alarm, it seems just like horoscopes or Myer Briggs to me. Compatibility, relationships, they’re just gonna be choices we make anyway.” He found himself guiltily looking away as he said those last points.

The pout that played at his date’s lips was evidence enough, there probably wouldn’t be a second date. “It’s not like our love alarm’s would have rung anyway,” she said.

It had been a while since Levi dated though and he started to realize, maybe his filter and his social skills had rusted just a bit.

***

Love is a choice.

It looked like he might have been the only one to believe that. He had managed to piss off countless other dates with his own ‘love is a choice’ schtick.

And he had been dating semi regularly for the past year already. Yet, nothing was coming up fruitful.

How the hell did Hange even manage to get married? Or maybe Hange had just been the exception. He then concluded, Hange just had too many other loveable qualities which could make anyone want to snap her up early on.

The more he entertained the thought of Hange, the heavier his own chest became. Then he stopped entertaining her then the cycle would start again, a very vicious cycle.

It just so happened that sometimes the thought of ‘Hange’ manifested as some domineering thought. ‘Love is a choice’ and the strange sensation that came with his whole body protesting, rebelling in their own little way worked hand in hand.

He was confused and consequently desperate enough to open the mood alarm for some inkling of comprehension. He would focus on the way the colors switched among one another, disappearing, always revealing a yellow and a light blue dancing between one another then always ending with a light blue.

Sometimes he was blue. Sometimes he was green.

Ane he continued to check. After all, he mood alarm had become a beautiful and constant companion. He had deleted the love alarm but kept the mood alarm close.

“What do you think of the love alarm?”

How many people are gonna ask about that fucking application?

Zeke had just been a little too good at marketing. It was the nth time someone had broken the ice of a first date with that fucking question and Levi regretted not making a drinking game out of it. Maybe he would have been able to drink enough to forget that cursed product.

“Are you okay?” his new date asked.

He had spent the past few minutes too silent, not thinking. “Nifa…” That was her name right? He cleared his throat. “I’m fine.”

She looked as nervous as he did, or even more nervous. That part was comforting at least. In a way, her demeanor seemed a little more pleasant, more genuinely curious than wary. “I asked just a second ago, have you ever used that love alarm?” she said in response.

Levi followed the same script. "In passing."

“Would you like to try it out? Just to make sure we’re on the same page, relationship wise.”

“I’d rather we relied on circumstances and compatibility to make the choice for us. Get to know each other maybe…” When it came to suggestions, Levi had revised his script just a bit. Too many people got offended by his invalidating horoscopes and Myer Briggs type for some weird reason. “Like get to know each other, like…” Levi trailed off for a second, allowing himself a pregnant pause. ”... Elizabeth and Darcy?”

Nifa had cocked her head to the side curiously, thought for a long second and smiled just a bit wider. “You read Pride and Prejudice?”

Levi nodded subtly. “A while back,.”

She paused for a second, seeming deep in thought. “Well… Now that I think about it, you might be right,” Nifa said. “This compatibility thing… Your idea of love. I think it makes sense.”

“Really? You think so?”

“Yeah, why?” Nifa asked.

Levi dropped his shoulders in relief, the weight of at least a hundred failed dates fell off his shoulders. “I’ve been dating for years and I feel like you’re the only one who actually said that.”

Nifa didn’t reply immediately and the longer Levi sat there, the more clearly he saw her face. Surprise morphed into something that seemed more like pity. Then, the chronic pang in his chest came back.

A first love did that to people maybe? A painful first love lost had that special power to maybe just twist his own philosophies, to make him almost disgusted at his own creations and the way it had challenged his own convictions.

Are you scared? Levi thought to himself. He couldn’t be too sure how he was handling himself in front of Nifa. He looked down at his hands, opening and closing them a few times and if he looked closely, he could almost feel those uncomfortable twinges in his wrist that came from years of coding.

“I’m willing to put the time into it if you are.” Nifa’s voice was more gentle and it flowed as if she had sensed the stiffness in his voice.

Levi didn’t respond immediately and suddenly their little corner of the crowded cafe was eerily silent. There was a melancholy that had blanketed their little corner despite the Saturday afternoon crowd.

Nifa seemed like she was trying to break away from it with some light conversation. “Hey, have you heard of the mood alarm?”

“The mood alarm?” Levi let that half smile creep up his lips, just high enough to be more invisible than obvious. Three words from a stranger and his emotions were reduced to a mess.

He once again felt that twinge again at his rests and that sleepless night, and her. He was remembering her in his office through sleepy exhausted eyes, with a cocktail dress and a sandwich bag in one hand.

There was also something amusing and painfully ironic about hearing his own brainchild, from someone so casually, as if it had turned into some household name while he wasn’t looking.

The conversation was getting painful, painfully interesting and the masochist in Levi was gripping him and pulling him back to reality. “Like the love alarm…” Levi added.

“Well, they’re products from the Jaeger corporation… You know the Jaeger family right?” Nifa added.

Levi could only be thankful he hadn’t been sipping at his tea then. He probably could have choked. How could he ever forget Zeke Jaeger?

He might have gotten a lot better at hiding his own disgust or Nifa could have been too deep in thought. She continued to talk. “They bought Love Alarm a few years back.”

“I know the Jaeger family,” Levi said.

“So you know about their eldest son, the heir of the Jaeger corporation… And his partner?”

Levi took a sip of tea, not bothering to respond.

Nifa may have taken that as a ‘no.’“His partner was working towards a PhD in psychology and apparently that was her final project. The codes for the mood alarm are very similar to the love alarm apparently."

“Oh?” Levi asked, feigning interest.

Soon, it turned into something genuine. Nifa was offering new information. “She got the PhD a few years ago and soon after that, the application was launched. And now they’re launching a solution for hospitals.”

“What kind of solution?” Levi asked.

“Wait, have you ever used the mood alarm? Or do you know how it works?” Nifa asked. “Anyway, I realized I ended up digressing here… The point I was trying to make is, the one who developed the mood alarm was able to prove that whatever measurements they use for the love alarm, are related to emotions. And what if, understanding how we feel when we work towards a relationship is a better determinant of whether the relationship could work?”

Levi nodded quickly, an attempt to be polite. At that point though, he wasn’t too interested in the point she had been trying to make “I’m familiar with the application and how it works. But you mentioned something about a solution for hospitals…” He didn’t think it was worth lying. He didn’t need a long winded explanation of the alarm he made. He needed an explanation of what Hange had been making."

Nifa didn’t seem to get the message. “So, the application will determine your emotions for you--- I have one right now and we could use it over time to articulate how we feel.” She pulled out her phone and dropped it on the table. “I think analyzing our own emotions would do a better job than relying on how the love alarm processes the emotions.”

There was something surreal about seeing a user explain it to him, as if they knew it more than him.

For a while, he couldn’t help but just entertain the possibility that in her own way, Nifa may have known more. With someone explaining and demonstrating, he was more easily able to make sense of the changes that had been implemented since Hange acquired it.

The app icon was reminiscent of the love alarm, two rings around it but instead of a heart in between, there was an icon, an elegant cross between a flower and a color wheel.

Red. Blue. Yellow. In between the primary colors were purple, green and orange.

Nifa activated it and held the phone between her fingertips. Just like the night when Levi had first played with it, the colored blobs swam amongst one another again, each blob would disappear one by one, leaving the remaining colors.

Yellow and Orange. “Looks like I’m happy,” Nifa commented. “So apparently the new dashboard allows us to connect this reading on the phone to a PC and get a more detailed explanation, numbers, heart rate, all the like.”

“You seem to know a lot about the app,” Levi mused.

Nifa cocked her head to one side. “Well, I’m into psychology too. I work as a psychologist in one of the hospitals. Our hospital is one of the first ones to buy software licenses so I’ve done my research.” She hummed, looking straight at him for a second as if studying him. “Now that I think about it, your job wasn’t on your profile. What do you do for a living?”

Levi’s response was automatic. “IT work.” He was suddenly self conscious about even mentioning the word ‘developer.’

“Ooooh... So you’d probably figure out how this app works much faster than I would.” Nifa sighed. “And you could probably help reassure me about this."

“Reassure you about what?”

“I’m honestly pretty nervous about rolling out this software.”

“Why?”

“Well, it’s relatively new, a few bugs would come up here and there.”

“All softwares are going to face new bugs with every update. It’s never ending,” Levi said nonchalantly.

“Spoken like a true IT guy,” Nifa joked. She took a sip of her shake and stared down at his tea and up at him again. “Say, since you’re in IT, you think you can hook us up with someone?”

“Hook you up with someone?” Levi asked. His mind was going places more suited for a tinder date than a conversation on career. He raised one eyebrow in question. He couldn’t be too sure of what she meant just yet.

It looked like she had started to understand that double entendre. Nifa blushed then let out a cough. “No, no. Our company is looking to build a small support team.”

“An IT support team?” Levi asked.

“Well, people who could focus on learning the product, dealing with whatever bugs, testing them, compiling them and sending them over to the Mood Alarm team. You think you’d know anyone tech savvy? Maybe familiar with how biotechnology works?

“I could try to look around…” Levi said.

“Great!” Nifa chimed

By some magic, the conversation shifted elsewhere. Nifa had a way with conversation, keeping some sort of a flow, talking about her own job and getting him to talk about his freelance projects.

Levi’s thoughts on the hospital solution though were an ubiquitous part of his mind space.That was the whole point of the investment right? Back then, Zeke and Hange had plans on selling it to hospitals.

And there was a free trial. That night, Levi had been curious enough to click the ‘book a free trial button’ and to even fill out the first few lines.

Organization name? He didn't have one.

Purpose? To catch up with his own brain child maybe.

He ended up staring at the blank screen for a while, wondering where the hell he would get an organization and a valid purpose.

He wanted to check it out, he really did. And he was a little salty that they required a background check before they even allowed trials for a project he created.

Curiosity became desperation. With desperation, came creativity, audacity. He took his phone with the intention of just asking Nifa a few questions, only to see there was an unread message from her.

Thanks for today! I had a lot of fun. Hopefully, we can plan something soon. I might be busy with work this week but maybe the week after?

Levi stared at her message and composed a quick reply, pleasantries forgotten.

You mentioned something about IT support openings in the hospital...

***

The hiring manager introduced himself as Moblit but he didn't say much else. Instead, he spent the next few minutes looking through Levi's resume, his brow wrinkled.

"Is there something wrong with my resume?" Levi asked, breaking the silence. He had kept it minimalistic, only sticking to odd jobs the past five years.

Moblit shook his head. "Nothing, it just doesn't look like you have support role experience."

"Do I need experience in a support role? I think I'm familiar enough with how apps work to stand in as one," Levi said. Should he mention that he had done the support work before?

"So you've compiled tickets, sent them over to developers?"

I'm the developer who deals with those bullshit tickets. He thought to himself. On the outside though, he nodded and leaned a bit more forward on the table. It wasn’t too difficult to show interest. He was genuinely interested, having given in to that curiosity-turned-desperation.

"Well, if you're interested in taking the job then…” Moblit said. “Let's see how much you know about the mood alarm app." He opened a folder. "It's a relatively new solution, so I don't expect you to know much but if you've heard of the love alarm?"

"I have."

