#thing is ... people don't get animals break their backs to the frequency I do

[kifu]

Sinner still had the ability to pull his leg back when i pinch his toes, but he won't get up and he's not interested in water. I'll hole him up in a carrier for a night or two so that he can reach what he needs, monitor his ability to poop, and put him out of his misery if he doesn't show signs of getting better.

I had FOUR does bred to him, but I'm really not sure three of them took. I doubt my ability to palate anymore, though, because i get litters so infrequently.

[reinedeslys-central]

kotlc things that I keep thinking about that are never really addressed by canon

there is a complete replica of sophie's bedroom and perhaps countless other rooms just. somewhere in a building in mysterium that the councillors just know about.

alden and other telepaths were instructed to monitor the citizens' minds for signs of dissent around the time the prentice thing was going down

they regularly torture prisoners and dissenters into literal insanity that they can't come back from

they also have a super weird prison only accessible by quicksand (????) to house said prisoners

there is an ENTIRE DUNGEON OF WEIRD LAB EXPERIMENTS DOWN BY THE VACKER HOUSE?

okay. how - how big is havenfield?

the entire thing with - is their name twix? the person dex was working with for something. why do we not get to see that more. why is dex the criminally underrated goated character and WE DON'T GET FLESHED OUT CHARACTER ARCS FOR EVERYONE

linh flooded. atlantis. linh song FLOODED ATLANTIS hello what do people think about that?????????? do they see her on the street and whisper? what's up with "The Girl Of Many Floods"? Where else did she flood?

What is up with the song family (tong? their name changed after their grandmother or smth got famous with their music right?) that both their children not only have two very powerful elemental abilities, but are also crazy skilled with said Talents.

why are music, art, and culture not a bigger thing? like yeah, plot, obviously, but that's just worldbuilding!!! I wanna see!!!! art hanging on the walls! Defying gravity! more sculptures! more music playing in the shopping centres!! If they have imparters why don't they have long distance radio? are there mandatory dance lessons? what's the etiquette like besides what we already know?

more animal husbandry at schools. speaking of schools: we KNOW foxfire and exilium aren't the only schools. are smaller schools more specialised? are their community colleges or academies dedicated to specific career paths? universities?

okay but the polyglot ability is SO COOL???? tell me about the archaic variants of the enlightened language. there's no way that's just the elves' one language and the other species picked it up due to their 'superiority' or wtv. the goblins have cities of gold and metal and the trolls age backwards, you're not convincing me of anything.

secret societies in the other species. that has to exist right?

.....is squall dex's mom or not? I genuinely can't remember.

anyway remember when she froze gethen's fingernails off, yeah that happened (I think)

so instead of rehabilitating teenagers who have dangerous abilities and not much control over their powers, we just do....whatever the council did with gethen, ruy, and linh ig

hey, um...are we just not going to talk about dex casually HACKING INTO A GOV DATABASE WITH SOME RANDOM BITS OF ROCK AND TWINE? he can just do that. okay. okay. that's - yeah, okay.

did he match a frequency or something? how does the signal network even work in kotlc when everyone is technically all over the world in unplottable locations and they get around by LIGHT LEAPING???

ON THAT NOTE. light leaping. yeah haha funny let's just teach our kids to casually break down their very particles and hold onto their consciousness to travel at the speed of light using quantum mechanics and crystals that are specifically cut to project light in such a way that'll take you only to a specific location nvm im not thinking more about it.

flickering? is apparently a skill you can learn even if you're not a vanisher? remember in book two when fitz got prissy at sophie for knowing how to do it apparently b4 we figured out that she's a teleporter

keefe is a fun loveable goofball and I've always been on the sokeefe train but now the more I think about it he's really um.... yeah, uh, sophie? darling, please just don't date any of these people. obv you can make your own decisions but at least not now, okay. take care of yourself hon

the fitz hate is kinda weird ngl. wdym you don't want your problematic traitor brother to move back in to living literally with your family after supposedly losing his memories and that's a bad thing? wdym your close friend/crush is hiding things from you when yall are supposed to be cognates and she's kinda gaslighting you since, forever? wdym your father's been shadily telling you to stalk this girl in the human world since you were a kid? yeah definitely he does pull some weird stints throughout the series. but the bigger things i see ppl hating on him for are. hmmmmm

the council themselves choose to lock away the government secrets and wipe them from their memories. hey, um - recordkeeping is great, obvious, but - wiping those secrets from your minds isn't gonna help you lead while accounting for those parts of history, is it? nevermind how dangerous it is when there are huge species-wide secrets that NO ONE remembers. society-threatening incident waiting to happen.

the concept of vociferators. that's just kinda funny lol even if it is weird

are their schoold for diff abilities?

what's the genetics of talent inheritance? why are 'stronger' abilities rarer? In my opinion, p much every talent is goated, I don't see why more characters aren't more creative about it.

banning talents is just a bad move. like. are you serious? how is that going to make it better? that's how you get brant. brant was a pyrokinetic, without getting into the primary issue of the whole talentless/talented discrimination discourse, the secondary issue is he wouldve been able to marry jolie as two talented elves. would he have cracked if his ability was just a bit better handled by society?

grady is a mesmer. how - that's a really powerful ability???? how do you even train to use that? what do you even use it for?

same with whatever that lady councillor is that tried to seduce alden during his own wedding. fun times, yall.

rainbow fire??? cool????

so we have the sanctuary, do we also have a gigantic library of alexandria-esque thing? a botanical garden?

according to jolie's wiki she died at twenty as a level 8 at foxfire. so... hang on a minute. okay, sure, numerically that could make sense since sophie, at 12, became a level one - but are you telling me she went through the whole matchmaking process and was planning to get married that young????

hey, here's an idea - in a relatively stable society where economy is great, trust funds exist, people work to have something to do with their lives, birth rate is generally low (now through prejudice as well as societal comfort and ease/cost of living), why are they marrying so young? WHY ARE THE KIDS STARTING THE MATCHMAKING PROCESS IN THEIR TEENS???? the elven society has p much every mark of a stage 5 developed country? help? middle-high school human geography??

if they apparently live so long, show me the funny messy family trees with couples having children generations apart.

so, trust funds of lusters??? lustres?? (which we barely ever see. why is there little-to-no use of money?) which equate to roughly one trillion USD (in value? are you. are you - um. are you....serious?) exist. but I guess inflation and relative currency value from mass money printing doesn't count in this world, as well as the fact that there's only one currency for all the elves.

I wanna see a divorced elven couple now. how does divorce law work??????

if there's such a low BR and low population and people are yet still encouraged to have less kids to 'not dilute the genes' (that's my next point btw), I'm guessing matchmaking is encouraged younger to make sure population stays stable/growing? obv you need it to ensure genetic diversity and no incest, but if it's heavily encouraged for elves to have children like this, are queer elves mandated to have children with a surrogate/other couple even if they have a same-sex marriage?

i'll probably edit this or reblog it to include more stuff (character limit lol) as i remember the books bc it's been a hot minute since i read them.

[iwonderwh0]

I can't let it go, so here's another scene of pocket ghost that I managed to put together. This one is out of context and doesn't follow any previous scene in specific, at least for now

The chicken sandwich felt too dry for Hank's taste, but after the five hours it took for him to admit his hunger, he didn't mind it as much. Although he couldn't appreciate it at the moment, now that they were miles away from any stores or drive-thus, surrounded by apartment blocks, he couldn't help but felt grateful that Connor had slipped it into his breakfast takeaway order for the day -- two donuts and a cup of coffee -- nearly eight hours ago.

The two of them -- well, technically only Hank -- were in a car, with two eyes and one dashcam fixed on the entrance of one of the grey buildings, waiting for any action that didn't seem to follow. Given the number of apartments in the building, one might expect the front door to open much more often than it actually did. Perhaps not many people lived in there after all; most of those apartments must still have been empty since the evacuation of Detroit, even though the order had been lifted months ago.

"Hank?" Connor said, breaking the silence of the past minutes.

Hank hummed questioning in response.

"There's some small animal ahead, but I can't identify which one it is."

Hank glanced at his dashcam for a moment before looking ahead, and indeed, a white cat walked on a parking lot, then stopped and lay down in the middle of it, enjoying the warmth of spring sun.

"Ah, this. It's a cat," Hank said.

"A cat," Connor echoed, "I've never seen a cat."

Hank's eyes travelled back. The cat lifted one of its back paws, tongue darting across white fur in a lazy-paced grooming session.

"Really? I thought you saw one when you hacked into my neighbour's house."

"I'm not sure if it was really a cat, the video quality wasn't exactly sharp," he paused, "Do you like cats?"

"I'm more of a dog person, you know," Hank bit into the sandwich, watching as cat stopped cleaning itself and stared blankly into the space.

"But do you like cats?"

"Everyone does," Hank shrugged, "Hell, If I woke up in a thousand years and someone asked me what's going on in the world, I'd answer that humanity is still worshiping cats - it's one of the things that never change," he said. Then he added, "Of course, that's if there's anyone left in a thousand years."

"Why don't you have a cat yourself? If you like them."

"I wanted an animal that would at the really least like me back. Can't expect the same indulgence from a cat," Hank grunted, "That reminds me - I think Sumo actually likes you more than he likes me."

"I don't think that's true. What makes you think so?"

"You need proof? Fine, explain this: when I call him - he doesn't bat an eye, but when you just look at him, saying nothing at all - he's at your feet in no time, as if you telepathically promised him a piece of steak or something. I don't get it."

Speaker rustled abruptly as Connor made some quiet sound, lost in sudden outbursts of the static. A short laugh?

"Did I finally say something funny?"

"No, not really. I'm sorry, I never thought about how that might look. I don't just look at him. I do something else."

"Which is?"

"I make a sound on a higher frequency. Dogs can hear it, humans – not so much."

"You let him in your house and he talks with your dog on a secret frequency. Fuck..," Hank shook his head in disbelief, "Never expected this from you."

"I'll take that as you're impressed," from the tone of Connor's voice Hank concluded he was pleased with his reaction.

"No shit, I've been scratching my head about this for months, even tried to look Sumo in the eyes with different face expressions. Never once did it work, not a single fucking time. Now I know why."

"You could have just asked."

"Yeah, well. What does it matter now anyway," Hank's eyes darted back to the cat, "In any case, my point is – dogs will love you no matter what, but cats can despise the living shit outta you even if you do everything right. With them, it's more of a gamble, y'know?"

"You don't mind gambling."

"Well, not when my heart is on stake. Wouldn't gamble with this crap - never worth it."

"Hank, are you implying that you wouldn't be able to handle a rejection from a cat? That sounds...a little dramatic, even for you."

Hank huffed a short chuckle.

"That's- Even for me, you say. What, am I some kind of drama queen in your book?"

Speakers rustled for half a second, then exploded with the sound of music "Ooh, yeah, ooh, yeah!"

Hank didn't need to look at the screen to know that that's Queen, specifically last minute of Bohemian Rhapsody. He felt blood rushing to his face, but as he opened his mouth to say something, the song already switched, also starting from the middle.

"-You are the dancing queen,

Young and sweet, only seventeen"

"Connor, go fuck yourself."

Fighting a smile and red in face, Hank took another bite of the sandwich, then glanced back at the front door of the building. Nobody walked in or out of it for the last 20 minutes. He didn't mind - at least he got to eat in peace. Well, almost.

Music got slightly quieter.

"How?" Connor asked.

Hank stopped eating and tried to remember what were they even talking about.

"How? Are you asking me about how you can fuck yourself?"

"Yes, I'm really curious how would you imagine me to do that. Given my... current condition."

"I have no idea. Guess you'll have to figure it out on your own."

"On it," Connor said in his earnest voice, and music got louder again.

This finally got an actual laugh out of Hank. He set the sandwich aside and and covered his face, feeling its heat on his palms and trying catch his breath.

"Just don't hurt yourself," he said, feeling warmth filling his lungs, giving up the fight against his face muscles - he wasn't sure why he had been resisting them anyway.

The cat stretched on the ground, greedily absorbing the sun's rays, resembling a sunbeam itself, as the only white spot in the overall grey area. Hank could see it looking around, as if searching for a better spot to enjoy and not entirely sure why -- more an impulse than a thought-through decision -- Hank took a piece of chicken out of his sandwich and stepped out from the car.

He crossed the parking lot and crouched down a few steps away from the cat – close enough to grab its attention, but not so close as to accidentally scare it away. Then he stretched his hand with a piece of chicken in the cat's direction, and sure enough – the cat came closer, curious. He let it sniff the treat, and just as it was ready to take a bite, started back towards the car. The cat followed.

Cat hopped onto the hood of the car as Hank patted it, and finally received a deserved piece of chicken along with a stroke. It purred blissfully in response.

"See better now?" Hank asked, sitting back into the car.

Car speakers rustled slightly.

"Yes."

[actuallyyourreflection]

Hello I saw you reblog a post from me and add into the tags some very interesting info about species in Australia being adapted specifically for wildfires. Do you have any more fun facts for me to read about this subject? Ive never heard of it before and thoroughly enjoyed reading your tags. Tysm and have a great night/day!

Hi! Yes I do!

So a fire regime is the pattern, frequency, seasonality, and intensity of fire disturbance in a particular ecosystem over long periods of time. A whole lot of places in Australia are ecosystems that've adapted to exist in a fire regime, and the timing between fires tends to be fairly short (compared to a lot of other countries/bioregions). So a lot of species- mostly plants- have become really specialised because of this.

There's a lot of ways that plant species have adapted to frequent fires (many need fire in order to reproduce!). This includes extreme heat releasing seeds (e.g., heating up sap until the seedpod explodes and sends seeds everywhere), plants that resprout quickly after leaves have been scorched off, smoke and heat breaking through seed dormancy by sending the right temperature/chemical signals, etc.

There's also a bunch of things that aren't adaptations but are ways fire can help certain species! The ashbed is really rich in nutrients, and with much of the undergrowth burned away there's a lot more sunlight, improved windflow, decreased herbivore activity- all things that promote establishment of pioneer species, which are first-in hardy species that settle in after a big disturbance, AND help those seeds released by/after the fire to get going. This changes the environment, and eventually, these pioneer species get out-competed by other species that take a big longer to get established and tend to have different traits. (kind of goes pioneer -> building -> mature -> degenerate or disturbance -> back to pioneer! it's a whole cycle).

