#this thing's in gen 9 too. i don't know why

[front-facing-pokemon]

[genevievefangirl]

Master Post - Gen's Top 100 DBDA Fics!

It is finally here! My personal top 100 DBDA fics!

My friends in the DBDA Haunt Discord server know that I am an avid fic reader. I read multiple hours every day and have read a very large chunk of all the DBDA fics out there (that are tagged Payneland). I constantly recommend fics in our fanfic channel and thought, "Well, why don't I make a huge rec list in recognition of how wonderful the fic writers of this fandom are?" And thus the idea for this list was born!

I have been working on this since the cancellation announcement almost 2 months ago. It has taken me that long to go back through my over 350+ DBDA bookmarks and select only the best of the best to be featured here.

Thank you to every fic writer in this fandom! You are all amazing and I love your work! Your creations are what keep the fandom alive and healthy!

Some caveats before we begin:

These fics are in alphabetical order by title.

I have a Payneland bias. All of these are Payneland fics. Maybe I will make a list sometime that has more ship variety, but for now, that is what is on the list.

I also have a very strong hurt/comfort & angst bias, so there will be a lot of that on here as well! But there are a few fluffy fics too!

There is no smut on this list. Sorry, smut just isn't my thing. There is exactly one fic rated E on here.

Not all tags are listed! I have selected the ones that I feel are the most important and in some cases added some that I felt were missing. But please read the full tag list on the fic itself!

I will be releasing 10 fics a day for 10 days, to make the posts more readable and to have some fun!

And now... THE LIST!

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

Part 8

Part 9

Part 10

Part 11 - WIPs

(and yes I will link a google sheets version once all the parts are out)

[exhuastedpigeon]

Buddie Hiatus Fic Recs - Day 1 Fics posted between May 15 - June 15

This is the first of probably 9 rec lists that I'm hoping to put out before the 911 premier! Each list will cover a month, starting with the day of the finale and wrapping up the day before the premier.

0-5k wedding bells by renecdote / @renecdote Gen | 1.9 In which Buck and Eddie plan a wedding.

You Should've Just Kissed Me by chronicallystendan / @chronicallystendan Teen | 2.3k Set after the Poker Date Night, Buck overhears Eddie talking about being set up on a date and wonders aloud why Eddie doesn't just explain that he's already in a relationship - with Buck.

let me see them tan lines by 42hrb Teen | 2.8k Four times the 118 notices Eddie Diaz's ring tan line and one time he was wearing a ring.

The Toothbrush Correlation by MidnightJen Gen | 3.1k ‘A toothbrush?’ Hen repeated dubiously, eyebrows high and tone extremely dubious.

‘A toothbrush,’ Eddie confirmed.

The one where Buck has Celiac Disease by buddiefication (pumpkincreamcoldbrew) / @911onabc Gen || 3.3k Buck has celiac disease. He’s also in love with his best friend. His best friend who has a girlfriend. Somehow, these things keep colliding.

Love is stored in the kitchen by toomanybats / @buckstummy Explicit | 3.6k Eddie loses his mind on a Wednesday morning. The thing is that Buck has been around a lot more lately. Like a lot more. Like twenty four hours a day more, his whole apartment building is being fumigated, apparently. The problem is that it’s been like, two entire weeks, and Eddie is only a mere mortal.

take my hand (knot your fingers through mine) by rainbow_nerds, ransomdrysdale / @rainbow-nerdss Teen | 4.1 what 6x18 could've been, pre-relationship

all i ever wanted was a life in your shape by tuckergreeen / @henwilsonmd Gen | 4.3k Pre-relationship | Buck buys a new couch, and a few other things that happen after the bridge collapse. 

you'll feel the rush of it all by oklahoma / @malewifediaz Explicit | 4.7k Buck convinces Eddie to fuck him while they're on the clock at the station—even if it’s just the tip. To nobody's surprise, Eddie folds easily.

5k-10k please don't take this feeling (if I wanted to, I'd be alright) by rowan_wood / @transboybuckley Gen | 5.1k Double Dates, getting together, love confessions

totally not interrupting. at all. by magicisrealforme Gen | 5.2k Maddie's bored and misses her brother so she decides to drop by. She didn't expect to see Eddie there.

ring the bells by thelikesofus / @the-likesofus Gen | 5.3k Buck starts frequenting a coffee shop near the firehouse in hopes of running into the beautiful man whose coffee he mistakenly drank.

mark me like a bloodstain by MonsterRae1 / @monsterrae1 Mature | 6k In a universe were your soulmarks appear when your soulmate is badly injured, Buck think's his died, until his best friend gets shot in front of him and he finaly figures out it was Eddie all along.

not all of us are heroes (not all of us are brave) by withmeornotatall / @chronicowboy Gen | 6k buck and natalia break up, eddie decides to introduce his girlfriend to his son, christopher knows way too much, and the 118's wine night has never been quite so eventful

to feel the need of your touch by honestlydarkprincess / @honestlydarkprincess Explicit | 7.5k The one where Buck is touchstarved and desperate for Eddie. They fuck but it's also really sweet.

10k + right in front of your eyes by rainbow_nerds / @rainbow-nerdss Teen | 15.2k Buck offers to fake-date Eddie so Pepa will stop setting him up on dates.

very time we stop talking (the universe starts screaming) by withmeornotatall / @chronicowboy Mature | 21.9k buck gets reckless, eddie gets angry, they talk in all the wrong ways, and the universe decides to intervene

let's build this house (into a home, baby) by withmeornotatal / @chronicowboy Explicit | 24k.4 Neighbours AU, slow burn, Different first meeting, getting together

i owe you a black eye and 2 kisses by colonoscopys / @colonoscopys Explicit | 29.3k Four weeks later, Buck completes his first mission. Ft Nurse Buck and Mob member Eddie

today i live for a single drop of you by Underhung_Aura / @eddiebabygirldiaz Explicit | 38.9 Five times Buck dreams about sucking Eddie's cock and the one time he actually gets to do it.

let the world have its way with you by fleetinghearts / @shitouttabuck Explicit | 54.4k a bucket list that’s really about buck needing to make a change and an eddie who’s ready to do anything to see him fall in love with life again. it takes some crossing off for eddie to realize—the thing at the top of the list in his own heart? it’s been right here all along.

when it's you i'm with (everything goes quiet) by withoutthetiger / @rewritetheending Explicit | 56.2k Eddie can't speak after he and Christopher are in an accident, but somehow he asks Buck to stay while he recovers. Buck can't imagine wanting to be anywhere else, and even in the silence that lingers between them, they both find a way to say everything.

wishing to be the friction by ipretendtobesane / @useramor Explicit | 97.2k the straight eddie friends with benefits fic

[terra-sketches]

EXTREMELY LONG CHARACTER ANALYSIS OF GEN NARUMI (ft. his one-sided beef with Kafka Hibino)

(Spoilers for the Kaiju no. 8 manga!!)

Maybe I'm just missing smth but i can't for the LIFE of me gauge Narumi's feelings about Kafka.

Before Isao's absorption, Gen is irritated at the suggestion that the First Division needs help from a daikaiju. He insists that he can handle No. 9 on his own and would rather have Kafka turned into a suit. Harsh. He straight up just sees Kafka as another kaiju and doesn't give a single fuck about Kafka's personal reasons for joining the force.

After Isao gets absorbed, Gen backtracks and is like "never-mind, actually I could use your strength now that I know what we're up against" and that's nice and all but then he's also like "I don't care if you turn into a kaiju, I'll just kill you". So you know, two steps forward, three steps back. He still doesn't want to humanize Kafka and that's??? bizarre to me?? Like Kafka has NEVER wronged Gen or done anything to offend him and yet Gen refuses to acknowledge his humanity more than a simple "We really shouldn't let a solider keep fighting to their detriment.... but I'm gonna ask you to stay anyway"

Gen isn't a heartless asshole, we SEE how chill/informal he can be with Kikoru and the rest of the First Division at times, so wtf is his weirdness with Kafka about? His feelings are a little TOO cold when they realistically should be more on the neutral side (like how Isao felt, a very "nothing personal" vibe).

Then Kafka asks Gen to help with private training and Gen's expression is so unreadable??? Is he mad? Does he care? Wtf is going on? Why is he always glaring at Kafka? Is that just his "serious captain" face? Why'd he activate his kaiju eyes? GEN WHAT ARE YOU THINKING? DO YOU SEE KAFKA AS AN ALLY OR A FOE? AND WHY?

UPDATE: ok so I’ve thought about it while this sat in my drafts and I can answer my own musings.

I take back what I said about Kafka never upsetting Gen.

Yes he did lol, he TOTALLY did.

And Gen won’t get over it anytime soon but he’s making an effort post-Isao's death. To sum it up, they got off on the wrong foot and Gen is still huffy about it.

Gen’s first impression of Kafka amounts to “Dangerous Daikaiju! Almost killed Mr. Isao >:(“ and that negative sentiment bleeds into every future interaction with Kafka. That’s why he’s unusually hostile and apathetic toward Kafka.

I mean, put yourself in Gen’s shoes.