"Well they're from the same corporation…"

Information on their history flew into one ear and out the other. "Do you have any more questions for me?" Levi asked. He could have interrupted Moblit there but he didn’t want to hear about a history he actually experienced first hand.

Moblit cleared his throat. "Well, if you could tell me how you think the mood alarm works? Then I’ll give you a list of common bugs and can you tell me how you will go about raising them to developers?

***

Six years hadn’t done much to make him forget. He had been working with the love alarm for almost a decade after all.

And the mood alarm? He had a strange connection to it, he couldn’t explain.

The code wasn’t open source. Of course it wouldn’t. That was an enterprise application and they wouldn’t want any hacker just randomly getting it. Yet, why did he feel so offended at not having access?

“Hey Levi, how would you handle this?”

“Handle what?” Levi didn’t look up from his monitor immediately. The voice and the question have all were all too familiar and it wasn’t urgent anyway.

“Levi, take a look…” Farlan seemed more frustrated than a second ago.

Levi looked at Farlan’s screen. Another display issue. He was all too familiar with the bugs and it looked like the love alarm and the mood alarm were coming up with the same issues. “Click the activate button three times really fast, right click the desktop, select inspect and take a screenshot. We send it over to the developers on the mood alarm team,” Levi said. That had become routine after a while, yet somehow, his two colleagues Farlan and Isabel were still asking questions.

Maybe because he was the only one who understood what the hell the developers needed to see to actually get to the bottom of the problem.

“Make sure to check it in both light mode and dark mode,” Levi said. “And also, there’s a known bug for the phone app, check if turning on the alarm affects your ability to receive notifications from other apps.” Those words had sent a wave of nostalgia through him. That was one of the bugs he had gotten around to fixing with the love alarm.

“Hey...”Isabel’s voice sounded from next to him. Levi turned around, almost jumping when he saw she had been close enough to look over his shoulder. “What are you researching?”

It wouldn't look good if he slacked off at work in front of colleagues a good few years his junior. Levi closed the tab. “Just my own research on mood alarm.” And when he looked at his codes a little longer, then back at Isabel who seemed almost confused, Levi realized it had looked more like extra work than anything else.

He spent the whole morning on ‘extra work, watching the API calls, making notes to himself to check the codes he had sent Hange years back just to see how much had changed.

“You finished all your tasks today and you still wanna do research on the mood alarm?” Farlan asked, a look of utter amazement on his face.

“What can I say? This app is pretty interesting.” it wasn’t a lie. Watching the growth of his own child from afar, was a fun thing to do.

“It honestly feels like you’ve done this type of work before."

“I did something similar,” Levi said.

“What kind of place did you work in before?” Isabel asked excitedly, her tasks also forgotten.

“I don’t wanna talk about it,” Levi answered, his tone unchanged.

“Something like the love alarm?”

Levi nodded. “Maybe that’s the reason I can figure things out pretty fast,” he said. The best plan of action was to digress.

“So that means we could make you handle the harder cases?” Farlan snickered.

“I’d rather you learn how to deal with others on your own,” Levi said. “I’ve worked with these apps for a long time. The bugs never end.”

***

“Moblit’s saying you’re doing a pretty good job picking out the bugs,” Nifa spoke above the bustle of the lunch time crowd.

“Are we?” Levi asked. He kept his words brief, not wanting to waste too much energy speaking over the others in the hospital cafeteria.

“Well, he was talking about you mostly,” Nifa said. “Most big issues get resolved with each release. And Moblit was saying that our support team just gives really good feedback.”

“The developers do the work. All we do is find the bugs.” Levi started to pick more meticulously at his salad

Nifa shook her head. “I think the support team deserves credit too. It’s difficult figuring out whether issues are user issues or there’s really a bug. Isabel also told me you find ways to reproduce it quickly.”

“Do I?” His responses were getting less and less creative. There just wasn’t much to say and the compliments were making him more and more uncomfortable by the second.

Moblit was a life saver. He had broken out of the crowd, running to Nifa, an urgent but excited expression on his face. “Nifa, you’ve got to hear this.”

Levi used that brief distraction to shovel more salad into his mouth.

Moblit had spoken just beneath the sounds of other conversations and Levi couldn’t make out what he had said. He did make out the urgency in Nifa’s face and the excitement. Whatever Moblit had said was contagious.

“When are they coming?” Nifa asked, her voice much louder than Moblit’s.

Levi stood up, gathering his plate, his utensils and his unfinished salad. “If I’m not supposed to be in this conversation…”

Moblit shook his head. “Levi, no, please stay. I’d rather you hear this since this is related to your line of work too.”

“Why?” Levi raised one eyebrow.

“Zeke Jaeger and his partner Doctor Hange Zoe, they’re planning to visit,” Moblit said.

Levi couldn’t even tell what expression he had on then.

Maybe Moblit had interpreted shock as confusion. “Zeke Jaeger is the owner of the love alarm. Hange Zoe’s the creator of the mood alarm… In case you didn't know.”

***

“Hey, I wanna see her… Is this how she looks like?” Isabel’s voice was a whisper, a very loud whisper. “She looks smart.”

Farlan’s voice wasn’t any softer. “Well, that’s what you’d expect from the mastermind behind the mood alarm right? I heard Zeke Jaeger bought her the love alarm so she could look through the code and make the mood alarm for herself.”

“Where did you hear that?” Isabel asked.

“Watch the interviews.”

The click and clack of the keyboard. Then there was the sound of voices coming from the loud speaker from Farlan’s computer.

Then Hange’s very familiar voice.

Levi didn’t want to listen. “You know, if you spend too much time looking through this. You’re not gonna get anything done.” He forced his voice into something louder than what he was comfortable with. “Don’t you two have other tasks to do?”

“Aren’t you excited to meet them?” Isabel rolled her chair next to Levi.

No way in hell am I meeting them. “I’m planning on taking a leave,” he said.

“Wait, why?” Isabel seeming heartbroken, as if Levi taking a leave was the most terrible thing in the world.

“Well, as employees we’re entitled to leaves right?” Levi asked emotionlessly, willing himself not to at all be affected by Isabel’s puppy dog face.

Farlan sighed. “You’re the best one at this type of work among the three of us. You know, this is a good opportunity for you to get noticed.”

“I don’t wanna get noticed,” Levi said, as he focused back again on the screen, refreshing their ticketing software a little bit faster that time. It really was an uneventful afternoon. He couldn’t blame Farlan and Isabel for doing nothing.

“It’s a big money, a chance at a big career move,” Farlan said, raising his voice as if that could have done anything to convince Levi.

Levi looked up from the monitor and back to Farlan. “Do you really want me out of here?”

Farlan shrugged. “I dunno, you just seem too overqualified for this kind of job.”

Levi sighed. “Believe me, I’m happy to be here.” He continued to click refresh, just in case anything could have halted that already seemingly awkward conversation. The reason why he didn’t want to run into Zeke or Hange… Was it written all over his face?

Just in case Farlan and Isabel were mind readers, Levi kept quiet, kept his eyes glued on the screen and he prayed the day would get busier somehow.

It did. But it got busy so close to the end of the day and overtime seemed inevitable.

“We’re not receiving any readings.”

The same exact fucking line, from ten different customers from different hospital branches around the country. “You’re fucking kidding me,” Levi muttered.

He opened all the test devices, only to find, none of them were receiving readings from the mood alarm either. He was sure though, he was annoyed, very very annoyed. Maybe even angry. “Try testing,” he ordered.

Farlan and Isabel were more emotional than he was. If it didn’t work for them, it probably wasn’t working at all.

They had full trust on him. Isabel and Farlan nodded and they went through the devices quickly. All test devices exhausted and there was nothing much to do. Levi was convinced it was an issue that could only be investigated on the backend. “We’re done for the day.”

“We have to send a report right?”

Levi started to pack his bag. “Send a report saying we’re not getting any readings,” he said with a shrug. “It’s probably a backend issue or an issue with their API.”

“You sure we can’t do anything from our side?” Farlan pressed.

Levi shook his head. “None.” He logged out, slung his backpack over his shoulder and exited the office.

He sensed their disappointment in him. In his months working there, Levi had never left the office without doing a thorough investigation and writing a detailed report.

That might be the first time in months, they would give something completely unhelpful for the developers. That wasn’t Levi’s intention though. There were just some things that were better off investigated on his own personal PC.

For the first time in a while, Levi didn’t go straight for the shower when he arrived back home. He booted up his own PC. When he checked his cloud account, he found the private repository with all the codes from the love alarm and the mood alarm was still there.

It hadn’t been touched in years though.

He scrolled through the code, allowing that wave of nostalgic to wash over him gently. Having been the only one who worked on the base, Levi was very very familiar with it. Memories came quickly with the nostalgia. There was a point where the server was down and he remembered the hundreds of support tickets about the temporarily malfunctioning love alarm.

No readings were coming through. Levi did a quick calculation of the time zones of his own city and of the mood alarm headquarters. Then he looked through the code again.

Convinced that it was a fair theory, Levi opened his pseudo email, entered the support email for the mood alarm and left just one sentence on the email body.

I’m convinced one of your devs left a debugger on one of these codes on the backend.

A few years ago, he had been guilty of leaving a debugger running overnight,  fucking up the whole command system of the love alarm.

He copied and pasted a part of the code and the sent the email off. For all he knew, the mood alarm could have branched off far from the love alarm, rendering his theory completely stupid. Still, it was a theory worth entertaining.

The issues from work forgotten, Levi started to open his other emails, finding one from Petra on the third page, dated months ago.

Just a reminder that he hadn’t opened that email in months. “A wedding invite?”

Petra Ral and Oluo Bozado invite you to celebrate their wedding…

He didn’t need the rest of it to convince himself to go. He only needed to look at the date under, conveniently a week after Hange and Zeke were scheduled to visit the hospital where he worked.

He sent off two emails that night.

One to Petra, a very very late RSVP.

Then one to management, a request for a two week leave. For personal reasons.

A wedding always made a good personal reason. That was probably only half his actual personal reason though.

***

“I didn’t even expect you to come.” Petra seemed happy.

It could have been the make up or her natural blush. She was a glowing bride, glowing bright enough that Levi was starting to feel lonely.

“It’s been a while,” Levi said. “And you two are looking good.”

“How’s life abroad?” Petra asked.

“It’s fine,” Levi said.

“You adjusted well?” Petra asked again.

“Yeah, I guess I did.” Levi took a sip of his wine.

“You managed to get a software engineering job there?” That time it was Oluo who asked.

“Something similar,” Levi said. He started to shake his glass a bit, feigning deep consideration. Maybe that would explain his inability to respond. In truth, he was in no mood to make conversation but when the bride and the groom had gone out of their way to sit next to him on the bench outside their party, and they had gone through all the trouble of asking, it was only polite that he kept his side of the conversation.

Somewhere along the exchanges, Petra brought up a question. And whether it had been appropriate or not, Levi couldn’t tell but he thought it worth an answer at least.

“Have you met anyone?” Petra asked.

“What?” Levi responded.

“I dunno… I guess someone who makes you feel good? Someone who manages to ring your love alarm?” Petra gave him a knowing look.

Levi only had to shift his gaze from Petra to the seemingly blank face of Oluo to know, Petra had at least kept that part to herself. To the others, his alarm ringing with Hange could have been just a bug.

