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aclosetfan · 4 years ago

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This is a really incomplete idea BUT it’s about Brick’s hat(s). And hopefully someone else finds this and enjoys it! More under the cut, it’s a long post :)

I think it’d be funny if boomer and butch get him a shitty novelty hat for birthday/holidays/etc because 1) they don’t know what to get him 2) they’re like 12 with four buck to their names. so they just go from charity shop to charity shop looking for ideas. Brick probably doesn’t ask for much (I don’t think any of them do. poor kid syndrome amiright? I personally never think they’d be well off in childhood).

So anyway butch and boomer are bumming through the charity shops and boomers like:

“Holy shit, Butch!”

“Wut?” Butch looked over pulling the charred and ruined Halloween mask that someone had donated for god knows what reason off his head.

“Dude it’s perfect!” Boomer came running from three aisle over, waving a garment around in the air.

“It’s a hat.” Butch pointed out bluntly, unimpressed, and pointed to the mask atop his head, “I think we should get this.”

“But it’s red!”

“He’s got one of those. Wears it frequently.”

“But not like this!” Boomer boosted, “See.”

Boomer turned the hat around, so Butch could see the bill of it. It was one of those novelty snapbacks, inscribed on the front was the playboy bunny logo.

“Dude.” Butch smiled, giggling with Boomer, albeit a little nervously.

He was familiar with the playboy bunnies work, it wasn’t like he was a virgin or anything (except he secretly was), but he had never actually seen a genuine centerfold spread like some of the older boys at the detention hall had talked about. When he thought of playboy, he thought of the Victoria Secret models he saw plastered to the side of the store at the mall. They made him feel weird and his hands would get all sweaty, so he tried his best not to look too closely.

“Dude we should get him this!” Boomer continued to smile, “It’d be, like, so funny.”

“Yeah.” Butch nodded, as his smile grew. He didn’t 100% get why it was so funny, but the idea of having something with the playboy bunny logo on it seemed cool to him. It made him feel kind of like one of the older boys.

Him and Boomer snickered all the way to the cash register, and when it was their turn to pay, Boomer nudged him ahead, ducking behind him with a giggle. He glared at his brother over his shoulder, but allowed Boomer to twist a nervous hand into the fabric of his oversized sweater (the one his brothers had bought him last year. They bought it 3 sizes too big cause he kept growing out of everything too fast. It was 1 size too big now). Boomer liked latching onto their sleeves when he got nervous.

He didn’t get what the big baby was so nervous about though. They were just buying a stupid hat. The lady cashier watched them with thinly veiled boredom and Butch threw the hat down on the counter.

Raising a penciled on eyebrow, the older women examined the hat, “Playboy, huh? You even know what Playboy is kid?”

The question made the back of his neck burn. He had never heard a lady say playboy before, it was weird. From behind him, Boomer pressed his face into the back of his sweater to muffle another giggle.

“Uh, duh.” He sniffed, “We know, lady.”

“Have you actually seen a playboy before?” The cashier snorted, ringing them up, “Not just the logo?”

“Yes!” Butch huffed, defending himself, “The Internet!”

(It was a semi-lie—they had tried looking it up on the internet, but Fuzzy didn’t have a computer at his cabin, HIM wouldn’t let them use any of his flashy spy monitors, Mojo was lame, and the library had parent controls)

“Surreee.” The lady drawled out and rang them up, “Dollar fifty.”

He didn’t make eye contact with her as he handed over a crumpled dollar bill and took two quarters from the take-a-penny-leave-a-penny. When she gave them back the hat, they ran out of the store like they had committed a bank robbery.

When Brick opened the present two days later, he threw the plastic bag it had come in to the side and frowned.

“A new hat?”

“Yeah,” Boomer nodded, putting down the cheap Polaroid camera Butch and Brick had shoplifted from a secondhand shop downtown (still too expensive to actually buy), and reached for the hat, turning it around in Brick’s hand, “but look!”

Brick’s smile grew, as the logo registered in his head. “Oh, shit,” their brother laughed, “is this playboy?”

“Betcha you won’t wear it.” He goaded his brother on as he tossed the new (used—looked like it was taken from Pokay High’s sports department) rugby ball from hand to hand.

“Betcha I will.” Brick shot back, carefully removing the ratty cap he had had since forever and replacing it with the new one.

“Sorta big.” Their brother murmured, adjusting the strap.

“Your fat head will grow into it!” Butch joked and Brick punched his arm.

“Shut up, dipshit.”

“Do you like it?” Boomer beamed, ignoring the bickering.

Brick looked at their brother with a smile, precious anger dissipating, “Yeah, dude, it’s funny.”

———————————————————

Then it becomes a thing//like Brick really loves his hat collection:

“Truckin’ ain’t easy.” Brick read out loud with a snort, and replaced the hat he was wearing with the new one.

He thought for a moment then shook his head no, “nah. Not today.”

He had so many hats to chose from, it was almost overwhelming. They were all basically offensive on every level and he tried to wear them all as often as possible. The highlight reel included:

Kitty gang

Swag.

Yolo.

Lmao.

Weed jokes. Lotta weed jokes.

Thrasher.

Fish love me. Woman fear me.

Met god. She’s hot.

Blow me for luck.

Beer drinkers get more head.

The carpets do match the drapes

FuCk

Birthday Bitch

Deadass fuck thots on god

Hello I am Mr. Cunt

Master Baiter

Drive fast. Eat ass.

At 17, he had a vibrant hat collection. Anytime his brother’s saw a red hat with a shitty gag, they snagged it for him. Recent political events had bestowed upon his brothers a plethora of new material:

Make racists afraid again.

My other hat’s tin foil

Made you look

The list went on. His fuck cops wasn’t popular with local authorities. And how could he forget his most favorite powderpuff girl cap. That pissed them off to no end.

“Brick!” Butch yelled down the corridor. They were at Mojo’s this week, “Hurry up!”

“Uuhhhhh,” he mumbled to himself, as he stared at his wall, ignoring his brother. He hung them all up to make it easier to chose. His collection covered the wall.

His hand floated left to the one that said FuCk, but the one that said bad hair day caught his eye and his hand twitched to the right, “uuuuuhh, hmmmm.”

He floated toward the ceiling to look at the top of the wall, “welllllll...”

They’d be fighting with the girls today and because he liked making Blossom mad, he figured he needed to chose something more crude.

“Oh my god!” Butch cried outside his bedroom door, “Just fucking pick one!”

“Mmmmm.”

“Brick!” Butch pounded on his door, “I swear to god, I’ll burn them all if you just don’t pick one!”

“HMMmmmmmm!”

“Brick, it’s been thirty minutes!” Boomer whined, joining Butch, “The girls are waiting, we can’t cancel on them again! We’re bad guys, but we aren’t bad guys.”

“Ahhhhh—“ he sucked on his teeth in thought, “five more minutes!”

His brothers groaned in unison from the other side of the door.

“This is your fault, Boomer.” Butch whined.

“How?!” Boomer protested.

“Cause I wanted to get him that mask.”

————————————————————

His hat—his first hat—is lovingly preserved. He can’t risk losing it or damaging it any further. Before they started buying him new hats, most of the boys misadventures (the chaos they did NOT plan) were dedicated to saving Brick’s hat from the clutches of (insert one-shot villain here). It’s his security blanket. He breaks it out on the lazy days in.

He does though often lose his novelty hats. A violent gust of wind will rip one from his hat or a fight will cause it to disintegrate. But because Brick considers being the hat guy a personality trait, I think he’d have a spare one on hand at all times:

“My hat!” He cried, as the tornado-like monster blew through Townsville, ripping his hat from his head, and then disappeared into thin air, “the fucker took my hat!”

“Brick!” Blossom cried over the wind, “calm down! It’s a hat!”

“Yeah my hat!” He argued back. He wasn’t fond of the idea that him and his brothers and the girls now had to cooperate with each other, but desperate times called for desperate measures. “Butch! Boomer! I want my hat!” He hissed and his brothers nodded, understanding immediately what he meant.

“Right!” Butch dropped Buttercup, forgetting whatever fight the two had found themselves in.

“Got it!” Boomer jumped up from where he had been sitting on Bubbles, squashing her to the ground.

“What was that thing!” Brick barked at Blossom and she wiped the blood from her nose.

“I only know as much as you do, considering it literally just happened. Maybe it has to do with air—“

She cut off and looked at him, as he adjusted his emergency back up hat onto his head.

“What!” He hissed when he realized all three of the girls were giving him odd looks.

“Dude,” Buttercup asked from the ground, “do...do you just carry extra hats around?”

“Of course I do!” He spat, disgusted that they’d think so low of him not to, “Extra hat,” he pointed to his head, “emergency beanie,” he pulled one out of his pocket, “and extra hair ties,” him and his brother lifted up theirs wrists. “We live by the aesthetic, we die by the aesthetic, anymore questions?”

“Yeah!” Boomer huffed in his defense, “what’s it fucking matter to you anyway!”

“Don’t you three have bigger issues to worry about then our business?” Butch hissed, kicking at Buttercup.

Buttercup rolled away from the kick, dodging it with a laugh.

“What’s so funny!” Butch demanded and Buttercup shook her head, ignoring Butch and pointing up at her sister.

“Holy crap! He really is your counterpart, huh? You guys are perfect for each other!” She laughed wheezing.

“Hey!!” Him and Blossom bristled together, “Shut up!”

————————————————————

When he learns that over excessive hat use can lead to hair breakage and premature balding his heart breaks, so he starts buckling them to his belt loops instead when he remembers to give his hair a break.

#rrb Brick #ppg Brick #head canons #fic drabbly #theyve got a bad sense of humor #but so do i #:)#trucker hat jokes are peak comedy #you can buy any of the hats i mentioned on amazon

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mollyringle · 4 years ago

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My husband watches The Untamed, vol. 9: eps. 22-23

Episode 22: Husband snorted a laugh when Wei Wuxian promises never to practice demonic cultivation. He already doesn’t believe that promise. Then he laughed more when I said, “Just so you know, the novel is called ‘Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation.’”

We both went “Wait a sec” when he floated off the roof after making up with Lan Zhan, because we had sort of thought you had to have a golden core to do the defying-gravity thing. But apparently you can use crafty tricks/demonic cultivation for that too.

I like that WWX just brings out the forces of darkness a LITTLE, in a controlled fashion, when getting mad at the Jins on Shijie’s behalf. And he doesn’t even use them against Jin Zixuan; he just punches him. As JZ completely deserves here.

Husband was laughing at Nie Mingjue’s lack of a good plan for the Sunshot Campaign. It seems to consist basically of “Let’s go kick their butts!” (“That’s your plan? Is that even a plan?”) Which, as we see, doesn’t go so well.

When Nie Huaisang is waving goodbye as the others set off, husband said, as NHS, “I’m just going to stay here and, uh, do some paperwork.”

When it’s revealed that Meng Yao is working for Wen Ruohan, husband said, “Whoa. I really hope he’s being a double agent.” Guess he’s already getting a feel for Meng Yao’s sneakiness.

At the Twin Jades both staring in concern at WWX’s demon flute and what it’s summoning: “This [WWX’s action] is breaking about half the Lan clan rules. Like, 500 of them at least.”

We also remarked “It’s about time” when WWX finally decided to save their forces with the flute. Husband said, “I mean, if you’re going to use it when someone disses your sister, you MIGHT as well use it now.”

And at Wen Ruohan frantically trying to get the Yin Iron to obey and it’s not working anymore: “Restart! Restart!”

Episode 23: I did not think we would be watching another episode so soon! We usually alternate between this and a sitcom we’re watching. But tonight husband settled in and said, “All right, I need another episode of Bunnies and Zombies.” Which apparently is now the show’s name.

YAY!

So! RIP, Wen Ruohan. You shall not be missed. Husband was not surprised to see that Meng Yao was indeed playing double agent.

He continued to find Nie Mingjue amusingly dense, though. When they’re discussing the aftermath of the battle and what to do with the refugees, and Mingjue says that Meng Yao has thought this through thoroughly, husband said, as Nie Mingjue, “Hrm. I’ve never thought anything through thoroughly.”

At Lan Wangji showing up to play guqin to heal Wei Wuxian, husband said, “Their idea of pacing in the show is so bizarre. They wrap up the big battle super fast, but then spend a long time on this song.” Clearly he doesn’t understand the importance of showing the Wangxian bonding moments. ;)

Speaking of which, Wangxian handholding starts becoming a thing in this episode. I approve.

Also, I must say I can easily see the Meng Yao/Lan Xichen ship in this episode. There is Eye Contact and Special Friendship, for sure. Then I remember the seriously icky things Meng Yao does later, and I can’t like him much. But he’s still somewhat endearing at this stage, before we know all that.

Husband laughed at Jin Guangshan’s awkward over-familiar manner when greeting everyone at the banquet, like when he pats Jiang Cheng’s shoulder in consolation. “He’s like someone’s weird uncle,” husband said. I remarked that given the number of children he has, and the large size of his family in general, he literally is several people’s weird uncle.

When WWX and LWJ stop the Jins from shooting arrows at the one last refugee who’s running away holding a little kid—is the little kid A-Yuan? I couldn’t quite tell. That’d be a nice touch if so.

#my husband watches the untamed #the untamed #wangxian #sunshot campaign #reaction post #demonic cultivation

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luvuwite · 4 years ago

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all, go

i hate you

1. What was the last present you gave?

uMMMM probably a commission i gave to pancake (archie/vivi)

2. What was the last present you received?

i dunno? if its a doodle then i got that a week back!

3. What animal best represents your personality?

from the oOoOO spirit animal tests i took im a snek

4. What are you most afraid of?

sometimes my own mind EYES EMOJI

5. Who is your favourite villain?

HMMMMMMM probably like,, megamind i love him

6. Who is your favourite family member? (we all have one, admit it)

MY SISTERRRR

7. If you could name your own planet what would it be called?

myanus

8. Stars or Moon?

stars!!

9. Do you have/want kinds?

if my other partner wants them, sure

10. What is your greatest life goal?

making it this far

11. What is something you can’t live without?

soup

12. What is a place you associate with your childhood?

one of the parks near the store-area

13. How was your first kiss/how would you like your first kiss to go?

i never kissed, so i wouldn’t know, but pls,,,ask for consent,,, and warn me if we gonna kiss or not,,,,,

14. What is some life advice you have acquired?

ive learned a lil’ bit, but one of em probably has to be to just be like,, dont cry over something you know is fake, at least thats what i remember atm HAHA

15. Who in history has influenced you?

bruh i dont like history idk

16. What is something strange that you think about often?

h,,,hopless romantic noISIJEIORQ AHHAHA i like to think about weird scenarios in my head basically

17. Baths or Showers?

showrr i get shy with myself in baths

18. Tea of Coffee?

coffee

19. Alcohol or soft drink?

alchohol bad brisk brisk brisk

20. Writing or typing?

typing since its easier

21. What is you most favourite thing in your bedroom?

my bed its sexy and comfy

22. Spontaneous holiday! Where are you going and with who?

wait what UH I DONT KNOW probably just close close friends and family

23. Introverted or Extraverted?

i have my moments with both

24. Describe yourself in two words.

small and aggressive

31. What do you think of when you hear ‘portrait’?

a picture or image of someone/something

32. Tell me about your partner/ideal partner?

i mean no one is perfect yeah? i just want them to be honest with me and accept my AHEM struGGLES with relationships since im not the best partner

33. Tell me about your siblings, if you have any?

my sister is what you call a “girly girl”, she likes disney movies, outdoors, being loud and running around, yknow just like any other child ever

35. What are you a big advocate for?

my friends!!

36. If you’re comfortable to answer, what is the sickest you have ever been?

migraine + stomach bug + mental in trash + stomach pains + lil appendix pain

37. When were you the most scared in your life?

when i broke my arm

38. Ever had a paranormal experience?

ACTUALLY YEAH i thought i heard someone yelling help outside my window and i peaked out and realized it was nothing and i figured i was just tired but i was still kinda freaked

39. Biggest celebrity crush at the moment?

im not like other girls,,,,....

40. What is something happening in your life right now?

uhhh just general anxiousness/paranoia(?) tbh

41. What is your favourite mythological creature?

DRAAAAGOOOOOON

42. Marvel or DC?

dont know what those are

43. What object would be on your family’s banner?

soup

44. Favourite flower?

pink rose

45. One characteristic you like in a partner?

s,,,support/reassurance pls

46. What planet/star would you travel to if it were possible?

i wanna,,,, actually i dont know i think i would just enjoy floating around in general

47. What is your favourite meal… ever?

soup

48. First time…. doing anything. Describe your first time doing something?

first time i drew was twiggit sperkl and that was the most proudest i ever felt

49. Who is your favourite superhero?

bRUHHH I DUNNO I DONT WATCH THAT STUF

50. What is your favourite poem? Recite it?

i dont read

51. What is an exercise you despise doing.

burpees

52. Secret talent?

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

fite

53. Current song on replay replay replay?

[x]

55. If you weren’t in your current occupation what would you be doing?

sleeping probably

56. What is the first thing you notice about the person you fancy?

,,y,yo they kinda,,,, scrumptious,,, AHUIWRWQI

57. If you had one wish that would definitely come true, what would it be?

yes

58. If you could time travel, when and where would you visit?

i would go to future bc i wanna see what i look like

59. What is your lucky number?

60. If you adopt a pet what would it be and what would you name it?

a cat!! and i actually am planning a name and calling them clementine!!

61. Do you believe in fate/everything happens for a reason?

i believe your fate is decided by ur own actions/words

62. What is your favourite thing about your personality?

im not too hard to get along with,, i hope

63. What is your favourite thing about your appearance?

uhhhhhhhhhhhhh

64. What is your favourite clothing store?

primark bc everything is like 2 bucks

65. What is your favourite online store?

i dont do online shopping too much

66. Use one word to describe your most favourite person?

observant

67. How do you usually have your hair?

down with a clip, then ponytail next day

68. What was your favourite subject in high school?

math

69. What makes you feel empowered?

power over something/someone(as a joke/in games, not in a bad way)

70. What motivates you to do something?

a prize at the end

71. What advice would you give someone who is going through a rough time?

it gets worse before it gets better, and in the worse ill be there for you so you dont have to go through this alone

72. Ideal date?

wendys!!! sweater weather!!! cuddle!!! left 4 dead!!! comfy clothes!!!

73. What is the best date night movie?

i am not that attractive to be taken out on a date

74. What is something you are currently looking forward to?

nothing atm tbh im just here bc i have to beIEOJRWIOE

75. Tell me a funny joke?

oo wa oh wa ooh

76. Do you like musicals? If so, what’s your favourite?

never listened to one actually

77. What is your favourite song currently?

sweater weather. always.

78. What song never fails to make you dance?

POP EYED JOEEEEE IVE BEEN LIVING???? LONG TIME YOOO

79. What is your favourite “classic?”

gnomeo and juliet

80. What is the best advice you have ever been given?

obese paragraph and comfort doodles? lets go

81. Where did you ancestors come from?

puerto rico

82. What have you learned from your parents/guardians?

be tough nugget and dont take shit seriously till you have to

83. What is a phrase you heard a lot growing up?

dont step on the crack or youll break ur mothers back

84. Do you believe in magic?

nnno

85. What reminds you of your best friend?

overwatch

86. What are you passionate about?

dance dance dance

87. Tell me a story from middle school?

one time

the end

88. Who was your favourite teacher and why?

i love my bio teacher rn bro shes such a sweetheart

89. Can you roll your tongue?

yes

90. What made you pursue what you are studying? (including school subjects)

my little pony

91. Where would you like to travel to?

japan for those toys gimme gimme

92. What is something on your bucket-list?

i wanna see coral reef

93. What is home to you?

place that brings feeling of comfort/security

94. What do you do in your free time?

draw

95. If you could buy anything right now, what would it be?

food

96. If you could see anyone, living or dead, right now, who would it be?

probs one of my online friends

97. If you could choose, what would your last meal be?

soup dumplings brisk and rice

98. How would you like to die?

happy

99. List five of your favourite pieces of art (paintings, books, songs etc)

ruby eyes / sweater weather / ponyo / wall-e / idk

100. What would you change about this world?

global warming SHOOO U FAT

#post #ask #long post #sugarbreadz

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escritorian · 4 years ago

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How to (not) be an Adventurer by Althea Dawnwind Chapter 2 - Role models

All right, so I figure if he’s going to hear all this the first time around, anyway, I may as well keep recording. Or...asking him to transcribe, I guess. We talked about it.

While I take no offence to your choice of pronouns, I feel I should remind you I have no gender.

Gotcha. Sorry.

No need to apologize.

Thanks. Still sorry. Wait, so is all this side commentary getting transcribed, too?

Yes.

Lovely. Perfect. All right, whatever. Let’s go.

So there are a bunch of new people at the house. Most of them are super cool, but one of them’s a total creeper.

Predictably, Julia’s hot into the creeper. (Ugh, her taste) But whatever. Her romantic graveyard. Let her dig it. Besides, I’m sure Galen would never let this guy actually hurt Julia. (If he could actually hurt Julia). It does make me wonder about why he lets this skeezeball travel with him, though. I mean, I guess he’s not always the most perceptive, but-

Whatever. I’m getting off topic.

Can journals be said to have an incorrect topic, properly?

Shush. Anyway, they were all just here, suddenly, talking about the pact and my plague and my future. I wanted to scream, but I was just so tired and scared. I think I’d have accepted anything that gave me hope at that point.

Okay. No. Wait. Not anything. They were saying in some alternate past (?), they thought I was about to make a pact with some god of entropy? And honestly, that just sounds bad all around. Like sure, okay, I was pretty sure mine wasn’t one of those cases of spell plague you live through, you know? But some things are just worse than death.

