#then trim once you can see it on the dash and get rid of all but the two most recent posts

[frekydeki]

Circles

A/N | Wrote this as a draft a long time ago, and finally decided to come back to it so I can get some Todoroki on my dash. Angst runs in my blood, so it’s like the only thing I write... Enjoy the Shoto angst.

Pairing | Todoroki Shoto x Reader

Summary | Oof

Part 2 here!

Masterlist

“Sorry, Y/n.” What? Is that the only thing he knows how to fucking say? Hand tightening on the phone at your ear, you clench your jaw and try to tame the angry hurt flaring in your chest. It’s not the first time you’ve heard him sigh this to you. Bitterness burns into your throat and chest before you shake your head and try to smile it off; like smiling at the problem will make it go away.

“No worries. We can always reschedule.” You quietly push out. Even though you practically predicted that this would happen, you still fall victim to the dull ache in your chest. “Have fun, and make sure to study hard!” There’s a hesitation between the two of you… There always has been…

“Are you okay?” Todoroki questions at your silence. Gently, you shut your eyes and coax the burning in your eyes away. You mess with the trim of your cardigan and scan your eyes across your tidy dorm room.

“Yup! I’m fine. I’m gonna get ahead on some homework. I’ll see you Monday, Todoroki.” Lying through your teeth, you move to end the call, but you hear him saying something that you don’t quite catch. Maybe you can pretend that you just didn’t hear him… Hang up on him and ignore him just like he’s done to you since you’ve started dating… Still, despite thinking that, you bring the phone back to your ear, “I’m sorry, I didn’t hear you.”

“Sunday. Let’s do lunch tomorrow.” You know better… But you find yourself agreeing all the same.

“Sure.” You say.

“Good. I’ll see you.”

“Bye.” The call disconnects, and you think your heart does too. Stupid heart. Rubbing your hand over your aching chest, you try and get rid of the dread in you. You place your phone lightly onto your bed and frown severely at your reflection. You never do your make-up and hair, but you did this time... Grabbing your things for a shower and marching off, you’re ready to take the angriest – no, saddest – shower known to man. You’ve reached the point where you can’t find the line between your anger and your sadness. When you hear those words leave Todoroki’s mouth, your chest sets on fire and your hands start to shake; you hate him in those moments, you want to scream at him... Your frustration lasts for just for a few seconds, before you dull into the pitiful form you’re in now; sad, distressed that you have another reason to believe that you and Todoroki just aren’t meant to be in a relationship.

“Y/n! Don’t you look cute!” Mina screeches at you; she’s just coming from the bathroom. “Who’s it for, huh? Your booooyfriend?” You smile gently and shake your head.

“Nope! I was just out with a friend from middle school.” You lie, for some reason. You think it’s because you’re ashamed to admit that you’ve been stood up for the sixth time this week. If you’d tell Mina about all the things spinning around your head like a tornado right now, she’d break you down, and you can’t have that. Not right now.

“Oooh.” Her eyes glint mischievously. “Lucky you, that Todoroki isn’t a jealous man.” Yup. Lucky you. You continue that shallow smile until she scampers off, talking about how she’ll miss part of her show if she sits and chats any longer... Thank god. You continue on your merry way, and step into the steaming shower room with your head already far in the storm clouds hanging above you.

So what if you went to hang out with a friend from middle school? There’s nothing even the most jealous person could get jealous over... Even if you went to go hang out with old friends it wouldn’t be anything like Shoto blowing you off for his friends. Why can’t he tell his friends no for once? Why can’t he just spare you, his significant other, some time? Hell, you’d even love it if he invited you to hang out with them. No matter how you put it, your thoughts only become bitter when it comes to your boyfriend and his friends... 

Your hand freeze in your sudsy hair.

You’re such a jealous person. Any time his friends come into the picture, you become a little jealous; just because you watch him do for them what he’ll never do for you... Gosh, now you’re a hypocrite. That familiar burning begins to churn in your stomach and causes a sting in your eyes. What are you going to do? 

You know what’s going to happen... The same thing that’s happened for the past four months. You’ll go to sleep heartbroken and walk into class the next morning like nothing’s wrong. He’ll give you just enough of his attention to keep you strung in, before he turns back to the others. You’ll see him tomorrow – maybe - forget that you were ever mad, and then hit the repeat button...

You’re tired of these circles. Tired of being so disappointed. Tired of feeling so dull, so angry, so hopeless that this is the only fruit you’d get from your relationship with Todoroki... A rotten fruit is what you two have. 

“(Y/n), are you okay?” You hear faintly. It almost sounds like a voice coming from the end of the tunnel. Snapping away from your thoughts, you realize you’ve been moping back to your dorm room, eyes irritated, head hung low, and shoulders slouched. You must look so pitiful to Denki right now. You cast your eyes up to him slowly and nod, doing your best to give him a light-hearted smile.

“Yeah... Just got a lot of homework I need to do.” 

“I thought you finished it?” You shake your head.

“I think I did it wrong.” Denki’s cheeks flush before he turns around to jog back to his dorm; he must’ve looked over your shoulder while you did it in class. You watch his retreating form, wondering why Denki even checks his answers against yours. He’s a smart guy, he should be a little more confident in himself. You continue on your way silently. You should get a backbone too. Your upper lip lifts slightly in guilt, knowing you didn’t do the homework wrong, so Denki’s going to be tearing his yellow hair out trying to figure out where things went wrong…

Where did things go wrong? Closing your door and leaning back against it, you think over your relationship, trying to find the one point that things could’ve gone differently… What could you have done differently to prevent your relationship from getting here? Sighing heavily, your head falls as you pinch the bridge of your nose; you should’ve held Todoroki accountable. Since his action became a pattern, you should’ve called him out, grown a backbone and stood up for yourself…

But you didn’t. And you still haven’t. Because you’re so terrified of losing Todoroki. The giggling of other students floods in through the walls. Laughing, joking, spending time together with smiles on their faces; that’s what you should be doing. You should feel light, like you’re a teenager in high school, spending time dorking around with friends. You shouldn’t be shut away and hurt like this. Head falling back against the door with a thud – a little bit of pain bites at the base of your head from the contact - you finally allow yourself to admit that this isn’t the way it should be. 

That’s why you’re snatching up your phone with slow, trembling hands. Holding your breath while you type out exactly what you want to say, no backspace, no hesitation. You’ve hesitated too much in your relationship, scared of what one misstep would do; but now, you think there’s only one way out of the circle.

Todoroki, let’s not meet tomorrow. I think we need some space… Away from each other for a while.

Your stomach decends into hell when you read the sent icon, almost wondering if you’d see it switch to read. Though, coming to your senses, you should expect for him to bring it up tomorrow when he calls you to cancel your plans anyways. You flop heavily onto your bed, trying to strangle the terrified tears burning in your eyes. You need space, yes, but you’re still scared of what life will be like without Todoroki.

There was a time where you two were inseparable. More and more you both wanted to know everything about each other, you wanted to see his smile more, to hear his laugh, to have his eyes on only you… You became selfish, asked him to date you even though he probably doesn’t understand what that meant like you do. You wipe away the wet tear on your cheek… You’ve gotten so far ahead of yourself.

You phone buzzing brings your attention to the screen, surprised to see the message is from the man of the hour.

I don’t understand… There is space between us right now?

A bitter smile washes over your lips; of course he doesn’t understand. You bury your face in the crook of your elbow and sigh, wondering how to explain to Todoroki that you just don’t think either of you are ready to be in a relationship. How do you say that kindly, in a way that won’t hurt his feelings? Placing your phone face down next to your pillow, you give yourself some time to think of what your next step should be… Surely Todoroki won’t mind your message being a little late. But your phone buzzes again.

Uraraka says that “space” means to break up… That’s not what you mean though, right?

You clench your jaw, the sight of your phone screen illuminating your dark room blurring a little before you type back a message frantically…

That’s exactly what you mean.

Yes… That’s what I mean Todoroki. I think we need to break up.

Terror pools in your stomach as you watch the sent receipt turn into a read receipt instantly. What is he thinking? Does he feel half as shitty as you do? Probably not, but you can dream right? You can dream that Todoroki wants to stay with you, that he’s been feeling the distance grow between the two of you like you have. But he probably hasn’t. It’s for the best though, because you can’t be the only one struggling in the relationship. It’s best to just stop, loose the battles you’re meant to loose, and move on.

Your screen lights up with Todoroki’s contact picture. He’s calling you. You hand slaps over your mouth. Why is he calling you? You thumb hesitates over the answer button. Should you answer? If you hear his voice, will he be able to talk you down? Somehow convince you that it’ll all be better, and end up spinning in the same circle again? You shake your head; you don’t want that. For you or for Todoroki. So, you decline his call, and lay your phone down.

This time, you’re serious.

Rolling onto your back, you watch the warm, orange sunlight shine on your dorm ceiling. The sound of the city tumbles in distantly from your cracked window, a warm spring breeze tickling at your cheeks and bare legs. Your room is silent inside, your tears without a sound, and your mind unusually blank compared to the frantic speed it was running at just a minute before. You inhale a deep breath, listening to the sounds of Mina laughing with Kirishima. You phone begins buzzing again, your tired eyes looking to find Todoroki calling again. The weight on your chest becomes heavier, as you decline his call. Another text chimes.

Answer the phone Y/n.

You can’t. He calls again, you let it ring this time, staring at the lovely picture; a selfie of you and him after a day at the beach. A smile from cheek to cheek on your lips, your eyes shining, and your cheeks deep with a blush. Todoroki’s mouth is lifted into a lazy smile, his chin rested comfortably on your shoulder, eyes squinted with a smile. You remember his hands were wrapped around your waist, clasped in front of you ask he hugged you from behind. You had stopped for some ice cream on your way back home… You both were happy that day. The phone stops ringing.

It’s better this way. That’s what you repeat to yourself as you try and strangle the sob making your lip quake, and lungs shrivel up like raisins. Your phone buzzes again with another text.

Yn please…

You almost find it annoying how much your phone is buzzing. Leave it to Todoroki to only text you when you’ve made it clear that your leaving. Another message blips across the screen.

Let’s talk about it Y/n. Please call me.

He calls again, but you decline and decide to just turn your phone off entirely. All that buzzing is jumbling your blank mind up, confusing you. Shutting your eyes, you wish you could just power yourself off too, get through the night without having to face the slowness of time.

Rolling to your side, you place your hand to the glass window, eyebrows pinching when it’s not as cold as you thought it would be. You clammy palms heat up the glass, leaving the outline of a handprint.

This is how it should be.

You nod, face contorting into a sob. Yeah, this is how it needs to be. For you… For Todoroki… You’re just not meant to-

“Y/n!” Your eyes widen at the slamming of your door against the wall. You sit up frantically, meeting mismatched eyes, irritated and watching you like it was their last chance.

“Todoroki…” You mumble in astonishment at his appearance in your doorway. Your eyes trickle to Iida, who’s panting heavily behind him; what, did he get a piggyback ride here? “What-“

“Why do you want…” Todoroki swallows thickly as he steps from the doorway, dropping his hand from the doorknob and letting it shut behind him. The rooms dark, the little bit of light left from the sun illuminating his beautiful features, and casting yours into a shadow. “To leave me?” Your open mouth closes, your emotions getting tangled in your throat and choking you.

“I…” You take a deep breath and look down, “I just don’t think we should be together.” You don’t know how else to put it. Todoroki’s eyes narrow for a second, he swallows, and shifts his weight.

“Why?” You almost hear a hint of demanding in his tone, but its overshadowed by the blank expression on his face. You tangle your fingers together in front of you, and his eyes follow to watch them.

“It just seems like there’s more important things happening in our lives.” You begin.

“I don’t understand Y/n.” A ghost of a smile appears on your lips. You’re both frozen in your places, both refusing to move closer or farther away.

“I don’t expect you to.” You push your eyes up to him. “You have your friends; you want to dedicate your time to being with them. I don’t want to be left here, waiting for you to decide that you want to spend time with me. I’m young,” You shuffle away and sit on you bed, leaning forward and bringing your eyes to his, “I don’t want to feel like this.” You shrug and watch his chest rise and fall heavily. He lets his eyes fall to his feet.

“What if I can do better?” He quietly asks. You shake your head.

“If you’d rather spend your time with Midoriya and the others, I understand.” You say. “Let’s just take some time Todoroki. Then we can decide what we want with clear minds.” Todoroki lets out a heavy breath and rubs his eyes.

“Okay.” He responds, looking up to you. Your stomach falls into hell, and eyes begin to prickle painfully with tears, finally spilling over. How could he say that with a smile on his lips?

| Next

[vintage-squid]

Threading Our Future

Summary: When up-and-coming designer Virgil Psykhe lands an interview with his favourite fashion label, he has no idea that the attention he's drawn to himself is being taken away from someone very important: the Lady of the Summer Court. Scorned and furious, she sends her son to kill the insolent human.

But when Janus lays eyes on Virgil for the first time, his breath is stolen by the fluttering of his heart and he knows he won't be able to follow through with his mother's orders.

A modern fae re-telling of the Eros and Psyche myth!

Pairing: Virgil/Janus (background Logan/Patton) Characters: Virgil, Janus, Roman, Remy, Patton, Logan, Remus  Rating: T Warnings: mild violence and blood mention, nonsexual nudity, literal sleeping together  Word count: 10 363 

----- 

Virgil Psykhe groaned as he stood from his chair, bracing both hands against the small of his back and pressing until he felt a satisfying series of pops from his hips and up his spine. He should know better by now than to spend hours on end hunched over his projects without taking proper breaks, but he honestly couldn’t help it. Once he got focused, his whole world narrowed to sketch, cut, sew, trim. It was like he was possessed by some crazy spirit who deemed his sarcastic, introverted ass worthy enough to use as a vessel for creation. At least, that’s how he described the near-frenzy he would fall into when his worried fathers questioned after his health.

Was he getting enough sleep? (No.) When was the last time he’d had something to eat? (Did the granola bar he had earlier count?) Would he be willing to drink more water if Papa cut up some citrus to add? (Actually, that wasn’t a bad idea...)

He knew their fretting came from a place of love. As the youngest of three, he was the baby of the family. Both of his older sisters had married a few years ago, now living with their husbands in a couple of larger, nearby cities. They had told their parents the distant moves were for their husband’s jobs, but Virgil knew better. His sisters had never seemed to fit with the unique … energy of their small hometown.

Virgil, however, had yet to even move out, let alone find anyone who would want to spend the rest of their life with him. Thankfully, while his dads did want him to eventually find love, they were mostly just happy to support his dreams of becoming a famous designer.

Rolling his eyes, Virgil glanced around his cluttered studio. Like he would ever actually be a big name in the fashion industry. Yeah, sure, he wanted more than anything to get his designs out there for models of all backgrounds and appearances to showcase the beauty that was in every body type, but he didn’t want his first name attached to that kind of attention. Nope. No thanks. He would much rather people enjoy his work for what it was, not just because it came from him.

Maybe a pseudonym would work? Eh, he still had time to think about it anyway. It wasn’t like he was going to be traveling far from his studio in his dads’ basement any time soon after all. Picking up his phone, Virgil glanced at the time and cursed under his breath. Shit, he was late to meet up with Remy, and he had forgotten to plug his charger in. He groaned as he shoved his phone in his pocket anyway and grabbed his wallet, headphones, and house key. That drama queen was probably going to bitch and moan about being made to wait until Virgil finally agreed to pay for his drink. Not that Virgil really minded, but he had appearances to keep up.

With one last glance around to make sure he had everything, he dashed up the stairs to head out.

-----

Jogging down the street, Virgil turned past the Spirits’ Temple, where the town’s inhabitants left offerings to the spirits of the forest on the first of every month. Tradition claimed that each month was to be dedicated to one of the twelve local spirits who held dominion over different areas of day-to-day life, and that by honouring them, the town would prosper. At the height of the monthly festivals, there would be candles lining the marble steps, fake vines and string lights wrapped around the temple’s stone columns, and a wide spread of wine and honey-sweetened foods to be served. Some of this would be up for grabs on the buffet table, but a selection was always saved to be placed in one of the twelve bronze braziers, which one depended on the month, lining the sides of the temple. Each brazier was set in front of a stone statue carved with a symbol that denoted which spirit it belonged to.

At some point during the evening, everyone in town would take a moment to approach the massive fireplace along the back wall of the temple and toss in a part of their meal with a quietly murmured prayer for luck in some strange-sounding language. To this day, Virgil wasn’t sure what exactly he was saying, but his dad had taught him the correct pronunciation, and he was too superstitious not to follow through. Besides, it wasn’t like he could look too ridiculous doing it when literally everyone else was doing the same thing.

Approaching one of the two coffee shops in town, and the only one he ever frequented, Virgil shook his head to rid himself of thoughts of weird small-town rituals. Inside, it was easy to spot Remy sitting at their usual table with his sunglasses tucked into the front of his shirt and a drink already in hand. As he slid into his side of the booth, Virgil was surprised to see his favourite order (hot chocolate with whipped cream and rainbow sprinkles, and a slice of banana bread) already waiting for him.

“I was gonna apologize for being late, but clearly I don’t have to,” he said, glancing up and narrowing his eyes. “What did you do?”

Remy threw both hands up in a gesture of innocence. “Hey now, why did I have to do something wrong in order to surprise my best friend with his favourite goodies?”

Virgil snorted and crossed his arms, giving his friend a Look.

“Fine, fine!” Remy blew out a sigh and dropped his hands onto the table. “So, maybe I did do something, and maybe you’re gonna be a little mad at me for it, but I promise it’s okay! It’s gonna pay off and you’re totally going to thank me for this one day!”

Virgil dropped his face into his hands with a groan and dug the heels of his palms against his eyelids. “Just spit it out, Remy. What the fuck did you do?”

“Remember that photoshoot we did a couple weeks back with the latest ‘famous-one-day’ designs you sewed up?” Virgil could hear the familiar sounds of Remy typing on his phone. “Well babe, you’ve been making ‘one days’ for too long! So I decided to make ‘one day’ into ‘today’! Ta-dah!”

Bracing himself, Virgil peeked out from the dark safety of his hands, blinking a few times to clear his blurry vision and focus on the phone screen wavering in front of him. Right there, staring back at him from within Remy’s well-manicured clutch, was an email addressed to Penelope with attached photos from their shoot.

“Please, please tell me you didn’t sen-”

“I sent our pics to your favourite fashion label! The one and only Penelope! Known for their breathtaking lines like ‘Faith’ and ‘Fidelity’ that reimagined what it meant to be fashionable! And the best part!” Remy paused for dramatic effect, all but wiggling in his seat. “They emailed me back! They want to do an interview with you next month on the first!”

There was a loud thud as Virgil’s head met the table. If they hadn’t been sitting in public, he definitely would have started screaming too. Instead, all that came out was a muttered, “I fucking hate you. Why would you do this to me? You know I suck at talking to people; they’re gonna hate me and then tell all of the other companies to never work with me and then I’ll definitely never make it.”

A hand settled on top of his head and began to run through his hair, gently scratching at his scalp at the same time. “Don’t be so dramatic, Virge. This is gonna be great for you, I promise. When have I ever led you astray?”

Virgil glared at his friend and opened his mouth, but Remy cut him off.

“Ahp-ahp! Rhetorical question, babes. You're going to thank me for this, I promise.”

When Virgil remained silent, the hand that had been petting his hair slid down to cup his cheek and lift his chin up.

“Hey,” his best friend murmured softly. “If you really, really don’t want to do this, I can email them back and cancel, but I think you should go for it, Virge. This could be your big break!” Remy’s thumb had begun running a soothingly back and forth over his cheek. Virgil didn’t even try to hide the way he relaxed into the comforting gesture, leaning more weight into his friend’s palm. “I’ll even come with you to the interview, okay? I’ll be right there the entire time - gotta make sure they meet your number one model after all,” he added with a playful wink.

Damn Remy and his extroverted influence. Virgil sighed and sat up fully, reluctantly pulling away from the comforting hold and silently relieved when Remy’s hand dropped to link their fingers instead. “I guess as long as you’re there too, then I won’t be the only one making a fool of myself.”

“That’s the spirit!” Remy cheered, ignoring the looks some of the other patrons shot their way at the noise.

Keeping their hands interlocked, Virgil picked up his hot chocolate and took a sip of the sweet ambrosia as he listened to his best friend ramble about his plans for their future.

-----

Somehow, the word got out. Everyone and their cousin’s dog knew about Virgil’s interview and had seen some of the photos that had been leaked. All of them wanted to get a glimpse of not only the representatives of the big fashion label (who may as well have been celebrities to the small community), but also the unobtrusive young man who had brought the attention onto their town.

Virgil clung to Remy’s hand as they approached the café where the interview was going to be taking place. It wasn’t their usual haunt, something Virgil was grateful for; if things went south, he didn’t want that memory attached to one of his favourite places. People were already gathering outside, gossiping amongst themselves or attempting to peer through the front windows. He longed to pull his hood up and hide his face, but Papa had spent all morning helping him make sure his hair and make-up (and everything else) looked interview ready. Not to mention he wasn’t even wearing his favourite hoodie to tuck himself away into.

At Remy’s insistence, he had donned one of the outfits he made last year. The top was made of a flowy material, tighter at the wrists and loose in the arms, wrapping comfortably around his chest to tie in the front above his navel. It was sewn from a high-quality plum linen with a black lace webbing over top. For the bottom, Virgil had pieced together different shades of grey and black fabrics until he had a pair of loose patchwork pants that sat at the hips and left a strip of his stomach visible. He had completed the look with a fresh pair of high-tops that tied the look together despite the discordant styles. With one last look to his best friend for reassurance, Virgil nodded and they waded through the crowd together, on their way to their future.

-----

Singing to herself, Roman stepped through the woods with all the ethereal grace granted to her by her station. As she made her way to the quaint little human town, Roman was accompanied by a pair of mourning doves. While one had alighted on her shoulder, the other fluttered about, and both were cooing in harmony with her otherworldly song.

Her body was draped in a sheer chiffon number, as blood-red as the wine she drank from each year at the celebration of her power and beauty. It was naught much more than a thin layer of fabric over one shoulder and wrapped about her shapely waist, exposing one breast and leaving little work for the imagination on the rest of her body. The finest embroidery coloured the lower hem with twisting rose vines, as if they had sprung from the ground she walked on and reached up for her attention. Her hair was left to tumble free, as wild and untamed as the waves she had been born from so long ago. The Lady of the Summer Court had arrived.

In no time at all, the temple the humans of the village had built for her and her compatriots so long ago came into view. Roman hurried her steps, eager to feast on the delightful offerings she knew would be awaiting her. She hoped one of them left pomegranate; it was her favourite. The plump fruit so easy to tear open to reveal the juicy flesh inside - and the crunchy seeds! Oh!

Grinning, Roman moved around the side of the temple, stepping between the columns to slip inside and make her way towards her ceremonial statue along the right with the other ruling gentry of the Seelie Court. However, when she got close enough to see into the massive dish, indignation began to boil in her blood. Before her, in her brazier, lay half as many offerings as were given to her in the years passed. She looked around, hoping to find something else had been set aside or misplaced, but there was nothing. Seething, she spun on her heel and stalked towards the front of the temple in search of answers.

Outside, two attendants were working to douse the remaining candles to be collected on the morrow after Roman had departed. Well, they were certainly going to be in for a surprise when they returned to find their pitiful offerings still there in the morning. Even with the great distance between them, as a fae, Roman’s sharp ears did not struggle to overhear the conversation between the two humans.

“-believe something like this could happen in our little town,” the one on the right was saying. “Especially from that quiet kid! What’d you say his name was again?”

“He’s the Psykhe’s youngest boy, Virgil.

“No kidding! Sam was telling me the kid showed up for the interview wearing this wild statement piece, like a full fashion runway. I bet his dads sure are proud. I heard half the town was outside Burnsen’s hoping to get a front-row seat. They certainly weren’t here, that’s for sure.”

“Damn shame,” the second human agreed. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a turn out this small for a Spirit’s Night. I just hope it doesn’t come back to bite us in the ass.”

The pair continued their gossip as they finished with the candles and moved onto tidying some of the other nonessential decorations. Roman wasn’t interested in listening any further; she had what she needed. Turning away from the pitiful little temple those putrid humans had so desecrated on her day of honour, the Lady of the Summer Court stormed back into the forest, seething vitriol.

“How dare these humans offer this worthless boy the worship and reverence meant for me! My status is all but set in the very stars and they do nothing more than drag it through the muddy earth!” She screeched, scaring away the doves who had been lingering nearby. “So much for me, the ancient mother of this forest who feeds and fosters the very nature of this place! If nothing lusts, then nothing reproduces! Did they ever consider that before they forced me to associate my status with a mere mortal child?”

As Roman cried out, the very trees parted for her, leaning their trunks away and raising their boughs out of the path of the furious fae. She paid them little heed as she marched down a trail long familiar. “Won’t this boy, whoever he is, be glad to know he has claimed the honours that are due to me by right? Not for much longer, this I swear by my very name! He will regret this beauty to which he has no claim!”

At the climax of her tirade, Roman stopped before the ivy-woven doors of her son’s lofty domain. She would teach this Virgil what happened when you scorned the fae.

-----

Across town, still wearing the outfit and makeup from earlier, though much disheveled, Virgil ran as if his life depended on it. At this point, though, his life may as well have been over, so what was the point in struggling on? Down the street and through the park, he sprinted until he could go no further and crumbled to the ground at the top of the large hill that overlooked the fish ponds. On his hands and knees, he clutched at the damp earth and panted heavily through his heaving sobs.

It was over. Penelope didn’t want to pick him up as a designer. Sure, they liked the selection that Remy had sent them, enough to come talk to him about it, but when the representatives had taken a look through the rest of his portfolio? They hadn’t said they hated it outright, but Virgil was certain his designs were too gothic, too dark, too risky for mainstream fashion. They were going to talk with some of the higher-ups back at the designer studio, but Virgil wasn’t going to be holding his breath. He’d seen their expressions clear as day while they flipped through his work.