Levi shook his head. “I haven’t touched the love alarm in years,” he admitted.

Petra seemed more understanding. “We haven’t touched it in years either.”

Levi raised his eyebrows. “Really?”

Petra stared ahead, looking deep in thought. She turned to Oluo. “Well, I guess a part of us wanted to build this organically, get to know each other first. And maybe that’s the best way to find people. I think the love alarm just causes unnecessary chaos sometimes.”

Levi only had to look back at his past five years to see it. To be honest, he could actually put the blame on the love alarm for completely uprooting his life. He couldn't say he totally agreed though. He didn’t regret the time with Hange either.

But he wasn’t going to deny her credit where credit was due. “You make sense.”

It wasn’t as simple as that though. Somehow, Hange’s own words had torn into the silence. Just for him. The love alarm causes chaos but sometimes it can tie loose ends.

And for him, it had been both. It had caused chaos but somehow, meeting Hange, having gotten to know her, having gotten to talk to her had tied some loose ends inside him.

What kind of loose ends? He couldn’t be too sure.

“Even when you don’t use the love alarm now, have you met other people?” Petra was still very interested in his love life.

Oluo should have been silently uncomfortable about that. Levi couldn’t tell with a quick glance.

“I’ve met a few people though… There’s someone named Nifa,” Levi said,

“Next time you come here, you’ll take her for a visit? Make sure to introduce us to her?” Petra asked.

“Or maybe next time, it will be us visiting,” Oluo added.

The brief conversation ended soon after, with a few exchanged greetings and a promise to bring Nifa. In case something ever happened between him and NIfa.

By the end of the night, he had made a promise to himself not to use that love alarm to find his next love.

Petra was right, the love alarm could cause unnecessary chaos. Besides, love is a choice right?

***

Levi came back from his very relaxing two week leave to two words that made his stomach turn.

Doctor Zoe. That was what Farlan and Isabel called her.

“Doctor Zoe…” Levi repeated. The words tasted unfamiliar. Suddenly, the road trip, the beach trip and just the quiet meetings in the cafe all seemed like just a fevered dream.

“And she stopped to talk to all of us!” Isabel sang, her eyes filled with wonder. “You should have stayed. I swear, I feel like you would have gotten along. She never stops talking. You two could have talked about the mood alarm for hours.”

“She sounds tiring to be with,” Levi said, an attempt at a halfhearted reply.

Farlan grinned, an alarmingly knowing expression on his face. “Don’t lie, you would have enjoyed at least listening. You’re way more enthusiastic about the mood alarm than we are.”

“I’m just being a good employee.” Levi shook his head, as if that was enough to erase the regret that shoved itself into his throat and down to his chest.

“She really made sure to talk to everyone,” Isabel said. “And she stayed for a few days longer. Maybe the plans changed since she went alone.”

“Wait, she came alone?” Levi said. Don’t regret. Don’t you dare regret leaving.

Farlan nodded in response. “Moblit explained this to us before they came.” He turned to Isabel as if expecting some explanation from her.

“I can’t be too sure either, I’ve only heard a bit about it. And rich people like the Jaegers, they like to keep their personal lives a secret right?” Isabel answered.

Farlan shrugged. “Anyway, from what Moblit told me, they intended to visit all the major customers including our hospital chain. They’ve been planning this tour for months, maybe even years but Doctor Zoe ended up going alone.”

“Did you ever find out why?” Levi kept his voice soft, anything louder and he might just look more invested. He turned back to the unopened tickets on his screen. From his peripherals, he could see Farlan and Isabel exchanging glances.

It was Farlan who spoke up. “I have a theory.”

“Tell me,” Levi said.

“They fought.”

“Okay, couples fight.” Levi continued to click at the tickets, opening them one by one, just to feel productive.

“Yeah, but it must have been a big fight right?” Isabel added. “I did some research on Doctor Zoe after we met her and apparently, they were having problems even years ago. Apparently, there are rumors that her husband bought the love alarm to save their marriage.”

“Where the hell did you get that info?” Farlan sounded incredulous.

Isabel chuckled mischievously. “The dark, dark internet.”

“That can’t be true.” Farlan shook his head in disbelief.

“I can’t really prove it anymore. A lot of the threads online that actually discuss this get taken down by the admin. But I swear, now that I think about it, it does make sense. I read some articles, no one expected Zeke Jaeger to buy the love alarm… Some said he did it to save the love alarm after a major bug showed up that could have prevented PR….Apparently, there was a certain point a few years ago, where there were photos of Doctor Zoe with another man. I tried looking for the photos but I can’t find them anymore.”

“You really got invested in her love life huh?”

Isabel groaned. “I couldn’t help it. She seemed so nice and she talked to us a lot even when we were just support, she took the time to teach us and she’s just so humble…”

“But what if she really did cheat on her husband?” Farlan challenged. “I mean, the rumors have to have been there for a reason right?”

“Do you think she looks like the type to cheat?” Isabel asked. “That very honest and open face?”

Farlan coughed in surprise. “She doesn’t for sure---but rumors don’t come out of nowhere right?”

“You two, go back to work,” Levi said. While the two had been working, he had been assigning tickets to them, an ingenious way to compose himself.

“Wait not yet, what do you think Levi? You might have better intuition than we do.”

“Intuition?” Levi repeated, one eyebrow raised.

“Does she really look like the type to cheat?” Farlan asked.

Levi continued to stare at the screen, not willing to risk showing them whatever expression played at his face then. “I didn’t meet her. You two did so you’re better qualified to answer that question. Tell me, does she look like the type to cheat?”

Farlan paused for a second, then narrowed his eyes at Levi. “I think I have a question which you might be more qualified to answer,” Farlan said. “You’re pretty good at finding bugs. Have you ever done research on the love alarm bug? What do you think the bug was… The one which made Zeke Jaeger buy the app?”

“I don’t think there was a bug,” Levi said.

“What do you mean?” Farlan pressed.

“Get back to work you two.” Levi kept his voice firm, loud and authoritative. Something he would have rather not done, if it hadn’t been for the weight which came with what should have been a light piece of gossip, and his whittling ability to keep a stoic demeanor.

The deep dark internet. Levi watched his two companions. Their eyes were once again fixed on the screen, Farlan’s fingers were flying over the keyboard, Isabel was playing with some test device.

Deep enough at work for Levi to take his own quick break. He opened an incognito tab and put his headphones on.

One video or one article, and he’d get back to work. He found an interview, the opening questions had been the same familiar ones Farlan had been playing on speaker months ago.

He played the first few questions at twice the speed. He knew the answers already.

What inspired you to make the mood alarm?

“Love alarm… Codes… Yadayadayada…” Levi muttered just a loud enough for himself. Hange had been careful not to mention anything about a developer. He could see the way she had shifted gazes for just a second, seeming uncomfortable.

He couldn’t blame her. Isabel had said so herself, in the deep dark internet, maybe there were rumors of an affair.

And some journalists were aware.

Personal Life? Around the point that someone asked about her personal life, Levi slowed the clip down. They had timed it, to the exact point where Hange had tensed up and looked away for just a second.

“Can you tell us about your relationship with Zeke Jaeger? How has it been?”

“How did you feel when you realized he bought you the love alarm? Is it true he bought it to win you back?”

Hange was admirably professional about it. “We’re digressing now,” she said with a light hearted tone, a laugh which seemed more rehearsed than actually Hange’s.

Is it true you had an affair with another man? It wasn’t loud enough for Hange to have heard it, just a sound among others. When Levi had been looking for that question and it rang more loudly for him. He rewinded the video a few times just to make sure.

What the hell… No we didn’t… We. Didn’t. Have. An. Affair.

“Levi, are you okay?” Isabel asked

“What?”

“You were talking to yourself just now.”

Levi quickly closed the tab as Isabel looked over his shoulder. “Nothing, just looking at tickets,” he said. He went back to their ticketing application, opened a few more tickets and decided to table the research until later that evening.

***

The deep, dark internet.

With his own personal wifi and his own VPN, Levi had more wriggle room to dig deeper.

There was a mention of a fight, a marriage on the rocks, and the rumors only grew from there. The more Levi found, the more courage he mustered. It turned out, the process of scrolling through threads, joining chat groups had been nothing but liberating.

Liberating but infuriating.

The internet was an aggregate of bad takes and the occasional good one. From bad takes came horrible half baked rumors.

I swear, if they end up divorcing…

Jaeger should have dumped her fucking ass from the start.

Slut…

Whore…

Hange Zoe. Fucking gold digger.

There were rumors that she had manipulated Zeke for the money. Rumors that she had only married him to complete her PhD.

Levi quickly went through those.

Some of the people were nice though and Levi read those comments a little more slowly.

The mood alarm was Zoe’s deal.

The money Jaeger put into was a donation.

If they’re not happy, let them divorce.

And there were videos, particularly zoomed videos in events of Zeke and Hange in conventions and conferences, the latest one only a few months ago. Before Hange  had visited the hospital.

In the most recent one, they were talking, just at the corner behind the stage, still visible from the camera. Levi rewinded the video again and again just to confirm their identity.

The Hange on the screen seemed indignant. Zeke had pulled her in by the waist, she pulled away. In response, Zeke had once again gone for her hands, pulling her towards him.

Just like back in the school gym.

It was different, that time in the gym Hange had been accepted yet determined at the same time. The Hange on the video, or the least, the one he could make out from the flailing of her hands, the stamping of her food on the ground, the moment she had pulled away then turned away was telling.

Hange wasn’t accepting anything anymore.

Levi scrolled through the comments.

If Hange Zoe divorces Zeke Jaeger… If she keeps possession of the mood alarm... she’s a gold digger.

She needed Jaeger funds to complete PhD… It’s Zeke Jaeger’s PhD not hers lmao XD

It was around the fifth most liked comment when Levi closed the tab, not bothering to bookmark the site. That was enough internet toxicity for the day.

***

“You’re transferring me?” Levi had ended up preempting the discussion.

Nifa and Moblit looked at each other, then back at him. Then Nifa nodded.

Moblit shook his head, creating some confusion. “No, we wanted your opinion on this first. The city we’ll be transferring you to isn’t very… convenient.”

“But you will be paid more,” Nifa said.

Since no one actually wants to live there. A fact no one actually admitted during those types of meetings but Levi had been in corporate long enough to know.

“And it’s just for a few years,” Moblit said, his tone, a tone of reassurance more than actual confidence. “Our hospital got special permission to do testing and research and we’ll need one support guy there. This is an important project for our hospital so...”

Levi had done a quick google search of the city under the table, a name he never heard of, and just the picture of a very sleepy town with not many buildings with even two floors was indicative. There was a reason why Moblit and Nifa seemed uncertain about a transfer.

There wasn’t much he did anyway in that city. How could moving away be any different?

“What’s this research about?” Levi asked.

Moblit responded to that more clearly and more confidently. “We’re planning to do further research, create programs for kids who grew up in difficult households to help them process emotions better. We’re starting with a few kids, on a small research facility up north… And having someone on call would be helpful.”

It didn’t take much to convince Levi after that. “There isn’t much for me to miss here anyway.” Really, he would have taken that transfer even without the pay raise.

***

There was peace and quiet which came with living in the middle of nowhere. Peace and quiet had a way of making Levi unbearably bored yet at the same time more perceptive as to why the hell no one wanted to live there in the first place.