Honestly, I was- am really offended that they thought so little of me. Okay not “they,” really. I barely even know most of them, but Galen…I really though at least he’d have some respect for my integrity. I thought maybe he could see me as more than just the little sister who needs protecting and can’t be trusted to make her own decisions I only even made this pact because everyone seemed so sure it was my best shot. And I- I mean, I wanted to live. Guilty, okay? Who doesn’t?

I felt the same, Althea

Yeah. So… yeah.

It is not wrong to wish or fight for life.

Thanks, Sha- uh, do you have like, a nickname I can use or anything?

Shadhavar is the only name I have ever known.

Wow, that’s…kind of sad. For the record, you can call me Thea. It’s what everyone in the family calls me.

I thank you, Thea.

Ha. Ummm. I was about to say I was smiling, you know, to transcribe it? The idea? Feeling? But, what is it, really? Can you even smile here?

There is no physical form or structure here to demarcate itself into what you call a smile. The underlying ideas and feelings that cause the smile, however, can be recorded.

Oh. Cool. I mean, no really. Seriously. Cool. Anyway, what was I saying?

Is this question rhetorical?

Um, yes? I mean it was, but you can- you know.

Those who found me presented you the possibility of a pact.

Yeah, that’s pretty much it, and I said yes.

Do you regret having done so?

Pfff, no. I’m not going to pretend I understand the full implications of having formed a soul bond with an ancient, sentient sword-bridge-focus thing born from both the feywild and the shadowfell? But it’s for serious better than the alternative. I can say that with total confidence right now.

Anyway, most of Galen’s new friends seemed like they really cared for me despite having just met me. It was weird, but also kind of nice? Oh! And Galen’s girlfriend. (!) Apparently she left after everyone else but flew here the whole way to catch up!

Bad.

Ass.

And they all helped him defeat a death priest (or something) who was after me. I mean, okay. Julia helped. That…doesn’t count for nothing, I guess. I know mom and Nicon have trained her a lot and she’s freelanced a bit without telling mom. But now I have this whole group that seems like they’re sticking around for a bit? And maybe giving me some lessons?

This. Is going. To rule.

I also intend to provide you with instruction regardless of anyone else’s actions.

Really?!

Yes.

That’s…Ioun’s Wisdom, I don’t even know what to say! This is…am I going to cry? Fuck. No. I’m not going to start crying in here. Quick. Help me out.

Focus your mind on a task. You’ve mentioned these friends of your brother, but only just. Describe them.

Y-yeah. *sniff* Okay, yeah.

Breathe deeply and slowly.

Nono, I’m okay. It’s okay. Thanks. I’ve got this. Okay, strong feelings first. Let’s start with that creeper.

So, Creeper Creepzoidington is basically like a broody shadow who shoots everyone dirty looks, and I don’t say he’s a shadow because he’s drow. Like, that’d be rude and also really inaccurate. I say it cause this guy loves shadows. Like, he loooves them - practically lives in them. They’re his home and they keep him safe and warm. Nicon says he’s already stolen from them, and I think the only time I’ve heard him talk was to swear. So yeah, whatever his deal is, I am not training with him.

Then there’s this other drow, Phaedra. I mean, I only point out they’re drow because they’re supposed to be really rare. Surface elves are, too, but not as much? And I think I’ve only ever seen one of them. And now? Bam. 3 drow. More than I thought I’d ever met in my life, and everyone’s reaction has pretty much been, “Oh, hm! What a perfectly normal occurrence!” It's just a little bit surprising.

Anyway, Phaedra, she’s about as different from Slimeus Slimeballius as you can get. She’s really elegant and nice. She came by later that night to see how I was doing. I didn’t feel much like talking, so��um…I didn’t, but she was really calm and polite about it. I could tell she knew I wasn’t really fine, but she didn’t press it. She just…did her best to be reassuring then left me alone. I kind of didn’t want her to go, but I appreciate that she did.

And how she moves! I mean, okay, so that probably sounds weird, but you should see her! She’s like floating silk or flowing water. She doesn’t even seem human, sometimes. Well, I mean, she’s not human, but you know what I mean. She’s just ridiculously graceful, like she’s dancing in slow motion all the time, and my brain wants to learn the secret to it so much it can’t look away. So yeah, her I would totally train with.

Then there’s this younger drow, Tsabura. (Tsubara? Someone keeps messing up her name, and it’s really throwing me off.) I thought she might’ve been be their kid or something, but even without speaking the language, I picked up that was not the case real quick. She’s super cute but really quiet, and – I mean, I don’t know if the same standards culturally apply (nor am I sure whether or not it’s rude to consider that) - she has such nice skin. She seriously just glows. Her skin is literally, physically lustrous. But she’s just so angry. Like, all the time. Also? Really sad. I hope we can be friends. I guess that’s a bit random, but it’d be great to have someone to relate to on a different level while on the road (more on that later), and maybe having a friend will help her not be so sad and angry.

It's weird, though. Like, no one’s saying anything about her, but she doesn’t seem like she’s been taking lessons from anyone, and she was pretty much dressed in rags? Mom tried to give her some of my old clothes, but that didn’t go so well. Maybe that’s why she’s in rags. Or maybe it’s a religious thing? Either way, I should probably stop calling them rags. When I tried talking to her, she barely even looked at me. Honestly, I’m not sure I didn’t just imagine the brief glances she did give me, either. I just...I want to know why she’s deliberately making herself so distant. It’s like a mystery my brain needs to solve.

Moving on, there’s this really cheerful gnome named Tielka. She’s...interesting. She’s covered in armor and has a sword that drips frost but somehow seems super approachable? Paradoxically, that makes me kind of nervous to approach her. She also sounded really smart. So I guess she’s...what? A friendly warrior scholar? I don’t know. I mean, the image I’d always had of paladins is super stiff and serious, all thees and thous, but this? It’s a weird vibe. I mean, she looks like she’s 20, but she’s got this really motherly aura making me unsure if I want to befriend her or make sure she doesn’t catch me at mischief, so she’s got that, “inspiring the best behavior in others” thing down, I guess.

She’s also got a huge dog named Axle with the best leg. I mean, omigosh, okay. So his natural leg would’ve been the best leg, of course, but out of potential replacements? This thing is, literally, divine. Like, it’s full of clockwork, but it makes almost 0 noise, and it moves with him. It doesn’t just sit there. I really want to know how it works. I mean, I’m guessing the answer will be something like 50% divinity, 40% magic and 10% mechanics, but still.

And then there’s Max. I’m getting to her last, but she’s easily the biggest personality of the group. (As befits a bard.) She’s pretty much the polar opposite of Broody Broodfacerson. She’s super friendly. She’s always smiling the brightest smile. She has a siren’s voice and sings all the time. She has a whole troop of animals who follow her around, all of whom I’m pretty sure she actually talks to. (I think they’re all named Annie for some reason?) And she’s so pretty. Seriously, everything she does is extra charming. There’s just something about how she moves, how she talks. Just like, everything she does is so captivating. There must be some lesson on mannerisms in bard college that teaches you how to keep people’s eyes on you cause there are like hooks on her gestures that grab the brain and don’t let go. Basically, what I’m saying is she definitely made the right career choice. Honestly, I wish she were a little quieter, but, well, no one can have everything, you know?

sighs

“You know.” I have to stop that.

This is your fifth time using that phrase in this entry.

Fuuuck, really?!

Yes. Would you like me to alert you when you use it?

Nooo. I mean- auuugh, Vecna blind it! Yes. Yes, please do.

Very well.

Thanks. Anyway, moving on...actually, I think that’s about it.

Oh! And Galen. But you know about Galen. Well, I know about Galen, but will you, hypothetical/theoretical mystery future person, know about Galen? I guess I should talk about Galen. I mean, honestly, though, it feels like it’s enough to say he’s the best oldest brother anyone could want. Aforementioned rudeness aside, that is. He’s just, I mean, he’s always giving me his time and teaching me the most interesting things, and he’s smart enough The Academy was too slow for him. So he just, you know, decided to go adventuring and-

That’s six times.

What?

That you’ve used the phrase, “you know.”

Ugggghhhh. All right, you know what? My brain’s clearly tired. He’s great, and I might end up going adventuring with him, which would be the best. The end.

…

Sooo, how do I stop...

You can do so in the same manner as you did last time.

Yeah, I’m not really sure what I did last time.

You need simply to “feel” your intent to stop.

Okay, so kind of like-

#That Which Once had Never Been #Althea brain journals #althea dawnwind #julia dawnwind #galen dawnwind #antiope dawnwind #the dawnwinds

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pixiibells · 4 years ago

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United States of Tara reaction fic!

Guys this was in my drafts from line 2014-15 and I never posted it. Here we go!!

Okay, so this episode aired allll the was back in 2009, but my husband and I found it on Netflix last week and we like it. I saw "Possibilities" and I thought Marshall and Jason were freaking adorable! Then we watched "Betrayal" and I really liked where it ended, prefect for a fan to pick up where it left off. I wrote this between that episode and the closer for season one.

Title: Revived

Author: Pixiebells

Fandom: United States of Tara, Season 1

Genre: Reaction fic to “Betrayal”

Pairing Marshall/Jason

“Did you do this?!”

Marshall looked up from his novel, as he read placidly on the lawn. The fire was out, and Kate had gone inside. The shed was now a burnt-out stub in the ground, with ash and papers soaked in water, little memories floating around, soon turning to garbage. “Oh, yeah, sorry about that. Something just came over me.” He glared at his mother.

“Oh, don’t you dare do that!” Tara growled at him. “Don’t you fucking condescend me like that!”

“So you’re mad about this?” He shot back, annoyed.

“Of course I am! You burned our fucking shed down, Marshall!”

“Oh, so you get to make irrational, stupid decisions with little to not consequence but the second I act out, it’s wrong.”

“We’re wrong either way!” she shouted. “But in my defense, I wasn’t fully aware of what I was doing. You, however, are.”

She sighed and sat down on the edge of his chair.

“Look, we both screwed up, okay? Do you really think I’m happy about all this? Do you think I like making a mess of everything I touch? Barely able to keep a job, or get through a weekend of in-laws? Or have a normal afternoon at the spa with my sister?”

“Back to self-pity, again. You’re shameless.”

She grabbed his book and threw it on the lawn, aggravated. “I’m sorry, I didn’t order extra snark with this conversation. What is your problem?”

“Right now? You. You are my problem. I really liked him, and maybe, maybe he likes me back. Do you think I was happy putting myself through that disturbing production, just to spend time with him? What kind of origin story would that be for our adopted children? ‘Your father and I met because I thought he was cute, and he thought pretending to burn in hell for perfectly valid feelings was a fun way to spend a Sunday afternoon.'”

“Oh my God, you’ve already imagined adopting kids with him?” she chucked good-naturedly, despite herself. She didn’t want to insult her son’s feelings, but that was one hell of a crush.

“Well, yeah. I’m like a wolf, or a clown fish, or whatever animals mate for life. Point is, I like one guy at a time. And when I like him, I really like him. And Jason’s not shallow like a lot of people my age. He’s rare. He’s kind of special. And he’s grown up in this totally controlling, unhealthy environment and maybe now he’ll let his guard down a little.”

“Aww, sweetie. I’m sorry.”

Tara’s anger melted away like the magazine clippings T had plastered on the walls of the shed last summer. She’d found every image of Justin Beiber she could get her hands on, and wrote “PUSSY BITCH” and “FUCK BELIEBERS” and the semi-political “DON’T TALK ABOUT ANNE FRANK LIKE THAT!” In red Sharpie all over his stupid face.

She hugged Marshall, and his anger melted just like his bike had. “I promise I’ll never make out with boys you like again.”

“You better not.” He replied in her ear, finally relaxed. They parted and he spoke again: “I’m sorry too. I know that was kinda your…place.” His guilt finally caught up to him.

“It’s fine. You know, maybe it needed to go. Maybe that was just cosmic timing. You know, my therapist basically dumped me today.”

“Really? Aww, I was trying to think of some puns or a catch phrase for you guys, like a reference to Ocean’s Eleven or something.”.

Tara smiled in appreciation. “I love how creative you are. I’ve always loved that about you. But hey, maybe it’s a chance for a new start, you know? Maybe I should get this new therapist, or go back on the meds.”

“No, no, don’t do that just for my sake. That should be your choice, my melodrama notwithstanding.”

“Thank you. And I’d do it for us. All of us. It’s just something I’m tossing around anyway. Come on, why don’t we go inside?” she mended fences, picking up his book and handed it back to him as he got up.

“Just one more thing?”

“Yeah?”

“Was he at least a good kisser?”

“Oohh, details!” she squeaked. “Why? You wanna kiss him?”

“Already did, actually.” he beamed, content with his conquest..

“Oh, well done, playa.”

“And then he kissed back.”

“Ooooh!”

“But it was so quick I wasn’t sure. So…”

“He was all right. Not terrible, not great. Not much experience. Well,” she teasingly looked to him, “not yet.”

“Mom.” he blushed, looking away.

They had reached the kitchen by then. Kate was back up in her room and Max was washing his hands.

“OK,” Tara breathed a sigh, “I’m gonna go change, get cleaned up. Start helping out with dinner.”

As she went upstairs, Marshall sat at the counter and struck up a conversation with Max. “Dad?”

“You and mom work things out?” he asked, pulling a roast pan out of the cupboard.

“Yeah, and I’m sorry.”

“It’s all right. Just, don’t do it again, okay?”

“Okay. I am sorry.”

“You’re fine, it’s cool. Not the first fire I’ve put out today,” he remarked with a smile.

“I have kind of an important question. About Mom and her alters.”

“What’s that?” he asked, while rummaging through the freezer.

“When she’s T, and she’s hitting on some other guy, or, making out with someone half her age. How do you get over it? You guys have been together for almost 20 years. Doesn’t at least a little part of you get insanely jealous?”

“On some level, yeah.” Max agreed, sticking a bowl of water in the microwave. “But I remind myself of a couple things. It’s temporary, it’s meaningless, and it’s not really her. To be honest, when she’s…not herself, I actually don’t really, uh…”

“Oh,” Marshall was taken aback. “So when she’s not herself, you guys don’t…”

“We agreed it was weird. So it makes it easy to disconnect.”

“That makes sense. Sorry if that was a weird question.”

“Aw, come on. We both know that’s the tip of the weird iceberg around here.” Max winked at his son.

Marshall chuckled, relived. Just then, there was a knock at the door.

“I’ll get that, you’re starting dinner,” he said, rising from his seat. Max thanked him and turned back to the microwave, hot water now ready for thawing.

He opened the door and Jason was there, looking a bit anxious.

“Oh,” Marshall’s mood immediately cooled off. He was square with his mom, but Jason didn’t exactly fight her off, and he was still hurt.

“Sorry, my mom’s not available right now.” He contemplated closing the door, but settled on giving him an icy glare instead.

“Look, I’m really sorry. And believe me when I say I’m not interested in any…version of your mom. I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings. If it makes you feel any better, it was weird. And I’m not into labels or whatever, but I really do like you. And your family’s kinda cool. Hell of a lot better than mine.”

“OK, OK,” God damn, he was so cute...he couldn’t throw him away after one weird afternoon, “you’re off the hook. I might have gone a little overboard…”

“Holy shit, that was you?” Jason’s eyes widened. “Whoa…I hope I never piss you off.”

“I…got…jealous.” he stammered. “Sorry if that’s weird for you.”

“I’ll take as a…compliment.” Jason said with a shrug.

They shared a smile, relieved at last.

“So…maybe we can hang out later on?” Jason suggested. “I mean, if you still want to.”

“I do want to.” Marshall quickly replied. He still had a shot! “We’re gonna have dinner in a little while, but maybe...” he reached over and tucked back a lock of hair that has fallen over his eyes, “we could go for a walk first?”

“Sounds good to me.” Jason agreed, grinning.

“Okay.” Marshall said quickly, voice teeming with excitement.

He bounded inside and let his dad know they’d be out.

“I’ll be back for dinner,” he promised.

“No rush.” Max smiled back, reassuringly.

Marshall waltzed out the door, and they walked off, together.

THE END.

#united states of tara #season 1 #marshall/jason #what could've been #omg so cute #old post #fanfiction

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badolmen · 5 years ago

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@billy-hoepe @bonniebunz @softupshur, @bandtrees everybody else who liked/reblogged the first, second, and third chapter- y’all’re awesome and cool and your tags and comments inspire me to keep writing! I hope something nice happens to you this month!

“Not gonna lie Upshur, that kid’s weird,” Piper said, pulling the curtain around the table. Miles swallowed the lump of fear in his throat, hoping those shadows licking at the edge of Billy’s frame were just his sleep deprived and traumatized mind playing tricks on his eyes.

“Doesn’t say much though, seems pretty quiet,” Billie muttered, swatting Miles’ hands away as she undid his button down, the shirt sticky with half dried blood. “We don’t need to worry about him talking, do we Miles?”

“No – no, he won’t-”

“Will you?” Piper asked, voice sing song soft as she pressed stinging antiseptic solution to the stubs of his fingers. Miles flinched away, but in spite of her small stature, Piper firmly held his hand in place.

“I wouldn’t have come here if – you know I wouldn’t do anything like that, right?” His words were strained, calm forced into his face as Billie turned to a table of tools.

“You’re a – well, you were a big shot reporter, buddy,” Buddy. Piper barely noticed Miles’ breath hitch.

“Relax Miles,” Billie said, tapping the needle in her hand, bubbles floating to the top. “Pip’s just being a jerk,” She brought the needle to his hand, giving him a glance. “It’s a local anesthetic, we need to clean up those cuts, you’ll feel the pressure but not the pain,”

Miles gave a grim smile, watching Piper set out scalpels and clippers and gauze. Billie set to work at the bullet buried in his shoulder, prodding the wound cautiously.

“By the way Miles, who the hell were you fucking with? Must be big fish if you’re here and not a hospital,” Piper asked, Miles looking away and ignoring the warmth of fresh blood as she began work on his left hand.

“Mount Massive,” He managed through gritted teeth, Billie still cautiously picking at the bullet wound. Piper looked up, eyes bright with recognition.

“Oh, cool! I had a girlfriend who worked there a while ago, think she got laid off recently actually, or maybe it was maternity leave? Haven’t talked to her in a while, we aren’t that close anymore.” There was a clatter as she set a bloody tool back into the metal tray.

“The hell were you doin’ up there? Not officially reporting ‘em or something, right? Thought you got fired or whatever after that stunt you pulled overseas,”

“Murkoff-” Miles inhaled sharply, Billie’s knife hitting a nerve. The sisters shared a glance. Piper sighed, cauterization of wounds filling the air with an all too familiar stench. There was an uncharacteristic rush to Billie’s movements as she continued to work the bullet from his shoulder.

“You two can’t come back here, got it? Soon as the sun’s up you’re on your own,” Her voice was quiet, nearly a whisper. Miles gave a stiff nod. “We don’t fuck with those guys, they’ve got a hand in every pocket; they’re real serious about whistleblowers and shit, they’ll ruin you, if they don’t outright kill ya,”

“They sure as hell tried,” Miles said with a dark chuckle, wincing as Piper began working on his right hand.

“Yeah, but they like to be thorough,” Piper glanced to her sister as the other woman finally pulled a chunk of bullet from Miles’ shoulder. “They’ll track you down, find everybody you talked to and do worse to them,” Miles’ eyes flashed to Piper as she snipped a jagged fingerbone to a cleaner cut. “Basically, Billie and I might be fucked for helping you,”

“I don’t – I don’t think we were followed,” Miles managed, Billie stitching his shoulder with a practiced hand. Piper gave a shrug.

“Good thing your mama’s way back in the East, wouldn’t want any of those goons visiting her,” The smaller woman said, holding one of Miles numbed hands still as she began to bandage the wounds. Miles jerked on the bench, but Billie held him down as she set a bandage to the wound on his chest, pressing against bruises and broken ribs.

“Easy, you might not be feeling much now, but tomorrow you’re gonna wish-”

“No, no, not that,” He said with a groan, already feeling the aches of his new stitches. His head looked to the curtain, the room outside very still and quiet. “He’s been talking about going back to his mom’s-”

“Don’t,” Piper said, voice soft as she took the tray of bloody tools away from the table.

“I know, but-”

“Listen, Miles, if you went to Mount Massive, found that kid, and took him…Murkoff is gonna consider you for one, a thief or kidnapper or whatever depending on how important that guy is, and two, an insurance nightmare. They’ve got a lot of money they’d rather not part with in lawsuits.”

A rhythmic knock rapped at the door. Billie glanced at her phone.

“Kev’s here,” She said, wiping blood from her hands and setting aside clean bandages. “I texted him earlier, to bring some stuff for you two, when you first knocked. Clothes, y’know? So you’re less recognizable.”

“And you told him to stop by Lee’s, right? For dinner? I’m starving,” Piper said, wrapping Miles’ hand in clean, white gauze.

“Yeah, yeah,” Billie said, pulling the curtain away and walking to the door. Miles looked to the couch, Billy’s form small and shivering. He swallowed a lump in his throat, hoping the sisters didn’t notice the darkness swarming behind the younger man’s blank eyes, the tendrils of nanites writhing across his body and blending with the shadows.

The door opened with a click, and Billy snapped out of it, the darkness dissipated by a single cough, eyes unfocused but clear.

“I got the stuff,” A new voice said, the crinkle of plastic bags accompanied by the smell of grease and spices. Kevin stepped through the door, Billie planting a kiss on her husband’s cheek. He nearly took up the whole door frame, ducking to keep from hitting his head on the light fixture that dangled in front of the door. He gave a nod to Miles, who could only give a weak smile in return.

“Gimme!” Piper squealed, Billy flinching away as the woman darted across the room to acquire a container of Chinese food. “Sorry Billy boy, a girl’s gotta eat,”

“Hold up Pip, we’ve gotta finish up with Upshur first,” Billie chided, Kevin pulling the bags of food up to the ceiling. Piper groaned, sulking back to Miles with comical disappointment. “Kev, could you, uh, hang out with Billy over there ‘til we’re done? You got some stuff for him, right?”