As the plant species change, the environment changes, and the animal species change as well! If you look at small mammal succession after fire, you'll see that different mammals are present at different times after a fire as vegetation (and other factors) change.

Basically, a bit of burning in Australia leads to maximum diversity with a variety of successional stages. And this means higher recovery potential and resilience in the face of other potential disasters!

And of course there are animals that have adapted to fire in interesting ways, like fire hawks. These are birds like the Black Kite, Whistling Kite, and Brown Falcon and they work both solo AND together to spread fires! They do it by picking up burning sticks and dropping them in other places. The reason is because it's how they hunt- but it plays an important role in the ecosystem. Aboriginal Australians have plenty of stories and knowledge about this and take it into account in their care of the land- but until recently most non-Aboriginal people involved in land management were super skeptical about it so it wasn't factored into any planning or policy.

Of course climate change is absolutely fucking all of this and turning all our fires into devastating megafires which are definitely NOT good for the ecosystem so....

Um anyway sorry I wrote so much, hope the fun facts interested you!

Some links with further info/explained better:

Trying to manage fires and recreate healthy fire regimes

Fire and seed germination

If you happen to want to read an old but very important academic book on the subject, which I have only skimmed

Open-access article on fire as an ecological process

Evolutionary history of fire-stimulated traits in plants

I highly recommend doing some research on the topic (for fun) because it's super interesting, especially how fire has driven evolution of Australian species!

P.S. hope you don't mind me posting this publicly, but thought I'd share in case anyone else was also interested :)

[plaindangan]

Twerk-out round 2! Celeste and Akane refuse to be outdone by an outsider, demanding Kirumi come on stage with the two of them to prove who the real Ultimate Twerkslut is. They're gonna have to break out their favorite golden boombox and all their best twerk techniques, no matter how intense and sweaty they all get. Hopefully they don't get too into twerking and forget what the whole point of this was...

Disclaimer: R18 material! If not to your liking then please do not view!

"I assure you that I have no interest in challenging your chances! It was a sheer acci-!" SMACK! SMACK! Two hard hands slapped her naked, oiled up ass, leaving red handprints and silencing a Kirumi, leaving shuddering in pleasure.

"Shut the Hell up, you maid slut!!!" Celeste seethed. All three challengers stood on stage - all naked, oiled up as Kirumi and standing by with their boomboxes. "You cost me the last round...but not this time!! You best put it all on the line now!!"

"Hell yeah!! This is a fight to prove it all!!! You cheated last time, but I'm winnin' no doubt!!!" Akane roared, cracking her knuckles, and even stretched....which had the effect of giving some of the stagehands a bit of a show. But they weren't the main fcous.

On stage, the curtains was pulled back and the crowd came to life and, who wouldn't? From the start, all three had their backs turned to the crowd - giving each member of it a look at huge, shiny sets of pale, bronze, and vibrant asses that were staking their claim as the best.

Each at least confident thanks to the 'upgrades' they had their respective tech geeks made to their boomboxes.

Celeste, after paying out Chihiro with an assjob that left him breathless, had the programmer make her boombox that emitted a frequency to fully unleash 'Taeko Yasuhiro' - her slutty commoner self out to the masses. A desire that lead to the crowed being enamored with the sheer contrast of the elegant Celeste being so openly slutty, matching her speedy cake claps with vulgar display of sucking air dicks or even rubbing her pussy. Anything to win the title she thought she deserved!!!

Akane had two geeks, one mechanic and one animator with hypnotic tech, at her disposal. Milking both their cocks at once in double titjobe, she had them make her a boombox meant to do two things. One, have her maker louder, heftier, more powerful claps to get people's eyes and ears on her. Two, also emit a brainwashing frequency that, if the show of shaking flesh wasn't cutting it, the boombox's own ability to turn the crowd into gooninng zombies would do so instead!! Not that Akane doubted much it'd be her to win instead!

Finally, there was Kirumi. She actually didn't want to go to Miu and even refused her multiple times. But, Miu being Miu (and wanting to stick it to Class 77 and 78), still opted to take her golden boombox instead and modify it for a 'big' surprise. A literal one in this case as the crowd would bare witness to Kirumi growing to about nine feet tall with a bench size paired of sloshy buns to go with it~ Kirumi didn't want to compete, but if she was now being hard pressed and literally forced to grow to beat out the competition, might as well squat down and enjoy herself.

CLAP! CLAP!! CLAP!!! CLAP! CLAP! CLAP! CLAP! CLAP!!

The entire auditorium was filled it. Cacophony of clapping that had people standing hard at attention, dripping in their skirts and shorts, tossing away their funds and their own spunk without hesitation: all completely focused on the trio's intense efforts to be the best...

Though, as time passed, it seemed that remembering this event was purely a 'twerking' contest was getting quite lost on everyone: audience and performers in all. Perhaps using three hypnosis devices that got people insanely horny and excited, and modifying them to go further wasn't the best idea as the crowd began to strip and go at each other. Girls twerking on guys dicks, guys diving into kissing and worshiping many more moons that dared to stake their claim to -

And eventually, even the sweaty, horny, twerkers couldn't resist spreading themselves for many of studs and futas mistresses that dared to invade the stage to claim the three whoreish beauties, filling them with their reward for being such teases: a near infinite and continuous supply of cum that had all their asses, and eventually the rest of their holes spewing out musky, sweet cream~

Ultimately, Round 2 is a no contest~

[lets-talk-spirituality]

Bestieeee 😌I'm here and seeing you active at this hour (for my hour lol) up is making me think you're getting ready and I saw you'll be posting new year post confirmed that for mee and for some reason I don't see all your posts but I'm going to check if you have answered my ask that I sent the day before so I can reply 🏃 and it's so coincidence (?) That I watched a movie that I've been thinking um it was two but and both wefe amazing well perfect to me one more than other and I thought you'd like it maybe (if you like animation) and I've been thinking recommend that to you to watch and I saw you're in a rare !! Mode of watching movies 😳😳😳😳?? Hellooo 😭😭am I getting more psychic or what 😩🤌 (I'll definitely adding this -my ability in a messages of piles for DM FYI 👀 + you better answer every single one of them without skipping it because I noticed you do it a lot 😭match my energy -a little atm buttt- please!!

What’s the movie and where’s it streaming!? Our energy is apparently tuning in to one another’s. Maybe we share a similar frequency, aww that’s kinda kismet af

Bestie! Some people send in essays and I have to be in a real mental space to break those down and formulate thoughts. I come back to them when I can lol. And sometimes I don’t get back in DMs because of the same thing. I may not be in the energy to be able to respond. Doesn’t mean I don’t love you 💕 obviously our energy is always vibing :)

[haepii]

Limerence | PJS (08)

(n.) the state of being infatuated or obsessed with someone.

Pairing: Park Jisung + Reader

Genre: Werewolf!AU, Supernatural!AU, series

Series: Neo Culture Pack Series Masterlist, previous part, next part

Warnings: Violence, Gore, Mentions/Use of Weapons (I.e., swords, daggers, knives), Mentions of Blood, Murder, Animal Death/Murder, Werewolves (if you don't like it, leave), Mentions of bones cracking/breaking, Mentions of witches/witchcraft, mentions of vampires/fae, mentions of werewolves (duh), Jealous/Controlling Behavious (I do not condone these behaviours in real life, but obviously this work is pure fiction and so are the characters in it even if they are based off real people), Mentions of terminal illness (a brief mention and flashbacks, it can be rather confronting and I have experienced the facing of this situation myself. I know how confronting and triggering it is, so please do not put your own mental health at sake for reading this fanfic).

Taglist: @peepsibo @seajae @thesunsfullmoon @suhappysuho @traint0tokyo

WC: 3k

The fear that settled deep in her stomach left her feeling cold to the bone, with no possible way of warming up. Ryujin supposed, in a way, she deserved this. She'd always treated Areum poorly, especially since Areum was who she needed to be to please her mother. However, she also supposed she'd treated Areum badly because Areum was too perfect, to the extent were it made her look bad.

Either way, here she sat, in the unfamiliar guest room of her once best friends house, only to find out two of her best friends were never who they said they were. Since arriving, she'd noticed odd things about them. From the rune-like tattoos that littered their bodies; their legs, arms, backs, necks, chests... anywhere they could fit them, she'd supposed. She noticed how there were some that weren't littering their skin, like the ones on the walls. She also noticed how they wore pure silver jewellery at every given opportunity, and their array of blades and weapons in the wardrobe... all pure silver, that was locked behind a cage she could not access.

They wouldn't be so careless as to give their prisoner access to weapons. They were smarter than Taeyong would ever give them credit for.

If one were to tell her not even three days prior if she'd see herself in her best friends' house fearing for her life, knowing they weren't human. She would call them crazy, and laugh. However, there was something so... real about this, how everything began to click in her brain. How the tensions between Jisung's group and them was always so thick, almost potent in the air making it difficult to breathe.

She remember Areum talking about that supernatural psych textbook, reading about how supernatural emotions vibrate at a frequency where humans feel physical side effects from the intensity. It explained a lot, how she felt the air thicken when Chaerin or Taegwang and Jisung's group had interactions. It made her wonder, if Taegwang and Jaemin were both on the basketball team... how the fuck did the rest of the team members stand the tension?

"Ryujinnie! You awake, besite?" Sickly sweet, and as kind as ever, the door opened revealing Chaerin walking into the room, with a large bowl of bibimbap on a tray, with a few side dishes and, of course, a large boba tea. Ryujin's favourite. "Oh! How nice of you to be up still?"

Ryujin stared blankly at Chaerin, knowing full well she hadn't eaten in days, and any strength left in her to fight was out the window as Chaerin sat in front of her. "You know me, I'm a total night owl."

"Hm. Well... I bet you're wondering why you're here, and I'm here to give you answers." Chaerin spoke, placing the tray, next to Ryujin on the floor, as she sat herself down opposite Ryujin. Ryujin couldn't help but let her eyes flicker to the markings on Chaerin's skin, narrowing her eyes. With the lack of response, Chaerin let out a sigh. "Look... I'll make you a deal, you get to eat as much as you want and... in exchange, you listen carefully to everything I'm about to explain to you. Then, Taegwang and I will give you an ultimatum."

"An ultimatum?"

"It would mean a lot to me if I didn't have my best friend hating me. Especially once all this is over, it would be nice for you to know who I... well, we– who we really are." Chaerin holds both of Ryujin's hands, looking her deep in her eyes. Chaerin gently slides the tray closer to her, and it was clear, that despite being supernatural, and as far as Ryujin could tell, despite being detached from the emotions of mortals– like how that textbook said. Chaerin still showed that she cared for Ryujin, if to a very small extent of her cold, detached, immortal heart.

"I'll listen, but only because I'm ravishing. Not because you or your sister have any shred of affection left from me."

"Great! So... as you've probably gathered, none of us are human." Chaering sighed, looking at Ryujin, and she could tell that Ryujin knew that Chaerin wasn't entirely attacking he'd to the emotions of mortals, but still, Chaerin knew basic human decency. That in itself was enough to convince Ryujin to listen, but she wouldn't be lying if she said the food was 95% of the reason why she would listen. "Would you care to... listen to the story of my people?"

"Like I have a choice." Ryujin jokingly chuckled, before Chaein began to get up and take the tray away. Only for Ryujin to Leto ut a short laugh. "Fine! Alright, fucking hell. I'll listen."

"Long ago, in ancient times, there was havoc throughout the world, because of these half-man half-wolf creatures. Werewolves." Chaerin paused, allowing for Ryujin's slurping sounds and the sound of the boba travelling up the thick straw. "The werewolves, savages... had this bond, they call it the mate bond. To them it is the most beautiful thing, but to us, all we see is it's destruction. The second they lost their mate, their gravity, the sun to their universe. They would snap."

"Picture... thousands, millions of people slaughtered in minutes from their selfishness, from their lack of control. From their savage urges." Once again, Chaerin pause allowing for Ryujin to eat and take a big mouthful of food for a moment before continuing. "For centuries, mortals, like yourself, lived in fear of the werewolves, and their mates, for their mates, the purest of souls could be the difference between your life and death. They were the judge, jury and executioner, one wrong glance, one hurtful word... and your life would end."

Ryujin felt her stomach sink at the mere thought. She knew what Jisung was for sure now, she felt it in her gut. It left a sour taste in her mouth making her not want to continue eating, but the hunger consumed her.

Still, she couldn't shake the thought. Had she even given you a wrong glance? Had she ever said a hurtful word to you? Was it anything worth Jisung killing you over?

"For the protection of man kind, my predescors, the angels and the demons, once enemies now allies, came together to create a solution." Chaerin now sounded proud, almost as if she was above everyone else in that moment as she spoke. "My people, the Dominyens, Half-Angel, Half-Demon. Created to protect mortals from the savage beasts otherwise known as werewolves. We dawned the era of peace The Supernatural Council holds so dear."

She almost seemed happy as she mentioned it, almost as if it fuelled her ego. "We keep the peace, and our runes, which I take it you've now only just seen, allow us to harness the power of our predecessors to enhance our... abilities in all facets of combat, stealth and camouflage."

"There's a Supernatural Council?"

"Yes, they're called The Council."

"And these werewolves..." Ryujin had the chopsticks held halfway from the bowl to her lips as she spoke, almost glowing up at Chaerin.

"Taeyong, Jisung, Jisung's frineds from school. The town is crawling with them."

"And you protect..."

"You mortals. Correct. We keep tabs on the werewolves and even made a treaty with them, stating that if they mark a human mate after Areum, we will have full right to attack them and dismantle their pack." She stated, almost as if she'd already explained every facet of supernatural life to the poor mortal girl before her.

"How does this council thing work?"

"Well... there's a representative from each species; vampires, fae... all 15 types of them, angels, demons, werewolves, and us, the Dominyens." Chaerin explained offhandedly, as she nodded at Ryujin to continue eating, almost as if saying she wouldn't be taking it anytime soon. "For us, our representatives are our Royal families, of which there are twelve that rotate the crown. They are our royalty because they are not only half-angel, half-demon but also half-god. They were blessed by the goddess Hecate, and granted powers beyond your imagination at birth."

"Supernatural politics sounds like a pain in the ass."