Winters were cruel, with snow piling up meters high. Even in the summers, the sky was overcast and in all four seasons, the air still found a way to be suffocatingly dry.

Someone mentioned something about lake effects and something about rain shadows, and Levi couldn’t really tell which one was it. He wasn’t a scientist after all.

He was human though, a very simple minded human with no science degree. So he let the weather affect his moods, maybe even affect his long term philosophies in life. His current environment was too different from the bustling city he grew up in, or the other urban jungle he had lived the past five years of his life, he deemed his new home, the epitome of the middle of nowhere.

It was completely unfamiliar and by some psychological consequence to Levi, it was too far flung from his old life for Levi to even entertain anything about his old life, beyond work. So it became easier to take a more pragmatic approach at reminiscing.

A few months into his transfer, he had even started reading articles on Zeke and Hange again.

Billionaire Zeke Jaeger finalizes divorce would Mood Alarm founder Hange Zoe.

Then the comments section:

That was fast.

I knew it, Zoe’s a gold digger.

There was the string of names, whore, sluts, cheaters and gold diggers that never made too much sense as sentences. So Levi quickly closed the tab.

You actually did it. He thought to himself. And when he thought a little longer about it, he realized he did feel happy for her.

Happy? Sad? Disappointed? Out of curiosity, he opened his own mood alarm and clicked activate. It glowed with a bright green.

He could have been happier.

Levi decided to blame the sky for his fickle mood. That grey view that stretched far unimpeded by any of the surrounding low rising buildings, only ending by the mountains that seemed hundreds of miles away.

The surrounding mountains and the large lake followed him to work. An overly scenic landscape that reminded him, the train back to the capital only came once a day, the train that passed through the next major city only passed three times a day.

And fucking hell, train tickets were expensive.

By some modern day definition, Levi really was trapped in the middle of nowhere.

The weather only made him more cynical, yet angrier at the tasteless comments under the news article on Zeke and Hange’s divorce. As he neared the research center, he ended up tabling that reflection with one sentence, something comforting yet oddly depressing.

Hange wouldn’t look for me. Then he brushed it away violently soon after. The audacity of even considering the prospect that he was important enough for her to want to search for him. Why would Hange care where he is?

The fact that Hange was followed by the press while he was trapped in the middle of nowhere was indicative enough. They were from two completely different worlds.

***

It may have taken months more, but what Levi clocked to a ‘bout of wanderlust’ eventually settled. He found, keeping himself busy with the right work had done wonders to placate the turmoil inside him.

Keeping busy somehow made it easier to sit up and get ready for work. It meant managing to desensitize his own moods to the weather around him.

Most importantly, it meant seeing some connection with the world, some sliver of motivation to go the extra mile with the people who worked with.

“Early as always, Ackerman.” Same greeting everyday.

“Morning to you too, Onyankopon,” Levi responded as he entered the irsmall office.

Onyankopon was a companion  duringearly in the mornings, lunch times, late afternoons and sometimes, even the dinners when he would invite Levi out for a drink in the only bar for miles around.

Still, it made life remotely eventful when the only changing things had been the weather and his work.

And his work was very eventful.

“Uncle Levi! Did you find any bugs yesterday?” Just like every other morning, the two kids would burst through the door. Or more specifically, the brunette was always the one bursting through the door, the blonde just followed.

“Gaby, you might be bothering them,” Falco said. He said that at least three times a week.

Levi had never been the type anyway to tell them he didn’t mind their morning visits. It always meant something to look forward to.

“Nothing so far,” Levi said. He looked towards Onyakopon, the one in charge of reporting issues. “Hopefully.”

Onyankopon raised his hands in defense. “Don’t get mad at me, get mad at the devs who created the mood alarm in the first place."

Levi was constantly mad at the devs anyway, if he considered that constant state of self loathing. Working on the mood alarm as support had only made Levi realize how many shortcuts he had taken into making that damn application years ago.

“There’s nothing today,” Levi said as he looked at the two kids. “But I could give you a quick lesson,” he added. He couldn’t say no to the crestfallen faces of the two kids.

He dragged one seat next to him and guided Gaby to one of them and Falco to his own seat. “When I want to look for errors in the code, I look here first.” It was a terribly boring lesson, a useless one. Support 101. At the least, the kids seemed satisfied. “If I right click here, and then inspect, I can see what this website is made out of.”

Gaby let out a breath, a mix between a ‘wow’ and an ‘oh.’ “I can’t read it.”

“It’s another language,” Levi explained. “Computers don’t understand our language. So we have to learn another language to be able to talk to them. And when we’re able to tell them what we want, they’ll do things for us, things we can’t do ourselves.”

Gaby had asked more questions after that. Falco had asked his own too, albeit hesitantly.

The difference between the network and console tabs, the meanings of the strange brackets, what happens if they just aimlessly click…

That morning session ended with less than half the questions answered, and a promise to teach them more the next morning. Like every other day before, at eight in the morning, Onyankopon brought them to the activity room and Levi was left alone in the office.

There weren’t many people in the research center, only five employees in total. After all, there were only ten to twenty kids who came and went every day, a very manageable number for five people. He and Onyankopon shared an office and with Onyankopon busy a good chunk of the day, Levi was left alone.

With his own efficient working methods and his outstanding ability to quickly pick out the bugs, Levi was usually free for a cumulated five hours a day.

When he first started working there, his five hour long breaks consisted of reading novels or whatever stupid article came up on his timeline. He could have taken longer breaks yet chose to spend them as short sporadic bouts of inactivity

By spreading out periods of inactivity, Levi managed to somehow pacify the guilt at ‘doing nothing’ while being paid for the eight hours a day. There were times, it was strong, remnants maybe of his stint with the love alarm, barely taking leaves, willingly putting him through the pain of overtime.

Some days, they were particularly strong, sometimes incomprehensible that Levi suspected they could have been related to the burning curiosity, the burning attachment to his own application that never abated.

A burning attachment, a natural need to be productive eventually resulted in sporadic bouts of unproductivity spent just testing the mood alarm all for a brief look into his own emotions.

Even when he wasn’t feeling anything in particular, the application continued to glow colors, just flitting between greens and blues. They could have been yellows or oranges maybe, when Onyankopon or Gabi or Falco visited. He had never been the type to wear his heart on his sleeve though and thus, had never opened it with them around.

That day wasn’t any different. Alone in the office, he opened it again, held it in his hands and watched the colored blobs swim amongst each other, mix amongst one another, then disappear.

Blue or Green? That day it was blue. Why blue and why not green? He could never ask. ‘How’ was always an easier question to answer. He only had to connect his phone to the PC then boot up the dashboard.

His next break, he decided to try a visualization exercise, like every other time before.

Memories never seemed to do the trick. He’d take a risk and dive deep, into his memories with Hange, his anger at the situation, the loss of a life before. Yet it all came out greens and blues. The alarm rang, an almost deafening sound in the silent room and for a split second, it had Levi attentive and a little paranoid. Levi knew though, with the thick concrete walls around him, it was a sound just for him.

He connected his phone to the dashboard and booted the PC again.

There were numbers. He switched to a bar graph view, noting how there were terms, hormones and chemicals he could only barely make sense of. But the blue and the green bars higher than usual yet still very low were signs in themselves.

That morning was a normal morning. And every morning since he built that habit had been a normal morning.

The only thing which ended up different about that day was when footsteps sounded just outside the door. If Levi had been listening closely, he would have been able to point out, those weren't a rhythm of footsteps he was particularly privy too.

But normal mornings tended to desensitize people. Footsteps weren’t particularly interesting either.

In a town with only a few hundred people, it would most likely be someone who already lived there. He continued to work. He disconnected his phone from the dashboard and played with the mood alarm in his own phone again.

The door clicked open behind him, slowly enough for the creak to sound, then fast enough for the slam to come right after yet gently.

Onyankopon always opened the door a little wider, always slamming the door behind him and in between, there was always a greeting. If Levi had been more aware of his surroundings, maybe the lack of all that could have peaked his interest.

In the grand scheme of things though, the door slamming wasn’t anything particularly interesting. Levi continued to sit and stare at his phone.

“Levi Ackerman.”

A voice in an empty room though, was always an interesting thing. By some natural inclination towards voices, any presence in a room that was always his by mid morning, Levi was listening.

Making sense of the voice was a surprisingly slow process. The mood alarm reacted first.

The alarm sounded.

A wave climbed from his chest up until his neck, there was a bristle at the back of his neck, a tickle at his ears, then something pricked at his eyes. He looked down at the alarm before he could completely understand. The colors continued to swim then mix.

They always disappeared and finalized the reading in five seconds.

A second or two passed, and the colors still didn’t look at all in a hurry to disappear.

You’re going crazy Levi. He took a deep breath. He was dreaming. Because what the fuck. Of course she wouldn’t be here. She had an international company to run.

“Levi…” The voice sang. “That’s you right?”

Don’t look back.

“Or maybe there are just a lot of developers named Levi in this world… “ The footsteps were only getting closer. “Developers who are just really good at using the mood alarm.” Then the voice was right next to him.

When she had settled on that seat right at his peripherals, he couldn’t exactly chalk it up to a fevered dream. The mood alarm in his hands continued to ring. He could have sworn at least five seconds had passed. Yet the colors never disappeared, countless colors still swimming around on the interface as the mood alarm continued to read his emotions.

Levi had never been a master of articulation. The war of colors, the chaos on the phone were the best visual representation. He struggled to find the right words, but she continued to stare from his peripherals, her face many things at once.

Apologetic? Expectant?

“It is you,” she said, triumph and relief apparent in her tone.

That only pissed Levi off more. Another emotion added to his boiling pot. Eventually Levi thought it necessary to respond. With too little time, too little mindspace to even attempt to articulate, Levi kept himself to three words, the only three which could have meant everything at once.

“What the fuck.”

In response, she let out a soft laugh. “Are you crying?”

Crying? Now that Levi did think about it, there had been a crack in her voice too. Levi looked up to see her, smiling. Her eyes were smiling too. Then he followed the tear streak that barely grazed the side of her lip.

There was enough time, enough silence for Levi to gather himself. To stare at the reading on the application that couldn’t seem to decide what emotion Levi was feeling.

With enough self discipline, enough concentration, Levi managed to speak. “Hange, if you ask people why they’re crying, you’re just gonna make it worse.”

***

There was only one tea shop in the town, a tea shop which naturally, Levi had chosen as his favorite hang out spot.

Over the months, he had grown familiar with it and in turn, it had grown to become an intimate friend. An intimate friend he had never expected to ever introduce to Hange.

Onyankopon and Moblit had joined them for tea though, and suddenly, Hange didn’t feel like Hange. It could have been the way she shifted to an ‘all business’ demeanor or maybe a part of him was still trying to rationalize what he had deemed to be a very irrational thought.

Maybe he had imagined visiting the cafe with Hange a few times. The realist inside him though, had always believed it to be impossible. At that moment, the dreamer inside him was still taking its victory lap.

“You should have told us you’d be coming. We could have set up something better than late afternoon tea,” Onyankopon said. Either way, he seemed very happy to see them.

Moblit took a sip from his cup then revealed an apologetic smile underneath as he put the cup down. “Apologies for visiting all of a sudden. Doctor Zoe is a very impulsive person.”