“Yeah, had Chris go through their things, pick out stuff they wanted to donate to the thrift store, figured this was about the same kinda charity, right?” Kev said, holding out a different grocery bag to his wife. Billie nodded at the contents.

“Cool, I’ll finish up quick, make sure Billy’s good, but then these two gotta stay the night,” She said, giving Kevin a tight smile. “Date night tomorrow night sound good?” Kevin grimaced.

“Chris’ got-”

“Right, SAT practice…damn, well, we’ll figure it out,” She pulled the curtain back across the divider, Kevin setting the bags of food on the table.

“Hey little guy,” He said, voice quiet and movements slow as he approached the couch, bag of clothes in hand. Billy recoiled at the words, shrinking deeper into the cushions. Kevin stopped walking. “Just got some stuff for ya, mind if I sit next to you?”

Billy’s eyes darted from the curtain to the giant of a man. Where did Mom go? How did he find her if he never left?

The man repeated his question. Billy nodded. It was better to let him do what he wanted. Safer. It couldn’t hurt worse than the ache in his chest.

“Here,” He said, setting the bag of clothes between them. “Chris is pretty big for their age and you seem a little small for yours so there should be some stuff in there that’ll fit you. Miles will just have to make do with the baggier stuff.” His smile was encouraging, gentle. “Sorry if it’s a little…unique. Chris has been going through some phases lately, but that just means more variety for you,”

Billy slowly leaned toward the bag, eyes catching glimpses of clothes. Stripes, plaids, polka dots, and sequins. Crop tops, flannels, button downs, sweaters, and vests. Shorts, jeans, cargo pants, sweat pants, and skirts. He glanced back to Kevin.

“Take what you want, it’s for you and Upshur, the rest is going to Good Will,”

Billy sifted through the clothes, trying to remember what he liked. When was the last time he picked out a shirt? Asked for a new pair of pants? Most of his clothes at home were hand-me-downs. He knew he didn’t like the uniform they gave him at the asylum. And that he didn’t like the shorts he wore in the cold place.

He liked Miles’ jacket. It was warm. It smelled like coffee and smoke, under the sickening scent of blood. Billy picked out clothes like that. Clothes that reminded him of Miles. A pale button down with plaid patterning. A cozy blue flannel. Worn but comfortable looking jeans. Soft socks with rubber grippers along the sole.

Kevin had taken out a container of food, picking at the contents with chop sticks as Billy sorted through the articles and compiled his favorites around him. On the table, Miles slowly sat up, blood and grime wiped away to reveal a patchwork of stitches and bruises and clean bandages left behind from the sisters’ work.

“You look like shit Upshur,” Kev said, gesturing with his chopsticks and eyes settling on the man’s hands as the reporter tried to push himself to his feet.

“Take it easy,” Billie hissed, grabbing his good shoulder. “Let’s get you to the couch. We’ll give Billy boy a quick check up then let you two rest up. You’re gonna need it.” The woman walked Miles to the seat, Kev reaching over Billy to pass on the bags full of clothes to the dazed patient.

“Kid, leave your stuff on the couch and come over here so we can get a better look at you,” Piper’s voice was friendly. Soft and inviting. And every fiber of Billy’s body screamed that it was a trap. Another test. Soft voices always led to numbing needles and suffocating quiet and then he would be underwater again, drowning but not drowning and breathing without air –

“Easy kiddo,” Kev’s voice rumbled beside him, a hand gripping his shoulder. Billy’s own hands were shaking, pins and needles loosening his grip on the clothes in his grasp. Darkness flickered at the edges of his vision, the ghostly afterimages from the Engine blurry against the white light from the makeshift operating room.

“Billy,” Miles. He knew Miles. Miles was safe. Never a trick. Never a lie. Not yet, at least. “You need to breathe,” He couldn’t see Miles, his vision crawling with those half corporeal insects that always seemed to eat his eyes and burrow into his skull. But Miles was there, a hardly felt warmth beside him. And Billy needed to breathe.

With a shaky inhale, chest aching for air, Billy blinked tears from his eyes, vision refocusing on his numb, shaking hands. And Miles’ hand, a mangled mess of bandages and bruises, gently rubbing some sensation back into Billy’s unfeeling palm. He lifted his eyes slowly, Piper and Billie and Kev seemingly unperturbed by the disturbance.

“They’re gonna help, okay? Not gonna hurt you,” Miles forced a smile, nodding to the sisters. Billy looked over Miles’ face, not quite meeting his eyes as he scanned the fresh stitches and bandages.

Eventually, he managed a stiff nod. Miles hadn’t hurt him yet, and the icy shadow that breathed down his back when the doctors lied and the nurses muttered under their breath was a distant chill. The people here were yet to pose a threat to him, at least, as far as the static specter in the back of his mind was concerned. Billy stood on shaking legs, shuffle toward the waiting women.

“Easy, easy,” Piper said, hands hovering around him without making contact as she guided him to the operating room. “Can you sit here on your own?” Billy managed himself up onto the cold, metal table, his own body far away and actions automatic. He focused on his breathing, chest hollow and rattling with every exhale.

“It’s alright, you aren’t the first to freak out, won’t be the last,” Billie muttered, a sincere attempt of comfort him somewhere in her tone. He could hardly hear her, keeping his focus on Miles, who seemed equally anxious that they finish looking over Billy’s bruises and cuts.

“You’re in rough shape kid, but you’re doin’ a helluva lot better than Upshur,” Piper said, smile across her face, hands gentle as they held Billy’s head up to force his eyes to meet her own. “A lot of water, some food, and sleep will do you a lot of good.”

“Really?” Miles’ voice was hoarse, a whisper in the quiet room that drew all eyes to him. “He’s okay?”

“Far as I can tell,” Piper said, giving the journalist a shrug. “Physically speaking. Bruises, cuts, easy antiseptic wash and band aid. Throat is raw as hell but the best he can do is take it easy.” She guided Billy back to the couch, her hand gently resting on his shoulder.

“We need to clean up for the night, then we’ll put the lights out. I’ll take first watch,” Billie supplied as she stepped back into the operating room, moving a tray of bloodied tools to the sink. “Get some fresh clothes on and get some rest.”

“I’ve got to go make sure Chris’ sleeping well. I’ll pick you two up in the morning,” Kev said, pulling his wife into a hug before heading back to the door. “Night,”

“Night,” The sisters echoed back, softly rummaging back in the operating room.

Miles was already asleep, breathing deep and slow, broken ribs aching against bandaged skin. He looked cold. Billy shed the blood stained jacket, placing it over Miles’ sleeping form. The clothes were warm and dry and smelled of fabric softener. Mom never used fabric softener; it was too expensive to buy regularly.

But there was something comforting in the floral scent, the freshness of the clothes compared to the dingy couch beneath him. How long had it been since he had dressed himself? Without doctors and nurses buzzing around him like anxious mosquitoes, needles at the ready full of sedative?

He curled into a ball at the opposite end of the couch, listening to Miles’ breathing and the sisters’ quiet murmurs. Eventually the room grew quiet. And the light went out.

#outlast #miles upshur #billy hope #outlast fanfiction #outlast whistleblower #outlast ii #outlast 2 #seriously tho @ yall who rb and comment on my stuff: you're cool and literally make my day.#quarantine: *happens* my outlast feels: 👀#also HELLO OUTLAST FANDOM i am NOT dead. just busy. and stressed. BUT im doing better! so here I am!#it has been. a while since ive touched this word document. ive read thru a few times for any inconsistencies but ¯\ _(ツ)_/¯ its for fun

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queen-ofsunflowers · 5 years ago

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Ruby Rose of Class 1-A: Chapter Six Preview

As soon as that signal was given, Bakugo marched towards the door.

“Hey, Bakugo, wait!” said Ruby, trying to reach out to stop him from leaving. Bakugo was out of her reach, and definitely wasn’t listening to what she had asked him to do.

“Stay here. Guard the weapon,” Bakugo glared back at her, red eyes burning with anger. “Deku is mine.”

“But we’re supposed to work together! We need a plan—!”

“Whatever, Crater Face!” And with that stinging note, Bakugo stormed out of the room There was a lingering silence left behind. Great… looked like Bakugo didn’t forget about that little incident yesterday.

“Crater…?” Ruby heard Iida mutter just loud enough for her to catch. She nodded.

“It’s a long story…” And one that she really did not want to tell today. Ruby sighed, turning to her remaining teammate. “So, uh… as I was saying, we need a plan, right?” To her relief, Iida nodded.

“I was planning on asking Bakugo about Midoriya’s Quirk, since they are childhood friends.” Right… Midoriya did mention that yesterday on their walk to the station… Iida cast a glare at the doorway. “However…”

“Oh! I can help!” Iida glanced over at her. Okay, maybe that needed some explanation... “I asked Midoriya about his Quirk when we first met.” Iida blinked.

“You did?” Ruby nodded. For once, she was glad that she had her weird interest. And that she had used her love of heroes to get Midoriya to open up to her. Uraraka, too.

“Midoriya didn’t tell me much, just that it’s a boost in strength and power, but he can’t control it yet. His limbs break when he does,” Ruby said, doing her best to explain what she had been told. “And I asked about Uraraka’s yesterday after Mr. Aizawa’s test. She can make things float if she touches them.” Now that the ball was rolling, she couldn’t quite stop it. “And you have those engines in your legs that make you go faster. Kind of like Ingenium’s Quirk! Except his are in his arms.”

“Uh… y… yes…” Iida stood there, look down at the ground. Had she said something wrong? Maybe talking about heroes with Iida wasn’t the best course of action… Iida shook his head, returning to the task at had. “When down to the basics, your own power is of the same type. Your speed.”

“Yeah! I guess the basics between us are a lot alike,” said Ruby. “It’s like you said earlier, we may outnumber them, but we don’t really have an advantage. We both go really fast! We can be… speed… buddies?” Iida stared at her. Now that she said it out loud... “Sorry, I just realized how dumb that sounds.”

“Er, no. You’re fine.” It didn’t sound like it. The girl sighed.

“Sorry, I’m just… not really good at making friends,” Ruby said, tugging at her cloak and kicking the ground. “All of my friends are my sister’s, and they’re all older than me. I’ve never had to make any on my own. Or work with people that I don’t know well. This is all sort of… new to me.” She looked up. Iida was moving some of the trash scattered around the room into a small corner of the room. “So, um… what are you doing?”

“I’ll explain later,” he said. He waved Ruby over. “Lend me a hand with hiding these, would you?”

“Uh, yeah! Of course!” Ruby made her way to his side, helping her teammate with.. cleaning up the mess? Was Iida that much of a neat freak? He seemed like the type to be… Whatever the case was, Ruby and Iida went about their task with ease, with the latter picking up a few of the heavier objects in the room before Ruby could.

He also served as the one to break the silence, and that had only happened once the par were starting to finish up with their impromptu cleaning duty.

“Be careful if you have to use your Quirk,” said Iida to Ruby as she shoved the last bit of trash out of sight.. “A side effect of using it is you create rose petals, correct? You left them all over the yard during Mr. Aizawa’s test.”

“Yeah, I think it’s genetic,” said Ruby, trying to think of the explanation she had been given as a kid. “My mom did the same thing when she used her Quirk.” White-red rose petals were often a sign that her mother had been present during a fight. And hadn't been seen for almost eleven years now. Iida hummed in response.

“Just be careful. Uraraka’s Quirk allows her to make anything she touches float,” he said. “I’m not sure what she’d be able to do with them, but it’s better to be cautious now then later.”

“Sir, yes, sir!” said Ruby, giving Iida a mock salute. Something popped into her mind as she lowered her hand. “Wait, is that why we’re hiding everything?” Iida nodded again. He pressed his finger to the side of his helmet, right over his ear.

”Bakugo, come in. Give me a status report. Where are you?” There was a beat as Ruby was left only on one side of the conversation. “...Are you forgetting what our mission is? Hello? He hung up on me! This isn’t the time for radio silence! We’re supposed to be partners.” Iida groaned loudly in frustration.

“I’m guessing Bakugo isn’t answering, huh?” Ruby asked, unsure what else to say.

“No, he is. Just not listening.” Iida let out a heavy sigh. For some reason, Ruby was not surprised.

“He’s uh…” she gave a dry laugh as she shoved a box in front of the whole mess to hide it better from view, “really getting into this, isn’t he?” She heard Iida hum.

“Bakugo definitely has a villainous side. And that’s exactly what we need to succeed in this mission. We need to temporarily devote ourselves to criminal intent.” Ruby, finally getting the last bit of mess packed away, walked back over to Iida with a brow raised.

“Become villains… to be heroes?” Iida nodded. It still made less sense saying it out loud.

“Yes, exactly! I won’t fail this trial and risk bringing shame to the Iida family name. That means… we must now embrace evil…” From under his helmet, Iida’s eyes narrowed. Ruby wondered if he was putting on some sort of face. “Behold! I am the personification of villainy!” Iida cackled, much like a stereotypical villain on TV would. Ruby burst into a fit of laughter, doing her best to hide her amusement. That voice he had put on… it was just too funny!

#my hero academia #my hero academia au #boku no hero academia #bnha au #rwby #rwby in bnha au #ruby rose #katsuki bakugo #tenya iida #writing #preview

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fluffy-marshmallow-heart · 6 years ago

Text

Confessions of a Campus Barista ch.10 - A Night to Remember

Aauuggghhh so this is the last chapter of my Confessions series! Thank you so much to everyone who has been reading, liking, commenting, and reblogging it! Zig is such a sweetheart, and I hope I told his story well enough. Much love to all of you as well as our Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, and Senior Choices world!

Words: 3820

NSFW

Zig x MC (Veronica)

What will happen at the Spring Fling dance?

It was the night of the Spring Fling dance and Zig was nervous as all hell. He’d never been to one of these things and he knew very few people here. But that wasn’t what he was worried about. He had big plans tonight. He’s planning on asking Veronica if she wants to date him exclusively, and that is the scariest thing he could ever think of to do. Zig is standing by the drink table, glancing around nervously when suddenly she walks up to him.

“Hey Zig!”

“Hey Veronica” His eyes widen as she approaches. Holy. Shit. He looks her up and down and whistles quietly. “Veronica…you look incredible.”

“I can’t resist an opportunity to get dolled up.” She replied, spinning slowly for him with a grin on her face, showing off her sparkly beige gown.

“Any doubt about coming to this dance has completely left my mind.” He told her. She is breathtaking. Oh my god, how am I going to do this? Why would someone like her say yes to someone like me?

Veronica gave him a sly smirk. “Yeah…about that…Are you dating a Hartfeld student?”

Zig’s mouth fell open. She already thinks we’re dating?? “Oh, um…We haven’t known each other that long, so I didn’t know if…I mean, if that’s what you want, I…” He was completely stuttering over all of his words, having no idea what to make of what she just asked him.

Then she let out a laugh. “Zig, I was joking. I just meant, you know, since these dances are for Hartfeld students only…”

“Oh! Of course.” He scratches the back of his head sheepishly. “I’m guessing that means Chris hasn’t told you yet.”

“Told me what?” She asked, curiously.

Zig smiled to himself. Chris stayed true to his word. He didn’t tell her.

“I’m the very first student to win the Second Chance Scholarship! You’re looking at Hartfeld’s newest knight!” He exclaimed, then immediately frowned. “Wow. School spirit sounds weird coming from me.”

Veronica grinned at him. “Congratulations! Zig, that’s so amazing!” She looked him over again. “Did Chris tell you that this was supposed to be a semi-formal?”

Zig nodded. “He did. But I don’t actually own a suit, and I also don’t really give a damn.”

Veronica let out a laugh. “Well, I for one will take any opportunity to dress up. Where else was I going to show off this ensemble?” She spins in another slow circle, so he can admire every inch of her. Raking his eyes up and down, Zig licks his lips. It takes him a beat to realize she was talking again.

“So. How does it feel to be a college man?”

He shrugged. “So far, pretty much the same. I’m guessing that will change when I actually start classes.”

She nodded. “Well, I hope you’re prepared for four years of boring lectures and all-night cram sessions.”

Okay, Zig. Here we go.

Zig smiles and shifts a little uncomfortably. “So, uh…This is a dance, right?”

“Right…”

“Would you…want to do that?” He asked, hesitantly.

She cocked her head to the side and smiled slowly. “Zig, if I didn’t know any better, I’d think you were nervous.”

He rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeah, well, I’m a man of many talents, but dancing’s not one of them. I’m going out on a limb here.” He extends his hand out to her. “What do you say?”

She looked at his hand and frowned. “I…have to catch up with my friends…”

Zig’s heart fell through his chest. Well, I may as well go curl up in a ball in a corner now and

‘I’m kidding! I’d love to” She laughs as she puts her hand in his. “Don’t worry. I don’t expect any fancy footwork.”

“Oh my God, Veronica, that was just harsh” He chuckled back. “And good, because I’m working with a basic 2 step here. Though I may have a move or two up my sleeve.” He lifts her arm and twirls her, the bottom of her dress floats in the breeze. “Annnnnd that was it. Probably should have saved it for the dance floor.”

“I’m sure you’ve got many more surprises in you.” She says, softly. As Zig leads her out to the center of the dance floor, the up-beat song that was playing melts into a slow song.

“Oh good, a slow jam. This I can do.” He twirls her again before pulling her in his arms. He wraps one arm around her back and takes her hand in the other, holding her body close against his.

She raises her eyebrows. “Pretty smooth for a guy with no moves.”

“Hey, a slow dance is just a two-step with a little less distance between us.” He smirks at her, pressing her even tighter to his chest, His face is inches away from hers, but rather than closing the distance, he pulls back a little.”

“Is something wrong?” She asked

Zig took a deep breath. “No! Not at all…I…I wanted to talk to you about something.”

“You’re making that nervous face again.” She told him

Zig shook his head. “No, I’m not…Well, I’m nervous as hell, actually. I’m not really good at this sort of thing, so I’ll just come out with it. I…I really like you, Veronica. A lot. We haven’t known each other very long but you’ve literally changed my life. I may have a lot of things I need to work on but recognizing a good thing when I see it isn’t one of them.” He pauses and inhales sharply, completely terrified of what he’s about to ask. He’s putting his heart on the line, and that’s not something ever does.

“So…we haven’t really defined what this thing is, and I’m not saying we have to.” He added quickly. “But…I just really feel like I have to…lock this down somehow. I guess what I’m asking is…will you…you know?” He shifted again.

“Zig. Are you asking me to be your girlfriend?” She asked.

“If that’s…we don’t have to call it that, if you don’t want to. Unless that’s what you…” He exhaled slowly and gave her a smile. “Veronica, you’re killing me here.”

She grinned. “Zig…I’d love to be your girlfriend.”

His eyebrows shot up. “You’re not just saying that to shut me up, are you?”

“Only long enough for this.” She closes the gap and presses her lips to Zig’s. He wraps both of his arms around her waist and lifts her off the ground.

“Now I won’t have to correct my mom anymore when she calls you my girlfriend.” He murmured.

“Does that happen often?”

He shrugged. “It’s become kind of a running joke with my sisters. I guess I talk about you a lot.” He said sheepishly.

“Really? And what kind of things do you say?”

Zig lowers her back to the floor but keeps her close. He angles his head toward her neck, his breath hot on her ear as he speaks.

“Nothing I’m sure you haven’t heard before. ‘She’s beautiful, smart, would do anything for her friends…sexy as can be.” He nibbled her earlobe with his teeth, causing her to let out a quiet gasp. Then she froze.

“You were kidding about telling your mom that last one, right?”

He laughs and skims his lips lightly over the skin of her neck, causing her to shiver. Making her squirm was going to be his new favorite activity, he could tell. “Of course. The main gist was that I’d found a girl who reminded me that I had dreams before life got in the way.”

“And what did your mom have to say about that?”

“Well…she smacked me in the back of the head with one of her chanclas and said “What are you doing here, stupid? Go get her!”

Veronica laughed. “Your mom sounds like a smart lady.”

Zig straightens up and kisses her again. It’s a surprisingly tender kiss, and he feels himself sinking into it until everyone else on the dance floor seems to fade away. After dancing awhile, he leads her off the dance floor.

“I haven’t danced like that in…well, ever, I think. I’m going to grab us some drinks. I’ll be back soon,” He gives her a kiss on the cheek before walking off toward the drink table.

As he grabs a couple cups of punch and thinks that having punch at a dance is very cliché, Kaitlyn arrives at his side.

“Hey, Zig.”

“Oh…hey, Kaitlyn.”

“So…listen, Zig. I know we’ve already apologized to each other and I’m totally good with you, I swear.” She started.

Zig looked at her curiously. “Okay…The feeling is mutual.”

“Great, okay, so, here’s the thing. Veronica is my best friend. She never gave up on me even when I was being a complete asshole to her. And so that makes me certain that she’ll be the same with you. Especially since she defended you hardcore to me over and over. But let me tell you…if you ever hurt her, I will make you pay.”

Zig’s jaw dropped as he stared at her.

“I just thought I’d let you know. She’s basically the glue that holds our group together. We’ve all been through a lot this year, and now that includes you. But since you’re new to the group I just want to say…if you mess with one of us, you mess with all of us….and that works both ways. We’ve got your back as long as you’ve got ours.”

“Of course, I do!” Zig exclaimed. “Geez, Kaitlyn, I didn’t know you could be so cryptic.”

At that admission, Kaitlyn laughed. “You’ve got lots to learn, my friend.” She patted his arm and walked away, leaving Zig staring after her again.

What the hell just happened? Was that a threat? A welcome to the group? She did call us friends…oh boy. Having friends is more complicated than I thought it would be.