A 9.8 fortitude (highest fortitude recorded in history) daikaiju is discovered to have been living among the humans (huge red flag) at the third division and your mentor (whom you care about a whole lot) wants to poke at it to test its humanity. You would rather just neutralize the threat while it seems docile but noooooooo, everyone wants to see what it can do. So you’re on standby to watch it plead for it’s life to your mentor. First it's a little pathetic, pretty human actully, but then it goes fucking bonkers on your mentor. You’re waiting for the signal to jump in. But Isao won't give the signal even as he's getting his shit rocked. And you’re like, ‘holy shit am I about the watch this man die!? I gotta get tf out there!” Then No. 8 stabs itself in a freak display of "self-control"??? And finally you arrive ready to kill it but Isao tells you not to?? Like “ok, you’re the boss��� but now what?? What are they even gonna do with this unpredictable freak?

Next thing you know, Isao wants you to WORK ALONGSIDE the thing that almost killed him? And you’re like “no wtf, I don’t need its help” bc hello?? You don't trust this unstable thing (and you're kinda prideful). However, Isao insists and you respect Isao enough to reluctantly go along with it. You make sure No. 8 knows its place though! If it makes one wrong move then it’s DEAD MEAT!! No. 8 tries to gives some sob story but you don’t care. It proved how dangerous it can be to humans and that makes it just like any other kaiju. It's past as a human doesn't matter anymore.

End scene---

I understand Gen now omg?? He’s just being cautious, protective even. He doesn’t want someone else to fight No. 8 and get themselves killed (also killing one of the strongest recorded daikiaju in history would be a massive ego boost). That’s why he makes it crystal clear that he’ll kill Kafka if anything happens and that's also why Kafka knows to go to Gen to train his kaiju form.

Gen really will just fucking kill him if things go wrong. And Kafka’s okay with that because he gets that he's a threat. (ouch)

Kikoru doesn’t share Gen feelings and that’s only because Kikoru knew Kafka before the Isao vs. No. 8 fight. Kafka saved her twice so she knows he’s a good man. (Even though he beat the shit out of her father LMAO)

[asexxxualauthor]

So, Monster Hunter Wilds is on the horizon, and with it the 6th generation of the Monster Hunter franchise. And, as a fan of the Monster Hunter series since MHTri, here’s my list of the monsters introduced in the 3rd generation that deserve a return. These are in no particular order other than alphabetical.

1. The Final Bosses

Combining these all together since they all fill the same niche (and so I can fit all the monsters on this list), I’m just gonna go ahead and say a flat “no” for them. Final bosses basically never show back up again, and even if they did, these three will not. Ceadeus is a strictly underwater Elder Dragon, and Amatsu is strictly native to Yukumo. Dire Miralis could potentially work out, but he’s still semi-aquatic. Anyway, 0/10

2. Agnaktor

On the exact opposite end of the list is this lovely son of a bitch. Not only is Agnaktor not aquatic, it’s the exact opposite—it’s a lava-swimming wyvern, which is a whole subclass of frequently-used monsters. We already have Lavisioth as an option, and Agnaktor’s immature form—Uroktar—were available in MHRise, so why not? 10/10, should come back again

3. Duramboros

Duramboros is the first monster on this list that isn’t in total dire need of a return—it was available back in MHGenerations, and isn’t extremely unique or memorable. It wouldn’t be hard to add to the game—in fact, the ecology of Wilds’ regions do seem like they’d fit him well, but he wouldn’t exactly need it. 3/10

4. Gigginox

Oh, Gigginox—the Khezu’s more creepy, yet less disturbing little brother. Therein is a large part of the problem with Gigginox, in that its design is too similar to Khezu's—if a game is going to have one, it most likely won't have the other. However, despite having similar designs, their fights are completely different—so, bringing Gigginox back for the Forbidden Lands seems like the perfect opportunity to me. 8/10, bring the freakshow back!

5. Gobul

Gobul is an unfortunate victim of gimmickry. He's definitely a fun enemy—the encounter with him is memorable, he's extremely frustrating and fun, and being able to fish him up with a frog on a stick is so unique and interesting! And I could certainly see ways that reintroducing him for a Swamp region in Wilds could be done well—the problem is that so much of his design is tied to his flooded home, and having to navigate murky waters, that I don't think he's likely to come back. I'll put him at a solid 4/10, though, being hopeful.

6. Great Jaggi

Whenever a small predator monster is included in a game, and the game chooses not to include their mature form or pack leader, I die a little bit inside. Getting into Rise's desert region, seeing the Jaggi running around, and slowly realizing there was no Great Jaggi to beat up on broke my heart. Do I think there's any chance my boy will be showing up in Wilds, though? Not a chance in hell, there's nothing unique about him—unlike his cousins G.Baggi and G.Wroggi—that makes him worth bringing home again. 2/10

7. Jhen Mohran

I, personally, never got the chance to go far enough in one of the games to tackle one of the massive siege monsters—the closes I ever got was Zorah Magdaros, and from what I've seen from the community, that was a bit of a shit-show of a siege. Still, we are shown sailing on desert sands in the trailer for Wilds, and we already know the MH4 crew is tied up in this somehow, so maybe siege is back on the menu, boys! 5/10

8. Lagiacrus

Oh, Lagiacrus—yet another wonderful monster that was handicapped by gameplay gimmickry. Lagi is one of the most beloved monsters in the series—an odd thing to say, since he just barely made it into the gen after his. Without a sea to duel him in, he's locked to just his on-land combat, which is far less interesting to deal with. If we could get underwater combat back, I could see a world where he comes home, but that's not this one. 3/10

9. Nibelsnarf

Honestly, this is one of the monsters I can most see coming back with Wilds. Like Jhen, Nibelsnarf is a desert-dweller that loves digging through the sand—and there's plenty of sand to go around in Wilds first area! Not only that, but Nibelsnarf is perhaps the most bizarre monster to come out of the 3rd gen, and if there's one thing we've seen from the MHWilds roster so far, it's that they're a bunch of ugly, nasty motherfuckers—so he'll fit right in! 9/10

And of course, saving the best for last...

10. Qurupeco

Why, on gods green earth, has this bastard not left 3rd gen yet? He has such a colorful, unique design! His antics and mannerisms are so goofy and fun! The fact that he can parrot the calls of other monsters in the area and bring them barrelling down on you with the force of a hurricane itself is crazy, and makes for such a terrifying conflict—I genuinely do not understand why he isn't in more games—in all of the games—he deserves it!

10/10—11/10—15!! This bastard deserves to make Hunters' lives hell in the Forbidden Lands, I swear to god!

[mbm-artist]

Hi there hello, I'm sure you're wondering either

A) Why tf I just reblogged a bunch of stuff in the span of like 30 seconds

B) What's going on in general

C) What's the point of this post you're reading

D) All of the above

Well dear viewer, I'm gonna give you a TL;DR and then under the cut give a more in-depth explanation, I'll even cut it up into different sections to make viewing easier :)

⚠️ Trigger Warnings ⚠️

Randy (duh), a LOT of swearing (duh), suicide mentions, pedophilia/attempted grooming/etc mentions, queerphobia (transphobia, homophobia, etc), misogyny, mentions of sexual things, slurs, harassment, general 16+ content mentions

Disclaimer

Randy is a 14 year old minor (allegedly) as of the time this post was made, please DO NOT INTERACT with him, just block him and report him as many times as you want. This post's purpose is to spread awareness and maybe hopefully get him banned from Tumblr. Please do not go after, attack, or interact with him or his (supposed) "girlfriend" (he has her tagged at the bottom of his pinned post). I suggest you block (NOT REPORT) his "girlfriend" too, you can never be too careful.

As of the time this post was made Randy's father and school have been contacted, and we are waiting on an update.

Please offer all the victims of Randy unconditional love and support, they deserve that and so much more for all the bullshit this kid put them through, don't you dare even TRY to victim blame them. I will flame you if you attack them at all in any way shape or form, no excuses, ifs, ands, or buts.

I am also a minor in high school (not giving my age for my own safety), so take that how you will. My pronouns are they/them/he/him if you don't know already :D

One more thing before we get into it (if it wasn't obvious already),

GET THE FUCK OFF OF MY PAGE AND BLOCK ME IF YOU'RE QUEERPHOBIC (transphobic, homophobic, etc) OR AGREE WITH RANDY IN ANY WAY SHAPE OR FORM. DO NOT FUCKING INTERACT WITH ME EVER AGAIN.

Thank you, you may now proceed.

Links

The Google Doc (Alllllll the info about this guy in one place, most reliable source of info) | Randy's "gf's" tag, #proud randy supporter (Second-most reliable source of info, this has a LOT of updates on him in real time) | Randy tag, #randysworld-multi-fandom-fan/randysworld2009 (Second-most reliable source of info, all posts related to him will [hopefully] be here) | Randy's Interactions With Me (proof of him interacting with me) | Google Photos Album (just all of the screenies of proof in one place, I'm gonna tryyyyy to keep this updated as much as I can but no promises)

My response to the 1st ask he sent me | My response to the 2nd ask he sent me (pretty much the same as the first one)

The Short Explanation

So basically this whole fiasco is about @randysworld-multi-fandom-fan or otherwise known as randysworld2009

His crime(s)?