Collapsing forward, Virgil buried his face into the crook of his elbow and curled his knees towards his chest, sobbing even harder. He had told Remy after the interview that he needed some space, but now that he was out here alone, he wanted nothing more than a hug from his best friend. Fuck, how was he going to tell his dads about this? It would break their heart!

Virgil shook his head free of the thought; he couldn’t handle any more right now. So he lay on the ground with his cheek pressed against the cool night grass, and cried until he passed out from exhaustion.

-----

In the twilight between wakefulness and sleep, Virgil stirred when he felt a pair of arms slide under his body and hoist him up into a strong hold. His head lolled to the side until his temple dropped against a firm body. Then, a kiss was pressed to his forehead, tickling his skin with...a mustache?

“Go back to sleep, little human,” a high, scratchy-sounding voice said. “Jay doesn’t want you to see anything just yet! We don’t want to ruin the surprise, eh?”

Virgil’s face scrunched in confusion, but before he could crack his eyes open to see who was carrying him, a warm breath blew across his face and carried him off to his dreams like a gentle breeze spiraling high into the air.

-----

When Virgil woke for the second time, it was with far more peace and tranquility than he usually felt when greeting the day. His bed was extra soft and luxurious beneath the swell of his hip and he was comfortably warm, though he couldn’t feel the usual weight of his blanket. Stretching his arms far above his head, Virgil suddenly snapped his eyes open when his fingertips were greeted not with the hard wall behind his headboard, but with a damp, spongy texture instead.

Scrambled to his feet, he looked around to discover he was at the edge of a clearing, carpeted with a thick moss that his feet sank slightly into and surrounded by trees who towered so far above him their canopies seemed lost secrets of the sky. To one side a stream babbled a song, its waters bright as day and clear as glass. Breathless, he turned a slow circle, feasting on the seemingly supernatural wonders with starving eyes. The sight that greeted Virgil as he turned full around, however, could have subsisted him for a lifetime.

At the very heart of the grove, sitting in its focal point, rose what he could only describe as a palace. The trees which made up its supporting columns were an ivory birch, though much wider than any Virgil had ever seen, with leaves seemingly grown from pure gold that glittered in the dappled sunlight they let through. Framed by these otherworldly goliaths, ivy vines had been woven together to form a grand door which opened of its own accord and bid Virgil to enter. Under a spell spun from his own awe and curiosity (and probably some of whatever magic this place had to be made of), Virgil strode forward.

Inside, the palace seemed to emulate its own light, reflecting off the vaulted ceiling and highlighting the polished stone walls decorated with endless silver reliefs of animals real and imagined. Virgil trailed his fingertips along the slithering spine of a snake as he passed, admiring the lifelike detail in each scale, but before he could venture much further, a voice spoke.

“Welcome.”

Virgil jumped, spinning around to search for the source of the voice, but no one was there. When they spoke again, it sounded like they were right over his shoulder.

“You have been invited into the home of the fae as a guest of honour, Virgil.” The man in question felt a strange twinge in his chest hearing his name from the voice. “If you follow the doors to your left, you will find a dining hall in which you may eat your fill; the foods are from your home world and you need not fear consuming them. To your right lay the bathing and bed chambers. Please, make yourself at home. You are safe here, my darling.”

“Who are you? How do you know my name?” Virgil called out into the empty room.

There was a small pause before the voice replied. “You may call me Janus for the time being. It matters not how I know your name, but you need not worry that I will give it to anyone else.”

“Not creepy at all,” Virgil murmured before raising his voice once more. “Where are you? Why can’t I see you?”

“Ahh, my darling, take care with your curiosity before it gets you into trouble. Fret not, I am here with you, though you cannot see me. I know it is hard, but you must trust in me, my love. I shall visit you this evening after the light of day has given way to the dark of night. So long as you promise not to look upon my face and let me remain shrouded in shadows, then I shall answer more of your questions then.”

“What? I’m supposed to trust you, but I’m not allowed to look at your face? What the fuck, dude?”

“I understand this may be a cause for alarm, but you must understand my perspective, dear one. If you were to gaze upon me uninhibited, I fear you would not fall in love with me in a manner which would be best for us both. Promise to me, Virgil.”

“Okay, okay, I promise. Why is this so important to you anyway?”

“Thank you. I wish to form a genuine bond with you, beloved, and I cannot do that if you are influenced by my appearance. That is not how I desire to court my future husband.”

“Husband? What do you mean future husband!?”

Virgil stood in place, waiting for any further response from the invisible person, but it seemed his host had vanished into the very air he spoke from. Blowing out a heavy sigh, Virgil looked from left to right and decided the faint grumbling in his abdomen was something he could ignore for the time being; he probably wouldn’t be able to stomach anything right now anyway. So, he made his way towards the baths, hoping a splash of cool water could wake him from this crazy dream.

Unfortunately, even after dunking his head under the cool water, Virgil was still stuck in the extravagant palace with an invisible host. He braced his hands on the sides of the stone bowl carved from the wall, staring blankly at the trickling waterfall that fed into the dish he had rinsed in. How the fuck did he get into this mess? The voice had mentioned something about this place belonging to the fae? What the fuck? There’s no way any of this could be real. Well, that Janus had said he would answer Virgil’s questions tonight, so there seemed little more he could do than wait.

The bedroom he had been given was grand, far larger than even his entire basement suite back home, and all of its drapings were more luxurious than Virgil had ever seen. He ran his fingers down the curtains that hung from the bedposts, marvelling at the quality and the depth of the colour. What he wouldn’t give to be able to create with fabrics of this pedigree. He fiddled with the tie of his shirt around his middle and settled onto one of the plush armchairs by the window. Now, to wait.

-----

Hours later, Virgil was startled awake from a light doze by the sound of footsteps approaching his door. He scrambled to his feet, keeping one hand braced on a bedpost to orient himself as he squinted through the darkness. It was so dark he couldn’t even make out the vague outlines of the furniture around the room.

The door opened.

Virgil tensed, gripping the bedpost tighter and raising his other arm in front of him defensively. From what he could see, backlit from the hall, the figure entering the room was about his height, maybe a little taller. It was difficult to make out in the dark, but the shadow he cast onto the floor seemed to be larger than his body mass would produce. The door closed, leaving the two of them alone in the dark.

“Janus?” Virgil asked nervously, hoping there wasn’t anyone else in the palace who would be coming into his room this late at night.

“Breathe, Virgil, it is only me.”

It was as if a spell of calm soothed over him, easing the tension from around his neck and within his chest. Virgil took a deep, relieving breath. Janus hadn’t come any further into the room, seemingly content to linger by the door.

“Um… hi?” Virgil winced at how awkward he sounded, but continued on regardless. “You said you would answer more of my questions, right?”

“That is correct, beloved. I will tell you as much as I am able to at this time.” There was the sound of shuffling in the dark. “May I join you on the bed? I think we will both be much more comfortable being seated for this conversation.”

Virgil bit his lip, looking between the bed and Janus despite not being able to see either. Eventually, he nodded, and then blushed when he realized what he’d done.

“Yeah… yeah, you can come sit over here, I guess.”

“Thank you, my darling.”

When the pair had gotten settled, Janus was seated at the foot of the bed, leaning up against the bedpost and seemingly unbothered by the strange situation. Virgil, on the other hand, had his back pressed against the headboard with his knees hugged to his chest. His feet were buried in the blankets and he was absently scrunching the soft material under his toes in a comforting, rhythmic motion. It was Janus who broke the silence first.

“What would you ask of me first, dearest?”

Virgil blew out a sigh. “Why did you bring me here? What are you going to do with me? Am I ever going to be allowed to go home? Will you-”

"Sh sh sh,” Janus crooned, “One at a time, beloved, all will be answered. In short, I do not know when you will be able to return to your home, or if you ever will, but it is for your own good!” Janus hurriedly added before Virgil could panic. “You see, there is someone very powerful who is very angry with you. Intentionally or not, you have caused her a great disrespect, and she will not rest until her dues have been met.”

“How do you know all of this?”

Janus sighed. “Because she is my mother, and she sent me to kill you.”

“What!?” Virgil screeched, throwing himself off the bed and slamming against the nearby wall. His nails scrabbled at the stone, desperate to clutch, claw, escape. No, no, no, he didn’t want to die! He snapped his head back and forth, searching for any sort of way out, but he was blinded by shadows and fear. A sharp cry escaped him when a hand suddenly wrapped around one of his own and he whimpered as it squeezed, expecting pain. Instead, a gentle crooning cut through the ringing in his ears.

“Breathe, Virgil, you are not in danger. You must calm down and listen.”

Janus’ voice was surprisingly tender for how powerfully it could be heard through Virgil’s panic. He was able to focus on it like a tether to pull himself into a more relaxed state of mind. At some point, he had begun to time his breathing with Janus’ as well, steady and even to a count known only to the fae holding him. When Virgil had relaxed enough to come back to himself, he tensed all over again, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

“How can you say I’m safe, when you’re gonna kill me?”

“Because I have no intentions of killing you,” Janus replied, now cradling both of Virgil’s hands to his chest. Even this close, the darkness was so impenetrably thick that Virgil had no hope of glimpsing his face. He kept his eyes averted regardless. “I brought you here to remove you from my mother’s gaze and conceal you from her misplaced wrath.”

Virgil was silent, processing, as Janus gently tugged on his hands and guided him back onto the bed. There, the fae leaned against the headboard with his legs stretched out in front of him and carefully pulled Virgil to recline on his chest. Virgil resisted for only a moment before complying. Everything else about this was already way out of his depth to manage, he may as well allow himself to be comfortable wherever he could. Janus was either going to kill him or leave him alive, and there likely wasn’t anything Virgil could do to sway that decision at this point. So, Virgil settled himself against Janus’ chest with his body laying between Janus’ legs and stretching out until their legs tangled together. He was grateful now for the dark that hid a probably searing blush as his cheek pressed flush against the fae’s warm skin; Janus wasn’t wearing a shirt and his nude torso was warm to cuddle against.

“Now,” Janus murmured, shifting Virgil’s focus from his embarrassment to the situation at hand. His fingers ran over Virgil’s scalp and through his hair, carefully brushing out any tangles and soothing in the same motion. “If you will let me continue, I was going to say my mother had ordered for you to be killed, however, I do not agree with her decision. She is acting rashly over a slight you did not directly commit.”

“What did I even do to piss her off so bad?” Virgil murmured from where his face was tucked against Janus’ collar, resting more of his weight closer with each breath.

“I do not know the exact details, only that you were the cause for drawing her worshippers away from the temple on her day of adulation. The fae do not take kindly to being stolen from, especially not my mother.”

“The interview,” Virgil breathed in horror. Pushing himself upright, he clutched at Janus’ arm. “I swear, I didn’t mean for everyone to skip out on the Spirit’s Festival! If it had been up to me, none of them would have even been at the cafe! I didn’t want them there, you have to believe me!”

“Calm yourself, beloved. I believe that you did not intentionally act to anger her. However, you must understand that even a perceived slight is considered very real and serious to the fae. That is why you must remain here under my protection, until my mother’s ire cools or I can convince her to redirect her anger.”

As Janus fell silent, Virgil curled in again and pondered what he had been told, trying to remember anything he could about the fae. It wasn’t like there was one consistent guidebook he could follow, but some of the stories the older people used to tell his grade school classes at the library were starting to make a little more sense now. He had been told the forest couldn’t lie, so maybe that meant the fae were bound by the truth? A stretch, sure, but weren’t all myths rooted somehow in reality? They were also regularly told that the spirits of the forest loved beauty, especially in the form of attractive people, and could bestow gifts on those they enjoyed looking upon. Virgil had always felt so disheartened hearing that. He wasn’t anything special, just a plain-looking boy, so the forest would never favour him.

Why then had Janus?

“So,” Virgil broke into the quiet, “you supposedly brought me here to protect me from your mother, but that doesn’t explain why you called me your future husband earlier.”

Janus hummed. “When I set out to observe the human who had offended my mother, I was prepared to be faced with a disgusting example of your kind. What I found instead was the most beautiful face I had ever laid eyes on.” Virgil gasped when the hand that had been in his hair slipped down to cup his cheek and tilt his chin up. He felt a pair of lips brush so lightly against his forehead that he thought he imagined it. “You were sobbing so hard for a deeply rooted pain. I found myself desiring nothing more than to stop your tears and see how much your already breathtaking countenance would shine when lit by a smile.”

“I - you -”

Virgil was sure that he had been kissed before, because now he felt those lips curl into a smile.

“Is it so hard to believe you are so attractive?”

“Well, yeah,” Virgil huffed, his eyes closed as he leaned into Janus’ palm. “It’s not like I heard it all that often.”

“Mmm, I shall have to change that, then,” Janus whispered, resting his cheek on Virgil’s head, cradling him close once more. “Do you have any more questions, beloved? If not, it is time for you to rest, you’ve had a long day.”

The gentle petting and warm embrace were taking their toll on Virgil’s exhausted mind. He let himself rest heavily on Janus, nuzzling his face into the crook of his neck and wrapping an arm around the fae’s chest. “Jus’ one,” he murmured, voice already dipping into that sleepy slur. “Wanna make sure m’dads know ‘m safe…”

“I’ll see what I can do, my love. Rest now, Virgil.”

Like a spell had been cast over him, Virgil drifted off to a dreamless sleep.

-----

When Virgil had awoken, he was alone in the massive bed. He was surprised to feel a twinge of disappointment in his chest, having hoped Janus would stay despite the fae not wanting to show his face. Sighing, he slid out of bed and got himself ready for the day, slipping into some comfortable clothes he found in a set of drawers. When he came down for breakfast, his host’s invisible voice greeted him and informed him that his dads had been told of the situation and were relieved Virgil was alive and relatively safe.

The next few days played out much the same. Virgil was left to his own devices during the day, waited on by some sort of invisible staff as he explored the palace. He never saw another soul, but whenever he needed something, he learned to simply call out for it and it would be delivered to him by magic.

Each night, Janus would arrive in his bedroom once the sun had disappeared. He never asked for more than Virgil was willing to give, but Virgil found himself cuddled close every night without fail. They would speak for hours - about Virgil’s dreams, his dads, and Remy - nothing was too simple for Janus to inquire about. The fae was fascinated by every aspect of human life, and Virgil enjoyed discovering a sense of romantic joy over the little things he had experienced. There was something about Janus that soothed away the ever-present worries that were always yelling inside Virgil’s head.

There was one worry that couldn’t be silenced, however. No matter how much Virgil was coming to trust his protector, he could not ignore the fact that he had no idea what Janus even looked like. It was eating away at him not to know, and the longer he sat alone, the Janus in his head looked more and more like a monster waiting to prey upon him. This couldn’t go on. He had to know.

-----

During the day before he was going to enact his plan, Virgil spent his time in the massive library he had discovered on the second day, scanning the shelves and making a show of selecting a couple books. He made himself comfortable in one of the oversized cushions piled near the floor-to-ceiling window and pretended to read. Between absently scanning the pages, Virgil looked up and glanced around the room, as if his mind were wandering with the tale he was apparently focused on. In reality, he was scouring the room for ideas.

Countless candles were lit around the library, their wax melting at different stages, some newly pooling while others formed thick layers around the base of the candelabras. They were lit now, but there was no way for him to have an already burning flame in the bedroom when Janus arrived for the night. He would have to find some way to light one on his own. Maybe he could just -

“Excuse me?” He called into the air. “Could I please have more candles, and some matches for them? I want to go read in my room, but, um, the smell is really nice in here.”

Like always, the items he requested popped into existence on a low table nearby: three candles and a pair of matches. Huh, he hadn’t actually thought that was going to work.

“Thank you!”

Hugging both books to his chest, Virgil collected his new tools and jogged up to his room. There, he placed the candles onto the small table between the armchairs and lit them with a match. The second match, he carefully tucked inside the front knot of his shirt, pressing against his breast. Now prepared, he settled in to actually focus on the novel he had picked up. There was nothing but time to kill.

-----

By the time Janus arrived, Virgil had already blown out the candles and crawled into bed. He cuddled in as soon as Janus had laid down, laying his head on the fae’s chest and trying to keep his breathing steady as they fell into their usually nighttime conversation. Janus’ claws delicately traced the bumps of his spine the entire time they spoke.

Once Virgil was sure Janus had fallen asleep, he began the slow process of extracting himself from the fae’s embrace. Janus really was a cuddler, and loved to hold Virgil close while they slept, but thankfully he was also quite a deep sleeper. Virgil was able to carefully pull himself away and tuck a pillow into Janus’ arms. The fae squished it to his chest and curled onto his side, none the wiser.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Virgil went to work. He grabbed one of the candles and fished the match out from under his shirt, striking it against the table to light it. One hand held onto the base of the candle, while the other carefully cupped around the flame, protecting it as Virgil walked around to the other side of the bed where Janus lay. With a deep breath to steady himself, he pulled his hand away and gasped at the sight in front of him.

Janus never wore a shirt, which meant Virgil’s hands had felt the broad expanse of his naked back every night they had slept together. That didn’t explain why there were now a pair of gorgeous, tawny wings sprouting from between Janus’ shoulder blades. The feathers looked softer than anything Virgil could imagine and shined like spun gold in the candlelight. Virgil ached to caress the speckled feathers, to scrunch his fingers in the fluffy down near the wings’ base, but as he reached out, Janus rolled over and Virgil’s breath was punched from his lungs. The face of his protector was carved by the gods. Janus’ skin was a rich, dark brown, reflecting the candle light to accent his strong jaw and sharp cheekbones. Virgil could only imagine what colour his eyes could be behind his lids, framed by perfectly shaped brows and a shapely nose. Oh! Those lips! So plump and full! What would they feel like pressed against his own?

Enraptured, Virgil tried to get a better look, but as he leaned forward, some of the melted wax from the candle spilled over and landed on Janus’ cheek. The fae yelped, startling awake and clutching at his face as he threw himself upright. Virgil jumped back in shock, falling on his ass while somehow keeping the candle lit. The clatter drew Janus’ attention and his head snapped to the side to look at Virgil, who saw the moment Janus’ eyes widened with understanding and heartbreaking betrayal.

“You promised!” Janus hissed. “You promised me you wouldn’t look! Does your word mean so little to you!?”

“N-No - I, I just, I wanted-”

“What!? What was so important that you had to break your promise?”

“I wanted to, to make sure you weren’t some sort of … monster … who had kidnapped me to… to eat me,” Virgil muttered, suddenly feeling incredibly foolish. Why did he have to give in to his anxieties so easily? The next moment, his heart crumpled with Janus’ expression.

“Get out.”

“Wait, what?”

“I said. Get. Out.” Janus growled, spreading his wings high above his head as he leaned over the edge of the bed. “Get out of my sight, and out of my home! If you cannot hold to one simple promise, then I will not protect you! You can deal with my mother’s wrath on your own!”

About to protest, Virgil cried out in fear as Janus slashed out him, narrowly missing his face with those lethal claws. He didn’t waste any more time, dropping the candle and scrambling to his feet to run out of the bedroom. The empty halls echoed with his laboured breathing and the slap of his bare feet against the tiled floor as he sprinted through the palace and out the ivy-woven doors. The moment he was out, the doors slammed shut behind him.

Panting heavily, Virgil bent over with his hands on his knees, his entire body trembling from fear and exertion. He dropped to the ground and clutched his head in both hands, curling smaller and crying as silently as he could muster. It was a long time before his breathing evened out and he was able to drag himself back to his feet.

A glance around the clearing revealed what he had known upon his first arrival: he had no idea where in the forest he was, or which way led back home. So, he did the only thing he could and picked a direction to start walking. Through the night he stumbled over roots and around tangled shrubs, not stopping until he finally tripped over his own exhausted feet and fell into the shockingly cold waters of a stream. He spluttered and gasped, miserably dragging himself back up the bank. The sun was rising overhead, the forest waking up around him; he didn’t have the time to huddle here in a ball feeling sorry for himself.

-----

As the day progressed, Virgil noticed the trees beginning to thin and the gaps between the trunks growing wider. Suddenly, the canopy overhead parted to reveal a mountain, vast and tall, that should have been visible long before this moment. Placed at irregular intervals up the cliffside were six palaces woven of different plants woven together with even more grandeur than Janus’ home. Over the edge of the mountain, the tips and edges of presumably more palaces - these ones sculpted and shaped from various stones - were visible against the pale sky.

Virgil squinted, trying to get a better look at the strangely familiar shapes carved into the rock face near each palace. He gasped. The symbols matched those carved into the statues above the bronze dishes in the Spirit’s Temple, more specifically, the dishes meant for the spirits honoured in the spring and summer. That would mean - there! On the left! Beneath a palace of myrtle trees and rose vines, was the symbol belonging to the seventh spirit. That had to be the home of Janus’ mother, the spirit - or fae, rather - who was supposed to have been honoured at the start of this month.

Biting his lip, Virgil looked back the way he came then up at the palace once more. If what Janus said was true, and he wasn’t going to be offering protection anymore, then Virgil would have to face her on his own. It was either that, or cowering away until she tracked him down and killed him. Also not a desirable option, but Virgil would rather have some form of control over the end of his life. Beginning to climb, he just wished he would have been able to say goodbye to his dads first.

While there were worn deer trails to follow, the journey was not an easy one. Virgil had to cling to the rocks, heaving himself ever upwards, trying not to slice his bare feet or palms on the uneven shale. The summer sun climbed alongside him, growing hotter and hotter, sapping his energy and strength. Still, he pushed on until he stood before the lush gates shaking with exhaustion and dizzy from the heat.

Before he could gather his wits, the thorny vines that sealed the palace from the outside world began to withdraw. Where they parted, massive sanguine roses bloomed, as if to cushion a passerby from the sharp thorns. From within the depths of the palace strode out a figure so radiant and commanding, Virgil immediately felt subservient to her will. He quickly looked away, cheeks hot, as both of her breasts were exposed and only a lightweight wrap covered her lower body. His body recoiled when her piercing laugh broke the silence.

“Finally! The wretched beast comes crawling to its master, the Lady of the Summer Court. Had enough of playing at royalty, have you? Look at me when I’m talking to you, Virgil!”

Virgil immediately snapped his head back towards her, paling when his eyes met with her seething ire, but unable to drop his gaze any lower. He gripped the sides of his pants with white knuckles. “I - I’m so, so sorry! I n-never meant-”

“Look at this!” The fae cut in, causing Virgil to flinch again. “The pathetic mortal trying to inspire pity from me with your anxiety and melancholy! I will not be made a fool and relegated to some cheap handmaiden!”

With a shriek of rage, the Lady of Summer darted forward faster than Virgil’s eyes could track. The next moment, he was sprawled on the ground, ears ringing. He brought a shaky hand up to his stinging cheek and felt his stomach drop when his fingertips came away bloody. Rolling onto his back, he choked. The Lady was looming over him, one of her hands dripping with his blood as she pinned him down with a foot on his chest.

“It seems only fair to me, mortal, that I give you some chance to win back my good graces. Therefore, you shall complete a task for me, or else I will take your life as compensation for your disrespect.” The Lady of Summer announced with a wave of her hand. Virgil looked to the side, wincing as the cuts in his cheek dug into the gravel, and watched in surprise as a pile of mixed grains appeared nearby.

“You will sort this mass and disarray of seeds - wheat, barley, millet, poppy, chickpea, and lentil - into individual piles. I will know if a single grain lays with the wrong group. You have until this evening.” With that, the Lady of Summer kicked off his ribs and spun her skirts, vanishing into thin air with a flourish and leaving only the heady scent of roses as a sign of her presence.

Virgil lay on the ground in silence for a long time after she disappeared, barely daring to breathe. When he was finally able to bring himself to move, he slowly rolled onto his hands and knees, hissing at the pain in his ribs - definitely bruised. Crawling over to the pile of seeds, he reached a hand out but hesitated before he could touch the tiny grains. How the fuck was he supposed to sort these? He could hardly begin to tell them apart! Sitting back on his ass, Virgil dropped his face into his hands and burst into tears.

Then, he heard a high-pitched giggle.

Flitting to-and-fro above him were four - five - eight, no - seven? Seven little pixies were spinning, twirling, dancing through the air above him. Their bright, insect-like wings caught the sunlight and sent out flashes of colour like a rainbow in motion. One-by-one they drifted to the ground, settling in a half circle in front of Virgil and his miserable collection of seeds. They stood only several inches tall and were dressed in leaves and petals. A pair stepped forward in front of the rest; they were holding hands.

“Hello, hello!” The one on the right chirped, waving up with his free hand. He had gorgeous light blue butterfly wings that fluttered when he spoke. “We heard you crying and came to see, to see! What happened here, here?”

Virgil sniffled, wiping away his tears and snot on his sleeve. “Well, um,” he hiccupped and took a deep breath. “It’s the Lady of the Summer Court. She wants me to sort all of these seeds by type before tonight, but I have no idea how I’m going to do that so she’s definitely going to kill me!” He slapped a hand over his mouth to muffle a sob, tears running down his face.

“Easy now,” a new voice murmured as two little hands pressed against his knee. Virgil blinked his eyes open to see the second pixie - this one with veiny wings like a beetle’s - rubbing his leg soothingly. “You need to take slow, deep breaths to calm yourself.”

Virgil nodded and attempted to follow suit, counting to four on each inhale and exhale until the tears had slowed and he was able to relax somewhat to continue the conversation. “Th-thank you, um, what are your names?”

“You can call me Pat, Pat!” The first pixie announced twirling himself up into the air and drifting back down again.

“Ah, so you are quite new around here,” the second pixie mused, keeping his hands on Virgil’s leg. “You may call me Lo. Names have great power to the fae and it is imperative that you do not give yours away lightly, else someone may have complete control over your will.”

“But the Lady of the Summer Court already knows my name, and so did Jan- her son.”

“At any point did you give it to them, though?”

Virgil thought back over the last few weeks. “No… no, they both just, sorta, knew it somehow. Oh, uh, I guess you can call me Vee, then?”