Looking around, his eyes searched for Veronica. If anyone could figure it out, it would be her. Finally, he spotted her at the Gazebo, and he started walking towards her. But the closer he got, the more he didn’t really care what everyone else said. If he had her…everything would turn out just fine.

“Well, well. Look who decided to show up. And forgot the drinks.” She teased, once she saw him approach.

“Hey! I didn’t forget…I got thirsty while I was looking for you.” He leans against the gazebo railing next to her, so that their shoulders are just touching, He slides on his hand on top of hers and gives it a light squeeze.”

“So…are you enjoying yourself tonight?”

“Mmm…I’d enjoy it more if you kissed me.”

Zig grinned. “Straight and to the point. I like that.”

“I know what I want.”

“I think we have that in common.” He said huskily. Zig places a hand on her hip, turning her towards him, then leans in for a long, slow kiss. She wraps her arms around his neck, holding him tight. He leans away when he feels her lips curling into a smile.

“What’s wrong? Why’d you stop?” She asked, breathily.

“I just wanted to look at your smile.”

She grins, and he runs his hand along her back.

Zig sighed happily. “God…I can’t wait for next year, getting to spend more time with you…”

“Why wait? We’re both here right now.” She runs a hand through his hair, her fingers trailing down his jaw.

He took a breath and went for it. “In that case, maybe we should go somewhere a little more private.”

She gave him a flirty look. “Let’s take this back to my room.”

“Hmm…I don’t think I’ve ever seen your room before.”

“Well, you’re about to.”

“I think I have plenty to look at already.” He kisses her again, and she takes his hand, pulling him out of the gazebo after her.

As soon as Veronica locks the front door of her suite behind them, Zig spins her around to face him. He kisses her passionately, his hands traveling down her back and to her thighs. They trace back up to the zipper of her dress.

She tried to pull away. “Slow down there, tiger! My bedroom’s just down the hall.”

He pulled her tighter against him, feeling the swell of her breasts on his chest. “So? No one’s here to see. Everyone’s still at the dance.”

She bit her lower lip. “Yeah…you’re totally right.” She smiles playfully and runs her hands down his body before tugging his shirt up over his head and tossing it to the floor.

“There’s nothing to be worried about.” She murmured in his ear.

Zig cups her face in his hands, and he presses his lips firmly to hers once more. She arches her body towards his as one of his hands moves to grasp the back of her neck.

“Mmm…Your lips taste sweet.”

She smiled. “Strawberry lip gloss. Same scent as my body wash.”

Zig’s breath catches in his throat. He tilts his head down to trace his tongue along the soft skin of her neck, making her shiver. He laughs softly at the way he can make her body react so easily to him.

“You weren’t lying.” He growled, reaching for the zipper of her dress, but freezes at the sound of laughter and chatter coming from the hallway. He hurriedly throws his shirt back on, but the voices pass the door without stopping.

Veronica chuckled. “Okay, maybe there’s a little bit to be worried about.”

Smirking at her, Zig bends over slightly and picks Veronica up in his arms, bridal style. She squealed in delight, and he smiles softly down at her.

“Wow, you’re so strong. You must work out.”

His smile widened. This girl is just so much fun. “Alright, alright. I might not be a college man yet, but I know sarcasm when I hear it. Which room is yours?”

She points down the hall and he carries her, cradled against his chest, into her room. Once inside, he kicks the door closed behind him, then pauses a moment. “So…this is the mysterious Veronica-cave.” He sets her down gently on the bed, taking a second to look around her room.

“Did you want a tour, or did you want to make out?” She asked, raising one eyebrow.

Zig grins again and sits down next to her, pulling her into his lap. She wraps her arms around his neck and kissed him again, softer and longer than before

“Do you think it’d be safe to take my shirt off now?”

“I’d be pretty mad if you didn’t.”

Zig lets go of her long enough to pull his shirt up over his head. She runs her hands down his muscled chest. Thank God I always work out. The look on her face right now makes everything worth it.

“That kind of tickles.” He told her.

“Yeah? What about this?” She gently pushes him back on the bed, kissing her way down his torso and softly nipping at the skin there.

“Ohh, that feels…”

“Good?” She guessed

Zig moans quietly in reply. He pulls her back up to eye-level before capturing her mouth and taking her bottom lip between his teeth. He leans away just long enough to pull her dress up over her head. He flips her over on the bed and leaves feverish kisses along ever stretch of exposed skin.

She gasped. “I wouldn’t say that tickles…exactly”

Zig laughs. One hand trails up her leg with a featherlight touch, first up her ankle, then her knee…

She arched her back “Zig…you’re driving me crazy. Don’t you dare stop.”

“Oh yeah? What happens if I do?” As he says this, his fingers halt halfway up her inner thigh.

“Like you have a choice. I have a feeling you’re at the whim of your more…animal instincts.” She takes his hand and brings it to her mouth, gently kissing his fingertips and trailing her tongue along the side of one. He grunts out something unintelligible.

Holy fuck…this is really happening again. She’s really mine this time.

Watching her mouth he says, “You’re right…I’m looking for my willpower, but I have no idea where It went.” He trails a line with his finger down her chest and stomach until they find the space between her legs. Feeling how wet she is might just tip him over the edge. Her chest heaves toward him involuntarily.

“Looks like I’m not the only one ruled by my animal instincts.”

“Shhh. No more talking.” She pressed one of her fingers to his lips, and he nipped at it gently. She laces her fingers together around the back of his beck. He alternates between kissing her lips and nipping at her neck and collarbone. His hand moves to the small of her back, grabbing roughly at the flesh there.

“Wait…let me grab my wallet for a condom.” He started to pull away, but she roughly pulled him back on top of her. “You’ve already been inside me without one. You know I’m on the pill. Please, Zig. I just want to feel you, now.”

He closed his eyes a moment, torn again. He felt her palm on his face and he opened them again, gazing into her beautiful green eyes, and he felt like he could see into their future.

Who am I kidding. I am totally, completely, madly in love with this girl already, and I am going to marry her someday, spend my life with her, give her anything she could ever want. She’s mine and only mine, and I am only hers.

He feels her heat between her legs as he slides inside her, moaning as he filled her up.

“Fuck, Veronica, you have no idea what you do to me.”

“I think I have a pretty good idea.” She lifted her hips to meet his next thrust.

He grunted at the contact and was already starting to feel himself lose control. He looked into her eyes once again and found them half closed and filled with lust for him. I could stay inside her forever

“Oh, Zig!” She cried out as he started thrusting harder and harder into her, wanting nothing more than to give her pleasure like she’s never felt. She clawed her nails against his back and he grunted at the pain it gave, mixed with the pleasure of the roughness of it. He fisted her hair and she bit down onto his shoulder to muffle her screams.

“Veronica I really L—ike you! I really like you!”

“Show me, Zig” She gasped. “Show me how much you like me”

I can’t believe I almost told her I love her!

He grabbed her hands with one of his and clasped them above her on the bed so she couldn’t move. He bit her lip and ran his other hand along her body to find her hard bud. She groaned loudly as he circled it with his finger, faster and faster until they were both shaking with their release, screaming each other’s names, before collapsing.

Slick with sweat, he pulled her into his arms and she nestled into his chest.

“I’m so glad I met you” He murmured quietly.

“So am I” She told him softly, tilting her face up to give him a soft kiss.

“You still my girlfriend?”

She grinned as she kissed him again. “Always.”

Zig closed his eyes, a smile lingering on his face. Someday I’ll tell her how I really feel…I love her. I’m not ready to actually tell her yet, and I don’t think she’s ready to hear it…but fuck. Veronica Day…You are my everything, and I can’t wait for our future together.

Zig wakes up to the sun streaming through the window and lies in the warmth of her bed reminiscing on the events of the night before. Finally, he comes out of her room, rubbing sleep from his eyes. When he saw her typing away on her computer in the living area, his heart swelled with pride. A writer. I’m going steady with a writer. “Tell me you don’t get up early every morning to do work.” He said, clearing his throat.

She looked up at him and grinned. “I had the perfect ending for Vasquez’s book in my head and I couldn’t let it slip away from me! Besides, it’s hardly early morning, it’s already…” She jumps to her feet. “It’s already 2 pm! I need to get this to Gabriela, stat!” She dashes to her room to change and comes back out wearing a red polka dotted dress.

“I’m so sorry, Zig, I have to go!” She leaned up on her toes to give him a heated kiss. When she pulled away they were both left breathless.

“Okay. Wish me luck!” She called as she ran out the door.

“Good luck.” Zig whispered to the already closed door. He let out a happy sigh and made his way back to his car. And just like that…he was excited for his future again. He had an amazing girlfriend, he was finally going to be in college, and his family supported him every step of the way. He saw Brandon and Zack running across the quad, and he gave them a wave. I even have real friends now. Who knew so much could happen in such a small amount of time?

When he arrived back at home, his mother greeted him. “Zigmund Ortega! Where have you been all night?! I was worried sick about you!”

Zig chuckled. “Relax, Ma. I told you I was going to the dance.”

“That ended last night, not this morning!” She exclaimed

Zig just shook his head smiling as he gave her a kiss on the cheek.

“At least tell me that Veronica is actually your girlfriend now.” His sister said, walking into the room.

“Ohh!!!! YOU GOT HER??? OH, ZIG, WHY DIDN’T YOU JUST SAY SO???” His mother wrapped in a giant bear hug and squeezed him so hard he could be barely breathe.

“I am SO proud of you, my son!!”

“Geez, Ma, if anything else sappy happens right now I think my heart is literally going to burst open.” He said, rolling his eyes.

He finally managed to get out of her grasp and ran up to his room, flopping down on his bed. But there was no way his grin was going anywhere. How did I get here? How did my life turn around so hard and so fast? Oh yeah…all because I met a girl who saw me for who I am, and not who the world thought I was. Her name is Veronica Day…and somehow, I’m going to make sure she becomes Veronica Ortega in just a few years. Maybe as soon as we graduate…if I can make it so we graduate at the same time!

He chuckled to himself. Challenge Accepted.

@blackwidow2721 @sleepwalkingelite @flowerpowell @agent-bossypants @annekebbphotography @carabeth @gardeningourmet @eileendannie @dancetothestoriesinyoursoul @alesana45 @imaketerriblechoices @zigortega4life

#the freshman fan fiction #zig ortega fanfic #zig ortega #zig x mc #zigmund ortega #the freshman #choices the freshman #tf/ts/tj/ts #choices tf/ts/tj/ts #choices fanfiction

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fearofaherobrine · 6 years ago

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Roleplay Server Log #357

“The Lonely Clown”

[Lie] Is out working in her garden after having tended to her animals-

[Ever] Comes by at a quick lope- Oh hey Lie! You doing okay?

[Lie] - For the most part, my back is getting sore though

[Ever] his little cat ears perk up- oh! That sucks! Here I'll help you. - he hops over the fence- I've got so much energy. This place is amazing. I've been working since dawn and I'm not even tired.

[Lie] Laughs a little- That's good, and I'm betting Karla's taken advantage of some of that energy too?

[Ever] strokes his tail tip a little and blushes- oh yes. I'm enjoying the new additions too, but it still feels a bit weird to have my tail grabbed.

[Lie] - It may just be a more sensitive part of your body

[Ever] Oh yes! I uh... I came over to get the horses. We should be out of your hair pretty soon- he's harvesting and replanting as they talk-

[Lie] - I don't mind having you guys here at all. And although he will never admit it, currently it does give CP a little ease of mind having Karla around. He understands that, not only a man but as a digital entity as well, he has no fucking clue what I'm going through and will go through

[Ever] Just between you me and the garden, Karla is rather fond of Cp. Theres definitely some respect from one professional griefer to another there.

[Lie] - You forgot murderer in there

[Ever] Well.... Yeah. These days i think it's a more or less a revenge thing rather then a random habit... She gets so frustrated when people treat her poorly right off the bat. Her temper gets the best of her....

[Lie] - For CP it's just a habit

[Ever] She still hasn't been in town, I think she might be af-

[Gk] Hops over the greenhouse with Cp on his back- Husband delivery! Sorry he's still a bit drunk. Hah!

[Ever] Poofy tail-

[CP] - I'm not drunk you idiot!

[Lie] - Thanks GK, I figured he could use a break

[Gk] Just laughs- We had a good time anyway.

[Ever] Is staring at the dragon-

[Lie] - Oh, Ever, I don't think you've been introduced. This is GK. GK? THis is Ever

[Gk] Hey it's a... little cat guy?

[Ever] Gk? That is a big dragon... And so metal! I love the horns.

[Gk] So... hows the bun?

[Lie] - Growing, but my back does start to hurt every once in awhile...

[CP] - Why didn't you tell me?

[Lie] - Because sleeping with my back against you helps it go away

[Gk] Aww, do you just need warm Lie? I could hang around more often. - He minces into the yard and flops down on the cobbles-

[Ever] Sets about finishing Lie's yard work while she's distracted.

[Lie] Laughs a little- Sometimes, but I can't just sit about neglecting my work either

[Gk] Nonsense! I'm here to help. I want to play with the little bundle when they're big enough. - his gaze is slightly abstracted and a thought floats on his mind high enough for Cp and maybe Lie to pick up on. It's a twinge of longing for the little sister he hasn't seen in forever.

[CP] - A sister?

[Gk] Hmm, what?

[Lie] - You have a sister GK?

[Gk] ducks his head - Yeah.... she helped me a lot when I was in my reincarnation cycle...

[Lie] - What was her name?

[Gk] Says it very quietly- Brina...

[CP] - Is she still on your old seed?

[Gk] Scuffs his hooves a little. - No... she had some drug problems... Steffan and Bro actually helped her get clean...

[Lie] - Do you know where she is now?

[Gk] She intervened on my behalf to have me released from the End and then she went to the aethers to live with my stupid asshole of a NOTCH....

[CP] Growls-

[Lie] - Are you sure she's still there? Maybe she returned to try and look for you?

[Gk] I don't know. But he's basically a god. If she knows where I am, he'll shortly know too. And that could be bad.

[Lie] - Well, I'm sure no matter what, she misses you

[Gk] Puts his chin on the ground - She probably thinks I'm dead.

[CP] - Nah, I think she knows you're still around

[Gk] Why do you say that? Since Jean vanished?

[CP] - Uh, because I have a sibling? And even before I became glitched I just... Knew if Stevie was in peril or if he were safe

[Gk] Maybe. I still care about her.

[Lie] - You two are lucky. My brother was never anything but an ass to me

[Gk] Nobody can fuck you up like family...

[Lie] - I didn't understand for the longest time. He was jealous... Jealous that I had a healthy body and he didn't

[Gk] What happened to him Lie?

[Lie] - He was born with very fragile bones, left him confined to a wheelchair. I never realized how much he hated me until I accidentally broke some of his bones just from trying to hug him

[Ever] Pauses in pulling carrots- Ironic that you're the one who gained a night-indestructible form. Too bad he wasn't nice to you. You could have brought him along.

[Gk] Grumbles, having long ago grudgingly realized the value of being nice to people.

[Lie] - I don't even know if he's still alive

[CP] - Do you even care if he's alive or not?

[Gk] Yeah, he kinda sounds like an ass.

[Ever] Same.

[Lie] - I... Don't know

[Gk] It's okay to not know.

[Ever] Yeah, I don't care if my asshole dad is alive or dead either. I'm done being told what a dissapointment I am.

[Lie] - I suppose it would just bring back all of the worst memories if I were to find out

[Gk] Then just let it go. You have a family here.

[Lie] - Yeah- She glances down at her belly- And it's just gonna get bigger

[Gk] Yeah. One more Herobrine, and a native with a double dose of genetic derived power. This should be interesting.

[CP] - Jeb probably wakes up terrified of it every night!

[Gk] Eh, she'll likely have her moms nice disposition just to shock everyone.

[Lie] - I wouldn't be so sure, she's already started griefing. Scared TLOT just by moving

[Gk] Barks out a little gout of fire with a belly laugh- Just didn't want to get my hopes up. That's funny as fuck.

[CP] Grumbles-

[Lie] - Yes, well he was a little more focused on the fact that she currently only has one heart

[Ever] But humans do only have one..?

[Gk] Here humans have ten. But small animals have fewer. The others will likely grow in in time.

[Lie] - Yeah- She winces a little as a twinge goes through her back

[CP] - Lie...

[Gk] Pats the ground with a hoof - Come over here kiddo.

[Lie] Laughs a bit as she gets closer- Technically you could say I'm older than you GK, if we're going by how long the game has been in existance

[Gk] I can call you that if I want. I've lived hundreds of lifetimes. Also. You're small. - He grabs her gently with the tentacles of one wing and sets her down on one of his back legs so she's leaning against his chubby side. He's just as hot as Cp and his scales are small and smooth.

[Lie] Hums happily at the heat-

[Deer] Is enjoying the late afternoon sun out by the koi pond-

[Buff] Comes jogging up looking slightly annoyed- Hey! Are you busy?

[Deer] - Hm? No, what it? Is everything alright?

[Buff] Oh good! Here! - He reached behind him and dislodges Lj from the spot where he was clinging to Buff's shirt and plunks him on the ground in front of Deerheart before running away very fast.

[Lj] Gives her a sad look, he's got his box under one arm- I guess he doesn't want to play anymore....

[Deer] - LJ? What's wrong? Are you hurt?

[Lj] No just... empty... I didn't want to be by myself. - He's holding the box close like a security blanket- Home is too quiet right now.

[Deer] - Oh LJ, well you know you're always welcome in the castle

[Lj] I was going to ask... Can I do something with you today? Anything is fine.

[Deer] - Well I was planning on making some pies for Yaunfen

[Lj] That would be nice. - He goes quiet and then suddenly gets a rather haunted look- Tell me something. Anything. I need noise!

[Deer] - Uh... Ummm... Why? What's wrong?

[LJ] I don't want to talk about it. Tell me a story. Please.

[Deer] - What type of story would you like?

[LJ] I don't know! - He looks distressed. - I need to do something.

[Deer] - Alright then, follow me, we can walk and talk- She begins recalling her first memories of being on the server

[LJ] Follows her a bit too closely, listening intently-

[Basil] Is swimming out around the lava fountains and makes a loud bellow-

[Deer] Jumps a little as the noise before shaking her head a little at her own response- Where was I?

[LJ] You were talking about Yaunfen....

[Deer] - Right, when they were born... I'd never seen Doc so happy- She opens the door to the castle and holds it for LJ

[LJ] Goes inside, his fingers drumming a light tattoo on the box. His question is barely a whisper - how do you stand it...?

[Deer] - How do I stand what?

[LJ] Being alone in your mind?

[Deer] - I wouldn't necessarily say I am. The first time I truly had my mind to itself, well, it was when Flux had to take over the seed so I wouldn't be reclaimed by it. My mind is always being filled and churned by everything happening on the seed

[LJ] I'm almost jealous.... This feeling is so... I'd say I was going mad but I've been there done that- he breaks into an uneasy and too- loud laugh that trails off into silence and frightens most of the horses into the back corner of the pen.

[Deer] - It's alright LJ, I've had Aven mention to me that BEN still has panic attacks when he realizes just how quiet his mind has become

[LJ] Extends his arms to give himself a twice over hug- you said something about baking?

[Yaunfen] Comes up from downstairs, worried by the laugh- Um?

[LJ] Can't meet their eyes- Yaunfen...

[Yaunfen] Gives LJ a bit of a hard look. - Mada says you couldn't help yourself. And I got in trouble with Big Fire for not listening. But if you hurt mada again; I'll stomp on you. - They notice Deerheart standing behind him and blink a little before ducking with a guilty look. - Sorry mama...

[LJ] I... I understand...

[Waffles] brushes past Yaunfen and sits next to them on the floor in a regal pose before washing a paw.

[LJ] That's uh... a really unusual cat...

[Yaunfen] Smiles proudly- I did science with mada and we brought them back from a fossil!

[LJ] Shoots a weirded out look at Deerheart. - A fossil from where? Prehistoric Candyland???

[Deer] - They're been a bit of bleeding between seeds

[Deer] - And Yaunfen, you should know better than to be threatening people

[Yaunfen] But mom... I've seen mada threaten people if they thought they might hurt us.

[LJ] What's wrong with being defensive of your family anyway?

[Deer] - There's a time and a place Yaunfen. Mada only threatens other when they are currently a threat, note, they never threatened LJ because they knew it was a moment that would pass, because they knew they were talking to a friend who had momentarily lost control

[Yaunfen] Yes mom...

[LJ] there's something to be said for anyone who will defend their kin with all their might. I've seen Slender rescue the other members of our household lots of times. And if it's the SCP... there is no mercy, and generally no survivors.

[Deer] - Exactly, but for now, we have some pies to make

[Yaunfen] What's a SCP?

[Deer] - A very bad group of people who like to capture entities like us and the pasta's

[Yaunfen] Hugs themselves uncertainly- why??? That's terrible!

[Deer] - Because that's how some human's are about things they don't understand. That's why we have to be careful when we go irl

[LJ] Well... Its not just that... Creepypastas do kill humans... It's a compulsion. The Slenders have no choice. They are apex predators and humans are their prey.

[Yaunfen] But mada goes out all the time! Does that mean they're always in danger of the bad people catching them?

[Deer] - Yes it does, that's one reason why when they're going someplace new they ask Big Fire to go with them

[LJ] Even taking Herobrine it's still risky...

[Deer] - But still safer than if they were alone

[LJ] True. - he takes out a bit of hard candy and instantly has Waffles full attention.

[Waffles] Mow???

[Deer] - Careful, Waffles loves candy

[LJ] heh. Kitty kitty?

[Waffles] Pupils a bit dialted-

[LJ] Waves the candy around as the cats eyes follow it and then flicks it into the horse pen- [Waffles] sails high over the fence and the horses scatter as the huge cat jumps among them, batting the tiny round ball around and then flinging it in the air-

[Deer] - LJ!