1. Hypocrisy

2. Queerphobia (transphobia, homophobia, the works)

3. Misogyny

4. Perversion (being a pervert)

5. Suicide baiting

6. Pedophilia accusations (all of which are false, and carelessly thrown around)

7. Attempted grooming(?) of fellow minors

8. Slurs (need I say more?)

9. Harassment (in case that wasn't obvious already)

Among other things

He's been interacting with accounts in the following fandoms (as of the time this post was posted):

The Amazing Digital Circus (TADC)

Hellaverse (Hazbin Hotel & Helluva Boss, or HV/HH/HB)

Murder Drones (MD)

SMG4 (Super Mario Glitchy 4)

Yo Gabba Gabba (YGG)

TL;DR this guy is a 5yo Gen Alpha brainrotted kid stuck in a 14yo kid's body, and he's been harassing multiple (mainly TADC) accounts on Tumblr for a bit now, and just being a nuisance and damaging people's mental health.

That's the simple explanation, if you're still not convinced you need to block this guy (and his [supposed] girlfriend) and report him until your hands hurt and/or would like to know more thennnnn

The full explanation + evidence is under the cut ✨

The Long Explanation

Okay so I'm gonna be quoting the Google Doc a LOT here, you'll be able to tell which parts are quoted and which parts are me.

"Randy or randysworld2009 is a Tumblr user that appeared around TADC blogs in the beginning of 2024. Since then, he has built a history of harassing said blogs, mostly roleplay/askblog accounts and artists, forcing roleplay and specially spouting misogyny towards women mods and fem leaning characters, transphobic and homophobic towards queer people. At one point he started getting his information messed up, saying that he was super straight and then later on a “half-bisexual”, also often times approaching people with romantic/sexual intent and then getting angry when those same people state that they are not interested or are above legal age, which he supposedly is not. It is believed that Randy is 14 years old, but at this point, we can’t be certain of what information is true or false. For all we know, his blog could be just a troll."

So yeah, this guy is bad news. That was a direct (formal) quote from one of the victims.

If formal isn't your style, here's a more casual one

"Randy first appeared around the beginning of 2024. He began harassing tadc ask blogs then that led to harassing their mods. Eventually others got involved and Randy basically snapped. He got EVEN MORE batshit and started spouting misogyny, transphobia, and dilution. He's chronically online and believes everything is a roleplay. He's obsessed with getting a girlfriend and has sexually harassed many. he is the horniest bastard you could fucking meet omg"

Another direct quote from another victim, this one he treated the WORST.

(Some) Screenshots

There are more screenshots in the Google Doc and the Google Photos Album I made, but these will be a few tidbits of evidence that will hopefully convince you by now if you're not already. (With some additional commentary/explanation from yours truly underneath each screenie✨) Additionally, all the images will have links to their sources. (Please let me know if they don't work, I'll update this with usable links if that's the case)

Exhibit A - The Bastard Himself

(Mb for light mode jumpscare here, even more reason for your eyes to bleed when looking at this immature fuck's profile)

Just his profile (as of the time this post was posted) so you know exactly who to block and report as many times as possible Exhibit B - His Interactions With Me

This is some evidence of him interacting with me, there's more in the Google Photos Album I made of proof he interacted with me

(Mb for light mode jumpscare again, it's the only way I could show the post and the comments in the same screenie)

His comments on my pinned post, if you saw this or this you know I demanded that he delete his comments on here (while flaming the fuck out of him), so here's a screenie of what they were before he (hopefully) deletes them

The first ask he sent me, my response being the awesome giant rant where I DEMOLISHED him (I'm way too proud of it if you couldn't tell)

All his interactions with me from when he initially found me

The rest of his interactions he's ever had with me

Like the first ask he sent, I answered with the same thing, ANNIHILATING this fucker (still way too proud of it)

Exhibit C - Direct Victim Testimonies (to yours truly) These are asks that I sent to the main 3 victims I had gathered evidence from before gaining access to the Google Doc, they're my main sources so far (send all the love and support to them please [especially Sunny's system they've all been hurt the most from what I can see], they're very sweet outside of all this and more than deserve it)

Dia answered first, their answer helped me gain access to the Google Doc and get a HUGE chunk of the evidence I'll be showing here

Second half of Dia's answer, a summary of the wholeeee situation straight from a direct victim

Sunny was the second to answer my ask, this is what I mean when I say clearly Sunny needs the most love and support out of all the victims (as far as ik) cus like how can you not man- also this is how I found out they contacted Randy's father and school, very big piece of lore (and you'll see why they have soon don't worry)

Lilith was the last to respond to my ask, this being how I found out that it was them specifically that contacted Randy's dad & school (which I commend them for, it was a very good move so bravo to them man genuinely)

Exhibit D - Evidence

And now the moment you've all been waiting for, if this doesn't convince you then shit idk what will-

This post was my first exposure to what Randy is ACTUALLY like and wowee what a doozy man, it started me down the rabbit hole that lead me to making this post rn (make sure you look at the notes [both comments and the reblogs] too those also have even more info aside from everybody FLAMING the fuck out of this kid lolol) Also GO OFF ON HIM GLITCH GET HIS ASS WOOOOO

(Sorry for the light mode jumpscare yet again, evidence is evidence)

1. Misgendering. What the fuck. (Dia's pronouns are they/them) 2. EW. Need I say more??? 3. This post is how I found my main 3 sources up until Dia answered my ask 4. You'll start to see that this post and the following posts show that he's SPECIFICALLY targeting fem-adjacent blogs (including blogs that are run by enbies that he assumes identify as femme and promptly misgenders) and generally being a misogynistic and transphobic BITCH

This post is an example of Randy A) Accusing a fellow minor of pedophilia (very carelessly and incorrectly might I add) B) Not even getting their age right? Hello??? C) This kid clearly does NOT know what the difference between slang and genuine predatory behavior is which shows how fucking SHELTERED this kid must be oh my GOD D) Another example of him misgendering and being misogynistic/transphobic

This post is more proof of him being misogynistic and sexually harassing people, and might I add a HORNY ASS PERVERT Rabid is actually someone I followed way before all this dude, I'm guessing that's how Randy found me unfortunately

After this screenie Dia answered my ask, so all the screenies beyond this point are straight from the Google Doc (some had links to their original posts, some didn't for the sake of anonymity which is completely understandable)

This post backs up what I said regarding the other screenie where Randy assumed Lilith was like 20, istg this kid does NOT know what fact checking is holy fuck This was a certified screenie I got from the Google Doc might I add

This post, another one provided by the Google Doc, is an example of him A) Harassing TADC ask blogs (and it leading to harassing the mods) B) Sexually harassing people and being misogynistic in general He just doesn't know when to quit huh

(Sorry again for the light mode jumpscare this is the last one I promise)

This one didn't have a post linked to it so I only found it cus of the Google Doc (so yay ig you don't have to click the links to the OG posts for more info anymore beyond this point), the mod spitting FACTS

Once again lovingly provided by the Google Doc, wowee this kid sure loves slurs

Conclusion

I know this might not get to many people, but I'm hoping it at least has some sort of positive impact, because I want to try my best to warn as many people as possible and keep him from having any more influence than he already has.

To the victims involved in this: PLEASEEEEEEEEEEEE PLS PLS PLS LMK IF I NEED TO CHANGE ANYTHING I TRIED MY ABSOLUTE BEST TO BE AS ACCURATE AND RESPECTFUL TO YOU GUYS AS HUMANLY POSSIBLE I'D REALLY APPRECIATE FEEDBACK IF I GOT/DID SOMETHING WRONG

Thank you for reading my ramblies on this important news, have a cookie for getting this far and you're an LGBTQIA+ ally 🍪 (plus an additional scoop of ice cream if you're queer 🍦)

And Happy Pride Month, TRANS PRIDE BABYYY

Plus some Anti-Randy spray for the road (lovingly provided by Sunny and Lilith) ✨

(in case of any confusion, the colors kind of mean different things but not really, it's not that important- but red is for trigger warning stuffs/disclaimers and general important things, green is for section titles, blue is for links, and that's about it really-- and yes I did make a subtle RGB joke. Sue me, I wanna be at least a little funny to make light of all this grim dark stuffs. All those super super serious call-out posts can be kind of depressing so I want to find the happy middle ground between serious and lighthearted, it gets the message across and it still feels important without being too much of a downer yanno? Anyway do tell me your thoughts in the comments after dropping a reblog, I would appreciate feedback on what you think of my writing style here :3) (Oh, and if you're wondering what purple means? It's a secret 🥰)

[tsarisfanfiction]

Beneath the Stars

Fandom: Trials of Apollo Rating: Gen Genre: Family/Angst Characters: Will, Nico Apollo kids slept with the sun, except for when they didn't. Overnight pre-quest outings don't help. TOApril day 9 - The Hour Past Midnight. I am tired and Will is tired so if this is incoherent, that'll be why.

Will was tired but he couldn’t sleep.  Usually, he slept just fine as long as the sun was down (when the sun was up was another matter entirely), but a pre-quest, well, quest, rather enforced the need for him to stay awake.