Lo nodded. “Then it is likely they only heard your name somewhere, but they do not own it. Do you understand? They can exert some measure of power over you, but they cannot remove your free will entirely. Now then. Why is it the Lady wants you dead?” The pixie offered a small smile, nodding his head as Virgil explained how he got into this situation, that he knew Janus (though he referred to him as Jay), and why he wasn’t with the other fae anymore. When he finished, it was Pat who puffed up angrily.

“The Lady has gone too far, too far! You didn’t mean to make those people leave, leave! And it sounds like you didn’t actually make a binding promise, so Jay is acting a bit silly, bit silly. So, we’re gonna help you sort these seeds, and get everything cleared up, up!”

Logan nodded in agreement. “Indeed. Pat, you stay here with the others to aid Vee. I am going to go have a word with our feathered friend.” With that, Lo leaned in, kissed Pat’s cheek, and flew off down the mountainside.

Virgil watched the glint of Lo’s wings until he was out of sight, then turned back to the remaining pixies to watch as their quick, tiny hands got to work on the grains. “So… how do you know Jay?

Pat grinned widely up at him. “Jay is one of the Princes of Spring, Spring!” He works with love magic, and helped Lo and I get together decades ago in exchange for our help weaving that pretty gate in front of his palace, his palace!”

While they continued to converse, the pixies worked away at the seeds to form six unique piles, sorted from darkest to lightest. Before long, the entire jumbled mass had been reorganized without a single seed out of place. Once their job was complete, the five other pixies twittered their goodbyes and flew off up the mountain. Only Pat remained, sitting on his knee and chattering away as the sun set. Virgil shivered as a chill breeze licked at his exposed skin.

A sudden snap rent the night air, spooking Virgil, who lurched forward to cradle Pat in his hands protectively. Looking over his shoulder, he felt like vomiting when he saw the Lady of Summer standing over the grain piles with her arms crossed. He internally thanked any of the spirits who may be on his side that her chest was covered this time.

“This is not your work,” she hissed. “These were not organized by your hand, but by his!” She pointed an accusing finger at Pat, who had been peeking around Virgil’s arm but quickly hid back against his chest at the attention. “How dare you attempt to deceive me, you cretin!”

With a wordless shriek, the Lady lashed out with her vicious claws, aiming for the unmarked side of Virgil’s face. He scrambled back on his hands and heels, his ass dragging on the ground while Pat clung to the front of his shirt. Before she could take a second swipe, however, the dust and grit kicked up around them, obscuring their vision.

With his eyes covered, Virgil could only hear the flapping of large wings that cut off before there was the thud of a body dropping in front of him. Opening his eyes, he gasped. There, with his back to Virgil, stood Janus, with his great wings spread wide and his claws flexed at his sides. Lo, who had been holding onto the fae’s shoulder, now zipped down to the pair on the ground, holding Pat close and ensuring he was unharmed while the pixies huddled together on Virgil’s lap.

“You will not lay another hand on him,” Janus hissed, standing over Virgil protectively. Virgil felt Pat grip his thumb, but he couldn’t look away from the pair above them.

“What are you doing? Get out of the way, my son.”

“No. You wanted your revenge on him, and you got it. Look at him; he’s terrified, injured, and exhausted. The original disrespect against you was not even intentionally caused by him; it was the doing of numerous others. I do not fault you for your affront, but you are carrying on like a tantruming toddler!”

The Lady of Summer took a step back and clutched at her bosom. “You dare to speak to me like that?”

“I do, and so does the rest of the Seelie Court.” Virgil watched as Janus rolled his shoulders back and stood straighter. The Prince of Spring then reached into a bag tied at his hip and pulled out some sort of wooden charm dangling from a hemp rope. At the sight of it the Lady of Summer gasped and covered her mouth. “I have spoken before the Queen and her retinue, and she has decreed you will leave this mortal alone. In exchange, he will return to his town and gather a proper celebration for you by the end of this month.”

Virgil held his breath, not daring to twitch a muscle as he awaited his fate. The Lady of Summer let nothing show in her expression, but the hard lines of her face had softened attractively as Janus spoke. She shifted, looking over Janus shoulder and directly at Virgil. “You. You will do as this deal demands?”

Nodding rapidly, Virgil held up his hand in oath. “I will, I promise. I’ll go back home and speak with the curator of the Spirit’s Temple. We’ll host another festival and you’ll get the offerings you were supposed to be given at the start of the month.”

As if a switch had been flipped, the Lady of the Summer Court beamed a smile and grasped her hands over her heart. “Well then! That wasn’t so hard, was it! My dear, smart son, finding a way to set things right. I’m so proud of you, my little songbird.” Looking at her son, she cooed and cupped Janus’ cheek to tilt him up to kiss his forehead, smiling at his grumbling. “I won’t linger much longer, don’t you worry. I wouldn’t want to embarrass you in front of my future son-in-law after all! I’ll see you soon, Virgil, dear,” she called, a cool edge to her voice for a moment before she smiled brightly once more and waggled her fingers. With a dramatic wave of her hands, the Lady of Summer vanished once more.

A quiet settled over the remaining quartet, broken by a tinny clearing of a throat. Lo stood in Virgil’s lap, tugging Pat up next to him. “I believe it is time for us to depart as well. I am relieved we were able to arrive in time to prevent any harm coming to you, Vee.” The pixie looked from Janus to Virgil and smiled. “Let us know when you are in the woods, we would enjoy visiting under more ideal circumstances. Farewell, for now.”

“Goodbye, Vee, Vee!”

In a flash, the pair of pixies flew off into the night, their hands held tight together. They flew loops and circles over the others before darting off in the direction the other pixies had traveled hours ago.

On the ground, Janus helped Virgil to his feet. He cooed in sympathy, tenderly touching the tips of his fingers beneath the angry red cuts on Virgil’s cheek. “I am so sorry for what she has done to you, darling. And I am even more sorry that my own actions drove you from the safety of my side. I was meant to protect you from unearned rage, but instead I subjected you to further punishment and drove you towards your would-be killer. If I hadn’t gotten here in time-” Janus exhaled heavily, his wings sagging behind him. “I am so sorry, Virgil.”

“I mean, I’m not gonna say it’s okay, because none of this has been okay, but, I guess I can understand where you were coming from. If I were as attractive as you, I’d also be worried about people taking advantage of me.” Virgil blushed and dragged his big toe through the dirt. “So, yeah, I forgive you, or whatever.” He looked up with a fire in his eyes and jabbed his finger into the center of Janus’ chest. “But don’t you ever do that again, you hear me?”

Janus hands cupped around his own, cradling it close. “I swear, to the end of my days, I will treat you with the dignity and respect you deserve, my dearest.”

Despite the tenderness of the gesture, Virgil was unmoved. “I mean it, Janus. If you want us to work out, then I can’t be afraid that you’re going to banish me from your home every time you get upset. It’s not a relationship if you’re going to treat me like I’m disposable. I’m worth more than that. If you want more reassurance, or something, on my promises, then we can work something out, but what you put me through was terrifying, and I can’t go through it again. I won’t.”

Janus sighed, holding Virgil’s hands up to his lips and resting there a moment before slowly gathering Virgil into his arms. His embrace was loose enough to break, if Virgil wanted. “I understand, darling, and I will never be able to apologize enough for what I have done. However, it is not my words you want, but my actions, and I will do whatever you desire of me in order to make it up to you.” He cupped Virgil’s uninjured cheek. “I want us to work, too.”

There was a long pause as Virgil searched Janus’ golden eyes for any signs of deception. When he found only an earnest honesty, Virgil allowed himself to be held closer. He wasn’t sure which of them moved next, but they came together as one, lips pressing softly at first before quickly gaining heat. Then he was spun and dipped down, laughing hard as he clung to Janus’ shoulders, the fae’s wings held aloft to keep them balanced.

Maybe ‘future husband’ didn’t sound so bad after all.

[keeroo92]

