#these guys got nothing to do in the meantime I guess so they're just being silly

[okaioh]

it's so funny to think that since the eggs are canonically missing, the admins are just messing around with their "parents" by helping them decorate spawn or mess around with them by being capybaras 😭

like right now it's so richarlyson's admin just decorating spawn and agreeing to what foolish suggests it's so funny LMAO

[love-triangles-au]

Most def an #extreme geometry question

But I remember a few hcs being popular in the GF fandom including sensitive sides/edges, tentacles, and magic teleport hole?

How does it work in your AU?

Bfhaha a seasoned triangle-lover, are you, anon? Alright, sure, just for you. Time for an anatomy lesson!

So, in order of what you mentioned: yes, yes and maybe, but we have our own spin on them! Well, for Bill, at least. Bill and Venuz aren't of the same species, so they're pretty different. (Note that everything Bill has applies to all Flatlanders*, so, like, Kryptos has the same things going on) * Once again they're not exactly Flatlanders but it's the name we go with (until the Book of Bill comes out, hopefully >:Dc)

Sensitive sides are more just sensitive vertices in our headcanon (edges are still good! Just more pleasant than exciting), and he's gotta be in the mood. Think, like, poking someone's neck vs. kissing someone's neck; same area, but the way you touch it and the intent/context matters! But, the more they're stimulated the more they'll swell, making them kinda smooth out to be less pointy and more squishy. Then they're REAL sensitive

I always liked this headcanon a lot because it feels very alien. Like, yeah, that's probably the exact kinda weird thing a sentient shape would have going on, why not :P I kinda flip-flop over whether or not Venuz also has this because on one hand I like them being similar anatomically, especially in terms of, well, geometry-related stuff, but I also feel like it's so highly-specific that it wouldn't really be a believable coincidence. I dunno, you can decide!

As for the other two, it'd probably be best to just totally lay out how Bill's parts function. I'm still hesitant to post any outright explicit stuff on here (if that's something you guys really wanna see then let me know and I might reconsider) but I'll do my best to describe what he's got going on down there in the meantime

So, Flatlanders are natural hermaphrodites, and they use the same hole on their bottom plane (or angle if tilted like Kryptos) to store both sets; a cloaca or genital slit, basically. This opening is very discreet, essentially invisible under most circumstances, but, as with corners, swells and puffs up a bit when excited. Whether it's situated horizontally along the base like an envelope or vertically like a human's is up to you

The first half near the entrance is just a typical vaginal canal, nothing much to see there, but, deeper down (anchored around what I guess would be the cervix?) are about five prehensile "tentacles" (sometimes I call them "intercloacal flagellum" just to be cute about it). Which set of parts are in use determine their function. They serve to either stimulate their partner to speed up the mating process if being penetrated, or anchor onto their partner and hold them steady if penetrating. I imagine the cervix would probably be able to move up and down to make room in the vagina or extend the tentacles.

However, there's one tentacle different from the rest, and that one IS erogenous. It's thicker, longer, and has an arrowhead tip, but it's just as prehensile. I think this is probably juuust abstract enough to not be pornographic

Oh, and ejaculate is black; just for that extra bit of weird!

The reason I say "maybe" in regards to the "magic hole" is because, like, if we're being realistic, none of this could physically fit in Bill's body (neither could his eyeball). Just one of those kinda things you gotta be willing to suspend your disbelief on xDc Admittedly I don't know the required math to get exactly how dimensions work, but I sometimes wonder if part of his body extends into the forth dimension or something and that's where his organs really are. Or maybe you can only take the "god" out of the "chaos god," not the "chaos". Who knows?

As for Venuz, he's less interesting, probably because unlike Bill he's still from the same neighbourhood as Earth. Just has a genital slit between his legs (situated on the front plane instead of the bottom) that houses a more humanoid penis, though it lacks foreskin and a scrotum so it's pretty minimalist, just a shaft with a head.

HOWEVER, Venuz also has god-powers, so he can have whatever he wants! In fact, he sometimes likes to mimic what his partners are used to, both to make them more comfortable as well as to shake things up for himself, so he'll sometimes give himself some tentacles and have a tangle with his boyfriend. Lots of versatility there!

Hope that sated your curiosity, anon! I have made a visual guide (the images here are excerpts and is written in-character which is why the notes are all "!!" y'know 'cause Bill is always "!!") but once again I'm tentative about putting anything outright pornographic on here; would have to know that that's something quite a few people want to see before considering it Also never sure whether to main-tag these or not...will stick with "not" for now :P

~ Mod Emily 🦇

[digitalprophetsworld]

Hiii!!! Important info, but I'm actually working on something for legacy and for a meantime, I'ma share some headcanon I made from the past few days.

- Sometimes Legacy would pretend to play FNAF in real life by imagining all the guests & brawlers as animatronic and act like they're all about to get him and frequently switches camera around like a manic only to get bored afterwards and go back to his phone.

- Legacy would possibly be aware of how popular his brothers is alongside the fact he might know they're in a game or something. (In other words, he's one of the few people who can break the fourth wall)

- Much like R-T, Legacy does know a lot of info about all the Brawlers and their personal life but it's nothing special. It's more like he knows what they like & dislike and their relationships/beef with someone they know rather than knowing their deepest darkest secrets. In other words, he's kinda weird but he's not as scary R-T.

- One of his twin brothers would sometimes force him to leave the security room and make him do a nightly patrol walk around the theme park so he could at least be outside more. Despite Legacy's laziness and attitude he had with their decision, at least there aren't any people around at the theme park and could simply slack off. (Also, this is another way to hide the fact that he's a secret third option since he only goes out when no one is around.)

- Continuing with the night patrol walk hc, Legacy would also get an ordinary flashlight to use so he can spot someone at the dark (Basically giving him two lame items.) There was a time where he actually did find a group of troublemaker trespassing Starr Park, and considering the fact he's a security guard, he made little to no effort scaring them off by calling them out and they immediately ran away. But again, considering his laziness, he didn't bother to go after them and assume they left the theme park as a whole.

- Oddly enough, other people do take him seriously at first due to him being an officer. But what they don't know is that he's a complete pushover. So once they find out that the guy actually doesn't do shit, they just ignore him and continue to fuck around while Legacy stand there and watches as he pretty much lost control over them now.

- Legacy probably wouldn't be good when it comes to romantic relationship. In fact, it would be a mess and leave someone who dated him a sour taste & bitterness toward him. He may or may not care all that much honestly. (Also, I can see him just having the worst luck with girls. The guy probably got a lot of enemies and would spite him if given the chance.)

- Legacy would rarely look at the security monitor and watched over people mostly to entertain himself by doing voiceover and such. (He would also kinda pretend to head squish them through the screen with his finger as well.)

- Somehow, during night time on his patrol walk, people kinda confuse him for Larry until their eyes vision start to pick up and realize he was completely different and flinches upon realization. Legacy just glare at him with an annoyed expression before he scoffed at them and brushed it off.

- He's not friendly and can be standoffish. I can see him being a bit of a dick with an irritated attitude, so he just straight up ignored people who greeted him before being forced to reply back.

- He may not fight & enforce rules, but surprisingly enough, he can protect people and save them. (So I guess he's not that useless, but still.)

- I can imagine that even if Legacy did try to help out, he would have some difficulty or take him a long time to complete a task to the point where one of his siblings decided to take over; thus, making legacy go back inside his security room and do nothing while his brothers do his jobs for him.

- Speaking of which, maybe Legacy was secretly useful in some cases and actually did some work (for ex: he filed out a pack of paperwork. Yes, he was THAT bored to the point he.. actually does his job?!?! 😨😨😨 Anyway, one of his brothers could simply walk in and stand in his position only for R-T to notice them and praises & handshake them for their efforts even though they did nothing. They unintentionally took credits from legacy 😭😭😭)

Pretty long asks, but figure it should keep you waiting for a moment as I work on something for him. I really love this guy and he's so fuckin funny. Poor guy can't catch a break that even his own siblings would pick on him at times💀 (Then again, that's a typical behavior of having siblings.)

THESE ARE LITERALLY HIGHLIGHTS OF MY DAY RN DON'T FEEL BAD. ALSO IM NERVOUS WDYMMMM YOU'RE WORKING ON SOMETHING

I can DEFINITELY see a good chunk of these, especially the whole FNAF thing, and him just lowkey being a dick. He never really takes his job seriously. He tries to entertain himself through the whole FNAF thing, the voiceovers, maybe tryna guess what relationship two people he sees together on the cameras. He makes it a game in order to actually do his job, but of course, he just ends up back on his phone.

AND I WAS LITERALLY THINKING NOT THAT LONG AGO HE'D GET SO BORED HE'D DO SOMETHING RIGHT FOR ONCE 😭😭 Nothing on the cameras is interesting, he's scrolled practically all media by now, so what better thing to do then do some paperwork? And in all honesty, I think he'd TRY to make it look like it was his brother's doing. Not because he cares for them, but so R-T doesn't expect more from him LMAO

Also, he'd definitely be kinda useless in night shifts. Sure, he's scary because no one has ever seen him, but he wouldn't really do much. Just a shout and a wave of his baton, and usually people run. If they don't, he'll just let his brothers handle it. But trust he is DEFINITELY a protector at heart.

Although he doesn't have a tazer like Lawrie or a ticket gun like Larry, his baton can be damn near JUST as ruthless if he has to use it!

And yeah, he's definitely fumbled people. Bad. Especially girls, he cannot pick anyone up they have to come to him LMAOAOAO

[tallsc]

AvA AUs (Virored)

So a little while ago I made a summary of my main AvA/AvM AU/headcanon thing, if you haven't seen it and you want to it's here.

That one is what I use for most things, and I try to keep it close to canon just with a few of my own interpretations and such. If you ask any of the AvA characters anything on my blog, I'm usually going to answer with the one linked above unless you specify that the character is from one of these AUs XD

That said, I have a few smaller, more canon-divergent AUs, generally focused on one or two characters each. And, hey, why not share those too? And since I don't think I have the motivation or ideas to make cohesive stories for all four, I'm going to give you a summary of each!

However since each of these is gonna take some time and be decently long to write, I'm just gonna be posting one at a time - let's say starting with Red's, then Mango's, then Green's, then Dark's. But I will give you this little sketch to make guesses from until the other three are posted :) I'll try to make one a day but no promises there.

Edit: Hehhh nvm I'll make the others some time but idk the exact schedule I'm too busy sorry XD

(Note: All of these operate using my old headcanons for the most part unless otherwise specified, so for example there still isn't shipping in any of these. Haven't decided if the jewelry still applies for any of these but it does it's not very plot important anyway XD)

Virored AU

(originated from a dream)

I have so many dreams about AvA and a few of them ended up having cohesive enough plots that I spent some time to figure them out more and make them into AUs. This was one of them XD

This takes place some time after both AvA 5 and AvM 30, along with it being in a universe where Dark is on Chosen and the CG's side now. There, however, are some existing virobots, who have started running around destroying things now that they're not getting any more commands from Dark's bracers.

Dark, Chosen, and the CG decided to team up to either shut down or outright destroy any remaining virobots, but during one of those fights, Red got bitten.

Now virobots in this AU can get stronger and smarter by eating code, and this guy in particular was pretty successful. So it decided that, instead of deleting Red and probably getting killed by the rest of the CG, it just jumped inside Red's code like how virobots can infest the computer.

Yeah Red's getting possessed for a fourth time, this kid can't catch a break.

But anyways, since the virobot was taking its time doing any actual possession - it's probably harder to take over a living creature anyway - Red and the CG just decided they were very lucky that nothing too bad happened and went home to patch themselves up and rest.

And that night, the virobot took over. Virored escaped back into the internet to continue their destruction and rally together more virobots, they themselves regrowing virobot-like claws and a venomous mandible from the mixed stick-figure-and-virobot code.

The rest of the CG quickly started trying to track Virored down, getting Chosen and Dark's help (although low-empathy Dark was mostly just annoyed that Virored's stealing Dark's old brand -v-) to find and stop them faster. However, this took them quite a while with quite some difficulty, as Virored was fully aware they were likely being tracked and was actively avoiding them.

In the meantime, though, Virored went back to running around rampant and destroying things - even killing people - just this time, with a new body and new intelligence, able to gather more virobots together into a collective swarm.

However, after a few weeks of this - Virored and their swarm invading a town, leaving after whatever destruction they've caused, then the rest of the CG, Dark, and Chosen tracking them there - the group finally cornered Virored.

And, after a battle, Chosen was able to separate Red and the virobot controlling them.

However, this didn't quite lead to everything being solved. For one, during those weeks, the virobot had still been eating away at Red's code. While they kept their mind mostly intact, their physical body was a different story.

Chosen wanted Orange to help with the separation, since Orange has healing powers, but they still had no clue how they were supposed to invoke those since they still had no memory of how it happened last time, so instead Chosen just had to do it themselves (cause that's not Dark's expertise either) and try to make sure Red would still have enough code left to survive.

This left Red, even after some time (and potions from Blue) to recover, with scars wherever the virobot claws and mandible used to be. Scars that, after a few days, began to grow back into the same claws and fang they used to have.

These odd physical traits were the clearest pieces of what the virobot code and time of possession left behind, though Red still had all the memories of what happened during those few weeks. And, as Virored had bitten and killed people before, those weren't exactly the happiest of memories.

But Red still was free from the possession, none of their friends had been bitten during the fight, so there was at least an okay ending there.

I'm pretty sure all the towns and cities banned Red from going back tho

Well idk, hope you enjoyed my weird dream-au ramble, if you wanna know more about it feel free to either ask me or ask the character involved XD If you do ask the character please specify that this is from the AU (and preferably whether it's in the middle of it or in the aftermath) so I know who to respond with tho ^-^

I'll be trying to write the other three soon!

[astrovian]

I miss RA so much when we don't hear much about him for a while. Not in an invasive way, in a "I really like hearing from/about him and when things are quiet or he is solely promoting work, I miss his personality". I wish interviewers were less annoying so I could watch old interviews but so much of the time, they just ask the same questions over and over and it's usually stupid shit like "wow ur tall how did u act in the Hobbit" or stuff that seems to make him (and me) uncomfortable like commenting on the "Armitage army" or making comments about his appearance. I think he's an interesting guy! Let me hear what he has to say about actually interesting topics! This is prompted by nothing particular but you're the only active RA blog I follow and I felt like I needed to commiserate.

I think we all feel that way anon 😭

I've said before that (in general) the questions asked by interviewers tend to be very relative & a bit boring - which, in all fairness, I can understand *a bit*. as much as we love him (and he should), he doesn't really have the brand recognition to the point where I would expect most people in a random survey of the population to know who he is just by name. so interviewers are naturally going to ask a lot more of the 'basic' questions - tbh I think most of them still go "oh, it's that guy from The Hobbit" in terms of how much they expect the reader to know. so yeah, it's shitty, but I guess I can understand where they're coming from in terms of doing their job. I don't agree with it but I can understand it

in all fairness as well, he has said in the past that the reason he doesn't so many interviews is because it's not his thing & he doesn't really enjoy them - he's said being on talk shows just really isn't in his nature, which I think most of us introverts can 1000% understand & sympathize with

but this is also why I've said in the past I wish someone would interview him using internet-submitted questions (like Audible did once). or just like - even an interview done by a fan. because while I'm sure that kind of thing would make him uncomfortable (re: because I think there's an assumption that all the questions would then be about his personal life) but at the same time I can think of so many fucking actual interesting questions just about his fucking acting process and job and characters that I deperately want to know the answers to that aren't the usual "so you're a method actor because you once voluntarily got waterboarded in the early 2000s, right??" 🙄

I wish he had a social media site *like* tumblr (note: not actually tumblr because then I would have to delete this blog 🫠) where like - there was an ask box. like with the sole purpose of us being able to fucking submit actual decent questions & every once in a while he could answer one or two if he wanted to

I feel like asking him questions on twitter is just like... bothering him & his mentions lmao. whereas a dedicated thing like an askbox is different from a mention or DM. it makes it more like a formal submission lol

so yes, I miss hearing from him when he's not doing interviews, posting on social media etc. too because he is a very interesting person & I have lots of questions I'd like answered but I also like to imagine that when he's not active on social media he's enjoying a chill life, sipping mojitos on a beach or doing a puzzle in a cozy cabin - or whatever you like - and enjoying not being at the beck and call of the public (even though I know that's a filthy rotten lie because the man seemingly never stops working in the background and I wish he would like. chill. just for a bit. for his sake.)

which is all to say in an extremely long-winded manner:

yes, when absent, I miss his public presence but also I don't begrudge it because I like to think he's just chilling & enjoying life in the meantime

[veebs-hates-video-games]

The more I play of the modern Ys games the more I think one of their biggest strengths might be that the people in the director/producer roles clearly really know what they're doing and know their teams really well, and they make some really smart decisions about what they are and aren't going to include or attempt to do and how they allocate resources.