Then again, Will suspected that this would’ve been one of those rare, irritating nights where he couldn’t sleep even without external stimuli keeping him awake.  Going out lizard-hunting with Nico to try and gather bribes for the cavern-runners drove home exactly what they were going to be doing in the morning, but at least it came with the added side effect of knowing that they were also doing everything they could to mitigate the risks.

And there were a lot of risks.

The moon was out, no clouds thick or plentiful enough to hide its light, and Will let his head tip back to stare up at it.  He’d seen a lot of the moon over the past six months, since Apollo’s stint as a mortal had begun, and there were some things that just weren’t coincidences.  Will didn’t know how much influence Artemis had over her brother’s fate, but it was comforting, in a strange, disquieting, way, to recognise that with his dad… incapacitated, for lack of a better word, his aunt (not that he often thought of Artemis as such, wasn’t sure if she viewed herself as such) was still there.

Sure, Artemis would never drop by in his dreams, or even acknowledge his existence, but any hint of normality in a world that was currently anything but normal was one that Will would clutch at with both hands and never let go.

If only getting Apollo back where he belonged was that easy.  Right now, it felt more like Will was helping to accelerate his father’s permanent demise, because going to the trogs still felt like a terrible, terrible, idea, yet here he was.

Will was trying hard not to think about how if they weren’t all eaten by the trogs, there was still Nero to contend with, and after him, Python.

Even the name of the last one had him shivering.

His head knocked against the trunk of the tree he was leaning against, torn between being awake and passing out where he stood.  He could take a nap, if he wanted to.  Nico had never expected him to do more than keep him company for this, Will knew, especially as it was long past sunset and the lizard traps showed no sign of succeeding in their purpose just yet.

He should take a nap.�� They were due to head out at dawn – provided they caught a stupid lizard in time – and then the quest would begin in earnest and Will’s opportunities for sleep would drop considerably.  He wasn’t Nico, who could go entirely too long without sleep – not for any logical reasons like being a son of Hades, but because he’d messed his sleep schedule up so badly that his body just rolled with it, even though it shouldn’t.  If Will didn’t get some sleep now he was going to crash mid-quest.

The problem was, Will wasn’t going to sleep.  He could feel it in the tenseness of his body and the faintest strains of a headache at the base of his skull.  He was too stressed to sleep, too on edge for his mind to slip away.

Next to him, also leaning against the tree, Nico was fully alert despite the late hour.  They were nearing midsummer, and even Nico had shed his outer layers until he was just in a t-shirt and jeans.  His bare forearm pressed against Will’s, cool but not worryingly so, and Will’s hand was close enough to his wrist to feel the rhythm of his boyfriend’s pulse steady and even beneath the skin.

It was soothing, and Will knew Nico was doing it on purpose, using his vitakinesis against him to keep him relaxed.  It was hardly the first time, and wouldn’t be the last, either.  Nico had used the exact same trick to get him to sleep after a late night in the infirmary, and with his sword out, he was clearly prepared to stand guard while Will slept.

If only Will could actually sleep.

Above him, beyond the moon chariot, the stars shone clearly.  Will could name all the constellations despite rarely being awake late enough to see them, because they were all named for Greek mythology – all came from Greek mythology.

The newest acquisition, the Huntress, was nowhere to be seen, because she was a winter constellation, and that meant Orion was also missing, because he was part of the winter sky, too.

Will’s eyes found Lyra, the lyre of Orpheus.  It wasn’t the biggest constellation in the sky, but it was one of the most Apollo-like in the sky (Will adamantly ignored Serpens; Python was slithering around in his mind unwelcomely without further incentive), and Will would take any connection to his dad at all.  Any hint that he would survive and regain his godhood.

Right now, his father would be laying in the cot in the middle of cabin seven, a bed meant for guests when Apollo belonged in the cabin more than any of the rest of them.  Will hoped he was asleep, but he didn’t think the laws of the universe that dictated that children of Apollo didn’t stay awake easily at night applied to the god himself, even if the god happened to be mortal and vulnerable.

Still, Apollo needed the rest, so Will could hope.  He could suffer a sleepless night and its consequences if it meant his father was well-rested and had the best possible chances of survival.

He sent a private, silent prayer to the moon above him.  Maybe Artemis could help that happen – at least then, Will’s sleepless night would feel like it had a purpose.  He would gladly never sleep again if it helped to keep Apollo alert and alive.

[shandit]

My Current Guesses on Legends: Z-A Starters

So with Pokemon Legends: Z-A being announced, since we now know from PLA that Pokemon will gain a special final evolution based on their new environment. I wanted to toss my hat into the ring of predictions for which 3 previous starters we're gonna get.

First off let me say which ones I'm sure we're not gonna get and why.

Gen 6 Starters

As with PLA, Gen 6's Starters will not be part of the starters in PLZA. More than likely, they will be caught in the wild just like the Gen 4 Starters were in PLA.

Gen 1 Starters

I think it's very safe to say the Gen 1 Starters are not going to be picked. But, let me explain my proper reasoning.

With the reintroduction of Mega Evolution, and the likely fact PLZA will have our Protag & Crew be the ones to discover Mega Evolution, it's very likely the Starters we get will gain Mega Forms. This said, It's very unlikely GameFreak will use Pokemon with existing Mega Forms, even if said mons get a regional form. Because of this, I can safely say Squirtle, Charmander, and Bulbasaur are not going to be on the roster, and same goes for...

Gen 3 Starters

Same thing here, with the fact these guys already have Mega Forms, I find it highly unlikely GF is going to give them both a new regional evo + a new Mega.

PLA Starters

This one's kind of a given. Pokemon isn't going to reuse any of the starters from PLA cause that would just be odd to keep giving starters other regional forms (That said I am sad at the loss of Mega Typhlosion :[ )

Gen 9 Starters

The simple answer to this is just, the Paldea trio are just, too new. While I don't think that entirely rules them out. I do think it makes them less likely to be chosen for the next mainline game.

Now with the obvious removals talked about, let's go down the line of who's left and talk about why or why not they're likely to be chosen.

Chikorita

I didn't originally have anything to say about Chikorita, since I felt their odds were snuffed out by the other grass types here, however upon doing some more research, specifically on Meganium, I learned the daylily (the flower theorized to be what Meganium's flower is based on) was actually brought to Europe around the late 1750's-early 1800's. And with France's Urbanization having occured around the mid 1800's (Which is the time period people are guessing PLZA will take place in) There actually is a good chance for Chikorita to be chosen as their plant actually fits with the location and time period! However I cannot think of what type changes would make sense for this, so I do have to dock some points for that.

Overall chances - 6/10

Totodile

Totodile sadly doesn't seem like a great fit for PLZA. It is essentially just what it is, a Crocodile. And, a quick google search will show you, that besides the barren ice land of Antarctica, Europe is the only continent to not natively have any form of Crocodile or Alligator. GameFreak would have to get very creative here with something of French history or folklore to make Feraligator work for this.

Overall Chances - 1/10

Turtwig

Now Turtwig is an interesting one. Not only is there the fact the extinct turtle species Torterra is based was discovered in North-West Europe (Though mostly Germany & Switzerland) but Torterra as a Pokemon has a lot of potential when it comes to regional forms, thanks in part to the tree on it's back. France's national tree is the Yew, specifically the European or Common Yew, it's an evergreen tree that sprouts red berries (these berries are also very poisonous, meaning we could get a change of typing here to Grass Poison). I could see a Kalosian Torterra having an Ancient Yew tree on their back sporting a great harvest of berries. But, potential put aside, I don't see Turtwig being here simply cause there's another Gen 4 starter that fits the bill of this game much, much more than them.

Overall Chances - 4/10

Chimchar

Chimchar is one I just can't vouch for out of the few fire types we have here. Their Sun Wukong relevance is way to impactful on who the mon is, and Sun Wukong, while being from a story of "Journey to the West" only went to India, and never actually went to the actual west of the world. I also once again have to toss them to the side because of the face there is one more Gen 4 Starter that only makes sense to be in this game, and it's not them.

Overall Chances - 1/10

Piplup

THIS, THIS RIGHT HERE IS A GUARANTEED PICK.

Piplup is absolutely going to be the Water Starter of PLZA, you cannot change my mind about this, and for those of you not in the know, I have one name that will explain why.

NAPOLEON BONAPARTE

Empoleon, as obvious as their name is, is in fact based on the Ex-emperor of France, General Napoleon Bonaparte. And, if we go back to the prediction of PLZA taking place in the mid 1800's... Guess what historical events seemed to also take place in the mid 1800's. Oh you know, just THE NAPOLEONIC WARS!

Piplup is my only and 100% has to be there guess, it would be a crime if they were not the chosen starter for this game. I legit would actually be angry if GameFreak missed this opportunity. As for potential typings... Water-Dark "could" make sense since Dark Type is just Evil type in Japan, and Napoleon is an evil dude in history. But I think Water-Fighting is much more likely, with Empleon probably going to take on much less of an Emperor Penguin look, and more of General Bonaparte, give him the Hat GameFreak, it would look funny.