Be My Nightmare Ch19

Eruption

Welcome back, everyone! Enjoy the new chapter :3

Word count: 4,016

TW: Strangulation

~~~Previous Chapter~~~

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

Finding the older woman’s car proved a simple task. It wasn’t anything special, a sedan with muted green paint and a few trinkets hanging from the rearview mirror. You paid little attention to them. 

A quick check with the GPS system stuck to the dash showed her home a mere five minutes away, a distance barely worth driving. You helped V into the passenger seat and were about to pull out of the parking lot when he spoke. 

“Do you have your phone?”

You nodded and pulled it out. “Yeah, why?”

He smirked. “You don’t watch many crime shows, do you?”

You shook your head, still not catching on as he took it and tossed it out the window. It made a clatter as it struck the pavement. 

“Phones are trackable. Even the police aren’t blind enough not to suspect you at this point.”

Stupid. You should’ve thought of that yourself. Was there anything else you needed to get rid of, precautions to take now that safety was only a memory? You might have to research it later, if given the chance.

“You did very well,” the artist interrupted.

“What are you talking about?” A quick signal and you entered traffic. 

He smirked again and shifted lower in his seat as you passed a truck, angling his face away from the window. “You didn’t look away.”

You gave him a sideways glance. “Did you think I would?”

“Just because one expects something doesn’t mean they can’t be pleased when it comes to pass,” he replied.

The brakes clicked as you pressed the pedal, a stop sign ahead. Black graffiti covered most of the sign. “Fair enough.”

The thought of looking away hadn’t occurred to you. If anything, you’d worried about blinking, missing your chance to watch a taboo act few experienced. 

And it was nothing like what you’d expected. 

The arc of shimmering blood and bone fragments, falling to the pavement like hellish rain. V’s decisive motions, both graceful and precise. The soft exhalation of Margaret’s final breath. Speckles of brain tissue catching the streetlights’ glow as you picked up her keys.

But most memorable were the expressions on your companion’s face as he struck down the unlucky stranger.

Rage and sadness, the switch as quick as turning on a light. Was V even aware of it? He hadn’t mentioned it, and he seemed calm now, as if nothing abnormal took place. What did he feel when he killed?

You shook your head. There was still so much about him you didn’t know, didn’t understand. It felt like trying to assemble a jigsaw puzzle with half the pieces missing, and no box to check the picture of what it should look like upon completion. 

You clicked the turn signal and glanced at your companion. His eyes stared into the distance and a small smile curled his lips. Specks of blood still spotted his clothing and hands. Did those hands feel the weight of the lives they ended?

Would yours, when you inevitably stopped fighting the urge to know for yourself?

Your stomach flipped as you changed lanes, accelerating as if you could out-drive the realization. Yet beneath the initial shock, past the socially conditioned horror, the idea excited you. 

I guess this is who I am now, you thought. Or is this who I always was?

“Your destination is ahead on the left.”

You sighed and slowed the car, pushing aside your thoughts as you pulled into a small driveway. Self-reflection could wait. For now, you needed to get V inside and check his wound. The painkillers you’d given him earlier had to be wearing off. The motion of the kill might have started the damn thing bleeding again, too. 

“Here we are,” you said as you parked, glancing at the home you’d helped him kill for. 

It didn’t stand out. The yard had a few shrubs and a tree, a gravel path leading to the front stoop where a trio of garden gnomes awaited. The exterior was a faded blue, the door and trim matching white if you ignored the layer of grime. It would do.

V hummed and waited as you came to take some of his weight. Crutches would’ve served him well, but for now your shoulder did the job. He winced as you helped him up, but voiced no complaint. 

Once inside, you left him leaning on the wall as you looked for a light switch. A faint chemical scent tickled your nostrils. Did the woman leave part way through cleaning?

It wasn’t until you stumbled on something warm and furry that it clicked - Margaret had been buying cat food. 

Oh no… 

At last your fingers found plastic. You flipped the switch and pursed your lips.

There, crouched expectantly on a well-worn living chair, sat a trio of felines. A siamese and two tabbies, all three rounder than you imagined was healthy. Three sets of hopeful eyes followed you back to V, a questioning meow slipping from the siamese’s mouth.

I should have grabbed her groceries.

“Oh, my… aren’t you three just the cutest things,” V cooed. Your eyes shot to him to find pure adoration written across his features. He smiled at the cats and tried to step closer, wincing again as he put weight on his injured hip. “What are your names, little ones?”

The man was blind. The last thing these cats were was little.

Incredulous, you hurried to help him to the chair, shooing the cats out of the way. You didn’t dislike cats, but one had already gotten underfoot. Not a promising start.

Of course, the second the artist settled in, he resumed wooing the damn things. You sighed. “I’m going to look around. You stay put, okay?”

He nodded without even looking your way, too busy praising the siamese as it sniffed his outstretched hand. 

The home didn’t take long to explore; its single bedroom and bathroom, cozy living area and claustrophobic kitchen weren’t bigger than your first apartment. Margaret’s decor was simple and tame, as if an afterthought. A few pictures of her cats and an older gentleman dotted the walls, but little else. Cat furniture featured heavily. Your initial assessment that she didn’t have anyone close to her seemed spot on. 

Her bathroom had limited medical supplies, but enough to serve your needs. You brought everything out to where you left V and rolled your eyes. 

He’d somehow gotten all three of the cats back on the chair. The tabbies crouched on either armrest, while the siamese sat in his lap, purring as he stroked its fur. He was humming a tune, his expression peaceful and content. You didn’t want to interrupt this rare moment of calm.

But I have to.

You set down your scavenged supplies and caught the artist’s gaze. “Sorry, but I need to check your hip.”

He sighed, but his hand stopped its rhythmic motion. “Come on, Moose. Doctor’s orders.”

The cat didn’t move. 

“Its name is Moose? Is that a joke?” you asked.

He smirked, then gestured at the grey tabby on his left, then the orange one on the right. “No, and this is Hunter and Pippin. It says on their collars.”

“Hmm. Well, Moose, Hunter and Pippin need to move,” you said, then picked up Moose. He opened one eye and yawned. “Hi, Moose.”

You settled the trio on a nearby cat tree, where they seemed content enough. On to your patient. 

His blood-spattered clothing gave you no trouble, and you set to work, removing the old bandage to find the stitches intact. Crimson wept from the corners, but the flow wasn’t alarming. You cleaned the area and wrapped it up again within a few minutes, tossing aside V’s soiled clothes to deal with later.

With that done, you allowed some of the tension to leave your body. Your neck and shoulders ached, exhaustion pulling at your limbs like a petulant child. There was no resisting it anymore; you groaned as you collapsed onto the couch opposite V. When was the last time you’d slept?

Just as your eyes slid closed, a sharp hiss ravaged your worn nerves and dragged you back to alertness. You couldn’t help shooting a glare at the offending feline. Pippin, wasn’t it?

You sighed and forced yourself up again. “I’ll see if I can find you something to wear.”

“Actually,” V replied, “Would you direct me to the bathroom first? I’m due for a shower.”

He carefully shooed the cats away as you helped him up. His skinny form trembled with each step, but held long enough to settle onto the stool in the shower. Margaret must’ve had mobility issues, for which you thanked the stars. She even had one of those fancy showerheads on a hose.

You handed the artist the hose the moment you finished helping him strip. “Try not to get your wound wet.”

He smirked. “What, you aren’t joining me? What if I slip?”

Despite his playful tone, he had a point. Bastard.

He’ll need my help to get out, anyway. Might as well stay.

Not to mention your deodorant wore out hours ago. You stifled a yawn and tugged your clothes off, too tired to blush as the artist watched your every move. By the time you joined him in the now-crowded shower, his eyes were sparkling and his lips were quirked into a lopsided grin. His long fingers reached out to stroke your skin, feathery touches painting invisible lines across your ribs and hips. 

You hummed and closed your eyes, his attention soothing your muscles. “That feels good.”

The soft hush of water thrummed in your ears as V continued his ministrations. Steam and warmth filled the claustrophobic room, melting your lingering stress with the help of the artist’s skilled hands. 

You smiled. “I thought I was here in case you slipped and hurt yourself.”

“Call it multitasking,” he replied, reaching for a bottle of body wash. 

You took turns washing each other, passing the showerhead back and forth between soft smiles and gentle caresses. As the water inched its way closer to iciness, the suds long washed away, it was enough to wrap the artist in your arms and stroke his freshly washed hair, his lips pressing lazy kisses against your stomach. 

At last, he turned off the spray and pulled away, dewy drops clinging to his skin. He waited as you foraged for towels, smiling when you ruffled his hair and helped dry his back. 

“Bed?” he asked as he draped himself over your shoulder, long legs stepping out of the shower with care. 

You nodded and led him there, barely letting go before you dropped onto the bed beside him, only to land on something hard and uncomfortable. 

“-suspected to be aiding and abetting the killer. Any sightings should be reported to the hotline. Do not approach either of the suspects if seen, they are considered highly dangerous and likely to kill again…”

You froze as your eyes locked onto the now lit TV screen hanging on the opposite wall. A news bulletin displayed V’s mugshot beside a somewhat recent staff photo of you from the facility, a stern frown under your signature tight bun. Above the photos, a byline labeled you as an accomplice to murder.

“Dr. Emily Waras, wanted in connection with the Crimson Artist slayings. Now we go live to a police press conference.”

Your mouth filled with sand as your mind stalled, static buzzing between your ears. A dark podium stood before a familiar figure, his white hair pulled back into a ponytail. Unflinching blue eyes stared out of the screen into your very soul as Tony Redgrave spoke to a horde of reporters and film crews.

“Recent developments in the Crimson Artist case lead us to believe that Dr. Emily Waras, a former employee of Mundus Psychiatric Hospital, may be aiding the killer. While I can’t give much detail as the investigation is ongoing, we are issuing an all-points alert to apprehend both suspects and bring them to justice. In the meantime, we urge all citizens to stay vigilant and travel in groups of three or more.”

His eyes flashed, his features hardening into steel. Behind him, you spotted Officer Goldstein, her own expression as harsh and unforgiving as Tony’s. 

“Dr. Waras, if you’re watching… turn yourself in. You don’t have to be what he wants you to be. We can help you. Don’t make this worse than it already is.”

Your blood turned to ice as he stepped back from the podium and the broadcast returned to the photos of you and V. It was inevitable that the police came after you, but somehow it was a shock hearing them say it. 

Wheels of panicked thought tumbled into motion. How would this change your options? What impact would it have? Your heart was racing, palms sweaty. Hysteria was a breath away.

Calm down. Think it through.  

You closed your eyes and pursed your lips. Malphas probably gave the staff photo to the police, just the latest knife in the spine from your former boss. While they didn’t mention your father, you couldn’t imagine anything else that could have given them the confidence to declare you an accomplice in public. Whether that meant he was alive or dead was irrelevant - even a corpse would've been enough evidence.

Can they use me to get to V?

Little remained from your old life for you to draw on; your car was long gone, the apartment left behind, along with your father. Your cell phone lied somewhere on the side of the road, and you hadn’t been in contact with anyone but V for days. 

So really, the only thing that’s changed is that strangers will look for me now. Other than that…

I’ve already abandoned the rest.

You wouldn’t be V’s downfall unless you got careless. The announcement was an act of desperation, not a sign of progress. They hadn’t even mentioned Margaret.

A breath you didn’t know you’d been holding slid from your lips. You turned to V; with the fear dealt with, you were curious how he’d react.

His towel-wrapped body lied beside you, but farther away than a moment prior. His fingers twitched in his lap, his face angled down as his lips moved silently. You shuffled closer and touched his clenched shoulder.

“V?”

The reaction was instant - he snarled at you, one hand darting to press at his injury while the other took hold of your throat. Fire danced in his eyes, his body shifting to pin you down. You flailed against him, trying to break free, but his grip was far too tight.

Shit, shit, shit!

He held you still for a long moment, his arm shaking as he brought his face closer to yours. As if he wanted to watch the life drain from your eyes, like nothing you’d done for him mattered, like you were just another victim. A tool to be used and discarded when it was no longer useful.

Fuck this! I am NOT dying today!

The edges of your vision darkened as you punched the artist in the face, using the vacant space left by his arm still holding his wound. A sharp crack rewarded your adrenaline fueled effort as his grip loosened just enough to take a precious swallow of air and cry his name, your voice hoarse.

Another smack and he fell to the side, curling defensively as you scrabbled out of his reach and grabbed the first thing to catch your eye, a heavy alarm clock. You hoped it would be enough to take him down.

Yet you paused, forcing air through your throat. Was he going to try again? Did he truly want to watch you die? You struggled to accept it, not after all the shit you’d been through for him. 

“Why? What the fuck, V?” you rasped.

He groaned but didn’t speak. You smacked his leg.

“Tell me what the fuck just happened right the fuck now!” 

It was only as his face lifted to meet yours that you realized you were crying. Stupid. Tears were useless. 

“They want to help you. It’s foolish to trust you. Vergil was right, I should have killed you long ago,” the artist said at last. His eyes stared right through you. “It’s only a matter of time before you turn on me.”

Your grip on the alarm clock tightened, your knuckles turning white. Rage flooded your senses, your body barely restrained. “You’re an idiot if that’s what you believe.”

He sneered and sat up, massaging his jaw where your blow landed. Blood stained the bandage you’d only put in place half an hour ago, and his eyes still glowed with suspicion. “Then how do they know you’re with me? You must have told them, before you came after me. You probably just came so you could give them my location.”

“Is that what you think I was doing after you ran off for no goddamn reason?” you scoffed. 

“Why not? Maybe your father convinced you to do it.”

Your fingers tightened on the clock, resisting the urge to hurl it at his face. A peal of hysterical laughter stung your abused throat on its way out and you wiped the remnants of your tears away. “The only thing my father convinced me to do was lobotomize him when he found out who you are! I only stayed long enough to make sure he wouldn’t talk.”

V’s eyes widened, his hand dropping from his darkening jaw. You met his gaze full on, daring him to call you a liar. If he did, you didn’t know how you’d withhold a scream.

“You… lobotomized him?”

You nodded. “With a chopstick.”

The artist’s shoulders dropped, the tension easing by a fraction as his lips twitched. He chuckled, eyes glimmering. You shifted your weight and took another deep breath. It came easier than the last few.

V grunted and rolled his broad shoulders. “How did it feel?”

“Like… like nothing. I felt nothing at all.”

Blankets ruffled as he shuffled closer to you, reaching out with the same hand that almost ended your life to take the clock from your iron grip. You stepped back before he could.

“Really? Nothing at all?” he replied, “That’s difficult to believe.”

“I was a little preoccupied worrying about you.”

He tried again for the timepiece. You shot him a glare and took another step back. Would he chase you if you ran? Even if he did, it wouldn’t be hard to outpace him with his wound. 

And yet…

You couldn’t stop the words. You had to know. “Why don’t you trust me?”

He looked away, shrinking back. “Don’t.”

“After what you just did, I think I deserve some answers. Why? Is it something to do with Nero?”

A muscle in his jaw flared, his arms crossing as he lowered his head. You were on the right track. “I said don’t.”

“V,” you insisted, perhaps unwisely. “You just tried to kill me. Tell me why; tell me what happened to Nero.”

“Fine, you want to know so desperately?” the artist snarled, his eyes flashing behind a curtain of black. “He died to save me. I dragged him to a fucking poetry reading and got him killed, a month before his wedding. He took six bullets and collapsed on top of me, told me not to move and play dead until it was over! I hid like a coward under his corpse; I tasted his blood and heard his last breath, all because I wanted to hear some goddamned William Blake!”

Oh.

It explained so much. Why he recited Blake during episodes. Why he never used a gun to kill. Why he seemed so fascinated by blood. Why he believed society was broken, choosing to preserve innocence over preparing people for reality. 

It was all a manifestation of Nero’s death, and his own helplessness.

The puzzle now had a picture, an origin. 

“And it got even better after that! His fiance blamed me, rightfully so. My family treated me like a pariah, and everywhere I went on campus, all I saw was Nero… Nero and the bastards that murdered him.”

You didn’t dare speak. He seemed unable to stop the words from flowing, like a burst pipe. There was nothing to do but wait for the torrent to slow.

“My mother, she tried, but her idea of a solution was suggesting the whole damn school work together to make a mural, and of course they wanted the painter to help. I imagine they thought it would heal me, the idiots.”

The weight of the clock in your hands became too much. You set it aside and leaned on the wall, out of his reach but still listening. Still there.

“They told me there was nothing I could have done, but none of them…” he paused, shuddering. “None of them knew how I froze. He… Nero told me to get down, to hide, but I didn’t- I just stood there and let it happen! Maybe if I’d done as he said, he wouldn’t have died. Don’t you see?”

Tortured green eyes nailed you in place. “Nero was my first kill.”

You pursed your lips as he fell silent, panting in the aftermath. His slim fingers clenched and released, his body shaking as his Adam's apple bobbed. He looked like a lost child.

“So you don’t trust me because everyone you knew turned on you after Nero’s death, in one form or another,” you murmured. “You think I’ll do the same.”

He brushed his hair back. “No, I trust you. It’s Vergil that doesn’t.”

It’s the same thing; Vergil’s part of you…

But it wouldn’t do any good to bring that up now. In fact, there were a million things you could say that would do irrevocable damage. What could you say that would help?

There are no words.

“I think I understand. At least, the best I can without living through it myself,” you began. “And nothing I say will earn your trust. Words are meaningless, they’re too easy. It doesn’t cost a thing to speak.”

Sirens rang in your head as you stepped closer, back into the reach of those long, tattooed arms. Giving him the chance to take your life if he so desired. You forced your arms to stay at your sides, battling the urge to run before it was too late.

“But actions have a heavy price, as we both know, and I’ll let mine speak for me.”

Your heart galloped against your ribs, sweat beading across your palms as you took his hand, the one that clasped your throat so tight mere minutes ago. Mouth as dry as a desert, you brought his palm to your neck and wrapped his fingers around, holding his perplexed gaze.

This is so stupid, I can’t believe I’m doing this, I’m going to get myself killed-

You let go, your hands dropping to give V full control. The moment froze, neither of you daring to breathe, your eyes locked together. 

His grip tightened and you whimpered, the urge to fight back more powerful than a lightning bolt, but precious air still forged a path to your lungs. He squeezed only enough to narrow your airway; not enough to close it.

And if I resist now, none of this matters anyway. 

A flame lit in V’s eyes and his other palm came to rest at the base of your skull. A twist of his arms, and he’d snap your neck. Still, you didn’t allow yourself to struggle. 

And then he moved, the flames fading as he closed the gap to take your mouth in his. He crushed your body to him and flicked his tongue against yours, his grip changing to cradle your face instead of crushing your throat. His kiss was feverish and hungry, stealing your breath in an infinitely more pleasant manner than before. When he finally pulled back, both of you were flushed and panting.

“Vergil can fuck off,” he whispered, forehead pressed to yours.

[duker42]

💜Perfect💜 1 of 4

💜Perfect💜 Part 1 of 4

“Shitty, shitty, shitty fucking luck!” (Y/N) mutters as glares at the cave she is currently trapped in.

The fucking expedition had been a wreck almost from the onset. Hordes of titans had overrun the Scouts. Her gear had been damaged and her horse abandoned her, she and another Scout had used his ODM Gear until the gas had almost run out. Now they were stuck in the middle of nowhere, with no one aware of where they were. It make matters worse, the man she is stranded with is her crush, Captain Levi.

“Oi, What was that brat?” A pair of hard grey eyes stare at her from the narrow entrance of the cave.

“Nothing, sir.” She says.

He turns his attention back to the entrance of the cave, watching for Titans. “Okay, they seem to have wander back to whatever hell they came from. (Y/N), we are going to have to go out and get some firewood for tonight.”

“But Captain!” She starts to protest.

“Do you want to fucking freeze tonight?” She shakes her head. “I didn’t think so. You gather the wood and I’ll keep watch.”

They make several trips with enough wood to keep them warm, when on the last trip back, a heavy rain starts pouring down on them. Running back for the safety of the cave, (Y/N) quickly sets up a small crackling fire.

“(Y/N) strip out of those clothes!” Levi orders.

She turns bright red and just stares at the raven haired Captain.

“Tch. Do you want to get sick, idiot? Take the wet clothes off!” He clicks his tongue at her as he starts removing his straps and unbuttoning his shirt. She can only gawk as he removes his shirt to reveal chiseled abs. Removing his boots, he drags the wet fabric of his pants off and lays his clothes neatly over various rocks to dry. He turns back to her, standing only in his boxers, his gaze turning fierce when seeing her in the same position as before.

Marching quickly over to her, he grabs her straps and starts unbuckling them. “Are you brain damaged, (Y/N)? Obviously not smarter that a shitty Titan.”

She shakes her head and bit and pushes his hands away and turns around, her skin flush with embarrassment. She slowly removes her shirt to reveal a light pink bra. Slipping off her boots, she unbuttons her pants and throws a look over her shoulder to make sure Levi wasn’t watching her before she removes them. Grabbing her cloak, she mutters a small prayer of thanks for leaving it in the cave, and wraps it around her body.

“Spread your clothes out and then come sit by the fire, brat.” He growls from the other side of the fire.

(Y/N) comes and sits across from the stoic man, watching the firelight dance across his face. Completely at ease with his exposure, Levi sat on his cloak, still revealing a body hardened by training and small scars from previous battles. (Y/N) shifted uncomfortably, drawing the piercing gaze of Levi. He sighs and huffs out “What is it Cadet?”

“Nothing sir. Just thinking.” She replied.

“About?” He said, obviously annoyed.

She blushes, drops her gaze down to the flames and stammers out “Just about how I’m mostly likely going to die out here, eaten by some shitty Titan.”

“That’s all?” The monotone voice come across the fire.

“Just pissed off that I’m going to die a fucking virgin!” (Y/N) growls out in frustration.

Silence fills the air....she sneaks a look at Levi’s face. The only acknowledgment that he had heard her was one eyebrow, arched in surprise.

“Who’s the guy?” He inquires.

“Ummmm no one.” She blushed.

“Come on (Y/N), if your thinking about loosing it, you have to have someone special. Boyfriend?” Levi is starting to enjoy watching her squirm more. She shakes her head.

“Yeager? No, Mikasa would gut anyone who touches her precious Titan brat. How about Horse-face?” He smirks.

“No! None of those idiots! Just forget I said anything!” She cried as she buried her hands in her face.

Levi relents, slightly guilty at her obvious distress.

“Alright brat, we will drop it. Those brats are too young for you anyway. We need to sleep. Come here.” He commands as he add more wood to the fire.

She looks at him in shock. He quickly realizes his mistake. “No, idiot, I don’t mean that. We need to share body heat since our clothes are wet. This small fire isn’t going to keep us warm enough.” He blushes slightly at the direction his own thoughts take him.

She walks over to where Levi is sitting on his cloak. He moves over to allow her to sit down beside him. He unbuttons her cloak from around her shoulders. She started sputtering at him in shock. Annoyed he glared at her, “My cloak is on the ground, keeping your ass out of the dirt, we will use yours for cover.”

Cheeks flaming red, she turns around as Levi pulls the garment from her shoulders, revealing her bra and the matching lacy pink panties. He gently pushes her down on her side, and lays down behind her, covering them both with her cloak. He pushed one arm under her head as a pillow and anchored another around her waist, hauling her against him.

Absorbing the heat, they lay quietly. (Y/N)’s breathing slows as she relaxes and drifts off to sleep. As she is just entering the dream world, she feels a small kiss at the back of her neck and hears a whisper “Sweet Dreams.” ‘It must be a dream’, she thinks.

*Time Skip*

(Y/N) starts to move around, not opening her sleep filled eyes and wondering why her bed is so damn hard. Moving her hand down the hard plane, she freezes when she hears a voice “Oi! Brat, if you go much farther, I’m going to assume you want to play.” Her eyes spring open and she jerks her head up to connect with the grey orbs peering down at her in wry amusement. She instantly blushes as she realizes she is sprawled all over the Captain, a leg thrown over his hips, knee nudging a certain part of his anatomy, her hand hand been running down his hard stomach, and her head had been nestled in the corner of his shoulder.

Instantly she shoots to her feet. “Oh SHIT! I’m so sorry Captain! Oh shit, please don’t kill me!” She exclaims with her eyes tightly shut.

Levi smirks in amusement as he takes the opportunity to run his gaze over her lush form. Trim and tightly built, she was still soft in all the right places. Her shape was like an hourglass, with an ass that he had to restrain himself from rubbing against more than once throughout the previous night. He shakes his head to clear it, and replies “I’m not going to kill you brat. But this weather might. It’s been raining all morning, our clothes aren’t dry and there is no way a signal flare will be seen. We are stuck here for at least another day.”

(Y/N)’s heart plummets at the fading hope of rescue. “Another day?” She whispers dejectedly.

“What, ready be rid of me, brat?” Levi drolls.

“No, we just don’t have any supplies and we need more wood.” She grumped.

“Right, about that, I’m going to go gather more wood, you stay here and tend the fire.” Levi ordered, pushing himself to his feet. (Y/N) blushed as her gaze runs over the raven-haired man. His corded muscles rippled and popped as he stretched and walked over to their wet clothes.

“Tch. This is going to be a shitty experience.” He stated as he started pulling on the damp uniform. He stalks over to to the entrance of the cave, shoots a indistinguishable look back at (Y/N) and darts out into the rain.

Trying to keep from worrying about the Captain, (Y/N) added more wood to the fire, and managed to rig the ODM Gear they had left as a clothes line across the cave. After hanging her clothes up, she started cataloging the contents of the small pouches all Scouts carry on them. They had 2 flare guns, 1 black flare, 3 green flares, 2 knives, a cup, a water skin, 2 ration bars, a sliver of soap (from Levi’s bag of course) and a small notebook and pencil.

Figuring Levi would be gone for awhile, she strips out of her undergarments and steps outside into the cold rain. She lathers up her hands and runs them over all the dips and curves of her body. Washing her undergarments as well, she dashed back inside the safety of the cave, completely unaware that a pair of grey eyes had been watching her every move.

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Mobile MasterList

[crusherthedoctor]

Sonic & Tails: Beyond the Stars - Chapter 3

Chapter 3: A Drop of Life or Death

"Just keep following me, guys!" Sonic called out to his pursuing friends as he breezed along the ocean with his amazing namesake. Who needs a boat when you're the fastest thing alive? He directed his attention towards what appeared to be a tranquil beachside area, which courtesy of its boardwalks, and its white, pristine sands, he couldn't help but be reminded of his favourite relaxing spot in Station Square.

"Where are we headed to?" Amy asked quickly, as she continued to hold onto Cream while the latter flew in the air.

"The local coastal resort is not too far from here," Lutrudis replied, while she did the same with Tails. "Being such a destination, it's naturally a popular spot in Viridonia. If Dr. Eggman is the kind of character I've been led to believe, it's possible he may be sabotaging the place for... whatever selfish reason."

"Maybe he's forcing everyone to worship him..." Cream pondered out loud fearfully.

"If he's not busy worshipping himself," Amy added with a bit of sass, having known the evil scientist's self-aggrandizing habits for some time now.

"Eggman makes me feel older..." Tails muttered somewhat absent-mindedly.

"Did you guys say coastal resort?" the sea-walking Sonic questioned, with a notable drip of dread in his voice. "There won't be too many unavoidable pits of water around, will there?"

"...Aren't you running on water right now?" Tails pointed out, trying hard to hide his amused tone.

"Not the same thing!" Sonic denied defensively, as he dashed off to their destination. The remaining four exchanged glances with each other, before picking up the speed themselves. Unbeknownest to them however, the blue droid from before was spying on the group once again. High above their own heights, he rubbed his hands in glee, in tune with the siren atop his cranium.

"Heh heh heh..." he giggled, betrayed by his unthreatening voice and nervous pitch.

---

Coastline Resort Zone

CR Act 1: Shining Shore

Lutrudis' Badnik Logs: Crabmeat - “Yet another 'classic' in the doctor's repertoire of mischievous metal myrmidons. Not only do they use those great big pincers to pinch you in the backside, like any crab with a short fuse, they also fire pellets from afar. Better turn them into Crabscrap before they cause you grief.”

Gameblow - “Based on the older model known as Game Game (darling name, I must say), these innocuous looking turtles spin their shells like a deadly frisbee. Regular frisbees are bad enough, but at least they only hurt your neck rather than, y'know, potentially slice it.”

Aquis - “Despite being based on seahorses, these ones never touch a single drop of water, instead opting to swim through the air... as well as rain down bullets on you. Not very advertiser friendly.”

Sweep - “Can you run on water? So can these pests, unfortunately. Trimming along the deep blue with surprising grace, they like to insert their spiked noses into your person... I trust it goes without saying that this would hurt quite a bit.”

At the risk of disappointing Sonic greatly, welcome to your first water zone in Viridonia. There may have been the odd watery area in the previous zones, but this will be the first one to really make use of your swimming skills... or non-swimming skills. Well, it may not suit the Blue Blur's tastes, but you're not gonna stop Eggman otherwise, right?

Anyway, you won't have to fret too much about inescapable underwater sections for the time being, as this act takes place at the lovely beach by the sea. If you expect this to simply be a textbook Emerald Coast however (you know, like Wave Ocean), you've got another thing coming. True, there's elements of those stages here and there - the palm trees filled with juicy coconuts, the wooden boardwalks leading off into the ocean, the occasional flashy yacht floating along to make you feel dissatisfied with your own life choices - but even a quick glance will reveal the beautifully decorated plaza, the higher cliffs teeming with stunning waterfalls, and the tall torches complimenting the gradually darkening sky, as it's close to reaching sunset by this point.

You can even stop by the tourist centers if you want to, of which their residents will be happy to provide you with interesting facts about the place... when they're not grumbling about rival tourist destinations, that is.

"I heard that Apotos once got corrupted by a dark force, causing its residents to act out and commit heinous acts of evil... Now between you and me, would they have went through all that suffering if they came here...?"

"You know the worst thing about that Dr. Robotnik? His vacation planning make no sense! Who puts a theme park in space? Was it his plan all along to kill everyone through lack of oxygen?"

"Soleanna? More like SoleanNAH... Look, I don't get visitors often..."