They just feel like they know exactly how much time and money they have, exactly what their team's strengths are, and fit exactly as much as they can into that and don't try to do any more or less than that.

Now that I've also played Ys IX: Adol Goes to Goth Jail, it definitely seems like they figured out how to go from making mediocre games to making genuinely good games at some point between Ys Origin and Ys 8. They never quite manage to be the most incredible ever at anything in particular, but they do manage to do nearly everything they attempt to do well and without any major problems.

The series really is just a shonen anime (affectionate). Each game is a different story arc, and it's just guys being dudes going on wacky adventures in different locations, meeting a bunch of zany characters, and saving the day with the power of friendship.

I feel like 8 worked a little bit better overall than 9, but they were both plenty of fun. I actually liked the lack of towns/cities in 8 and focusing more on developing the relationships of the party members and other NPCs on your team instead, and the lack of money was pretty nice too. All the new movement abilities in 9 let them add a bunch of verticality to areas though, which let them do some pretty fun and interesting things sometimes (although some areas turned out better than others).

The problem with having larger areas with moderately high draw distance though is that it just makes the game run like garbage handheld on the Switch sometimes, all while not actually looking any better than 8 did. With the iffy framerate I got waaay fewer perfect dodges/guards in 9 than I did in 8, which is the main reason I never turned up the difficulty to compensate for 9 being otherwise much easier than 8.

Also it's a very confused game politically. I think it wants to say that no side of the conflict is totally correct or justified and there's nuance to it, but it ends up veering into respectability politics sometimes as a result and you shouldn't use physical violence against the people occupying your country because that wouldn't be very polite of you.

But also it feels very strongly that disabled people have just as much value as anyone else, there's nothing wrong with you if you're adopted or even if you're not human, and your experiences and relationships with the people around you make you family and not being blood related.

I think they did a little better at giving Adol a bit more personality this time too. They seemed like they were trying to give him a bit of character in 8 instead of just silent protagonist, but it didn't always do it for me there. I feel like they succeeded a bit better this time around even if he's still a fairly generic shonen protagonist.

They continue to do a good job making the other non-Adol characters fun though. I ended up liking most of them, but usually it was Doll and The Gayest Bartender in the World who stood out to me. I appreciate that while all sorts of people develop crushes or flirt with Adol in these games, he reacts exactly the same no matter what gender they are: complete aroace obliviousness. The only thing Adol is attracted to in that way is Adventure.

I guess now I need to wait a year or two for the next one to get localized and hope it makes it onto the Switch 2 or something in the meantime so it actually runs decently. If you'd told me a year ago that I'd genuinely enjoy the most recent couple games in the series as much as I did and be looking forward to the next one I would've been pretty skeptical, but here we are.

(oh also I lied about succeeding pretty well at everything they tried to do in the game with no major problems. The traps in the prison section are garbage and mostly not fun. They're clearly aware of it too because they included the option to skip those sections)

[fantasticcloudcreation]

[silly rant don't bother reading]

Ok so I briefly had a thing with this guy and then turns out he had a gf /they had broken up before we hooked up and then we texted for like a few weeks and then I guess they got back together (there was a brief time he mentioned they were going poly which I was like ok and then never heard anything about it / ran into him at a gig a few months ago and he was like yeah she's not into it I'm like ok not surprised let's just hang out and not be weird haha and he was like yeah totally, then never heard back from him lol.) Anyway! Yesterday caught her snooping on my Instagram lmfao! She accidentally liked a post and then immediately unliked it but I still got the notification haha. Wondering what inspired her to be thinking about me yesterday, how she found my account etc. Anyway then I took that opportunity to snoop on her and like, she seems nice idk people are weird I don't really understand a lot of them but you know some people are into certain things 🤷‍♀️ I like myself and my vibe lol. Anyway the silly thing is that she had a few posts further down like bikini posts /clearly sucking in but still like showing ribcage etc, another one like a ~dramatic photoshoot ~ talking about being insecure with her body etc. Idk I don't understand people. Like I'm out here ranting about feelings on Tumblr which is one kind of weird haha but I'm not gonna be out there posting bikini shots on Instagram talking about feeling insecure like I Am insecure that is why my body rarely makes an appearance on public channels 😂 Also, thinking about how I've gained 20 pounds and can't wait to lose it. Always thinking about it. Never goes away. Like I can eat normally now /can't even restrict like I used to even if I wanted to/ but dang can't wait to lose 20 pounds... Not sure how I'm gonna do it this time around now that I can't do the restriction thing anymore. Looking back I realize it was 60% Adderall / 20% dance classes / 20% college thesis stress haha. Anyway maybe next year will be a new year with new methods - active job, minimal food, etc. Plus 5 years older than when I hit my low weight so that makes it harder. Plus alcohol vs weight etc. Cigarettes might help, idk. Anyway. Silly that that's always on my brain these days. Wish I was skinny like I used to be. Oh well.

Anyway, still thinking about this guy, I feel like we had potential, wondering if I should try to reach out and text him again or wait til he decides to reach out to me... Wondering if he's over the whole thing already. Maybe they're super happy together idk her posts make it seem like she's super into with him but from the very brief things I heard from him idk if it's totally reciprocated 👀 but that was months ago so who knows! Life is weird! He's cute but I have so many other options idk how to keep up with them all! Why am I always interested in the unavailable ones! That's funny actually it's like the less available someone is the more I find myself liking them. Fear of commitment etc. Plus the thrill of the chase etc. Anyway. Long rant about nothing. Still kinda holding out hope for this guy but if it happens it'll happen and if not I'm still just doing my own thing. Hopefully I can lose 10-15 pounds in the meantime 😂😋

[17caratssi]

Wonwoo! Will you stay

Jeon Wonwoo! A short series pt one | two | three | four

Lub-dub lub-dub lub-dub! It was so close AHHH! That was a bold move! I can't believe he didn't throw me off!!

You're over the moon for the rest of the day. You have been under the weather for some days, and your parents are worried about it. Seeing you like this, they feel at ease.

You begin to anticipate tomorrow. Will your relationship with Wonwoo turn for the better? This is what makes school exciting!

However, Wonwoo feigns ignorance whenever you try to have a conversation with him. It goes on for another two days, and he still has nothing to say to you.

Not to mention, Somi and Umji also avoid talking about him during the break. They never answer your questions regarding Wonwoo, and it put you into a dispiriting mood again.

In the aftermath, you lose concentration during the computer class. In fact, your head is full of him. Your two best friends give you hints about Wonwoo's matter, but they're just superficial.

My mind is a mess.

After the class, you block Wonwoo's seatmate's path and begin questioning- more like interrogating.

"Tell me, is there any problem Wonwoo is having these days?"

Kihyun averts from your scrutiny. He refuses to talk.

"Come on, tell me," you persuade him into confessing. As a seatmate, he must know a tiny bit about Wonwoo. "I won't tell him that it's you who said to me. Sounds good?"

"He's not stupid,"

That's very true. Hmm...

"I will bear the responsibility. Just spill it," you convince him. This time, you're sure you'll get to the matter.

Kihyun sighs.

"A few third-year students have been picking up fights with him. I think Wonwoo was triggered by something they said. By the way, I remind you of a thing,"

"You shouldn't be near to him. You know that he's a scholarship boy, right? There's an unspoken rule here in Sejong High..."

That's your wake-up call. No wonder Wonwoo calls you 'stuck-up rich kid', and now you realize that you might've looked down on him, unintentionally.

He was right. I'm a stuck-up rich kid with no shame.

Although Kihyun tells you all that, you're still on the surface. What has possibly put him off at that time? You want to know more.

As you walk to the cafeteria, Somi and Umji are busy talking about the former's boyfriend.

"My boyfriend's birthday is coming but I don't know what to give him," Somi sounds helpless as she snakes her arms around yours and Umji's.

You don't put your focus on her, so you don't reply.

Umji thinks for a while before sharing her idea. "Your boyfriend is rich enough to buy everything so what if you bake him something? That'd be rather special- at least for me,"

They never stop afterwards. It amuses you that the two has yet to have their topics exhausted. They keep going on!

After getting the snack, the three of you is about to return to class but is stopped by the crowd. They run toward the field.

"The new kid is fighting with a senior!"

"Damn, he's got gut!"

Somi and Umji simultaneously peek at your expression. "Wonwoo? Hey Y/N! Oh my god, don't tell me-"

"Wait for us, Y/N!"

Half of the first-year students watch the fray. Some are cheering for the guy senior, and you panic.

Your imagination runs wild. As much as you hate seeing a fight erupts, you hope Wonwoo isn't the one receiving the senior's blow!

Your small frame slips easily through the throng, and the situation shocks you.

Umji manages to catch you while Somi's being pulled away by her boyfriend. "We better go now!" she gives you a quick pull but you're not moving an inch. She frantically observes the situation and heaves a sigh at the sight of the security.

"WHAT ALL OF YOU DOING HERE?" The security runs faster to the crowd and breaks off the fight. Wonwoo huffs and puffs; showing his dissatisfaction toward the guy he had punched.

The senior has a gang; they help him up. Wonwoo is the one left unattended since he's alone. You watch him from the side and is on the horns of a dilemma.

You know it's no good if you go help Wonwoo now with all the attention directed to him.

Out of the blue, one of the seniors speaks up. "Apologize to Juwon and we'll act nothing happened just now," It's obvious he's intended to embarrass Wonwoo in front of many students.

He smirks when his words hit the target. Mutterings are loud in the air as the audiences express their opinions.

"Wonwoo, don't apologize!" you yell. Your voice was loud enough for the circle to pay heed to you. You cower as a response and Umji slaps your arm.

The senior snickers and voices out again."Boy, you better give in to him. His father is a person you couldn't afford to offend,"

Juwon slouches against his friend and finally says something at his friends. "If he doesn't want to admit defeat, we can take this matter to the teachers. Let's see if this parasite can win against me," he sneers.

The involved parties are eventually called to the office. You insist to accompany Wonwoo and he has nothing to say about it.

"I'm on your side, Wonwoo! Don't be scared of them. If anything happens, I'll protect you!" your fingers clench and you look up to Wonwoo who's quiet since the row had ended. Little did you know, he takes a quick glance right after you turn your head.

'Just what this meek creature can do...'

-

The time in the office feels tedious. Wonwoo hates the rich kids that are only good at blabbering and settle everything with their parent's standings.

"I won't call my parents just for this trivial matter but I have one condition,"

The teachers think the senior makes a great deal with Wonwoo, and since they don't want to be visited by the superior parents they push him to seize the offer.

You and Wonwoo leave the place as soon as they agreed with the deal. Wonwoo remains silent.

"They're so childish! That's more like punishment," you huff with your arms crossed. You can't believe the senior wants Wonwoo to be the ball boy for the basketball club.

"Why do you like to intervene?"

"Huh?" you stutter. This is the first time you get to hear his voice today.

"To be honest, I don't know,' you shrug. Your body and mind seem to be unallied when it comes to him. Even the latter warns you to not get entangled with other's business, the former just ignores and go with it.

"By the way, don't you think the senior is more stuck-up than me?" You ask excitedly as you lean to him and wait for his response. You want to change the impression he has about you.

Wonwoo takes in the view in front of him as he faces your question. Surprisingly, he feels less irritated by it.

He slows down his walking pace as he takes notice of yours. Wonwoo holds his hands at his back and fakes a thought.

After enjoying the hopefulness in your eyes, he gives the answer. "It seems like it," he says.

Due to the revelation from Wonwoo himself, you cover your mouth in excitement. Wonwoo watches as you turn tomato from his word and walks ahead.

In a hurry, you ask. "So you'll naturally sign up with the basketball club?" He raises his shoulder slightly and then nods.

Your heart soars louder and unintentionally, it echoes across the hallway. "Got it! I'm coming too!"

Since then, your life has revolved around Wonwoo. Occasionally, he would ask for personal spaces, and even though his changes are almost negligible, you don't mind.

Being around him the whole day is fun. You get to know his habits, his favourite food and drink, or basically all about him. Not, you do seem like an ordinary girl chasing after a guy.

Wonwoo, on the other hand, feels like he has a friend. He ghosts you daily, but your presence fills a spot next to him.

The two of you get accepted into the basketball club. Every Tuesday, Wonwoo will stay at school for two hours to be the ball boy. Not that everyone tries to be silent about it, but there's this girl who keeps waiting for the guy.

She's pretty, and her hair compliments her exquisite, doll-like features.

She never pays attention to other guys as if her eyes are glued to the ball boy. The green-eyed seniors want to embarrass Wonwoo even more because of that.

"Hey ball boy, the bottles are empty. Refill them!" the senior who took Wonwo's punches shouts. You quickly get up and help Wonwoo. "Let me help!"

Wonwoo lets you take 2 bottles as he carries the other 6. "Go home after we go back,"

"Why? I want to stay with you,"

Wonwoo has no idea whether you intended to flirt with him or casually announced that, but surely, he is flustered.

He regains composure and gives a response.

"What a dimwit," the seniors are gawking at you, and you overlook that?

He wishes he could deliver that very sentence, but he may sound jealous. Well, I'm not.

"I'm here to protect you, didn't I say that before? So, stop pushing me away cuz I won't leave you."

You don't realize that your attendance by Wonwoo's side just creates another problem for him. His workload increases by tenfold due to the green-eyed seniors.

Once the game is over, Wonwoo fulfils his duty and cleans the court. In the meantime, you listen to songs on the bench.

Wonwoo has done a lot of work and this is one nothing to him. He finishes just when everyone exits the place. He thinks that you might have returned home. You aren't there when he checks out the place you've been sitting at.

Only when he walks out the hall that he accidentally eavesdrops on the conversation between you and the seniors.

He could guess the topic and he looks at the corner. If he steps just a bit forward, they will see him. And he does that.

Shoving his hands into his pockets, he then presents himself.

"Just say no if you don't want to be his girlfriend. Don't waste your time,"

Enlightened, you turn the senior down and run to Wonwoo. You complain at how bad his proposal was and Wonwoo chuckles.

"What do you do at the weekend?" as you wait for your chauffeur, you build a conversation with him.

Wonwoo isn't a person to be so friendly with someone. He thinks for a while as he contemplates to answer the question.

"Study in the library,"

Wonwoo is a smart student, and his answer doesn't come off as a surprise to you. "I've never been to a library before. I meant in this area but which one do you frequent?"

There are only two libraries in the area, and Wonwoo has only been to the small one since it's closer.

"Ooh, OK then." swiftly, you take a note of it. Just right after that, you see your family car drifts into the parking lot. "Oh! My car's here. I have to go now." you wave at him in a distance and shout. "Don't stay too long under the sunlight! Bye-bye!" then you disappear into the car.

When you arrive at the library on Saturday, you quickly scan the area for him. Lucky you the place is just up to your energy to find him.

You stride from one isle to another. It's probably the physics section when you find a familiar back.

"Hey," you whisper from the back. Wonwoo is so immersed in his reading and you bet he wouldn't have noticed you if you hadn't appeared before him after that call.

With a cheeky smile, you say. "Let's go out,"

He examines the surroundings and realizes that you come alone. "What are you doing here?" his volume is practically below scolding to avoid making a fuss in the quiet place.

"You ask too much! Come on," You jog to his side and help him pack his stuff.

"I only ask once, and I did not agree to you,"

Not bringing too many necessities, you wind up less than a minute. "Shh... Just come with me, will you?"

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

If you like this story, you might as well check out the others here !

[join-the-joywrite]

Take my hand (take my whole life too)

"We played the Oprheum!"

The bouncing hug only lasted a second or two. While the boys regained a significant amount of lost strength, Julie's was slowly dwindling. She was, after all, only human and was out of home way later than usual. Her own internal clock seemed to be screaming at her to at least sit down.

Instead, she went down with the boys as her foot caught on a cable and she stumbled to the floor.

Alex made for a soft landing, one for which her apology was littered with giggles. Alex didn't mind. The slight pain was welcome in comparison to Caleb's jolts. Not to mention, he'd wanted to hug Julie ever since she cried during her not-so-private performance of her mother's song weeks ago. So he lay on the floor and squished Julie tight, only bringing forth more giggles.

"Hey, my turn!" Reggie yelled, rolling over and dropping himself half on Julie, fully on Alex.

"Oof," Luke commented, "that looks like it hurt."

"It did," Alex wheezed, adjusting himself to get used to the additional weight.

As one, all three of them held out an arm to Luke, who didn't hesitate to scoot closer and join the cuddle pile. Head on Alex's shoulder, he was right in front of Julie. He gave her a smile that, had she been standing, would've probably made her lose her balance. She gave him one back.

"I like this," Reggie murmured contentedly, closing his eyes.

"Yeah," Julie agreed, relishing in the fact that she could finally hug her boys, "me too."