[LJ] Snorts and then laughs, just a little, and more genuine and less desperate then before-

[Deer] - That's better sounding

[Yaunfen] Silly cat!

[Waffles] Tosses the candy into their jaws and crunches it up-

[Gir] Stand over the cat and snorts a full snoot of graveyard dust out of its nostrils in annoyance

[Waffles] cat sneeze-

[LJ] Still laughing-

[Deer] - Come on, kitchen is downstairs

[Yaunfen] Whistles for the cat and they follow the others down-

[LJ] snickering quietly -

[Deer] Heads over to the lemon tree and starts harvesting- Yaunfen, why don't you find a record to put in the jukebox

[Yaunfen] Okay. They dig around and puts in one of the ambient C14 tracks- nice and soothing

[LJ] kinda sleepy, you guys really are all about lulling your players into a trance

[Deer] - It helps

[Yaunfen] it's nice, it feels safe. [LJ] meh. I still can't believe this is Herobrines game

[Deer] - If you feel like you need to sleep, then go ahead LJ

[LJ] No! I mean... That's too quiet... I need noise...

[Deer] - We can keep the record playing

[Yaunfen] Oh! I have something noisy! - without thinking they pull out the curly shell and blow into it. There's a moment of pregnant silence and then the room goes entirely black as Basil lays down on the glass above them with a loud aggravated bellow and a baleful eye on them below-

[Deer] - Oh dear...

[Yaunfen] Basil is noisy!

[Basil] Sound like a whale with flatulance.

[LJ] Is just smiling, just a little bit-

[Deer] - He comes whenever Yaunfen blows on the shell

[Yaunfen] Proud smile.

[LJ] Something else prehisoric I presume?

[Deer] - No actually, from the real world

[LJ] How strange.

10 notes · View notes

mikotyzini · 7 years ago

Text

What Defines Us - Ch. 18

Hey everyone! First, I wanted to thank all of you for the tremendous response to this story. It really means so much to me! Here’s a link to this chapter on ff.net.

For announcements, Bumblebee Week starts Monday, but I’ll be posting an intro chapter tomorrow. Keep an eye out for that and follow @bmblbweek for lots of Bumblebee! People on my patreon are getting the entire story tomorrow, but I’ll have a chapter a day for the entire week for you guys!

Also, next chapter of RCR tomorrow.

On to the story!

Today was the day. Today was the day. After months and months of training and getting beaten up by Blake and Yang, followed by more training and more beatdowns, the day was finally here!

Hunt day! Or, more accurately, hunt night!

It felt like trampolines had been glued to her feet - that’s how pumped up she was about today. Tonight. Time didn’t matter - it was right now!

“Jeez Ruby - are you excited or what?” Yang asked with a chuckle, walking hand-in-hand with Blake as they trailed Ruby across the airship landing pad.

“Just a little bit!” she exclaimed, jumping once to prove her point.

Was she excited? How could she not be excited? They were about to go on an official hunt! Into the forest - beyond the city walls. There’d be no protection out there except what they could provide themselves with their weapons. There’d be beasts of Grimm in all shapes and sizes. They could be attacked, ambushed, trapped - the possibilities were practically endless. And she couldn’t be more thrilled about it!

Of course, a small part of her was nervous. She wanted to know whether or not this was what she was meant to do, and if she could even do it. Could she be a huntress? Could she keep herself alive?

Most importantly, she didn’t want to let anyone down - especially not Yang or Blake, who’d both put so much time and energy into helping her train. That’s why she was going to try extra hard today. No matter what they were up against, she was going to do everything to 110% of her ability.

Right now they were walking - a little too slowly - across the landing pad towards an airship that was already waiting for them. The engines were fired up - the propellers twirling faster than the eye could see while a loud whirrrrr-ing noise filled the air.

“And Weiss is already here!” Ruby shouted over the sound, pointing out the girl waiting by the lowered gate to the ship.

Jeez, Weiss was always super timely - unlike Yang, who seemed to dawdle just because.

“Well I’ll be…” Yang muttered to herself, but Ruby didn’t pay her sister any attention. Instead, she raced over to greet their fourth person on this journey.

On the way, she nearly tripped and fell over her own feet, but managed to catch herself at the last second - just in time to pull Weiss into a big hug that caught her by surprise. But, after initially stiffening, Weiss relaxed and awkwardly patted one hand on Ruby’s back.

It was like she didn’t know how to hug properly!

Determined to set a good example, Ruby squeezed Weiss closer and nearly lifted her feet off of the ground. Enthusiastic - it was an enthusiastic hug!

Was it weird that Ruby really liked hugging Weiss? They’d only done it like twice now, but each time had been really nice. It felt like Weiss fit well in Ruby’s arms - although that was really strange to think about. But it was true! Ruby’s arms wrapped around Weiss justttt right.

Well, not just right. It actually felt like Weiss was a little small - like she should be a bit bigger and that would be perfect. Like, a little less skinny?

Come to think of it, Weiss did look awfully thin...she definitely needed more ice cream. But who didn’t?

“Weiss!” Ruby exclaimed after releasing Weiss from the expert level hug. “Are you excited??”

Even though Weiss smiled, she didn’t look half as enthusiastic as Ruby currently felt.

“‘Excited’ might be stretching the truth a bit…”

“But you’re ready?”

Nodding, Weiss lightly tapped her fingers against Myrtenaster, the weapon hanging at her side and glinting under the lights of the airship station. “As ready as I’ll ever be.”

The answer made Ruby beam - but what wasn’t making her happy today? The birds, the sun, the dumb emergency flares Yang had shoved into Ruby’s pockets ‘just in case’ - everything was awesome. But there was something extra awesome about Weiss being here - something that made this day even better than Ruby dreamed it would be. Not only was she going on a hunt with Yang and Blake, but Weiss was coming with them. Four was a better number than three. Plus, now Ruby wouldn’t the third wheel - she and Weiss would be the third wheels together!

“Surprised to see you here,” Yang commented as she and Blake finally caught up.

“I made a promise,” Weiss replied, only briefly meeting Yang’s gaze before turning to Ruby with a small smile. “And I wanted to keep it.”

Ruby beamed at the response, which made her heart feel all happy and warm. Weiss had promised to be here, and Ruby hadn’t doubted her for a second.

Quickly growing tired of waiting outside, Ruby looked at her sister for permission to run up the super-inviting ramp. Receiving a nod, she grinned and raced into the ship with Blake, Yang, and Weiss in tow. Her boots clanked loudly up the metal walkway before the incline suddenly flattened out into a rather empty cargo hold. There was a row of seats on each wall of the ship, but other than that there wasn’t much besides a pilot sitting up front checking panels filled with rows and rows of lights and switches.

What would happen if he pushed all the buttons at once? Was that a thing? Would the ship overheat and spontaneously combust? Would it shoot into the air and teleport to another dimension?

Picking one side of the ship - the left side, because left was best - Ruby stowed Crescent Rose underneath one of the seats and sat down. Yang and Blake sat across from her, while Weiss picked the seat right next to her. The excellent choice of chair positioning made her grin.

It wasn’t like Weiss had to sit there, but the fact that she still did made Ruby feel like the cool kid in class. And Ruby had hardly ever (actually, never) been the cool kid in class.

“Team RWBY - ready to go?”

“Team Ruby-Schnee!” Ruby corrected the pilot before giggling at the name. Yang smiled across at her before turning towards the cockpit.

“We’re set - whenever you’re ready,” her sister instructed the man. Yang then motioned for Ruby to put on her seat belt, which she obediently did. Safety first!

“Ruby Schnee…” Weiss mumbled to herself while mimicking Ruby’s actions.

“Oh yeah! Didn’t want to leave you out of the team name!”

“Thank you. It...has a nice ring to it.”

The two of them shared smiles - although, Weiss’ looked more sad than happy. Ruby was going to ask about it, but suddenly her stomach dropped when the ship lifted into the air and shot away from the station.

They were on their way!

“Are you nervous?” Blake directed across the cabin to Weiss. Curious, Ruby glanced over just as Weiss’ knee stopped bouncing up and down.

“Just...anxious, I guess.”

“Don’t worry!” Ruby quipped from Weiss’ side. “Blake and Yang are the best in the business! You’ll be safe with them!”

Grinning at the compliment, Yang sent Ruby a wink and thumbs up. But Weiss looked less than relieved - her knee started bouncing again, but the motion was far less noticeable this time.

“Ok, Ruby - listen to me,” Yang said, leaning forward so Ruby could hear her clearly. “You never know what might be out there, but you engage Beowolves only. Anything bigger, you wait for Blake and I to hit it first. You got it?”

Ruby nodded her head, but Yang raised an eyebrow - letting Ruby know that a verbal response was expected.

“Got it!” Ruby acknowledged with another nod. Satisfied with the answer, Yang leaned back in her seat.

“Good, then why don’t you brief us on the mission.”

“What?”

“Tell us what we’re supposed to do,” Yang elaborated with a wave of her hand. “You read the docs, right?”

“Oh, right,” Ruby replied. This was a test to see how prepared she was. Fortunately, unlike every other class she’d ever taken in school, she’d actually studied for this!

“Uh, well, basically there’s an abandoned research facility in the forest that they think contains important information. We’re supposed to check the chairman’s office on the 10th floor. We’ll be dropped off on the roof, take the stairwell down five flights of stairs, find his office and find the information. We only know it was called Project Scorpio, so anything we find with that name we should take with us or scan if we have time. We’ll have ten minutes and then the ship will meet us back on the rooftop for pick up.”

“And if something goes wrong?”

This was why she’d memorized all the maps that came with the hunt information!

The ship wasn’t going to stick around waiting for them - it was going to return to the nearest station at the edge of Vale and come back for them later. This would minimize the pilot’s risk of running into Nevermores.

If they couldn’t make it to the rooftop in ten minutes -

“It’ll take five minutes to get another ship to us,” Ruby answered. The first pilot wouldn’t wait or turn around - a second airship would be dispatched for them instead. Safety, safety, safety! These airships weren’t exactly outfitted for battle - they were more like big, floating ducks waiting for a Grimm to pluck them out of the sky.

“What if we can’t make it back to the roof?” Yang asked.

At first, Ruby wanted to ask why they wouldn’t be able to make it to the roof when they’d just used the stairs to get into the building. If they’d run down five flights of stairs, couldn’t they just as easily run back up them?

But they were planning for the worst case scenario - it was like a fun game of ‘what could go horribly wrong?’ What if the top of the building was suddenly lopped off by an incredibly big Grimm? Or a random ship carrying wet cement had a spill that filled the staircase? Or an asteroid hit the building and somehow only destroyed the top five floors while leaving everything else intact?

“The secondary pick up is the fountain!” Ruby answered confidently.

“And the third?”

The question made her brow furrow as she looked over the map image in her mind.

“I didn’t see a third evac point…”

“Exactly,” Yang responded with a nod. “If the second pick up doesn’t work, we’re hoofing it back to Vale. Which will suck in the dark. But why are we going at night?”

This was an easy one.

“Two reasons,” Ruby began. “One, the facility is in range of a Nevermore ‘nesting’ site, so flying this close during the day would be pretty dangerous. Two, Grimm tend to be more spread out at night, but clumped up during the day. No one knows why, but ya, that’s what they do.”

When Yang looked impressed by the quick answer, Ruby grinned with success. For one of her birthdays, Yang had given her a book on different species of Grimm and, for the longest time, it had been her favorite thing to read. It definitely hadn’t made her any more popular at school, but she’d learned a boatload of valuable information! Like anatomical breakdowns on the species of Grimm that had been researched, theories on their existence, known battle tactics, and their general behavioral tendencies. Basically, all super useful stuff. That’s why she’d committed it to memory!

“Why would they have a facility out here? Why not set up downtown like all the other companies?”

Apparently, Yang had a lot of questions about this hunt - but these were all questions Ruby should be asking, not the other way around!

Still, she tried to think of an answer. Downtown would obviously be way nicer, and safer, and...well, Ruby had never heard of any companies set up outside the walls. That was basically suicide. So why would anyone do it? Because they were insane?

“I...they didn’t say…”

“I know, I’m asking you,” Yang replied with a grin. “Why out here?”

Biting her lip, Ruby struggled to come up with an explanation. She’d memorized every bit of information on the pages Yang had given her, but nowhere did it mentioned the purpose of a facility in the first place. Glancing at Weiss, who motioned that it was up to Ruby to answer, Ruby gave up and shook her head.

“I dunno...the view?” she joked, gesturing out one of the small windows at the expanse of treetops that were hardly visible in the darkness. Yang laughed at the answer, but it was Blake who spoke next.

“They were doing research on Grimm.”

“On Grimm?” Ruby gasped in surprise. “For what??”

“They were trying to find an easier way to destroy Grimm,” Blake explained. “Preferably by isolating a weakness that could be exploited chemically. They thought they could safeguard the facility...obviously that was an incorrect assumption.”

“That’s why it couldn’t be built in Vale,” Yang added. “Can you imagine how upset people would be if they learned Grimm were being trucked into the city? Research or not - no one wants Grimm inside the walls.”

The explanation made a lot of sense, even though it was a crazy idea to build a research facility in the forest. There were exactly zero instances of that working out as planned.

Before Yang could ask another question, Weiss gently nudged Ruby’s shoulder and nodded towards the window. When Ruby leaned closer, she could see the vague outlines of moonlit buildings coming into view.

The research facility was actually a massive compound surrounded by thick walls that had once been sturdy, but were now broken and crumbling. From the look of it, something quite large had torn the concrete apart and created gaping holes in the outer defenses. When Ruby pointed out one of the holes through the window, Weiss nodded.

“Not so secure anymore…” she whispered.

It had probably once been a pretty nice place. There were smaller buildings - that might have been built for housing - sitting along wide roads that had street signs and everything. A courtyard connected everything together with a tall fountain in the very center - their emergency exit if things went sideways. Their current destination was set off to one side of the compound - a tall building that towered out of the darkness. The moon glinted off the glass covering the outside, which was also broken in many places.

No wonder this place had been overrun - Nevermores could spot this spire from miles away. Defending it would cost a fortune and require a private army. Even with walls that were twice as high and an entire fleet of Atlesians, Ruby could pick out glaring weaknesses in the darkness.

This entire place had been a dumb idea.

“The workers lived here?” she asked, turning towards her sister and Blake. After Blake nodded, Ruby looked out of the window as the ship headed towards the tall building. If the workers had lived here when the place was overrun…

“Did they make it out?” she asked.

“Some. Not all.”

Biting her lip at Blake’s honest answer, Ruby nodded in understanding. It would be difficult to mass evacuate a facility like this because there weren’t many obvious pick up points besides the fountain. And, even though they weren’t far from the edge of Vale, it would still take a few minutes to get enough airships out here. A few minutes when Grimm were bursting through the walls was a few minutes too many...

Her stomach dropped again as the ship began to climb out of the relative safety of the treeline towards the top of the building. Her nerves, which had been pretty mellow up to this point, suddenly came roaring into existence.

This was it - they were here.

It was only seconds later that they reached altitude and the door of the transport dropped open - the wind rushing in making her eyes instantly water. From their current position, they were looking down at the rooftop of a building, which was only just illuminated by the soft moonlight.

“Looks like there’s a big pack of ‘wolves about a mile from here!” the pilot shouted to them over the loud droning of the engines spilling through the open doorway. “Keep it quiet and they should move on.”

“Got it!” Yang shouted back to the man before giving him a thumbs up.

Grabbing onto her necklace, Ruby briefly closed her eyes and wished that this would go well - that they would all make it out of here safe and sound. There wasn’t time to do anything more because Yang was already unbuckling her seatbelt - Blake and Weiss following suit. Ruby quickly followed their lead before jumping up and grabbing Crescent Rose from under her seat.

“Here we go!” Yang yelled over the engines before motioning Ruby to follow.

If she had butterflies, they were instantly replaced by pure adrenaline when she watched her sister run forward and jump out of the transport like it was nothing. After staring into the darkness for a second in awe of her sister’s fearlessness, Ruby was gently nudged forward. Looking over one shoulder, she caught Blake’s eyes - and Blake nodded for Ruby to jump out next.

This was the moment she’d been training for. This was the moment she’d spent so many painful hours training for. She hadn’t thought it would start by jumping out of the back of an airship, but this just made it even better.

Shooting a quick grin at Weiss - who was looking a little apprehensive at what was to come - Ruby took a deep breath and jogged several steps forward. Picking up speed and refusing to hesitate or overthink the action, she coiled her muscles and leaped out into the night sky.

For one amazing moment, it felt like she might hang there forever - floating on the breeze like a leaf or a snowflake - but gravity swiftly grabbed hold of her and dropped her to the gravel-covered rooftop like a rock. Keeping her feet underneath her, she landed in a crouch that was decently quiet considering she hadn’t thought to practice jumping out of an airship before.

Straightening up, she spotted Yang by the entrance to the building, but before heading over looked up as Weiss dropped to the rooftop beside her. Weiss landed in a crouch, just like Ruby, before standing up and lightly shaking her long ponytail. Blake appeared immediately after, her own arrival dead quiet compared to Ruby’s.

The airship pulled away and quickly disappeared - leaving them alone in nearly complete darkness on the rooftop, their only light coming from the partially hidden moon in the sky. Without the sound of the engines, it was suddenly quiet - almost alarmingly so.

“Orient yourself,” Blake said quietly. Caught off guard by the instruction, Ruby spun around and tried to figure out where she was. The moon was behind her, so that meant…

“North?” she asked, pointing in a direction and looking to Blake for confirmation. With a quick nod, Blake led them over to Yang at the doorway.

“You’re doing great,” Weiss whispered to Ruby as they jogged after Blake. The words made Ruby really happy, but when she glanced over she noticed that Weiss had her hands clenched into tight fists - almost as if she was trying to keep them from trembling.

“Are you ok?” Ruby asked, but Weiss waved the question off and motioned for Ruby to focus on Yang as they regrouped at the door.

“Ten minutes,” Yang whispered, tapping the communication device strapped around her wrist where a countdown was displayed in bright green numbers. “Gotta hurry.”

Taking a deep breath and nodding to Blake, Yang pulled the door open with a quick, loud pop of the lock giving way.

The silence left behind by the airship, which had felt deafening at first, seemed to have disappeared. As her ears adjusted, Ruby could hear more and more sounds - and it sounded like the entire forest was moving around them. It was nothing like the sleepy, nighttime streets of Vale. There, the crickets and trees were quiet as whispers. Out here - far from the city - the leaves were rustling so loudly it was hard to believe the noise was the result of the wind alone. But when Ruby turned towards the trees, she found nothing but darkened shapes swaying in the steady breeze.

This was the sound of a nighttime forest, alive in its own way.

Feeling a warm hand press her forward, she followed Blake through the doorway with Yang on her heels and Weiss bringing up the rear.

If it was hard to see outside, then entering the stairwell was like becoming completely blind. There wasn’t even a glimmer of moonlight to provide guidance, so Ruby had no idea how Blake was running down the steps without falling on her face. Thankfully, Yang lit up a light when they were all inside, shining it over Ruby’s shoulders so she could follow Blake down flights and flights of stairs. Their shadows bounced eerily off the walls, moving in fast, disjointed motions, while there was no sound except for their feet hitting concrete, their clothes rustling, and their breathing growing a little heavier.

After reading the hunt information, Ruby felt like she had a good grasp on where they were headed, but Blake was moving so confidently it was as if she’d actually been here before. Had Blake done more research on the schematics of the building? Like found an actual blueprint of the offices? Because that was a good idea that Ruby totally should’ve thought of.

The four of them raced down the staircases before coming to a door with a large number ten painted beside it. The tenth floor. Hardly breaking stride, Blake quickly pried the door open and shot inside with Ruby directly behind, her eyes scanning the room as they entered.

The entire floor was open - a gigantic space with desks and chairs cluttered across much of it. Along one wall ran a set of what looked like miniature laboratories - complete with fancy-looking machines tucked behind thick glass walls and heavy security doors. Some of the labs had been completely destroyed by some unknown force - the walls pulverized and machines laying in ruin.

Squeezing through a set of desks on the path Blake was setting for them, Ruby tried to ignore the dark stains on the walls and floors whenever Yang’s flashlight jumped over them. Those were probably just the result of some science experiment, or a trick the darkness was playing on her, not...anything else…

They were making a straight line from the staircase to the opposite side of the building, where she could make out a set of offices. As they jogged in that direction, she made sure to sweep her eyes around the extent of the room looking for potential hazards. If there was any benefit to being in a building made of glass, it was that they had 360 degrees of visibility - which was worth basically nothing since the only thing she could see outside was black night and dark trees.

Approaching the row of square offices, Blake broke into a run to check the nameplates hanging outside the relatively intact glass rooms.

“This is it,” she said, tapping the name and slipping inside one of the offices.

“Ruby, watch the door,” Yang directed while Blake and Weiss both set to work rapidly opening and closing the filing cabinets lining the office walls in search of what they were after. Weiss was holding her own light now and using it to scan the folders, while Blake operated in the darkness without a second thought. Yang glanced at her watch for the time before heading over to the windows and looking in all directions for any danger.

Watch the door. It wasn’t the most glamorous of duties, but Ruby was still going to give it her all! Although, she probably didn’t need to stand right in front of the door since the entire office was basically a fish bowl, but she did as she’d been told while watching her partners out of the corner of her eye. Not that she could see much in the low light. If only she had Blake’s vision...

“I found the year,” Weiss announced quietly and Blake rushed over to that cabinet to help Weiss search.

The fact that they were whispering only made the darkness creepier. Like, if they were speaking in normal voices this would feel more like they were just robbing some building - that wouldn’t be too scary. Whispering was what you did when you were hiding from something, but what were they hiding from?