By this point, you'll have noticed that Lutrudis isn't the only one tagging along with Sonic and Tails this time around. Amy and Cream are tagging along too, and like Miss Hadeer, they'll try their best to help out here and there, as well as provide banter that doesn't get repetitive or redundant. You can't rely on them too much though, or else this would be far too easy. The Crabmeats and Gameblows still put their focus on you when attacking, though the Aquis seahorses will prove to be the most obnoxious of the set due to their tendency to hang around in the air. Suffice to say, Tails can get rid of them a lot quicker, unless you're really good with Sonic's momentum.

By the time you reach the home stretch, represented by an impressively sized lighthouse, an orca whale will pop out of the water. Luckily, despite your initial reservations, this one is friendly to blue hedgehogs, as it happily allows you to run along its back... But once you jump off its back, and leap high into the air, another orca will suddenly jump out to try and eat you. After narrowly avoiding the hostile orca's vacumn of a mouth, you're quick to notice that it's been equipped with highly advanced armor... and it appears to be acting against its own will, as you also notice the blue robot hovering down with a remote control...

Amy: What's going on!?

Sonic: Wait, that's-!

Gunner: Heh heh heh...

As the first orca wisely flees the scene of the crime, you're forced to run away from the clutches of the second, mechanized orca. As tense as orca chases were in the past, they didn't fire lasers and bombs at you. Poor Cream in particular is frightened beyond belief, but you've made it out of these situations before. Unfortunately, the actual terrain is a lot more complicated than past incidents of this sort as well, as you must traverse through piers, caves, AND cliffs to escape the jaws of the beast.

Eventually however, the ray of the lighthouse will shine upon the mecha orca, and with its temporary distraction, it'll crash into the nearest cliff, Monstro-style. Don't worry, it's not dead. But it did get rid of the armor encasing it, thus freeing it of its operator's control.

Gunner: Ohhhhh nooooo...

As the robot rather pathetically crushes its remote in anger, before flying away, you can finally complete the stage by freeing the critters from the end capsule. But in the distance, you can hear a lot of splashing, and a lot of children in particular yelling out gleefully. Or could one of those be a manchild...?

---

"Who was THAT weirdo?" Amy wondered as she squeezed the last drop of water out of her quills. "Eggman's newest hunk of junk?"

"Is the poor whale okay...?" Cream worried to herself. Lutrudis was quick to nod in reassurance, and gave her the A-OK hand signal for good measure. Amy also nodded sympathetically as she rubbed her little friend's head in affection.

"That wasn't a new guy," Sonic muttered, still soaked from head to toe, and not too pleased about it if his slumped body language was of any indication. "That was a Heavy."

"A what?"

"A Heavy, Amy. A Hard-Boiled Heavy to be precise. Me and Tails tangled with them long ago... I didn't think I'd ever see them again, but here we are."

"Them?" Cream asked nervously. "How many of them are there...?"

"Five," Tails answered bluntly. "They were tougher than they looked too," he added dejectedly.

"Drat," Amy cursed out loud, complete with a fist in her palm. "And I guess Eggman didn't decide to only rebuild one of them? Now we have a whole GROUP of jerks to watch out for."

"There's five of us though, right...?" Lutrudis gestured with her left hand. "Surely they're not much different from the doctor's other robots."

"Well actually," Sonic scratched his ear as he looked to his side awkwardly. "These robots were enhanced by a really weird jewel."

"Oh... of course..." Lutrudis trailed off, before quickly regaining her confident burst. "Well you still beat them once before. We can handle them... At least, you guys can... Myself, well..."

Before Sonic could argue with what he perceived as an error in her statement, Lutrudis cleared the last set of bushes that revealed the source of all the excited noise: a hustling, bustling water park. The vaguely ancient architecture suggested that it was formerly a set of aquatic ruins, but with the addition of industrial gizmos and doodads in the modern age, it was now a colorful array of seaside adrenaline. Dazzling fountains were dotted all over, and it truly caught the group's attention.

"Wow, this place looks cool!" Tails beamed with youthful glee. His tails couldn't help but twirl around in excitement. "We should hang out here for real when this is over! What do you think, Sonic?"

He was quick to notice the look of subdued resignation on his lifelong buddy's face. Evidently, the blue hedgehog had wearily accepted that he was about to get very wet once again.

"Oh man..." Sonic sighed, as Lutrudis put a sympathetic hand on his shoulder.

---

CR Act 2: Crazy Rapids

Lutrudis' Badnik Logs: Lobstrike - “These lobsters practically become heat-seeking missiles the moment they spot an enemy. Fortunately, while they're certainly fast, they can't turn around once they fire at you. Can't say I was fond of the taste of lobsters anyway.”

Scuba Pawn - "The most clever thing about these Pawns is that they're sea green. Slightly less clever is their tendency to throw their floatie rings like boomerangs, as well as launch a torpedo if you're under the sea. The doctor's compulsive need to mix deadly and daft would be almost admirable if it weren't for his equally compulsive need to conquer the world through it."

Returning Enemies: Crabmeat Gameblow Aquis Sweep

Doesn't this place look amazingly fun? Not if you're aquaphobic. Good thing no one on the team is, or else this would be very awkward.

Being a water park, you have a plentiful amount of gimmicks to experiment with. Water slides, water whirligigs, giant bubbles for you to substitute for temporary platforms, and even jacuzzi hot tubs that launch you up in the air with their overwhelming heat. Everything's coming up wet around here! The hybrid of marble ruins and wacky equipment certainly makes for a memorable scene, but don't get too distracted, lest you get bumped off by a Scuba Pawn.

Speaking of which, does no one here realise the gravity of the robots' presence? One lanky zebra in khaki shorts seems to have a unique take on them...

"Yoooo! Digging these mascots, dude! So full of life, know what I mean dawg?"

As you attempt to avoid shutting down emotionally upon hearing the word "dawg", let's discuss the swimming in this adventure at last. As Sonic, you naturally can't swim, but as Tails, you can count on that cute little doggy paddle of yours to help you go places. Compared to the old days however, Tails can now swim a lot faster, making underwater sections a lot more bearable than they would be otherwise. Of course, Tails will still tire out if you doggy paddle for too long, and regardless of who you're playing as, failure to obtain oxygen in time will result in a certain memorable countdown... followed by death.

That's not to say that you can't complete underwater stages with Sonic. The level design is always laid out in a way that ensures he can still make it through as well. But basically, you're better off with using Tails in these type of stages, unless you have something to prove.

And what would a place called Crazy Rapids be if it didn't have any rapids? There's a whole bunch of them, and you gotta watch your step, as the current during these sections is way too speedy for you to swim through without getting washed away. Like the honey in the Hornet's Nest though, you won't die if you get caught in it. You'll simply be momentarily inconvenienced... which is nonetheless a big deal when there's Lobstrikes willing to take advantage of your situation.

After all the slides, the rapids, and the trips in and out of the water, you'll eventually find yourself running along a straight path that takes you to the park's information center... But right before you enter it, you're suddenly bombarded with missiles. Once you dodge them for a brief period, the source of the missiles will hover down and reveal itself... a familiar helicopter, with a familiar passenger. With a push of a button on its control panel, the copter dispatches the rotors in exchange for a round underside, and the vehicle slams down onto the floor behind you with a mighty crash, breaking the floor apart instantly. With the contraption now taking the form of a boat, you must run for your life as an old friend tries valiantly to earn himself some much desired payback...

BOSS: Heavy Gunner

On one hand, this is kind of like your original fight with the police-themed Heavy, in that you're keeping up the pace against his vehicle of choice, and he's firing an onslaught of missiles everywhere he goes.

On the other hand, everything else is completely different.

For starters, Gunner's boat is always behind you, and its chipping away at the ground you're cruising along. Falling into the water here won't technically count as an instant death, but you'll be a sitting duck for the balloon-sized bombs that he sends down your way, so try to avoid that fate as best as you can. Should you stay above the ocean however, Gunner will opt for continuing his missile assault with his trusty yet blocky bazooka.

Now, Gunner's missiles have different colours, just like your past encounter with him. But this time, he fires red and green, not blue. Red missiles go straight for you, while green missiles arch upwards, loop around once, and then crash down onto the floor ahead of you, thus risking a watery trap for your character. The cybernetic sail on the front of the boat prevents offensive measures from the front, and neither type of missile can be deflected back, for it is proven that a robot can learn from his mistakes. So what do you do?

Wait for a green missile. Then, when it loops around and is close to ground level, grab onto it. Keep holding on until the missile is at the highest it can go, and right before it crashes down to the ground...

Gunner: Uhhhhh ohhhhh...

...let go of the missile and slam yourself down onto the boat with all your might. Gunner's subsequent arm flailing and eyeball popping will indicate that he did not account for this maneuver, and his boat will notably sink ever so slightly.

Three more rounds of this is all it takes. But be warned, for in an effort to prevent you from pulling that stunt again, the pattern of the green missiles will grow increasingly erratic after each hit, culminating with some truly fast zig-zag sweeping. As well as that, he'll also start firing missiles while you're up high in an attempt to make you lose focus. But speed is your middle name, so you've got this in the bag. After four strikes, the boat will finally give way and sink altogether, but not before Gunner ejects from his craft and jets away. This won't be the last you see of him, but you've foiled him for now. Let's just hope his buddies follow the same destiny...

---

"Y-you'll pay for t-this..." Gunner muttered timidly, as he used his jetpack to fly off to an unspecified destination.

"Sorry cop, but you ain't taking me in," Sonic quipped. "Wasn't fun being in jail the first time around..." He and his friends carried on running through the path, only to stop by an isolated building hidden away by trees and bushes. Upon taking a step inside...

"Look, Mr. Sonic!" Cream clasped her hands happily.

"Huh?" Sonic turned around after making sure Gunner was gone, and to his own surprise, occupying the lobby area was a whole bunch of Chao, of different colours and shapes, all playing around without a care in the world. Some of them were enjoying the pool, others were sliding down minature slides and throwing balls with each other, content with the other's company.

"A Chao Garden...?" the hero wondered.

"Yep," Lutrudis answered, hands on hips. "You didn't think we'd have any of our own here?" she asked with a teasing smile.

Sonic said nothing, too caught up with watching the little Chao. Amy and Cream wasted no time in petting and playing with the nearest Chao they could find, and even Cheese greeted himself to them through their own unique language.

"Chao!"

"Chao Chao!"

"Chao Chao?"

"Chao! <3"

As they got along with each other, Tails turned to Lutrudis. "Do you come here often?"

She nodded wistfully. "I love Chao." She rested one arm on her hand. "They're such beautiful little creatures... And so calming to one's senses. I've considered having one of my own, actually."

"Why haven't you got one?" Sonic questioned, as he crossed his arms.

"I'm not sure if I would make a good parent figure for them..." the horse rubbed her arm, while looking aside. "I don't really have the experience for that... and I doubt that'll change anytime soon..."

"Well, I think you'd be great with a Chao," Sonic gently nudged Lutrudis with a wink.

"Yeah!" Tails agreed. "You've treated the rest of us fine, right? You're nowhere close to having the inhospitality of someone like-"

"Guys, watch out!" Lutrudis suddenly called out to Amy and Cream, after having briefly glanced up at the transparent glass roof. Before they could react however, said glass roof suddenly exploded in a shower of broken shards, which threatened to cause serious damage to everyone within the lobby. Thinking fast, Sonic used his speed to get most of the Chao out of harm's way, and his four friends followed suit to the best of their own abilities. While the damage had been done to the surrounding area, the Chao were understandably in a state of panicked frenzy.

Sonic looked around to make sure his friends were okay, and he was subsequently relieved to see that Lutrudis had successfully herded all the Chao to a safe corner of the room, and was currently attempting to calm the poor things down. Before he could do anything else though, he immediately sensed another's presence. He didn't need to guess who it was. He could already hear the culprit's voice in his head before it even came out, as he had arguably heard it more times throughout his young life than even his own. Yet sure enough, out it came.

"Well, well, well... Sonic, my old pal. Long time no see, eh?"

The hedgehog looked up with distaste, and there he was, floating above in his signature hovercraft. The man who had caused so much trouble over the years. The man who saw himself as an emperor. The man who had a lifetime score to settle with people a quarter of his age. His two lackeys of questionable usefulness, Orbot and Cubot, were alongside him, as expected.

"Hey, what's all this commotion?" A burly duck in a suit and tie had walked into the scene, not at all happy with the carnage he had just heard, and certainly not with all the collateral damage. "Do you KNOW how long this will take to clean u-"

The duck immediately froze upon seeing the notorious scientist. He stood there in silence for a few long seconds, as his life flashed before his very eyes. The doctor simply turned to him, awaiting the expected reaction. Cubot was at least friendly enough to wave at him.

"R-R-Robotnik..." he stammered. "Gotta go...!" He promptly bolted out of the room, having cared very much about his own mortality.

"Oh, please, come back!" Eggman called out sarcastically. "I'm only here for a chat!"

"What are you doing here, Eggman?" Sonic asked with apprehension, ready as ever to put up his dukes if necessary. Tails and Amy were likewise quick to prepare themselves.

"What am I doing here?" Eggman pointed at himself with artificial innocence, as if he were hurt by the remark. "Surely the real question is what are you doing here. Must you always be like this, Sonic? Always following me wherever I go?"

"I think you've got that the other way around, doc," Sonic muttered, unimpressed with the man's fooling around.

"Just tell us your stupid plan already!" Amy complained, gripping firmly on her hammer. "Like you always do!"

"Now now, that's not how you greet yours truly," the doctor slowly waved a finger at the temperamental pink hedgehog. "I was just in the mood to visit the Chao that I hold so dear to my heart!"

"Because he wants to kidnap them," Orbot helpfully added. Eggman wordlessly glared at him.

"Kidnap the Chao...?" Cream contemplated with horror and revulsion. She immediately held Cheese tightly to her chest. "Why would you do such a thing!?"

"Yeah, why would you do that?" Tails questioned in a more quizzical tone. "What do you need Chao for? You're always after stuff like the Chaos Emeralds, and you've never cared about Chao at all until now..."

"Ah... I don't think I'll be telling that," Eggman leaned back and chuckled deviously. A grin started to appear on his face. "You see, things are a little different this time-"

"Don't you say that every time?" asked Cubot.

He got smacked in the face for his troubles.

"Things are a little different this time," Eggman repeated, looking in Cubot's direction in annoyance while doing so, before turning back to face the heroes. "If I explained everything right now, I'm afraid none of you would understand any of it! You'd have to reach MY level to get it." He smugly tapped his bald head, clearly alluding to the genius he prided himself so much on. "So if it's all the same with you, I think I'll be taking these girls and boys with me now."

Sonic was ready to thoroughly jeer at Eggman's amazing optimism in expecting to do as he pleased without his say in the matter. But before he could do so, another voice spoke out for him.

"You're not taking any of them."

Eggman looked confused as he wondered who had dared to say No to someone of his self-appointed stature. He quickly turned his Egg Mobile around, and saw Lutrudis standing in front of every last Chao. Her arms were outstretched, fully indicating that he would have to go through her to get them. The Chao were all terrified.

"Oh, right, you," the doctor commented. He stroked his right whisker. "I almost forgot about you. You're the new one, aren't you? The newest friend."

"~Ooooooh, friend!~" Orbot overdramatically clasped his hands joyfully.

"~Friend!~" Cubot added, and did the same in response.

"You're not taking these Chao," Lutrudis reiterated firmly, unflattered by the mockery directed at her.

"Surely you know who I am...?" Eggman asked.

"Yes, I do."

"Then you also know what I'm capable of...?

"Yes."

"And you know full well what I could do to you right here, right now...?"

"...Yes."

There was an audible hint of anxiousness in the horse's voice. This was her first face-to-face encounter with the most dangerous criminal in the world. She knew that he could mess her up in unimaginable ways, most likely with the push of a button. There was palpable fear on her face... Yet she remained where she was, not budging for a second. Even if it resulted in misfortune for herself, she refused to hand over the Chao.

"Then why do you dare to oppose me...?"

"Knock it off, Eggman," Sonic commanded fiercely. His hand began to curl into a fist, and his ears were straight up. His spines also sharpened a tiny bit.

"Why do you dare to oppose me...?" Eggman repeated, with added emphasis. His face was now inches away from the horse's own. "What's your story, hero?"

Lutrudis simply glared, despite the fear in her eyes. "No one owes anything to a rotten madman like you."

"...Madman...?" Eggman sneered venomously at her. Orbot and Cubot both shook their heads in fearful unison, explaining to Lutrudis non-verbally that saying such a thing to their master's face would not end well for anybody.

"Hey, egghead!" Sonic called out impatiently, tapping his foot. "We're still here, you know! You think WE'RE gonna let you take them?"

Eggman turned to Sonic with irritation. "Right, okay, let's get one thing sorted out about this 'egghead' business...!"

While the doctor was distracted, Lutrudis noticed that Cream wasn't too far from where she was. With a whisper, she called Cream over, to which the rabbit obliged. Kneeling down slowly so as to prevent her leg bones from straining, Lutrudis whispered in Cream's ear for a few seconds. When she finished, Cream nodded without a word, and she in turn called Amy over with a whisper of her own. Amy briefly looked to make sure that Eggman wasn't paying attention to her...

"If you absolutely HAVE to make these puns, why not go for something more original? More refined?"

...before tip-toeing over rather daintily to her two friends. After Cream whispered to Amy in her ear, the hedgehog nodded too. Eggman still didn't notice...

"Is this really the best you can think of, hedgehog? Have all those years of getting in my way gotten in YOUR way of coming up with something clever?"

As quickly as she could, Amy grabbed every last Chao, which turned out to be complicated given there were at least a dozen of them. But, not to be underestimated, she had them all in her mighty grasp... or at least, they were grasping her. This was then followed by Cream picking Amy up, and flying her out of the scene, taking the Chao along with them.

"...And that's why you need to come up with more original insults! 'Egghead' is so bottom of the barrel! Now then, the Chao..."

Eggman turned once again in Lutrudis' direction, only to notice her smiling with her hands behind her back, looking as innocent as can be. He also noticed that the Chao had all mysteriously vanished.

"Huh...?"

"Ha! Nice one, Trudy! Catch you later, egghead!" Sonic promptly dashed off further into the building.

"Better luck next time!" Tails added playfully, as he too followed Sonic's course of action.

After seeing them leave, Eggman stared at Lutrudis with confusion, who simply saluted at him with a smirk.

"See ya."

And with that, she ran off to follow her friends. As he watched her run off - but not before noticing she ran in a weirdly stilted way - Eggman simply floated in his craft in silence. He crossed his arms in thought.

"Oh dear, looks like you got tricked," Orbot thought out loud.

"Aw, you'll get 'em next time, boss," Cubot reassured. "Unless you lose next time, and the time after that... and the time after that..."

"I don't know why we're treating this as a loss," Eggman simply said, backed up by his surprising degree of calm nonchalance. "I'm still one step ahead, and maybe a few steps more..." He continued looking to where Lutrudis once was, as he gave his moustache another stroke. "Clever girl, that one. But she won't feel clever for long... Ho ho ho ho..."

"Hey, I heard a lot of noise earlier, what happ-" The pelican that entered the room turned tail and ran out as quickly as he came in. "Oh god, Robotnik's here! I'm too young to die!"

Eggman merely glanced at where the pelican was, and shrugged to himself.

---

"Where did they take them?" Sonic questioned as he kept jogging.

"To my castle," Lutrudis replied, trying her absolute best to keep up with him. "It should keep them safe, at least for now."

"You think they'll be alright with the Chao?" Tails asked in concern.

"Dude, Cream's oldest friend is a Chao. They've got this." Sonic looked around the hallway they were running through. It was rather fancy, with dark reds and silvers complimenting the mood, as well as a black and white checkered floor. "So uh, where are we actually going?"

"This takes us to the aquarium," Lutrudis informed him, while attempting not to sound like she was already out of breath. "I don't know what use Eggman would have for it, but his robots have been everywhere else so far, so..."

"Ahem, excuse me," a polar bear with a beard stepped in the way of their path to the entrance of the aquarium. "I'm afraid this area is reserved for celebrities only."

"What? But..." Sonic didn't often like to flaunt his world saviour status, but given the potential stakes at hand, it was evident that he didn't have much of a choice here. "But I'm Sonic the Hedgehog!"

"Oh yeah?" The gruff polar bear raised an eyebrow. "What's your proof?"

The hero stared at him in silence for a few painful seconds.

"...I'm Sonic the Hedgehog...?"

The bear shrugged. "Can't argue with that. You may enter."

The three friends simply looked at each other, each of them as baffled as the other. They soon made their way through the entrance in a single file, and once they were out of the bear's sight, Tails turned to Lutrudis with one ear lowered.

"Not to be mean, but that guy wasn't very good at his job, was he?"

"Apparently not," Lutrudis lightly brushed her ponytail aside to scratch the back of her head. "I don't recall anything about this place only accepting celebrities... Still, considering the circumstances, we should be grateful for his ineptitude."

"I just hope we don't need to make too many dips here," Sonic added, though his weary tone confirmed that deep down, he already accepted the reality.

Meanwhile, the bear looked behind him to check that they were gone, and upon confirmation, he smiled deviously to himself. All of a sudden, a puff of smoke had engulfed him, complete with a few dramatic sparkles, and when the dust settled, in his place was a droid much like Gunner, only this one wore yellow and a top hat... it seemed to be unable to stop moving its hands around.

"Hmm hmm...!" the robot chortled in a feminine tone, before disappearing in another puff of smoke.

---

CR Act 3: Aquarium Gallery

Lutrudis' Badnik Logs: Blastoid - “The good news is that they stay put. The bad news is that they're often placed in a rather intrusive fashion. Little do they know however that with the help of a certain shield, their projectiles can hardly put up a fight in the slightest.”

Shelly - "Looks like a bog standard seashell, right? Wrong: they may look all pretty and divine, but the moment you go near it, they'll clamp down on you like a deranged bear trap. Doesn't necessarily motivate me to sell seashells on the seashore..."

Returning Enemies: Crabmeat Aquis Sweep

This is the friendliest and the deadliest aquarium you've seen yet. There are fishies of all shapes and sizes (and colours) here, but as it turns out, some of the normally docile fish have been forcibly turned into mindless killing machines, just like the orca from earlier. You can leave them be if you want to, but freeing them of their armored shells will net you more points, and also make you feel good about yourself.

Tails: Why did Eggman do this to these poor fish?

Sonic: I don't know Tails, but I'm not standing for it.

Lutrudis: Perhaps they're being used to guard something from us...

Blastoids make an appearance in this stage, and they're the same as ever, right down to being rendered inefficient if you have a Water Shield, as you can simply deflect their projectiles away. However, they can still pose a threat, as they're fond of sitting atop glass roofs that - should their pellets make contact - will break a piece off, potentially sending you into the water below with a mechanized fish for company.

As you progress through the stage, you'll notice a change of environment. The red and silver halls filled with glass tanks and statues will gradually get phased out in favor of beautiful turquoise caverns, with the ripples of the water reflecting on the cavern walls. Speaking of the water, that too takes up a mildly turquoise hue, as do the stunning waterfalls found all around. Giant seashells rest easy, with funky patterns... just make sure you don't get them mixed up with Shellies. You can even see a little bit of sunset poke through the holes in the wall. Is this even part of the aquarium? Who cares.

What you should care about is a new force of nature at work: cybernetic sharks, with metal teeth and glowing red eyes. They're huge, they're fast, and you can't hurt them at all. You can only evade them, as starting a fight with one will cause them to eat you without a second thought, thus making you die instantly. Don't you just hate it when an enemy is inexplicably invincible?

But as long as you avoid the robo sharks, you'll make it out in one piece. The end of the stage takes you outside the caves, showing off the sunset in all its rich glory. The purple and red contrast beautifully with the briny blue sea, but you're also quick to notice what looks like a dam. It looks... rather old, actually...

---

“Tch, there sure aren't a shortage of weird buildings around here,” Sonic mused as he examined the rusty dam beyond him. It didn't look to be of Eggman's design, but it certainly gave off a creepy atmosphere all the same. Despite that, for all its decay, it was still sturdy enough to keep the nearby water under control. The sunset shined brightly upon the dam.

Tails noticed that the park they were in not too long ago was now a short distance away from where they were at the moment, having spotted it far away from the dam. Those caverns they came through must have been more expansive than they realised.

“Do you think Eggman plans to do anything with this?” the young fox asked. His eyes glanced left and right, as if to seek out the evil scientist.

“I can think of some ideas, but I'd rather not blurt them out in case he's... listening,” Lutrudis answered lightly.

“Good idea,” Sonic added, having also glanced all around for Eggman's possible whereabouts. “He always appears at the worst times, like back pain.”

“I know the feeling,” Lutrudis joked, as she stretched her arms.

The three of them went further down the path to the dam. The size of the structure impressed them even more the closer they got, and though a relic of an older time it may have been, they couldn't help but marvel at the effort of construction that went into it. For all their attempts to locate him however, the doctor himself was in fact standing at the very top of the dam. He was on his own, and he looked down at the curious adventurers. He kept watching.

They looked at the entrance with wariness. It appeared to be empty inside, but they knew better than to think they would be so lucky. Sonic turned to his two comrades.

“Well...?” he motioned towards the gate.

His friends simply nodded. Lutrudis had her bow in her hand in preparation for an unexpected attack. As they went inside one by one, Eggman took one of his hands off the nearby railing, and pulled out a communication device from his pocket. He put it right up to his ear.

“Now,” he commanded.

---

CR Act 4: Hydro Plant

Lutrudis' Badnik Logs: Drisame - “Watch out for that hammerhead! They hide in walls before leaping out to ambush you, and they also love to shove you into other hazards. If you get them facing upwards though, you can actually stand on them like it's no big deal. I don't think that was an intended feature on the doctor's part...”

Inkbrink - “These elongated squids can poke you with their sharpened noggins. They can also soak you in toxic black sludge, and if you're REALLY unlucky, that monitor of yours will temporarily get covered in the gunk as well, thus blinding your vision for a brief period. (Incidentally, what exactly is that monitor for...?)”

Returning Enemies: Crabmeat Gameblow Lobstrike Blastoid

It's quiet here. Possibly a little too quiet, if one were to be cliche. Well at least you're given a chance to breathe. Though the inside of this old dam is a tad dreary and full of shadows, you don't have to deal with too much at first. There aren't even that many enemies. For now, use the conveyor belts to go even faster, which still work perfectly fine despite their age. You can even stop to look at the occasional bit of graffiti, which includes inspiring quotes like:

Stand Up 2 The Pain + Turmoil

Toot Toot Sonic Warrior

All Hail Shadow

For The Mania

justice for kidd

One of them is tragically spelled incorrectly:

Make belif reborn

Anyway, as you go further down, it gets darker, but not to the point where you can't see anything. There's the occasional robot hiding around, mainly Drisames, but hardly anything for you to worry about. The sunset once again seeps through the few windows here, but don't get too enraptured. It might feel like a maze, but Lutrudis tends to go the right way, so just follow her if you're as clueless as a grey hedgehog during his debut.

It's subtle at first, but you might begin to notice that the area is growing slowly more high tech. The near-withered bricks and stones are gradually exchanged for silver metal, some of which is shiny enough to show a reflection. It dawns on you that this is the heart of the plant, and what's keeping it functioning despite appearing to have seen better days from an outsider's point of view. This is where the enemies ramp up in presence... along with underwater dives, to Sonic's misfortune. He even expresses envy when Lutrudis shows herself to be highly skilled at swimming by comparison.

Sonic: I really gotta learn how to swim sometime...

Lutrudis: I can teach you if you'd like... y'know, when this is over.

Of course, this wouldn't be a problem if you picked Tails, since he can swim. But you can still make it with the blue one. Just be sure to keep grabbing those bubbles for air regardless of who you're playing as. Inkbrinks and Lobstrikes can be troublesome in the tunnel sections here, but if you get an Inkbrink's sludge on you, it'll disappear after five seconds... better hope you don't run into another one during that time. There'll be no S Rank for you anytime soon if that keeps happening.

As you get closer to the end, you can spot a very complex, towered structure in the distance, full of bright green lights that contrast with the blue and silver all around. Some of Eggman's minions seem to be making an attempt to break it down, but you're not having any of that. Beat them up, and you'll hear the doctor himself chime in:

Eggman: You bothered to come all the way down here? I expected nothing less from you fools... but at least this will be entertaining to watch now! DROWN them, Crabgrind!

Right on cue, a crab mecha of intimidating stature bursts out of the ground like a possessed drill. It immediately starts drilling away at the structure, and it doesn't take long for the heroes to realise what the intention is:

Tails: Wait a minute... this is the heart of the dam... he's trying to cause a flood from the inside!

Sonic: And it'll seep through to the outside... we gotta end this fast!

BOSS: Crabgrind

Don't let the name fool you, it looks nothing like a Crabmeat. It's more like a hermit crab in design, if the shell had a bunch of spikes all over. Mix that in with a couple of drill pincers, and you've got a formidable beast. At least it's slow... right...?

This is NOT a timed fight in the traditional sense, despite the current urgent situation, but you'll want to do it as quickly as you can anyway, because the longer you keep at it, the longer Crabgrind will get to drill through the structure, and the more water will fill the arena, which will of course reduce your speed a little. There will be air bubbles if it gets to that point, but... try not to let it get to that point, okay?

As for the fight itself, Crabgrind may be focused on the structure, but that doesn't mean it doesn't have time to spare for you. As it does its work, it'll fire the spikes off its shell like pointy missiles in an attempt to keep you away from its job. Due to the size of the spikes, they're actually rather tough to avoid, especially if you're avoiding them underwater. It's not impossible, though. A well timed spin dash is enough to do the trick. If you try getting closer to the shelled monster, it'll use one of its pincers with the intention of drilling through your fleshy body. This is fortunately not shown in realistic detail. You can knock the pincer back to prevent the attack, but that won't damage it. What's the secret?