Hange nodded. “I hope you don’t mind. As soon as I heard about this, I hopped on the next plane just to get here as soon as possible,” she said “I’m hoping to start something like this in the hospitals back home.”

Moblit put his cup down. “Right, I never got to properly introduce you to Levi.” He turned to Onyankopon then to Levi. “But I’m sure you’ve had a fair share of introductions… You did barge into his office this morning.” He had an apologetic look on his face.

“Hey, Doctor Zoe just wanted to see how we were using the software,” Onyankopon said in Hange’s defense. “I’m more than honored to see that the founder of the mood alarm is taking the time to even wander around our facility.”

Moblit cleared his throat. “Anyway, Levi, this is Doctor Hange Zoe, the founder of the mood alarm application. She visited our main hospital a year back but if I remember correctly, you were on leave right?”

“On a personal leave,” Levi clarified. He couldn’t find much else to say. He took a long sip of tea.

“This is Levi Ackerman,” Moblit said. “One of our best in IT support. He learned how to use your application pretty fast.”

“Yes…” Hange said. “And ever since you told me about him, I’ve been very excited to meet him.” Her grin only got wider as she studied his features, her eyes giving him a good once over. “I guess that’s the reason I ended up taking my own tour of the center while you too were catching up. I wanted to see your genius IT support in action,” she joked.

It was almost unbelievable that that morning, Hange had showed a completely different side to him. She had wiped her own tears pretty fast, shifting her expression to something very professional as soon as Onyankopon and Moblit had entered the office just that morning.

The whole afternoon, Hange was busy with activities and tours of the town, Levi busy with his own work. They barely got to talk. Fortunately, that had allowed Levi time to compose himself, enough to keep a straight face when Onyankopon had invited them over for some tea.

Then and there, there were conversations of partnerships and business, almost reminiscent to whatever bullshit he had to deal with in his old company. But this conversation had Hange, and Hange had shifted her gaze towards him enough times for Levi to feel it only proper to reciprocate.

“Once this project is over, would you consider letting Levi go?” Hange asked. “I’d love to have him visit our main office, maybe help out with some of our development work.”

Moblit shook his head vigorously. “No hesitation. It always felt like he was overqualified for this type of job.”

“By the way you talk about him, I can tell.” She looked at Levi knowingly, a silent form of communication just between both of them. She turned back to Moblit then Onyankopon, her face once again all business. “There are many things I hope to still improve with this application so any support on research, troubleshooting, development is very much appreciated.”

“What do you suggest?” Moblit asked.

A quick glance at Onyankopon and Levi knew he was asking the same question.

Hange put one finger to her chin in thought “A partnership…”

It looked like they had expected Hange to talk Levi’s ear off non stop about the application. Moblit had mentioned something about going straight home while Hange discussed the partnership with Levi, mentioning bugs, the debugger that had been stuck in the system and the bugs which Levi had been quick to point out.

Levi, being respectful, had only listened.

That was until Onyankopon and Moblit offered to walk ahead, leaving Levi and Hange alone on the red brick road overlooking the large lake.

It was early in the evening but it still felt like late afternoon. The sun never set until seven or eight during the mid months of spring.

Yet, the streets was empty, bereft of anything but the both of them.

With one quick scan of their surroundings, Hange turned back to him, she bit her lip and took a deep breath.

Her demeanor was suddenly a stark contrast with the enthusiastic, eloquent one back at a cafe. The sudden transformation was enough for Levi to tense up,

Hange spoke up. “This town really sleeps early,” she commented. “You're planning on going home now too?”

“I usually go home an hour earlier, especially on weekdays,” Levi responded. “I’m only out at this time because they invited me for late afternoon tea.” Technically it was dinner.

“Do you go home….” Hange started, she paused for a second, a very out-of-place pause. “To anyone?”

It took a lot of effort for Levi to resist choking or even letting out a ghost of a laugh at that question. I’m married to my job. That was the answer that popped into his mind out of instinct.

“Did I make it time?” Hange added a second later, only reminding Levi that he hadn’t even mustered a glimmer of answer.

“Make it in time?” Levi asked, in an attempt to stall for time.

“Petra…”

“She married Oluo.”

Hange didn’t seem satisfied. “Is there someone else…” she pressed. “Someone else...”

Hange started to speak with her hands, gesturing for Levi to ‘go on,’ in some awkward wave of a hand. The first awkward gesture Hange had done since they arrived.

Levi couldn’t help but just appreciate that bout of vulnerability he could pull out of her. “There is,” he said.

Just for a second, Hange’s face fell and for a moment Levi relished it.

“Oh…” Hange turned away. “Then, I should take you home… I’d love to meet her…”

Then suddenly, Levi felt just a little bad for that trick. “I was fucking kidding,” he said.

Hange let out a loud sigh of relief, an ugly huff and she looked away, suddenly self conscious.

Levi had to admit, it was an ugly snort. He was tempted to take a good look at her face, and maybe he had craned his neck as she kept silent for a second longer. “I’m not some idiot who would marry someone just because it’s convenient," he said.

“Give me a break. I just graduated from college when I decided to get married,” Hange said. “Besides, we enjoyed each other’s company.”

“If you chose that type of life, I wouldn’t have stopped you. Besides, you had a lot on the line, your PhD, your mood alarm, the love alarm, your reputation. It wouldn’t have been easy choice to make.”

Hange hummed. “The PhD is done, my reputation, I don’t give too much of a rat’s ass about that. And the mood alarm? That has always been mine. I put my own money into building that business.”

“It definitely wasn’t cheap.”

“It wasn’t,” Hange admitted. “What if I told you, I earned my own capital for building it in one night in a casino.”

Levi's thoughts flew back to the night at the casino. He grinned. “I’d believe you.”

“So the mood alarm is mine and I managed to keep it,” Hange said. “But I never forgot you know... The plans, the codes, they’re all yours.”

“So you did get the email,” Levi said.

Hange nodded. “And the email got me thinking…” she trailed off for what seemed like an eternity.

Levi couldn’t wait. “About what?”

Hange thought for a few seconds longer, putting her hands behind her back. “That ended up one reason why I even considered leaving Zeke,” she said. “He has a different way of loving, I have a different one too. Love is freedom. Love is just trusting. Zeke on the other hand, always likes to play safe, tie people down.”

“What happened to ‘love is a choice?’”

Hange seemed unperturbed. “Love still is a choice.”

“Then why not choose to love Zeke?” Levi challenged.

Hange sighed and put one hand up. “You said it yourself, deciding to leave wouldn’t be an easy decision,” she started. “I considered three things.”

She put one finger up. “Our own views of love. Zeke sees it as a game, as an investment and he approaches it conservatively… On the other hand, I see love and relationships as a form of freedom, a risk. In love, I don't believe in playing to win.”

She put another finger up. “I considered how I was feeling, this really weird feeling, my thoughts on Pemberley then on colors.”

“I thought you didn’t want to be a slave to your emotions.”

Hange shook her head. “I’m not. I approached this methodically. Even before considering my feelings, I considered my circumstances.” She put the third finger up. “I considered the backlash, I considered Zeke’s feelings, dealing with a divorce. And that’s what brought me here, despite the criticism, despite my inability to buy the love alarm and to barely salvage the mood alarm.”

“You still gave in to your emotions.”

Hange nodded. “After thinking long and hard about it, I did. But before that, I weighed all three, and I decided to take the risk.”

“Was it worth it?”

Hange shrugged and she leaned over the rail, seeming mesmerized by the lake. “I won’t know yet but I guess, even when I thought you had someone else…” There was a flash of hurt on her face, enough for Levi to regret playing that little joke on her.

“I don’t have anyone else,” Levi clarified.

Hange continued to speak. “I still thought the risk was worth taking. It would have been unfair to Zeke if I stayed and who am I to stop you if someone makes you feel happy.” She turned back to him. “This is the way I’ll choose to love. I’ll weigh my emotions, my circumstances and my worst case scenarios. Then I decide the most loving thing to do. If I have to take a risk, I take it. And I guess, given all that, looking for you seemed like the correct decision.”

Levi couldn’t stifle that smile any longer, and he hoped somehow, his own words would stop it from getting any wider. “Well, it's too early to tell if it's a good decision.”

Hange opened her phone and opened the application. “Can we try again?”

“You wanna use the love alarm?” Levi asked. “Your ex-husband’s application.”

“It’s still your brainchild,” Hange said as she waited for it to load. She hovered her thumb over it.

“I don’t have it installed,” Levi said.

“I can wait,” Hange said. And there was no room for argument in her voice.

An awkward few minutes as Hange watched him download the application. Levi focused on the loading bar, and luckily, his biometrics were still registered from that brief experiment of a year ago.

“On three…” Hange said, her voice a little stilted.

But they didn’t finish counting or maybe they just counted at completely different paces.

The alarms rang, filling the empty space between them, two rings which never seemed to find a uniform pace. Even with a very dominant fastidious side though, Levi wasn’t thinking too much about such a small detail.

Hange’s was smiling, grinning, or whatever that was called. Her face was a mix between pure ecstasy and pure passion. She wrinkled her eyes at him, her mouth climbed into a grin wider than he had ever been used to.

She let out a loud sigh. “I was fucking scared.”

“Scared of what?”

“That you would have gotten over me… I dunno, thought you might just think love was a choice, and I dunno, stop feeling whatever that love alarm thing was feeling.”

“I don’t think the love alarm works like that,” Levi said. Really, he started to realize he didn’t know how it worked.

Hange shook her head. “I’m probably just overthinking. You know… I learned how to code over the years, talked to a few developers and tried to look into how the application works,” she said.

“Did you find anything?”

“Remember when you told me that the love alarm starts to figure out for its own what love is. It creates its own definition. Something we can’t even comprehend...” Hange was still grinning, her voice coming out as breaths and sometimes sounds.

Still, Levi could comprehend most of it. “You have any theories?” he pressed. Hange always had theories.

“Soulmates? Relationships in a past life?” Hange suggested.

“Well, we can’t really look back at those right?” Levi said. “Well, what else?”

One word, one word out of Hange’s mouth. “Pemberley.”

“Pemberley?” Levi asked. Somehow though as Hange looked back at the lake, up at the sky then at the gaudy main street of that small town. Levi started to understand it himself.

“It’s ugly here,” Levi said. At first he had meant it. As Hange started to look at her surroundings then back at the lake, with a look of wonder in her eyes, Levi was sure he had meant it as a challenge.

“When you’re in love then with the person we love, everywhere starts to feel like Pemberley,” Hange completed a second later.

Does it? And he wondered why the hell, he needed Hange to point it out.

They were in an ugly town, a place people were paid to live in. The sky was constantly overcast. When it wasn’t raining, it was snowing and it snowed six months a year. When it wasn’t snowing or raining, the sky was at least threatening it.

The way that Hange had looked at it with such naive wonder, the way she had just stood there, looking at everything and back at him, Levi couldn’t help but entertain the idea of Pemberley.

Maybe give the colors a chance to show themselves? Hange didn’t say it out loud. In the moment they made eye contact though, Levi couldn’t help but just give that little piece of advice a chance, whether it had been his own or Hange’s.

He looked first at the main road and the red brick path, noting how the gaudy red, worn by the elements more than actual foot traffic seemed to still glow a bright red despite the grey undertones. He then looked to the buildings, varying shades of concrete grey yet ‘the varying shades’ of it seemed to still have some sense of novelty.