Ruby’s gaze drifted away from the office and back to the lifeless floor they’d just run across. Whatever had happened here couldn’t have been good. From the outlines of toppled chairs and desks turned on their sides, it looked like everyone had left in a very big hurry.

While looking at a desk that was completely upside down, her eyes caught a glimpse of something that was out of place - at least, strange enough to catch her attention. It was nothing more than a glint near the staircase they’d used to get here, but it was definitely something.

Squinting her eyes, she tried to see what it was. With her pathetic human eyes she saw absolutely nothing, but her gut told her to keep looking - so did the prickling feeling of the hairs rising on her arms and back of her neck.

“Yang,” she whispered towards her sister, not breaking her gaze away from the doorway. When her sister didn’t respond, she glanced away for a split second to find Yang was helping the other two search through files.

“Yang!” she hissed louder, finally getting Yang’s attention. “I think there’s something -”

Turning back to the doorway, Ruby froze and her blood ran cold when she realized what the glint had been.

Claws.

Now visible above those giant claws were glowing red eyes - lots and lots of glowing red eyes.

“We have company,” she whispered, unfolding Crescent Rose and staring at the Grimm collecting at the far end of the building. From this distance, she could just barely make out their hulking black outlines as they crawled out of the stairwell. More of them were creeping along the ground and pulling themselves over the destroyed desks, their claws scraping and scratching against the wood. All were approaching slowly, hesitantly, waiting to grow in number before attacking.

Heart pounding, her body was preparing itself for battle - muscles tensing and breaths slowing to a controlled, steady pace. She squeezed Thorn around Crescent Rose, feeling the glove tightly clutch her weapon before releasing.

She was ready, but they weren’t being attacked yet. They still had time. They could still complete the mission.

“It has to be here somewhere!” Blake whispered in exasperation. “If it’s not here, then -”

Blake didn’t finish that thought before Ruby heard a muffled groan. “There’s a safe under the desk. It has to be in here.”

“Can you open it?” Yang asked, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Ruby and only briefly turning back to the office behind them.

“With enough time, maybe!” Blake whispered back, her voice slightly muted from under the desk.

“I could just pull the door off its hinges?” Yang offered, flexing her fingers in preparation.

“Sweetie - as much as I admire your ability to rip apart pieces of metal, sometimes people have already taken that into consideration!”

Glancing at Ruby, Yang gave a small shrug before turning her full attention to the approaching Grimm. She was tense, but also at ease - although Ruby couldn't tell if that was just for her sake or not.

“What do we do?” she asked, watching the red eyes inch closer and closer. Raising her fists, Yang calmly checked the shotgun shells in her gauntlets.

“What do you think we should do?”

Right now really didn’t seem like the time for a teaching moment, but it didn’t seem like the time to complain either.

As the intensity increased, Ruby’s brain sped through scenarios at warp speed. She needed to relax and recall what she’d studied - examine the terrain, locate exits, evaluate the enemy, make a decision.

“We...wait for them to make the first move. Try to funnel them through the door to slow them down and give Blake more time.”

While Ruby spoke, Yang barely tilted her chin in acceptance of the plan. Ruby watched the Grimm and imagined the room behind them with the other two huntresses still searching. That was a good start to an exit strategy, but -

“But then...how do we get out?” she whispered. “Fight through them to the staircase?”

There was no response from Yang while she waited for Ruby to puzzle it out, which would’ve been a lot easier to do if she wasn’t pumping with adrenaline. But think - think, Ruby Rose. There were always two exits in any situation - the one you used to get in and the one you hadn’t yet created to get out.

Finally, it dawned on her.

“The windows -”

Never turning her eyes away from the Grimm, Yang nodded in silent agreement.

Was it safe to wait that long though? Yang wouldn’t let them stay if it wasn’t safe, right?

There was no time to second guess anything now. The plan was set and they were waiting - hoping that the Grimm would put off their assault until Blake and Weiss were successful.

Ruby could now see that they were facing Beowolves, and a lot of them. The creatures were creeping on all fours through the jumbled maze of furniture, close enough that she could vividly make out red designs on eerie white skulls.

Flexing Thorn, she gripped the handle of Crescent Rose tightly - finding reassurance and confidence in how her glove locked together with her weapon.

“We don’t have much time…” Yang whispered out of the side of her mouth.

“Weiss, I need your help,” Ruby heard Blake say.

Another sound caught Ruby’s attention then - a strange scratching noise that seemed to come from all directions. Not turning her head, but flicking her eyes to the side, she found that there were more Beowolves climbing up the side of the building.

Still, Yang stood her ground at the doorway, and Ruby did the same. The Beowolves were too close to risk turning around again - close enough that Ruby could hear their creepy, raspy breathing and smell the overwhelming odor of old garbage.

She’d never been this close to a Grimm before, but she didn’t feel afraid. Even though these creatures were bent upon her destruction, she was surprisingly at peace with the situation. Sure, her heart was pounding, but it was from adrenaline, not fear.

And the adrenaline was building...because she knew that any second the attack would come…

“You ready?” Yang whispered, nudging Ruby’s elbow. Before Ruby could reply, she heard what sounded like ice cracking.

“Got it!” Blake shouted.

Blake’s voice broke whatever barrier had been keeping the Beowolves at bay, sending them all charging forward at once. As snarls filled the air, Yang grabbed Ruby by the arm and spun her around. Her feet were running before she even thought to tell them to, and two shotgun blasts went off before the sound of shattering glass filled her ears. When her sister pulled her out of the office window, Ruby closed her eyes right before the shards hit her face.

The next second they were falling - the glass tumbling with them to the ground. Ruby opened her eyes to the howls of Beowolves plummeting off the building with them, thankfully far enough away to not be an immediate threat.

The free fall only lasted a couple seconds before she spun and planted her feet underneath her, hitting the ground with a soft thud that sent impact shooting through her feet and knees. Shards of glass rained down on her head and shoulders before she was up and chasing after Yang, briefly turning to make sure Blake and Weiss were already up and running too. Sparing a glance up at the office where they’d just been, she found the building was covered in Beowolves, many that had just noticed their escape and were headed back down to pursue them.

“Secondary pick up!” Yang shouted while pressing a button on her watch that turned the numbers from green to yellow.

“How long?” Weiss yelled from behind Ruby as the four of them tore through the streets towards the fountain.

“Three minutes.”

Weiss muttered something under her breath that sounded an awful lot like a swear word, but Ruby couldn’t hear very well over the howling of Beowolves and the pounding of her heart in her chest.

“We can hold them,” Blake huffed from Ruby’s other side, before straining her legs and pulling in front of both Ruby and Yang to lead the way.

The moon had come out from behind the clouds, illuminating the empty streets far more brightly than when they’d arrived several minutes ago, but Ruby still had no idea where they were going. She’d memorized the map, but it hadn’t been very detailed when it came to the streets. Thankfully, they were following Blake’s lead...and it seemed like Blake knew exactly where she was going.

Flashes of movement caught Ruby’s eye in every direction, but she never saw the sources. There wasn’t time to double check for enemies, as she was too busy focusing on keeping her feet moving, staying upright, and breathing properly in order to conserve as much energy as possible.

The buildings abruptly fell away when they rushed into the large, open square with the fountain standing in the middle. Their feet didn’t stop running until they’d reached the partially destroyed construct - its foundation was cracked, and chunks of stone were missing from the sculpture on top.

“Ruby, you still have the flare I gave you?” Yang asked as they turned away from the fountain towards the edge of the courtyard - the courtyard that was quickly filling with Grimm.

Fumbling in her pocket, Ruby pulled out the flare and peeled off the top. These were special flares - very powerful, very bright. She’d given Yang such a hard time about bringing them along, but obviously her sister had known best.

“Ok, we each get one quad of the square,” Yang instructed calmly, sliding to Ruby’s left while Blake took up position to Ruby’s right. “Call out if you need help. Ready...light ‘em up!”

Pulling the tab, Ruby threw the flare as far as she could towards the edge of the town square, briefly shielding her eyes to prevent herself from being blinded by the bright light. After dropping her arm and opening her eyes, she found a swarm of Beowolves in front of her.

The creatures howled at the suddenly bright area and charged.

The sound of rapid bullets was followed by the flares bursting into a shower of sparks as the Grimm stepped over them, causing many of the creatures to scatter in every which direction in surprise - but it only caused a slight pause in their rush.

Ruby’s muscles tensed in anticipation as the Beowolves raced towards her - three across in the first row. They were bigger than she’d expected them to be, with their wiry limbs giving them a far greater reach than she’d expected. Taking that into consideration, she’d have to attack sooner than she thought she would. Which was right about….now.

Blitzing forward, she swept through the first three with one long swing of Crescent Rose. The Beowolves immediately disintegrated into black ash, letting her know she’d gotten quick kills, but there were already more to take their place.

Making sure her back was always to the monument, Ruby vaguely heard the sound of shotgun blasts to her left and glimpsed rapid shadow clones to her right. But more than that, she heard the cries and growls of Grimm - lots of them. And the more they howled - the more noise they made - the more other Grimm in the area would show up to the party.

Lopping the heads off of two Beowolves with a quick back-forth combo, she then drew back Crescent Rose and flung the weapon into a large crowd that had formed in front of her. Three managed to escape, but four more fell as she immediately summoned Crescent Rose back to her. Catching the weapon while racing towards the survivors of the group, she beheaded them the instant Thorn latched onto the weapon.

Skidding to a stop, she found that a vertical line of six had appeared. Was she fast enough? Her semblance shot her forward, drawing a line through the Beowolves before planting Crescent Rose in the ground, leaving the weapon behind and sending herself flying back to the center of the courtyard. While she was still in transit, she summoned her weapon after her - allowing it to plow through two more Grimm before catching it when she finally stopped, and immediately using it to destroy three more Grimm in three easy, swift blows.

Big, lanky, but surprisingly easy to kill. Their lack of armor provided zero resistance to Crescent Rose and, unlike Blake and Yang, their ability to dodge or deflect was basically nonexistent. Plus, they weren’t very smart. It was almost like fighting against some pillows - which wasn’t very fair to pillows.

Five more, six more Beowolves disappeared before her ears picked up something different. There were the howls of Grimm, the cries and growls and roars and scratching of claws tearing across the street, but a new noise had just been added to the mix.

It sounded like a something was pounding its way through the streets, sending tremors through the ground. Clearing out a patch of Grimm as she turned towards the source of the noise, her eyes widened when a full-sized Death Stalker charged into the square, shoving over the remnants of a small building while doing so.

She’d seen pictures and videos before, but nothing could have prepared her for the real deal.

It was huge. Like...gargantuan huge. Its rows of tiny legs managed to move it surprisingly fast, while pincers the size of a small car made a terrifying loud clacking sound when they snapped together. The stinger, glowing dangerously yellow and towering over the courtyard, swayed back and forth - ready and willing to snap forward in an instant.

Nothing but Beowolves - that’s what Yang had said. But the Death Stalker was in Ruby’s quadrant...and it was charging straight towards her.

“Ruby, don’t!” she heard Yang yell just as she’d begun spooling up her semblance for a potential attack. Obediently waiting, she prepared herself to dive out of the way when Blake or Yang showed up. Which would hopefully be soon, cuz it was getting rather close...

But it wasn’t Blake or Yang who showed up to help. Instead, it was a giant, ghostly soldier who suddenly appeared - at least twelve feet tall and carrying a sword Ruby could never dream of picking up. One swing of that sword cleared out a group of at least ten Beowolves before the soldier rushed the Death Stalker without hesitation. Ruby watched in stunned awe as, right before reaching the Grimm, the soldier split into two - two massive soldiers converging on a single Grimm that now looked pretty puny in comparison.

“Oh holy Grimm. Blake - get Weiss’ back!” she heard Yang yell from behind her. Ruby briefly turned around and found that Weiss was following the soldier’s movements intently, while Blake slid over to maintain positioning behind her.

The Death Stalker struck first with its stinger - lashing out like a bolt of lightning. One soldier deflected the attack with his sword while the second fearlessly grabbed the stinger in one hand. Before the Grimm could react, the first soldier’s sword seamlessly swung back around and separated the stinger from the creature in one powerful blow. Rearing up in anger, the Death Stalker managed to clasp one of its powerful pincers around the second soldier’s legs, but he didn’t seem to notice. Instead, he dropped the stinger to the ground and used both hands to plunge his sword down through the plating on the creature’s back - one, two, three, four times until the Grimm stilled.

As the great Death Stalker disintegrated, the soldier still clasped in its claw also disappeared from view. A pack of Beowolves was descending on the remaining soldier - who swung his sword in a giant loop and took out six in one easy blow. But there were twice as many to replace them - the air filling with more and more howls of anger.

“Ruby! We need you to create a perimeter! Hold them back!”

Slicing through two more Beowolves who’d skirted around the giant soldiers, Ruby risked a glance towards her sister.

“Create a perimeter? How?”

“Your semblance!”

Oh. Duh. That would work, wouldn’t it?

Calling upon her semblance, Ruby raced forward like a shot out of a cannon, sweeping through a line of Beowolves as she did so. Skidding to a stop and turning right, she took off again - running fast. With Crescent Rose extended to her left, held firmly within Thorn’s grasp, she caught any Grimm in her path while making sure to duck or dodge any attacks swung her way. The first circle she completed was tight and close to her partners, but the second she pushed further out and ran even harder.

It was really awesome. The first few lines of Beowolves fell like timber, not even slowing down as they ran into her blade of destruction. By the time she made it through four or five circles, the remaining Grimm got a little smarter - they started trying to back up and jump over her instead of running straight through, their intent obvious from the tightening, bunching muscles in their legs.

If she wanted to keep them back, she needed to go faster. Fast enough that even if one jumped, she’d complete a full circle and be back in time to snatch it from the air.

Her legs and lungs were beginning to scream as she pushed herself harder than she’d ever pushed herself before. There was a veritable snowstorm of rose petals kicking up around her, but she pushed onward. Her energy was rapidly depleting, but there was also something new at the very edge of her grasp - a level of speed she’d yet to experience. If she tried a little harder, she could reach it -

A loud pop suddenly echoed through her head. Confused, she kept running for several laps until she realized that something was wrong. Slowing down, she looked around in surprise.

Everything had stopped. Not completely, but the world was now moving in slower than slow motion - even though she was still moving like normal. Beowolves were frozen in time, some of them just starting to open their jaws to howl, some stretching their arms forward in an attempt to grab her where she’d once been.

Looking back, her companions were still collected around the fountain, with an airship just beginning to appear over their heads. Yang was mid-punch, about to take out a Beowolf in a single blow. Blake was doing a slow somersault in mid-air, while Gambol rained bullets down on a group of three Grimm. Weiss had Myrtenaster aimed towards another Beowolf, shimmering blue lights collecting at the end of her weapon.

Two more Death Stalkers had appeared on either side of the square, the buildings they’d just crashed through toppling in freeze frame. The remaining giant soldier was swinging his massive sword through a crowd of Grimm, moving a millimeter at a time.

“Ok…” Ruby whispered to herself, finding that she was breathless and growing more exhausted while she wasn’t even moving.

She had no idea what was going on - she was clearly using an abundance of energy without realizing it - but she wasn’t going to waste an opportunity like this just because it didn’t make sense.

Grasping onto whatever feeling increased her fatigue, figuring that’s what was keeping her in this state, she dashed around as quickly as possible - cutting through all of the Beowolves and putting several hundred rapid stabs into each Death Stalker, right in their weak point underneath a gap in the plating.

Yang had said ‘nothing but Beowolves,’ but she hadn’t mentioned anything about frozen Death Stalkers…

The more Ruby moved, the more exhausted she grew and the heavier her head began to feel. It wasn’t even thirty seconds that she was in this weird time freeze state before her mind couldn’t keep up with it anymore, and everything started to unravel. When time began speeding up, she headed towards Yang - knowing that they’d be jetting away on the ship soon.

Everything was moving faster and faster with each passing moment - like everything had been frozen but was now rapidly catching up to real time. If the feeling she’d grabbed onto was like a string, it was pulling out of her hands and she had absolutely no energy left to hang onto it. Another pop sounded in her mind when it disappeared and everything suddenly jumped from 50% to full speed.

Not expecting the rapid time shift, she might have face planted on the ground. Apparently, it was a little difficult to jog while time warped back to normal...

“Ruby!”

Yang was rushing forward to help, but Ruby pushed herself to her feet and ran to her sister while their ship dropped in from the sky. There was an odd moment of silence that caused her to turn around right as a giant black cloud swept into the air - the result of her not-so-hard work.

For that single second, the square was nearly clear of Grimm.

“What did you…?” Yang began to ask while staring at the sudden emptiness, only to grab Ruby’s arm and pull her along instead. “Help Weiss into the ship.”

More Grimm were already arriving. A spotlight suddenly shone down from above, followed closely by the loud whirring of engines and wind rushing down into the clearing. Looking up, Ruby found the airship hovering over the fountain waiting to pick them up. Wasting no time, she ran over and wrapped one arm around Weiss’ waist. Weiss seemed completely spent, so Ruby lifted her off her feet and carried her up the fountain. It helped that Weiss was super light or that Ruby was super strong. One of those.

The door to the ship was lowered and Blake was already waiting there - motioning them to move faster while Yang was fending off the Grimm from behind them, shotgun blasts repeatedly echoing through the air. When Ruby reached Blake, the two of them together lifted Weiss into the back of the transport before jumping in themselves.

“Lift off!” Blake shouted to the pilot, who immediately pulled the ship into the air while Blake threw Gambol Shroud from the open doorway, one hand grasping a handle in the transport while the other strained in swinging Yang aboard. Yang immediately pressed a round green button inside the ship and the ramp lifted and closed, causing a sudden sucking sound of air before it sealed shut and everything grew quiet.

All four of them were out of breath, and Ruby could feel an underlying layer of exhaustion in her semblance, but it really felt like she could keep going for hours more. She wanted to keep going - she wanted to fight more!

“That was so awesome!!!” she exclaimed, spinning around in a circle and tossing Crescent Rose onto the floor of the ship, only to summon the weapon back into her hand a second later.

Her companions all gave her varying degrees of smiles - Yang’s by far the largest.

“Yang! You’re so freaking good!” Ruby said, rushing over to check over Ember Celica for any damage. Satisfied that the gauntlets held up, she ran to Blake next. “And Blake! Those clones of yours were like whoosh-whoosh-whoosh! Everywhere!”

After Blake gave her a small smile, Ruby turned to Weiss.

“Weiss! What the heck were those giant soldier dudes?? Holy crapoly were they ever cool! I mean - did you see him take out like fifteen Beowolves with one swing?” Ruby pretended like she was wielding a giant sword and swung it through the air like he had, letting go and shielding her eyes from the pretend sun while imaginary Grimm went flying over the buildings. “That had to be the coolest thing I’ve ever seen!”

“I’m...glad you like him...” Weiss murmured, looking moderately embarrassed by Ruby’s words.

“Is he the same every time? What’s his name?” Ruby asked as a million other questions came to mind. “He looks like a...Chester. Or Renaldo. Maybe a…a...what’s another guy name??”

“Ronnie?” Blake suggested, the name making Ruby burst into giggles.

“Ronnie! That’s so perfect! Like, ‘oh hey, wanna meet my friend Ronnie?’ It sounds so safe, and then in stomps this huge freaking giant!”

When she was really excited, she talked a lot. Like now. When she noticed that she was doing it again, she could normally force herself to cut it out. Like now. Cut it out! But she couldn’t. Her skin was practically vibrating with electricity right now!

“You ladies know how to draw quite the crowd!” the pilot yelled back to them from the cockpit.

“You know we’re the life of the party!” Yang replied with a grin, before sitting back in her seat and letting out a big sigh. “Well...that didn’t exactly go as planned.”

Rolling her eyes, Blake leaned into Yang’s side. “Does it ever?”

”What did you get, anyway?” Ruby asked. Reaching into a nearly invisible pocket, Blake pulled out a tiny memory drive.

“I hope it’s what we were looking for,” she answered, flipping the device over in her hand.

Clenching her fist in success, Ruby turned back to Weiss - only to find that she had closed her eyes and was leaning her head back against the headrest. The sight instantly calmed Ruby down...because something about Weiss’ posture made her worried.

Stowing Crescent Rose under one of the seats, Ruby finally sat down.

“Weiss,” she said as softly as she could. Clear blue eyes opened and found hers - sending a tiny tremor through her chest. “Are you feeling ok?”

“Yes, just...tired...” Weiss replied, giving Ruby what was probably supposed to be a reassuring smile, but really wasn’t. “You did really well…”

The words should’ve made Ruby really happy, but she was still concerned. Glancing across the ship, she found that Yang was watching Weiss thoughtfully while Blake whispered in her ear. After Blake finished speaking, Yang nodded and looked away.

If neither of them were super concerned, maybe Ruby didn’t need to be, but it seemed like Weiss wasn’t feeling very well. Whenever Ruby felt crappy, it made her feel better when Yang would hold her hand or rub her shoulder. Maybe Weiss would feel the same?

Hesitantly, Ruby reached over and took one of Weiss’ hands in her own. Weiss’ eyes flew open and she stared at Ruby for a second in confusion, but when Ruby smiled, Weiss smiled in return before closing her eyes and letting out a soft, content sigh.

The reaction made Ruby sigh in relief. Leaning back in her seat with Weiss’ hand held in her lap, she thought about how...delicate...Weiss’ hands were. And soft, but also strong from using Myrtenaster so much. There were some hidden calluses - built up over time - that Ruby could feel underneath her fingertips.

With her free hand, Ruby lightly traced the back of Weiss’ hand - from Weiss’ wrist to the tips of her fingers and back again. Feeling someone watching her, Ruby looked up and met Blake’s eyes - but Blake merely smiled before turning to the side and placing a soft kiss to the top of Yang’s head. Even though it would only be a few extra minutes to the airship station closest to their home, Yang was already conked out and sleeping with her head on Blake’s shoulder.