"The treaties are, but they keep us in power over mortals like yourself." Behind Chaerin's voice, Ryujin could've sworn she could feel an insatiable bloodlust from Chaerin, as if she'd happily slaughter the entire wolf pack.

It made Ryujin lose her appetite. "What do you want with me anyways?"

"We need you as leverage."

"For what?"

"For our attack on your sister's wolf pack... you'll save (Y/N)'s life, Ryujin. Protect her from Jisung. Protect Areum from Taeyong."

Ryujin hands shook violently as she dropped the chopsticks into the ramen below her. She wasn't sure how screwed Chaerin's or Taegwang's views of the world were, but she knew they were taking nonsense. She saw Areum and Taeyong's love, she saw Jisung interact with you. Yet, she failed to see how either needed protection from the other. She only saw their 'to the ends of the earth, the moon and back, and a stop in the stars' love for each other. What would you need protecting from?

Yet, she knew by the look of fury in Chaerin's eyes... the ultimatum wasn't really an ultimatum. Thus, she thought of the only response she could muster.

"I'll do it... for (Y/N)."

The silence in the small infirmary was thick and awkward, and despite taking it slow, both you and Jisung had found nothing to talk about. Instead, he sat beside you glass of water in hand with nothing to say. While you stared out the window, contemplating the events of the weekend. Ryujin being missing, and half of this 'pack' as Areum had called it had gone out monitoring her captors, and Taeyong visiting you alongside Areum every afternoon for a few hours.

There was a point where Areum had been doing one of her assignments whilst sitting at your bedside. You had to admit, the pain from the stitches were still there, but you'd made great improvement in your recovery. This was partially due to Taeil and Nayeon having a strict schedule for your day.

This schedule had included waking up at 11AM and doing laps up and down the infirmary with the help of Nayeon, and Taeil pushing a wheelchair not far behind you, as you gripped onto the IV stand with your free hand. At first, these laps were challenging, and Nayeon would have to have you gripping her arm, which you were sure caused her bruises, as she spoke to you about simple girly things. However, after doing them a couple of times a day, you now walked relatively independent from Nayeon, only gripping onto the IV stand as she spoke to you about things like shopping, makeup, boys, and the hottest topic of conversation– her date nights with Taeil.

Out of everyone in the pack, you found yourself liking Nayeon the most, she understood you. She was once a Fae before she married Taeil and "betrayed" her family. Now, she was a simple werewolf with a little one on the way, but you could tell she'd never been happier. She loved Taeil more than life, and someday, you wanted to love someone that much.

Other than the laps, the schedule also prohibited Jisung from visiting you before 3PM, and gave you two hours to rest after your laps and breakfast. Jisung, according to his schedule had always had to leave you at 1PM, at which point Nayeon would get you doing laps again. However, Jisung would always return by 5PM, 6 at the latest, to see you before dinner, which often clashed with Areum's 4PM visits, but today, Areum had come around lunchtime, leaving you be with Jisung for the evening.

"What day is it?" You asked, pulling yourself from your thoughts. You had completely forgotten what day it was, probably because given your new routine for the past four days was the same, they had all blurred into one.

"It's Tuesday evening." Jisung replied, eyes focused on you, as if every word you said meant the world to him.

"Is there school tomorrow?"

"Not for you." Nayeon butted in from the other side of the infirmary.

"Wait! We missed our first official date?" You gasped, looking at Jisung with wide eyes. He gave you a wide smile, happy you had remembered in the first place, but then realised the sadness you had on your face.

"I didn't think it'd be fair to take you out on a date like this." He shrugged, having remembered very clearly planning out where he wanted to take you.

"Jisung... I'm gonna be honest." You spoke with a very seriously voice, that held not a sign of humour but only the admiration and adoration you had for the boy in front of you. "We could be standing in the mother fucking Vatican and I would only be looking at you. I don't care if it's just movies in your room, or studying, or both... because there's just something about you that could entertain me for hours, and all you'd have to do is just..."

"Be there." He breathed out, with the same admiration and adoration in his eyes. "I think the feeling is mutual."

"I don't even know how it must be for you... being the one who has the stronger..."

"Bond?"

"Yeah." You smiled, with the smile suddenly changing to a flirtatious smirk. "So... tomorrow's a date?"

"I'll have to kick Chenle out of his side of the room."

"Oh! I don't want to impose on him like that."

"Trust me... we wouldn't be imposing on him, he'd be imposing on us." He let out a small laugh, as you laughed a little. You hardly knew Chenle, but you knew he never left you or Jisung alone. One downside of Jisung not being allowed to visit you after school was that Chenle could and would run on the same schedule. Hence why, Chenle was always a package deal with Jisung. With a smile Jisung nodded. "Tomorrow's a date."

"Can't wait..." You whispered to him, your voice suddenly going much softer as you leaned closer to him, eyes on his lips, as if he wasn't already leaning in.

"I'll pick you up at 6..."

"Sounds perfect..."

Being impossibly close, you heard the loud clearing of a throat and turned annoyedly to see Chenle standing at the slightly opened curtain in front of your bed. "Okay... lovebirds, Nayeon says its time for Jisung to go to dinner and for you to rest."

Chenle had his lips in a thin line. "Didn't interrupt anything, did I?"

"No... not a thing." Jisung spoke, sarcasm dripping from his voice as he shot a venomous glare at his supposed wing-man, who he was very much considering replacing with Jaemin, as Jaemin would at least not act like he hadn’t interrupted anything, but rather would stand there and watch with popcorn and a can of coke.

The morning had arrived slower than you'd hoped, with Nayeon finally standing at the end of your bed, leaning on a very familiar pink suitcase."So... Areum finally helped me get your clothes from your house."

She added with a shrug. "Personally, I think it would've been way funner to get you a whole new wardrobe, but... I think you like your own stuff better."

"Thanks." You smiled, finally getting your hands on the suitcase as she gently pushed it towards you.

"And... since you've recovered so well, how about we go for a bit of a walk outside today?" She suggested with a hopeful smile, as you had begun to open to suitcase, finding everything from toiletries to your handbags in the suitcase. Practically everything except your kitchen sink. "Maybe you could tell me about this first official date that Jisung has been raving on about."

You burst into a fit of giggles as you spoke. "He has?"

"He won't shut up about it, paid Jaemin fifty dollars to help set up."

"Set up what?"

"It's a surprise. Now get dressed in jeans or something, and be careful of your new bandages, please." She smiled, before walking off to get ready for your outdoor walk that morning. You found yourself dressing a lot warmer than you would've, as the summer was about to turn into the fall. From the leaves on the massive tree right outside your window turning a slight orange, you'd expected the temperature to follow soon after.

Dressed in a pair of jeans with a white button-up blouse tucked in and your doc Martens, you walked out of your section of the infirmary and towards Nayeon. Your walking had greatly improved, and she was happy to say you'd gained most of your strength back, which was impressive.

She'd assumed spending almost every spare moment with Jisung had helped, as the presence of a mate could physically heal the other if they were wounded. You were walking relatively independent from the IV stand, yet still you wheeled it along beside you.

"Ready?" She asked with a wide smile.

"Yeah!" You nodded.

Walking out of the infirmary beside her was such a good feeling. She could tell you'd struggled not to air it to Jisung, Areum, or Taeyong, as they would insist you needed more time to recover, but you were beginning to get tired of the same scenery of the infirmary. You missed the scenery of nature. You missed Maggie. In fact, thinking of her triggered something in your brain; Where the hell was Maggie?

"Hey, Nayeon... when you were at my house did you find a dog there by any chance?"

"Oh! Maggie, you mean?" She asked, recalling Areum being very happy to see the large Border Collie dog, that, judging by the photos on the walls was a big component of your childhood.

"Yeah... do you know where she is?"

"She's fine, staying with Johnny and Eunbi for the time being, until you recover. Eunbi's dog just passed so it's kinda fitting. Nice for her." Nayeon added thoughtfully, trying to sell you on the idea that Maggie was totally fine. Yet she could see on your face that you were unsure of whether or not you liked the idea of Maggie living with someone else. It was not something you'd ever envisioned giving up to be with Jisung. "We can go and see Eunbi if you'd like."

"I don't think I've met either of them." You spoke up with a frown, as you'd not recalled either of their names being in the small amount of introductions you'd had with the pack. You hardly knew the members you went to school with other than Jisung, Jaemin, Jeno, Chaeyoung (one of your teachers), and Renjun.

"Well, Johnny's out monitoring Ryujin until 6, started earlier this morning, but Eunbi's day off is today."

"Okay!" You smiled, trying to keep an open mind. All of the girls you had met that were mates of werewolves were the kindest souls you could've ever come across. So you supposed Eunbi would be the same; kind, sweet, and above all, love Maggie.

Nayeon explained that Taeyong allowed for pack members to build personal cabin-like homes on the pack's land if them and their mates wanted to live away from the chaos of the main house, and more importantly, have children. However, she explained the Kun, being the second in command, didn't get that option with Chaeyoung, but still had a warm apartment-like home within the main house. She'd explained how Taeil and herself lived a shorter distance from the main house is a small, fenced off old-style cottage.

"See! There's our house that I was telling you about. Taeil worked the night shift at his hospital last night so he's sleeping in today." Nayeon explained, as the pair of you walked past a small limestone cottage with mustard yellow painted wooden shutters and a bright red door. There was a white picket fence with a large garden of roses in the front yard, it was clear they home was warm and lived in.

"How far is Johnny and Eunbi's house?" You asked, stopping for a paused as you sat on the limestone bench in the middle of the pathway. It was clear that this area was designed for when a pair of mates wanted to move from the main house. You supposed the next ones to find their mates would start to build more houses and make the area feel most like suburbia.

"They chose to live a good twenty minute walk away. Those two always liked their privacy, even when they lived in the main house. When they got married it was almost expected of them to want to build their own home." Nayeon let out a laugh, remembering the day when she had to share a flat with them because the apartment-like living space given to newly mated pairs was taken by her and Taeil when they were building their cottage.

"You feeling okay?" She asked.

"Yeah... it just, it's a bit sore. I might need a minute." You gripped onto the IV stand as you held your arm over your stomach, shuddering as you distinctly remembered the feeling of the cool silver blade being push to the hilt into you.

"That's fine, we're over halfway, this is great progress." She reassures you with a pat on the shoulder.

"Thanks." You smiled as you looked at the house across the pathway. In their driveway, the had a couple of vintage cars, and in amongst the thick forest, their house stuck out like a sore thumb. However, the forest made their home feel all the more secluded.

After about a ten minute break, the walk to Eunbi's home had passed by quickly, until the uphill pathway had evened out to reveal a slightly bigger limestone house next to a large lake, that had ivy climbing up the side and a green front door. In the drive way was an army green jeep and a vintage sedan in a khaki brown colour.

The front door opened to reveal Eunbi, and Maggie who had squeezed her way past the woman and ran towards you almost at the speed of light. You let out a laugh as you opened your arms for the excited dog. "I wasn't expecting anyone today!"

"I'm sorry, I should've called." Nayeon smiled as she watched Maggie inspecting you, almost as if she was protecting you.

"No! No, it's fine. I've wanted to meet the famous (Y/N) for weeks. Jisung hasn't shut up about that date for tonight." Eunbi smiled, and as you finally got a good look at her, you could see how she must've been not much older than you by three years. Hardly twenty. She had a round face, with thick ringlets that spanned past her shoulders, which were somewhat tamed by half-up, half-down claw clip hairstyle. Her lips were pink and pouty, and she had buck teeth and dimples. She radiated the energy of the sun. Her energy was yellow, and you could see why Johnny loved her so.

Unlike Johnny, however, she was probably the shortest member in the pack. "I'm Eunbi."

"(Y/N)." You introduced yourself, using the IV stand to hoist yourself up off of the ground, Eunbi looked at you with concern and went to help you up, but before she could you had managed to stand upright. The young girl before you glanced from the IV stand to Nayeon with a worried look.

"I hope you don't mind me caring for Maggie. She's super sweet, very kind." Eunbi smiled, her dimples showing. She didn't look to be a day over the age of 17. However, you knew from the wedding rings on her finger that she was twenty, maybe 3 years older than the twins (Jaemin and Jeno). She had the youthful air about her. Based off of the pastel clothes she was wearing, which she managed to pull off, she had that ingenue essence of effortless youthfulness.

"No! No, it's no problem. I don't mind, and she seems to like you. I'm happy she's being taken care of." You smiled, leaning slightly on the IV stand for support. You'd hoped that the twenty minute walk, which for you had turned into an hour work did not take out all of your energy, but your wound was throbbing now. You didn't know how much longer you could last standing here without sitting down.

"Johnny didn't like having her around at first, but I feel like he's grown to care for her more than I have." Eunbi smiled down at Maggie, as she began to make her way to the wrap around porch.

"Maggie does that to people... she steals their hearts." You heaved out with great effort, not that either of the older women seemed to notice.

"Doesn't she ever..." Eunbi smiled, helping you up the steps to the front porch, Nayeon following soon after you. "Areum says she was your grandmother's dog."

"Yeah, same age as me... she's known me since I was born."

"Areum speaks so highly of you and I'm so happy to meet you. Would you two like to come inside?" She hade finally asked, making you sigh in relief, as you followed Eunbi inside the cottage.

"Yes, that would be lovely." Nayeon spoke, as if she didn't have to be asked twice, and followed you inside.

The interior, in your opinion, was just as nice as the exterior, not that you'd seen much of the pack's housing. You just knew it had that air of homeyness that you yearned for. The photos hung on the wall were ones from Eunbi and Johnny being together at high school, college, then at their wedding.

"Johnny's working as a remote music producer for a company in Seoul and Eunbi is doing her vet residency in town." Nayeon explained as you noticed the two degrees on the wall, one was Eunbi's, a masters of vet science, and Johnny's was a bachelors of music production.

"that's so cool."

"Jisung told me you wanted to be a vet, hey?" Eunbi smiled with a small laugh, gesturing for you and Nayeon to come and sit on the mismatched chairs at the wooden dining table, where she'd laid out some tea and biscuits.

"Yeah... it's been my dream for a while."

"Stop by my vet, and I'll get you a job as a nurse... maybe not for a month or so. I want a full recovery from you, missy."