Overall Chances - 10/10

Snivy

Snivy is also pretty much a guaranteed pick, and this is just from the simple fact of Serperior. Who is (supposedly) based on King Louis XVI of France & other European aristocrats, and that the fleur-de-lis, aka the French insignia used by many Noble families is visible in their design... Honestly, along with Piplup I would be flat out shocked if Snivy was not the grass starter for PLZA, like I would be baffled at how much of a lost chance that would be. As for potential regional typing, I could see it being Grass Ghost to represent the death of the French Monarchy... But that's it for my brain lmao

Overall Chances - 10/10

Tepig

Tepig is an odd one. On one hand, Snivy being basically guaranteed makes me obviously think another Gen 5 pick isn't going to make it into this group, but on the other hand...

Nah, I got nothing. Tepig is based way too much Chinese Culture and the tale of Zhang Fei to really fit into French culture. Just like Chimchar's inspiration from Journey to The West, it would feel wrong to change Tepig for the exact same reasons.

Overall Chances - 1/10

Litten

This one was more of a wildcard pick here for me, simply cause none of the fire types left had any real connections to France like Water and Grass had, I just found the idea of a regional form for Incineroar to be interesting. Though I had no idea how they would change a professional wrestler into something more fitting for early 1800's France... THAT IS UNTIL I DID SOME RESEARCH BABY!

So French Wrestling is actually really interesting, while it started in the 1830's, their style of wrestling, titled Graeco-Roman, was invented by a soldier FROM THE NAPOLEONIC WARS! Not only that, but it's even named "Classic Wrestling" meaning there actually is a good chance for Incineroar to be based on this style of wrestling for their Regional form! What better thing for the Wrestler Starter to use what is to many people the first style of wrestling that was used in the First ever Olympics! As for typing, Fire Normal could make some sense... I just really don't want it to be Fire Fighting, I think a lot of people would be disappointed if it somehow got the infamous Fire Starter typing.

Overall Chances - 9/10

Popplio

What can I even say about Popplio? I mean I guess maybe the fact Sirens originate from Europen folklore? But even then it's mostly Greek origins for that. There's nothing really tying Popplio in to fit the bill here, they're outclassed by a certain penguin of french origins.

Overall Chances - 2/10

Grookey

I think the Galar Starters are going to be the hardest to even justify, really the only thing any of them have going for them is the fact they come from Galar, which is based on Great Britain, a country that was France's rival in the war to own the world.

However none of that has anything to do with Grookey, the drummer monkey really doesn't have anything to offer! Rillaboom could maybe play a different instrument, but I don't think going from a pair of drum sticks to a bugle is probably gonna work out well. Perhaps though I'm just not putting my mind into it well enough.

Overall Chances - 3/10

Scorbunny

Again, I've got nothing. Realistically I guess you could make a pun here and have Cinderace being a French foot soldier. Though French hares are a common animal, and rabbits in of themselves are abundant all across Europe. I'm just personally wondering what exactly they could do with the fella that makes them properly unique enough to earn that spot, and right now I just don't see it.

Overall Chances - 4/10

Sobble

Last but not least, We have Sobble. Now surprisingly, I could actually see them being used, Intellion is based on James Bond and 007, and being a spy, well French spies obviously existed, there's also the fact a spy can also be an assassin if need be. Water Poison Intellion that shoot poisoned bolts of water from fingertips, yeah that could work.

Issue here though you have to put Sobble up against the other water types here, and well... Piplup.

Overall Chances - 3/10

And that's it! So TL:DR for anyone not reading here are the rankings most likely to least likely by types

Grass :

1 Snivy

2 Chikorita

3 Turtwig

4 Grookey

Water

1 Piplup

2 Sobble

3 Popplio

4 Totodile

& Fire

1 Litten

2 Scorbunny

3 Tepig & Chimchar

Meaning the most likely Starters for PLZA are going to be

Snivy, Litten, and Piplup.

[mastersoftheair]

ok, so my own final (and very, very fresh) thoughts, bc i wanted to wait until i'd watched everything to make a sweeping opinion of the whole series, and it's quite opinionated. and long. probably too long. i write essays for fun (everyone point and laugh):

my personal (and very, very fresh) ranking of the hbo war shows (not including gen kill bc that's a different war, sorry) goes- band of brothers > masters of the air > the pacific (it's the same for my title score rankings. that hasn't changed yet)

my main points of contention with MotA are 1) the nine episodes, 2) the length of the episodes, and 3) certain editing choices. nine episodes, compared to the classic ten, isn't Nearly enough time to showcase all that they wanna showcase (especially when the episodes are as short as they are, once you get past the recap and "next on" parts). and they wanna showcase A Lot! there so much going on! i'd ask them to pace themselves, but they literally Can't!

i mean, the editing choices are a Whole Thing! practically gives me whiplash sometimes lol. i feel like the weaker episodes still have parts that are Really good, but like. Individually. they don't work together as a stronger whole, which is to the episode's detriment. rather than jumping around (as the show often did), they could've benefited a lot from focusing on the One Story instead of squeezing three more stories into there (i say that, but i think the 4-5-6 episode run (all with multiple stories per episode) did this very well while Still being very good episodes, so it's not like it Can't be done, it just didn't work for 7, 8 and (partly) 9). granted, i suspect a chunk of the weird editing can be blamed on, well, there being only nine (and not all that long) episodes and no one wanting to cough up enough money for a tenth. ugh! i'm blaming both hbo And appletv for this (and covid19 ig). it's just One More Episode, how much could it cost?? and on the subject of episodes, why no episode titles? you used to love episode titles! i could've brainstormed episode titles for them For Free!!

when it comes to the characters, the rankings remain the same: BoB > MotA > TP. it's not totally fair tho, since BoB followed the exact same (and large-ish) group of guys from beginning to end, so you're Gonna know who they all are and get attached. this wasn't the case (for me!) when watching TP, since, unlike BoB, they jump around from group to group. i never felt like i got to know them all that well, outside of the main characters. i think MotA almost hits that sweet spot, especially knowing they had those two main things going against it: large cast And jumping from group to group. there's a case to be made for bias here (i Was the blog blogging about everything MotA for like. years.), but i still think they found a good enough balance of fleshing out the main characters while Also helping the audience get to know about a bunch of minor characters, of which there are a shitton (and their personalities, motivations, backgrounds, quirks).

there's also the representation of women. actual angel renée lemaire is and will always be a cut above the rest (bastogne is just That Good, argue with the wall). she's written so well that it almost makes me forget about how a bunch of women are portrayed in carentan. i have...issues with how women are portrayed in TP (even tho i love lena), so there's that. MotA falls in the middle (again) bc there's Way more women on-screen, but the writing can be questionable. balanced (as all things should be?) captain l'sandra wing-westgate is a character of all time, but episode 7 birthed the craziest discourse known to man (the hbo war fandom), but it wasn't all that unwarranted. manon and michou were sooo cool, but we didn't see nearly enough of them (another victim of the 'editing too many stories into one episode' problem. why not a whole resistance episode? or at least as the only b-plot?). paulina was interesting, but fulfilled one of those 'attractive foreign woman gives sage advice during/after sex' tropes (there's probably a tvtropes page for that idk). so many red cross girls, but none of the in-depth payoff :/ epic highs (multiple women!!) + epic lows (writing women??) = pretty tolerable. not great, not terrible. it was aight. i trust the fandom to build on this tho.

narrative is the big one tho. it's the whole "doing so much with so little" thing they've got going on (i'm ignoring their big budget here lol, could've been bigger). rather than having one main story with many connecting side stories (like BoB), it does the TP thing where there's many semi-connecting side stories set in the same general area. it helps that there's crosby's narration (i enjoy narration, sue me!), and he helps everything connect, sorta. but there's still other side stories that have Nothing to do with him (sandra's side gigs (revealing what she did takes away the mystery of what she Might be doing), the tuskegee airmen, quinn and bailey's eurotrip). would it have helped if there were two narrators (say, someone like rosie)? idk. gonna sit with that one. if there's a through-line, it's not super obvious like in the other two shows. which is insanely funny to me bc i literally like TP less, but that show's got an Extremely tight through-line all the way down. i can't lie and say it doesn't!

back to budget- i've seen people criticize this show for being called "masters of the air" when there's not much of "the air". ig that's fair, but there's the money issue, again. also, it'd get very repetitive if they were always in "the air". there was enough confusion about identifying who was who with the masks on, so imagine if that was Every Episode. out of All the issues the show has, this is the least issue-y. again, that's just my opinion, and it could change.

another budget thing (i think??)- idk enough about costuming and hair for period pieces so i can't comment on that with my 0 background in it, all i Can say is that i knoooooow people were clowning on marjorie cleven's hair in episode 1 (and i could see why, no such thing as 1940s beach waves). but from what i could understand- that actress' addition was a last-minute thing (bc i had No idea who the hell she was and i already found someone cast for marjorie all the way back in 2021). maybe there's something to say about the quality of rush jobs, but i really do think it was the most last-minute thing bc it came out of Nowhere, and timeline-wise, it looks like that bit was done long after everything else had been filmed. outside looking in, it seems something probably went wrong/didn't work out with who or what they already had and there wasn't enough wiggle room (time and money) to fix it. this isn't me being an apologist (lol), but i feel like a theorist at a big board bc nothing adds up! and i wanna know what happened! i'm just speculating! speculating on this blog is All i did for like Years lmaooo.