They stayed like that for a moment before Alex sat up with great difficulty, sending them all tumbling. "You're all very heavy," he stated by way of explaining.

Julie chuckled and moved to stand up. Luke and Reggie grabbed one of her arms each.

"Stay," both whined. Reggie continued with a grin. "I promise I can be a soft pillow for you."

"I'd love to, honestly, but Carlos is waiting for me. He wanted to talk to me and. . ."

"Fine," Reggie huffed, "but just know that I'm feeling incredibly hurt right now."

Julie ruffled his hair, grinning when he closed his eyes and smiled under her touch. "There's always tomorrow."

Still, all three of them pouted when Julie stood up and righted her clothes.

"I'll see you guys in the morning," she said before walking to the doors. She paused just before closing it. "Thank you, guys."

Alex gave her a wave. Luke smiled at her with a dopey expression. Reggie continued to pout.

Julie bounded up the pathway, gait as giddy as her smile. Carlos was waiting for her in the living room.

"Hey," she said, joining him on the couch.

"Hey."

"Whatcha got there?" she asked, nodding to the paper Carlos' hands were clamped around. "Another French dip recipe?"

Carlos shook his head. "You know what this is."

"I . . . really don't."

"Your band! They're--!" Carlos stopped and glanced around looking for their father. He leaned across the vouch and whispered to Julie with wide eyes, "ghosts."

Julie forced a laugh. "What? No, don't be silly, there's no such thing as ghosts."

Carlos lifted his eyebrows. "Okay, then explain this."

Julie picked up the little black and blue page Carlos tossed to the middle of the couch, recognising it as a CD insert. For Sunset Curve. Julie's own eyebrows lifted slightly, but she continued to pretend like she hadn't a clue what was happening. Then she turned it over and knew the jig was up. Staring up at her was all four members of Sunset Curve. Trevor, or Bobby, sure looked different when he was younger.

"They're just lookalikes--"

"I'd believe you if they were here and we could touch them."

The idea of being able to hold and hug her bandmates brought a warm smile back to Julie's face. She quickly wiped it off and shook her head. "Where'd you even find this?"

"In the box with the French dip recipe."

"Ah."

Carlos suddenly looked around wildly. Julie looked around too.

"What? What happened? What are we looking for?"

"Are they here?"

"What? No, they're in the garage--"

"Aha!" Carlos grinned and folded his arms. "You're a terrible liar, Jules."

"Wh-- I am not!"

"You are, though."

Julie jumped slightly and moved away from Reggie. Carlos noticed and immediately turned his gaze where Julie looked. "Are they here now? Tell them I say hello!"

Julie rolled her eyes. "They can hear you, dork -- and it's just Reggie."

"Tell him that I say hello."

"Reggie says hello," Julie said, heaving a resigned sigh. "What are you doing here? I told you I'd see you in the morning."

"I knew it," Carlos whispered to himself as he watched his sister talk to thin air. She looked, in all honesty, a bit insane, but at least he knew he was right about the ghosts. "So how does the ghost thing even work? How come I can't see him now, but we can all see them when you play?"

Julie whipped her head from Reggie to Carlos. "It -- I'll explain it all tomorrow, okay? It's been a long day. Reggie, go back to the studio. Carlos, to bed. It's late."

"All right," Carlos grumbled, sliding off the couch. He paused at the stairs and glanced back to see Julie scolding nothing. He hoped he'd get to officially met the guys. Julie made them seem fun.

"All right, little man, what do you wanna hear?"

Julie repeated the question to Carlos, letting him know that it was Reggie who asked.

Carlos thought for a moment. "I like the song you were singing before you got back into the music program."

"Oh, that's not our song, that -- that--"

"No, it's okay," Luke said, "I'm sure we can work something out."

"I -- okay."

Carlos sat down on the couch, almost bouncing with excitement as Julie took a seat behind the piano. The melody she played wasn't loud and energetic like their usual songs. It was quiet and gentle. Even when the band kicked in, they were much softer than usual. Julie hummed along where the words should be so that Carlos could easily speak to the boys.

"I'm--"

"Wait!" Carlos said, jumping off the couch, cutting Luke off. "I'm gonna guess based on what Julie says about you."

"You talk about us?" Luke asked with a teasing grin.

Julie hit a particularly furious note. "Shut up."

"Luke, Reggie and Alex," Carlos said, pointing to the correct band member as he went.

"Nice, little man!"

"This is so cool," Carlos whispered, eyes widening when Reggie paused playing and knelt down for Carlos to stick his hand through Reggie's arm. "Woah."

The band noticed that they were very intangible to Carlos.

Luke was only slightly disappointed when Carlos chose to focus his attention on Alex next.

"I like your hoodie."

"Thanks," Alex said, beaming. "Here, you wanna try?"

"Nah, I don't play music . . . okay, maybe a little."

Julie laughed softly as she watched Alex stand and then point where Carlos should hit. To keep them from disappearing, she continued the piano. Luke kept up with his guitar, grinning at her all the while. Their little musical conversation didn't go unnoticed by Reggie and Alex, who shared a knowing glance before Carlos grabbed Alex's attention.

"Have you ever accidentally stabbed your drums through with the sticks?"

"No, and please do not do that. We have no idea what it costs to repair dead instruments."

Carlos handed the drumsticks back to Alex and hopped off the chair. He stood in front of Luke, who knelt down as Reggie had done.

"So. You're the one my sister has a crush on."

"Carlos!" Jullie yelled, standing up and slamming down about five wrong keys.

"It was nice meeting you," Carlos yelled as he fled the garage.

With her face burning, Julie chased him down.

Alex and Reggie did their best not to laugh. They really did. But the shell-shocked look on Luke's face was hilarious. Even the withering glare Luke sent them didn't help quieten their laughter.

Up in the house, Ray Molina thought he was about to witness a wrestling match. "Julie! What are you doing?"

Julie, who suddenly realised there was no way to explain why she was attacking Carlos without either sounding like a lunatic or exposing the phantoms to her father, slowly slid down to the ground.

Carlos sat up on the couch. "Julie has a crush on Luke! Julie has a crush on Luke! Julie has a--"

"Oh, that is it!"

Perplexed, Ray watched Julie spring back on the couch with a war cry, followed by a pained, "How could you say that in front of him?!"

"Who's Luke?"

Carlos, seemingly determined to ruin Julie's life, broke out from her seeking arms and grinned at Ray. "The beanie boy in her little boyband--"

"CARLOS!"

"Julie," Ray said, a playful warning edge creeping into his voice as he folded his arms, "is there something you want to talk about?"

"No! Not at all! Excuse me, I have to go, um, rehearse!"

"Rehearse?" Ray exchanged an amused grin with Carlos. "What for?"

"Uh, future gigs? You know, since we played the Orpheum, we might get like a ton of calls and -- oh, like this, see?" As Julie held up her phone, both Ray and Carlos saw Flynn's name, but both decided to give Julie a small reprieve. In the meantime, Carlos could fill Ray in about this little crush business.

"You are not going to believe what just happened," Julie said, taking the stairs two at a time. "I took Carlos down to the garage to meet the guys, you know, 'cause he figured them out and he wanted to meet them, but then he told Luke I have a crush on him and I ended up chasing Carlos back to the house 'cause I didn't want to stay in the garage with Luke -- and Alex and Reggie -- and then my dad caught us fighting on the couch and then Carlos told my dad that I have a crush on Luke and my life is over!"

Flynn took a moment to respond. "Well . . . it's not like he's wrong, is he?"

"Flynn!" The wail that Julie threw into her pillow as she face planted her bed was equal parts betrayed and mortified. "How am I supposed to show my face at practice now? Can I come and bury my head in the sand at your place?"

Flynn laughed over the phone. "Grow up, Jules. You turned Nick down for this air cutie. Nick. You made your choice, now live with it."

"Flynn," Julie growled.

"Okay, okay. Look, you have to talk about it at some point. There's no way you can have that kind of fire on stage without some mutual attraction, and that's just Luke and Reggie. Then there's Luke and you. Jules, that's not even a fire anymore. There is something serious between you two and even though I still think it's a bad idea because he's, you know, air, I still think you need to talk about it before the wrong thing blows up."

"I know," Julie sighed. "I can handle Luke -- I think. It's my dad I'm worried about. How do I explain it all without him wanting to take me to a shrink?"

"Don't tell him anything. Show him. Maybe with a little less flair than you did with me. Play him something soft. Like . . . wasn't your mom in a couple of bands when she was our age? Maybe he'd know one of her songs. Maybe if you guys played something of hers, he'll have enough of his head around him to know it's all real, but enough of it will be in the clouds that it'll be easy to explain."

Julie stared at her phone, at the contact photo she had of Flynn. "You are a genius."

"I know. So, I was just calling to ask how you're holding up, but I'm going to assume everything is fine and the guys didn't cross over?"

"Yeah, no, it was really weird. Caleb's curse just sort of . . . broke, I guess, after I hugged them."

"Wait, hold up. You hugged them? What was that like, arms hanging in the air and hoping you were touching?"

Julie sighed a happy sigh. "We have a lot to talk about."

"I'll be there for dinner, no excuses -- and I expect your dad to know what's going on by then."

Julie rolled over and muffled a groan of despair into her pillow.

"Rough day?"

"It's only ten," Julie whined, lifting her head to give Alex her sad eyes.

Alex smiled. "You'll be fine -- I mean with your dad thing. With Luke on the other hand. . ."

Julie faux sobbed into her pillow, eliciting a soft chuckle from Alex, who sat down on her bed. He reached out for her shoulder then quickly drew back. Ever since Julie left the garage last night, it had been on his mind -- on all their minds -- that the hug was a one-time thing. He didn't want to confirm their fears if they were right.

"Hey, it's okay, Jules."

Julie let out a strangled wail that took Alex a few seconds of clamping his mouth shut to avoid laughing at the poor girl.

"I'm serious. You know, Luke, he . . . he's not great with feelings. He talks with music, with songs, with lyrics. He says the most important things when he looks at you on stage or at a rehearsal or when you're writing music together. He's just scared. I mean, we all are, but him most."

Julie sat up, hugging her wail-pillow to her chest. "You sound like you're speaking from experience."

Alex shrugged. "All I'm saying is, give him a chance -- and give Carlos a break. Honestly, he might have just done you a favour."

"I cannot believe you're taking Carlos' side."

"I'm not! I'm not, I'm just -- things are already complicated. How much worse can they get?"

Julie sighed. "I don't know. . ."

"Well, it's not like Luke does either. He's locked himself in the bathroom and Reg and I think he's been crying in the bathtub this whole time. We'd phase through the door but Luke can actually hit us if he wants to so. . ."

"Oh, and you think I can't?" Julie teased.

The two shared an amused grin, but beneath it, both were thinking the same thing. What if she couldn't?

"All right, I'll tall to him. But you and Reggie have to leave."

Julie ventured into the empty garage. She looked around for Reggie and Alex, unsure if she was relieved or not when she didn't find them. Up in the loft, they watched Julie disappear as she headed further in towards the bathroom door.

She knocked gently. "Luke?"

Silence.

"Come on, I know you're in there. Alex says you've locked yourself in and won't come out."

"I'm not Luke."

"Okay, but I need to talk to Luke so can you pass on the message for me?"

"I'll let him know."

Julie smiled, finding Luke's behaviour somewhat amusing. She leaned against the door. "I'm sorry about Carlos, he . . . he just really enjoys embarrassing me in front of people. I guess he figured since you guys can't really speak to other people, you'll have to talk to me and we'll all have to confront whatever he said so that's why he picked you to tease and --" Julie broke off with a sigh.

The bathroom stayed silent.

"And I'm sorry for running out after him. I was just . . . I was afraid of what you'd say."

When Luke spoke again, though his voice was much softer, it was also much clearer. As if he were closer to the door. "Why? Was he . . . telling the truth? Did you say something?"

Julie fidgeted with the sleeves on her yellow jersey. "No, but I'm not exactly the most subtle person and if you haven't noticed, I suck at lying."

Luke laughed softly. "Oh, we noticed. Everyone knows you're a horrible liar."

"Thanks," Julie said with a grin, "I mean, I really just came here to affirm what a bad liar I am."

"Ooh, sarcastic too."

"Shut up."

"Well?" Luke said after a moment of silence. "Was he?"

Julie leaned against the door and sighed. "What does it matter? It's not like anything would come of it."

"It does matter, Jules. It -- it matters because -- well, I mean, you matter. To me."

"I know," Julie said softly, turning so that her back was against the door. "It sucks, doesn't it?"

"Not all of it sucks," Luke murmured from the other side of the door. "We could find a way. You've already done so much that no other lifer ever has, as far as anyone knows. Why stop there?"

Julie laughed. "Your ambition is very inspiring, Luke, but everything has a limit."

"So find that limit, then. You'll never know how high it is if you stop now."

Julie felt something brush her hand and glanced down to see Luke's arm phasing through the door. She wanted to reach for his hand but she was afraid she'd just pass through him. So she made a joke instead.

"You do realise that a floating arm is way more unsettling than anything else ghosts have ever done, right?"

"How's a floating head?" Luke asked, pulling his hand back and leaning forward. He gave Julie a grin. "That's always scary, right?"

"Stop it, that's weird."

Neither noticed that Julie had managed to make physical contact with Luke until after she'd shoved him back into the bathroom.

"If I come out there, are you going to poke me in the eyes again?"

"First of all, I didn't," Julie said, appreciating that Luke wasn't reacting with the panicked excitement she felt. "Second of all, I'll try not to."

"Okay, but if you do, I'm really going back into the bathtub."

Julie twisted her fingers and wrung her wrists and bounced nervously as she waited for Luke to step through the door.

"Can we try that again?" Luke asked, holding out both hands to her.

The scene felt vaguely familiar to Julie, and everything came crashing down when her hands passed through Luke's once and then twice.

"You're nervous," Luke said softly, "there's no need to be. You didn't think last time. You weren't nervous."

"I can't. I don't know what it is--"

"Yes, you do. You know it's not us doing anything. You're the one with all the magic, Jules."

Nervous but now confident, Julie tried once again. She thought she'd be able to walk on water whe she felt Luke's hands close around her own. The smile he gave her was the usual dopey look she always noticed him wearing around her.

"See? It's all you."

Julie squeezed his hands, almost like she was afraid she wouldn't be able to hold on much longer. "I like this," she murmured.

"Hey, Jules?"

"Yeah?"

Luke watched her eyes widen the tiniest bit as she gave him a questioning look. "Uh, do you -- about what Carlos said . . . We will talk about that, right?"

"Yes. I promise. Just . . . later?"

"Okay." Just the promise was enough for Luke. Besides, he could hold her, now. He could hold her hand, brush her hair out of her face, hug her. He could even flick her nose or tug her curls to annoy her, nudge her around when she didn't laugh at his jokes. And if -- he hoped she did -- but if she didn't feel the same way he did, then being able to be her best friend and just high five her now and then would still be enough. She wasn't just out of reach anymore.

Ayeeeee this just be sitting in my notes??? I found it like this??? All it needed was a title??? Speaking of, I might change that title and steal it for a sad fic oop

[blackhakumen]

Mini Fanfic #885: A Lazy Birthday Celebration (King of Fighters)

11:45 a.m. at K's Team's Apartment.........

'Party Blower'

Maxima/Kula: Happy Birthday, K' Dash!!!

K': ('Starts Yawning Loudly Stretching his Arms) Shit.......(Begins to Scratch his Head) I have an actual birthday?

Maxima: (Happily Nodded) Yep. (Creates a Typed in Hologram From his Eye Sensors) It says here that you were born on November 8th, the second Monday of the month. It's the only thing from your past that I was able to find at the moment, so I hope it's good enough to suffice.

K': (Takes a Look at the Written Hologram) Hm......(Shrugs) Eh. Seems pretty legit to me. Thanks.

Maxima: (Smiles Brightly) It's no problem at all, partner. Kula and I also got you a birthday cake when we were out this morning.

K': (Looks Down at the Cake Sitting on the Living Room Table) Ah. So that's why I haven't seen you two around earlier....

Kula: (Happily Nodded) Mmhmm. We went to the store to get you the most delicious cake ever!~

Maxima: (Smiles Sheepishly) We.... didn't really know what kind of cake you would want as the time, but Kula insisted that we get the Chocolate Lava Cake.

Kula: I wanna taste the gooey part.

K': Well, you two can go at it if you want. (Makes His Way to the Living Room Sofa While Yawning) In the meantime, I'm going back to sleep.

Maxima: Again? But you just woken up. Don't you wanna go out in the city and do something that could actually be worth your time?

K': Nah. I can do that any other day.

Maxima: (That's what you said yesterday....and the day before that....and etc.) ('Sigh') Look, K', I know you like doing nothing but being lazy all the time, but this is your birthday. A day where you get to celebrate another year of getting older and being alive. And now that we've found a bit of new information involving around your past, that has to at least motivate yoh to do something special for the occasion, right?