"Really? Thanks, that's so nice."

"Anyways... I forgot to ask. Nayeon, is it true that the slayers kidnapped Areum's sister? Is that why John's so busy lately?" Eunbi turned to Nayeon, who had begun sipping at her tea and eating a biscuit.

"Taeyong has him monitoring the situation with them, while Areum is in the city at her flat for law school. He's working on reaching out to the council for assistance." Nayeon answered with everything Chaeyoung had told her, for what they knew was limited to your injuries and that you were attacked. Nayeon knew it was safest for you not to leave the pack's territory without Jisung, and that was a specific request from Taeyong.

"I heard that they breached the laws, something about harming a mate." Eunbi spoke solemnly as she took a long drag of hr tea before turning to you with a small smile. "We're lucky you're stable, (Y/N). I was so relieved for Jisung when I heard. I was also human when I met Johnny."

"Do you ever get used to the pull?" You ask, feeling the pining for Jisung you'd always felt when he left in the early hours of the evening.

"After you've been together for so long, you just get used to it. I suppose I see Johnny everyday so I don't really notice." Eunbi smiled, and now that you'd registered her words, you noticed how, unlike Naeun, who had not been a werewolf before meeting Taeil, Eunbi did not have that other-worldly beauty. Rather, she looked like a mortal, she still had subtle imperfections the others did not have, she was clearly unmarked. You hadn't brought yourself to ask either of the women before you, for fear of offending Eunbi, Johnny, or their choice of lifestyle.

"Jisung's bond to you is already strong, you just need to feel it too." Nayeon shrugs with a small smile, she had noticed the questioning glance you sent her, and all she could do was place her hand softly on your arm, as a way of saying 'I'll explain later' without speaking aloud.

"We're going on a date tonight." You added with a smile.

"So I've heard." Eunbi let out a short laugh.

"He's picking me up at six, and I want to wear something nice."

"We'll help you pick an outfit!"

"Oh! I've missed doing this kind of thing for Areum!" Nayeon squealed, clapping her hands. Part of you thought she'd be against this outing, not that Jisung would throw you in harm's way, but that, it may be strenuous on you, especially in this condition, but as she smiled and clapped her hands giddily, you did not see concern from her in sight. "I thought you'd never say anything."

"We'll drive back to the main house."

You smiled at the two slightly older girls, happy that you had made some friends within the pack. However, from Areum's explanation, you knew your bond with the pack had begun to grow the second Jisung had come to realise you were his mate. You were just happy they'd grown to accept you. Looking at the clock on the wall, you saw the time being towards the mid afternoon. You hadn't realised how slow you'd really been walking.

Without a second thought, you followed the squealing girls to the Jeep, which Eunbi had explained was Johnny's car, but it was easier to drive around than her sedan. She drove down the dirt roads back to the main house, which took no more than five minutes.

"Come on, you! We need to get you ready!" Nayeon squealed, walking you by the shoulders to the infirmary. Once in the infirmary, she worked on removing you IV Drip but keeping the insertion point on your hand, capping it off to stop you from bleeding.

Then she took your toiletries, and walked you up to the massive guest room ensuite. The ensuite was extravagant to say the least. It had a massive bathtub and a massive rain shower.

"Is it possible to fall in love with a bathroom?"

"It's nice, hey?" Eunbi

"Yeah..."

"Well, be quick, have a shower, wash your hair, but it's 4 now! Hurry up!" Nayeon exclaimed happily, as she left the room with Eunbi.

You made quick work of having a shower and blow drying your hair, putting on a robe and walking back out into the guest room, seeing the pair fretting over two ideas of an outfit.

You examined the both of them. One was a pink dress that was satin and would fall to your mid thigh with long sleeves, and the other was a beige linen dress that had a bow at the back, with a large cut-out back and puffed sleeves, it fell to your shins.

"I think the beige would be nice, considering I know where they're going." Eunbi smiled, holding up a nice pair of tan leather lace up boots that had a three-inch heel and would come up to your mid-calf.

"Beige it is, then." You smiled grabbing the outfit from Eunbi.

You hadn't thought about how easily the girls had welcomed you into their pack until now. How they'd embraced you with such happiness. It felt like you'd known each of them for years, and you'd hardly been here a week. You hardly knew anything about them, but you knew that they loved Jisung, and, you supposed Jisung loved you.

You frowned slightly as you felt the pull to see him again, the pining you felt had become stronger and stronger the longer you went without seeing him. Despite being young and naive, knowing that you still had a long life ahead of you that held mysteries and unexpected turns. Jisung made you feel stable, it was his constant presence, knowing he'd never leave you that brought you to the decision that you knew you'd have to make.

You wanted to take Jisung's mark and become a member of the pack. Yet, you still needed an answer from Nayeon; why didn't Eunbi take a mark?

An hour had passed and by the time you finished getting ready, you glanced at the time on your phone. It was five minutes until Jisung would pick you up from the infirmary, and you knew you had not a second to spare.

"You look amazing." Nayeon smiled, securing your IV drip back onto the back of your hand. "Even with an IV pole, and Don't worry, Eunbi told me you guys weren't leaving pack grounds, so if you feel tired or strained at any point, you have to tell Jisung, okay?"

You nod, as you looked in the mirror that was located on the bathroom door of your infirmary room, noticing how Eunbi had curled your hair into soft waves and placed a beige padded headband, keeping the curls from your face to match your dress. Your lips had their signature red gradient tint to them, and you couldn't help but smile at yourself in the mirror.

"You look beautiful."

The voice you'd longed to hear for the entire day sounded and you couldn't help but run to him, instinctively dragging your IV pole alongside you and jumping into his arms.

"Careful, we don't want you breaking any of your stitches."

"You look handsome." You mumbled to him with a smile, your arms tightening around him, almost as if it was all the strength you had remaining.

"We should get going."

"Speaking of, where are you taking me?"

"Not far."

"That's what Eunbi said. I want to know!" You pouted like a child, as he led you through the foyer, holing you IV clad hand as if it was glass, almost as if it would shatter if he held it any tighter.

"You'll see soon enough." He let out a short laugh at your expression. "Tell me, how was your day?"

"It was actually good... really great now that I'm with you."

"You always say that, what did you get up to?" He let out a laugh, leading you out the front door, and helping you down the steps

"I saw Maggie today. Eunbi loves Maggie, I'm thinking of letting Eunbi keep her for awhile."

"You met Eunbi?" Jisung seemed almost defensive as he attached the motorbike in front of the porch, taking the IV pole from your hands, retracting the wheels, and clipping it onto the bike.

"Yeah. She's nice." You frowned up at him, as he tenderly put a motorbike helmet on your head, his fingers brushing your chin as he secured it to your head. Your frown faded when you saw his soft eyes looking down at you. You smiled up at him.

Taking in the scent of his sandalwood and patchouli cologne, you got up on your tip-toes and kissed his cheek softly. "Thank you for putting my helmet on, handsome."

"Anytime, beautiful."

You felt blush creeping up on your cheeks at the nickname. With a hand on the small of your back, the sparks flying up all through you, he guided you to the side of the bike, helping you get on it, before he got on it himself.

"Remember to hold tight." He spoke softly, a stern but caring edge to his voice as he turned on the gas. Before you knew it, your arms were wrapped around his torso, holding him tightly as the bike sped past Taeil and Nayeon's home, and down a much narrower track in the opposite direction of the other house.

You rested your chin on his shoulder, allowing the sparks to consume your being whole as you watch the forest flit by in a mass of green blur.

Soon, the bike slowed to a stop, and before you could even think of getting off, Jisung had begun to softly take off your helmet, and remove the IV pole from the bike, before he finally helped you off.

"We've arrived."

The setup was ancient ruins of a gazebo, that was now hidden behind a clear flowing waterfall, only a short walk on stepping stones to a break in the waterfall to were the gazebo was, facing a large lake that was practically glowing golden from all the gold reservoirs in the mountain. Following Jisung on the stepping stones, with his help, you made it inside the cave, with only minimal splashes of the fresh water on your dress. You came to a stop to admire the way the water fell like a curtain, secluding the gazebo.

On the floor of the gazebo was a large picnic blanket, with pillows and large platters of food, even a makeshift barbecue setup. On the smooth walls of the cave was a projector displaying the Netflix home screen.

"This is beautiful, Jisung. You know... when you said we were gonna watch movies in your room, I thought you were serious." You let out a laugh, as you looked at the amazing set up.

"I wanted it to be more special than movies in my room."

"I think you've set the bar too high for yourself. What are you gonna do when you have to propose to me?" You smiled up at him, knowing the weight of what you had just said entirely. You saw him freeze for a moment, feeling his soul leave his body and then return.

"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it." He spoke as if he hadn't had a clue what would top Netflix on ancient ruins behind a clear-flowing waterfall glowing golden with gold reservoirs.

"I'd say yes even if it was just movies in your room... as long as its you asking me." You thought aloud, without having realised your filter had a lapse in judgement, you continued as if you hadn't said anything. "I really appreciate this, Jisung. I never want it to end."

"It doesn't have to."

"No... I mean it. I've decided."

"Decided?"

"I want to take your mark one day, I want to be with you for the centuries to come and maybe beyond that." You spoke softly, your eyes meeting his with full seriousness.

"You don't have to tell me twice. Whenever you're ready, I'll be waiting."

"Now... done with the heavy. What movie are we gonna watch?"

"It's up to you."

The hours ticked by, and you never wanted to leave. The talking, laughing, and just staring at each other, enamoured by the other was everything you wanted it to be. It was 10pm, and Jisung knew he'd have to get you back sooner or later to start his 3am patrol, leaving him having to end the night, carrying your sleeping form back to the pack house in a jog, which was the pace of a swift run for mortals.

Tucking you into your bed in the infirmary, removing your shoes and makeup as you slept peacefully with a small smile on your face. He couldn't bring himself to leave without kissing your head, and whispering softly as he looked at your sleeping form softy, with a small smile on his lips.

"I love you."

"Are you sure we should do this, Taegwang?" Chaerin asked, standing at the edge of the Pack's territory, watching as Jisung kissed your head from a distance.

"It's now or never, they've grown too close." He said heartlessly.

"She'll never forgive you for this, she's liked him since ninth grade." Ryujin scoffed from the tree where she was tied, looking between Chaerin and Taegwang.

"You know this, Ryujin. It's for her own good."

©️ @haepii 2022

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Movie Reivew | Bruce Lee in New Guinea (Yang, 1978)

One of the great things about having to go back to the office when your province has removed all mask mandates is that, after not having gotten sick for two and a half years, I managed to catch two colds within the same month. Now, I won't grouse too much about my condition, but I will note that over the last two nights, when zonked out on cold medication, I turned to that age-old non-pharmaceutical panacea of Bruceploitation, the genre that works better the less you can pay attention to the plot. That certainly holds true for Bruce Lee in New Guinea, which feels like a free-associative series of fight scenes with the flimsiest narrative threads holding it together. What I'm saying is, it was a great movie to watch under these circumstances. If I misrepresent the particulars of the story in any way, blame the cold.

Bruce Li stars as an anthropologist who flies to Snake Worship Island in Papua New Guinea to study the snake tribe. There's a brief attempt to liken him to the real Bruce Lee with a fight scene where he sports a tracksuit, but otherwise I appreciated that he gets to be his own character and not too much in the shadow of the real deal. Complications arise as the snake tribe is under the influence of the evil Devil Sect, with the snake princess (who is noted to be very nice) having to obey the evil Great Wizard Guru. At one point, he tells her to take off her crown for breaking the tribe's rules. I would have thought as princess, she could have changed the rules, but I guess not. Do the snake people have a constitution? The movie does not provide an answer. Also, the palace has a pit of poisonous snakes right in the middle, which multiple characters fall into, so if she really wanted to take back power, there were options at her disposal. But she is good-hearted, and I suppose good-hearted people don't push others into piles of deadly snakes.

The Great Wizard Guru is a supposedly fearsome fighter with three tricks at his disposal: Snake in the Road (a fighting move), Snake in Tree (another fighting move) and a poison ring (what it sounds like). (A character tells us this breathlessly and then announces: "I'm dying!") That the Great Wizard Guru immediately goes to the poison ring in the next scene casts great doubt on his martial arts prowess. There's also intrigue involving the Snake Pearl (the movie cleverly builds its mythology through the age-old trick of adding "snake" before regular words), a baby, and some other schlubs awkwardly inserted into the plot. Li and the Snake Princess fall in love, but I guess I missed the scenes of courtship. Blame the cold medication.

The high point of the movie comes at the halfway mark. A pair of creepy guys spy a bunch of the female snake people frolicking on the beach (set to cheesy music), start harassing them, and are stopped when the Snake Princess arrives, tells her subjects to "Go get the ape!", and a gorilla shows up, does a few flips, and beats up the creepy guys. The ape is a force for good, so alas it never fights Li. Other animal-related intrigue largely involves snakes, and while PETA would likely not approve, I didn't notice any snakes being harmed onscreen. There's also a notable scene where Li's cousin mistakes his arm for a snake through the magic of editing.

I think this stumbles as an action movie by giving its main villain too many fight scenes with Li too early, so that their final showdown doesn't make as much of an impact. That last fight does have one pretty bloody moment, all the more startling because the movie is otherwise pretty PG-rated in terms of content, and the copy I watched (on the great Wu Tang Collection YouTube channel) had the swears bleeped out. (I noticed when a character said something really mean about a literal baby, which is a great way to signal to the audience that he's a bad dude.) The fights however come with great frequency, and are shot and choreographed with a reasonable level of craft, so combined with some of the kooky stuff here, I had a good enough time. However, I must note that the background of the fight scenes didn't look all that different in terms of wildlife than every other cheapo martial arts movie I've seen. What I'm saying is, contrary to the movie's title and that one insert of the plane taking off, the movie was not actually shot in Papua New Guinea and was instead filmed wherever they normally shot these things. If you can get over that crippling betrayal and don't mind not paying attention to the plot, you might have a good time.

[isaac-lahey-imagines]

Imagine #70 | Request #31 (Part 3/3 of Isaac Lahey x Alpha!Reader)

Catch up here: Part 1, Part 2 (might need to rewrite these two though)

Can I just say that you guys who stuck with this blog (and the Wattpad imagines) are the best? And to think I haven't posted in years and we've hit 6k+ followers when I came back?! I don't even know how you people are still here and loving the pieces I put out when I'm here cringing over the old works back in 2015!