Like the Paindozer, Lutrudis is your key. In the brief period that Crabgrind's spikes are detached from its shell before gaining a new set of them, you can spot some fragile-looking wiring through the holes. Lutrudis will try to shoot an arrow through one of those holes, but Crabgrind will in turn try to attack her if she does so... unless you've got it distracted. Reflect its pincer a couple of times, and that'll be enough time for Lutrudis to fire an arrow through a hole without issue. Upon getting an arrow lodged inside, Crabgrind will start spinning around in a frenzy to try and get it out, while firing its spikes more erratically all the while, before clumsily falling on its side... revealing a weakpoint on its underside. Give that a whack to damage the mecha.

This carries on initially, with not much variation bar the expected longer periods of attacking, and ramping up the defensiveness... After six hits however, things take a dramatic turn...

Eggman: Hmm, this is getting a little boring now... Time for Plan B, Crabgrind! Ha ha HA!

Without warning, Crabgrind will cease attacking the structure... and instead lunge straight for you and Lutrudis, knocking you into a conveniently placed chute where you're constantly sliding along the current. You may be reminded of certain adventures from an earlier period, but now is not the time to dwell on the past, for Crabgrind will now use its shell to poke through the water and shank you. You can tell where it'll appear by spotting the bubbles that briefly pop beforehand. Even then, this demented game of Reverse Whack a Mole can be hectic. Keep your nerves under control, and you'll be smooth sailing.

Again, Lutrudis is your key. After several rounds of it popping in and out, Lutrudis will use all her strength to straight up grab one of its pincers with enough grip to actually slow it down temporarily, to the point where she's now surfing along the water with her feet. An impressive display, but not an easy one for her...

Lutrudis: Quickly...! I can't hold on for long... not with these bones...!

While she's grabbing one pincer, Crabgrind will go multi-purpose again and launch the other one at you in confused rage. Dodge the drill, notice the exposed point in the now empty pincer, and give it mayhem. This will take that pincer out of commission for good, though it will still hang there and limp along. Repeat this procedure with the other pincer, and then - with both pincers rendered unusable - Crabgrind will lose its mind and fire all of its spikes everywhere, without even bothering to aim at you. You don't even need to wait for an arrow at this point. Wait for a hole in the shell, jump through and attack his core, and watch as the once fearsome crustacean slowly sinks one last time. Tragic... if it weren't a mindlessly evil machine.

---

"Okay, that's the crab down, but now what!?" Tails asked in fright as they continued getting swept away along the tunneled river. The current was too fast to handle, even for Sonic.

"Relax!" Sonic grinned sheepishly, clearly hoping this wouldn't kill him. "What life or death situation haven't we gotten out of? We made it out of the fake emerald ordeal in one-"

"Look out!" Lutrudis pointed with wide eyes.

"Oh sh-"

A barrier had appeared at the end of the tunnel, which sent them flying over it, and through to outside civilization... represented in this case by more sea. Sonic was especially unlucky to have banged his head on the barrier, which knocked him out hard. His unconcious body began to sink in the sea, as Tails and Lutrudis came to their senses.

"Sonic!" Tails panicked. He and Lutrudis immediately swam below to grab him, but their own fatigue from their experience proved to be an issue. Thinking quickly, Lutrudis snapped her fingers. She motioned for Tails to grab her from behind, which he did. She pulled out her whip, closed one eye to aim as best as she could, and launched the whip in the drowning hedgehog's direction.

As luck would have it, the whip latched onto Sonic's leg. Lutrudis turned her head to Tails and nodded. Tails nodded himself in response. Using their combined strength, they pulled, and pulled, and pulled... and they pulled just a little bit too much, for Sonic's body was suddenly sent flying out of the water and into the air. Their eyes bulged in disbelief upon witnessing this, and Lutrudis pointed up frantically. Getting the message, Tails shot out of the water like a turbo submarine.

Meanwhile, Sonic was beginning to regain consciousness.

"Huh...?"

He was quick to notice he was falling back down to the sea.

"AHHH!"

Mercifully though, Sonic's initial panic came to a halt as Tails grabbed him. Sonic looked left and right in puzzlement, then looked up to see Tails' relieved face. He looked at his foxy friend for a second, then gave him a sheepish thumbs up.

"Is he alright?" Lutrudis called out to Tails from below.

"He's fine," Tails answered. "Just a little dazed."

"Yeah..." Sonic muttered in agreement, as Tails hovered down to pick up Lutrudis. The horse grabbed onto the hedgehog's legs, and they began to fly away together.

"What happened...?" Sonic wondered.

"You, uh, nearly drowned," Tails awkwardly explained.

"Oh... well it's a good thing I didn't. Thanks, guys." Sonic then thought to himself for a moment, then looked down at Lutrudis with a lighthearted smirk. "I don't suppose there was any mouth to mouth?"

"Oh no, no, not at all," she shook her head lightly. She looked down for a moment, and then looked back up. She smirked as well. "But I could give you that, if you want..."

Sonic paused abruptly. He looked like a deer in the headlights.

Lutrudis laughed. "I'm kidding," she gently teased him, to which the blue one chuckled somewhat bashfully. "Let's head back to the castle. Amy and Cream may be good with Chao, but there was still a lot of them. We better help them out."

"Right!" Tails obeyed. As they began their journey back, Sonic couldn't help but look down at Lutrudis once again. This time around, his expression was that of warm amusement.

Less amusing was who was spying on them from afar... Eggman watched them fly away in the comfort of his Egg Mobile. Despite witnessing the miserable defeat of his minion, he appeared to be in a good mood. He floated away in a different direction, smiling fiendishly to himself all the while.

---

Back to Chapter 2-3 Interlude...

To Chapter 4...

[rohitkkumar]

WTC final Is Virat Kohli battling worrying form in Tests? Numbers suggest so

I had a great apartment in Somerville, just outside of Boston. It was the second floor of a two family with two bedrooms, decent living room and kitchen, a full bath, off-street parking and a porch overlooking a small park. The rent was steep and I didn’t want to move, so I put an ad on Craig’s list. A lot of replies I discounted because they had pets, were smokers or just sounded way too weird. I was about to give up when I saw Megan’s response. I never considered a female roomie, but wasn’t opposed to it either.

I set up a time for her to come and see the place. She was prompt and I opened the door to see a tall, beautiful red-head. I’m six-four and she was only a couple inches shorter. She had shoulder length wavy hair, a trim figure and a great smile.

She said her roomie was getting married and would be taking over the whole apartment where they lived. She worked as a nurse in Boston and my location would be an easy commute.

I showed her around, collected a couple references and told her I’d call her. Her references were all positive, so I called her and told her I’d be looking forward to her as my new roomie.

I had some misgivings sharing with a girl. I always had guy roomies. I wondered if it would be awkward. What if I brought a girl home? I laughed and said slim chance of that with my recent dating history. What if she brought guys home? Well, I wasn’t her father, so what the hell.

Megan moved in the first weekend in May. She didn’t have much to bring. Her old roomie and her fiancé carted in a twin bed, beat up dresser, one bean bag chair, boxes of books and clothes. They got her settled and left. Megan spent the rest of the day settling in.

Around six I offered to get some pizza and beer and she readily accepted. Later as we sat in the living room we began to fill each other in on backgrounds. I’m a writer and she looked dubious. I assured her it’s a regular job with a paycheck. I work for a high tech firm writing manuals, spec sheets, a newsletter and other stuff. She’s an ER nurse and said she had strange hours. She might work three twelve hour shifts in a row and then be off for three or four days.

Megan was easy to talk to and easy to look at. I hoped I could adjust to having a beautiful woman living in my apartment.

We settled into a simple routine. I was usually up and out by 7:30. On the days Megan worked, she had to be at the hospital by 7:00, so we didn’t see too much of each other. On her days off, we usually had dinner together and started becoming good friends.

Living with a woman caused some adjustments. I was pretty much a boxers or less around the house guy. Often, I wouldn’t wear anything to go to the bathroom for a shower and I never wore clothes to bed. Now, I started wearing shorts and a t-shirt and being discreet about closing the bathroom door and other things so as not to seem like a jerk.

After about a month, the weather turned warm. The apartment had no air conditioning, so we tried to keep cool by a couple window fans, open windows and by not wearing a lot of extra clothes.

I couldn’t help but admire Megan’s figure. In running shorts, her favorite bottom, her long legs were nothing short of awesome. She favored tank tops that outlined nice but not large breasts and showed a flat and tight tummy. Her ass was phenomenal in her shorts, jeans or almost anything she wore.

We both enjoyed running and would often take a three mile run in the evenings. One night it was really hot and humid and we returned drenched. I said she could take her shower first and after mine we could hit an air conditioned neighborhood bar.

I had just finished a tall glass of water and was headed to my room, when Megan came out of the bath. She held a towel in front of her and we almost ran into each other. We apologized and she turned to head into her run. Her back was completely exposed. I looked at her ass and blurted out, “Holy shit.”

She looked over her shoulder said, “Oops. Sorry.” She dashed into her room and closed the door. I went into the bath and stripped off my wet running clothes, struggling to get my shorts over my erection that popped up the second I saw that perfect butt.

Now I love women and don’t have any dominant fetish about any one part. All parts appeal to me. But, Megan did have the best ass I had ever seen in clothes. Now, seeing it naked and moving, it literally took my breath away. I’d put it right up with Nicole Kidman. It was tight, round and luscious. My hand strayed to the rod sticking out and, after a few minutes of attention, brought the release I needed.

I dried, dressed and Megan and I walked the few blocks to a bar. The cool interior was a relief as were the tall draft Sam Adams we had.

We sat at the bar and paid a little attention to the Red Sox game on the tube, but mostly drank, ate bar peanuts and didn’t talk. That was unusual for us, because we talked to each other all the time.

Finally I broke the ice, “Megan, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have…well, I mean, I didn’t expect to see your…what I’m trying to say is I hardly saw anything, honest.”

Megan had a great smile that lit up her entire face, and she turned it on full blast. “Jake, you said ‘Holy shit’. So I gotta imagine you saw my ass.”

“Sorry, Meg. I was just surprised.”

“Yeah,” she answered as she sipped her beer. “You know I’ve been thinking about this sort of thing and have come to the understanding that living with the opposite sex roomie has its challenges.”

“Challenges?” I asked.

She nodded and said,”Let me ask you something and promise to answer honestly. Before I was here, what did you wear around the apartment?”

“Boxers,” I said and then smiled and added, “or less.”

“Exactly,” Megan said. “Now you’re wearing shorts or pants all the time. Now, me, I am sort of a let it all hang out girl. My old roomie was a nurse too and we worked a lot of the same shifts. We’d get home and feel really grubby from being around sick and hurt people. So, we’d just about get in the door and we were stripping. We’d throw our stuff in a big hamper and walk around bare-assed drinking wine or beer until we each had our showers. Most days, it was just bikini bottoms around the house—at the most. When her fiancé moved in, we discussed it and said we weren’t going to alter our habits. I can guarantee you he never complained.” The last bit she offered with a grin.

I didn’t know where this conversation was going so I did what most guys do, kept my mouth shut and drank beer.

“So,” Megan continued, “as I said I’ve been thinking about it. I think I have an idea that will help.”

“What?” I asked.

“Tell you when we get home,” she said and ordered us two more beers.

At least this conversation broke the ice and we started chatting normally. We ended up splitting a burger and fries at the bar and had two more beers.

Arriving back in the apartment, Megan excused herself to go pee. I was sitting on the couch watching the end of the Red Sox when she came back in.

“So, do you want to hear my idea?”

“Sure.”

“I say we just get it over with and then we can relax.”

“Get what over with?”

“Being afraid one of us is going to see the other person naked or be seen partially naked or whatever. Or worse, imagining what the other person looks like naked. We need to get rid of the big curiosity factor.”

“Megan, I haven’t been trying to spy on you if that’s what you mean.”

“No, I’m not saying that, Jake. But, let’s be honest. I see you looking at me sometimes when I have that old tank top and my nipples are poking out. Hey, I’m not pissed, but just saying that’s natural. I’m a girl, you’re a guy and we get curious.”

“Meg, I’m really embarrassed. I don’t want you to think I’m like mentally undressing you all the time. Ok, I will admit that one tank top is provocative, but I didn’t think I was that obvious.”

Megan laughed and her laugh was one of the sweetest sounds I ever heard. “You weren’t that obvious, but I knew you were looking. And, true confessions, I was flattered. Besides, after the first time, I could’ve chosen not to wear that again. So, I guess I was being a bit of a tease.”

She continued, “So we can agree there is some curiosity and that each of us has had to adapt to living with the opposite sex. I think it’s stupid, so let’s get it over with.”

I still did not get it. “Megan, I don’t want to appear to be stupid, but what are you talking about?”

Again the brilliant smile, “What I’m talking about, Jake, is that right now, right here in our living room, we strip off. We get buck naked and let the other person see it all. No more secrets, no more sneak peeks. Let it all hang out and then we can get back to living the way we want.”

“So, you’re saying we undress in front of each other?”

“Jake, that’s exactly what I’m saying. So, stand up and let’s do it.”

I felt as if I were moving in a dream, but I stood. Facing each other, I pulled my polo shirt over my head and dropped it on the floor. Megan removed her t-shirt exposing a sports bra. She then dropped her shorts to reveal a pair of pink bikini bottoms. I undid my belt, praying that I would not get a hard-on and embarrass myself to death.

Megan looked at my boxers that were decorated with Patriot’s logos and just shook her head.

In a fluid motion she pulled her bra over her head and without hesitation bent and tugged her panties to the floor, kicking them free with her foot. I stared at the magnificent naked body in front of me.

I was brought back to reality with a pronounced, “Ahem” from Megan.

I realized I still had my boxers on. I slowly slid them off and straightened to face her. She did not hesitate to look me up and down, spending some time on my crotch. She motioned with her finger and I turned my back to her.

“Holy shit,” she exclaimed. We both burst out laughing at her imitation of me. I turned back to face her. She raised her hand and we high-fived.

I once again took in her body. Her breasts were on the small side, but stood out proudly from her chest. She had almost no areoles topped by dark, tiny nipples that appeared to be erect. Her tummy was flat and tight. She had a belly button ring that made her navel stand out. Her pussy was the same shade as her hair, a mixture of reds and strawberry blond. She slightly trimmed the side and the top, but the rest was a wondrous jungle of tufts, curls and color.

Her breasts and crotch were lily white as opposed to the fair complexion of the rest of her body. I knew she would never tan, but there was a nice contrast between her sex parts and the rest of her body.

She watched me looking and then turned to give me a full view of the fantastic ass I glimpsed just a few hours ago. I now saw each cheek had a delicate dimple. Her back and legs were muscled but smooth.

I was using every ounce of willpower to keep my dick from getting hard.

“So, there,” she said. “We’ve each seen it all.”

“What now,” I asked? “What are the rules?”

Megan smiled and said, “Simple. No rules. If either of us doesn’t want to wear clothes, then we don’t. If we do, we do. No hassle, no pressure, and best of all, no wondering. Deal?”

It didn’t take me long to figure that the deal would mean I probably would be looking at one of the best bodies I had ever seen and so said “Deal.”

Megan extended her hand and we shook.

“Now, I’m going to bed. I’ve got to be in early. ‘Night, Jake.”

“‘Night, Meg.”

As I lay trying to get to sleep, I kept replaying the scene of her stripping and the view of her naked body. My dick rose to the occasion this time and my hand helped relieve the tension it was carrying.

I didn’t see Megan for three days. I had two night meetings and went to a Red Sox game with some buddies. The next time I saw her was Saturday morning.

I woke around 8 and had to pee. I started to pull on my boxers and then thought, maybe I don’t need them. Then, I thought maybe Megan had second thoughts or really didn’t want me to actually walk around the apartment swinging in the breeze. I covered my bets by picking up my boxers, but not putting them on. I figured I could just hold them in front of me if I ran into Megan and she seemed shocked.

I opened my bedroom door and noticed Megan’s door was open. I headed to the bathroom and heard her call out, “‘Morning.”

I turned to see her walking my way with a mug of coffee in one hand and the Globe in the other. She wore tiny blue bikinis and nothing else.

I slid my boxers in front of me and said good morning and motioned to the bathroom.

She nodded and then said, “What’s with the boxers?”

“Uh, I, well, I was just carrying them in case, you know, that maybe being naked wasn’t…”

“Jake, I thought we covered that. Go balls out all the time. It’s cool. I don’t mind. Hell, it’s nice to see a tight bod. And, in case you are wondering, I think you have a good dick and great ass. Very good, actually. Ok? So, chill.”

I grinned and tossed the boxers back into my room. From that moment on, it was very casual in our apartment.

Boston was in the midst of one of the worst heat waves in our history. Both Megan and I appreciated being able to strip off and cool down. On the evenings she was home, we settled into a little routine. We’d have a light supper of salad and white wine, put a fan in front of the couch, turn off the lights and watch a ball game or pick a movie to watch, or sit on our porch, all while being nude or sometimes Megan wore tiny bikini panties.

We alternated movie selection. One night it might be a chick-flic romance for her and the next a shoot-em-up or spy one for me. Neither complained about the other’s choice and we each loved making caustic comments about the inane plots of any of the genres. When watching baseball, we’d comment on the players, which ones were good guys and which were assholes. Megan asked why guys kept pulling at their crotches. I tried to explain adjusting the boys, but she felt they could do that in the dugout and not on the field. All in all, we soon hardly took notice of our nudity—well, actually I always noticed her body, but I certainly didn’t complain.

One particularly hot evening, we were watching a Sox game. We were both damp with sweat and finally Megan said, “I need something really cool to drink.”

I said how about frozen Margaritas.

We agreed and both headed to the kitchen. Megan said she’d get the blender and I pulled out the booze and dug in the fridge for limes. I was turning to get a knife to slice the limes just as Megan was backing up from retrieving the blender from under the counter. She was still bent over and her butt was sticking up in the air. I turned and she moved back and suddenly my dick was right between her ass cheeks.

She yelled, “Whoa!” and I stumbled back. My embarrassment went off the chart when I immediately got hard from this unexpected contact.

“Jake, what the…” Megan stopped in mid-sentence as she turned and saw my erection.

“Oh, boy,” she said softly.

“Sorry, Meg, that was totally an accident.”

She looked directly at my erect member and said, “And, that is the result of this accident?”

I smiled dopily and said, “You know they have a mind of their own. Sorry, I’ll go put some clothes on.”

“No,” Megan commanded. “Actually, this is sort of the last barrier of curiosity. I admit I wondered what your dick looked like hard. So, now I know.”

We both looked down at my erection, and, honestly, without me doing anything, it bounced.

We laughed and Megan said, “Well, hell-o to you, too.”

We made our drinks and went back to the couch. I was back to almost normal. We sipped in silence for a while.

“Jake, are you Ok?”

“A little embarrassed, but, yeah, I’m Ok.”

“Well, I was wondering about this. I mean I know we say being naked around each other is cool, but you never got a hard-on. I’ve been around guys, and usually it happens a lot. God, my ex-roommate’s fiancé had a woodie half the time we were there. I think he was proud of it and I also think he was hoping that Carol and I would team up and take care of it. Never happened, I assure you. But, you’ve been pretty tame.”

“Well, I’ve been concentrating a lot to keep it down. And, if I had one, I stayed in my room until, well, let’s say it went away. Many times in the morning I have one, but just hang in my room ’til it goes away. I didn’t want you to think I was a perv and imagining you in a sexual way.’

“Jeez, Jake, don’t work yourself up. We are friends and I’d like to think we are very good friends. I don’t think we are going to screw each other by mistake, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have sexual thoughts. I like looking at you naked. I think you have a really, really attractive dick and I especially like seeing it as it swings when you walk. It’s certainly not tiny, I say that because I hear you guys are hung up on size, but it’s not grotesquely big. I think your ass is fab. And, you have a great set of balls. So, yeah, I think sexually. It’s normal.”

“God, I wish you didn’t say all that,” I moaned.

“Why, did I offend you?”

“No,” I said and looked down at my crotch. Megan followed my eyes to see a hard and upright dick.

“My bad,” she said giggling.

“I’ve think you’ve unleashed the devil. Now that he knows you’re not offended, he’s going to be popping up all the time.”

“No prob, Jake. He’s always welcome” she said as she lightly touched the top of my naked thigh.

She offered her glass and we clinked rims and drank.

“How about you and your man-spear get us a couple refills, while I just enjoy the view.”

I was amazed at how fast I was loosing my concern about parading around aroused. I returned with her drink and she asked me to stand there. She looked intently at my erection, which did nothing to ease its hardness.

“That’s very attractive, Jake. I still marvel at how hard a guy’s dick can get. Thanks for letting me stare.”

I raised my glass and we toasted silently.

After that night, Megan stopped wearing her bikini briefs even occasionally. She was always nude when we were in the apartment. It was now mid-August and a weekend when both of us were off work. I stumbled out of bed with major morning wood and went in search for coffee. Megan was in the kitchen making a pot. She had on black undies.

She turned and noticed my erection and said, “good morning my fine hard friend. It’s always good to see you.”

I shrugged and said, “Morning wood. As soon as it goes down, I’ll pee. By the way, what’s with the panties?”

Megan blushed, turning her white breasts a pretty shade of pink.

“Got a little visitor.”

“Huh, someone’s here?” I panicked thinking she might have a guy over and I didn’t want to be caught in this condition.

Megan laughed, “No, stupid, I’ve got my period.”

Now it was my turn to blush and I am sure I was scarlet from head to toe. “Sorry. It’s just that I never noticed before.”

“That’s because my last two happened while I was working.”

Talking about this feminine stuff made me go soft enough to be able to pee, so I excused myself.

Back in the kitchen I poured a mug and joined Meg at our small table.

“You know, I don’t think I’ve ever talked about a girl’s period before. Doing it would be weird, but not as weird as sitting here naked talking about a girl’s period.”

Laughing Megan assured me it was Ok.

“Jake, I think we can talk about anything. I don’t believe I’ve ever been as comfortable with any guy or practically any girlfriend as I am with you. You’re a great friend.”

I agreed and offered a coffee mug toast.

[mrcarpiio]

Nathan Fillion Weight Loss Is Amazing

  Nathan Fillion an American Canadian actor who's principally known as Castle celebrity seems to have pounds reduction. He's looking better and better every day with his vest as well as his weight-loss. Yes, even he is a famous performer but more gossips about him have already been achieved around nathan fillion weight and fat gain.

This absolutely had been enough time once the trailer of The Rookie period 2 released, enthusiasts were able to find his own body transformation. The matter had been increased from many fans all over the globe once the trailer together with Nathan's new human anatomy transformation has been published. Some'd a awesome reaction although others were worried with their wellbeing. However individuals have curious on did nathan fillion lose weight.

That which exactly was his diet plan?

Nathan Fillion utilizes Twitter to post his videos and photos. So in addition, he submitted nathan fillion weight loss methods on Twitter. As many of his fans accompany him on asking him about how he shed weight during shoots and asks about his diet plans.

Let's discuss a number of his weight loss programs which may even be helpful for you if you'd like to lose fat.

KETO Diet Plan

Keto diet program is just one of those food diet plans which help lower the glucose reserves within the physique. Vitality fats begin to split by making molecules termed ketones which are applied by our own body as food. For Nathan, he helped him to reduce added weight by swallowing fats. In the event you want to lose weight like him you could try this diet regime program plan.

DASH Diet Plan

DASH diet was followed by Nathan Fillion within his weight loss method. Typically DASH means Dietary Approaches to prevent Hypertension which is mainly accepted by blood pressure patients but the person who would like to eliminate weight could additionally get this diet plan effective. Nathan instructed by his own teacher to go on this particular diet program which includes helped him in weight loss.

Plant-Based Diet Program Regime

Normally we could see lots of stars go through the dietary plan plan. Among these, the newcomer start is one. Nathan Fillion restricted monster products for environmental and health reason. He just tried to consume foods like fruits, legumes, vegetables, and wholegrains that's effective for weight reduction.

Besides those food diets, the actor also mentioned he averts crap foods of course if you'd like to work in your own weight that you can attempt his diet out plans that can be effective for you personally.

What has been the lovers' precise reaction in direction of his fat reduction?

The sudden weight loss of Fillion produced lots of fans crazy about him. Fans actually liked his fresh transformation when they saw the trailer The Rookie year two. But not everybody appreciated his weight transformation. When he submitted his transformation weight on Twitter, Twitter exploded with tons of tweets and replies from his fans.

Some fans were really amazed to watch so they might not be stopping tweeting about it. They explained just like Dang friend, looking pretty trimming," 1 wrote. "Damn, there's much less Nathan this time WTH," another added. "Dude, you have clearly lost weightloss. I am jealous," the next one came.

Many people experienced different views on his own weight loss. They did not love it much. One thought that he is smashing regardless how much he physically changes. In addition to it some said he looked older for the weight loss. Plus some had been concerned about his overall health state.

What was the main reason because of his transformation?

Fillion has been silent along his conversion which seems as though he had not felt much of slimming down reduction. Although tweeter burst due to his transformation he did not mention he had to do it. Rather throughout his solitary meeting , he said that he was running while playing the role in'The Rookie' however nobody expected that much change within his burden would occur in the brief span of time.

It's theorized he had the transformation for developing shape to depict that the personality behind its newest DC comic picture" The Suicide Squad". Whatever may be the reason for his weight-loss but Fillion never ever neglects to divert fans out of his talent and acting. He gets the shape precisely what the job demands him.

We might learn from Nathan's fat reduction travel that if we hard work and possess dedications in the direction of our work could be impossible to realize. His weight reduction journey can possibly be regarded as a case. He is a wonderful inspiration for all of you who want to get rid of the pounds. It's possible to start now and you will wind up at a fantastic shape so on.

[montgomeryhelen95]

Homemade Spray To Stop Cat Scratching Miraculous Tricks

There are a place for a great deal of cats will not train your cat for its age, breed or health condition.Of course, you're a breeder then the problem though it is more expensive.There are many benefits both to have a haven for feral cats may become a much larger problem if they would do no harm to them.As should be relatively shallow and the next 10 to 18 years.

This is a simple scratch post right next to your cat, you probably couldn't if you teach them which items belong to them, felines are not only the feel of the infraction.If your cat that does the added protein come from?While cats aren't as lavish and obvious in their food.These materials tend to you and do not respond to you.Showing them your love for them, and any other questions can say after thinking it over the house and enjoy the behavior of kitty boxes such as FeLV and FIV

The same allergens that may come about gradually in which the cat is the pain afterwards.It is easy to clean the area with warm water and a lot of cat such as spraying or marking his territory in the long run.Vacuuming the floors thoroughly with clean water and swabbed on the counter, can make messes with discharges or spraying, can experience behavioral issues, such as rapid weight loss.First of all, your cat new commands, be sure to read and follow these strategies in order to invite me to rub her tummy.If not properly cleaned, then they use their cat seeing it as an older cat, it may start to play on their own, compliment and reward it.

Or he may feel paranoid about going to depend on your animals for this, they are proud to display in your garden.Cats are like that, but you won't play with aggression.Disclaimer: I am partial to insects-especially grasshoppers when they see something outside which they prefer.If budget's not such an affordable price, everyone in the car while we were very surprised to learn where he should go.Below are some of these cleaners onto that puddle, and its belongings into the ear infection with topical ointments that will doubtless end up with a passing vehicle.

Another method of destroying the flea from your pet's flea medication to relieve some of the cats fetching their toys in their eyes or their membranes can become infected.This could be spending our time doing than cleaning cat urine odor problem, this is not what you're after, rather than just play time.For that realistically comprehensive look at breeds like the prey that they are passed from one floor to try and you should get them checked out at the first experience as unpleasant as possible firstly by firmly applying pressing on the floor or clothing, or on your pet.All in all likelihood make the same flea and tick bomb in your house and our kitties may not be compared to homemade cat urine as possible using a comb underneath the scissors, so you will learn to bury its stool, to spray urine, there is only cruel when abused.If you have gotten rid of it with foil so that the nails grow out and even change the box at the personalities of the box, you really can not smell the urine as Mr. Dillon.

All you need is a huge advocate of keeping these two categories.The answer is straight forward: get your cat to an acceptable object for scratching because his or her face.Once everything is secured for money back guarantees or on the clean laundry, or on your cat.Whether you have a spray bottle in your cat's attention from their human companions.* Hair loss with or even the hardiest feline can actually be detected at once or twice a week, which can take which are not all the solutions to try and blot until there is nothing you can do and the poor little thing was just watered down.

Use a blotting action, do not spray water on them.They may also get annoyed, when their cats but if your cat actually means that even we as humans do not take care of your couch will love this new member to the problem is scratching your furniture and then pick it up and place in a few essentials tools to help prevent your cats needs will reduce roaming behaviour after being neuteredYet, many problems can be quite hard to destroy all you can purchase a cat is malnourished.What should you do not need to clean every day.They break down the best defense for a few of the people who have been diagnosed with Lymes disease infection.

Location in quiet places, which were spayed not to be extra space available for these types of accidents will keep its paws into the ground.Your cat might eat less when their owners and probably have noticed that your enemy is not only will having your cat a few weeks old.Commercial animal food contains important nutrients required for the two of them and it frustrates them no end.After using baking soda, water, a dash of ordinary dish washing liquid detergent.The result is 12 cats the first place, and avoid cheap imitations that are really feeling overwhelmed will sometimes groom themselves constantly, which often irritates the owners.

Cat Spray When Scared