K': (Already Fast Asleep on the Sofa) Zzzzzzzzzzz.......

Maxima: (Has a Deadpinned Look on his Face) Annnnnnd he's already asleep. ('Sigh') Great.....Can you believe this right now, Kula?...Kula?

Kula: (Starts Stretching and Yawning on the Sofa)

Maxima: (Eyes Widened in Disbelief at the Girl Laying Down on the Sofa) YOU'RE GOING TO BACK TO SLEEP TOO!?

Kula: (Nodded) Mmhmm. It is K's Birthday after all. If he wants to take a nap, then.....('Yawn') we should....join....him......(Finally Falls Asleep Peacefully) Zzzzzzzzzzz........

Maxima: (Stares at the Sleeping Duo For a Brief Second Before Pinching his Nose and Sighing Once More) I'll get the blankets.....

'Knock Knock Knock'

Maxima makes his way to the door and opens it too see Shingo and Rock with presents and a cake of their own in each of their hands

Shingo: (Smiles Brightly) Hiya, Mr. Maxima! How's it going?

Rock: (Smiles Softly) Is K' and Kula are still in here by any chance?

Maxima: (Smiles Softly at the Duo) Hey, guys. Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the kiddos already went back to sleep.

Rock: Seriously?

Shingo: But it's K's Birthday today!....It... really is his birthday today, isn't it?

Maxima: It is, but apparently the Birthday Boy decided to sleep in for the rest of the day.

Shingo: ('Sigh') That's K'Dash for ya...But why is Kula asleep as well?

Maxima: Just cause.

Shingo: Right.......

Rock: ('Sigh') Well, if that's the case, I guess we don't have any reason to stay here any longer. (Gives Maxima the Cake) You think you could give K' this cake for us? Mary helped bake it for us last night?

Shingo: (Happily Gives Maxima Two Gift Bags) And here's his presents. They're not really much, but I hope he likes them.

Maxima: (Takes a Look Inside the Bags and See Two...) Beef Jerkies?

Shingo: (Smiles Sheepishly) It's..the only thing we know that he likes. He....does like to eat beef jerky from time to time, does he?

Maxima: Oh yeah. He eats them almost all the time actually.

Shingo: ('Sighs a Bit in Relief') Okay. That's a relief.....It took us two and a half days to figure out what that guy likes.....

Rock: (Nodded in Agreement)

Maxima: ('Sigh') Yeah...He can be pretty hard to figure out at times.... Especially in the interest department...(Smiles Softly) Still, I can't thank you boys enough for all of this. And don't worry K' and Kula. I'm sure you all will have the chance to hang out again tomorrow. Or whenever the kid decided to wake up for real this time....

Rock: (Smiles Sheepishly as Well) I.... wouldn't be too surprised of it's not the latter...But in the meantime, it's time for us to get going now. (Walks Away)

Shingo: (Happily Waves Goodbye to Maxima) Hope you have yourselves a good day today, Mr. Maxima!

Maxima: (Waves at the Boys Back) Thanks. See ya! (Uses One Hand to Closes the Door Before Sighing) Honestly....(Turns Back at the Kids Sleeping) I can't believe he would rather spend the entire day sleeping than celebrating his birthday.....

K'/Kula: Zzzzzzzzzzz.......

Maxima: ('Sigh') But.......(Smiles Softly) As long as it makes him happy, then I guess that's all it matters in the scheme things. (Makes his Way to the Kitchen) I should really tell Whip and the others to call off the surprise party before they come here.....

Happy Birthday K' Dash! (I think)

@theweebmaster31

@illyrilex

@caleb13frede

@keyenuta

@ma-lemons

@cyber-wildcat

@kingoffighters

[paper-cloud]

i. the crushing weight of what happens next

part of "(there will be a) tomorrow"

fandom: prospect (2018) characters: ezra, cee rating: T words count: ~3K context: post-canon general warnings/tags: see series masterlist warnings/tags for this chapter: ezra's pov. angst. not graphic descriptions of wounds, blood and amputated limbs. mentions of minor characters' death. (probably very) inaccurate but anyways vague descriptions of medical treatments and post-anesthesia symptoms. taglist: @ravensmutty @buttercup--bee @thegreenkid (again, thank you all for your interest and encouragement! :3) @krissology @ezrasarm @bonktime (please forgive my nerve, i won't tag you in the next chapters unless you'll explicitly ask me to! just thought about someone else who might be interested and you guys are AMAZINGLY talented and inspiring "prospect"/ezra writers. it's not my intention to waste precious moments of your time! 🤡

[SERIES MASTERLIST] [MAIN MASTERLIST]

He'd have thought it was almost ironic – opening his eyes to the light only to see nothing. To feel pain.

He'd have laughed about it, most likely. A bit later, he'd have acknowledged it was a reasonably fair compromise; for him and any other wretch that'd ever dared play dice with darkness and miraculously made it out alive.

And in the very end he'd come to laugh at himself, too.

He knows the drill. Someone who trades their own life with the contract of the highest bidder doesn't see the universe in black and white, let alone is in a position to draw the hypothetical line between the two of them.

Must be an even more wicked universe than he's ever cared about, then.

At least, that's where the struggle of opening his eyes made him stumble upon; when a blade of light thrust through that hint of a gap he'd pushed himself to create in the middle, resonating through the dark coils of unconsciousness like a harsh, unforgiving bell.

A skilled mariner over silky rivers of natural redundancy and rapids of professional edges, Ezra is a man who can appreciate a sharp wit when he recognizes one.

That was too much even for him.

Floundering in between a blinding whiteness and a black hole that wasn't even completely black, but permeated by a thick, suffocating haze that filled every ghost haunting his mind with its stench. With the color of diabolically lush leaves.

Forest— spores— poison— death.

It hadn't been enough to let him dangle in apnea above a roaring vortex of lifeless emerald; take him away from the grey flow whose elusiveness he'd come to appreciate more than he'd ever hated to endure its chaos— from the bubble built on the routine series of one last jobs that, in the end, never really were.

There'd been a moment when, from the higher parts of the room, his pupils tumbled down, tripping over a patch of green discreetly lurking in a corner.

He almost threw up.

It had taken him a while to clear out the misty grit clotted in his corneas— focus on white walls, light wood paneling... a harmless seedling in a pot.

He'd breathed heavily, deeply. He sure hadn't got much relief from it. Still, he'd been able to hear its sound, louder than he'd ever heard it before, the musical, cooling mesh of oxygen particles in and out of his lungs almost begging his fingers to be touched.

Oxygen.

Fresh air.

Had he been less sore – less convinced it was just the residual effects of anesthesia pulling pranks on him –, he would have burst out laughing. Even more so if some poor soul of the medical staff nearby would have called for reinforcements from the other side of the space station before storming into his room.

He'd be laughing now, too. The best he can manage is sitting on his bed, leaning his back on the headboard – which is what he's struggling to do right now— and well, sometimes the room lighting still slightly bothers him. Of course, with all the painkillers and antibiotics they've given him, he wouldn't feel like the wound on his stomach is swallowing the entire arsenal of stitches and bandages.

He just wouldn't like her to get the wrong idea.

He blinks several times, like a man who no longer trusts his eyes. How can he, when they're burning like that, in such a different fire from the one from days before – damp and flickering? For reasons he can imagine, she seems to be faltering. Totally beyond his comprehension, he could swear she's smiling at him. Something inside his ribcage creaks oddly, while the curve of his chest arches upward.

"Birdie."

It's just a huff of breath, weak and hoarse, yet scratches his throat all the same, in a way that its walls feel studded with rock spurs. Actually, Ezra doesn't remember talking since they left the Green behind – which, being him, is saying something – and it's like an eternity has passed since their pod docked up there.

The nurse who let her into his room has just left and Cee sinks her hands into the pockets of her sweatpants. She's still smiling— just the faded shadow of a smile, now that he takes a better look at her.

"How's your wound?"

It sounds a lot less plain than he expected.

She hasn't moved towards him any further, and for now she's not showing any hints at wanting to. In her irises, Ezra recognizes thumping stars and cerulean clouds, all clustered in the black circle cut by the large porthole next to his bed. All before catching the thin mist veiling them. As if she did want to reach those stars, let herself get carried away by those streams of bluish dust, but she had no idea how or what to do there.

He looks down, the borders of the bandages over his abdomen slightly raised under his black short-sleeved tee. He clears his throat.

"S'healin' nicely", he says, with a deliberate lightheartedness that costs him a sharp, bizarre inflection in his voice. He closes his eyes soon after, tilting his head condescendingly. "That's how the nurse feels about it, anyway... S'not like I can feel much more right now."

This reminds him of those vacuous moments between brief, chaotic waking states and delirious dreams. When he'd managed to reconnect some essential key points scattered around in the talks of surgeons and nurses; the weariness he felt from simply gathering he was on a space station due to enter the orbit of Mesos in three cycles and something standard hours. All while his only solid reference point – the only indisputable proof he was still alive – was the sequence of beeps chirped by the medical monitor perched nearby. Constant, not monotonous. Friendly, even. Sometimes, he actually comes to miss it.

"A trust fall to the extreme, I'd guess", he snorts, a sly laugh as weak and heavy as the words trudging out of his mouth. As the whole rest of him.

Whatever answer she's considering, Cee freezes it in a quick purse of her lips – maybe a nod, but for his own good he'd rather be doubtful. Then she starts looking around.

There's a chair under the board firmly anchored to the opposite wall – probably a desk or something he's never needed to test, whatsoever. She grabs it and puts it next to his bed. She sits down, bringing her legs to her chest, squeezing them in her arms.

Waiting for what, Ezra has no idea, and he's afraid she doesn't have any, either.

He doesn't speak, though, nor does he encourage her to do the same. Her pearly gaze roams steadily but unhurriedly from him to somewhere beyond him, her nose buried in the gap between her knees. He studies her carefully, two purple crescents above her cheeks, a few hair strands swinging down her face without her wiping them out. The nights she's slept through haven't been any more peaceful than his.

Trust, he recalls in the meantime.

It sure brings an odd taste to his mouth. Something close to sweaty spacesuits, grimy paths and gone-off ration bars. A single word for two human beings forced to share the same air filter for days; that, and the image of a dead body left to rot miles behind and the desperate commitment not to end up in the same way.

His gaze just happens to trip over his right side, taking in the deflated sleeve over the emptiness that saved his life. When he lifts it back to the girl, meeting her eyes just before they can flutter away, he realizes they were both looking at the same spot. And he realizes something else— something he's already understood, yet not quite.

There is no tube binding them now.

"Why d'you do it?", he mumbles a split second later, almost like somehow the thread of his question has immediately knotted to the one of his previous thought.

He huffs. He shouldn't even have asked her, in all honesty. Seeing her like this, at least he should have put it in another way, danced around it, it's not like he’s never been good at stalling, after all—

"Comin' back", Ezra says instead, and when he swallows, he mainly does it to send his heart back down his throat. If he'd died without being given the last chance to be this straightforward on this matter, he would have probably kicked his ass all the way to the other side. 

This time, Cee doesn't avoid his gaze. He shouldn't be surprised by how collected she looks, given the calmness she handled his infected arm with and then told him about when she used to slip into Jata Bhalu carcasses. But he can't help it when he thinks she can't be much older now than what she was then.

He watches her breathing in, wobbling her pupils here and there, seemingly considering his words. She's not afraid, not any more than what she seemed to be when she walked into his room. Maybe she's just better than him at playing pretend – but this, he can't tell whether it's more of a good than a bad thing. Especially for her.

One thing he can tell is that she's not the same girl who pointed a trembling gun at him before running away into the woods. He knows she's not afraid.

He knows...

So is it the hunter's instinct he has to blame if he feels she is?

"Guess I've seen too much death on that forsaken moon to just... turn my back on one I can help– one I can do something about."

If he was standing in front of an entire mountain crumbling down into the ocean, he wouldn't hear its sound. ‘Wouldn't even be the worst he deserves. She did hesitate before adding the last few words, but Ezra refuses to believe she did that because she was afraid of hurting him. He may be a wretch, but not a fool.

Kevva, for a man who's always managed to untwist himself from far tougher situations with the tangles of his tongue alone, he's sure having a deal of trouble – and he wishes he could put all the blame on his current physical condition.

There is no word he doesn't have to weigh carefully now, to prevent it from taking too sharp edges once out of his lips. He may float around it forever. But once he's let her go without saying anything, he'll hardly find the courage to look within himself again, more than after any other job that hardened his hands with calluses and tarnished his eyes with blood.

He doesn't know for sure. In fact, everything he was sure to know – about the turning direction of the universe and the one of the wheels in his head – has already collapsed in front of him, tracing a flaming tail. An unforgiving meteor following a trajectory far beyond his grasp.

He just knows silence scares him, in a way that a wrong word will never do again. It terrifies him. More than as a talkative person, as a castaway on a hostile moon for too many cycles to keep their count – with the only company of a mute. Silence is green; the green of the most poisonous pollen, lethal in his brain just like toxic spores enveloped in his lungs. The green of snake scales ready to stand and scratch his flesh until liquid crimson pours out of it.

And at the end of the day, this is the only fucking thing he can tell himself to know without having his guts churning and chest heaving a beat later.

"Stop looking at me like that."

It's more of an exhausted prayer than an annoyed remark. Ezra blinks, stunned by the sudden return from the shapeless stream of his thoughts.

"Like what?"

"Like you're looking for the words to thank me", Cee settles back into her chair and this time she lets one leg touch the floor, "Tell me you owe me, and you– you're sorry about what you did."

Ezra sniffles. "Would it be bad?" 

"No, it—". She closes her eyes for a moment, clenching her jaw. "Just no good", she breathes out, calmer.

And the discordant note in those words conjures up ghosts not yet vague enough for Ezra to be able to tolerate them without something twinging inside him— like a violent flutter of wings. Voices groping their way up ravels of compromises. Damon, deep in the forest. Himself, with the mercenaries in the Queen's Lair. Cee, days before that. After he—

She's right— those words she hasn't said yet, but whose shadow he feels looming every time he catches her wetting her lips.

Some things just can't be split evenly.

"This is not the Green", she states, suddenly more confident but no less exhausted. "If you're going to hang around just because you need to, once we reach Mesos¹ you'd better be on your way."

Ezra doesn't interrupt her. A faded echo starts making its way into his ears. A former prospecting partner, many years ago. An easy job on a forgettable Fringe moon.

Gems don't have an expiration date. Deals do. Strike 'em if you need to, get rid of them as soon as you can. Unless you care to dig a quicker way to your grave.

He didn't pay attention to it, then. He'd thought it was just the empty rhetoric prospectors drop absentmindedly to fill the time between an unrewarding digging and the next. All the more so under the rickety advice of a couple too many.

His eyes still wide open, hands shaky, he merely reciprocated the awkward bottle lift of his partner, whom he didn't know more than the meanders of that quarry. A toast to a faceless future – a nothingness still more reassuring than what was all around and behind them. Not to the darkness of the cave, basically unbreakable if only for the red halo thrown by the twinkles of sharp, sinister Prystines². Not even to the two poor bastards that had set out with them, ending up skewered a few hundred paces behind – one by mistake, the other to return the favor of saving him from the clutches of a furious Aiu³.

Like an idiot.

Several contracts later preventing him from missing a beat in front of similar hiccups, the logic of that statement no longer sounds so absurd to Ezra. Luckily for him, Cee understood it long before him.

"I was just lookin' for the words to tell ya you'll be better off without me—"

Half a truth. Half a heartbeat. After all, she isn't the only one of them who knows how to sell it.

He leans his head back against the headboard, eyes half-closed, a sly grin baring a couple of his upper teeth. It would almost be intimidating, except that the glint hitting them doesn't quite match the dying one in his eyes.

"—But you beat me to it", he finishes, and he sounds like he's about to fall asleep.

He slowly turns his head away, looks through the porthole. His gaze clutches to the passing asteroids outside, distant nebulae spraying the sidereal black with hues of purple, blue, red— then green, again. A climbing plant squeezing him from the inside, discomfort starts creeping on him an inch of his body – what's left of it – at a time.

He doesn't want her to think he's angry at her, and it's the only concrete foothold emerging from the fluid, magmatic chaos in his mind.

How could he be, when she came back to get him?

She didn't have to.

She doesn't have to be here, either...

"I'm sorry", she suddenly blurts out.

He meets her eyes again, a mix of bewilderment and disapproval shading his own. He shakes his head.

"Don't."

"I just—". She starts fiddling with the extra fabric created by the folds of her sweatpants. Then she sighs deeply. "I have no idea what I'm gonna do now."

He snorts. "Not that it's s'pposed to make you feel any better, but... neither do I."