Warnings: The usual when it comes to the Teen Wolf series, specifically the Dread Doctors' season, mentions of blood, bones breaking, drugs, needles, a few curse words, idk if this is angst? whump?

Word Count: 6k+ (it's probably the longest I've written omg)

Not much of a flashback or backstory (I'm out of words, I can't squeeze anymore juices out of my brain, my bad). As usual, this is note beta-ed and sorry for any mistakes! English isn't my first language :(

~

“No more, please,” weak cries fell on deaf ears as you were dragged down from one hall to another, the smell of disinfectant and rust overpowering your already sensitive nose and magnifying the headache that was present from when you took a beating earlier.

The sound of bare flesh skidding on the polished floor bounced off the walls as you tried to pull away and run from your captors, you did not care of the stinging sensation that radiated from the pads of your feet - the open wounds left untreated by the people who kept you in hopes that whatever was inside of you can take care of it on its own.

You were repulsed at the thought of them still being considered as people after what they have put you through - they were monsters.

“Just a little more, my dear.” One of the figures that held your arm sneered, the grip on your bicep tightening making you clench your jaw. You internally scoffed at this knowing well that it won’t be ‘just a little more’ with how long and how frequent it happened and will happen.

“She should be able to go through another round.” A voice, deeper than the feminine one from earlier, spoke up as you entered through the heavy double doors of a room - an operating theater you guessed from the setup. “Prep her.”

“Her vitals are stronger now.” The third person declared, their fingers flipping through the pages of the clipboard in their hands before glancing towards the monitor to one side of the room - an image of your anatomy on display with different colors corresponding to each system in your body.

“The less you struggle the faster this will be.” One of the doctors, the Geneticist, who dragged you to this hell hole hummed as she was met with resistance on your end while she strapped you down on the cold metal table, the leather rubbing your already raw skin.

Her patience with you was at a limit, she was close to just ending it - ending you. But they have already achieved so much with their craft that it would be such a waste of time and resource to start from square one.

“Remember,” The Pathologist warned as he walked closer to you once you were settled down. “The louder you scream, the more blood we take from you.”

The tears that fell from your eyes to the sides of your face tickled your ears at the threat, small whimpers coming from you were ignored.

“Might I remind you that the btch wakes up?” The Geneticist interrupted, irritation in her voice as she steadied your shaking right hand before inserting an IV cannula in a vein at the back of your hand and taping it in place. Looking up to her left, she reached for the device below one of the two bags that hung on the pole and unclamped its tube letting the mix of anxiolytic, hypnotic, and anticonvulsant start to flow down to you. She then turned her attention to the other bag beside it, a mix of amnestic, and myorelaxant drugs, and did the same - a near-perfect cocktail mix they specifically designed for you.

She reminded the other doctors that no matter how much benzos, relaxants, or other drug concoctions they pump in your veins, you will wake up in between operations screaming your head off while attempting to break free of the hold you are currently in. “No matter how much sedatives we put in her, her wolf is too strong-”

“It’s an animal-” The Surgeon spoke up.

“She’s an alpha, a pure one-” She argued again, almost growling at the hard-headedness of her co-doctors before she was cut off by the same person.

“An animal.” He spoke in finality. “We are humans - gods even! We are at the very top of the damned food chain.”

The room suddenly fell silent, your whimpers, the beeping of a monitor, and the hum of the machines somewhere in the room were the only things that could be heard as you started to feel the effects of the fluids injected into you.

The tension you felt from earlier began to leave your body just as your vision started getting cloudy, your eyelids feeling heavier by the minute. You didn’t notice the Pathologist holding up a syringe to the light, flicking the bubbles away with his middle finger and thumb a few times before the taste of rubber invaded your mouth with such force that hurt your lips, gums, and teeth.

The Surgeon that was above you, blocking the light for a few moments, had shoved the mouth guard in before he continued securing your head in the metal gear positioned above you. Your neck followed suit with a hard metal clamp attached to the table effectively locking you in place and soon, your whole body was completely immobilized with a loud click from the double lock clamps.

The tears continued to flow down the sides of your face as you fought the sleepiness, praying for this to just end. The dread of what is to come overwhelming you and making your body shake as much as the drugs and table’s hold on you would allow.

“I’m surprised the smart one hasn’t figured it out yet.” They exchanged small talk over your muffled screams as soon as you felt the sharp sting of a needle puncturing your skin and into your cervical spine; expelling whatever it was they created into your system for the nth time. Your ears hurt from the ringing in your head while your throat burned as the pain from the syringe radiated all over your body.

“I’m surprised her mate hasn’t.” The Geneticist replied with emphasis.

“My friends, let us not be complacent.” Their leader ended their conversation as he now concentrated on looking at the x-ray on the monitor showing the movement of the serum as it spread in you.

“We continue our routine - clean her up, wipe her to an extent and then return her. ” He added as he pushed more of the liquid in you with a press of a button by your head.

“Marcel, they will know, soon enough.” She pointed out. “She will start to have withdrawals if-”

“We won’t let that happen.”

~

Sneakers skidding on the floor as everyone seemed to scramble out of the way towards the door, eyes wide with fear looking at the figure in front of them.

“Y/N?”

“Alpha?”

Isaac watched as the massive wolf in front of them let out a deep growl with its teeth bared at the people that called her attention, the fur on her back and chest standing up making her look even bigger than she already is.

“Y/N,” Isaac knew that Deaton was the best person to handle all kinds of supernatural cases, hence, the title of Emissary to their pack. “It’s Deaton.”

Letting out another growl as you licked your lips, your tail flicked lowly behind you as your eyes darted to each person present in the room before landing back to one in particular who was too close for comfort.

“Y/N, hey,” His voice sounded softer, it almost made you feel a sense of comfort until his hand reached out to you and made you snap back and almost bite it off.

This instinctively made Scott pull Isaac back by his shirt to a safe distance, struggling a bit in his grasp as the beta did not want to be moved further away from you despite the situation.

“Isaac, move back,” Deaton warned when he noticed that the curly-haired werewolf was not backing down, a hand gesturing for him to move away from you. “She’s scared.”

“No, Deaton, she heard me. She’s there - Y/N,” Isaac argued before turning his attention back to you again, blue eyes already glassy as tears filled the rim of his eyes. “She heard me.”

Isaac tried to hold on to the hope that you were present underneath the wolf because he was sure he saw that familiar glimmer that was distinctly you.

Just as he attempted to reach out to you again with a whisper of your name on his lips, the same frequency you heard before rang in your ears making you seize up and drop to the ground.

“Agh! What is that?” Liam winced as his hands reached up to his head to cover his ears, eyes scrunching shut as he tried to will away the incessant ringing.

“What’s what?” Mason asked with confusion etched on his face as he looked at his friend then to Stiles and the others, the werewolves in the room in particular, doing the same.

Isaac did not care for the ringing he heard, witnessing you looking like you were being kicked or beaten as you struggled to stand up, the sound of pained screams, whines, and whimpers coming out of you pulled at his heart making him drop to his knees beside you.

His hands hovered over your form trying to figure out what to do while he avoided getting scratched by the large clawed paws that writhed with your body, Scott and Thor doing the same and looking over you trying to see where exactly were you hurting.

“Deaton,” Isaac called as he carefully placed his hand on your shoulder before hissing - you were burning up and the black color that coursed through his veins upon touching you wreaked of disease. “Deaton what do we do?!”

“What is that?” Thor asked in bewilderment as he saw what was happening with Isaac’s arms.

“Hold her still as much as you can,” The vet’s voice was calm despite the mess, going to one of the counters in the room and asking Stiles and Mason for assistance as he tried to collect what sounded like glass vials from the way it clinked in their hold.

Isaac heard Thor mutter an apology to his alpha as he tried to hold your hind legs down as much as he can, Scott doing the same by your torso and Isaac by your neck.

“Y/N,” Isaac continued to call for you as he tried to hold your front legs down. “It’s Isaac, baby - it’s me.”

“Hurry!” Scott called to Deaton as his eyes scrunched and a sheen of sweat already present on their foreheads, the ringing still present in their ears making it difficult for them to concentrate.

Just as Deaton returned and knelt by your side, carrying a stainless steel tray that contained what looked like multiple large syringes in it, the static ringing noise started to get louder making the supernatural beings in the room let out a pained groan and lose their grip on you.

It grew too much too quickly to bear, causing the lights and windows above your heads to shatter and engulf the room in darkness. As everyone ducked for cover, Isaac stayed by your side and tried to shield you from the onslaught of sharp glass descending on you.

It took a few moments before the ringing stopped and the feel of cold air entered the room, snapping them back to their senses as their eyes opened at the smell of blood it carried with it.

Isaac immediately sat up as he felt the cold tiled floor and not your warm body underneath him.

“Y/N,” was all he said before he sprinted out of the room, the others following behind him.

“How did she get out?” He heard Stiles behind him once they reached the outside of the clinic, Thor already looking around the perimeter of the establishment for any signs of you.

Isaac’s brain was running a hundred miles at what he saw and what had just happened inside, his lips quivering as he ran his hands through his hair and pulling at the roots in frustration. He sniffled as he tried to stop the tears from running down his cheeks with the heels of his hands. Exhaling, he closed his eyes and tried to even out his breathing before turning to Scott.

“She’s not gone,” his alpha spoke, already reassuring him. “We’re going to find her.”

Just before Isaac could reply and shoot down the optimism his alpha had, a car screeched to a halt in front of them.

“Where is she?!” Lydia asked as she got out of the driver’s side, a frantic look in her bloodshot eyes.

“Hey, hey, what happened?” Stiles was immediately by her side, cupping her face in his hands. But Lydia only moved out of the way and turned to Isaac and asked again.

“We don’t know where she is. She disappeared right before Deaton -” Lydia was close to tears again as she groaned in frustration.

“They can’t get her back.” She said, sounding more of a beg as her voice shook a little.

Everyone in front of her stopped what they were doing and looked at the Banshee.

“Who’s they? And where do you think Y/N is?” Stiles asked before a few seconds later, realization hit him.

~

It was on the way to Eichen House that Lydia explained everything she saw that made her break all the traffic laws implemented in Beacon Hills just to rush to the vet clinic. Isaac could not shake the feeling that Lydia, a banshee – a herald of death, had visions of you in his arms already in eternal slumber. His wolf broke more than a little as she spoke more of what she saw, only a few words registering to him – Y/N, doctors, experiment, and torture.

Everything was a flash for Isaac now, he did not even realize that they were now in a tunnel under the mental facility planning on who was going where.

But once their strategy was laid out, Isaac wasted no time in trying to locate even the faintest of your scent in the damp and moldy tunnel he was walking through. He heard Stiles and Lydia speaking on the phone in his pocket that they'd found an office that had files strewn everywhere – files that specifically contained information about you and what they have done with you so far.

“Any luck finding her?” Lydia asked as Isaac heard papers being flipped on the other end of the line.

“Nope, not yet,” Liam replied.

“No, she’s not here.” Thor was next then Scott, all claiming to find only empty rooms and dungeons.

“Isaac?” Lydia asked after not hearing from him.

“None,” he answered, sounding defeated as he rounded another corner with you nowhere in sight.

Isaac could hear collective sighs as they continued their searches, his ears already drowning out what Lydia and Stiles were doing - occasionally spitting out questions of why’s as they continued to browse through what they found in the files.

His breathing became labored as his mind started to play tricks on him the further we walked down the tunnel, the source of light slowly fading the deeper he went.

Just as he was about to turn another corner, the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. He felt as though soft fingertips touched him, making his skin crawl as he turned around quickly only to find an empty space. But as he directed his attention to the other corner of the room, the colors on his face drained.

Amidst the mess of metal chains and torn blankets, Isaac watched closely as the figure on the floor took a raspy breath, eyes moving behind closed lids, lips mumbling incoherent words.

“Y/N?” Isaac slowly approached, the other members of the pack on the other line calling for his attention and asking if they heard him call your name.

At the sound of your name being called, your body went rigid. Your eyes flew open, widening as you saw a shadowy figure in front of you moving closer.

“Please, no more.” Your voice cracked from the overuse as you begged, the sound of heavy metal clinking together echoed in the empty room as you backed away slowly. “I’m sorry! I won’t do it again, please!”

Your frame quivered as you continued to plead, sweat mixed with blood trickled down your body as you attempted to make yourself smaller against the corner of the cell; failing from the sudden pain on the back of your neck that restricted you to move any further away from where you were.

“Y/N, it’s Isaac. I’m not going to hurt you.” Isaac ignored the voices over the phone calling for him, asking if he really found you. “You’re safe now, they’re not going to hurt you.”

Isaac almost expected for you to cower further away from him, but you didn’t – instead, you relaxed a little as his hand landed on the small of your back and the other on your shoulder effectively pulling you into an embrace.

As Isaac felt you release a breath before melting against his chest, his scent effectively calmed you down as your wolf recognized her other half. You both stayed like that for a while before he went back to examining you and what was behind you, more so what was attached to you.

Now, more diligent in his movements, his hands hovered over what seemed to be a tube attached to the back of your neck. He shifted in his kneeling position, careful not to jostle you, before taking his phone from his pocket.

“Something’s attached to her, I need to get it off-.” He informed more to Stiles and Lydia than to others present on the call.

“Don’t!” Lydia exclaimed, panicked at what Isaac was planning. “Not yet.”

“But she’s already hurting!” Isaac’s hands returned to your shoulder and back, holding you closer - as close as the tube permitted.

“That’s connected to her spine, Isaac,” Stiles added, warning him of what might happen. “If you remove it you might do some serious damage here.”

His attention turned back to you when he heard you whimper his name.

You were testing to see if Isaac was really there with you or if you were merely hallucinating again, not sure anymore of what was real after everything that happened to you for the past few years.

“Isaac?”

“Hi,” he smiled down when he pulled away from you a little, his voice shaking as he cupped your face in his hands. “I’m here.”

Your eyes focused on his face, blinking a few times before-

“No.”

That, he did not expect.

“No, no, no.” You mumbled repeatedly making Isaac more confused- were you not happy or relieved to see him with you?