He then looked back at the ocean, the dark sky above never allowed it a more beautiful shade of blue, yet the bluish black still continued to glow. The waves only sent glimmers of silver against the dark blue. Then it was only natural that he looked up at the sky, the sky which never allowed any other shade for itself, except on a few select days a year.

The fog blocked whatever green the mountains beyond the lake would have shown him.

Looking back at Hange then back at his surroundings, he started to accept it. There were greens, reds, blues, yellows and every other color in the spectrum. The world glowed with so many colors, so many lights and sounds. His emotions were a whirlwind that spun to whatever rhythm the lights and colors blinked at.

Colors persevered and they’ve always persevered.

Emotions persevered and they’ve always persevered.

Even emotions we don’t understand ourselves. Levi added to himself.

Maybe Hange was right. That was what the love alarm had been trying to show. The one person who made the colors, the emotions all the clearer.

“This is a beautiful place,” Hange said. “And I wouldn’t mind staying here, lay low a bit, just long enough for people to forget the divorce fiasco.”

“There are a few nice places here,” Levi said.

Hange continued to stare.

Why don’t we just live here together right Levi?

I know you, you wouldn’t be able to stay out of the action.

Levi felt almost ashamed at that mystery response that seemed to pop into his head out of nowhere. We can live here long enough to get our shit together. "First things first, let’s discuss this partnership, over tea in my house.”

“Now?” Hange’s widened her eyes. And her eyes were smiling.

“Well, unless you have other plans tonight,” Levi said.

Hange shook her head. “Nothing much…”

They made the whole way back to his home in silence. Surprisingly, Levi preferred it that way. It had been enough for him to appreciate his new comprehension of his surroundings, the small details he hadn't noticed before.

It wasn’t just the view. The rhythm of their footsteps, their uncoordinated breathing, and just the way the trees rustled, the wind blew, always found a way to glow different colors. His emotions, the chaos of every moment after that were also challenging him to find their colors.

And the circumstances that had them locked in his cramped apartment, sitting over tea, with no one else watching, nothing restricting them had Levi reflecting. It probably had Hange reflecting too. They spoke unhindered with just thoughts, expressions and locked gazes.

For one reason or the other, it happened quickly and abruptly, leaving no space or time to comprehend it.

Sitting on his living room sofa right next to her. Hands clasped against the other. Her dry lips were on his.

The magic welling in his chest, the thunder that climbed quickly up his throat, persevering even underneath the grey. They were all screaming at him then, they all glowed colors.

At that moment though, he had been to tired to reflect on it for any longer. He decided to just roll with it.

It was no use making sense of it. After all, life, love and emotions... They were all just complicated that way.

[outerrangesource]

‘Outer Range’ Creator Answers Burning Questions About Episodes 3 and 4

Episode 3 We don’t have as much time this week so we’re going to jump around a little bit. Let’s talk about the finale of episode 3 with the disappearing mountain.

If our main character is starting to learn that something is happening with time on this land in such a way that time is really, we see where the past, present, and future might be colliding. We talked a lot about the inspiration for the sequence, which was actually from this James Michener book, “Centennial,” which, the first hundred pages of that book and a lot of his books talk about the geographical history or the topographical history of an area. It’s why we wanted to start the episode with that time-lapse, that really takes us through all of the evolutions of the land. And in that way, the mountain disappearing at the end is this sort of glitch in time that Royal is experiencing. And, it might have something to do with the fact that when he and Autumn shook hands and he noticed a swirl in her necklace, that there is a link to these events that’s occurring that made that glitch in time occur.

The other thing is that Brolin’s performance is so hilariously understated – is that how you conceived of that scene too, with him being like, “Nope, nothing at all going on here.”

It’s, like such a cowboy way to really fathom an unfathomable event. I just love the fact that he played it with such a straightforward, hand close to his chest kind of way. Like, he never showed his cards in that scene. And I love that. I thought it was like the perfect performance for that.

One of the other major things in episode three is Joy’s interaction with Frank Harlan. Where did the pet crow come from?

The pet crow was a nice touch that came in a little later. I think we were talking about it in the writers’ room and said part of the inspiration for the scene was there’s a scene in “It’s a Wonderful Life,” of all films. I know you probably weren’t expecting a Frank Capra reference for “Outer Range,” but there’s a scene in “It’s a Wonderful Life” where I think it’s Uncle Billy is the character that has these squirrels and birds in his office while he’s melting down. In the writer’s room, we just thought that was such an interesting detail that this guy has a pet crow in his place. And they’re massive loud birds. It added to the idea that this kind of quirky character was an influential person in the town.

It was just like a fun detail that we wanted to lead into it. And it also speaks to the strangeness of this particular part of the world, where there’s all sorts of wild, strange characters in Northwestern Wyoming. One other of which actually is introduced in the bar in the character of Cupcake.

And I’m not sure you notice Cupcake in the scene between Autumn and Perry, but that character came from, I was in this wonderful dive bar in Dubois, Wyoming at like 11:00 AM on a Tuesday one time. And I walked in there to check out the place and hoping that it would stir some sort of inspiration for the show in some ways and sitting at the bar was one person. And in front of him, he had a bottle of Budweiser and a cupcake. And I came back to the writers’ room and I told him this story and Zev Borow, our co-showrunner and the writer of “The Simpsons” was like, “We’ve got to write a character and their name is Cupcake, he’s got to go in.” And like, hell yeah. That’s where Cupcake came from.

Well, the other part of the Frank Harlan scene that has caused me endless fascination is the Mastodon story. What was your takeaway from that? Is this something that we should consider literal truth? Is this more of kind of cosmic weirdness, or how true is it?

Why is, why are cosmic truth and weirdness mutually exclusive?

That’s true when it comes to “Outer Range,” those things are very close.

Cosmic weirdness is the truth in this case. I’ll leave it at that. That is a fun little thing that we want to dance toward in future episodes.

Can we tell people that maybe she will return to Frank’s property?

You could say, let’s say this it’s not the last time that [she] and Frank will have an encounter.

Earlier in the episode, Joy encounters a tweaker in a convenience store who mentions missing people. Have you worked out the secret history of this town? Is this something that does go on fairly often and is Rebecca’s disappearance part of this kind of continuum of disappearances?

It is. Yeah, and we kind of plotted out the backstory that we think would be most interesting for all of that, of course, and then try to weave it into these story points and what Perry’s pain is. But I think more than that, it speaks to this thematic strain of how loss is an everyday point of grief for the Abbott characters and moreover sort of planting this existential question of when something goes missing, where does it go? And that’s hopefully a question that we can relate to the grief and the loss that our characters are feeling that there’s an incompleteness or, a sense of wrongness to these missing people that are in their lives.

Does it also connect to the historical nature of the land itself and the missing indigenous peoples?

Yeah, exactly, exactly. Right.

Wayne says to one of the kids, “You sound just like your mother.” How long has Wayne and his wife been separated and how long has he been obsessed with this land?

I’ll speak to the point of how long they’ve been separated. You know, the story that we built for ourselves is one where the disillusion of their marriage happened when their boys were in high school. And so the Tillerson boys grew up when they were coming of age, in high school, grew up in this environment of feral masculinity and that just ruled over the house and our incredible production designer took this and ran with at this and designed that Tillerson house with so many incredible details. Like a little dirt bike is in there. There’s a VR headset, there’s cases of Red Bull. There’s all sorts of taxidermy animals. There’s very fun, little details in that room. And that set was so much fun to work on and tell stories in and stuff. And as far as the second question, that’s a wait-and-see one.

Connected to that, when she returns Billy’s outfit changes completely, he’s a T-shirt and sweatshirt guy. And then he looks more like a cowboy when she shows up. What was the thought behind that?

We had a blast looking at what shirts Billy Tillerson would be wearing in each episode. And if you look closely, you’ll see when his mom arrives before he’s wearing, I think it’s this incredible jellyfish design that’s on the press of that shirt. It’s a jellyfish western shirt, which is one of my favorite costumes of Billy’s, and Rachel Daner best just did an incredible job finding the quirky details for each character. But yeah, I think, if we’re talking about Episode 3, it’s not going to be any secret to anyone that the end of that episode we discover or rediscover the body of Trevor Tillerson. And with the advent of that, there is a shift in the story that maybe things that are lost are not gone, and that’s a recurring theme in this, but back to Billy’s clothing choices, there is a turn in the story that certainly makes him spruce up a little bit. And, it happens to be linked to the loss of his brother.

Episode 4 Episode 4 starts with the flashback to nine months ago, a very “Jurassic Park”-type scene where one of his guys brings him a rock. Would you say, this is the flash point? Is this what reignites Wayne’s obsession with this weirdness on the land?

Yeah, I think Wayne is a character that has these inklings of a prophet, and I think there’s something stirring within him and something that’s always been stirring within him to a degree that he has a harmonious relationship to the energy of the land. And he feels things, he feels things in ways that other people don’t, and in that way, Billy Tillerson is the closest to him in that. That there is something strong about Wayne that’s in Billy and vice versa. They have a deep connection as father and son, but yeah, there’s scene in episode 4 where the rock is brought to him and he sees it ever so slightly move is a new clue for Wayne to advance this rather spiritual frontiering quest that he’s upon.

During Joy’s interaction with Royal, she mentions UFOs. Is there a possibility they could be brought into “Outer Range?”

I like where your mind’s going. I say, bring them in. There’s all sorts of strange happenings up there. I think I wouldn’t disqualify it. I’ll say that.

There’s Wayne’s breakdown with the fur coat and he’s screaming at the buffalo. Royal’s buffalo has a few big moments this episode. What is the connection there? Is there a possibility that Royal’s buffalo is the same buffalo that’s on Wayne’s wall?

I can’t answer that. I can’t answer that. Shooting that scene by the way, with Will Patton. I mean, he just doubled down in the greatest way. It was like watching a master at work, him doing this grief scream into a buffalo mouth. He like completely transcended everything that we thought was possible with that scene. That was a joy to see, but that’s the main thing I’ll tell you about.

There’s a moment during Rhett’s interrogation where he says to Royal that he wishes he could turn back time and Royal gives this look like, maybe there is some way of harnessing this thing for the good of his family.

I… no, I think he’s a character that is really questioning how to use the tools that are before him, that’s he’s really questioning. Maybe there’s something about this that can be wielded. And maybe there’s something about what we’re going through that isn’t permanent. Again, this sort of refrain of maybe what’s lost is not gone. I think that’s where his character’s head is at, that’s where the episode is. The episode is called “The Loss.” And I think Royal’s head is really spinning around that theme.

The title of the episode travels in many different ways from that scene, the loss of Trevor, we’re at his funeral. We experienced loss there. And then the poker match, of course, another semblance of the loss. So it’s a theme throughout the episode that we hope people lock into.

Why do you think Patricia knows it’s Perry?

I think Patricia suspects that it’s Perry simply by having a decades-long relationship with that family. And being able to read on their faces, what they’re holding and what they’re not. I think she’s another one of those characters that has a deep sense of a high level of instinct about the Abbotts and, looking at just seeing how torn apart he is inside. I think she can put some pieces together there that other people might not be able to.