He doesn't have a hazy helmet choking the glimmer in his eyes, an air filter breaking some frequencies in his voice— maybe just those making him sound sincere, while saving those trapping him into the swamp of self-loathing.

He was nothing but honest when he told her the rules of the game on the Green. When he openly admitted he was a killer, and when he assured her he wouldn't trade her for the Sater's Aurelac. And she's always seemed to believe him, maybe for that kind of desperate inertia that washes over people when they need something to cling to. Whatever the case, Ezra can only hope she wants to believe him now. But she doesn't speak, and for a moment his fear of not saying enough overcomes that of crossing her boundaries.

"But w—", he immediately bites his tongue, "—you still have three cycles to figure things out. Someone up here will be able to help you. Even so, please know you'll always have my most sincere gratitude."

The effort of lining up all those words and so few pauses to catch his breath casts a thick fog over his ears. His eyes suddenly hurt again and he finds himself squinting.

What happens next, he just records it, hardly managing to follow each cause-effect relationship. A series of events softly raining on him without making a noise, while he can quite imagine them to be way more prolonged in time. Cee leaning towards the lighting panel on the wall, sliding her finger counterclockwise, and the white coating the walls turning less painfully bright; her getting up, walking away, dwelling just before the door. "I'll come to check on you tomorrow", she says, sniffling.

She tilts her head, holding his gaze in her watery one for an agonizingly slow while – Please, don't ask me why.

He blinks once – Of course.

Then, the automatic door is once again engulfed by the wall, closing behind her with a metallic rustle.

Tomorrow.

His heart is taken by a spiraling jolt that leaves an empty cave behind. When it falls back into place, Ezra finds something has tripped in there, shapeless and quivering like the nucleus of a newborn star.

Hope, terror and everything that lies in between. 

___________________

NOTES:

1) Mesos — Invented planet. Its only raison d'être is that "mésos" in Greek means "middle" and my intent was to frame this story in a moment of transition (after those of movies) for both Ezra and Cee. 2) Prystines — Invented kind of crystals. They're implied to be huge, red and very sharp, thus endangering the path through the cave. 3) Aiu — Invented predator, ideally a big feline.

A/N:

Yeah, uhm... at this point, if someone was ever to give me any kind of feedback, constructive criticism or random thought, I think I'd just melt into a puddle for the attention alone. And to all those who came all the way down here, your bravery shall not be forgotten. ♥️✨

In my defense, it's (almost) all P**** P*****'s fault & of his habit of taking orphans under his wing from one planet to another.

I know people in the fandom generally tend to make Ezra and Cee go along straight away after the movie, so this will be a slightly different take on things, I guess... But even if I don't know if I'll keep this series going atm (life & maturity exam suck), a final reconciliation is definitely on the way. ;)

Oh, and any beta reader that should feel like helping me out for when I'll have the next chapters ready is warmly welcomed! My DMs are always open and I swear I don't bite! :3

[alfredosauce50]

What makes me human [Cyberpunk! America x reader] 16

Wordcount: 4, 869 Rating: M for strong language, moderate sexual references, violence, and gore The reader is referred to as she/her. "God knows. Maybe you have a greater purpose to serve. Why else did he make you?" Chapter synopsis: And you never considered yourself trigger-happy. But the shots have been fired. They're dead before you can interrogate them. Allen is eager to convince you it was the right thing to do, but even he can't deny the horrors that will follow. The war rages on. Alfred stays ignorant for the meantime, and you revel in his bliss of it. You share one last peaceful night with him before the fearful unknown.

16 - Nothing breaks like a heart

The reader is referred to as she/her.

An ear-splitting bang echoed in the pool room. Blood and small chunks of flesh landed on the tiled floor in a splat. Tearing his hand away with a shaky gasp, he held the wrist and hunched over to writhe in agony. "Ergh... Fuck!" He spluttered, feeling a violent tremble seize his wounded hand. "Fuck, fuck, fuck..."

He lifted his head to glare at you with the utmost betrayal. "What the hell did you do that for?!"

A sizely hole formed in his palm. The exposed flesh was still oozing out blood like a full sponge, dripping onto the ground in generous puddles. A whole section of his bone was missing. And you did it. You shot Alfred. You paled in horror for a few moments, but as he panted before you with tears streaming down his red and enflamed face, it became apparent that your guilt was unfounded.

"What I did that for? You aren't Alfred!" You exasperated, raising the gun shakily to point it between his fearful eyes. "You're a clone!"

A sour flavor was left in your mouth as you spat out the word. His origins were no mystery.

Nobody else could have been responsible or capable of such a heinous crime. To grow an abomination from whatever DNA was left in their lab. You only imagined them to be created for one purpose, and one purpose only. To torment, kill, and replace Alfred. As the thoughts raced through your head, you tightened your finger around the trigger—"Wait, wait! Don't shoot!" He begged, throwing his arms up.

"I know you're freaking out right now, but I have no idea what's going on either!"

Gritting your teeth at his excuse, you were determined to not let it get to you. But it was easier said than done. "Shut up! Don't think for a second you can fool me!" Despite the cutting conviction of your voice, you took on a terrified expression at the thought of shooting him. "I'm gonna do it. You're nothing but a freak of nature! And you'll never... Never..."

As you trailed off, you realized you indeed couldn't pull the trigger.

Not when the barrel was aimed at a face that looked just like Alfred's.

It was contorted with so much fear and despair, pleading silently for you to not hurt him. The fact that he was a spitting image of him made it even harder. How he moved, talked, acted—seeing it chipped away your resolve, leaving you all but paralyzed. The gun was left juddering furiously in your hands in light clacks, holding him hostage at the moment before death.

"Please. Please don't do it." He whispered, bringing his hands down to shield himself. "You gotta help me, (F/N). I don't know how, but I woke up in this body. That's... That's all that happened."

How painfully familiar it sounded.

I woke up in this body.

The similarities were so uncanny, it was cruel. Giving your head a quick shake, your lips quivered as you uttered this.

"You're lying. You're not real."

Creases formed between his brows. "I'm not lying! And I am real! I'll prove it to you, I swear! We went through so much shit together, like uh—" He pointed at you and laughed nervously as he sifted through the scanty archives of his memories. "—I kidnapped you. Ha! See? I know something! That's how we met! And you hated my guts at first."

You swallowed thickly as uncertainty slowly overwhelmed you. If he could remember that, he had to be real, right? No. You had to fend off the feeling. "That's not good enough!" Your finger stayed on the trigger, and the barrel, on him.

He tensed up as panic caught him in a chokehold. "Okay, okay! Well, er..." His heart was pounding harder and harder with every second he failed to say something. "... Oh! Remember the time I nearly got murdered by a cult leader? He had a whole kabuki mask get-up and everything—just like, like Professor Callaghan from Big Hero 6. You know that movie right?"

You sucked in a sharp breath. The title didn't ring any bells, but what he said had you second-guessing yourself. Was he not lying after all? Lowering the gun at that, your motion was slowed by slight hesitance. "... How... How do you know those things?" You asked faintly. "What are you?"

Before he could formulate an answer, footsteps thudded down the hall. Your thoughts came to a complete standstill.

Then, you heard a voice.

"(F/N)!" They shouted. Was it Allen? Your heart sank when you realized you couldn’t tell—it sounded too similar to Alfred. Or were you just imagining things? The sheer amount of panic was too incapacitating that you couldn't think.

So you did the unthinkable.

Raising the gun once more, you fired a shot into his abdomen.

The second you let the bullet fly, you regretted it.

Both your ears rang as the next few moments occurred in silence. And they would unfold in painstakingly slow motion. Dropping the gun to the ground in a soundless clatter, you watched him stumble back a few steps with his eyes popping out of his skull. Blood was spreading around the flaps of his kimono from a new hole in his chest. But the gore couldn't compare to his look of betrayal.

Of a heartbreak so deep, it destroyed you.

"Oh my God..." You raised both hands to your mouth. His eyes rolled to the back of his head and he collapsed on the ground in a bloody heap. "I just—I just killed—" Tears streamed relentlessly down to your chin as you stood frozen.

"(F/N)! I heard gunshots. What the fuck happened?!" Allen appeared in the doorway. His loud voice derailed your train of thoughts, forcing you to turn to the man. When you did, your heart clenched at the realization you made a mistake. It wasn't him. Alfred was never down the hall, and you panicked.

He never even had a chance to explain himself.

When Allen caught sight of the corpse by your feet, he dug his hands through his hair. Terror ran deep in his expression as he processed what he was seeing. "Shit, (F/N)." His nose scrunched up in shock. Never did he imagine the day would come where you would take someone's life. At least, not so soon.

But it arrived as an unwelcome surprise, unexpected and uninvited. "Did you kill that guy?"

You nodded profusely as a sob racked your body.

He scrambled over and shielded you from the grotesque scene. "Hey, hey, hey! Don’t feel bad! I’ve killed loads of people too, so welcome to the club!" The man rambled frantically, rubbing away your tears with his fingers. But who was he to tell you these things when he felt his own tears come?

"I’m sure he deserved it, and you were just protecting yourself, so don’t worry!" Allen forced a wide, manic smile.

His efforts to console you were in vain as you cried even harder. Pulling you into his chest, he rested his chin on your head that trembled to your coughs. "I'm so sorry..." Allen screwed his eyes shut and squeezed you tighter. "... I’m sorry I left you by yourself. This is my fault, not yours. It's my fault."

The string of apologies he spewed out was on your behalf, but he meant them with every fiber of his being. He had failed to protect the single most valuable thing to him.

And the blatant lie he forced you to accept was the last resort to preserve it. But it was time that stopped. "No, I killed him." You asserted shakily. He had nothing to do with this, and his eagerness to shoulder the blame only rubbed more salt into the wound. If you let him have his way, you would never live it down.

Without removing yourself from the hug, you pointed at the motionless body with your head turned away. "Look at him. I could never lie."

Allen lingered his gaze on you before obliging, albeit reluctantly. Nearing the corpse cautiously, he kicked its chest to roll it over. It revealed the dead man’s face in all its glory. Alfred’s face.

"..."

What the fuck.

When he thought he couldn’t be any more disgusted by the tyranny of technology, he was proved wrong yet again. This was clearly your father’s doing. And it was a declaration of war. But perhaps, it was just the continuation of the one that never ended.

Arthur was completely shit-faced downstairs. Slamming his beer mug down on the counter after he downed the whole thing, he gasped.

"Bwah! That hits the spot." His cheeks and ears were redder than a tomato, a stark contrast to his companion who was stone-cold sober.

Alfred raised a brow. "Sure looks like it. Dude, you gotta lay off the booze. You’re gonna regret it first thing tomorrow." Once he sighed that out, he rested his cheek on his hand. Then, he glowered at the hallway where you and Allen disappeared to.

"How long does it take to piss? They’ve been gone for ages. Twenty minutes? Thirty minutes? I don’t fucking know," The mechanic let out a low chuckle and slapped him on the back. The force made his torso bounce, much to his annoyance. "What’s your deal?"

The other hummed mischievously. "I was just thinking about what you said." Arthur squinted almost suggestively, causing Alfred to do the same, but only out of being appalled. "Maybe... Maybe they aren’t pissing. Since they’re gone for so long at the bathrooms at that—so maybe, urgh... They’re doing the nasty together." The Brit practically howled with laughter, having figured he was probably right.

It was a plausible assumption. As he humored the suggestion Alfred heated up more severely than his intoxicated friend. You having sex with Allen? His chest whirred and nostrils flared. He'd never been this enraged before, but behind the mask of anger was a deep hurt and toxic kind of jealousy.

"Shut up! You’re drunk and slurring your words. You have no idea what you’re talking about."

Arthur snorted. "Sorry to break it to you, brother. But the only time I’m this honest is when I’m drunk, so."

Alfred’s eyes went round. Without a moment’s hesitation, he shot out of his stool and made a beeline to the hall. Before he could make it far, he bumped right into the very subjects of his conversation. Much to his relief, they were in no state that indicated they did anything sexual by nature; you were in his arms and fast asleep. Not that he was happy about it. "Woah. She's out like a light."

"Yeah, so keep your voice down." The other grumbled, bouncing you lightly. "I think it's about time we head home. How drunk is he?"

The blonde blinked. He wasn't expecting him to catch on so quickly. "Off his ass. He's red as."

Allen clicked his tongue and brushed past him. "Called it." Alfred would have dismissed it as something he always did. But since he was carrying you, it made him feel like an extra. So when the man walked off, he followed with a scowl. "Can you get a cab? I'm gonna sit in the corner for a bit."

And sit in the corner he did, laying your body across his lap so you could rest. Alfred narrowed his eyes into a dark glare, lingering on the sight as the club music pounded away in his ears. And he told him to keep his voice down? "Yeah, I'll call you a damn cab."

You pretended to be asleep the whole ride back to Arthur's. It was easy with Allen's shoulder at a perfect height for your face to bury in. For half an hour, you were stuck in that position. There, you listened to the symphony of a trip home from the club: the automated voice of the taxi A.I and the drunken warbles of an intoxicated friend. Without seeing it, you could feel Alfred watching you for the whole duration of the ordeal.

Fortunately, you could escape any interaction with him as Allen carried you to the bathroom upon arriving.

"Oi, where are you taking her?"

The redhead kicked the door open. "What does it look like?"

"Shouldn't you wake her up, at least?"

"Yeah, yeah. Quit breathing down my neck, already."

"Dude—"

The door locked. Setting you down on your feet, you held onto his arms to regain your balance. Once you did, you glanced up at him with the utmost panic. "I can't face him." Digging two hands through your hair, you let out a shaky gasp—"Oh my god, I don't know what to do! I shot him, Allen. I fucking shot him! What's he gonna think of me when he finds out?"

He sighed and gripped your shoulders firmly. With his brows furrowed in a stern expression, he corrected you. "You didn't shoot him. You shot another version of him." Allen couldn't stress that enough. But there were many things he needed to shed a light on in this emergency bathroom meeting. "And it was kinda my fault that happened. If I was there, I woulda' shot him for you."

"That's not the point, here! And it's never gonna be your fault. It's mine, and mine alone. End of story." You swiped a hand across his face for emphasis. While he groaned in dismay, a brief pause followed as you regained your breath.

At least an hour had passed, but you still couldn't wrap your head around it.

"I can't believe I did that. I don't even know how I could! I panicked. I thought Alfred was coming down the hall, but—"

"—but it was me. Doll-" Allen exasperated, dragging out the pet name. "-you can't blame yourself for what you did. Shit happens. And who says what you did was wrong, huh? You probably just saved us all from a bloodbath. And you know that!" Rocking you gently back and forth to shake some sense into you, he leaned in to peer into your wide eyes staring into space.

"That's why you shot him. You did the right thing."

As he blurted that out, the memory replayed in your head again and again like a broken record. Intrusive thoughts were a bitch. And there was one particular detail of the event that you would never forget. "Was it the right thing to do, though?" You murmured, lowering your doubtful gaze to the tiled floor. The betrayal in his eyes was so genuine, you came to regret everything you've done.

"What if he was real like he said?"

You were asking some hard-hitting questions, that was for sure. Everything else was shrouded in a fog of uncertainty.

"Well, it wouldn't matter if he was real. Cuz' he's dead."

Allen's expression morphed into a dark glower.

"But if he was still alive, there'd be two of him, and not for long. They'd kill each other, for sure. I mean, if I found out there was a second-rate version of me farting around out there, I'd kill that poser for sport. Hunt him down like game." Lifting up your chin so you'd look at him, he flashed a grin.

"So don't feel bad. You killed him and saved Alfred the trouble."

Softening your gaze at that, you pulled him into another hug. Allen was always amazing at comforting you in the direst of situations.

"... Maybe you're right."

He chuckled and patted your back. "I'm always right."

But there was still one concern he could never address.

If your father made a clone of Alfred, a real and legitimate copy, there was no saying he could make another. Hell, you even expected him to. He could keep churning him out so long as he had his DNA. The only way to end this threat was quick to cross your mind, but you didn't want to think about it.

You would have to kill your father.

Allen figured. But today suffered enough bloodshed.

Before he left the bathroom for you to use, he held onto your cheek.

Flickering his striking scarlet eyes over your troubled expression, he caught you in a quiet gaze. You could easily translate the untold fondness he watched you with. We can still run away together.

He pulled away slowly, reluctantly. Then, the door closed behind him, leaving you alone with your thoughts. It never crossed your mind the first time he brought it up earlier tonight, but you finally understood what he really meant by running away. Allen wanted to share his life with you. Heat flurried in your chest as you considered the idea.

Tears threatened to return once you realized how much you wanted to do it, just not with him. The desire was there, but it happened to be stronger for someone else.

Alfred had been waiting outside with his back against the wall, arms crossed with a frown. It only deepened when Allen walked out.

"What're you lookin' at?" The redhead mumbled.