The energy in the ship dwindled quickly as adrenaline faded to relief. Ruby could feel the effect taking place in her own body - her muscles unwinding and her heartbeat slowing to a more normal pace. A few minutes ago, she’d been charged with electricity - now, she felt...sleepy.

While the ship sped through the sky, Ruby focused her attention on the girl sitting beside her. Without leaning forward she couldn’t tell if Weiss was sleeping or not, but Weiss never moved her hand from its position gently curled around Ruby’s. It was a nice feeling - holding Weiss’ hand. It was actually kind of funny because Ruby had meant to comfort Weiss with the gesture, but it ended up comforting herself as well. Mutually beneficial...

Still tracing the back of Weiss’ hand, Ruby leaned close enough that her arm was pressed against Weiss’ side. They always seemed to crank the air up in airships, so it was kind of cold - and she didn’t want Weiss to be cold. Pleasantly surprised when Weiss made no effort to move away, Ruby settled in and enjoyed the warmth they were able to share.

This was also nice. After the whirlwind of activity they’d just sprinted through, it was nice to relax, decompress, and just...be here together. For each other. The four of them - Blake with Yang, Weiss with Ruby. It almost made her wish that the flight home would last a little longer...

As her own adrenaline wore off, it felt like sandbags were trying to weigh her eyes shut. Her body was winding down and trying to put her to sleep, but her mind was still racing with so many questions. Like how had the Grimm found them so quickly? How had Blake broken into the safe? What would’ve happened if the second evac point hadn’t worked and they’d had to ‘hoof it’ back to Vale? Would the Grimm have pursued them all the way to the walls?

And, most importantly, when could they do this again? Because she wanted to do it again. Like right away. Or at least, as soon as Weiss felt better.

#RWBY #White Rose #Weiss Schnee #Ruby Rose #What Defines Us

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gamearamamegathons · 6 years ago

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Dragon Quest V: Out of Order

Circe here! So, uh, yeah. After the hero and Henry are kidnapped, we flash forward and it turns out we end up toiling away as slaves for ten years. Nnnot much to say about that. Apparently the guy in charge around here is the high priest of the Order of Light, who claims he's going to save the world or something, and to that end he's having all these slaves build a huge temple. It's, you know, not a great scene. Things pretty much go along as normal up until we see the guards whipping a girl, and so we and Henry turn on them to try and protect her. We're launched into a battle in which I have access to all my spells, which raises a lot of questions if we could've just summoned fucking tornadoes on people this entire time. In any case, I win the fight, but we just end up jailed for our efforts. And that would be the end of that, except that it turns out the girl we tried to help was the sister of one of the guards. He heard that after the temple is finished, all the slaves will be killed, so he helps you out of there and asks you to take his sister Maria with you. So we float outta there on a barrel and end up washing up next to a nunnery.

So yeah, that happened I guess? The nuns help us get back on our feet, and Maria stays there, so it's just us and Henry...for now! This game introduces an exciting new mechanic, which is the ability to recruit monsters. And not just a temporary one-off thing like in Dragon Quest IV, monsters we fight in battle can decide to join us afterward, and become full-fledged party members. The roster of monsters here seems surprisingly deep, and we start picking them up right away, but the one I start with and keep in my party is an ordinary slime. It seems like our party size is back down to 3 for this game, so it's just me, Henry, and the slime. New party members can join on, but you need to buy a caravan, similar to how we had one in the previous game. We can find one in the town of...Oracleberry? Okay.

Apparently the big thing about this town is that there's all sorts of gambling and stuff going on at night, but I'm not really interested, so I just stock up on weapons. Henry is hilariously weak, seeing as he's level 1 and wearing rags, so I get some basic equipment on him. We travel further north, and we find a ruined town that looks like...well, it looks like Santa Rosa. Our hero is really not having a great life thus far. Apparently, after Henry was kidnapped, the queen blamed Papas, and destroyed his entire town as punishment. Which seems like kind of a non-sequitur, but we know this is just a coverup anyway, so I guess that's okay. There's an old man in town who tells us that Papas hid something valuable in the cave, and now we can take a little boat down the river into the cave to find another section of the dungeon. Here, we find a surprisingly familiar item -- it's the Zenithian Sword! We also find a note to us from Papas. In it, he says that our mother was taken away by some evil, and the only way it could be defeated is if the legendary hero wielded the Zenithian equipment against it. But, even though he spent his whole life seeking the equipment and the hero, all he ever found was this sword.

I admit, I'm a little confused about the whole thing with our mother. I guess she didn't die in childbirth after all, so either something was communicated poorly, or I just misunderstood...or else, it gave that impression on purpose? I don't know, it's weird. But I guess it doesn't matter that much. From here, I decide to go back to Alcapas to see if I can meet up with Bianca. Alcapas is fine, but it seems that Bianca's family sold the inn and moved away. So that's no good. Instead, let's go east, to Reinhart. Unsurprisingly, it seems that the queen is using King Dale as a puppet, and Reinhart has fallen into tyranny and suffering. Of course, it's not a simple matter to get inside the castle...I'll admit, I got a bit lost here. We can get in the front entrance to the castle, but the way in deeper is blocked by a guard. As we leave, Henry remarks that he remembers a secret path inside. Of course, I remember Henry's secret passage, so I immediately set about trying to get in there. We can't access the area the passage led to, but it is connected to a side door...which is locked. I spent a good while trying to find a way into this area, before I gave up and consulted a guide. It turns out I had it all wrong. You're supposed to notice that when the drawbridge is up at night, it reveals a secret tunnel underneath, which you can reach via a boat. I noticed this passage when I first entered Reinhart, but I immediately forgot. And in my defense, Henry's dialogue seemed to be reminding the player of a secret passage they already saw, so it was actively misleading. Is this because of the translation, or was it also confusing in the original? No way of knowing, I suppose.

Well, I'm grouchy about needing to use a guide for that, but there's nothing for it but to move on. The secret passage leads to a dungeon, naturally, and here we find the queen in prison. Eh? This is a bit confusing at first, but if you recall, we've seen imposter monsters before, so perhaps this isn't too surprising. What *is* surprising is that the plot needed to replace the queen with a monster at all, I mean, she seemed pretty evil from the start. I didn't bat an eye when I heard she was destroying villages and oppressing people. But apparently the real queen regrets her ruthless ambition now. Woulda been nice for you to reach that decision before you kidnapped us into slavery, lady. Well anyway, we make our way to King Dale, and Henry reveals that he's his brother. When Dale hears that his real mother is in prison, we all decide that something has to be done about it, and...I think it's Dale who tells us what to do next? In any case, we find out there's a hidden teleporter that can lead us to a tower where we can find a magic mirror that can reveal the monster's identity. No surprise, the Mirror of Ra is back.

The teleporter actually takes us just a bit south of the nunnery, so we could've walked here if we wanted, but this is a lot more convenient. Makes me wonder if we could've gotten the mirror early. This dungeon is a bit annoying because it ends with an invisible path you have to figure out by trial and error (if there was a trick to it, I didn't find it) but we eventually got to the mirror, and head back to Reinhart. It seems that Dale has tried to resolve the problem himself, and we come to the queen's chambers to see two queens there. Well, we've got the mirror, so we just use it on the queens to find that one of them is a...goblin hula dancer? Okay. This boss fight isn't very hard, so we take care of that, and save the day. After all this, Henry decides to stay by his brother's side, but luckily I've been slowly filling up my caravan with a whole host of non-human companions, so I replace him with a slime knight. Guess I'm rolling with a slime theme, here. Henry tells us that ships should be sailing in a harbor called Vista, so I guess that's where we'll be headed next.

Now that I've gotten into the game a bit, I can talk about localization. I'd hoped I'd have more interesting things to say, but largely it seems fine and pretty unremarkable. For the most part, spell names are following the conventions of the previous Dragon Warrior games, so no surprises there. It seems like a lot of the monster names are fairly literal translations, or just straight up the same name as in Japanese, since a bunch of the original names are actually in English. There are some spelling errors here and there, but nothing too surprising, it being the work of a small fan group instead of a professional localization team. There's also some incongruous swearing here and there, but it's rare. Oh, and as you may have already noticed, Nintendo of America-style censoring is out. House of Healing are called churches, people get drunk at taverns, and our dead party members are coffins instead of ghosts. But all in all, you might barely notice it's a fan translation. Well, it makes playing the game pretty smooth, so I can hardly complain.

I've been playing a lot of Dragon Quest lately, so my next post might be something different. I dunno, I'm still thinking about it. In any case, I'll see you then.

#circe #marathon #dragon quest #dragon quest v

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newhologram · 7 years ago

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Glorious purpose, sacrifice, and the god who started it all

Send a heartbeat to The void that cries through you Relive the pictures that have come to pass For now we stand alone The world is lost and blown And we are flesh and blood disintegrate With no more to hate

- The Beginning Is the End Is the Beginning by Smashing Pumpkins (because this song is 100% about Avengers)

Been on an MCU binge to put everything under a microscope, so here’s what’s been rolling around in my brain.

Infinity War spoilers below with speculation/theories for Avengers 4 that includes A4 spoilery set leak stuff.

**SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT**

* * *

There’s a lot to talk about as far as theories as we were given some hopeful leads in IW and other films. Just to take inventory on some other speculations and fun ideas:

Shuri may have backed Vision up

Soul World: is that where Gamora is? Is that where everyone who was dusted went?

Nebula may get a meaningful role in helping to take Thanos down

Captain Marvel’s role in all this??

The possibility of Adam Warlock coming out of his cocoon

The Eternals maybe

Hawkeye/Ronin

Thor’s Stormbreaker handle being made of Groot somehow solving something

Thanos being overcome with grief in his isolation

The possibility of a major time jump in A4 to see how Earth has moved on after the snap, which may include Tony’s future with Pepper and their child. Everyone will have lived so many years with the consequences of the snap.

It also feels like each character might have to go on their own hunt for the stones, which might lead to an interesting reversal of the loss and sacrifice they faced in IW. I wonder who gets assigned to each stone and how that’ll play out for their individual character arc? There’s one stone for each original Avenger, so that’s cool to think about

Erasing versus dying. If you’ve heard anything about “the Event” that a lot of astrologers have been talking about lately, basically our reality is due for a cosmic event which splits us—leaving people behind and taking the rest into a prosperous new universe. Some will be “erased” from this existence. It’s been called the Rapture. Which is uh. Pretty interesting considering IW premiered on the actual date of the rapture prediction and how the Snap is absolutely a kind of sad superhero bad ending rapture.

Rewriting everything that we’ve seen in the past 6 years in canon

I’ve also seen some talk of theories such as “Loki is Bruce Banner in disguise”. I can see why this theory is popular because Bruce acts really weird the whole movie and seems to know things he shouldn’t. But I’m not too into it because it feels like there’s a big payoff coming with the Hulk (as in, we better get a cool shot of him bursting out of the Hulkbuster armor, like the toy).

There’s also some talk about spotting Quicksilver and even Wolverine on the set but I have nooo idea what those would even mean, not just in regards to the plot but with the whole joint custody thing Sony, Fox and Disney have been working out.

All of that said, I’ve been thinking about a few other threads in particular though, so that’s what I’ll be exploring here. Just speculation for fun. Let’s see where it leads.

☀ Undying Fidelity

The opening scene was really suspicious to me for many reasons. These directors are sharp and I believe there is purpose to everything we see as well as what we don’t see.

Let’s talk about my boy Loki.

He starts out pretty scared. The guy is sweating bullets.

After the Hulk engages Thanos, Loki isn’t on screen for several minutes. We don’t see him reacting or hiding or anything. I don’t trust that, especially not with the Russo bros directing it. I feel as though something is being hidden from us in this moment, distracted by the Hulk just as much as the bad guys are.

When he reappears to offer himself as a guide to Thanos, suddenly his demeanor is totally different. He seems calm, resolved even.

His choice of words is very important. The most suspicious to me are: “rightful heir to Jotunheim”, “God of Mischief”, “do hereby pledge my undying fidelity”. Loki does not want us to forget that he’s not only a Jotunn, not Asgardian by blood, but he’s a God, and a very, very cunning one. To be honest, it doesn’t feel like that last line was for Thanos at all. It honestly feels like he’s saying it to someone else—maybe himself. To his own duty in this moment. Which brings me to the next bullet point:

After that last line, dagger forming, his eyes quickly dart down. There’s a pause. A small beat there. He looks as though he’s steeling himself. That, to me, is the face of a man who very much knows he’s about to die. It’s a very Obi-Wan moment, right in front of Thor. It’s somehow even more heartbreaking if he knew it was coming, and was still so scared and small when Thanos wrapped his fist around his neck.

Loki’s a smart cookie. He may be relatively young for a god/alien but this isn’t his first rodeo. He already knows how deadly and terrifying Thanos is without the Gauntlet/stones, so what does he think he can do right now? He knows a little dagger isn’t going to win this for them and that’s precisely the point. He isn’t dumb enough to try that sincerely, which makes me believe even more that it was strategic. I have a feeling Thanos chiding him about his choice in words (”undying”) is going to come back to bite him in the ass.

Back to Loki’s words being important. When he’s first about to surrender the Tesseract earlier in the scene, he says to Thor, "I promise you, brother, the sun will shine on us again." He says it with so much purpose.

And his final words to Thanos: “You will never be a god.” Another reminder: Loki is a god. He’s survived a black hole, stabbing, Hulk-smashing, Grandmaster’s orgies, and likely more in his years. We’ve come to expect him to fake his own death by this point, though I’m still on the fence about whether this one was fake, or a necessary one he knew needed to happen, or somehow a bit of both. I wonder, only a little, where did Loki’s body go, is it just floating around with the rest of the dead?

For that matter, where the hell is Valkyrie? Is there any meaningful payoff rather than just humor for Korg calling Loki a ghost in Ragnarok? I’m not too hopeful for something like that, but it’s a thought.

Later on in the film we see Thor, another god, (barely) survive the concentrated full force of a dying star. I’m supposed to believe Loki, an incredibly gifted frost giant child trained in the arts of magic, Loki Ha Ha Duplicates of Me Everywhere Odinson, Loki I’m Right Where I Need to Be Laufeyson just has a sudden brain fart, tries to stab the Mad Titan, gets his neck snapped in front of his brother, and it’s not on purpose?

BITCH. DID. NOT. TURN. BACK. TO. BLUE.

Do I really think Loki is still alive? I don’t know. Loki is very, very dear to me but like I said, I’m on the fence. Because it seems like the deaths that happened before the snap, save for Gamora, might be permanent because we needed to feel that the stakes were high. On the other hand, again, Loki is very gifted. We’ve seen him “die” before and I still have a very hard time believing he’s fully dead and not god-level deep coma smacked down needing time to regenerate if he doesn’t just turn blue right after since his iconic look is an illusion too. His line about the sun shining on them again uses the word “us”, which could indicate a revival and reunion somehow.

But I’m cry because you know he and Thor got into a lot of trouble growing up, and big brother was always there for him. But then little brother goes through some hard stuff, falls into a black hole, gets picked up by a cult, and it all comes down to this moment now: no home to return safely to, no mother to console him after Odin’s discipline, Thor unable to save him.

♥ We Don’t Trade Lives

Before I go into A4 speculation, let’s look at how each character deals with sacrifice, just for fun:

Loki is given a choice: his brother’s life, or the Space Stone → Loki surrenders and sacrifices himself

Quill is given a choice: the love of his life, or Thanos getting closer to winning → Quill is hesitates and is unable to keep his promise of sacrificing Gamora

Gamora is given a choice: her sister, or the location of the Soul Stone → Gamora surrenders to spare Nebula

Thanos is given a choice: his favorite daughter, or the Soul Stone → Thanos sacrifices Gamora for the stone

Dr. Strange is given a choice: Tony Stark, or the Time Stone → Despite earlier warning Tony he wouldn’t hesitate to sacrifice either him or Peter if it means keeping the Time Stone safe, he surrenders the stone → He sacrifices his duty, his life, and the lives of everyone else who gets dusted in order to put them on the one right path he saw out of over 14 million

Wanda is given a choice: Vision, or the Mind Stone → Her struggle with this choice starts earlier on when Vision offers to sacrifice himself to destroy the Mind Stone → Cap tells him “we don’t trade lives” → Wanda is also not willing to immediately kill him when asked → They run out of time and options, Wanda finally sacrifices Vision, which as we saw didn’t really work out the way they wanted

Our characters struggle with sacrificing something important to them in order to save the universe (remember, in the eyes of Thanos, he’s saving the universe too). Many of the characters value their loved ones above everything else and don’t want to have to make that choice. They don’t want to face the pain of a life without that person, or they don’t want another person to suffer or die painfully because of them.

Alright. Let’s talk bidness.

♛ Reframe the Future

Yeah—remember B.A.R.F.? Binarily Augmented Retro-Framing.

This has to be what Tony will use to look back at things. I see him replaying the events of the first Avengers over and over, trying to figure out how it all could’ve gone so wrong, what clues they missed, and how to fix it.

Which brings us to the question of time travel. Is this where the idea of Infinite Avengers will come in, if the multiverse is explored? I don’t have too much of a lead on that, but it’s interesting to think about. If that ends up being the title of A4 it would certainly point to that.

(Note Tony’s greying hair which supports the idea that A4 will start 5-10 years after Infinity War)

Many have speculated about the devices on their wrists in these photos, as well as the fact that while Tony and Ant-Man seem to be their present selves, others are in their old costumes from the first Avengers. Doesn’t quite answer why Cap is wearing a device, unless they recruit lots of multiversal Avengers from various timelines/realities/points in history to help? (Wouldn’t it be crazy to find out that Ant-Man has been a secret tiny time traveling Avenger the whole time?)

It’s hard to know exactly what kind of time travel shenanigans we’re dealing with. Maybe we’ll learn more when we see Ant-Man and the Wasp, since they’re going to be dealing with the quantum realm, where time doesn’t really exist. In the quantum realm, every possibility exists at the same time.

We do have some clues though.

Exhibit A: Loki in all his muzzled glory, as seen at the end of Avengers.

We know that this time travel plot would involve going back to where it all started. But what could be done, what is Tony’s play?

Exhibit B: Tony Stark in S.H.I.E.L.D. gear. More specifically—

As one of Loki’s escorts.

What we don’t see in Avengers is how everything goes down when they take Loki back into custody (after grubbing on shawarma). We don’t see the discussion about what to do with him and Thor’s decision to take Loki and the Tesseract back to Asgard.

So, again, what the hell is Tony’s game plan?

If he’s disguised as a guard, there could be a chance to get alone with Loki and talk to him. Tell him everything that goes down. Get him to help. Get info from him, and make sure he knows how things need to play out in order for this all to work.

I’m not sure how yet though. It seems this could somehow involve Stark making his own Infinity Gauntlet, but that’s later down the line. Where does Loki fit into the plan beyond the time travel scene? That may be all we get of him.

I’m so excited for the possibility of my two favorite characters working together or even having just once more scene together, however it plays out. Tony and Loki both smiled at each others’ jokes in A1 and I loved it. I feel like their dynamic would be so interesting to explore more. Tony totally clocked that Loki is a diva, because they’re both like that lol.

☮ Glorious Purpose

But what’s most interesting to me right now is the implication that if this is the closed loop kind of time travel, it would mean Loki has known about all this since the end of Avengers.

When the Hulk was distracting everyone, was Loki hiding behind a wall, readying himself for what he knew he needed to do next? I’ve heard talk of the possibility of a duplicate since that’s what Loki does, but would Thanos have been able to tell he was killing an illusion? He didn’t have the Soul Stone then which likely helped him tell which Strange was real later. I’ve also heard talk of a Loki switchout, but I’m not too convinced because it would involve somehow transporting another Loki there. Not so sure there would be a stealthy way to do any of that.

Did Loki die in the beginning of Infinity War fully knowing all those years that it was going to happen, that it needed to happen, in order for the sun to shine again?

Did Loki die to help save the universe?

...

If Loki knew those few weeks on Sakaar were going to be his last, do you think he was like, “Guess I better live my best life and spend my final days sipping cocktails on Grandmaster’s lap.”

My final speculation prediction REQUIREMENT from Marvel Studios is to have Avengers 4 end with a beautiful Pepperony wedding filled with superheroes. Whoever’s left, that is.

(This also means if there’s a time jump, Tony will possibly erase the present he has with Pepper and their child in order to save everyone... Should be interesting.)

In conclusion, have this whiteboard drawing I did for @spazzeon as I tried to explain all of this

#avengers #mcu #infinity war #marvel #loki #infinity war spoilers #teku #long post

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uncheckedtomfoolery · 7 years ago

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Some youkai for your consideration

I’ve often thought it’s a bit of a shame that the legions of Touhou OCs out there seem to limit themselves to shrine maidens, outsiders, the occasional god and ‘actually Remilia has another sister’, when there’s such an enormous wealth of as yet unused legends to pick from. While it’s somewhat off-brand for me, I’ve decided to actually try and change this rather than just sit and complain.

Below the cut, you’ll find a bunch of youkai with a mix of descriptions and suggestions plus, where possible, a link to Wiki or another resource. Anyone who doesn’t care for Touhou might still find some interesting/bizarre folklore (but I repeat myself).

Gashadokuro: Starting strong with a gigantic skeleton. Or, depending on the legend, a swarm and/or gestalt of skeletons. The latter is more accurate, but a popular painting depicted on the wiki page has more or less overwritten the popular perception. The Gashadokuro is said to be invulnerable and invisible, though you can hear it (a ringing sound, surprisingly, and not its footsteps); you can probably also tell it’s around if you’re not completely blind. Being formed from the unburied bodies of those either starved or killed in war, it’s mostly grumpy and hungry, and stalks around biting heads off random people to drink the blood, like a really gory and inefficient vampire. You can probably do some kind of ribcage-coat-and-skull-hat deal if you don’t want to outright go with a skeleton, series aesthetic being what it is. A bamboo eyepatch might be a fun nod to the myth often conflated with it, too (as noted on the Wiki page).