this is more of a side thing, but some of the lines in MotA feel really on-the-nose, almost corny. and that was Gonna be a knock against it, but there's some equally Extremely on-the-nose lines in both BoB and TP (Especially in BoB), so if i give MotA shit for it, i'd have to give all three shows shit for it lol. none of them are free of cheese.

another silly aside- no peaches, no main gingers, no main eugenes! we can't have 'em all, but c'mon!

there Is some good tho lol. one thing that MotA really has going for it, that i think the other shows have less of, is- and GOD it feels so weird to call this "world-building" when it's actual goddamn history, but- it's got world-building. maybe that isn't the best word for it. but i like how much Bigger ww2 feels in this show. BoB is one stop, then the next stop, then the next stop, which is, admittedly, good from a narrative-perspective (easy to follow), but not as good when you want a scale of how devastating the war is (in fairness, it was filmed in 2000). even TP feels pretty "enclosed" in a way. there's island-hopping, yeah, but all the damn islands look the same (not including australia lol). it's a theatre of the war we otherwise don't really get to see, but there still isn't all that much to see. it's water and sand and rock and dirt. which is the point, but Whatever! would've been cool if we saw sledge and co. in china, but moving on. MotA's able to really show the scale of it, both in the air and on the ground (that scene in germany during episode 6 was both harrowing and fantastic, also the inclusion of the actual children forced to fight nearer to the war's end in the finale). idk i just liked how it was able to zoom in and zoom out (and in and out again) in a way that the other shows weren't.

another thing it's got that the other shows don't is Really driving home how young everyone is (not "child soldier" young, but damn young). the cast is full of baby faces (rip babyface). a lot of ww2 shows/movies don't bother casting to reflect this, but i think overlooking that takes away from the overall impact. you browse through some old newspaper articles or photos of soldiers during ww2 enough and you're gonna Regularly get hit with the face of someone who looks like they could've sat in the desk next to you during a high school lit class. a lot of those b&w grinning faces look like kids bc they pretty much were (more so if they lied about their age). you don't really get that in BoB or TP (it's Crazy when the real life pics of the soldiers portrayed in those shows look younger than the actors).

i'm mixed about the tuskegee airmen. what we have, i love (thank you, dee rees). unfortunately, my biggest irk is that it leaves me wanting more of them, which i won't ever get. speaking as a black person (not speaking for All black people, just how i personally feel about it), having them included feels like a catch-22. if they weren't included in any capacity (all while knowing there were whole tuskegee airmen in stalag iii with the white main characters), there'd be a problem. however, including them (all while having these time constraints and not enough focus on them) leads to the feeling of having them "tokenized" (which i can see). there's no world where there'd be 50/50 split (even a 70/30 split) bc, at that point, just give them a show of their own. but there'd still be a general annoyance that big budget ww2 shows are only ever white. on the other hand, hanks and spielberg and orloff and miller and all the directors (except dee rees) are white, and how good of a story about black people are you really gonna get from the perspective of nonblack people? that in mind, i personally don't feel put-off by having the three tuskegee airmen in the posters/trailers/promos, bc i just Know there'd be a whole nother problem if they weren't included in them at all despite being in the show for however long (it'd be even worse if they made their pictures smaller). like i don't work in advertising, but i don't know if a "sweet spot" even exists for something like this. people would be pissed off no matter what imo (i'm also speaking with a bias here bc i had to browse through sooooo many comments written by white guys whining and crying and pissing and shitting themselves once they learned that the tuskegee airmen were gonna be in the show in Any capacity, so i'm just cool knowing they're in shambles rn (and josiah cross- he played richard macon- always goes Wild seeing his face in the promos, and his joy is pretty contagious).

i give it somewhere like a 7.5-8/10. 3.75 stars out of 5. not perfect, subject to change, gotta marinate, but i'm overall happy with it! MotA's best episodes are better than many other individual hbo war episodes. should i be grading it using the overall sum of its parts, not just the different parts? idk, i'm not being paid to grade lol.

[seirei-bh]

My opinion about ep 8 - Jason and Amanda's routes

Hi! I'm sorry for my absence for the last month! I'm going to be really busy with college this year, I forgot to write my review of ep 7 and I'm a bit late with ep 8, but I'm still here! Haha

I finally played ep 8! I don't have the VIP now, so I had to wait and I was a bit scared seeing other people's controversial opinions about this ep. My conclusion after playing it is that this episode was… weird. Not as awkward and horrible as I thought it would be, reading other reviews, but as others said I also had the feeling that this ep has a script that would have been more believable in a HSL-type story, since the behavior of the characters seems more like that of a group of teenagers, than adults who work in the same company. It has some similar vibes to HSL in eps 9 and 12 (I loved those eps), when Candy wanted to see Lys' tattoo it was funny and plausible, even innocent since she just wanted to see him shirtless, and not his private parts, plus it led us to find out a secret of Nathaniel's that would later lead us to an important point in his backstory, so it was justified at least as far as "plot excuse" goes, but in a situation with co-workers… it doesn't fit me, and even less if it's in a filler ep. I don't know if it's because they thought about this ep when New Gen was still in the process of being a new HSL, or they just thought that this theme would fit in this environment as well. But it doesn't work for me.

Anyway, I'm happier than ever that my main and secondary routes are Jason and Amanda, since in Jason's route I had the chance to warn Roy and in Amanda's I was able to take her side and against the plan to spy on Roy, warn him too, which in both situations was for me and my OCs (according to their personalities) something much more comfortable. That's why the ep wasn't creepy to me, since it wasn't a "let's catch our coworker naked and without consent" but a "let's have fun watching Roy surprise and get revenge on them."

Amanda received complaints in the fandom for being immature in some previous eps like 3, but in this ep she has been the most mature of all and I love her for it, and the moments with her were wonderful! If this ep was fun and comfortable for me it was largely thanks to her. And I truly felt that things were happening here that made the relationship between Amanda and my Candy advance. I really liked both the conversation they had about how she shouldn't care what other people think about her and how she was grateful that Candy took her side, as well as the date to the spa, both enjoying massages, canapés and scented candles. QUEENS <3

About Jason, I'm tired of us always being in a vulnerable position with him instead of the confident and equal enemies-to-lovers that I would like, however, I was glad that at least he showed respect and consent towards my character, THANK YOU, and I like that he wasn't involved at all in the rest of the plot of this ep, and I liked the special scene of my oc imagining a kiss with him caught me by surprise and was very funny! However, I needed something more, ep 7 had a very emotional scene between them and I really hoped to see something more in this ep that developed their relationship, and I didn't see it. But I have hopes that it will improve. Btw: I can't help but laugh thinking that if my character wasn't there, Jason might have accidentally found Roy naked, wtf XDDD

The scene where I was in the locker with Elenda and Brune pressed up against me… BV when am I going to be able to kiss my girls?? I felt it was a least another good enough situation to get an illustration with them, like the scene of holdings hands with both in ep 6. I miss to get illus with friends like in the previous games ToT

Also, Roy was great during this ep. I'm aware that Devon and Elenda are friends of his since childhood and so they knew that Roy would take that joke in good stead, but still, Devon is supposed to be the boss of our company, he should be more mature and set a limit for the others.

However, I've a painful confession to make, (and please don't judge me, I know Thomas has a lot of fans and I don't mean to offend them), Thomas is supposed to be my third route, but I've decided that I'm not going to do this ep with him, at least not for a while. His behavior in this ep towards Roy has bothered me too much. Roy is his coworker and he's always been nice to him, he doesn't deserve to be embarrassed and have his privacy exposed like this, they're supposed to be friends! Not enemies like Jason with them! Also, I've been finding in these last few episodes that the answers that raise the lovometer with Thomas don't fit with me or my oc at all, and I'm not willing to keep lying just to raise the lovometer. I don't know what I'll do in the future, maybe I'll go back to the Thomas route if he wins my heart again in the next eps, or maybe not, and in that case I'll do the Roy route on that account instead.

Overall, thanks to Amanda and Roy, the episode in my Jason-Amanda routes was very funny, fortunately, and I'm also aware that New Gen is fiction and you shouldn't take it the wrong way, yes, I don't, but honestly, if BV wanted to make an episode with an excuse to show Roy naked and/or Candy having a moment like that with her crushes, I think they could have done it better in another way. The only scene I see justified and believable enough is Amanda's, since they're in a spa and they're women. And I'm not talking about realism, I'm talking about verisimilitude within fiction. I don't know, maybe they all went to a nude beach for some event instead of the pool? And then Candy took a bath like that as a challenge or because a wave made her lose her bikini? Or that Candy wins a free couple spa session ticket and invites her crush! Or that Candy catches Roy naked by mistake simply because she's curious to see him during his common training and she didn't know he bathed naked afterwards? Or that the whole "Roy goes naked in the pool" thing was just a false rumor made up by his fangirls and that when Roy arrived he laughed and said that it was all a lie or that he had spread the rumor to play a joke on them in revenge for something they had done to him before. Or better: wait for more episodes, when we were already in a relationship with our route, and then a nude scene with our route would arise in a more natural way? Like you and your partner wanting to swim together in the private pool at Candy's house, for example, or shower together. At least those scenarios wouldn't let Thomas, Devon and the others act like a bad friend to Roy.