"... Nothing. Just wondering why you two spend so much time in the bathroom together." Alfred pointed out, glancing down at the cigarette between his fingers. He would have been jumping for joy if it weren't for wanting to look serious. "What were you doing with her in the penthouse?"

The other felt a spell of irritation hit him. It was always jealousy with this one, wasn't it? But he couldn't be a hypocrite. "None a'ya business, bub." He hummed, slotting the cancer stick in between his teeth. A sly smirk widened his lips as he saw the blonde tense up. "You saw how tired she was. So don't even think about it."

Don't even think about it, he'd said. How come everything coming out of his mouth sounded like a euphemism for sex? Don't keep her up with stupid conversations would've sounded better. Alfred huffed and stormed back to the guest room. Or was it just his mind that was in the gutter? He blamed Arthur for even bringing it up.

Hanging his clothes on a chair, he curled up under the covers. His chest was whirring again, and the discomfort was akin to something you've gone through before. Separation anxiety. When you did show up ten minutes later, he rolled over to the door to watch your form. Hearing the fabric shuffle in your direction made your heart skip in panic.

He was awake.

"Arthur's puking his guts out, so if you hear coughing, it's him."

Hopefully, some light-hearted banter could keep you from acting up. But that was easier said than done.

The blanket lifted briefly so you could get under it. Once you got comfortable, he didn't hesitate to pull you in by the waist to spoon you. Ever since he saw you sleep in the club, and on Allen no less, he'd been dying to do this. "... I tried telling him." He murmured into your ear. "But I've slept through worse. You flop and roll a lot."

The feeling of his breath on your neck and the sound of his husky voice made your heart ache. Every night was spent like this, warm and snug in his arms, but tonight was different. Inside, you were still agonizing over what you had done to him, even if it wasn't exactly him. So to feel his chest rise against your back, then his legs rub against yours, you just couldn't take it—it was all too much.

Rolling over to him, you caught his neck in your arms and pulled it down for a tight squeeze. What you uttered next captured your deepest and most inexplicable desire. To truly be alone with him.

"I can't take it here anymore." You muttered furiously, hugging him around his neck to start crushing him.

He let out a shaky breath at the sudden pressure.

"Hey, hey, calm down. What's wrong?"

"I can't calm down. I need to talk to you. Alone." Sitting up at that, you pulled him along. It came especially easy as he stood up, eager to understand your spontaneity. "And in someplace that's not here. There's just... Too many people. Four is too many."

Alfred lit up, but his growing smile did his emotions no justice. He was ecstatic. Things were always simpler when it was just the two of you. Maybe you were finally getting sick of these cramped living conditions, the scrutiny. At least, he knew he was. So it was almost as if you read his mind. "Okaay. Are we going on a midnight adventure?" He piped.

But then again, you always seemed to be walking on the same wavelength as him.

He followed you around the room like a puppy as you collected some things—your jacket, then Alfred's phone to shoot Allen a text. We're off to the nearest no-tell motel to talk. We'll be back in the morning. Setting the device onto the desk, you threw him his belongings. His gun and trusty coil of tools. Catching them wordlessly, he shot you a quizzical look. "Well, aren't you mysterious? Where are we going?"

Little did he know, your decision to leave the house for the night had only so much to do with random selfish impulses. From the outside, it looked exactly like that. Up and going without a care in the world, without care for Allen, and becoming unreachable for the next several hours. But after what happened, you just needed time to recalibrate.

"Where we always used to go." You threw your jacket on. Dragging him out into the hall, he caught a brief glimpse of Arthur passed out over the toilet before he found himself in the garage.

Handing him his key, you opened the car door next to the driver's seat. "We have to be quick before Allen tries to stop us."

The said man was sitting on the roof when he heard the rumbling of the garage door. Immediately after the sound stopped, a car sped out of it with an aggressive vroom and disappeared into the night. Narrowing his eyes at the rear window, he stood up and tossed his cigarette over the edge. Where the hell were you going this late at night? And with Alfred, no less?

He could feel hot jealousy prick him all over again. But it was warped with a harrowing kind of sadness. No matter what he did or what he said, he couldn't seem to get in between you two. Allen sat back down and lit up another cigarette. Giving that a few puffs, he surrounded his head in a cloud of grey smoke. Maybe he did know you for too long.