After the funeral, Royal talks to Joy and says maybe there’s nothing out there and describes chaos all the way down. Is that his understanding of the void or is that his worldview or both?

I think it’s both. And he’s really fucking with Joy. I think he senses that Joy is onto him in some keen way. There’s a lot being said under the surface and between them throughout Episodes 3 and 4, and I think he sees her as a threat, that’s getting closer and closer to what the Abbotts are hiding and what Royal, in particular, is hiding. And as such, he really wants to throw her for a loop or send her off in another direction. And so there’s this sort of showdown gaze at the bar that occurs. I think it hopefully ratchets up the conflict between them at the beginning of the episode, when she’s interrogated the family. I think what we see is she gets too close to home for Royal and this is his way of retaliating.

There are so many great production design details in this stretch. Royal’s bolero is a stone. The Coors Light logo is mimicking the disappearing mountain. How many of these things did you guys come up with in the writer’s room and how many were inventions on set?

They were pretty much all from the writers’ room. I think we really had a sense of symbology that we wanted to impart on the show from the outset and the writers, we, they did such a great job of like spitballing. What are the sort of icons of the show that can kind of be these physical Easter eggs and help guide our characters along like their encountering totems across their world. We started to think of the neon beer sign as a totem and the belt buckle as this, that’s a rodeo belt buckle, and kind of linking it between father and son. And so hopefully they bear, emotionally, import as much as they bear narrative import.

The buffalo shows up during the poker match. You said before that he’s Royal’s spirit guide. And I was wondering what his appearance in that scene means. Is he giving Royal strength or like permission to do what he is about to do?

Sure. Yeah, I think the arrival of the Buffalo in that scene is the clue that Royal takes to double down. Something is at work here, as he says in that scene. And the buffalo is confirmation of that. And the other side of that, in the writers’ room, we wanted to conceive of a world where like, it wouldn’t be implausible for a buffalo to be standing outside of a saloon, which, which was a great fun task to try to build story towards and try to incorporate it in as realistic way as possible. But the buffalo continues to be this premonition for Royal as a guide, like you said, that takes him through his journey.

Why is Royal so obsessed with her necklace? Have you worked out where this came from?

We do, we do. That was something that we really built a strong backstory for in the writers’ room. And if you look closely in Episode 3, when you first see it, you’ll see that it’s a bit of this darker mineral that is sort of held in place by amber. And it is inferring a bit of a linkage for Royal, at least in the same sort of darker mineral that he sees swirling in the hole. You’ll see in her necklace in 3, that dark mineral moves ever so slightly right before the mountain disappears. And then likewise at the start of 4, you’ll see in Wayne’s rock.

Royal cheats, which is huge. Is that just another indication of him doing anything to protect his family and this land or does it speak to something else?

Yeah. No, I mean I continue to poke your metaphor, he’s all in, at this point, there’s no going back and it is anything you can do to protect your family, to keep this a secret, to restore what has been fractured. And I think he’s a man on a mission by the end of Episode 4 and we see that mission sort of catalyze and take him on a journey throughout the final episodes.

Wayne knocks his Clamato over and it seems to activate the rock. Can you talk about that?

Yeah. When you go to Wyoming, you go to Yellowstone National Park, as many people have been to you’ll notice all these geysers and gaseous, crazy patterns that occur in the air, and in the writers’ room, we were trying to conceive of a way to get at sort of the wildness of the land as it, as it might be interacting with these characters. And with the spilling of the Clamato, you’ll see a kind of pools around the rock and our mission with our production designer say, “We want it to look like one of those crazy gaseous patterns that occur up the Yellowstone,” we show a picture he’s like, “Oh, very cool.” And so the aim was always sort marry the outer world to the inner world in that, and to look at how the Clamato spill could teach us or teach Wayne, rather, something more about what he’s experiencing. Or rather see patterns that are occurring that he wouldn’t have otherwise seen if that accident of spilling the Clamato hadn’t happened. It’s a bit of a wink at the same time, too.

The show is at its most absurd when we’re with the Tillersons, I think it’s safe to say. And leaning into the fun of that and also just like any chance to use Clamato in “Outer Range,” we just got to go for it, so that’s a little bit of where that came from. He’s also watching “Gunsmoke” and he’s staring at the buffalo, there’s all sorts of elements that are showing Wayne something more than what he can see.

Wayne obviously goes looking for the void. He finds it. And Royal is there. Do you think Royal is attempting to kill Wayne?

I think he’s definitely trying to stop him. I think if that fight would’ve continued, it would’ve been a strong chance that Wayne would’ve gone right in that hole. But he’s definitely trying to stop him.

Wayne gets the upper hand and knocks him unconscious with the rock. Wayne, to me, seems like someone who’s much more in it for the kind of gamesmanship than Royal. Could you talk about Wayne’s intent in that moment?

Yeah. Gamesmanship is the right word for it. I think Wayne, when he experiences that eureka! moment of finding the hole, everything clicks together for him on the inside. And I think, later on when we learn more about Wayne and Royal’s backstory, you might get a few hints as to why.

[theres-an-impulstor-among-us]

I give you a lot of angsty requests, so here, have a fluffy one!

Among Us: Through some glitch, a round generates with no impostors. For the first little while everyone is really on edge and trying to accuse each other, but they soon realize that nobody is dying and relax, although they're still very confused. Everybody does their tasks as normal, but instead of completing the last task, they all build a big pillow fort under the admin table and just take a rest for a little bit, hanging out and laughing over previous games and just being together without the tension of possible death and betrayal over their heads. Many stories are told, many "bodies" of friends knocked over in pillow fights are "reported", and many memories are made, before they finally decide to end the round! 💙

okay so this request was MEGA detailed so i didn’t get to every single part of it but i hope this is just as good lol

also bring on the angst I DARE YOU /lh

…

A weird feeling in his stomach, Etho presses the emergency meeting button, teleporting everybody to the table. Once everyone is assembled, Etho realises something strange.

“Okay, there’s been no deaths,” he says slowly.

“Wh- Seriously?!” Tango gasps. “That round lasted, like, twenty YEARS! Half the tasks have been done!”

Etho frowns. “Nobody’s seen anything suspicious, or…? No venting?”

Everybody shakes their heads.

“Okay… I guess we’ll skip, then. Everyone keep an eye out, though.”

When the meeting comes to an end, Etho trots after Tango as the latter heads towards weapons. “Hey, Tango? Does something seem a little off about this round to you?”

“Yeah. We’re a bunch of idiots who can barely play this game on a good day - except you, of course,” he adds, “but it’s definitely weird that we went that long without a single kill. The imposters must be really slow for some reason.”

Etho considers this. “Maybe. I’m not convinced.”

He leaves Tango’s side and peels off into navigation as Tango keeps going. After finishing his download, he goes back up and does his task in O2, before heading back to cafeteria to finish wires.

After this, he realises there still hasn’t been a body reported so he catches Astro as the latter enters cafeteria. “Hey, Astro. Can you hit the button for me?”

“Oh, sure.”

Astro presses the emergency meeting button, bringing everyone back to the table. Etho’s suspicions are confirmed when he sees that everybody is still alive.

“Okay, I’m sorry to call you back here, but we need to talk,” Etho says. “There’s something wrong with this round and we may have to abandon it.”

“What do you mean?” Skizz asks confusedly. “What’s wrong with it?”

“It’s been over three minutes and there’s been no kills or sabotages. I apologise if I’m not correct, but I just have a feeling that there’s something wrong. If you’re the imposter, please raise your hand now.”

Nobody moves.

“This isn’t a trick,” Etho adds. “I’m sorry if I’m ruining someone’s imposter round, but I’m genuinely a little concerned that the game has gone wrong.”

“I’ll support you on that,” says Tango. “Etho knows about this stuff. If he’s worried about the game glitching out, I’ll take that seriously. I’m not the imposter, but if anyone else is, I’d advocate coming forward just to make sure nothing’s wrong.”

After a moment, a chorus of murmurs comes from the others, all confirming that none of them are the imposter.

“Okay, so it seems the game has glitched and generated a round with no imposters somehow,” Etho says. “No need to panic; if we all finish our tasks and win the round, it should take us back to the lobby like normal.”

“But do we have to do that, though?” asks Impulse. “Tasks are almost done and there’s no imposters, so why don’t we just hang out a bit, without the threat of death?”

“I’m down for that,” says Endless unexpectedly. “I’ve always wanted to build a pillow fort in admin. The table looks perfect for it.”

“You mean out of pillows like these?” Joker holds up a pillow that he seemingly pulled from out of nowhere. “Hey, Skizz?”

Skizz turns. “What’s u-”

Joker whacks him in the face with the pillow.

“GAAAH!” Skizz shrieks, tripping over his own foot. “What the hell?!”

Clutching the pillow by its corner, Joker doubles over with laughter. “Oh my gosh, your FACE!”

“Okay, that’s it. Imposter or no imposter, I’m gonna murder you.”

Skizz snatches the pillow out of Joker’s hand and swings it at him, but Joker dodges and takes off running down the hallway towards storage, giggling like a child. Unable to help a laugh of his own, Skizz pursues him.

“Where did he even get that?” snickers Tango.

“Same place I got mine,” Endless says, holding up an identical white pillow. “Medbay.”

Brody tries to hold in a laugh. “Endless, I’ll give you a high five if you hit Tango with that pillow right now.”

Endless considers this for a moment.

Tango gives him a warning look. “Don’t. Endless, I swear to-.”

He cuts himself off and ducks as Endless swings the pillow at him, but before he can do it again, Endless brings it back round and whacks him in the side of the head, causing him to let out a yelp.

Laughing uncontrollably, Brody holds up his hand for a high five, which Endless gleefully gives him. “I like this,” he says happily. “I feel cool.”

“Endless, you’re starting something you can’t finish,” Tango warns.

“Then you finish it,” says Impulse unexpectedly, appearing out of nowhere to hand Tango a pillow of his own.

A grin slowly spreads over Tango’s face.

Endless blinks. “Oh. I’m in trouble.”

On the other side of the room, Etho glances sharply over as he hears a THWACK sound and finds Tango and Endless whacking each other viciously with pillows. He chuckles to himself and continues looking through the game’s code.

After a while, Brody approaches him. “Hey Etho, we’re gonna go build a pillow fort in admin. You should come join us.”

“Thanks, but I gotta work through this code.”

“You can do that in the lobby later. C’mon, we’ve got a once-in-a-lifetime thing here. This glitch will probably never happen again. Let’s have some fun on this map while we have the chance.”

After a moment, Etho nods and lets Brody take him into admin, where Mrs Tango and Astro are already piling cushions in the middle of the room.

“Is this what we do when we think the game might’ve gone wrong?” Etho chuckles. “Build pillow forts?”

“I mean, we may as well,” Brody responds. “Right? What else can we do?”

“Finish our tasks and end the round.”

“Where’s the fun in that, though?” says Astro from the floor.

As Etho opens his mouth to respond, Joker bursts into the room and dives behind Etho, who spins round to find Skizz skidding to a halt outside admin. “Where is he?!” he snaps, panting heavily. “I’m gonna kill that idiot!”

“What’s going on?” Brody demands. “Who are you talking about?”

“JOKER! He said my mohawk looks like a dead bush!”

Relaxing, Brody rolls his eyes. “Oh no. How terrible. He’s a MONSTER. We’d better throw him out the airlock right now.”