Lastly, something positive: all the images were wonderful! The faces and bodies of all the characters are very beautiful, the luminosity and colors are also very well done, and I liked that there was some variety in some routes and not all of them were in the pool. Also, I was really glad to guess that the promotional image of Candy with the towel belonged to Jason!

[dipplinduo]

What’s your favourite Pokémon of every Generation? (EXCLUDING Ribombee and Dipplin.)

Glad this is for every generation 'cause I love a lot of pokemon and it's hard playing favorites. xD

Confession time: I actually don't really have favorability for Dipplin as a pokemon. xD My naming choices for my username / Sweet & Sour Dipplins was more so designed with the intention of referencing and popularizing dipplinshipping ("dippin" -> dipplinshipping + "duo" -> Kieran & Juliana).

But! Challenge accepted, anon. Lemme whip out my pokedex. Note that I'm going more so for overall vibe favorability as opposed to gameplay usage:

Generation 1:

Welcome to Basic Bitch Land™, where I'm your mayor. xD I have a lot of general favorites for Gen 1, but Pikachu was always destined to be a fave of mine whether or not it was gonna be the mascot, ngl lol. I was very obsessed with Yellow as a child (and still very much am), so I wouldn't have been able to ignore this precious lil friend. A lot of the franchise has not helped. xD Generation 2:

This one is HARDDDD because like Gen 1 I have a lot of favorites and Ampharos is also right there (seeing a theme lol?), but Togetic has my heart. I fell in love with it more when I used one in Gen 8, and I actually like it a little more than Togekiss. xD It has such a cute and satisfying wing flapping animation/sound!! And I love its lore.

Generation 3:

Flygon is the GOAT, man. Cool dragon. Great typing & 6th pokemon whenever I'm building teams. Stellar moveset. Rad design that isn't overly complex. Need I say more? Generation 4:

I. LOVE. DRIFTFLOON LOL. Don't even get me started on the Saturday Valley Windworks nonsense kid me was like "what the fuck why do I gotta wait to get the happy balloon pokemon". No it totally doesn't have a ton of weaknesses shhhhh its FINE ITS A CUTE BALLOON THAT DEFINETELY DOESN'T HAVE CREEPY LORE ALSO DID YOU KNOW ITS SHINY IS YELLOW?? THE ONE TIME I LIKE SHINIES. xDD

Generation 5:

This answer surprised me! I've never used this line on my team before, but the concept of Sawsbuck (and subsequently, Deerling) just make me so happy. I feel really connected to the Earth whenever I see this pokemon, and their real life counterparts brings me a lot of peace as one of my favorite animals. Generation 6:

I also really love Floette conceputally, but Slyveon drove me crazyyyyyy when it first was announced. My irl friends describe me as either giving Sylveon or Leafon energy as a person (lol), and I certaintly see it. I love how strong this thing is too and it brings me so much joy to use it whenever I can.

Generation 7:

After Sweet & Sour Dipplins/running this blog, my undeniable favorite is Ribombee without question. But before that, it was Bewear! There were some other favorites I had for this gen too, but oh my god. This thing SMACKS people. And its SO CUTE. xD I loved using it on my team in gen 8.

Generation 8:

My love for my Applins in Sweet & Sour Dipplins aside xD, Hattrem was an automatic fave for this gen. Incredible design, super cute, whimsical and magical vibes with some interesting lore - LOVE IT. Lowkey would've loved to have this be the final evo with fairy typing because this mid evolution is where this line peaked, change my mind.

Generation 9:

The chaos behind this pokemon is too fucking funny. I harassed so many people with memes about this pokemon when Scarlet/Violet first came out. xDD For a split second it was my #1 fave because of how much it spoke to the pettiness in my soul. I will always love super cute pokemon that go "KILL". xDDD There you have it! :)

[fangirltothefullest]

It's time to fix Logan's Scheduling Problems(TM)

@ironwoman359 had a really good post and it inspired this one because I could not stop breaking down Logan's priorities chart. I have boarded the hyperfixation express and taken it all the way down to the dreaded mathville just to think about graphs and charts. Oh dear. This is so unlike me. But the chart is so funny and they actually took a decent amount of time to think through the amounts of time spent on each task, allowing us to break down the original schedule before it was "fixed" to adjust for Roman.

So buckle up because I have double checked the math but I am very adhd and often quite a bit stupid from stress related brainfog so who fuckin knows if this is accurate.

LET'S GOOOOOOO

This is Logan's original proposed schedule which I borrowed from @ironwoman359's post:

We can see it's a nice chart, lovely and hand made which I greatly enjoy. And luckily we have numbers to work with so we can figure out exactly how much time is alotted to what based on the percentages in a 24 hour day.

And oh guess what! They're ridiculous numbers designed specifiily to allow that 0.5% for Dreams but I'll get to that in a moment.

If you're anything like me, (quite a but math stupid) those percentages don't really give enough info on how long they're actually taking for each just by looking at it. So here's the breakdown in hours because finding out how many hours each thing accounts for should give us an idea of Logan's priorities.

40% - Work (9.6 hours - oof)

33% ‐ Sleep (7.92 hours)

12.5% - Eat (3 hours)

8% - Exercize (1.92 hours)

4% ‐ General Hygene (57.6 minutes)

2% - Dental Hygene (28.8 minutes - mega oof)

0.5% - Dreams (7.2 minutes - fuckin ouch)

As we can see, Logan's chart is heavily skewed to work, sleep and eating. But these numbers are still potentially hard to understand. "Why does it say 57.6 minutes?" You might be asking. So we will round those numbers to a more understandable range because ideally we are trying to add up to 24 hours:

Work: 10

Sleep: 8 hours

Eat: 3 hours

Exercize: 2 hours

Gen. Hygene: 1 hour

Dental Hygene: 30 minutes (seriously, oof)

At this point when we round, that is 24.5 hours which already goes over so we are obligated to round one down instead of up for the sake of the 24 hours- we will round work to 9 hours 30 minutes instead of ten hours and this still leaves no room for dreams or recreation of any kind at all. We can assume this was the ORIGINAL proposed schedule before the changes. That's why he's got such weirdly specific numbers. He's alotted time specifically for dreams by taking minutes from everything except eating and work, leaving only 7-ish minutes.

Which is bullshit so let's break this down in each one to validate each choice's logic:

Work: 9 and a half hours

This is way too much. Therefore, we will snag an hour and put it aside for later and snag that other 30 minutes for breaks.

Conckusion- 8 hours for work and 30 minutes for breaks.

Number of time saved: 1 hour

Sleep: 8 hours

The recommended amount of time, we will not touch this number.

Number of time saved: N/A

Eat: 3 hours

1 hour per meal and since c!Thomas canonically rarely cooks, it is an ample amount of time to heat up something quick and enjoy the meal. We can count this number as untouchable as well.

Number of time saved: N/A

Exercise: 2 hours

This is our second potentially flexible number. It's recommended 30 minutes every day to be healthy, not two full hours so there is a potential hour and a half that could be taken here for something else. This is important.

Number of time saved: 1 hour and 30 minutes

Gen. Hygene: 1 hour

This accounts for shower time and presentability time, IE hair brushing and clothes. This is a decent amount of time and could leave room for flexibility as not everyone needs an hour, however we will leave this time to itself.

Number of time saved: N/A

Dental hygene: 30 minutes

Oh boy what the actual fuck Logan. The American Dental Association says the recommended amount of time for brushing yoir teeth is 2 minutes 2 times a day. That's 4 minutes, not 30. Then it's plus 1 minute for wetting the toothbrush and applying toothpaste, and another 2 minutes of wiggle room for a once a day flossing. Plus another minute or whatever for mouthwash or something else.

Conclusion- We will generously round this number to 10 minutes for dental hygene.

Number of time saved: 20 minutes.

That brings us to a total of 2 hours and 50 minutes for literally everything else and this is a good number. Thats almost 3 hours worth of time we can be slotting to dreams and leisure acrivities and also socializing!

So now we have it folks, we have a better understanding of why the schedule is fucked and how we can fix it to satisfy much more with this improved breakdown:

Work: 8 hours (fixed)

Sleep: 8 hours (fixed)

Breaks: 30 minutes (fixed)

Eating: 3 hours (fixed)

Exercise: 30 minutes (fixed)

General hygene: 1 hour (fixed)

Dental hygene: 10 minutes (fixed)

Dreams: 50 minutes (flexible)

Liesure: 1 hour (flexible)

Social: 1 hour (flexible)

Logan hire me to fix your schedule sir

[leenaur143]

Happy 27th Birthday to the man who deserves a list of 27 reasons (he actually deserves billions) why I love him so much 💖

1. Chris is the most caring person alive. I don't mean this lightly either because to be as selfless and understanding as him takes more than just effort and time, it takes heart and patience (even though he says he has none - we all know he does, in bucketloads). It's weird when even though you don't know the person, you can see their character shine through so well by how they interact with others.