For eight years, he'd been a brotherly figure in your life. Now, he was afraid that was all he was ever going to be.

~~~

Parking the car in the courtyard after the most thrilling joyride, you pulled Alfred into the reception to book a room. Given his inhumane strength, your efforts to drag him down the hall were to no avail. Peering down at you with a warm smile, his face contorted with an amused look as you tugged at his arm as hard as you could. "Easy there, tiger. This is a motel, not a five-star hotel."

Between two walls littered with cracks was a dimly lit interior. Everything smelt like vomit, piss, and alcohol to boot, and yet, you were bounding beside him in excitement. "I know! But doesn't this feel nostalgic? We lived in these places for ages." You exasperated, scanning a keycard to unlock the door.

Alfred didn't think he was a sentimental person, but hearing you reminisce the past so fondly was enough to change his smile into a bittersweet one. "I guess." He couldn’t remember everything like you, but for now, he could pretend he did. "Motels are economic and discrete, so where was a better place to go?"

Once you both got inside, he felt your hand let go of his. For a moment, he felt just the smallest dash of loneliness—it was the emptiness of not feeling you somewhere where you should have been. Fortunately, it faded when you gleamed at him while you explored the room with child-like curiosity.

"I think I did a pretty good job at converting you." Alfred mused.

You flopped onto the bed to lie on your back. "Converting me to what?"

The mattress dipped to your right, so you rolled over to face him. "To a commoner. Or maybe something lower than that." He grinned devilishly. And for that comment, he would earn a strong shove on his chest. Despite nearly falling off the edge, he merely scooted back in. "I've never seen someone this happy staying in a dump like this."

"Don't give yourself too much credit. I just miss it." Pausing briefly at that, a small smile spread to your lips when you saw his, wide and as endearing as ever. If there was one thing you wanted to see before you died, it was this. Alfred's warm smile. As you lingered on the thought, you realized you were completely smitten with him.

But most importantly, at peace.

This was exactly why you even dragged him here in the first place. For some quality alone time, backtracking, and a good, long talk without interruptions. "I'd know all about dumps." You murmured, reaching out to play with a lock of his sandy blonde hair. "Zao and I tend to find our best friends in them."

He chuckled airily. "Is this me?"

"... Well, sure. But I was talking about Allen."

Things got dark pretty fast.

You both laughed it off. He didn't have great memories of motels, but laying here with you reminded him of what you said about them. A lot of good things happened in these tiny rooms, apparently. And they were what you two talked about until three AM in the morning, standing together out on the balcony. From here, the heart of the city could be seen, from the aerial roads of spinners in the distance to the endless hills of skyscrapers and blinking lights.

"I was thinking," Alfred murmured quietly, turning his head to you. The right side of his face reflected the glow of the city. But it couldn't quite compare to the hope that lit up his eyes, as subtle as it was. "Is everything finally over?"

You turned to him, gaze softened. For just tonight, you would let him bask in his ignorance. And yourself, in his hold. "Not yet." You whispered. The feeling of his hand on your waist was a feeling you could get used to. Reaching out to his other one on the railing, you guided it to your side so he could hold you properly.

Alfred squeezed you eagerly, pressing closer to your body.

Taking his face into your hands, you gave him one last gesture of untold affection. It was a culmination of raw emotion free from your own better judgment. A means to communicate without talking.

You pressed your forehead against his and closed your eyes.

At that very space in time, a singular thought occurred to both of you—I wish this moment would last forever.

"But we'll make it... Just like we always do."

|

What would you do if I killed you?

Nothing, because I'd be dead.

What if you survived? Or left behind a soul?

Then I'll come back and find you.

|

The club was still pounding away, much like the headache in his skull. Sucking in a sharp breath, he suffered the worst wake-up call in his short life—he was still bleeding, and in terrible pain. He shakily felt around his wound while hyperventilating on the ground. How he hadn't kicked the bucket yet was beyond him.

"Get your ass up already. I know you're not dead." A man growled in disdain, giving the body on the ground a light kick.

"Gh—!" He let out a pained gasp and clung onto the ground for dear life. It had been years since he felt this alive—ironically, it was when he was inches away from death.

His perpetrator had their dark eyes fixated on him like a stain on the floor. Their pupils were as red as the blood his victim bathed in. But they always had a strong stomach for gore. "What am I gonna say when the owner finds out I'm the reason you even got in here? You're bleeding into the pool." They murmured, raising his leg to keep tormenting the other like a new hobby.

With a few more kicks, the body rolled onto its back.

"Ugh... Fuck... How am I not dead?" He coughed in agony.

The other shrugged, flicking their ponytail over their shoulder. "God knows. Maybe you have a greater purpose to serve." As cryptic as that sounded, it was nothing but the truth. He had more to his life than dying in a nightclub. Dying could be a part of it, but this couldn't be the location to do it, nor could it be by your hand—the closest kin to his creator.

"Why else did he make you?"

[fayeimara]

Meant To Be Series || One For Every Billion

5. Thank Some Gods

You end up in Hyogo for a real hot minute over your winter break, thanks to your cousins Akira and Akari who decided to drag you along when they were forced to visit with their mom and older brother. Being a year older then them and already a seasoned solo traveller, the parents all thought you'd be a great chaperone. Woohoo, yay you.

Truth be told, you love spending time with them and you're really happy to be able to see your aunt and other cousin, their brother Kazuya, that you'd missed over the summer, as well. Although you did have to apologize to Tobio and his family because when you'd promised you would stay with them next, you should have specified you meant next time you were in Miyagi. Not Japan in general. You think they were just taking the piss though.

Oh right, your vulgar new phrases are courtesy of Akira, thank her very much. Spend a few minutes in the twins' company and you end up talking like them, or whatever their west coast academy friends are currently teaching them, at least. Akari has a valley girl phase going and you think Akira is gearing up for a Tarantino-inspired life. Can't see how your family is let that going to happen, but it's not your job to tell him that.

"Y/nnn, did you try this dango!" Akira runs right into you, appearing from the crowd of people on the festive street of the shopping district you're in, and locks her free arm around yours while waving a stick with round balls on it in other other hand.

"No, but I waited 10 minutes standing still in the cold and crowd so you can bet that I will. Half of that is already mine."

"Hmph," She scoffs, "No one told you to stand still and wait around, silly."

You give her an exasperated look, "You literally said, 'stay there a minute, I'm grabbing us some sweets!' and bounced off."

"Okay, okay, chill your roll, girl."

"Not sure that's a saying, girl."

"Maybe not at the snooty east side preps."

"Yo." Akira appears on your other side. "Half that's mine."

"A third. Or none at all." Akari sticks her tongue out at her twin.

He looks over at you and you nod, twisting quickly so you can grab and hold her occupied arm still while he plucks the dango from her hand.

"Hey! Looks like it's none at all!"

"No. Looks like it's half mine, half Y/n's." He bites off one of the chewy balls (okay, we all know how that sounds.. slow your roll, girl) before holding the stick in front of your face so you can grab one too. Oh wow. It is good. Why did you wait so long to try it? So many years wasted without enjoying this sweet texture.

You can see your third cousin approaching, holding onto a tray of steaming drinks, as you chew over your thoughts on the delicious dessert (see what you did there?).

"I got your coffee", he holds the tray between us so I can grab one of the cups with my free hand, but like.. Kazuya, which one is it?

"Kazuuu, they're bullying me!" Akari pouts for sympathy only for Akira to fire back almost before she reaches the last word.

"She bullied me first!"

Instead of responding to either, he rolls his eyes at their bickering but they're only having fun. You've never met siblings that have each other's backs more than these two. You think Kazuya misses it too, having decided to study in Japan and live with his mom who consequently chose to work here, while the other two live with their dad - but really at a boarding school - back on the American west coast.

"Whatever, are you grabbing your drinks or what?"

Akari only smiles at her older brother's deadpan expression, "Which one is my hot chocolate, niichan?"

"Please don't call me that."

"Why not?"

But it's Akira who answers with a snicker, "Because you don't even go here, brat. It's cringy coming from you."

"Shut up, ugly clone."

"That's literally impossible unless you're calling yourself ugly too."

Okay, you're just going to go for the cup closest to you on your left. You pick it up and sip slowly... success. The sweet, warm flavour of your white chocolate mocha slides down your throat.

Kazu is giving you an arch look now, he knows how much you live for coffee but he's still going to say something about it, right? "You know it's already dark out, I don't know how you can drink this stuff so late. Don't you want to get some sleep tonight?"

"Bold of you to assume I need sleep." You smirk at him over the rim of your cup while Akari makes an attempt at snatching the remaining dango back from her brother around you. Please don't make me spill.

"Nah, I just assume you're a robot and this is your regular maintenance or something."

You consider his words before shrugging, nothing too mean that you can call him out on, you guess. "Down the hatch then."

"Sure thing, but I'm not staying up late bingeing your crappy shows with you when you're wired."

"But you'll binge a non-crappy show?"

"Maybe."

Another smile for your favourite cousin of the minute. He did get you coffee, you know. Akari's managed to grab the third sweet off the stick with her mouth like some rabid animal, but it makes sense because the hand not still holding onto you is holding back Akari's arm. They're going to smac-

And they hit the tray that Kazu was only just holding. He somehow manages to grab one of the drinks you assume is his out of it's spot while avoiding the wreckage spill of the other two cups. He didn't even try to hold on to it, which is partly why you're laughing as both twins start simultaneously apologizing and complaining about their spilled drinks.

Kazuya's deadpan expression is actually pretty communicative for the the moment, "I'm not going back for another, this is on you guys."

"Kazu, do you like being mean to us?" They actually ask this at the same time but Kazu's not even phased.

"Yes, I want you to suffer." He's dry as ever.

You chuckle but they're so sweet, most of the time, so you'll make it up for them, "I passed a stall selling hot chocolate, since we don't need to replace my specialty coffee, I can go there to get you some."

"Me too?" Akira asks hopefully.

"Yes, you too, puppy."

He rolls his eyes, trying to adjust his expression back into an uncaring one. It's more natural on his brother currently, but you can definitely see him grow into a more serious demeanour someday.

"I'll come with you while these two stay put." Kazu gives his younger siblings a stern look.

"No need," You wave him off, grabbing the stick with the last piece of dango and handing it to him, "Enjoy this as repayment from us all for making you go all the way back into the mall for our drinks. In the meantime, I'll be right back."

"Hold on, you're going to the one next to the onigiri stand, right?"

"Yeah?"

"Okay, straight there and back in fifteen minutes or I'll come find you. And if I have to worry, I won't be happy."

"Okay niisan." You roll your eyes with your sarcastic tone. Older brothers. No wonder he and your brother Raiden get along so well, they're under some misassumption that their younger siblings just can't help getting into trouble, as if you all only live to annoy them. And he was doing so well as your favourite cousin for the time being.

You stroll away from the benches you were waiting at by the end of the street where the outdoor stalls meet the main street shopping mall and melt back into the crowd. This festival really is something, so brightly lit with pretty twinkling lights strung up everywhere and curled around any available post like glowing, warm yellow vines. You absolutely love the vibe but you know you're on a time crunch.

You notice the onigiri stand just ahead of the drink stall and debate for a quick second before stopping in the surprisingly short line up. A piece each of sweet dessert does not a stomach fill. Unfortunately, just as you take a sip of your coffee, someone bumps into you from behind, causing it to spill over your lips and dribble down your chin but you adjust enough in time, holding the cup out and away from you, so that you're not covered in any more than that and the little bit on your hand.

You hate wet clothing with a passion, especially when it's cold outside and it clings to you with that awful chilly, sticky feel. Not so bad when it's on your coat, but on principle, that's just as unpleasant if you run the cuff of your sleeve over it or it get on the collar and then you have the tiniest bit of discomfort right by sensitive skin and that makes it all the more glaring.

You realize the person who bumped into you also reached out to steady you at the same time and is now speaking, "Shit, I'm so sorry."

It's a little quiet but you make out his apology through his thick dialect. Hm, you think that's where the odd changes in Kazu and his mom's speech are coming from, a regional osmosis of accents?

"No worries, it's pretty crowded." You only half turn while you search your pockets for a tissue or napkin, spotting a flash of grey in your peripherals. Then an arm covered in that grey reaches out to hold a napkin in your field of view and you finally look up to see who it belongs too.

And now you're just staring. Hi there, I'd like hear your voice more. Preferably while you stare at his mouth move on his beautiful face. You can't believe he just had his hand on your waist, even if it was just for a split second and over layers of clothes, and you didn't get to appreciate it.

"It's not dirty." He shakes the napkin, you're assuming because he thankfully thought you were thinking that over instead of ogling him.

You chuckle, thinking how you definitely need to send thanks to some divine power on the new year for all the interactions with some serious eye candy these past six months, but out loud you say, "I really need to thank some gods out there, huh?"

What?

He gives you a confused look but you catch yourself and, before he can respond and question your sanity, quickly follow up with, "Or just you. For this. Thank you for the napkin."

"S'alright. Wasn't a big favour, really, just makin' up for my fault bumpin' into ya." You're not sorry he did, though? You can't tell what he's thinking, this guy is a closed book, folks. It's kind of jarring, since you consider yourself exceptional at reading people and acclimating to them.

You finally actually accept the napkin and wipe at your mouth and chin first, then your hand, responding, "At least you didn't make me drop the coffee or we would have had a real problem."

You think he realizes you're teasing because the corner of his mouth actually inches up the tiniest bit. You're not imagining, you swear it on your mocha!

"Coffee this late?"

"It's 11am somewhere."

"Ya wake up at 11am?" What an interesting thought process he has.

"Are you not on winter break? Or do you just assume your typical hours in every conversation no matter what day of the year it is?"

"Huh." You think he sounds thoughtful? Or was it just the word and you're associating it with how you use it..

"That's not an answer, but I'll take that to mean you go the typical route." You smile again because like you said, he's unreadable and you really don't want him to think you're being bitchy. You're really grateful for the napkin. And that face. So... yeah.

You're moving up, thankfully, because you thought you were blessed but this is just turning into what feels like an awkward encounter.

"I like sleepin' in, but sometimes I get too hungry so I'm up when my stomach is."

You look back at him in surprise, obviously because he bothered to continue a seemingly closed conversation, but that quickly turns into amusement and commiseration, "Oh I know! It's mostly coffee for me because not a lot of people bother to make breakfast in my house, but if I smell something delicious cooking, I forget I'm not a morning person."

He does smile fully then and it's beautiful. "Me too, but I'm usually the one doing the cookin'."

"Oh wow, that's dedication. I can respect but never reach that ideal." You hold your hand to your heart in a silly salute but also because he's still smiling and you're trying to tell your unreliable organ to be still. Not too still though, you're enjoying the moment and want to keep living it.

"Eh, I'm used to it."

"Well then, for once, let someone else take care of your food. I'll get your order for you."

"Seriously? It was just a napkin and my fault too.."

"Yeah, no, don't worry about it! Consider it a gift in essence of the festival!"

He doesn't say anything for a moment before, "I was going to try the different flavours. That's a lot."

"No way, that's awesome! I'll do that too, I don't even know what they have available, I just stopped here on a whim on my way there." You indicate the stand next to the one you're almost to the front of with a wave of your hand.

"Ahh.. if ya like, I can suggest some?"

You happily smile at him as you accept, "That would be great, thank you so much."

The two of you step up to the counter together and you listen while he orders. While you both wait for them to place each of your requests, he explains some of the fillings and why they work best depending on personal taste and even situation. You tell him about having just tried dango, sad about having realized you missed out so long, and he actually smiles widely at your exaggerated pained expression but also recommends some other desserts, including which shops to stop at in the city.

It's starting to snow as you two talk, which is not rare but still unusual for this region, but thankfully it's not much longer before you're each handed your containers and move aside. You look over to him and laugh when you realize this guy is already munching on one of the onigiris, your breath puffing out in a small cloud before you. "Which one is it?"

"Fatty tuna." He talks around it with his own little puffy cloud and it's pretty cute actually, instead of the usual cringe when people talk with their mouths full. Oh, the benefits of being good looking. Also, he's tilted his head down ever so slightly so it's almost polite in a perfected way.

"I'm just going to go ahead and assuming you're enjoying it."

He nods while swallowing and then makes some pretty intense eye contact while speaking way too seriously, "Thank you. This is amazing."

You smile, feeling like in the minutes the two of you were conversing, you've gotten a little more comfortable with the minute changes in his expressions. "You're welcome. I'm going to head over to the drink stall now, but it was nice to meet you!"

With a laugh as you walk away, you also add, "And thank you for sharing your knowledge with me, at least I'll know where to feed myself when I'm craving different things this week."

You're turning away as he seems to stand there watching you with some hesitation, but you can't do all the heavy lifting in a conversation when you're on a time limit, so you'll chalk this up to another fun run-in with a cute guy for the books.

You're lucky there's no line up, you're really short on your deadline and your fingers are getting pretty cold along with your coffee, so you pay for the hot chocolate, they pour, and you're back off towards the end of the street where your cousins are waiting.

You can't move too fast given the bag dangling from the wrist of the hand that's also carefully holding the tray of four hot chocolates, but the crowd is also thinning out a little now with the snow. Hopefully, if you're a couple minutes behind the expected time, the diverse and sheer amount of onigiri you have in the bag you're now holding, as well as the new round of warm drinks, will bring you forgiveness.

You finish up the last, cool dregs of your coffee just as you pass by a trash can, making the split decision to quickly reverse so you can toss your cup and free up a hand. As you execute your smooth move and then turn back, you unsurprisingly bump into someone yet again. Not so smooth then, you think, looking up.

It's deja vu and for a split second, you consider that he might actually be a weirdo and followed you, because stopping in your path as an apology drops from your lips is the guy you were only just talking to, same face, same dark hair, even same height... but with a different jacket on.

It takes you all of one more second to notice the small differences like the eye colour, the way the hair naturally parts, and the slightest difference in size, not to mention the more obvious difference in openness and personality literally exuding from this one. He's actually smiling wide right away with no provocation. So not a weirdo who changed his jacket and followed you.

Also, have you ever considered the odds of multiple sets of twins being in pretty much the same place at the same time?

"Oh, there's another one of you, huh?" You're talking again before he even has a chance to respond to your apology, but you guess you feel familiar thanks to your brief encounter with his twin. "That's unfair, don't you think?"

You step around him calling out, "Anyways, sorry about that. Enjoy your night." and walk away, back towards your own set of twins.

Ugh, Kazu's going to kill you. You won't be making it in time, for sure.

Miya Atsumu's POV

Atsumu turns to follow the stunning girl's progress as she moves around him and away, catching her last words but still more interested in her previous statement. 'There's another one of you, huh?'.

People have been confusing him and his twin for as long as they've been alive and only those that know them really well can only sometimes make out the difference.

It's no longer amusing, and actually irritating enough that he and 'Samu have been considering a little aesthetic change some time next year, maybe before their first year of high school.

'Tsumu knows it's his brother without looking when someone walks up to his left side from behind him. What he's surprised by is his first words, "She think you were me? I was talkin' to her a bit at the stall."

When he glances over, he notices 'Samu staring after her as well, with a lot more interest than simple, piqued curiosity. Does he know her?

"No.." He contemplates her words again before sharing with his brother, "She said 'There's another one of you, huh? That's unfair, don't you think?' and then walked away."

He can feel 'Samu looking over at him curiously, "Did ya talk to her?"

Why is he asking? He hasn't even picked up a new onigiri from the open box in his hand. "I just bumped into her. Didn't even say a word. Do ya know her?"

"Like I said, I only just met her." Pausing, 'Samu seems to think it over before adding, "We only talked a few minutes, maybe."

The twins are silent for another couple moments, while the snow continues to drift around them. The girl is long gone, swallowed up by the crowd at this point, but they keep staring at where they last saw her retreating figure, each in their own intrigued thoughts.

Finally, 'Samu's the one who breaks the silence, "Do ya believe in coincidences, 'Tsumu?"

"No, 'Samu, ya know I don't."

Prev | Next

Masterlist

Behind The Scenes!

-Tee was called out in the first thread because he doesn't use emojis often, especially not the half assed ones he used for a scenario like that so... caught slipping lmao (aw he does care about Y/n <3 Maybe more than he should?)

-Y/n was NOT expecting to get called out like that for saying she likes Oikawa when she'd literally just called him her friend... Iwa, you slick wingman ;) <3 He might bully the shit out of Oikawa (to keep him in check though) but he really is his best friend :')

-Ushi says what he means and means what he says lol, yeah, he wasn't really surprised

-Y/n's friends aren't all necessarily happy about this development; they've been aware of her various interactions as they usually are (some more than others) but... they're getting older and, well, all not sharing as much with each other as they once did

-But they're still going to call her out and roast her because they're her best friends lmao who else will? They have to keep her in check too loool

-Oikawa's last reply... <33 Take it how you will :D

-And Shin just dropping in to screenshot his cousin's embarrassing moments, hoping for a dirty delete so he can roast her all over again for the same crime lmao, probably shouldn't have warned her though... whoops

-I HC the Miyas' hair dyeing happening at/around their first year of HS, anyone know any different? It was only Osamu's jacket that was grey in Y/n's peripherals, just a little tease for us all ;)

A/N: Guys, I'm really, really sorry about the Miyas' 'accent'... you might see a couple different attempts in there but I had to edit a lot of what I tried out because it sounded just awful however I was originally trying to write it earlier. If you guys do have any suggestions, I'm very much all hears (and eyes lol - heart eyes specifically because I've seen some write them incredibly well!).

That aside, I hope you all enjoyed this one, I loved writing it so much, it just flowed once I started and I love the Miya twins, each in their own way <33 I've been dying to introduce them and the other 'main' characters but there's definitely going to be a difference in the weight of interactions Y/n has for a while. It's not favoritism, I promise; Y/n's time spent with various characters is just going to be uneven at various points due to the natural progression of her story :') but I plan for it all to even out as we move along the years (:

Taglist: @delusivist, @prettyinblack231, @kac-chowsballs, @sakusasimpbot

[artsyxloner]

Not Just a Monster

Warning: blood, cussing

6: The vote

I stared at the boy Crouching down next to his limp body feeling his pulse, to check and see if he was still alive or not. He most likely was but I felt a smooth regular beat.

I stared at him strangely knowing that fall should have killed him. Getting ready to pick him up and drag the boy out of here I was stopped by two people coming down the stairs.

It was a man and a young girl, he had a sword with a shield and the girl with pink Streaks in her hair was holding a bat and a guitar case.