Namahage: Approximately Japanese Krampus with a ridiculously strong northern Japanese accent. They go from house to house brandishing buckets (why? Not a clue) and giant knives or outright machetes, yelling at kids and generally scaring them into behaving. At the request of parents (who give them gifts of mochi), they might throw in a special lesson as well. Then they stomp off to wherever they came from. Originally this was a ‘be good, or...’ kind of myth where the community played into it, but hey, youkai potential. Probably playing the exact same role, which could be funny.

Azukitogi: An old favourite just for being profoundly weird and irrelevant. The Azukitogi is an old man (according to some sources; I’ve always heard the stories casting it as an old woman) who washes their azuki in a river, musing on whether they should keep at it or go eat someone. The latter, to my knowledge, never actually happens, so it’s just a morbid youkai talking to themselves. If you get close, depending on the telling, you will drop into the river. That’s it. It’s just an ugly humanoid youkai sitting around washing beans in the middle of the night, muttering. I feel like it captures the ‘some of them are just kind of there’ spirit of youkai perfectly.

Heikegani: Reaching into animal youkai here, sort of; some do theorise that it’s a kind of haunting. You see, Heikegani have shells that look a bit like scowling samurai masks, and as such, were believed to be the reincarnated souls of Heike clan warriors who died at sea in the sea battle of Dan-no-Ura. Combine that with the whole animal youkai thing and you can easily wrangle up... oh, an extraordinarily (if misleadingly) grumpy-looking, 24/7 armour-wearing crab youkai who has way too many swords. Optionally a ghost. ...What, you don’t think they really look like that? Here you go, then.

Chochin-Obake: Okay, I won’t pretend this is especially innovative. It’s low-hanging fruit, and it’s simple: The archetypical lantern tsukumogami. As such it’s kind of astonishing that I haven’t seen this done more, though?

Todomeki: Literally the ‘demon with hundreds of eyes’, the Todomeki is a towering humanoid woman with countless bird eyes covering her ridiculously long arms. The eyes are, according to several brands of moon logic living in happy coexistence, a symbolic punishment for stealing. No theft occurs in the stories of the Todomeki, and she has a lot of weird powers from somewhere, so this is... weird. Her stories feature her scaring people in a horse graveyard (I did not know this was a thing) for no apparent reason, spouting fire and breathing poison gas, then coming back a long time later to collect the blood and poison gas that she lost so she can recover. I want to further note there was a 400 year delay in between the horse graveyard fight and ‘oh yeah I should go back for my blood and nerve gas’. Possibly for Touhou this gets toned down to a suspicious mess of stolen goods, and eye patterns all over the sleeves of her dress.

Nurikabe: Another in the ‘some Youkai just exist’ brand, the Nurikabe is a living wall of indeterminate origin (depictions make it look kind of dog-like for some reason?) that extends forever. If you knock on it politely, it disappears. Theories on how the myth came about, on the other hand, tend to be either explaining lost travelers... or dietary changes in the lower classes during the Edo period, which led to an outbreak of fatigue and night-blindness. You’d stagger home in the evening, hit a wall you can barely see, and feel like it goes on forever because you’re so tired. Of note, also, is the popular (in Japan, anyhow) Gegege no Kitaro adaptation. Imagine someone buying a figure of this. I don’t understand. To wrap up, the Nurikabe’s motivation is purely to mess with people, as far as anyone can tell. Some theories attribute it to tanuki instead. Oh, and a mountain variety growing out of the mountainside, the Nuribo, also exists.

Ittan-Momen (or here, but there’s not much to be found anywhere): This one provides an interesting counterpoint as an entirely hostile tsukumogami. It’s a roll of cotton that flies on the wind, native to Kagoshima, and either sneaks into houses or bears down on travelers in the middle of the night, wrapping around their face and suffocating them out of sheer spite. It is quite possibly the world’s most hostile blanket, or the ultimate evolution of the sheet ghost.

Inugami (WARNING: Gross and terrible things happen to dogs in the wiki text; do not click if this will upset you greatly): As much a brand of ritual as a creature, the Inugami is the result of one of multiple processes in southern Japan’s distant past that would result in the creation of a vaguely canine spirit. The spirit (described as variations on the theme of a tiny black and white floating thing with a dog’s head) will possess your enemies, bring them to ruin, bring you prosperity, or whatever depending on the telling. It will also haunt your family for generations, so this is kind of a Faustian deal. On the other hand, it has reasons for being angry.

Oboroguruma: A literal monster truck An oxcart, translucent and ghostly, with a giant face on the front. It rattles up to your doorway and makes squeaking noises until you step out and see the cart there, whereupon it appears to do nothing in particular. Youkai. It’s some pretty striking imagery though, which is no surprise since, as the link elaborates, the art came before a story. According to the after-the-fact backstory, it uh, feeds on the petty grumbling of spoiled aristocrats, which seems fairly harmless? Ghost taxi.

Kamaitachi: Another high-profile, if minor youkai. This one has... a thousand origin stories and variations depending on where you go in Japan. I’ll let you hit the link yourself. The core of it is an etymological corruption turned pun. A weasel with sickles for arms, taking the form of a dust devil, whirlwind or just a gale, with the weasel either at the heart of it or invisible outright. The wind cuts people; thus the term Kamaitachi is actually used to this day to refer to any sort of strong wind that feels like it’s cutting/biting into you. I’m going to toss in an excellent drawing by @moominpappa also. Here it is.

Basan: A giant chicken that lives in forests and breathes fire, which as a combination strikes me as a non-survival trait, but what do I know? It... makes bird noises outside but disappears when humans look at it, which strikes me as extremely convenient. I mention it solely because- I mean, click the link. It looks utterly ridiculous. I love it.

Kodama: Alternatively Kotodama, literally ‘tree soul’ or ‘tree spirit’. They’re the spirit of any sacred or spiritually significant tree, a Shinto god of the small-g variety (that is to say, welcome to animism, where everything is a god but not necessarily a high-profile one). You know those little black and white guys from Princess Mononoke? Yeah, those are the ones. They’re basically minor guardian spirits for their tree, and the reason you’ll see trees ringed with braided rope and paper tassels all around Japan. When it’s depicted as anything other than the actual tree, Kodama tend to be pretty small. They’re benevolent unless, of course, you try to cut the tree down, at which point you will pay dearly (but more in the ‘curse your house for seven generations’ sense than ‘whoops, tree ate you’).

Jinmenju (or Ninmenju): The Jinmenju is possibly an extremely displaced Arabic legend about the Waqwaq Tree. It apparently serves no real purpose except to really creep people out, and even that, only by accident. The Jinmenju has fruit shaped like human heads complete with a face (ditto the seeds within), which smiles constantly. If you laugh at it, it will laugh back at you, but laughing too hard will make the fruit fall off. You can eat them, and the tree will not object, nor the fruit. It’s said to be sweet and sour, which carries the horrible implication that someone thought this was a good idea. According to Mizuki Shigeru, there are stories of people who (for some godforsaken reason) planted orchards of these things. They’re mostly found in the south, which probably deserves it for the whole inugami business. Design-wise, you might tone this down by giving the character a green or brown robe with smiling faces drawn all over it (or cut out, Hata no Kokoro-style), and a wooden mask over their actual face (if one exists). Optionally, combine it with the previous youkai so there’s a kodama perched on her shoulder.

That’s about it for now, but I do want to point out that if you want to look further, Yokai.com is a pretty good resource and frequently a more comprehensive one than Wikipedia. Have fun making incredibly weird youkai.

#Touhou #Folklore #Writing #Kind of? It's a resource of sorts

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mahalidael · 7 years ago

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OLYMPAHOMA CHAPTER 7

CHIRON TRAUMATIZES ME FURTHER, SOMEHOW

I stared at the menu for a solid minute before Juliet offered to read it to me.

“I’m good,” I said. “Just tired.”

When he heard about Slamlet’s showdown with me, Chiron forced me, Cyrus and Juliet to reconvene. After hearing about the whole fiasco, he told Juliet to take me to the saloon and buy me dinner. (“What? What’d I do?” “I suppose the incident with the fury was not your fault, but you did put her in a chokehold until she fainted.”)

Aside from a few weak protests, Juliet didn’t seem fussed. But because I focused hard on Chiron’s face, not his horsey bits, I noticed he seemed surprised by how easygoing she was. Cyrus seemed pretty shocked too, though he looked shocked so often his face could’ve been stuck like that. Either way I was curious.

When the group dissipated, I hung back.

“Are you coming?” Juliet had shouted at me from halfway down the road.

“Go ahead, I’ll catch up,” I called to her.

Cyrus looked at me like I was a rabid dog teetering in his direction. Can’t say I blame him. I hadn’t been the most mild-mannered girl lately. “Yo, Cyrus,” I said calmly. “What’s up with Juliet?”

Cyrus fidgeted with this weird little necktie thing he had. Was it an ascot? Whatever. “I think she likes you,” he admitted.

“What makes you think that?”

“She’s not normally this c-cordial with newcomers. Even when she’s the person who brought them here.”

“Then why’d she take a shine to me?”

He sighed and looked into the distance where Juliet was walking. “Um… I could just be spitballing, but I think she’s jealous.”

“...Jealous?” I looked over myself. What could she be jealous of?

“Eh, not you. Everyone else. All the time, she’s surrounded by people who — even if they’re constantly getting jumped by monsters, at least they have some power that can repel them. She doesn’t, uh, have any.”

“What do you mean?”

Cyrus sucked in air through his teeth. “We know she’s a demigod because she passed all the tests, but… otherwise, there’s nothing. She doesn’t have any powers. The gods say they don’t know whose kid she is. And, um, it’s been three years without any word.”

“Wow.”

“Yeah.”

“So she likes me because we both suck.”

“Yeah.”

“That was the longest I ever heard you talk without stuttering.”

Cyrus sighed and waved me away. “Give it a minute.”

But back to the saloon.

The saloon Vivian was meant to manage, Dio’s, was still open for business. Technically, the town has two saloons: the Olympahoma Inn, a sanitized theme-park setup. The floors are clean, there’s a set schedule for tourist attractions, and what little alcohol is served is historically-inaccurate swill. Then we have Dio’s.

Dio’s is basically a western saloon on LSD. If you’re Misted, you might think that you’re just in a particularly lawless Oklahoma bar, but I wasn’t. There were satyrs screaming “CHUG CHUG CHUG” at a couple of friends shotgunning beers. Underaged kids were barfing in the corners. And, of course, we can’t forget the giant stuffed and mounted lizard head on the wall, scaly mouth open, exposing hundreds of needlelike teeth.

The list of drinks was really high on the wall. “I can read it to you,” Juliet said.

“I’m good, just tired.”

“Did you lose your glasses or something?”

“I don’t need glasses.”

“So you just squint at stuff for fun?”

I ignored that remark. “This is the bar Vivian’s supposed to be running.”

“Yeah.”

“So if she’s not running it, why’s it still open?”

“It needs to be open,” she said, sitting on a bar stool. “It’s Dionysus’s sacred saloon. If we close it down, we’ll be in trouble.” She patted the stool next to her.

I sat down. “Why?”

“Well, Dionysus is this town’s protector. There’s a lot of towns like this, and each town has an Olympian god protecting it. Ours used to be Athena, but that was before 1879.” A bartender with straight yellow hair approached us. “Two kykeon, please,” Juliet asked.

“I should pay for that,” I said. “I’ve caused enough trouble.”

“It’s on me. Besides, what would you pay with?” Juliet produced a few bronze disks the size of sugar cookies from her skirt and slid them across the bar. The bartender sniffed them, then put them in the cash register.

“I hope Cyrus is getting home safe. It’s almost dark, something could jump him,” I said.

Juliet made a face like she’d licked a lemon. “Cyrus is mighty powerful, he can look after himself. It’s his fellow goodbloods I’d worry about.”

I hoped kykeon didn’t have alcohol in it. We were almost a decade underage.

“What’s a goodblood?”

“You’re a goodblood. Or rather, a god’s blood,” Juliet said, spinning her stool. “Hey, this one spins! Whee!”

“Focus, man, you’re supposed to exposit me.”

“Demigods in America, we used to call ourselves ‘godsblood,’ because we’re from a god’s bloodline. It eventually turned into ‘goodblood.’ Good thing too. We can’t say stuff like godsblood without people looking at us weird.”

The bartender had turned away and was preparing whatever it was Juliet had paid for. I didn’t pay much attention until I saw her rip out a handful of her hair and put it on the counter. “Is she supposed to do that?” I whispered.

“Oh, it’s fine, she’s a nymph,” Juliet said. I squinted at her hair. Now that I really looked, it was sticking out in all directions, like a grain plant. It was also growing back so fast I could see it pop out of her head. “She’s probably out of scotch barley.”

The bartender shook something into both drinks and gave them to us. “Thanks, Eudokia,” Juliet said.

I sniffed the drink curiously. “This is box wine with some parmesan floating in it.”

“Yeah it is,” Juliet said, slurping it up.

I grimaced. “That’s disgusting. I’m going home.”

“You do you, buddy.”

I walked around town for a while, trying to figure out what to do. It was getting dark. I knew my family was moving into town, but I wasn’t sure where our house was.

I walked back to the Fauntleroy. My banjo was still lying in the dust at the building’s side, so I picked it up. I needed to get a strap or something for this thing. Then something caught my eye.

There were weird sparks of white light coming from the back. Going back there without backup would be dumb — if it were a monster — but if I ran all the way back to Dio’s it would be too late, and I didn’t know where Cyrus was. Besides, I couldn’t figure what monster flashed like that.

I peeked around the corner. It was Helena.

She had a bow in her left hand, and an arrow (?) in her right. Except the arrow wasn’t an arrow, it was a beam of light that I thought was a fluorescent light bulb before I noticed it was moving.

I had my mouth open to say “hello,” but I shut it. Best to not startle somebody with a lightning bolt in their hand.

Helena had one eye closed to see the target better, which was already scorched in several places.

The bolt hit just one ring away from the middle.

“Nice shot,” I said.

Helena wasn’t surprised. “Hello, Annie,” she said, walking to the target and pulling out the lightning bolt. She twirled it in her hand. “Are you a good shot?”

“No.” I didn’t have to guess. At school, we’d briefly had archery, and I learned that my upper body strength was rotten. The bow I’d been using was strung for a middle schooler. Helena was jacked, so hers had to be tighter.

“Let me see.” The bolt evaporated in her hand. She handed me her bow and took a wooden arrow from her quiver. The bow was as tall as I was.

I notched the arrow, but could barely pull the string back. It landed in the dirt an arm’s length away.

“Eh. Everybody starts somewhere,” Helena said.

“I’ll say.”

She plucked the arrow out of the ground. “But I doubt you came out here to watch me shoot.”

“Chiron walked my stepmother home earlier. Do you know where that is?”

“Not personally, but I believe Sister Ernestine knows.”

“Sister Ernestine?”

“The prophetess. She knows everything in these parts.” She straightened her coat lapels and her quiver, putting the arrow back. “Though god knows where the snake’s slithered off to. She’s supposed to be in the temple, but she’s always away when you need her.”

“Where would you hide a temple in a desert?” I muttered to myself.

“That’s a good question,” Helena said.

She walked away silently. I stood there for an embarrassingly long time before realizing I was meant to follow.

Helena lead me off into the desert. Not terribly far, but a fair bit away from town. The light of Dio’s burned quietly on the horizon. “Are we supposed to be out here?” I said uneasily. Dad’s talk of coyotes and wolves in the Oklahoma wild hadn’t spooked me at the time, but now it was starting to gain relevance.

“I’m not going anywhere nobody’s been before,” Helena said. “If it were light out, you might see where the dirt’s been tamped down here.”

I couldn’t see much of anything. The dim light showed me a sterile desert, no cacti or nothing, and a jagged arrangement of rocks in the distance — which was what we were walking towards. I tilted my head. “That hill looks like—”

“Keanu Reeves?”

“I was going to say Jeff Goldblum.”

“Everyone has a different opinion.”

There was a small gap in the hill, which looked like an abandoned mine, with the wood framing and such. A metal sign nearby was illegible, but it looked like some form of “KEEP OUT.” Helena walked in without a second thought. I glanced at the sign, trying to read, but gave up in order to keep pace.

You would think that all long, dark corridors would echo, but not always. Ernestine’s mineshaft was strangely quiet for reasons I never puzzled out. I had to track Helena by the scent of residual vape juice, which is as unappealing as it sounds — especially since there were other smells in there. Cold, wet smells. And oddly, tea.

All of a sudden, Helena shouted “ERN-ES-TINE!”

I jumped. A powdery, muffled voice up ahead answered her. “Ye-es, what do you want?”

“Turn on the damn lights!”

Sister Ernestine huffed quietly. “Alright, you don’t have to shout...”

Something clicked distantly, and the mineshaft lit up with string lights. The tunnel was much lower than I had assumed, to the point where Helena was leaning over as to not hit her head on the ceiling.

A door to the side of the shaft opened, and a tiny woman shuffled out, wearing a bathrobe and slippers. The smell of tea wafted out strongly. “Oh, hey,” I said. “We’ve met before. In the hospital.”

“Ye-es,” Sister Ernestine drawled. She sounded the way you expect an elderly witch to sound — high-pitched, cackling, cluck-like. “I believe we have, child. Now, it’s near sundown. May be wise to hurry up and ask your question. You know what lives in these sands at night.”

I didn’t, but I felt that I had an idea.

Helena rolled her eyes. I couldn’t figure why she disliked the sister so much. “Annie would like to know where her parents are staying tonight.”

I nodded. Sister Ernestine tapped her chin thoughtfully. “In an apartment above Dio’s. 8A. Helena will walk you home and you’ll let yourself in.”

“I don’t have a key,” I said.

Sister Ernestine paused. “Well, of course, I… I know that. And if Mrs. Zhu is still drunk asleep — which she is — she’s not going to answer the door...” She shuffled through her door.

I stood there, unsure what to do.

Sister Ernestine stuck her pointy hand out of the doorway. “C’mere!”

Helena, though still unhappy, made a “go on” gesture. I went into the door.

Somehow, in this mineshaft, there was a functioning house. The door I walked into led to a kitchen not out of place in a grandma’s house. There was a cup of tea sitting on her table, and a few medicine bottles. Sister Ernestine was banging around in her drawers, looking everywhere short of under the fridge for something. I couldn’t help but feel like I’d interrupted her.

“Should I help—?”

“No, no,” Sister Ernestine said. “It’s my problem. Terrible at organizing, I am. I lose things so often one day it’s going to kill me!”

I looked over the medicine bottles. Aspirin, riboflavin, acepromazine, strychnine, epitol. If losing things didn’t kill her, liver failure would. Finally, after looking everywhere short of under the fridge, Sister Ernestine produced results. “Got it!”

She dropped a heavy iron key in my hand. I raised my eyebrows. “Do you keep people’s house keys just lying around?”

She shook her head. “Nonsense, dearie. That’s a skeleton key. Got it off some pesky Romans a few years back. It’ll get you in any door you need.” She patted me on the shoulder.

“Thank you.”

“No problem,” she said. “I wish those sisters of yours a speedy recovery.”

I walked in the apartment door and immediately fell asleep on the couch without noticing my surroundings.

What? I was tired. Sue me.

I was back in the Mobile Museum of Art. It was near the exhibit that I got stabbed in, except I wasn’t. Stabbed, I mean. Not at the moment.

The museum was closed, so it was dark. A janitor wheeled his cart past me, shining a flashlight.

I followed the janitor.

I hadn’t been back in the museum since I was attacked. It was just as weird as I remember, except now it was darker and considerably spookier.

The janitor mopped lethargically, and I trailed behind him. I wasn’t conscious of the decision. I was just doing dream things, as you do. If I were a little more lucid, I probably wouldn’t have done something that stupid.

Once I got over the fact that I was in the museum after dark, there wasn’t much to see. Just a dark room and a janitor janitoring.

I got bored and decided to wander ahead.

The exhibit has no doors, just one continuous chamber. That’s got to be terrible for the heating bill.

I stayed only a few paces ahead of the janitor. With my newfound circumstances, I had an altogether different feeling about being alone in a room full of monsters, even if they were just statues.

I was having all the wrong thoughts. Instead of thinking of good questions like “why am I here” or “why can’t the janitor see me” I was actually trying to read the placards under the art and failing, because not only is my reading bad in real life, but apparently my dream self has some shit vision too.

Eventually I passed the time waving at security cameras.

I wanted to say “hi,” but my mouth was full of cotton. I spotted one in the corner ahead of the janitor and ran ahead. “Hewwo,” I slurred, flapping my arm. “Hewwo.”

Yeah, go on and laugh.

My joy was short-lived, as I slipped and landed on my ass.

It didn’t hurt, but it was a terrible inconvenience.

I realized I was covered in a fine white ash.

Under me, there was a circle of deeply scorched floor that extended several yards in every direction. And on the wall in front of me, there was an outline of a seven foot tall man.

There was Polyphemus, staring at me with his one stone eye. The janitor ignored it all and mopped.

Distantly, there was a knocking noise.

I turned around. Where the ash outline on the wall had been, there was a door.

The janitor was gone. It was just me and the door, which was ten feet high but otherwise a normal paneled door.

knock knock knock

It was a quiet, but unmistakable knock at the door.

“You should get that,” a girl whispered in my ear. “Your father’s waiting for you.”

The girl—

I woke up.

knock knock knock

I turned on a lamp.

I made eye contact with the centaur who was in the midst of a very passionate kiss.

I looked at the horse on the receiving end.

They both froze.

“This is... not my house,” I said.

I turned off the lamp.

#she speaks #word #olympahoma

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