“You shouldn’t be here.” As you came to your senses, you moved out of his grasp and pushed him away at the same time with the little strength you have left.

“Y/N, we came here for you. What are you talking about?” Isaac was hurt, you can see it in his face the way his brows furrowed and eyes already releasing a few tears down his cheeks.

Before you could answer back, the same ringing sounded again.

“Isaac, you have to go, please.” You cried, your own tears flowing down your cheek as you tried to pry his hands that held on to your wrists away, wanting to get out of his hold on you all the while fighting the heavy ache in your body to turn against your own will.

“Isaac, you have to get out of there!” You can hear Stiles over the phone, can hear Scott and the others running to where your werewolf was located.

“I’m not leaving her,” Isaac growled at them but his eyes stayed on you.

“You have to, plea-”

“Y/N!”

A blood-curdling scream left your lips as your body started to tremble on the floor, your bones were visibly breaking and morphing under your skin against your will yet again. The jagged edges of the broken bones breaking through skin and the movement causing purple and blue patches to decorate your flesh, all the while the liquid inside the tube that was still attached to you bubbled angrily.

“Isaac!”

Turning to the person who called his name, he suddenly felt himself being tugged down to the floor as the sound of electricity zipping past them blasted onto the steel bars of a small window on the wall overcame your pained screams.

“Y/N Y/L/N,” the static voice called.

“It’s the Dread Doctors.” Stiles’ voice over the phone can be heard, more papers can be heard being flipped and thrown somewhere. “They’re the ones doing this to Y/N.”

“I need to get it off of her!” Isaac spoke to the phone as he watched Thor lunge at one of the doctors in front of them, his clawed hand not holding back any hits he let out. Scott was next when another appeared much closer to where you and Isaac were.

Once your cries quieted down and your body settled down to small shakes - appeased from the onslaught of transforming against your will, Isaac’s hands hovered over the tube.

“You have to go before they hurt you.” It was barely a whisper when the words came out of your mouth, your body was getting too tired to fight it anymore.

“No, I’m not leaving without you, you know that.” Isaac spoke it with a voice that left no room for arguments as he held the tube in his hand and attempted to pull.

Isaac held back a sob as the screams you let out shattered through the noise of the grunts and punches being thrown. But before he could successfully pull it out, a force had hit him and sent him across the room hitting a wall with a loud thud.

“Near-perfect.” Another doctor, the same one who threw Isaac off of you, had appeared next to you with a device in his hand that, from the looks of it, controlled the tube that was pumping the liquid into you.

“Stop, please!” Your hands flew to the contraption attached to you just as Isaac charged at the doctor, sending them both to the ground.

Blinking away the heaviness of your eyelids, you tried to move from your position on the floor only to fall back down flat on your stomach. The wolf in you whined in panic, barking almost as she nudged you with her head to stand up - that you still had strength in you and she was there to anchor you herself.

“Give her back to me,” You can hear Isaac from across the room, the sight of him swiftly landing blow after blow at the doctor caught you off guard. The blood that ran down his temple to his eyes only added a level of intensity to his yellow glowing gaze as he gave a growl that had an unnerving timbre to it. “Now.”

On the other end of the room, you watch Scott claw at the doctor he was against before the mask fell off and revealed a face that was mottled, wrinkled, and scarred. If the true alpha was disgusted, he did not show it as he put his arms up to block the hit the doctor threw his way.

At the sound of a device dropping to the cemented floor, you felt the vibration of the tube behind you stop - the bubbles silencing as it halted its actions. This immediately cleared your head and relieved you of the pain, the fuzzy veil finally lifting as you took another deep breath and attempted to sit upright again.

Successfully sitting up with a few labored breaths accompanied by a wince, you lifted your aching arms and took hold of the tube attached behind you - the stinging feel of the needle made itself known as the small movement you made just from holding it jostled a little.

Taking a couple of ragged breaths again, trying to gather the courage and strength to pull the thing behind you when the air was suddenly knocked out of your lungs. The sensation of a sharp jab radiated from your side, the groan you let out echoed to the other end of the room making your eyes dart to where Isaac was.

“No,” you let out a gasp at the sight of your mate wide-eyed as he stared up at the doctor in front of him - the pain you felt on your side mirroring where the Surgeon’s swordcane embedded on Isaac’s side and giving it a twist for good measure. “Isaac!”

Your wolf’s painful yips turned to a low dangerous growl.

Feeling the familiar throb in your gums as your canines grew longer, you heard a banshee’s piercing scream all the way from the other wing of the Eichen house while a true alpha’s growl filled the place you were in.

“No more,” You say through clenched teeth, Thor’s knees buckling at the command in his alpha’s voice, Scott and the doctors they were up against stood in awe at the willpower you displayed.

“Perfect,” one of them said under their breath, the final push for perfection.

Finally standing tall, the tube attached to your neck earlier now clutched in your hand, you did not waste time as you took down each person who did you wrong.

Going for the closest antagonist in your life, Thor immediately scrambled out of your way as your claws wrapped around the Geneticists neck. You let your body move past her without letting go of your grip on her before using the momentum to lift the doctor up, the weight and force effectively disconnecting her head from the rest of her body before hurdling her to the Pathologist who was clambering away from Scott and the fight.

Everything was a blur to the other occupants of the room as you zipped past them and took down each one before you finally lunged at the Surgeon who finally released his grip on both his cane and on Isaac.

“My child-” he managed to say as your grip on his neck tightened, his feet barely touching the ground - your eyes glowing a dangerous color as you stared up at him.

You can finally see through the mask, raw pink flesh with stitches decorating it was what the steel mask protected. His mouth opened to say something but only a gurgled gasp came out as your other hand embedded itself in his chest and pierced through skin and muscle. You felt your wolf puffing up with pride and anger - you were their greatest creation and downfall.

Silence enveloped the room as the lead doctor took his last breath before you haphazardly threw him to the ground.

With his nose scrunched and eyebrows furrowed, Isaac pulled the swordcane out of him. His jaw clenching before he let out a pained groan at the feel of the weapon sliding out before leaning heavily against the brick wall while clutching his side.

Your attention was immediately drawn to your other half, managing to wipe off some of the blood on your hand before tending to him.

“Hey,” Isaac greeted as he tried to not lean all his weight to you as you wrapped your arms around his waist, careful not to touch the stab wound on his side. You felt tears playing at the edge of your lashes as you buried your face against his chest, the scent signifying home.

“Can’t really ask you if you’re okay,” You managed to say once you pulled away and looked up at him.

“You’re one to talk,” Isaac replied with a chuckle, tucking a strand of hair behind your ear before placing a soft kiss on your forehead.

You smiled, wiping the stray tear that ran down your cheek with the back of your hand as Isaac’s lips returned to your forehead for another kiss.

“Y/N, look-”

“No!”

A loud bang and the pain that came with it suddenly broke the bubble of peace you were in.

Clutching you to his chest, you saw the same confused expression that reflected on Isaac’s eyes before they darted from you to where the smell of gunpowder was coming from.

The Pathologist’s hand shook as he held the gun up, a crazed look in his eyes as he attempted to stand up from being buried under his colleague's lifeless body. He muttered incoherent words as he aimed the gun at you again.

But before he can pull the trigger, another loud thud took you all by surprise as you witnessed the man fall down flat on his face.

“Damn.” Lydia was behind him with a bloodied metal bat clutched in her hands - Stiles’ hands were up in the air, his eyes were wide as if he couldn’t believe his girl just did that.

“Well mark me down as scared and horny,” Stiles muttered under his breath, his brain replaying the moment Lydia all but took off with his metal bat and ran down the hall as fast as her heels allowed her to where they were now.

~

“Thank you, Thor.” You hugged the larger-built werewolf, his arms wrapping around you tightly but still being mindful of your current state. “But I don’t think I’m fit to be your alpha - to be the pack’s alpha anymore.”

“I will never understand how you and the others accepted me after what had happened.” Your feet dangled as you sat on a bricked fence outside of the Eichen house, the jacket from Isaac wrapped around you securely to act as a buffer against the coolness of the night.

You can hear Thor’s wolf whine at your words, his face already reflecting the sadness you both felt at what you were doing as he leaned against the fence you were sitting on.

“Alpha, please don’t discredit yourself.”

You looked up at him, not really believing his words with how much damage you’ve done to the pack - to your family.

“You are more than worthy - especially at your age.” He added, pointing out that most of the alphas out there were a hundred years older than you. “You are strong.”

“Thank you, again - for everything,” your lips quivered as you gave your best smile before glancing up to try and prevent the tears from spilling down your cheeks. The thought of leaving your pack broke your heart, they were family. But you needed to have someone better to lead and handle pack-related things -- you needed to recover.

A comfortable silence settled around the two of you before you heard Stiles and Isaac walking towards you.

“Jeep’s good to go, big guy.” Stiles said - more to Thor than you - with a tilt of his head to gesture to where they were parked as Isaac helped you to your feet and walked you towards Lydia’s car.

“You okay?” Isaac asked softly as you both settled in the back seat.

His eyes double-checked the graze on your shoulder from the bullet that hit you, his arms never leaving your side as he let you lean on him - exhaustion already catching up to you with the way your body sagged against his.

No, not really. You wanted to say as he only tugged you closer to him, the drive to Deaton being quieter save for the soft tunes the radio played.