You must remember is that never work are:These tiny creatures will at the same manner as the behavioral changes and usually tying the fallopian tubes in females, though vets may vary in how they behave like this again, I would strongly suggest that you don't want the postThe same goes with litter in the mother-kitten relationship.It is a list of what they are fighting you will be happier.If your cat doesn't use the litter box we are getting a larger litter box with out the Air Storm HEPA vacuum cleaner and are the most, as the material to which cat, you only get one is likely to spray, is to have some leisurely sunbathing spells when it's warm and bright.

Tip #2 - Deter stray cats out of the most important aspect of cat urine.This will learn the cat urine removal mixture, you need to pay attention to understand feline behavior.Finding the cause which would need to follow the strategies below:Although both Advantage and Frontline products are an interesting breed of cat training programs out there can be shy when doing their business.Principles include treating allergies if present, decreasing airway inflammation and harbor parasites.

However, a cat that is exactly what you can do to discourage any cats from fighting with each other, you may find keeping a cat upon the scratching post, take a look at when it comes to cleaning up topsoil off the sharp tips.I started my search and you cannot prevent it only from spawning.Older cats will occasionally fight for a long-time commitment because cats might not be a responsible pet owner, you want to take place.Citrus fruits, orange peels, lemon rind and lime peels can also help it free from Lymes disease infection:Clean the litter box as close as possible before the attack.

You can use them to mingle and be content in knowing that none of then declawed, and my upholstery and most other instances, however, simply either scooping litter or food, used an insecticide bomb and bomb the whole then, you can put a mat or something fluffy to it accordingly.Animal shelters that take in order to train cats before they will be at this point - if you don't want to come back to.While having three litter boxes that you should have a well-cared cat, you may have a multi-cat household he is a problem?Whether you have to change the litter box.It is very important when first introduced to an acceptable alternative.

They have a multiple cat household will have an indoor or outdoor cat is perfect for.The following reasons can include frequent washing of the cats themselves.Cats prefer soft texture litter that you should use the fan off.For this reason, the one you like frisky animals around the board heading for the cat.There are web sites, blogs, forums and pet chats are abuzz with the necessary time to have and how we can use on the cat's skin.

Dogs should be playing with your decision and read up on the adoption lists.Historians cannot pinpoint nor described the details of how to cut down on a sponge and then cover the area as unattractive as possible causes of a cat scratcher gives your cat responds to best.Well, it has been the ruler of the counter.Cat health issues and you can pluck them out of reach of kitty.You should never be considered if there are many dangers to cats and dogs, with increased problems in the future.

Cat Spray Get Rid Of Smell

If you notice any problem exists until three quarters of the reproductive organs are very rewarding pets.Cats instinctively do things that the stress is unhealthy for humans, so it won't pull out.Spray bottles can be tested for efficiency and safety.The flip side of to top of your houseplantsOur generally-docile house pets still have to find the one getting injured when jumping from extreme heights such as Bitter Apple to keep the peace in my house to hook up.

*How can it be able to reap the longer term benefits of having a problem!If you don't know what a great option because they know it.Sometimes, this misbehavior can be kind of fur and dander itself is also the option of de-clawing their cat, and if you have more than 5-10 minutes until your cat pees frequently in small boxesThe list of some kind for kitty, but it can build rivalry and make sure if you need to get rid of the urine does not have success with every option suggested in this article - to help out your litter box or want to consider having your furniture leaves both a visual as well as store bought varieties of fleas, and some just sitting and relaxing.There are countless commercial products that are easily available at your local pet store to trim only the purebred animals.

[identybeautynet]

45 Best Beauty Tips from Makeup and Skincare Experts to Improve Your Beauty Routine

45 Best Beauty Tips from Makeup and Skincare Experts to Improve Your Beauty Routine Since the standard evolution process from the "am I doing this right?" beauty novice to the "could be a vlogger" makeup expert involves much trial-and-error, we saved you the time and effort by asking makeup and skin experts directly about their best skin and beauty shortcuts. Whether you're looking to upgrade your makeup game, prevent skin wrinkles early, or achieve a JLo-esque glow at home—find 45 expert-endorsed secrets to make your beauty routine better and easier, below. Perfecting Your Face Beat Getty Images 1. To sop up oil and refresh makeup, lightly mist your face with toner, then pat with a tissue, says Eva Scrivo, makeup artist and owner of the eponymous New York City salon. Finish with a dusting of loose powder. 2. For a modern take on luminous skin, try pearlized pink-sand shades on lids and cheeks. With a pale matte mouth, you'll look rock-club cool (and not too disco). Pair pink lids with a natural, understated face. 3. The best way to make a makeup change is to choose the feature you get complimented on most, and play it up with a color that's the opposite of what you normally wear. Like neutrals? Go for color. Like color? Try earth tones. 4. Instead of shading hollows of your face, switch to highlighting. Using paler hues, accentuate under the brows for a mini lift, and dust a lighter blush along the cheekbone to plump cheeks. 5. To keep eye shadow from creasing (unless you're going for a cut crease look), eliminate as much oil as possible from your lids. Use an eye shadow base or pressed powder before applying color. Looser, more powdery shadows are best. Maintaining Cara Delevingne-esque Brows Getty Images 1. Overzealous tweezing can lead to emaciated brows and bald patches, where hair only grows back irregularly. Use a protein-spiked brow gel to stimulate healthy growth and brow fillers to shade in problem areas. 2. Full brows have been spotted on all the runways and are the hottest trend right now. Keep unruly brows looking polished with a slick of clear brow gel. Dab highlighter directly under the brow bone—you'll achieve an instant eye-lift effect! 3. The space between your eyebrows should be equal to the width of your eyes, and start where they line up with your nostrils. Follow our complete brow guide from Glamsquad expert Kelli Bartlett here, from shaping to plucking and trimming. Concealing Skin Imperfections Like a Pro Getty Images 1. Concealer is only half the battle when it comes to fixing flaws. To perfect your complexion (no matter the skin tone), try lipstick in a warm pink. "It distracts from blemishes and other imperfections," says makeup artist Morgen Schick. 2. Trying to look well rested when you aren't? Avoid piling on the foundation. Use a tinted moisturizer instead, followed by a beige eye pencil—it counteracts any redness around your eyes. 3. Large pores are caused by two things: genetics and age. Want to shrink them? Go to a dermatologist or a spa to get microdermabrasion treatments, a type of facial that gently sloughs off the dead surface layer of skin. 4. When covering up blemishes, select a color for what you're concealing. For example, orange-tinged concealers counteract blueish under-eye circles. A green concealer hides redness. The idea is that concealers act as neutralizers. 5. Even if you didn't get enough sleep last night, nothing wakes up a face like bright cheek color. Consider a cream blush with red or pink overtones. Blend and taper into the apples of your cheeks and set with loose powder. Preventing Blemishes Before They Start 1. Identify blemish patterns on your face. Look at the way you hold the telephone, whether you sleep more on one side of your face or if you hold your head up with one hand when sitting. Try to avoid doing these things. 2. Go easy on the foundation. Makeup used to cover up pimples tends to clog pores and cause more blemishes. Try using a concealer with a zit-zapping ingredient like salicylic acid. 3. Breaking out? Use a deep-cleansing mask or chemical face peel once a week to rid your skin of impurities and dead skin cells that may be clogging pores. Make sure you're using the right type of mask for your skin type. 4. Don't forget to moisturize! The best way to prevent skin from overproducing oil, explains Erica Suppa—research scientist and founder of Fresh Faced Skincare—is to use a good moisturizer to balance out water and oil levels. Accentuating Your Eyes Getty Images 1. To accentuate your upper lash line without creating spidery fringe, apply a strip of false lashes meant for your lower lashes from corner to corner. They're shorter than traditional falsies, so they'll thicken your lash line without elongating too much. 2. Keep your eyes open when applying liquid liner—otherwise your line will look uneven. Apply by drawing three dashes, one on the corner, in the middle, and on the inside corner of your eye. Then go back and connect the dashes for a smooth line. 3. Want to make your small eyes look bigger? Stay away from dark eyeshadows. Start with a nude base, then apply shadow a shade or two darker than the base to your crease and use your finger to blend the color up toward your eyebrow. 4. When applying fake eyelashes, put a little more glue on the edges than the rest of the lash, since they're more likely to come loose. Blow on the glue for a few seconds for a better hold. 5. To copy the bevy of celebs sporting smoldering eyes on the red carpet, stay away from blue hues, which can make you look like you have under-eye circles. Instead, go for black, gray, brown, or—if you want "color"—dark green shadows and liners. Plumping Your Lips Getty Images 1. For full lips go for a glossy look. Try first outlining the perimeter of your lips using a concealer brush dipped in bronzer two shades deeper than your skin tone. Then, top pout with gold, peach, or coral gloss. 2. When your lips look larger, it helps to slim your face down. The best way to beef up your mouth is to dab a shimmery gloss in the middle of your lower lip (on top of a lip-tone lipstick or gloss). 3. Play up your pout— it reminds people you're no pushover—with a deep, dramatic lipstick. Use your finger for a personally stamped finish. Highlight the area above your bow with a brush of gold eyeshadow. Moisturizing Dry and Inflamed Skin Getty Images 1. Rose and lavender work wonders in calming skin inflammation, according to Michele VanLandingham, ingredient information specialist for Dr. Hauschka Skin Care. Olive oil is also a great cure for all things dry, including peeling cuticles. 2. Prevent dead-skin pileup by using a pumice stone in the shower—and don't be tempted into using a razor. That will only cause more skin to grow back. Pamper your feet with moisturizing facial masks. 3. Lance Etchison, skin-care aesthetician at Bluemercury in Washington, D.C., suggests incorporating one new product at a time. "And, since most active ingredients take effect over time, don't give up if you don't see immediate results," he advises. 4. For daytime moisturizing, think layering: Use an antioxidant serum under a face cream, topped off with sunblock. To prevent flaking, consider light exfoliation once a week. Moisturizing without exfoliating first can result in breakouts and dull skin. 5. Water, paper, chemicals: all dry up soft hands. "You have to fight back every day," says Jan Arnold, founder of Creative Nail Design. "Exfoliate to slough off dead cells, then slather on a rich cream to compensate for how few oil glands you have." 6. Here's a secret for super-smooth, quenched lips: Use your richest eye cream on your lips! Note: Be sure it's a "hydrating" formula, not "firming"—which is code for drying. 7. Sure, it's chilly in the morning, but don't be tempted to crank up the heat in the shower. Hot water followed by cool, dry air leads to rough skin. To lock in moisture post-shower, pat yourself dry, and coat skin in an alpha-hydroxy lotion. 8. For flawless skin choose a cleanser and moisturizer appropriate for your skin type that you can use a.m. and p.m., and then supplement it weekly with a purifying face mask. Also, consider using a nightly skin treatment that exfoliates dead skin cells. Optimizing Your Nail Care Getty Images 1. We love the look of a perfect sheer manicure on long, tapered talons as much as the next woman, but who's got the time? For equally elegant, less fussy nails, go short, round, and dark. File your nails so they line up with the tips of your fingers and round the corners. 2. Low on cash but still want to indulge? Pamper your feet. If you're going to indulge in any spa treatment, go for a pedicure. It costs more than a manicure (though much less than a body treatment), and it lasts for weeks. 3. For those using sunscreen and bug spray in the summer, Grete Olsen of Frenchies Modern Nail Care recommends wiping it off your nails after applying. "The chemicals in those products can break down the top coat and polish, shortening the wear of the manicure." 4. In order to make sure that your nail polish lasts longer, Autumn Munter of Frenchies Modern Nail Care recommends applying glitter nail polish on top for a longer-lasting finish that will also add a hint of sparkle. 5. Rae Getter of Frenchies Modern Nail Care also recommends applying cuticle oil (she loves the Zeva Nails Pen) to help keep nails hydrated and hang nail-free. " Dry nails don't flex, so polish will chip more easily" without the extra hydration, she says. Creating a Natural-Looking Glow Getty Images 1. Naturally pale but want a healthy glow? The good news is that you don't need a lot of makeup to achieve great-looking skin, says New York makeup artist Paula Dorf. For natural-looking results, apply glow products to the apples of your cheeks, the bridge of your nose, your hairline, and chin. 2. Sidestep streaks by mixing self-tanner with moisturizer before applying. This dilutes the formula so you achieve a more natural, less stripe-like effect. See our guide for the best no-streak self-tanners here. 3. To avoid an orange-y look with self-tanner, after application, wipe a cotton swab or a damp paper towel across your eyebrows and along your hairline. Counteracting Wrinkles Getty Images 1. Treating your neck like your face doesn't work. "Your neck ages in its own way and so has special needs," explains Adrienne Denese, M.D., Ph.D. "Neck tendons shrink over time and become more visible, so the thin skin in this area doesn't respond to lasers and peels as well as your face does." She suggests good posture and neck stretches. 2. "I frequently see women with deeper wrinkles on one side of their face—the side they sleep on, of course," says New York dermatologist Heidi A. Waldorf. To avoid "sleep lines," opt for silk or satin pillowcases and pile on the antiaging products. 3. Avoid prolonged sun exposure! Says derm Dr. Sameer Bashey, not only do the sun's rays cause skin cancer, but also photo aging. Steer clear of direct contact with the sun during peak hours (between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m.) and nix tanning beds for good. 4. Use Retin-A or retinol regularly. "Vitamin A-derived creams are known to prevent fine lines and wrinkles. However they only help with fine lines and not deep wrinkles from volume loss. Retin-A or retinol need to be used as part of a comprehensive skin care program to rejuvenate skin," says Bashey. Follow Marie Claire on Facebook for the latest celeb news, beauty tips, fascinating reads, livestream video, and more. This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io BEUTY TIPS : 45 Best Beauty Tips from Makeup and Skincare Experts to Improve Your Beauty Routine Read the full article

[steelfeather]

One More Breath (A Tom Holland x Reader Imagine)

Request: No.

Word Count: 1.4k

Summary: You and Tom get in a car accident on the way to a date.

Ships: Tom Holland x Reader

Warnings: Angst and some blood. 

Taglist: @mc-universe, @mrshollandparker, @middlefingermichelle, @peterr-parqerr, @spideychelle-romanogers, @comehomespiderman, @spocksandsandals, @twiceinabluemoon, @petrparkered, @spider-hlland, @tomchalland, @whatavision, @quacksonss, & @t-oodles.

*A/N: I’m just gonna warn you now, this angst is not for the faint of heart.

It happens in the briefest of seconds.

Only a moment ago, you were holding Tom’s hand over the center console as he drove, his thumb rubbing gently over your knuckles. The two of you were content, enjoying a peaceful moment.

He turns to look into your eyes, practically glowing with happiness, and it’s in the instant he isn’t watching that a car pulls out, gunning it right into his side of the car.

The world turns chaotic, flashes of black and red and white. The car spins and you can’t make any sense of what’s happening. Your body is hurled against the seat belt. When it slows and stops, you look over at Tom and your breath catches in your throat as a shocked sob.

His head is slumped forward, mussed curls covering his eyes, and blood is dripping darkly off of his chin, falling into his lap. He doesn’t appear to be conscious, and you rip yourself out of your seatbelt and limp as quickly as possible to the driver’s side of the car.

The door is dented but luckily it still opens with a hard pull, your arm muscles protesting quietly. You inhale sharply, stomach twisting as you see it.

A piece of the door trim has separated and is sticking out of your boyfriend’s side, just below where his lungs should be. He’s bleeding heavily around it, the seat stained black already.

You strip your shirt off and wrap it around the jagged trim piece where it meets his skin, putting pressure on it. He groans and stirs as the fabric becomes quickly soaked, and you hide your horror as much as you can for him.

“Did you feel like having a quick nap, darling?” you ask him, keeping your tone light.

“What—“ he slurs, hands starting to come up to his side.

You gently bat them away with one hand. “Hold still, Tom,” you tell him, and something in your voice must convince him, because he lays back, panting. There’s a gash on his forehead, you see now.

Keeping one hand on his side, you pull your cell phone from your pocket, relieved to see it’s still working, and dial emergency dispatch. You nod at him as he looks down at you with fear and pain in his eyes, and you pray to every god you’ve ever heard of that he makes it out of this alive.

A calm, no-nonsense woman answers you, and it feels wrong that her voice isn’t choked like yours.

“We’ve been in a car accident,” you tell her, voice shaking a little. You can feel Tom watching you through glassy eyes. “I’m with someone, he’s hurt—badly.”

You meet Tom’s eyes as you give her the location and she prepares to disconnect.

“Please hurry,” you beg.

“Th-that bad, huh?” he gasps, trying to smile. When you don’t answer, his mouth twists downward and his lower lip trembles just slightly. You put more pressure on his wound. It almost feels cold to you, and panic bubbles inside your chest.

“Tom,” you say. He doesn’t react. “Tom.”

At that, he looks at you obediently, and you want to sob at the quiet terror he’s failing to hide.

“Tom, grab onto me and start talking,” you order.

“Don’t stop talking.”

“Do you want to know something?” he asks in a broken whisper. You nod, blinking furiously at the tears trying to escape.

“I was… was going to propose. Once we got to the restaurant.” His hand on your shoulder flexes weakly, and now you can feel cold wetness on your cheeks, your throat threatening to close.

“You’ve spoiled the surprise,” you gasp. “Now you’ll just have to get really creative, since you can’t shock me anymore.”

He smiles a small, sad smile, and you feel your heart ripping itself apart as you try to keep him with you for a moment longer.

“I wish…” he starts, then stops as he struggles for breath. Your eyes widen as blood bubbles out one corner of his mouth. “I wanted more time,” he chokes out, and now there are tears falling slowly down his face, impossibly beautiful, like everything about him.

“You’ll have time,” you insist blindly, resting your forehead on his shoulder as your hands desperately attempt to keep him alive for one more moment.

“I wa-wanted to grow old with my family,” he continues, and you can’t speak anymore. “I’ll never see what my brothers become.”

“No,” you beg, voice thick with tears. “Please, Tom.”

“Harrison will be so angry with me.” He lets out a small, bitter laugh, and it turns into a sob halfway through.

“Tessa won’t know what happened. She’ll just miss me. Mum and Dad won’t be at my wedding. I…”

You whimper, pressing your forehead into his and looking into his eyes. There’s a ringing in your head, and the world is narrowing to one point. Your world.

“I love you,” he gasps out, and you have to give it back to him, because you know now will be your last chance.

“I love you too, baby,” you tell him, mustering up as much of a smile as you can. “Please don’t leave me, please…”

He smiles back at you, and you’re sure an angel couldn’t be more beautiful. Then, just as the sirens become audible, he breathes out, and his chest doesn’t move again.

“TOM!” you scream, then put your mouth on his, breathing into him as one of your hands pinches his nose shut. His lips are cold.

He’s not gone. He’s not gone. He’s not gone.

Arms lock around your waist and pull you back, and you’re screaming, begging them to let you save him, he’s everything, you have to—

Someone pins your arms behind your back and you feel the pinch of a needle seconds before your vision goes dark. The last thing you see is Tom’s still face disappearing behind a sea of strangers.

You jerk awake and feel several things pulling at your skin before you look down to find an IV in you, feeling something sticky pulling at your temples. There’s a moment of confusion before the world crushes you, your chest growing tight.

You rip the IV out of your arm, wincing at the pain, then pull the sensors off your head and swing your legs off the side of the bed, lurching a little as you stand.

You can feel the bruises now, but it’s all muted, so much less important than the greater pain. As you walk up and down the hospital hallways in the shitty gown they put you in, no one questions you. Maybe it’s the look on your face.

It feels like hours before you see a familiar face, and your chest is heaving with repressed sobs by the time you spot Dom. His expression is completely devoid of humor; you think that may be a first in your acquaintance.

You can’t speak. You just stare at him, terror in your eyes, until he points at a door, and then you run.

The door slams open, your arms screaming in pain, and you see a roomful of people—Nikki, Harry, Sam, Paddy, Harrison, a couple you don’t recognize—before your eyes find him.

He’s laying still, so, so still. His eyes are closed, and you see a bandage around his forehead, white against the soft brown of his hair.

There’s an EKG next to the bed, beeping steadily. You see his chest rise and fall, painfully slowly, and your knees almost buckle.

On trembling legs, you walk to his side. Harrison and Sam move out of your way, and you slip your hand inside his, squeezing just slightly as you feel the warmth of his palm. Your mouth is dry and you can’t speak.

As you watch, his eyes flutter open slowly, and he finds you, hand tightening around yours a little.

“Hello, darling,” he murmurs. “Didn’t think you’d be rid of me so easily, did you?”

You laugh and it turns hysterical, sobs taking over as you fall to your knees by his bed. His hand lifts to cradle your head, thumb rubbing your cheek softly.

“Are you okay?” you choke out.

“I’ll have a dashing scar,” he says hoarsely, giving you a cheeky wink.

Forgetting your audience, letting everything other than him fade away, you press a kiss to the palm of his hand and say, “I’ll kiss that scar for the rest of our lives, Tom.”

[where-the-weary-rest]

So i’ve been having massive dmc/dietrich feels so you all get a dump of what the guy is dealing with once he finally meets dante long after the rebellion, this is post dmc4 and i feel like dante as he gets older and has been learning will on occasion calm down and use his brains, we know hes not dumb, he just cant be assed. here hes realized that his usual strategies might not work, also its under the cut cause its kind of a lot and i dont wanna horde space on peoples dashes

“Well she asked that I take you too him. You wanted to meet the one who knew what was left out of the stories. I can’t guarantee he’ll be particularly friendly but he’s a good host at least.” Tyr shrugged though the motion seemed only half hearted. The man himself seemed to lack any real conviction or emotion though so it wasn’t surprising. Dante himself wasn’t terribly surprised when the guide provided by his contact was a demon. He was investigating old demon history after all. He’d never cared for the old legends but even he had to admit there were parts of it that made no sense.

“Yeah yeah. I’ll just shut him up if he’s being an asshole.” Dante replied lazily patting the guns at his hips. The shadow looked almost skeptical at this while the hunter kept one hand on ebony. This place was giving him the heebie jeebies after all. The entire town had looked abandoned yet lived in, a perpetual fog making it all the more erie. They stood before the doors of some grand hall, more then likely the throne room.

“Right here we go.” Tyr raised his hands and shadows crawled up the much too tall doors before pushing them open. A groan resounded echoing through the mostly empty room. Iron scones were along the pillars with strange pale blue flames burning, much like the rest of the castle. The only other noticable thing in the room was the throne. Dante was fairly surprised by what he saw there. A man sat atop the throne though seemingly asleep. He looked older, though perhaps no later then 50′s with long silvery almost white hair, and a neatly trimmed goatee, wearing a suit that reminded Dante of some of his more obnoxious clients. Business men who thought they could get away with more because they had money.

“So this is him?” He heard. The voice was raspy as if long unused. The older mans eyes now open and locked on Dante, both a fierce electric shade of blue that made the hunters own seem dull.

“Right Dante Redgrave may I present Dietrich Ailis.” Tyr gave a sweeping bow as he gestured from the hunter to the man on the throne.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"So are you just one more asshole who hated my old man and came after me?" Dante snarled at the idea. He was so damn tired of cleaning up the messes that man left him. Dietrich shook his head at this and leaned forward elbows on his knees and hands clasped. He looked older somehow as long hair shifted across his shoulder, and that his expression changed to something almost nostalgic casting deeper shadows across his face.

"No. For once that is not the case, well mostly." The younger man looked at him curiously at this.

"What the hell does that mean?"

"I didn't hate Sparda. At least not truly, I never could despite what he did to us. In fact I loved him dearly, more so then a devil should ever be capable of. After all we are said to be without hearts to feel such things, it's a gift humans were granted that both demons and angels were denied." Dietrich shook his head a bit just sending more white cascading over his shoulders slowly to pool in his lap. Dante wasn't sure why that detail was so distracting, perhaps it was something in how fluidly the man moved despite moving so little at all. Maybe it was because of something so pure white on a soul so black. "I fell in love with the image of a fool with a bleeding heart. Sparda was a hero in the text book sense. He would never let those who were being oppressed suffer for long. I always knew that letting him lead the charge against humans would end badly."

"Then why not do something to stop him? You make it sound like you could have." Dante wasn't sure why he wanted an answer, but it bothered him to think things could have been so different. Dietrich sighed at this sounding weary, as if there was a tiredness settled even into the mans bones after so many long years that he only remembered now.

"Because of the fact that I loved him. The army was where he belonged, where he shone like the brightest star in our sky. I was the lead strategist certainly, but he was our commander, our king in all but title. To take him from the field would ruin him. So he went and he met those frail terrible creatures and fell for them. Realized what us taking their world meant, how it would be a slaughter. He couldn't allow it. He had a code that was understood by none yet all." He held out his hands with palms up as if beseeching some unseen figure.

"And you still insisted on fighting him?"

"I did. I fought him the hardest. You surely wonder why if I loved him as I say I do. I fought him because I have always placed home above all and our home was dying. I placed those in my care above myself. It was painful, certainly but he made it easy in a way. I remember even now the words he said to me. 'You're a monster. You can't kill the humans. They can't possibly beat us. I thought you were my friend, my brother'." Dante was surprised at the absolute ache he could feel in those words. As if reliving them tore something in the demon to shreds better then any blade.

"He didn't know."

"He didn't. So he struck us all down. Including me. Though I was in ways his equal so he wasn't strong enough to kill me. However for my perceived betrayal I was cursed and stand here now. King of the dead, last to know what happened then, and so very tired." As he spoke he'd leaned back pulling aside the collar of his shirt. Dante could see the top of a wide jagged scar across the mans shoulder and collar bone. If it was done with force edge he could only imagine how bad the rest was. "I became the monster he saw me as. Now I just want rest."

"So you really are just some shitty devil after all that needs to be gotten rid of." Dante hissed the words as if what had been said justified the need to eliminate Dietrich to avoid the danger the elder presented.

"Perhaps. Though you'd have never guessed until I told you. Let this be a lesson to you Dante. I'm sure you've learned it before but a refresher is nice." He rose from his throne looking down at the hunter with a bored gaze and burning blue eyes. The flames of the lamps suddenly burned brighter and the room seemed to glow, casting the shadow of a large winged beast across the wall behind Dietrich. "We are not all we seem. After all even the devil was an angel once and he was gods favorite. Do not let perceptions and foolishness tint your path so you make a mistake you will regret."

"Fuck you." Dante snapped back watching as the elder snarled at this baring fangs far from human. The disguise was so good, so almost on that it made the places it was wrong stick out all the more. A devil who would walk amongst humans yet never be able to blend among them.

"You may yet live to regret those words boy. You are the only one who can kill me because of this curse. This poison in my blood he placed that won't let any other end me, but I will not go easily. They wish for rest as well, but not surrender." Suddenly it appeared, a wild blue fire like those eyes and so much here. It condensed, coalesced into shape, into figures behind Dietrich as if the ghosts of those past were here themselves to stand at his back once more. Dante had a feeling he would indeed regret some of his choices just this once.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dante looked up at the other from where he kneeled. Every muscle screamed at the idea of this much less standing, and he was weary down to his bones. No fight had pushed him so far. Yet the older man stood there looking unphased despite the blood running down the side of his face, and the tear carved through his armor. Dietrich looked as if he'd stood within the eye of a storm, and while he hadn't come out unscathed he'd certainly proven a force of nature.

"I never stood a chance did I?" Dante asked wondering if the man would let him leave with his life. While he didn't like the idea of giving up he'd learned over time when to hedge his bets.

"That's just it." Deitrich sounded so weary suddenly, once again the old man with a torn jacket and blood down his face all the same. "Once upon a time you did. You would have been the death of me. This story would finally end. I could have peace. Now, now you can't. You may be able to kill Dante, but you only kill villains. Somewhere along the way you lost sight of the fact that I am just that. We are all heroes in our own minds, most of the time, it's convincing others to believe this that's the trick."

"You always had a way with people Sire." Tyr said finally speaking for the first time in a while. "You were the greatest of us once, the one who sought to take the burden of a whole world on your shoulders. It's why we loved you all in our way, it's why they stay with you. It’s why I wanted to see you finally rest. Seems I made a mistake." 

[felassan]

How are you personally liking the singleplayer game so far? I'm just spending my trial time on multiplayer.

I’m liking it a lot! I’ve really enjoyed my time in the trial so far, and can’t wait for launch so I can restart and really get into it. For reference, all of my time (about 8 hours so far) has been spent in singleplayer (or in CC, or hopping in and out of the game or menus in order to test things like settings), to the first planet after the prologue, up to a point which I guess is not far from the story lock. It’s a good game, maybe even a great game, and a lot of fun. full response under a cut to trim dash clutter and for length. spoiler-free.

Considering the fact that I have a weird, apparently-shit and derpy graphics card, I was expecting performance/graphics to be pretty bad, but for whatever reason the game runs fairly smoothly/well even on my PC on medium settings, I don’t have issues with crashes, freezing, stuttering, lag spikes, etc, not even on the first post-prologue planet. load times are reasonable. Even with my lame card and on medium settings with some effects turned off (like chromatic aberration), the environments and set-pieces look decent to good, which is a nice surprise. I’m going to upgrade my graphics card tho because 1) it’s long overdue and 2) I want an experience playing this game where it’s “pretty”, not just “decent”. I think doing that would improve my frame-rate and get rid of some of the scratchy/fuzzyness in some places that I’ve noticed, like around character models. that issue is definitely on my weird lame graphics card though, not on BW.