" was he with you guys?" I asked not sure. They both nodded, it seemed they were out of breath telling by how they were huffing and puffing.

They gathered around him, " is he dead the girl that had screamed asked. I shook my head. " No he's still alive, I checked." She Gave me a confused stare. " how?"

I was getting ready to answer until the Man with the samurai sword beat me to it. " he's infected, he won't die." He told her short and simple.

He's infected his words Kept repeating in my head he won't die. He was like me I thought as we all picked him up and dragged him in the front room and was met by the guy in round glasses.

He kept looking at someone I noticed it was the girl that screamed. " Eun-yoo, are you okay?" He asked her, they must know one another. But she Ignored him walking away with her bag in hand.

They must be brother and sister, " what's wrong with him?" He asked staring at the unconscious teenage boy. " Fell," I informed leaving the infected part out because if everyone knew they would just throw him out.

I didn't care but at the same time it's not right. " he dead?" I shook my head. " but infected." The girl spoke up with the pink hair.

" take him into one of those rooms and we'll figure out what to do with him. You are the survivors right?"

" Yeah, there's more up at one of the apartments still. You're the man guy from the speaker right?" The boy with round glasses nodded.

" yes, I'm Eun-Hyuk." After our introductions, we placed the boy in one of the rooms that looked like a hang-out space. Laying him on one of the mattresses they had stored in here everyone left except me.

Eun-hyuk put me In charge of watching over him. In the meantime, I had put up his Electrically Charged Speer that looked like it was made from an end of a broomstick and a Kitchen knife and wires wrapped around it with duck tape.

The boy I didn't know the name of was still passed out, he had blood coming put from the back of his head I could tell because it was making his longish dark hair all wet and stuck together plus it was dripping on the mattress.

Taking out my duffle bag I had someone bring me. I think her name was Ji-Soo I grabbed my medical supplies that consist of antibiotics, Ointment cream and bandages, and antiBacterial wipes.

I had stolen from someone's car since his back was facing me laying on his side I took out my wipes cleaning the back of his head adding a little pressure to stop the bleeding it soon did after a minute or two. Then putting a huge thick pad and Securing it with medical tape.

I checked for more wounds and found some right near the edge of his neck and collarbone were too long Gashes. I repeated what I did with the wipes making sure it was all clean and put two huge bandaids on them.

I didn't know why I did know he was going to heal it just I don't like seeing opening wounds. Throwing the plastic paper and blood-stained wipes away.

The boy moved in his sleep like he was having a bad dream. His head kept turning, he was probably going to wake up going over to him he, shot up which I jump back a bit.

He was breathing hard as he looked around to see where he was. " those were some nasty wounds you got there." I pointed, he Ignored my statement.

" where am I?" He asked, his voice hoarse. " beats me I just got here not long ago, I think it a place where people like to hang?" I shrugged.

" and the other two?" He asked worry was in his voice. I smiled down at him. " they're okay, they were worried for you though." I informed him, he signed in relief. " you know you should worry about yourself," I pointed again to his wounds he seemed to notice and felt his neck.

" I bandaged you up but I shouldn't of bothered because you would heal soon. it's whatever." I then searched in my duffel bag for something, finding it I gave it to the boy.

It was a bottle of water, he looked at me then the water as if I did something to it. " don't worry I didn't poison it." I Insisted screwing the cap off taking a sip. " there if I die You'll know." I laughed.

He just nodded taking it, chugging it down. He must have been real thirsty? " you shouldn't be around me I'm infected." He blurted out, setting the empty bottle of water down.

" so? We'll all get infected one way or another." I sat down next to him, " plus, if I did have it there no use in fussing right it's not contagious." He was quiet but gave a Single nod.

" so how long?" I asked wanting to know how long he's been holding out. But got stopped by Eun-Hyuk. "Soo-Nico, we need you in the day-care-center." He notified, I nodded wondering what they need me for?

" where is that?" I asked, just follow the group they will know." Getting up from the Mattress I said my byes to the boy, that I still didn't know the name of.

I followed some girls going into the day-care-center. Everyone was talking Among themselves but then saw me and got quiet. The grumpy old man kept eyeing me sending me death glares.

He got up from his seat as I leaned back on the door frame folding my arms. I wonder what this was all about? " it's her and that boy there both monsters!" The old man said out of the blue, but the Woman with the Pomeranian spoke up.

" How can you be so sure she's one? She didn't give off any signs?!" She fussed, backing me up when she didn't even know me. I was going to give the Wrinkly old bat an earful.

" shut up Hye-in!" he yelled at her then turned the two people that walked into the room it was Eun-Hyuk and the teenage boy. "You're all out of your minds you brought monsters in here!"

"Monsters?" Eun-Hyuk Emphasizes the word as if meaning more than one. " you know him and that bitch!" The old man turned towards me.

He brought out a yellow box cutter knife and pushed the blade up near my neck and to the boys. " don't you guys dare turn!" If he thought I was scared of his short ass he was Gladly mistaken.

" got it you crazy monsters!" I rolled my eyes, this seemed to anger him. " I'll cut your throat myself you fat cow!" He stood there pointing it more at me in Particular.

Hence the name-calling was that Necessary, wonder what I did to piss off the shorty? " leave her alone." A voice broke out it was Eun-Hyuk

This made the man turn to him, " pardon?" Eun-Hyuk stood his ground, " there was no indication of her being a monster, Suk-Hyun." So that's what his name was.

" but she came in from the back, and was covered all in blood and ash, she must have come from the outside?!"Suk-Hyun protested. " that could have been anything she could have fought the monsters and got blood all over her?" Eun-Hyuk Suggested, he was partly right.

" I'm not going to throw her out bast on Opinion." That was the last thing he said before he left. Taking Suk-Hyun with him. I was glad to take a seat in a chair.

Playing with my torn-up sweater, " you okay?" The teenage Boy asked I nodded. " are you from outside?" I stopped at what I was doing. And looked up at him.

" if I was is that okay?" I said with a question, his eyes peered down at the floor. " tell me will it make a difference? As I said anyone could get infected inside or out you just have to wait your turn." I Snickered, at this bullshit.

" name?"

" huh?"

" what's your name? so I don't have to keep referring you to a teenage boy," I stated. He must have been shy because it took a few for him to answer. He seemed Awkward.

" Hyun-Su,"

I made sure to remember his name, but it was like nothing special to me at the given moment. " what do you think they're doing in there?"

Hyun-Su shrugged, " we'll I'm going to go check, they said they needed me, you coming?" Hyun-Su shook his head, " Okay, suit yourself." I walked into the other room.

To see what the Commotion was about probably about me and Hyun-Su because Suk-Hyun was standing in the middle running his mouth as usual.

Everyone was all gathered up, while Eun-Hyuk was standing in front of a Chalkboard, writing on it. Turning around he declared " eight of us voted yes, seven of us voted no...if one of the two last votes are in favor he'll be kicked out."

I frowned so they were voting if he got to stay or not? if they found out about me I would be judged if I wasn't already. " seven people Opposed? Are you all crazy?" Suk-Hyun scowled.

" opposed, eight to eight." Eun-Hyuk Announced, " damn it!" The old man cursed under his breath then noticed me. " you aren't supposed to be in here?!"

I Scoffed, eyeing him up and down.

" why still think I'm a monster?" I raised an eyebrow and passed him bumping his shoulder for the second time. " Fuck Bastards like you." I smiled This Earned a snicker from Eun-Yoo.

" anyways does my vote count? Because I should get a say so? I mean he should at least get a chance right? he's still human." I went up to the table to cast my ballot.

Seeing the others X meant to stay and O meant go casting my vote I put it in the Slot. You can pretty sure guess what I picked. " I bet you picked opposed didn't you little bitch!"

Suk-Hyun Cursed me, for the second time today. " don't get to worked yet, up the last vote will determine the results?"

Eun-Hyuk stuck his hand in the slot and picked out a yellow Piece of Sticky note. I would be lying if I didn't say I was worried for the last vote because if it's would be like taking in murder if he got expelled.

Pulling it out he stared at it then flip-it over, " Opposed," I let out a breath and smirked seeing the look on Suk-Hyun face. He Snatched the piece of sticky note from Eun-Hyuk not believing it.

" No way!" He grumbled Turing to a guy in the back. " hey? Hey! Bring that bastard here!" The guy in white pointed to himself. " you mean me?"

" yeah! We have to get rid of him!" Suk-Hyun demanded as the guy seemed hesitant at first in going. " voting my ass!" Suk-Hyun sneered and threw the papers my way.

" I bet it was your vote? Huh did you forget someone just died!?" He got I'm my face. " are you against the result?" I questioned this seemed to make him blow up like I hit a fuse.

"What did you say? Your just a kid you don't know squat! Murder is killing a human being not killing a giant fucking monster!" Suk-Hyun snapped.

And pushed me down to the floor, everyone gasped backing away, I clenched my teeth together ready to attack the son of a bitch for putting his hands on me when I hearing a dripping sound.

I saw it was Suk-Hyun his nose was now pouring blood. I was glad this happened he Deserves it from being so selfish and greedy from what I've noticed. The tables have turned and they better stay that way.

His wife began to cry I don't know why she is though he's mean to her. He began to make his way over to the group of people but they backed away saying stuff like don't come near.

But his excuse was he was just tired, you don't get a nosebleed from being tired. He held his nose as his shirt was getting covered in his blood.

He tried to walk out of the room but was stopped by Hyun-Su, he took a glance at me then back at Suk-Hyun. " you better Brace yourself."

" what?" Suk-Hyun eyes went wide with fear. " The monsters are coming for you." Hyun-Su warned. " you son of a bitch!"

But he just passed him and bent down picking up the sticky note that had an o on it. " can I cast my vote?" He was about to throw it in but stopped. " if I put this in, he'll be thrown out too, right?"

I saw Hyun-Su's eyes go black, " Am I right?" Suk-Hyun didn't say anything but whimper staring at the boy before him as blood continued to run down his nose. But he eventually passed out.

[thebraingremlinsaremad]

Daily Blog #15: August 22, 2021

Dollar Tree is honestly pretty fucking awesome 👌👌👌

I set my alarm for like 6:25 this morning, but it took 6 minutes for the "Horsin' Around" theme song instrumental to wake me up. I was pretty tired lol. I just dismissed it and went back to sleep.

I only went back to sleep because I knew I had another alarm set for 7:00. That got me up.

I should mention that this was still in the RV over an hour away from the house.

After I got up, I went to go get a shower, and did so successfully.

Unfortunately, I had forgotten my brush this time and had to do it afterwards after my hair had a bit of time to dry, which did make it a little more difficult lol.

I got dressed and grabbed my stuff, putting it into my car.

I made it a point to see and say "see you later" to my grandparents before I left for the flea market.

My dad insisted that I stayed to say goodbye to my mom, so I left.

I did NOT have cell service up there, as was mentioned in my previous 2 blogs of which I could only post today, so finding my way was a tiny bit difficult until I got some service to ask Google to take me to "...".

It worked and I got there.

On my drive, I listened to 1 by Simple Kid, a CD I had previously purchased at a Dollar Tree location.

I got a call from the guy at the flea market saying that I had some people there waiting for me. He asked how far away I was, to which I said "about 10 minutes." Ironically, that call made me miss my exit, as Google couldn't talk during the call, and added about 3 minutes to my arrival time lmao.

I did sell the Xbox that he said someone was interested in. I got $40 for it. I spent 27¢ on it. Pretty good return if you ask me.

I couldn't sell it with anything other than a power cord because the controller and AV cables I had been using to play it there were for my personal console. I'm just glad I can actually hook my Xbox up and stop having to drag them to the flea market along with a small library of games.

Not too long after I sold the Xbox, someone came in and asked if I wanted to see some electronics he had in his car. I went out with him. It was a pair of 3ft speakers and a Pioneer audio system with dual cassette decks (although neither of them works) and a 25 Disc CD-changer, as well as the standard AM/FM tuner. Additionally, there was a Fisher amplifier and AM/FM tuner as well as a Fisher Direct Drive turntable. He said he wanted $60 for em, but before that he casually, and probably accidentally, dropped that he was just gonna take em to the thrift store.

Big mistake.

I got em for $35 lmao. THERE GOES MOST OF MY PROFIT.

Oh well.

I tested everything. As I mentioned, the cassette decks don't work, but everything else does apart from the turntable needing a new stylus.

I posted some new photos of the shop to Facebook, and someone soon DMed me about a stereo system.

I priced everything, and it turns out I have about $300 worth of equipment from that deal, the Fisher amp and tuner being worth about $150.

The buyer will hopefully show up next weekend, for he wants to buy the Fisher stuff ($185 with the turntable), the 3ft speakers, an 8-track deck, and a Kenwood deck we've had for a week or two.

The speakers are listed for $50 (and are worth around $100-150), the Kenwood Deck for $50 as well, and the 8-track for $35. That makes it about $320 in equipment. Since he's buying so much, I'll knock it down to $270 and essentially give him the speakers or cassette deck for free lol.

Apart from that stuff, not much happened at the flea market. I sold some records, cassettes, CDs and I think 2 DVDs. One person bought a VHS tape? That money was the other guy's though. Oh well xD.

I can't say that I didn't miss my wonderful partner while on the trip. I actually brought along the stuffed animal they gave me (who's name is Greg) and snuggled with him both nights.

I was very happy to hear from them UwU.

They let me rant and I let them rant.

I honestly give them too much responsibility over me xD. I'm like, "Okay, I'm gonna do this. HOLD ME TO IT."

I know I can't hold myself to anything I personally say (this blog being the only exception apparently), but I listen to them pretty well I think 🤔. If they tell me, "No, you don't need that VCR," so long as it's not some weird specialty thing, like a worldwide VCR 🥵, I'll be like "Yeah, you rite bro."

I love you man xD. You control my craziness pretty well. I'm so thankful for you UwU.

#relationshipgoals

So part way through the flea market day, I went over to Dollar Tree to buy some snack, but ended up looking through the CDs to see if there was anything good. I took photos of about 18 CDs and flipped through them online for the remainder of the flea market day.

I deleted the photos of the ones I didn't want and kept those that I liked. Surprisingly, I ended up buying 13 CDs there, but not before dropping them on the floor like the dumbass I am.

Also, sorry for all the nerd shit I spilled on your lap earlier. No one cares about amps and tuners xD.

I'M LISTENING TO ONE OF THE DOLLAR TREE CDS RIGHT NOW THO.

I already transferred over to my online library on iBroadcast and put the disc into my CD changer, which is now holding 164 CDs.

Its max capacity is 300 discs 🥵

WHY AM I NERD

Oh well

I like being a nerd gurl

Also maybe a technosexual 👀

I get really excited over some electronics. Like. REALLY excited.

Some editing VCRs are like "Holy shit that is SEXY. Look at those goddamn VU meters 🥵. And hhhh there are like 7 inputs on this thing and individual controls for left and right audio gain, not to mention Hi-Fi S-VHS recording. Hhhhhhhhhhh please gimme 😭. Why are you so expensive?"

I uh, mean, uh, *cough* look, pretty lights.

Oh yeah, I was gonna say the album I was listening to xD. MAN I GOT SIDETRACKED.

It's 37 Everywhere by Punchline. Def give it a listen; it's pretty heccin good.

Another notable album I picked up was Page One by Steven Page. I very much like the first track, "A New Shore." It's quite catchy and he has a great voice imo.

Also at dollar tree, I bought a regular bag of Fieras and 2 bags of Fieras Sticks, which were marked down to 75¢/bag because they're expiring soon.

I honestly like the generic Dollar Tree version of Takis more than actual Takis. They're a lot more flavorful when it comes to the lime, but also hotter at the same time.

Don't get the hot nacho ones tho. Hot nacho? More like hot pile of shit.

HAH

Goteem.

They're not that good xD.

THE REGULAR ONES ARE FIRE THO

"How do you do fellow kids?"

I got home and started working on putting the CDs onto my computer, and then onto iBroadcast, but not without first adding The Music Man to my digital library, something I had neglected for a month or two. The CD had just been sitting there lol.

I also switched my digital file for "The Black Parade" to that of the uncensored CD, which I had purchased before I event started working over 2 months ago.

MAN I'M LAZY

I eventually get around to shit tho lol. I guess it's just a matter of priority.

What usually takes priority is digging through everything to find something that I forgot about but then remembered, making a mess in the process that I would then have to clean up, at least partially.

I think the album just ended. I've been writing for a while xD. I'ma start "I Made You Something" by The Island of the Misfit Toys.

I'll tell you where that album came from in a minute.

In the meantime, where was I?

I kinda lost my train of thought despite reading up to see where I was. Oh well. On I go.

I ate dinner and kept working on those CDs, eventually putting my clothes from the week into the washer.

I FORGOT TO PUT MY SHAPING UNDERWEAR IN. FUCKING HELL MAN.

I wanted to wash em for this week 😭

No tight pants for Leonna I guess qwq.

Meanwhile, the box of my CD album cases is overflowing. I need another box.

I keep all of the album artworks in a big CD folder. That's almost full.

I wanna fill my entire CD changer. That's one of my big goals in life. Idk why, but I just wanna legitimately fill the entire thing.

My clothes are in the dryer now. I don't think I have the time (or energy) to fold them tonight. I'll leave that for tomorrow morning before work.

And God. Fucking. Damnit. I start school again on Wednesday. NOT looking forward to that, and neither are my 2 coworkers. We already have low enough staff, but only the two of them working is gonna be a pain in the ass.

I'll still work Saturdays.

I need to contact my guidance counselor to get out of the gym class I signed up for. I scheduled this shit before I found out I was trans, and I don't wanna deal with the fucking locker room situation 🙄 I have far more important matters.

Okay so anyway, the album I'm listening to came from a cassette. I bought this cassette a few months ago at the flea market along with a few others. The reason I bought them? They were all newer cassette releases from the 2010's, and they're all actually pretty good music from very indie bands.

Currently getting mad at iBroadcast's compression algorithm. It's unnaturally fucking anything over -10db up. Oh well, there's not really anything I can do about it.

I have like 13GB of music on my phone btw. That's about 3.5k songs on 268 albums.

I'm kind of an audiophile, but I'm too cheap to pay for a lossless service. Oh well.

They do actually have a lossless service on iBroadcast, but once again, too cheap.

Someone just sent me a friend request who legitimately posted that BLM and the democratic party are hate groups.

BLOCK.

Goodbye ho.

I don't get that. They call the democratic party a hate group when they hate people like me, and I, being more of a democrat although not fully because the 2-party system is fucked, think nothing more of them than they're very wrong about certain things, especially, as shown, that black people, as well as asian, Indian, native, and people of all ethnicities and backgrounds, are not equal to white people.

Yeh.

Totally.

You go buddy.

Anyway, yeah, I can, and do, convert music and video from analog formats to digital files in order for me to archive and listen to whenever and wherever I please. I've actually made a bit of a business out of it, but I don't get too much work from it. At least I'm not overloading myself xD.

I honestly have so much more to say, but I should probably go to sleep soon.

A few final shoutouts to the following people and companies:

-Dollar Tree

-Steven Page

-Broken World Media

-The Island of Misfit Toys

-Simple Kid

-Punchline

-My incredible partner QwQ I love you so much. Thanks for being the best all the time. I hope I can give you the best life ever.

Anyway I suppose this is goodnight. Lmk if you want a full list of the CDs I bought today! I'll link that song by Steven Page here.

And here's a good song from Simple Kid

I really like music lol. Enjoy these pieces.

Anyway, goodnight lol.

Lots of love,

-Leonna.

[grlfriends]

The Raven Boys thoughts

ch 1: boi I thought gansey was the bald one 😔 anyway the bald bitch and the nerd who looks like a twink in every fanart are gay

ch 15: wow guys nothing has happened so far... nothing..... we're almost 200 pages in and nothing that interesting has happened, I know the plot is setting in and the pace is starting to speed up a little but wow so far this already isnt my fav book of the series I think

ch 24: ok the pace is starting to pick up and I'm really enjoying it rn, I still see gansey as this polo wearing and golf player fucker but he's getting better I guess, Ronan can fuck off sometimes he's so edgy it irks me a little

on this and on the previous chapter they saw/hallucinated some stuff at that hollow tree and then at the end gansey was like "ohh blue was the missing person/thing I feel so connected to her something something" and tbh I did not enjoy that very much it was a bit 😬😐 for me bc I just dont like when this type of connection between characters bc it feels like the author is trying to force/speed up a relationship they just dont have yet?? and we the readers must accept they feel the connection in their souls and it just feels so right for them to be around each other when in reality it feels a bit lazy to me..... I'm still halfway through the book so it's not like I can complain for real but still ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

ch 42 maybe?? : okay just something's I wanna tall about: can we pay respect to Maggie stiefvater and how organic she made Adam deciding to wake the ley line?? bc it was GREAT and I deeply loved it, i know i said that the book felt boring and very slow and how it needed to pick up the pace but i think this trilogy falls into the lotr/hobbit category where it's one big movie (in the specific case, book) divided into 3 so it would be easier to digest and I think this makes total sense, everything I've read so far (from chap 33 to here) feels so perfectly paced and planed but still it feels natural, when Adam was coming back home and he had a confrontation (well, not really) with his dad it just felt like was supposed to happen at that time with those exact words describing everything and mwah I'm loving it so much

also!! boi do Adam and blue sound so cute together, when he said he wanted to kiss her I was like

bc holy shit do they make a cute couple EVEN THOUGH I do know she ends up with gansey and their energy is also really good but goddamn do they look cute together and to think he would have been her first kiss too I'm going insane rn brub oh my god

also maybe it's the 21 year old in me talking but god did I wish they were one or two years older, it just kinda makes me a bit :// reading to 16 year olds being this traumatized about life in general and I feel like it honestly would change much if all this happened in the meantime they're about to turn 18 bc it would still be a ya book but it would be just?? more comprehensive I guess, adam dialogue about making up enough money to leave his house and getting into a good college so he can live a good life and have a home finally baby that's a 17 year old talking and feeling the pressure of the so called adulthood and being so close to being independent but also still being so young and !!!! I just feel like it would make more sense to me personally

re: about gansey's glasses: did I miss something or have the part where he gets glasses already went by?? bc he shower up at blue's home wearing white ones and there was no tall about it?? nothing else and it makes me feel like I missed something and I'm not sure yet

ch 48 and ending thoughts: ok. I'm not really sure what to feel about it bc even I had a rocky beginning with it I did end up really liking the ending but it left such a big taste of wanting more than I got that it just kinda makes me feel like it was, in a way, a prologue for the second book, where I imagine things will be more intense and already be in motion plot-wise. I have many question but my biggest one is that wow apparently that was the big explanation for gansey wearing glasses?? bc it honestly looks like I missed something or a chapter where something happens and he got glasses, his fight with whelck did break his thumb but it somehow got him glasses too?? or what the hospital like "yeah you're blind so fuck here's some glasses bitch"?? and Adam mentioned something on his face from their fight and??? was the discussion their fight and how did it hurt gansey's face?????? HOW???

not only that but also Adam sacrificed himself and how exactly does that affects him?? or was the whole "oh I've sacrificed myself my whole life" dialogue supposed to explain something?? bc yeah it kinda did but I was left with the thought that he would be kinda like a puppet I guess? bc he said he would sacrifice himself so in a way he wouldnt be himself anymore and there would be something else controlling him and maybe that was just my imagination wanting to guess what was going to happen now

I did think there would be the classic sacrifice scene and that whelck would try to shot gansey and that Adam would step in front of him or idk bc the scenario wasn't really solid in my mind and I did have trouble trying to figure out who was in what place but it was fine I guess

how on earth did Noah pull out chainsaw from his dreams?? man what the heck I need to read the second book