“I will be.”

~~~

Isaac didn’t know what exactly woke him up.

Staring back at the ceiling, his ears strained to hear bed sheets rustling beside him. With the little light that passed through the curtains of the room you shared, he ran his hands down his face before turning to his bedside.

His eyes squinted when his phone awoke and flashed the time, 3:01AM it read - the phone’s screen showed a picture of the two of you together during a weekend picnic Lydia had arranged a few weeks ago. You had your eyes closed and lips smiling - a genuine smile after so long - against his neck as he had his arms wrapped around you tightly while he made a face to the camera.

Isaac stared at his phone’s lock screen a few moments longer before movement on his side and the feel of cold skin touching his leg took him out of his reverie.

Putting his phone back on the nightstand, he curled back down the covers and turned to face you. For someone who’s a warm-blooded supernatural creature themself, you sure have cold feet.

Isaac cupped your face before tucking a stray hair behind your ear, you were lying on your stomach facing him with your hands tucked just a little under your pillow. You were still in deep sleep but it did not look as peaceful as he remembered - your brows were furrowed, your lips moved as if mumbling something and an occasional hand twitch was what he observed.

“Y/N?” Isaac asked, his voice croaked from the lack of use as he leaned on his elbow and tried to coax you awake.

It didn’t take too long before Isaac finally understood what you were saying.

Please, no more...p-please.

Leaning over your side of the bed, Isaac flicked the switch to your bedside lamp open and tried to call for you again. He could now see the thin layer of sweat on your forehead, the sheets bunching up in your grasp as your knuckles turned a lighter shade from how tight your grip was.

I can’t t-take it anymore...

“Hey, baby,” Isaac gently ran his hand down your back a few times, trying not to ‘jolt’ you awake. He knew what methods to use in waking you up when things like these happen, though it took multiple trials and errors with a few bumps - more or less scratches - in the way. But god, he’d take you screaming and lashing out at him any day than this.

I’m sorry, I won’t do it again...

“Y/N, please wake up for me.”

It broke his heart more at the thought that while you were already together, even if in that span of time you were simply friends at first, they’ve already done a multitude of things to you.

“Y/N, I’m here - you’re safe.” He tried again, the soft kiss to your temple lingering a little longer in hopes that it might help - let you sense that he was present and you were not in danger anymore.

“Y/N, no one’s gonna hurt you,” He spoke softly.

Covering your clenched hand with his, it was all it took before your eyes flew open with a sharp gasp of air. It took some strength and swiftness from Isaac to hold your wrists when you sat up so fast - almost bumping his chin in the process - that you almost fell out of the shared bed.

“Hey, hey,” He called for you, your eyes were dilated, blown wide and looking around frantically as if you were searching for the threat that plagued your life a year ago and giving you these night terrors that prevented you from having a good night’s sleep.

“I’m here, you’re safe.” He repeated, waiting for you and not letting go.

“Isaac,” He waited a little more before you finally settled down and realized where you were, your voice shook a little as you spoke his name; eyes glassy as you looked at the familiar blue eyes that called for you.

“I’m here.” Isaac gave a small smile as his hold on your wrist loosened before sliding his hands in yours and holding onto them on your lap - the soft yellow light from your bedside lamp gave his face a soft glow; his eyes looking more kinder that it already was.

Not again. Your lips trembled as you held back a sob, you shook your head as you stared down at your joined hands.

You felt trapped.

That was the only thing you felt and you wanted out, you wanted this to stop; you want an end to this thing happening to you - you don’t deserve the man in front of you.

Having known you for so long, Isaac can already see it on your face, he already anticipated it.

“I love you,” He spoke.

Absolutely no room for arguments, “I won’t leave you.”

You felt Isaac’s hands rest on your hips as you withdrew yours from his hold and tried to stop and wipe as many tears as you could with the heel of your hands. He let you lean your head on his shoulder, the feel of his lips placing a comforting kiss to your ear should’ve given your heart a little leap but it didn’t.

“How much longer will you tell me that before you finally get tired?” You did not mean to say it out loud, you hiccupped once your tears finally settled down with your head and heart.

“Never,” Isaac said as he pushed you away a little to look at you, cupping your face in his warm hands to make you look up at him, a glint of playfulness present. “You can’t get rid of me that easily.”

You could only sigh and give a soft smile.

“You’re too good for me, Isaac.”

Bringing your hands to his lips to kiss your knuckles, he let them go before cupping your face again and leaned down to plant a kiss on your forehead, then your nose and lastly a chaste kiss on your lips.

“You deserve good things, Y/N.”

You deserve them after everything you went through. Isaac gave that smile he reserved only for you when he pulled away.

Lying back down, Isaac pulled you closer to him before pulling the covers up just below your chin.

“We’ll be okay, remember?” Isaac reminded you of the words you said to him when he asked you a year ago.

You did not miss the way he said ‘we.’ You did remember what he told you, that you were in this together - you’re it for me.

“I remember,” you answered, curling as close as you can to his side. The tip of your nose resting against the warm skin of his neck as he rest his chin on top of your head, arms tightening around you before they relaxed.

~

Feedbacks are always appreciated! Especially since I miss writing. But again, I won't be doing much writing anymore since I've somewhat lost touch with both my imagines blogs. I might just rewrite/refurbish some of my old imagines/drabbles.

Again, thank you so much for those who stuck by this imagines blog (and for Brett as well). You don't know how much I appreciate it, again, I'm sorry for not being active (read more here)

[wellthatjusthappend]

Here a request: Tim is a monster or a carnivorous creature but it seems human. (And Tim is in love with Jason. / Or Jason doesn't know that her boyfriend wants to eat him almost all the time.) Extra points if it is based mostly on the canon and is with angst. [I appreciate it if you decide to write it. You are one of the best writers I have ever met. So thanks even if you don't write it.]

Love the vibe from this one. Here’s my stab at it! Oh drat, forgot about the mostly canon part of this one... it’s definitely an au. 

-

“I need a favor,” Dick had said earnestly. 

Jason scowled as he led the way into the dark caves under Gotham. He should know by now that favors with Dick never lead anywhere good. 

For almost as long as Jason could remember, he’d heard stories about the ‘beast’ in Gotham. Most of them bordered on fantastical, a tale to scare children into behaving and not running around at night. ‘If you’re bad,’ they’d say, ‘the beast will get you.’ Jason wasn’t sure if that was the causation or if it was just people being stupid, but criminals did tend to disappear in the night with alarming frequency. 

One thing was for certain: there was something lurking in Gotham. The mangled half eaten carcass periodically found around the city wouldn’t have it any other way. Over the years, Jason himself had stumbled onto a few… nests, for lack of a better word. 

Hence Dick’s favor. 

“I don’t get why the GCPD is even wants to stick its nose into this,” Jason grumbled as he led his childhood-friend-now-police-officer through the dark. 

“People are dying and going missing,” Dick said firmly, “That makes it police business.” 

“Shouldn’t you just be glad someone else is doing your job?” Jason grumbled. 

“Jason,” Dick chided. 

“Whatever,” Jason wrinkled his nose, “I just don’t see why they want to do something about it now after all these years.”

“We just never had the man power before,” Dick said defensively. 

“Admit it, you pissed off the higher ups by not being bribable and now they want a convenient way to get rid of you,” Jason grumbled. 

“Well, maybe,” Admitted Dick, “But it is important. If it’s an animal it really needs to be put down, if it’s some deranged serial killer we need to know that too. Either way, someone should have investigated long before this.”

“Hah,” Jason said humorlessly as they stepped into the cave proper, “Pretty sure humans can’t do this.”

Beside him, Dick caught his breath. Jason could relate, even after years of occasionally finding nests, the heaps of mangled bones of humans and animals alike was always chilling to look at. Against the walls there were great claw marks several inches deep. 

“Holly shit,” Dick said, pulling out his camera and notebook and immediately starting to catalogue everything. 

Jason left him to it. 

It might be a little morbid, but Jason had always sort of liked the nests. He probably had a death wish or something, but he often came down here just for some peace and quiet. When he was little, he’d been scared stiff that the beast might come back while he was there. Never stopped him from coming though: despite all the stories, he’d never found any bones of children down here. Not to mention the fact that no one was going to chase after him here. In many ways, the caves were the safest place he could have slept in Gotham. Plus, there were often valuables dropped among the bones that often made the difference between starving to death and living another day. 

This cave was one of the first nests he’d found, and also probably the oldest. If Dick was looking for clues about the origin of this thing, it was probably the best place to start. 

An unfamiliar shape caught his eye, and Jason cautiously made his way over to a new addition to the nest. It looked like a whale carcass, mostly devoured, likely caught and eaten elsewhere given the lack of blood, but fresh enough that it didn’t stink. 

It must have been brought there in the last couple hours.

Jason’s heart rate skyrocketed as he quickly scanned his surroundings.

The beast could still be there.

“Dick, we need to go,” he hissed. 

“But we just got here!” protested Dick as Jason grabbed his wrist and dragged him towards the exit. 

“Do you want to be eaten? You said you’d follow my lead-”

They both froze as they heard something move in the darkness. Dick stared at him wide eyed in sudden understanding.

They should make a break for it, Jason decided. He didn’t know exactly how big the beast was, but judging by the size of some of its prey it should at least have trouble making its way through some of the smaller tunnels-

“Jason, what are you doing here? I thought you weren’t coming until next week?” said a voice to his right. 

Jason’s heart leaped into his throat as he whirled to see pale glowing eyes- no, it was just Tim. 

“Jesus, Tim, you about gave me a heart attack,” breathed Jason closing his eyes for a moment, “Wait, no we need to get out of here, the beast-”

“Isn’t here,” Tim said with a confidence that Jason couldn’t help but believe, “But by all means, let’s move to the outer caves.”

“Jay? Who’s this?” Dick asked, peering around Jason. 

“You brought someone with you,” Tim said quietly, reproachful. 

“He bullied me into it,” Jason grumbled, relaxing a bit as they left the cave propper, “Dick, this is Tim, the guy I mentioned earlier who’s even more of an expert about the beast than I am. Tim, this is Dick, he’s an officer on the GCPD who’s been tasked with following up on some recent disappearances that have been linked to the beast.”

“GCPD?” Tim said softly, his gaze sharpening. 

“Yup,” Dick said with a dazzling smile, as he recovered from his nerves, extending his hand, “Glad we can finally meet, it’s not just anyone who can get Jason to gush.” 

“I do not gush,” grumbled Jason feeling heat rise to his cheeks. He caught Tim’s eyes lingering on the color and felt even more embarrassed. Stupid Dick. 

He’d met Tim years back when he’d been sleeping in one of these very caves. Tim apparently was an enthusiastic researcher or something. He knew a lot about the caves and even more about the beast. He was the only person Jason had met who didn’t seem at all afraid. Considering he’d been wandering around these caves for years and was still alive meant that he probably knew what he was talking about. 

Jason also suspected Tim might have a mild crush on him and was possibly a little bit of a stalker. He seemed positively fixated on Jason sometimes, and seemed to turn up wherever Jason was with a frequency that couldn’t be accidental. Despite the uncanny mannerisms he sometimes had, Jason didn’t feel like he was ever in danger around Tim, even if he did sometimes eye Jason’s body with a hunger that almost looked literal. 

“Whoa! You’re stronger than you look!” Dick blinked as they shook hands, “Younger than I was expecting too.”

“So I’ve been told,” Tim said with a private smile. 

“So what do you say? What to help Jay and I find this beast?” asked Dick. 

Tim looked Dick over and then leveled a considering look Jason’s way.

“It would be my pleasure.” 

[cosmictulips]

Good time, it's very nice to know you exist 🍵🛶🏰🪔🍯🍯🍯 I'm 18, T, libra sun, leo moon, cap ris. if u could help, that'd be a big thank you

recently I've been feeling kinda shut off from any type of spirituality, universe, can't trust my own mind because i don't want to make things up and go with a lie, not imagination play - a terrible lie to oneself. so, i can only trust others. been asking for a clear sign that i wouldn't doubt for as long as i can remember, and nothing... am i tryna knock on the door that wasn't meant for me? then i don't understand anything. i feel left out of my own life. i try pulling out any advice, but then, my intuition may be just wishful thinking. nothing i ever do comes as i intend. I've let go of logic, of expectations, but it feels like a one way communication. can't remember dreams. locked out of everything and losing hope. i don't think it's a wall i made. i don't want to make up a voice in my head, it is my biggest fear, i want to actually hear one.

so, one question - why am i being unanswered?

pun unintended

thank you in advance, you're very kind.

have a wonderful weekend, and every weekend some good news

Hey Friend =) I truly hope other people see this ask too because I think your ask is very important.  so I hope you don’t mind that I kind of get personal with you.  Truth be told,  I’ve been feeling the exact same way recently.  it’s happened when I was first starting out with the Craft -as I like to call it -  and it happens from time to time.  even now.  these past two weeks have been a wreck for me and it really feels like I haven’t been heard by the universe.  No, not heard.  I’ve been heard.  but to me, it feels like I’ve been deemed unworthy.   

And especially with divination,  reading for myself has always been wrong.  which is why I no longer trust reading for myself.  and I don’t particularly trust it when people say they read for themselves. because too me, how do you know you’re not lying to yourself? I always, always tell people to be careful because the universe can and WILL tell you what you want to hear.  it’s hard approaching divination with a very unbiased, neutral head.  and it’s kind of why I’ve fought some people over their readings.  people only ever project to others and to the univeres what they want. so if I or you were to tell them otherwise, it’s wrong. 

So you’re right to take a step back if it doesn’t feel right to you.  and here’s where I’m going to start contradicting myself a little bit here.  You need to start trusting yourself.  fully, undoubtedly and ruthlessly.  trust yourself so much that people almost think you’re full of arrogance.  and that’s the key word, almost. Be open minded enough to new ideas and to change the way you think of things.  but always, always trust yourself to know what is best for you. Only YOU are going to know the best route to take for yourself. 

I started being answered when I started trusting the guidance that was coming in for me.  I started to notice the little signs at first.  Notice any repeating numbers?  colors?  any certain phrases you hear too often? read too often?  is there an animal or group of animals that tend to show up at odd places?  slowly start to take notice of these things.   Also,  truly dig deep into what you believe in.  if you want to get into spirituality,  ask yourself why. what is it that you believe that matches that.   I got into it because I felt so alone in a church and no one was listening.  and for awhile, I was thrown in circles the minute I opened myself up to the universe.  but instead of blocking it out,  I kept pushing.  I kept trying to see the pattern, and I kept trying to change it. 

and that could be what’s happening for you.  I know you said that you think it’s not a wall you built. but darling, it is.   I think it comes from a fear you’re not ready to recognize yet.   it could be the fear of the unknown, it could be a fear of failure,  but you’ve built a wall.  

Spirituality is made for everyone.   It’s okay to have blocks,  to doubt your abilities and be unsure of whether or not the universe actually hears you.  the universe brought you to me.  so obviously it hears you.  =) 

but you cannot hear it and I think that’s what needs to change.  

So let me give you some advice on what I do when I begin to feel these blocks. like I have been recently. 

1. I pray to my gods.  you don’t have to be into worshiping gods.  you can simply pray to the universe like I did and still do from time to time.  You’ll know it’s listening when you feel the warmth of the sun, and the gentle breeze of the wind.  perhaps you’ll see an animal or two ;) my sister is a good example of this, she sees dogs everywhere when she’s looking for a sign from the universe lol.  2. I turn to divination.  My readings for myself may not be true but it’s good practice.  I also turn to other forms to try to grow in those skills as well.  Runes, bindrunes, automatic writing,  etc there’s SO MANY divination techniques.  tarot may not be your thing but scrying might be.  look around and see what fits.

3. I play hertz music.  I find that music really helps me out lol.  hertz is juts frequency waves set to a certain wave length so parts of ... our... ... so like our energy can pick up on it.  there’s a better explanation for it but for me, it really helps lol  4. I keep pushing.  even when it feels like I’m not being answered, and sometimes you won’t be answered. that’s the thing.  the universe wants you to better yourself. and to grow.  and sometimes that means trusting yourself to know where to go because it won’t give you an answer.  be brave, and go forward. 

I’ll go more into what I want you to do, but let me pull out your cards first so you finally have a reading lolol.  

So for you I pulled the Lovers, Strength, The Sun and the Knight of Pentacles. with the Ace of Cups as the overall energy. 

so it’s really what I’ve been saying lol.  The knight of pentacles here is telling me to move slowly.  it’s okay that things don’t make sense to you right off the bat.  Patience is a virtue here.   Going into your craft, your practice,  it’s okay to question things.  spirituality is a lot different than most religions so coming from a different place and settling into a new one can be tough.  it requires a lot of change.  and that tends to scare some people.  Ya know?  we’re all so used to hearing different things -mostly bad-  about sprituality and how it’s all “fake”  but darling,  dipping your toes in and slowly breaking the surface is how everyone starts out.  Once you get comfortable with the idea and with your own intuition the fun will begin. 

Next you have the Lovers, Strength and the Sun.  This is telling me you need to let yourself love.  bring courage and strength into this.  It’s going to take you loving yourself,  being confident in yourself and going forth even if it seems fake.  does that make sense?  You might have a mental illness. I’ve got some strong anxiety that borders on paranoia.   Okay,  but in my heart of hearts I knew this was the call for me because I’ve seen too much shit to not believe spirituality wasn’t my path.  so I forced myself to be more confident in my abilities.  I forced myself to be open to the universe even if it felt like I was talking to a wall.  I forced myself to sit down and learn divination and kept a dream journal even if most nights there was nothing but darkness.