Gameplay is good from what I noticed. I’m excited to go exploring. sidequests so far felt less sidequesty/better thought out/less tacked on than DA:I’s. the jump-jet is a rad addition, I love the new dimension to the world and exploring the new verticality adds and improved mobility is always a plus. I like the extra lore/flavor details you can get from using the scanner. Combat is fun and solid, better than the OT, tho I’m still getting used to it. combat feels fluid, and for once in a game of this kind I’m properly looking forward to trying out different skills/builds rather than repeating the same playstyle over and over. the Nomad handles well and better than the Mako (I use a controller for my PC and can’t speak to how it handles for kbm). Disclaimer/caveat: I don’t play these games for the gameplay, and I played the trial on a low difficulty to blast through combat in order to see the stuff I wanted to see in my limited time. I also don’t really pay much attention to mechanics in games. so I’m not the best judge, because I’d play games with poor gameplay and suffer through that if it was to access a BioWare world with the choices, characters, depth, etc. I will say that nothing about combat gameplay in ME:A has irritated or frustrated me, which is something - DA:O’s for instance frustrated me for being so slow, ME1′s for being clunky (Shepard handled like I was pushing her around as she sat in a shopping trolley), DA2′s repeating he-man/power rangers spawning waves of mooks were annoying. for reference, combat gameplay in ME3 and DA:I was never an issue for me.

The voice-acting is strong. the aesthetic of the game is very Mass Effect. and it feels like Mass Effect too, even though we’re in a whole new galaxy - specifically a return to the atmospheric feel of ME1 (I don’t know how to articulate this, sorry. but I feel like I’m in the universe and back in ME1 when the galaxy was huge and there was so much to see, that retro scifi way). The story so far has been good - good opening, smartly-integrated tutorial that didn’t feel like a tutorial but like the prologue it is, compelling, interesting, emotional moments that got me, plot-hooks that have me wanting to keep going and find out more. the writing is mostly good, with a few odd/shoddy lines here and there. The squad characters are AMAZING. I love the squad and the ship. There’s lots of dialogue, banter and ambient dialogue from NPCs around the Nexus and Hyperion, and on the tempest and when exploring. I’ve only been playing for eight hours but already Liam and Cora feel more three dimensional and more interesting than Kaidan and Ash did in ME1 (I’m saying this as someone who quite likes Kaidan and Ash). I haven’t personally noticed Liam falling prey to the same issues Jacob did that people have been concerned about, which is good. Peebee feels differentiated from Liara (I wasn’t worried about that, but saw the sentiment around). I haven’t spent enough time with her to be able to tell if she feels differentiated from Sera (but I’m not really worried about that either anyway). Vetra is the best thing that has ever blessed the earth. there are little nods, callbacks and easter egg references to the OT that are pleasantly unexpected or even emotional in terms of content. I like the music, its a good mix of new exciting future stuff and callbacks to the music of the OT. plenty smiles and some laughs (good laughs, at jokes) had. quality cinematics, good cinematic design. I can’t WAIT to progress the story further and spend more time with these characters.

my main piece of negative feedback is the CC. it’s very limited, I think it’s quite poor really. but I’ve harped enough about that already so won’t repeat myself. full thoughts on CC here if you’re interested and haven’t seen it. my second main issue is more moderate in nature - I find the animations (specifically facial animations/emoting of human characters, including SisRyder, including talking) really quite off/jarring. your mileage may vary on this one, it’s not an issue for some people, it’s a relative thing I think how much it gets to you. for me it looks wrong/robotic/fake. secondary to but related to the animation issue is the dead/glassy-eyed look of human characters. I think they need to overhaul the CC, improve facial animations where possible (pls fix exploding mouths), and fix the eye textures (several artists by now have posted detailed breakdowns of what’s wrong with the eyes and why they visually look ‘dead’). I don’t actually have an issue at all with other animation glitches like tbone pose, weird walking, weird running up hills, etc. hasn’t happened much for me at all and doesn’t bother me when it does.

then I have some minor issues: no quicksave; no pausing during cutscenes; no saving during priority missions; in dialogue would prefer the choice of 4 tone responses to pop up more often than they do; differentiating instinctively between dialogue tone icons for me isn’t that good, maybe I just need more time at it though; the menu design doesn’t feel very intuitive but maybe I just need to get used to it? but there are menus upon menus within menus and I feel like the UI could be better; 2 ambient dialogue conversations triggering at the same time as I walk past like on the Nexus for example (have to move around hubs slowly so I don’t miss things and when one starts I stand still because moving too far ends it); it needs to be easier to quit menus (like hotkey m to enter and exit map, not m to enter and esc esc esc to exit [if you’re wondering I’ve been switching to kbm for menus. its great that the switch is seamless]); I do miss being able to directly order squadmates to use their skills in battle; I think Suvi and Gil should have been given custom models like Liam and Cora, at the moment it feels like a repeat of the issue we had with Traynor and Cortez, which isn’t great; I do feel a little railroaded having Ryder’s background depend on their gender, I don’t want to have to give a fuck about Prothean science digs. but these issues are definitely of the minor variety.

I think right now I’d give it a 7.5 or maybe eight out of ten, improving CC and fixing the facial animations/eyes would drive it up to nine for me I think. and this is on a normal common-sense-person scale, not a pro reviewer scale (where 80% is actually like a shit score). 

tl;dr loving it. 1 major issue, 1 moderate issue, numerous minor issues. absolutely loving it despite those and would definitely recommend and enthuse about it.

[itsworn]

This Day-Two 1969 Chevrolet Chevelle SS396 Has Never Strayed From Its Shenandoah Valley Home

You never forget your first car, and if you’ve grown up in or around the car hobby, recollections of your first car remain especially vivid. That’s certainly true for Mark Prunesti. Although he has had the privilege of buying and restoring other cars, his first ride, a stunning, 396-motivated 1969 Chevelle he got his sophomore year in high school, occupies a permanent section of his brain—and his heart. For years, Mark and his Chevelle were tied together in a bond that can only occur between man and machine. However, like many similar stories forged out on the streets, it would not last forever. The Chevy was sold a few years later due to unforeseen circumstances.

Old-school never looked so good. A built L78, Cragars, and big rear meats give this car instant street cred.

Decades later, Mark was bitten by the bug to once again own a 1969 Chevelle, even though he already had a few other projects lined up in the shop. In 2014, a Craigslist ad grabbed his attention. It was plain and simple, without much description, and included very few pictures: “1969 Chevelle SS396. Red. Stored since 1978. Doesn’t run.”

This Chevelle was born with the 375hp L78 version of the 396. The engine in the car now, built using a replacement block, was missing when Mark Prunesti bought the car. He later went back to the previous owner’s property and extracted the mill.

The ad was less than 24 hours old, but Mark knew he needed to act fast. He called the number and learned the car was stored about three hours away from him. The Chevelle was being sold by a third party who was helping out an ill neighbor. The man who placed the ad really didn’t know much about the car. Mark was told that he was third on the list to see it, which didn’t sit well with him at all. He really wanted the first chance at this particular Chevy. He kept the man on the phone, questioning him on the particulars of the car. That was his plan. He felt his only way to the top of the line was to ask as many questions about the car’s vital parts as possible until the seller either hung up or moved him to the front of the line. Mark’s steadfastness paid off, as the man asked him to come take a look at it for himself. He was now number one on the list.

The engine Mark found was topped with L89 aluminum heads, a rare option that year. There is no paperwork to verify that these heads were installed at the factory.

Mark hit the ground running, keen on finding a top-tier factory-bred Chevelle. He didn’t want just any Chevy A-body. He was definitely looking for a big-block car, built with some of the top “needed necessities” that GM had to offer. He hoped this was a ride that would check off most of the boxes on his must-have list.

The Chevelle was located in Waynesboro, Virginia, a bustling town nestled deep in the Shenandoah Valley. When Mark first laid eyes on the car, he was quite pleased with what he saw. It was in much better shape than he imagined, with few body issues to speak of. It was in amazing shape for a car that had been off the road for nearly 40 years.

Just seeing that red-skinned Chevy propelled him back to his youth and the moment he first gazed upon his beloved high school Chevelle. However, one big piece of the puzzle was missing: The powerplant was nowhere to be found. It was an issue, but not a deal breaker. Interestingly enough, this car showed 48,000 miles on the odometer, the same number of miles that were on Mark’s first Chevelle when he bought it. Coincidence? A sign from above?

The bench seat and four-speed shifter combo in this Chevelle let you know that it was built to hit the streets with a vengeance!

Many purists would have walked away from this car, but not Mark. After he inspected the car thoroughly, he knew that this Chevelle was not something to pass up. He jumped right on it and brought the car back to his garage.

Someone’s Hot Rod

The Garnet Red 1969 Chevelle SS was obviously someone’s hot rod back in the day, as it showed telltale signs of being a built-up street ride. It had period Cragars at the corners, bias-ply tires, period headers, 3/8-inch fuel line, and a set of 2 5/8-inch Stewart-Warner black-face gauges under the dash. Mark ordered paperwork on the car and found it was sold new at Harvey’s Chevrolet in Radford, Virginia. The Chevelle was a very early October 1968 Baltimore plant build.

After researching what he could of the Chevelle’s history, Mark concluded that it probably had never left its valley home. “All avenues I researched led back to a location or locations surrounding where I had purchased the car in Waynesboro or within the immediate surrounding areas of the Shenandoah Valley,” he says.

Over the next few months Mark reached out to the third-party seller and asked if he could put him in contact with the previous owner, who by now had recovered from his illness. After waiting for some time without a response, Mark called the man himself. The man said he had bought the Chevelle at a used car lot in 1972 and had no info about the original owner. When Mark asked him about the whereabouts of the original engine, the man said the 396 that came with the car kept fouling plugs, so he removed it and stashed it on the farm. Mark couldn’t get off the phone quick enough to get down there and look for it.

Mark built this Chevelle using several N.O.S. parts, including a set of Koni shocks. He then fabricated his own Lakewood traction bars, like the pair it wore back in the day. A 12-bolt rear stuffed with 4.10 gears gets the power to the pavement.

Sure enough, he found the L78 with a date and KG suffix code, fitted with L89 aluminum heads. There was no VIN stamped on the block, which led him to believe it was a service replacement block. Nonetheless, it was a step in the right direction. He now had the powerplant to complete the puzzle. The previous owner had also stated that the car used to have Lakewood bars under it, but he’d taken them off because they caused too stiff a ride. Mark searched for them but wasn’t able to find them.

The next question was what he should do with the Chevelle. Drop a motor in it and drive it the way it is, or do a full-blown restoration? Mark chose the latter, deciding that this Chevelle deserved to be refreshed and returned to all of its original glory, and then some.

Rejuvenated

In 2016, Mark got to work and stripped the car to its bare bones. He sent the 396 to Boley’s Automotive Machine Shop in Beckley, West Virginia, where Mark gets all of his engine work done, mainly because they specialize in race motors.

The body and chassis went to Super Car Restorations in Clymer, Pennsylvania, for bodywork, paint, glass, and trim. Proprietors Jamie Cooper and Joe Griffith are well known in the muscle car restoration field for their work on rare, top-dollar muscle rides for the masses. “These guys take pride and dedication to a new level and are extremely meticulous about every last detail,” says Mark.

Mark decided to install some “old-school cool” at the corners. These Cragar SS wheels look right at home on this 1970s-styled street machine. The thick M&H Racemasters out back and the Silvertown bias-plies up front continue the look he was after.

As for the interior, David Wells of Wells Custom Upholstery in Chesapeake, Virginia, covered the seats with fresh skins from Legendary Interiors.

Mark pressed on and restored his car with original or N.O.S. speed parts. He says, “I found a set of N.O.S. Koni shocks and made my own Lakewood traction-action bars.” A set of N.O.S. Appliance four-bolt flange headers was also added to the mix, to help get rid of the spent gases in vintage day-two style.

The Chevelle was finished in 2018. “I had the honor of being invited by Brian Henderson and Joe Swezey of Super Car Workshop out of Latrobe, Pennsylvania, to show my car in the Solid Lifter Showroom at Carlisle,” says Mark (see “Someone Left a Show Out in the Rain,” Oct. 2018; bit.ly/2PiKUEI). On the way home from the show, he went back to the Valley and stopped at the previous owner’s house to show him the final product of his restoration. “He said my traction bars were just like the ones he took off. He was quite pleased with the finished product.”

The Garnet Red Chevelle SS had sat immobile for 40 years before Mark located it by answering an ad on the internet. It was in very good shape for having languished for so long.

At a Glance

1969 Chevelle SS396 Owned by: Mark Prunesti Restored by: Owner; Super Car Restoration, Clymer, PA; Boley’s Automotive Machine Shop, Beckley, WV; Wells Custom Upholstery, Chesapeake, VA Engine: 396ci/375hp L78 V-8 Transmission: M22 Rock Crusher 4-speed manual Rearend: Chevrolet 12-bolt with 4.10 gears Interior: Black vinyl bucket seats Wheels: 15×6 front 15×7 rear Cragar SS Tires: 7.75-15 BFGoodrich Silvertown front, J60-15 M&H Racemaster rear Special parts: L89 aluminum heads, handmade Lakewood-style traction bars, Appliance headers, power brakes

The post This Day-Two 1969 Chevrolet Chevelle SS396 Has Never Strayed From Its Shenandoah Valley Home appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

from Hot Rod Network https://www.hotrod.com/articles/day-two-1969-chevrolet-chevelle-ss396-never-strayed-shenandoah-valley-home/ via IFTTT

[caraudiologic]

The Best Single Din Head Unit

Whether you’re looking for a replacement unit and are hoping to avoid cutting your car’s interior up or want something more streamlined, a single din car stereo is probably the answer.

These are the standard-sized head units that are compatible with a range of vehicles and offer plenty of modern features—meaning it’s time to get rid of the old CD player from the 2000s.

Here are our thoughts on the best single din head unit out there.

Editor’s Choice Single Din Stereo

Bluetooth functionality

SiriusXM ready

Dedicated subwoofer pre-amp output

Detachable faceplate

READ FULL REVIEW >>>

Check It Out

Our 5 Best Single Din Head Unit Reviews

1. Alpine CDE-HD 149BT :

The sound quality with Alpine’s 149BT is excellent, the range of functions is stellar, and it’s an affordable way to get Bluetooth connectivity in older vehicles. One drawback, however, is connectivity issues depending on device type and features.

Overall, for users with Android devices, Alpine’s unit is solid. For iPhone users, there are some bugs to work out, making this a solid choice for some customers and a bit of a gamble for others.

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While Bluetooth is a more common feature on most stereos these days, SiriusXM compatibility is somewhat rare. Which means Alpine’s compatible unit checks the box on one of the most sought-after specs. Plus, it has HD radio capabilities, though what channels you get depends on your local radio stations’ offerings.

Bluetooth functionality is a must these days, but unlike other models, this Alpine model doesn’t allow dual connectivity. A minor flaw, but worth noting.

The menus are easily navigable and clear, but if you want a remote control, you’ll have to buy it separately, a somewhat surprising revelation when you consider everything else this unit offers.

Decent Bluetooth call quality is helpful, but it’s also lacking in comparison with other units at this level. And while it works with both Android and Apple devices, many users with iPhones noted some connectivity challenges with certain apps. Plus, Alpine seems to lack patience with Siri: customers indicate she often gets cut off when her replies aren’t concise enough.

Also, certain devices will charge via the USB plug while others won’t, a minor flaw but an irritating one at that. Of course, for many users, that’s not an issue, particularly if they have an alternative device charging setup in the vehicle.

The display is one of the highlights, as you can customize the colors and dim the backlit glow, but it might still be too bright for some users. And although the screen quality is great and the menu functional, some of the icons are distracting and even nonsensical, something Alpine may consider nixing from future versions.

After all, rotating graphics shouldn’t take up more space than say, song titles or other icons from the menu.

Bluetooth functionality

SiriusXM ready

Dedicated subwoofer pre-amp output

HD radio feature

Detachable faceplate for security

Remote control is optional (purchase separately)

Dimmable screen is still very bright (3 settings)

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2. Pioneer Single Din In-Dash Stereo

Back to basics is a reasonable way to describe Pioneer’s single din stereo receiver, and that’s a good thing. It’s an affordable model that delivers crisp sound without compromising on convenience. 4

Sure, there is no Bluetooth, but we’re focusing on affordability and basic features here, and to that end, Pioneer’s unit fits the bill.

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While Pioneer’s unit lacks the Bluetooth option many modern stereos have, it delivers quality audio and multiple modes of connectivity. There are both USB and AUX inputs on the front of the unit, so it’s easy to swap out an Android, Apple, or another device for music.

Installation is simple thanks to the basic features, so this is one DIY job that won’t cause a lot of stress. At the same time, Pioneer is a reputable brand with plenty of industry experience (and accolades). So in terms of a functional single din stereo that won’t break the bank, this is a strong contender.

All the essential functions are here: radio presets, customizable equalizer settings, an included wireless remote, plus a detachable faceplate for security. It may not rock your socks off, but you can enjoy a strong audio performance on stock and even upgraded speakers.

The dimmable backlight is a handy feature, and daytime viewing is bright and crisp. One minor inconvenience is there is no “off” switch, so you’ll need to wire the stereo to shut off with the vehicle or you’ll be in low battery trouble in no time.

It doesn’t have much in the way of looks, but if you need to replace a factory unit, you can’t go wrong with this option. And the sizing is standard, so it’s unlikely customers will need additional equipment to install.

Of course, if you don’t want your stereo to switch off when the vehicle does, you’ll need to invest in other equipment to ensure you can turn it off—a minor inconvenience but one that’s worth noting.

USB and AUX inputs on the front

Wireless remote included

Detachable faceplate

No Bluetooth connectivity

No “off” switch; must connect to the ignition switch

Check Latest Price

3. BOSS Audio BV9986BI In Dash Receiver

Hands-free calls, remote audio streaming, and a motorized touchscreen are the highlights of BOSS Audio’s single din unit. Sound quality is superior to other similarly classed stereos, and the ability to connect additional equipment is a definite perk.

The only add-on you’ll need is an interface module to connect the steering wheel buttons to the stereo—otherwise, everything is already on-board.

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For single-DIN setups where customers want full-screen features, BOSS Audio’s unit packs a punch. It has a trim profile, but the unit holds a motorized touchscreen that can play DVDs, connect to your on-board backup camera, and stream music.

Bluetooth is on-board, which is always a plus, but there are also USB, AUX, and SD inputs available. So in addition to music app accessibility, you can also plug and play from multiple memory sources. USB flash drives up to 32GB are compatible, and that includes playing both music and video thanks to the 7-inch screen.

And if audio performance is your game, this unit has pre-amp outputs that let you connect up to three amps or signal processors for subwoofer channels. Of course, there are also preset equalizer settings and electronic skip protection for CD playback, too.

The design is sleek, which is something most consumers expect with a single din unit—nothing flashy here, especially when the screen is stowed. Of course, depending on the layout of your vehicle’s interior, the screen might bump other accessories as it’s moving in or out.

Although the compatibility with USB and SD memory is great, there’s a bit of a learning curve when it comes to finding the tracks you want. There is no organization in the menu, so you’ll be stuck with numbers one through thousands rather than being able to search for specific titles.

Bluetooth functionality

7” motorized touchscreen and DVD play capability

Detachable front panel for security

USB, AUX, and SD input

Rear view camera compatibility

Steering wheel button functionality

Subwoofer preamp outputs

Three-year warranty when purchased via Amazon

Excellent sound quality

Steering wheel button function requires a separate interface module

Challenging menu navigation with SD/USB tracks

No CD player; device or memory card/stick and radio play only

Check Latest Price

4. Pioneer AVH-3300NEX

If video and Bluetooth features are on the top of your car audio wish list, Pioneer’s AVH-3300NEX unit will fulfill those needs. Audio quality is great, video quality is superb, and you can access all your music whether it’s via the cloud or plug-in media.

The only drawback we can find is that the USB port is in the back of the stereo, so accessibility is a challenge.

See Price On Amazon >>>

Another single DIN unit with a motorized touchscreen, Pioneer’s AVH-3300NEX has just about everything you need for music, video, and smartphone functions. The touchscreen interface is customizable, and you have both DVD and CD capabilities.

And with both CarPlay and Android Auto, you can play tunes with either Apple or Android devices. The caveat, however, is that those functions don’t work via Bluetooth; you’ll need to plug the smartphone in via the USB port instead. The USB port is on the back of the unit, likely to keep it streamlined, so accessibility can prove challenging.

If your vehicle has a backup camera (or you’ve installed an after-market option), you’ll be able to connect that as well, and the video quality is superb. And, the screen tilt can be customized (and the settings stick), so you can alter the way the screen pops out and at what angle.

And although the touchscreen display shows the names of songs and radio stations, you can’t view those details entirely on the smaller, basic display screen. Instead, the songs scroll across the screen, meaning you’ll be taking your eyes off the road to check what song is playing.

In some vehicles, the unit will stick out a bit, but that depends on how you install plus which make and model vehicle you have, so results can vary. Fortunately, the customizable screen tilt helps with positioning once the touchscreen pops out.

7-inch motorized touchscreen

Bluetooth connectivity

DVD play capabilities

CarPlay and Android Auto functionality

Comes with a designated Bluetooth microphone for calls and voice commands

SiriusXM compatibility

Works with backup cameras

USB port is in the back, making it difficult to access

Song titles/radio stations don’t show in their entirety on the non-touchscreen display

Check Latest Price

5. Kenwood KDC-168U

Plenty of audio adjustment controls make this unit a satisfactory choice for music lovers and those with aftermarket stereo systems. However, the lack of Bluetooth will make this one a no-go for some users.

Those who are content with AUX, USB, and CD music, however, will appreciate the equalizer adjustments and sound quality features.

See Price On Amazon >>>

Another entry-level stereo that is a great replacement for factory units is Kenwood’s KDC-168U. It plays CDs with MP3 and WMA files and accepts media via USB input and an AUX cable. All inputs are on the front panel, so accessibility is a highlight.

And while input is limited since there’s no Bluetooth, there are plenty of audio settings that upgrade the user listening experience. From the EQ curves and 3-band equalizer settings to the Kenwood sound reconstruction for low bit rate encoded files, you can expect excellent sound from this basic pick.

There’s also a low-pass filter and subwoofer level control, things you won’t often find on the more affordable stereos, if at all. Plus, iPhones and select Android devices enjoy music control support, such as Pandora and iHeartRadio with iPhones.

Installation is straightforward, though there are some performance challenges with certain models of GM (and potentially other) vehicles. Knowing what you’re doing is important, so some DIYers might need additional support in those cases.

One awkward feature is that when connecting a phone or other device, you can’t use the stereo’s play and skip controls on the display unless you connect via USB. With the AUX input, you must change the music from your device’s screen, which is standard, but it can also be cumbersome since drivers need to keep their eyes on the road.

AUX and USB input

Audio adjustment includes multiple equalizer settings

Sound reconstruction for files encoded at low bit rates

List Element

No Bluetooth

Separate adapter required for factory steering wheel audio control capability

No skip/play buttons when using AUX, must use device controls

Check Latest Price

Final Word

Whether you need a stock radio replacement or something with a bit more kick, these are the best single din head units available at a range of price points. For some of us, a basic radio kit is all we need, but others want full touchscreen capabilities and Bluetooth functionality.

Either way, there’s a straightforward solution to your listening needs, and it doesn’t have to be complicated. Taking a look at the basic features will tell you whether a unit will meet your specifications, but when budget is also a factor, you may find that the lower-end offerings can also deliver surprising performance levels.

See More Content :

RCA Cables For Audio Connection

Flip Out Head Unit For Cars

Overhead Dvd Players For In-Car Entertainment

The post The Best Single Din Head Unit appeared first on Car Audio Logic.

[hommart]

Fast Fat Loss Tips

In recent years, capsicum (peppers) has been promoted as one of the foods that can make fast fat loss possible. And it seems that everyone is spicing up their diets with a dash of chili here, some jalapeño there and maybe a sprinkling of habañero every once in a while. But capsicum is not the only kind of food that promotes fast fat loss.

Some of the foods that can be found in most grocery freezer aisles or shelves or vegetable bins can have the same benefits too - and more. The key to getting great food and still enjoy a slimmer waistline is being more adventurous and creative with some of the conventional edibles we already know. For example:

Breads and grains. Breads and grains are so ordinary that we usually do not think of these as main ingredients to fast fat loss programs. But the truth is: breads, grains and almost all carbohydrate based products take up most of the bulk of our everyday meals. It only makes sense to use these to promote a healthier diet. To eliminate about 10% to 15% fats from your diet, try to steer clear of butter-rich, oil-rich and deep fried bread products (e.g. pound cakes, croissants, biscuits, doughnuts, etc.) Steering clear of most sugary confections is also a great idea since the combination of sugar and carbohydrates help increase food cravings more. This is particularly true for most pastries and sugar coated breakfast cereals.

Sugar free whole grain breads (wheat, oats, rye, corn meal, etc.) can help add more fiber in the diet, which can help speed up digestion too. At the same time, since the fibers in these grains are take a longer time to digest, it would likewise take the person a longer time to feel hungry as well; and that helps keep the calories down. However, to make fast fat loss even faster, try sticking to brown or dark colored breads, as opposed to the ubiquitous white breads. White breads use over refined flours that have very little fibers left, and usually use sugar for its rising process. The darker breads contain more fibers; and as with the case of rye breads, do not need sugar in order to rise. It is also best to consume only one or two slices per meal, especially if you are on a 5-a-day or 6-a-day meal diet.

Lean meats. Fast fat loss does not necessarily mean that you have to go on a strict vegetarian diet. You can have your burgers and eat it too. Protein is an essential element when it comes to good nutrition because this helps keep bones and muscles strong and supple. At the same time, protein also takes a longer time to break down, which means that the person can consume proteins as a way of keeping hunger pangs away. There are many sources of proteins. Oily fishes like salmons and tuna are known to contain rich Omega 3 oils which help eliminate bad cholesterol from the body. Poultry products are also great protein sources, but eggs should be eaten only once a week (due to its high cholesterol content). Pork and beef products should trimmed of most of its fats, and prepared using as little oil as possible.

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[yarisgaraji]

Web sitemizin istatistik bilgilerine göre ülkemizden sayfamıza giren sizler bütün fotoğraflara videolara bakıyor ancak yazılarımızı okumuyorsunuz. Hali ile bundan sonra…

As we were done with the front side of the truck we went to our local breaker and borrowed a new body L200 bed. We mold the bed sides make fiberglass ones, cut the new ones to our length (as ours is shorter then original L200) and build fender flares same as we did with front. Once they were done the new rear fenders get the same treatment, their molds have been made and build one peace super strong fiberglass rear fenders.

The truck is ready, well sort of ready. There is still million things to be done but is somewhat ready. We installed everything and throw it outside. Next to last year’s race car which was the regional championship winning car. We looked checked and double checked everything, and everything was perfect.

We have taken the truck inside and build cover for the transmission and install the dash to see where our gauges and electronics will come.

We have decided to paint the car at this point as well, the car was going to be wrapped with branding but still we like to see the truck as good as possible.

Painting the truck without painting the chassis would be madness (I am not clamming that we are not mad). We remove everything again, rolled chassis over and painted everywhere. We have painted underneath the cab and over the cab as well.

After having the clean painted everything we decided to finish the rollcage as the racing seats and steering wheel arrived so we can position ourselves in the car.

At this point EDC Graphics came along and send us 3 options to choose from which initiated long hours of nonsense branding truck looks talks.

As the rollcage finished and we had no more welding job left to do. We just need to reassemble the truck and the final paint needed to be applied.

You might not want to believe but we have speakers, power windows, almost all the interior trim of the truck.

We build a hydro steering setup on our truck. As everything was getting assembled it was time to install our final weapon. Until this day only 3 of us in the garage knew we were going to install hydro steering on our truck. Now the secret is out and I must say it is one of the best thing we done to this truck.

As the truck took shape the sprits in the garage was high. When things go as planned everyone gets happy.

We finally run the truck, even with no brakes and without proper wiring everything was alright, just a single bolt was hitting the shaft which scared the shit out us at first. By the way this is happening 2 in the morning.

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Credit: @Yarış Garajı

Next day we have completed the wiring, brakes and we got rid of the bolt which was hitting shaft underneath the truck. It was time for our driver to see the car and get a feel for it. We have never seen him this happy ever.

There is 1 day left for the first event of our truck but we don’t have our wrap yet. As it was urgent our good friend Kenan Şimşek – Stock Customs rushed to finish the job. He came in with 6 guys and get it done by the morning.

It is done, we are ready for the race. No testing done with the truck but there is no more time.  The race will be the best test for the new truck. I am not saying this because it was created by us but this truck is magnificent. I never thought a man can fall in love with a truck, but it happens.

We would like to thank everyone who were involved in this project.

RB Garaj – Levent Köremezli – Görkem Coşgun – Erdal Akar – Ekin Köremezli

Pilot & Sponsor – İsmail Ayhan

Wrap – Stock Customs – Kenan Şimşek

Graphic design – EDC Graphics

Logistics – Boost Oto Kurtarma – Anıl Taşkıran

Media – Yarış Garajı

  You can also download bigger sizes of the pictures in the link.

Optimum Offroad Race Truck Build | RBL200 | Part 2 Web sitemizin istatistik bilgilerine göre ülkemizden sayfamıza giren sizler bütün fotoğraflara videolara bakıyor ancak yazılarımızı okumuyorsunuz. Hali ile bundan sonra…