“Sarcasm duly noted,” Skizz huffs. “Where IS Joker, anyway?”

Brody jerks his thumb over his shoulder. “Hiding under the admin table.”

“Brodyyyyy!” comes Joker’s muffled voice.

Skizz walks into the room and takes note of the group of people setting up the pillows and blankets over the top of the admin table. “So what’s going on here? Boy scout sleepover?”

“Yup,” Astro responds with a grin. “Do you have a problem with that?”

After a moment, Skizz shakes his head. “Nope. Can I borrow a cushion to hit Joker in his stupid face?”

“No,” says Astro firmly.

“Can I suffocate him in a blanket?”

“Absolutely not.”

“Can you relax and stop being a stupid schoolteacher for ten seconds?”

“Not if it means letting you try to kill Joker.”

“C’mon, I’m not ACTUALLY gonna kill him,” complains Skizz. “There’s no imposters this round, remember.”

“Mhm.”

Within five minutes, everyone is huddled under the blanket fort over the admin table, using a rusty lantern as a light source. It’s fairly roomy inside the makeshift tent, but the ten people are still sitting fairly close together.

“So now what?” Brody asks after a while. “Are we gonna talk about something?”

“How about we discuss what kind of dead bush Skizz’s hair looks like?” Joker asks innocently.

Skizz responds to this by whacking Joker in the face with a pillow, knocking him over backwards.

“Oh, report the body!” Tango yelps with a grin. “Skizz did it! Skizz did it!”

This causes the whole group to laugh, even Etho. After many rounds of chaos and suspicion, it’s nice to be able to joke around and relax a bit.

“How does it feel, huh?” Skizz smirks. “How does it feel to be hit with a taste of your own PILLOW?”

“Honestly, I deserved that.”

“Yeah you did.”

Joker yanks Skizz down next to him, grinning. “Shut up.”

A short pause follows this.

“This is the only round we’re gonna get like this, isn’t it?” asks Evil.

Etho nods. “Should be. Why?”

“Dunno. It just feels nice to just hang out with you all as a group and be happy. I love you guys so much.”

“I hate you,” Endless murmurs. “I hate you all.”

Immediately, the two people on either side of him grab him in a simultaneous hug. “Well too bad, cuz we love you,” Astro responds with a smile. “Grumpiness and all.”

A low groan comes from Endless, but everyone can see the hint of a smile on his face.

Etho sits back against the wall and gazes around at his friends. Mrs Tango is resting her head on Tango’s shoulder. Astro and Evil are still hugging and teasing Endless. Brody and Impulse are quietly chuckling together about something. Joker and Skizz have fallen asleep with the tops of their heads touching.

Even though Etho isn’t with anyone in particular at this moment, he still feels connected to his friends. He’s alone but he’s not lonely. And that’s a rare thing for him.

This group really is his family.

[quartzwriting]

The Sorcerer and The Agent

Pairing: Doctor Strange X Avenger!Reader

Description: After a training session, you stumble into a meeting where an unexpected visitor makes you, a former SHIELD Agent, shy. 

Warnings: Non

Word Count: 1.8k

A/N: Originally posted on Quotev / This story is divided into two parts, one through the readers point of view and one where it is retold in Stephen’s perspective.

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PART ONE: The Agent

This morning's training was brutal. Natasha usually pushed you hard, but something today told her to push your limits. Some force in the universe told her to make you suffer today. And you did. By the end you were drenched in sweat, gasping for a proper breath of air, and in desperate need of a hot shower. You knew your muscles would be screaming at you tomorrow morning.

After you had taken a break, one that consisted of you lying on the training room floor for a while, Nat asked you to go tell Tony that the hologram training simulator was having some problems. He had been working on the thing for a while and there were still a few glitches that you had discovered today. Forcing your legs to get up and move, you made your way to the elevator to head a few floors up, regardless how wobbly they were feeling. They were literally jelly and it took you a little to get coordination back.

A post-workout towel was swung around your neck and you were still wearing your gear. Workout leggings, sports bra and top, the gloves you always wore on the field. Nat did not give you anytime to change before she sent you on your way to Tony. You were a hot mess and very tired, so you were ready to get it done and over with so you could shower and take a nap. FRIDAY told you that Stark was in the upstairs lounge.

Dabbing off the last bit of sweat from your forehead, you yawned from how tired you were as the elevator opened and you stepped into hallway that lead to the lounge. As you walked in you spoke, "Stark, your hologram training simulator is having some problems. It looks like there's something wrong with-"

You stopped dead.

Along with Tony, who was resting on a chair that was pulled backwards, there were two more people gathered around a table where small meetings were often held. One of them was Steve, who had some paperwork out in front of him. The other was Stephen Strange. You had not expected him to be there. He looked bored, listening to Tony talking probably. But his expression changed a little when the three of them heard you walk in.

Sure, you did not want to admit it but you found the man very attractive. Whenever he came to the compound you always tried to sneak an extra glance at him when he was not looking. And when you were not doing that you were trying not to look at him cause he might see the blush on your face. But when you did have to look at him, whether it be at a meeting or at a gathering or just across the room to say hi, you lost your ability to focus. Something about him made you forget everything else. His sarcasm and quick wit that rivaled Tony's. Perfectly styled hair with swoops of grey that were surprisingly fitting to his style. Neatly kept facial hair that framed his cupid's bow-lips that you often wondered of their softness. Beautiful eyes of crystal ocean blue that are always so bright, even when giving a cold stare. And that voice, Goddamn that smooth, low voice.

And there you were, looking like a total mess in front of him.

You wish you had not listened to Nat, that you instead went to your room and took a nap right away. You wished you were not looking like you just walked out of a workout session while your skin glistened with the remains of sweat and your hair messy. And you wish you could go hide of embarrassment.

You snapped out of your little trance of shock and tired to pick back up what you were saying, "w-with the projectors."

Tony visibly scrunched up his face, "That's weird. It was working when I tested it yesterday."

You struggled to speak when you were this distracted and surprised, "Nat and I were training. The thing is busted."

You could feel his eyes on you. I regret this, you mentally whined to yourself.

"I'll have a look at it later."

You would have turned around and walked out, make it look like you had some work to do. But instead Steve had to open his mouth. "Training go well today, (Y/N)?"

You wanted to die.

"Sure." You shrugged, trying to keep cool. "Nat pushed me hard."

"Looks like it." Steve laughed. You wanted to punch him.

You chuckled nervously and cleared your throat, "Well um I'm gonna go upstairs and shower. I have more work to do after."

As you said this, your eyes met with Stephen's. Direct eye contact with those blue eye, those beautiful blue eyes. You risked a little smile at him. You probably looked dumb in the state you were in so you sort of regretted it. But the smile you got back made you not regret it at all.

You turned on your heel and walked as fast as you could without looking suspicious.

"Oh! You need to refile that mission report from yesterday, (Y/N). FRIDAY processed your bodycam footage and you need to make a new timeline."

"I'm aware, Stark!" You did not look back as you snapped at him. Just another task on your ever growing list of things to do.

Upon exiting, you missed the door. You ran into the door frame with a bang. You tried to brush it off like everything was fine. You felt everyone's eyes turn back to you, digging into you like the weight of the embarrassment itself. And you swore you heard someone chuckling as you quickly left the room.

Now you were desperate to go hide in your room and never show your face again.

PART TWO: The Sorcerer

Listening to Tony babble was always brutal. Every single time Stephen came to the Avengers compound for a meeting the man of iron would always end up talking too much. The look on Steve's face said that even he was tired of listening to Tony talk about this new technology he has been working on. Stephen could not even remember what it was in the first place, something about holograms maybe. His fingers tapped on the table, the metal of his slingring making an impatient  noise as it hit the wood.

Both him and Captain Rogers exchanged a look. They wanted this meeting to keep going but Stark would not shut up. This happened often. A little too often. His mind started to wander, draining out Tony's voice and being replaced with his long to do list for today.

Suddenly the door to the lounge opened and someone walked into the room, soft footsteps hitting the floor as they came closer.

"Stark, your hologram training simulator is having some problems. It looks like there's something wrong with-"

Stephen perked up at the familiar voice. He quickly connected it to the owner. It was (Y/N) (L/N)'s voice. And there she was when he looked up.

He was not expecting to see her in the state she was currently in.

She was wearing workout clothes like she had just come from training, looking a little out of breath and energy. Traces of sweat covered her forehead and shoulder, and her cheeks were flushed a soft pink. Her skin glowed a little. He made note of what exactly she was wearing, a tank top with a sports bra peaking out from underneath. A pair of gloves that he had seen her wear before. And leggings. Very form fitting ones. He clenched his jaw and swallowed.

Whenever he needed to come to the Avengers compound for some business, he kind of hoped to catch a glance of her. Something about her always grabbed his attention. She was attractive, but also very kind and sweet. He would see you laughing with your coworkers and the image would stick in his head for a while. He would remember a snarky comment you made at a meeting that made him chuckle a little too hard. He would wonder what you looked like on a field mission, all serious or with a sprinkle of cockiness between a determined look. You were very interesting to him, in a good way.

"w-with the projectors." She finished. He was so lost in his own thoughts that he forgot she was talking for a second.

Then the thought of her working out in that outfit came to mind... but he quickly shut that out because he knew where that would go. But it trickled in the corners of his mind, and the wonder poked at him about another situation where she would be blushing and covered in sw-

He stopped himself as Tony's voice snapped him out of his thoughts. "That's weird. It was working when I tested it yesterday."

"Nat and I were training. The thing is busted." Her voice cracked.

He risked another glance at you, and he did not regret it.

"I'll have a look at it later." Tony groaned.

"Training go well today, (Y/N)?" Rogers asked her.

The woman shrugged, "Sure. Nat pushed me hard."

The captain laughed, "Looks like it."

At that moment Stephen realized that she looked a little embarrassed. He was not sure why. But he swear he saw the already present blush on her cheeks deepen. She chuckled a little, he sensed a trace of nervousness in it. Yes she was embarrassed. He had to admit, it was kind of cute.

(Y/N) cleared her throat, "Well um I'm gonna go upstairs and shower. I have more work to do after."

He made eye contact with her. She smiled at him, and he melted a little. It was a very pretty smile. He gave her one right back, a genuine one that reflected her own.

Her previous words echoed in his mind. Shower. Stephen, stop!

The woman turned to leave and the others turned back to the table and paperwork they were going through. Stephen let out a breath as he turned his attention back to the material of the meeting.

"Oh! You need to refile that mission report from yesterday, (Y/N). FRIDAY processed your bodycam footage and you need to make a new timeline."

"I'm aware, Stark!"

The corner of his lips tugged up.

There was a bang and (Y/N) had run into the door frame, causing the three men to look up. She quickly left the room, it was now obvious that she was embarrassed. He did not blame her since she just pulled a maneuver like that. A SHIELD agent and master of stealth, from what he was told, just dumbly ran into a wall.

He could not help it. He started chuckling.

She's adorable, he thought to himself.

"What's gotten into her?" Steve asked, leaning back in his chair. "Maybe Nat overworked her."

Tony laughed, "Nah. Probably because there's a strange man in the room."

Stephen grinned, but then ran that statement through his head again. He could not think of anything. That woman was a mystery, that's for sure.