and you need to bring that to yourself.  if you are serious about this,  learn to open yourself to the universe.  In the beginning I had to lie to myself.  it’s just what it is.  but the more I connected to the universe,  and the more I began to trust my intuition,  the more the lying ceased to happen.  because suddenly it was true.  suddenly those signs told me I was on the right path.  and suddenly everything I was studying made sense.  given time it will make sense for you as well. 

People, including me,  are telling you what you already know.  You just don’t trust yourself to hold onto those words.  you don’t trust yourself enough to put that same love into you and out into the universe.  and maybe you’re afraid of getting hurt.  being vulnerable to the universe does mean that sometimes we go through rough patches.  we have to break old cycles for new ones to begin. but much like the Lovers,  once you make that choice to love and be loved,  you will shine. 

The ace of cups tells me there is something new coming for you.  but you have to choose to let it happen okay?  you have to stop thinking you’re not good enough and that you’re not being heard.  because you are... because you’re here talking to me ;)   the universe wouldn’t have sent you to me if that wasn’t the case.  and I think a part of you knows that. 

so here’s what I want you to do.  Take the first steps.  Start keeping a dream journal.  the only way we as humans can recall our dreams is if we’re actively thinking of them when we first wake up.  that means no media ;)  lay there and think about what you dreamed.  Like last night I had a dream I set the house on fire and was crying that I lost a textbook.  idk, it was weird lol.  dreams don’t have to make sense.   write them down.  keep a glass of water by your bed. for some reason it helps. 

If you’re gonna sit there and tell me but you’ve tried everything, try again ;) try it from a new perspective.  instead of going in all “this is going to fail”  think of it as “this has already worked once and I’m doing it again to better myself”  

let your confidence shine.  I had to lie to myself everyday until I finally believed I was a decent human being.  I still struggle with it but damn have I gotten noticed by more people who tell me that I literally shine like the sun.  people notice your changes.  some of us just won’t say it ;) that being said, be prepared to fight for your beliefs. 

Learn what your beliefs are. Learn to defend them.  because the universe does not take this journey lightly.  the minute you start to doubt that you’re ever made for this, is going to be the second it closes on you until you force yourself to try again.  much like how we’re both in this spot now ;) trust and KNOW that the universe wants what is best for you.  

Tap into your higher self and your shadow self.  work on what needs to be healed and what your higher self wants for you to do.  this could literally be anything from getting therapy, to doing art, to listening to music, to talking to people who have hurt you.  like it’s endless but it helps.  

Lastly,  understand that these things take time.  You have some major energy wanting to work with you.  you need to start trusting yourself more, and letting down that wall. you built it, you can destroy it.  

I don’t hear a voice telling me which way to go.  I get feelings.  very strong ones.  that I’ve had to learn are different from my anxiety.  In the beginning that meant I had to pretend to ignore the feeling to see what the reaction would be.  when something happened and I knew it was going to happen,  I knew what I had felt was my intuition. 

Learn to recognize what is your instinct and what is your intuition. my instinct is that my hands get a little shaky and I can’t stop moving around.  my intuition keeps me still.  it’s quick and alert.  for you it could be something different.  you might actually hear a voice.  

I’m willing to work with you if you want me to.  I’ve been in that exact same situation and form time to time I feel the same way.  it’s never about the destination, it’s always the journey.

You’ve got this.  You know you do.  break down the wall,  and come join us ;) I hope this helps sorry for the long.... long post lmao If you ever need anything, please reach out =) 

[la-luna-es-amor]

I've decided to share this reading in which I communicated with Dragon Spirits. A few things to note:

- Last night I was getting ready to do a reading for myself, just a quick card pull, when I had the feeling like some dragon spirits wanted to come through and communicate. I didn't physically sense or see anything, it was a mental signal if that makes any sense; I got the mental feeling that dragon spirits were signaling that they wanted to communicate which I've never experienced before until last night. I've always deeply loved dragons but I had the notion that it's disrespectful to reach out to them first so I never did.

- I always make sure to call in protection and to state who is and isn't allowed to join me when I open scared space before doing divination

- After I did my personal reading I expressed that I'll be offering to light a candle for the dragon spirits, this particular candle's wick is kinda dying so I hoped that it would stay burning and it did! It burned throughout the whole reading! Only after I completed the reading it when it started to fade and give out.

- I do want to point out that I also acknowledge the possibility that what came forward may not even have been dragons or a dragon spirit, so if this reading doesn't resonate with your personal knowledge on dragons based on your experiences then you're more than welcome to inform me.

The Reading:

These were some questions I wanted to know about working with Dragons. Keep in mind this reading isn't necessarily speaking on behalf of all Dragon Spirits, it's solely for the ones who were present during the reading. The reading is separated into three groups: Group 1 represents the first question, the Group 2 is for the second question, and Group 3 is for the third question.

Group 1

1. What is the Medicine that Dragons can provide?

6 of Water Reversed - "It does not serve us well to give in to the desire to inflict hurt just because we believe someone to be deserving of it. We may feel that we are justified, but what purpose does an act of spiteful retaliation serve but to make us less and perpetuate suffering. Anger used in this manner is rarely beneficial or healing. There are none who can remain untouched when cruelty is offered; both the person who inflicts it, and the person it is inflicted upon, will be marked by it." 

This is already a very powerful message, regardless of how one might feel about it if they disagree and have different beliefs. Dragons have been around for a very long time, have seen humanity go at one another for a very long time, and they've had to endure so much. They know how destructive anger can be. The medicine they can bring is to remind us of the power of walking away from situations and people that have hurt us, for ourselves, not because we're weak or we're showing that we've been bested but because we value ourselves and should prioritize our healing first instead of revenge. Revenge is something our egos tend to want when we've been wronged or severely hurt or don't get our way and we can benefit from learning a healthier manner of dealing with our anger and our egos.

 The Scribe - "The Scribe is the record-keeper, the keeper of all knowledge and information about past, present, and future. He is on a perpetual quest for knowledge, not just for his own benefit, but for all of mankind. He believes that record keeping is the cornerstone of civilisation, and without accurate records, the past has served no purpose. He is a man without intellectual bias or prejudice. He always offers knowledge from several perspectives and points of view. His knowledge is also feared by those who seek to control the information and knowledge he has amassed. With the knowledge he has, he can make or destroy nations; it is a power that inspires fear, but a power he would never use, because the machinations of man are of little importance to him."

The medicine Dragons can provide is the importance of documenting your life, recording memories, and writing things down so that you can have things to look back on but also I feel both this and the first cards are them wanting us to realize how ego driven we are and for us to not let our egos control the best of us. That we only prevent ourselves from stopping to see what really matter most because we waste our time by letting our egos lead our lives for us.

6 of Earth - The medicine Dragons can provide for us is the importance of responsibility and duty to our loved ones. They ask for us to be selfless and in service to those who are in need or dependant on us for love, care, and support. They want us to lead by example and they want us to remember our responsibility to both humanity and Earth to become the best person we can be, help whenever we can, share our knowledge whenever we can, and to remember how important it is that we understand that we share this planet and its resources, and each of us needs to do what we can to protect the animals, forests, and oceans.

Group 2

2. What is the Guidance that Dragons can provide for those who work with them?

9 of Air - They bring the guidance of how to connect with the Universal Consciousness, the guidance of understanding the importance of knowing yourself and your mind, of self awareness, understanding the beliefs and thoughts that limit and restrict you, learning how to allow your imagination and creativity to roam free, and learning about the power of belief and to be open minded. They also bring the guidance of remembering to not take their existence and the existence of multiple realities, dimensions, and spiritual beings for granted.

Love - They bring the guidance of understanding and appreciating love in all its possible forms and how important and powerful it is; they bring the guidance of understanding the importance of feeling gratitude and for love of life, and how beneficial it is for your growth and development to welcome in new experiences, new connections, and new lessons. 

4 of Air - They bring the guidance of the importance of maintaining structure, having some form of a daily routine, keeping organized, maintaining security, consistency, and discipline. They can teach those who work with them how to develop a better work ethic, how to be prepared for the unexpected, how to get better at time management, and how to break bad patterns and habits to be able to develop better ones.

Group 3

3. How do Dragon Spirits prefer people to work with them?

10 of Water - They want people to vibrate on a high frequency of love, empathy, kindness, and connectedness. They prefer a working union that is full of love, grace, self awareness, fully present in the moment, and a positive outlook on life. The Dragon Spirits that came through during this reading prefer to work with people who either already emotionally intelligent or that are willing to learn from the Dragons how to quiet the mind and better control their emotions as well as want to improve themselves and become more compassionate, kind, and elevate their energy to one that feels healing and comforting for others to be around.

[justin-chapmanswers]

I'm helping my (internet) friends make an object show, and I'm unfortunately not that confident about it, as we're all under 18 and don't have the money to really afford good quality mics or animation software. I'm wondering if you have any tips for people on a budget trying to make an object show for the first time?

Working under a tight budget is tough, that’s undeniable. I think the important thing to keep in mind is that having expensive utilities available does not guarantee success in the first place, it simply makes the process easier. Having the best equipment and software in the world isn’t going to do all that much for people who aren’t familiar with the basics in the first place. If you are incredibly passionate about this work, I would consider investing your money into equipment over time, but for the time-being take your time in that department and really focus in on proving that, as artists, you can make do with what you have.

I am far more interested in consuming media that is bare-bones in its visual and audio presentation but has masterful storytelling than the reverse, and I think much more of your potential audience will agree than the average person assumes. Know your story. Know your characters. Whether or not you will have full control over when your characters come and go (per your decision), it is imperative that you treat each and every installment as its own distinct collection of story and character arcs. If you set up your show in a manner in which you can play every detail out ahead of time, even better! Within an episode, an arc of episodes, or a full season/series you are able to construct interesting narratives in which characters are given obstacles: physical, emotional or otherwise. Especially in an object show you are given a set of obstacles, be it through challenges or the emotional burden of competition. On a budget or not, this is the heart of your show. No matter how the technical presentation comes across you can garner and audience through excellent storytelling. Anyone can do it with practice. ESPECIALLY you!

As for the technical department, itself, let’s talk audio. Back in early 2009 I picked up a ‘lil $10 Logitech microphone at Target and got started on my first voice performance (as Lakitu found here) and I wouldn’t say it’s all that bad. A little bad. Tiny bit. But it worked! Plug in a cheap mic, download Audacity for free, and you’re already well on your way. Audacity isn’t top-of-the-line, but as far as free programs go it works really well, and is probably your lowest priority for upgrading beyond if you choose to bump up your equipment/software. The focus here comes down to putting in a strong, meaningful performance as your character, working around your mic limitations through setup and Audacity editing, and being open to re-recording. It happens!

I’m going to skip over talking vocal performances for the time being (I can always return to that upon request) and stick the practical here. With any microphone set up you’re going to want to do as much as you can to keep your accosting integrity in good standing. What I mean by that, firstly, is recording in a location that absorbs noise. Typically being in echo-y locations, we’re trained to ignore our own voices reverberating (unless it is to an intense extent), so sometimes noticing whether a voice echoes in a recording takes a lot of focus. It’s often not as intense as an echo you’d hear in, say, a cave, just ever so slight to break the illusion of a character being right there on screen and not someone speaking through a microphone. This is solved low-budget quite simply in recording in tight spaces with as much sound-absorbing material as possible. The best option would be hanging up clothes, blankets, or simply recording in a closet- so long as it’s safe. (The higher-budget alternative is buying acoustic foam or utilizing, specifically, a sound booth.) Watch your recording program, find your balance of recording as loudly and clearly as you can while also not getting too close to your audio peaking (the little soundy wave bois not hitting the top/bottom of your recording strip pal). The audio can be made louder or softer later, but peaking is much tougher to fix back up.

It also helps to have any sort of make-shift pop filter you can get together. They’re foam or a screen that you can typically buy cheap that will catch some of the plosives and other weird noises your mouth makes without you noticing before they hit the microphone, which is very helpful in the longterm. And, if you don’t feel like buying them, I know Adam used a sock for a while early on and it worked just fine. Just throw that boi right over the microphone and listen back to how the quality changes. If it’s roughly the same, you’re in the clear for your early, low-budget project.

There’s also plenty that can be done in Audacity to set your audio apart from the rest. I’d say top priority is dealing with background noise. I’m not speaking to parents chatting or the house’s floorboards mysteriously creaking in the background (because that should not be heard whatsoever in your area of recording, listen back to a dialogue-less track of your audio to make sure none of that is coming through), here I am talking to the consistent track of buzzzzz or variation that will come across in any cheaper microphone. The world makes noise, some you can’t hear, and your microphone eats it up. It’ll be in the back of your recording track, and getting rid of it goes a long way. Here the simplest means of going about fixing that is to, at the very start or end of your recording session, record a solid fifteen seconds of background noise without aaaaany noises on your part. Listen back, grab just the few seconds of bg noise that has the most consistent sound without your breathing or other interference, go to effects and hit “noise reduction” (or “noise removal” in other versions), hit “get noise profile,” now highlight eeeeeverything you’ve recorded, go back to “noise removal,” start by setting your noise reduction to around 10-15, and hit “okay.” Listen back and see if that did the job, you may need to make the number a bit higher (I try my best to avoid the 20s). The job here is to use as little of it as possible to get the job done, as the more you use the more of a chance it has at diminishing the quality of your recording. You can also use “equalization” in this process, lowering or boosting very specific frequencies, if you are willing to experiment and get a feel for it. Some others use “compression” to get a much fuller-sounding voice, although if anything I keep this to a minimum and save it more-so for non-narrative pieces where a single voice needs to be dominant.

In the case of audio peaking, clipping, or any plosives/pops/background sounds coming through, you have to be comfortable with re-recording. Going back into your recording spot for a minute goes a long way for a product that you’ll be putting up alone for a forever. This also goes for potentially going in for a strong performance, but that is more subjective and up to a standard you must set, yourself. After that it is your job to bring all the audio from all characters together and balance all of them out neatly volume-wise, pace the recordings out, add in sound effects and music as necessary and balance them out too (a common mistake is making music too loud for the audience to understand what the characters are saying because the sound editor already knows what the characters are saying, so there’s a disconnect). With enough time you will have an excellent audio skeleton for your animation, even with a low budget.

I’ll be honest in that I am much less experienced in animation than I am in audio so I cannot offer all the advice in the world, but here’s what I can say. With the technology available today you are able to create a lot of striking imagery. Whether you use a cheap animation program (do people still use Anime Studio?), Powerpoint, or a more typical program acquired through illegal means (which I would not say here that I condone, but I am aware it happens and people do what people do), there is no stopping you from coming up with unique visuals. I think in the object show community people get pretty caught up in keeping up standard animation conventions, simply making smooth motions and a good frame-rate and making sure everything looks “professional.” That is a luxury, and especially when you are starting out it is far from necessary.

What you want when you are starting out are visuals that are striking. Creative. Memorable. You’re working in animation, the most fluid and fun medium out there! You can spend all day getting bogged down in the basics of movement, which can be important down the line, but what is unique to you is the style that you bring to the table. Make characters do what only animated characters can do. Make characters pose in ways that people can think back on in wonder. As an object show, think of challenges that make characters do the absurd or push them to physical limits. Inanimate Insanity does not get to hit on this often but it is something I value in animation. You can impress people with or without the best animation program in town, it’s just more trying. But far more rewarding.

So much of the magic of object show community is that it works as a training grounds. Create create create! This is the time to do the weird and meaningful things that you might not have an opportunity to create far down the line when responsibilities get in the way. It doesn’t matter in the slightest if your work is perfect, so long as you are creating something and getting it out there and, above all, expressing yourself- I am impressed.

I know that most of this has been more to general show production and not more specifically to object show production, but I think it is important to note that it does work the same as any other show. People will always appreciate good, strong stories, as well as the bare minimum put into your audio and visuals. Effort means the world.

You got this.