2. He is so kind to others. Being caring doesn't always equal being kind to people but Channie bridges that gap so well through how even when things go wrong or he isn't happy about something, he respects others enough to not let his emotions dictate his actions. He says he is impulsive but when it comes to serious business, he is calm and collected.

3. "Best father of 7 kids" "Oh yeah, who's mum?" "JYP"

4. Can we take a moment to appreciate how insane of a dancer he is??? Sure he isn't part of danceracha nor does he have a burning passion for dance for his solo stuff but WOW. CHRIS TAKE A BOW. I remember seeing Superbowl live and I have no idea what it was about that performance that made me go CHRISTOPHER CHAN. but it did and I've been reliving that moment for months.

5. His songs are too overpowered. WE NEED MORE CHAN POP PLEASE!!!! People hate on Connected and I hate to admit wayyy too much man but like SLUMP??? LEVANTER??? DRIVE??? RED LIGHTS??? 0325???? BLACK HOLE?????? ETERNITY????????????? The list goes on. Insanity.

6. The audacity of this man to say that his voice doesn't sound good- CHRIS! If I had to list my hobbies, I'm pretty sure 'listening to Railways' is high up that list, just so I can hear his voice.

7. Ummmm Bang Chan rapping??? Underrated.

8. We all know how amazing of a composer and producer he is but the fact that he urges non-3racha members to produce more and more is just so beautiful cause you can really see his influence on them and how they trust him to allow them to shine.

9. Him staring at the members from afar in surreal moments. That's it. That's the thing I love.

10. Bang Chansan speaking/singing in Japanese. When he did that cover of LiSA's Gurenge in SKZ Toy World fanmeet BROOOOOO I ASCENDEDDDD

11. He is so loved. This isn't even like a mild thing either because everyone who has the pleasure of meeting him always waxes poetic about how amazing he is: from people who have met him loads of times like Ryan Reynolds who said Chris is his bias since so so so long, to others who meet him once and fall in love like Chris Hemsworth and Nicholas Galitzine at the Fendi Show, his aura is crazy.

12. He is cute. As much as we all crinkle up into a ball when he acts like he is actually foive, LOWKEY LIKE REALLYYYYY LOWKEY he is adorable.

13. That interview with Young K is my comfort interview fr and I know that isn't a thing but now it is. He is truly the maknae of third gen idols and being a fourth gen leader can make him seem older than he is but he truly did 'give up his youth for his future' 🥹 I'm glad it paid off - It's my favourite lyric cause it hits home so so much but I'm sure to him and the boys, it hits even harder - seeing that circle choreo for that 😭 chills literal chills

14. His smile 🥹 Whenever I'm having a bad day, I have one Channie gif that I always come back to and it turns my day around, no matter how tough it is

15. He is so fashionable! Okay, black clothes only is fine, I'm not a hater or I'd be such a hypocrite but when he is dressed up for events or shoots or even music shows, you see how he inputs his own decisions into what he wears and how he wears it and it always EATSSSSS. Can't wait to see him at the next Fendi fashion show!!! Bring him back Riri!!!!

16. He does need to love himself more but I know that he knows how much we love him. It is insurmountable when you think about how many peoples lives he has changed just by being himself 🥹 Okay I can't think about this too much or I'm going to start crying on the train rn (ha railway joke???) no but fr I will weep.

17. His words. The way he says things to inspire us, I still go back to watch his Channies room episode where he talks about anger management because the advice he gives is really impactful. That could just be me because I know I get the best advice from people I admire so much but that can differ for different people

18. Would it be a Chris post if I didn't talk about how much Chan's room helped me? 🥹 I understand and have made my peace but it was amazing. That's all I'll say on the matter because I know he misses it and he knows how much we do too.

19. His interactions with other idols. Whenever you hear an interview about other groups or idols meeting SKZ, they never fail to mention Channie because of how much of a welcoming and kind person he is, to everyone. Of course as Atiny, I would remember Hongjoong's words the most but to inspire people is a talent and Channie has that skill in the bag. (Also number 19 hehe 19 is such a bangerrrr)

20. His presence is such a comfort. I remember I was on Holiday abroad and that was the day he went live on Instagram, showing us his room and his hat collection and everything, and despite the time difference (hehe what's new?) me and my friends tuned in and it was so so amazing. Should I mention Channies room here again.... 👀🥲🤣

21. He is very dependable. Watching the behind the scenes for this summer's festivals was testament to how reliable he is and how not only the members but the staff and the band members trust him to the extent that he was the main port of call if there were decisions to be made or if something went wrong.

22. He is so so so so so gosh darn handsome and I'm never gonna stop saying it, even after he believes it himself. I hope he knows we legit love him for him and we're not just here for his body or whatever else he jokes about. CHRIS WE LOVE YOUUUUU

23. His dad jokes. Need I say more.

24. His selfies! I don't care how infrequent they are or how he just drops them on us at the most bonkers times (always. literally ALWAYS. You have like a pivotal moment in your life and BAM channie selca drop ding ding ding announcement panic panic jaw is dropped)

25. We all know how insecure he is about his hair but I know that we all love him, his hair and all and I definitely don't think he knows that. I truly hope he doesn't feel any pressure from us to change himself because he literally is perfect just the way he is.

26. Hands. Stop I am so normal about him but his hands... the Jeong Yunho level of feral-ness is SO REAL

27. Our Channie is the best leader we could ever ask for.

[gigglemugger]

Shaking With a Deadly Fear.

Fandom: The Evil Clergyman - H.P. Lovecraft, Jeffrey Combs in general.

Pairing: None. Gen.

Synopsis:

Sally Elmer is excited to see her bigger sister Susan Brady again. However, upon arrival, she realizes there's something really wrong with her and that it might have something to do with a certain lover she has taken in the past. Now, Sally must go against the demonic Evil Clergyman for the hope of getting what's left of her sister's soul back.

A.K.A. An entirely TOO long Evil Clergyman, basically sequel fic, that was beamed into my brain after I finished watching the movie the first time.

No comment.

Absolutely not beta read.

THE GIF IS DECEPTIVE. THERE IS NO SMUT HERE. I'M NOT GOOD AT WRITING THAT. IT'S STILL GRAPHIC THOUGH.

Word Count: 12,052.

AO3 Tags: The Evil Clergyman - Freeform, I will gladly go down as the only person in history who wrote a 37 page Evil Clergyman fanfiction, Jeffrey Combs is in this but he's not the main character by far, Yes I am sad as well, I Don't Even Know, Why Did I Write This?Psychological Horror, Family bonding over having a sister possessed by the devil and needing to save her still counts right?, Family, I wonder if this is what H.P. Lovecraft envisioned when he wrote The Evil Clergyman, Of course not this isn't even what the screenwriters envisioned when they wrote The Evil Clergyman, I basically gave the main character a new family and life cause she didn't have any, i don't know how to tag things.

Language: English.

CW: A LOT. This is not my regular fanfic, it's more like an edgier version of what I write nowadays (which is either comedy, character studies, or melancholic horror, or all three) so: Men being gross, graphic depictions of violence, possession, sexual themes, suicide, smoking.

AO3 link.

Work notes (important):

For notes, I'll simply post what I prefaced my word document with, which I recommend reading cause it does clarify some things:

The Evil Clergyman Fanfiction cause why not. I mean, why not. Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t write this right now.

Things I’ll add:

1. Name for the main character cause she doesn’t got any.

2. A life and family for the main character. She also doesn’t got any. Poor thing, she just exists, really.

3. Ok, scratch that, apparently she has a husband and her name is… *squints* Said Brady. Is it a typo? Is it supposed to be just Brady, the last name, but they (director? Producer?) said Brady one time and whoever wrote the credits thought that was the first name? Very confusing stuff.

4. Whatever, I’ll keep Said as the name. Anyone who wants to correct me, feel so free to do so. The world is your commentary oyster. Go ham.

5. Oh God, if I keep Said as a name will I have to write “Said said?” Oh no.

6. Her name is now Susan. Said is a nickname. It was the natural thing to do.

7. Ok, apparently no one knows shit about this film, cause I can’t find anything online. Like, what did they intend with this (short) movie other than making an erotic rereading of the original Lovecraft tale? I mean, whatever, works for me.

8. I don’t completely understand the setting of the film. It seems to be a monastery, but also… Not? I’ll just say it’s a tower and that father Jonathan was working at church. At which point does this cross the point of fanfiction to simply just fiction? Who knows?

9. Did Jonathan’s bedroom have a table?? I’m not gonna watch it again to see if it did, I already watched it twice. I mean it’s good, but it’s not that good. The original Evil Clergyman™ has a desk, so I’ll add that. Get rekt Jonathan.

10. Ok. Let’s go girls. *Shania Twain bops in the distance* *Yes this is a songfic now*

I was clearly having a breakdown here and wrote this in three days. Further warnings would be:

There’s a surprising lack of Jeffrey Combs in this fanfiction. There’s possessed-with-Jeffrey-Combs’-spirit-Barbara-Crampton, but nothing too non-PG. I know, I am upset as well. He appears as a character some of the time and he is still very much debated, but unfortunately this is kind of like… Its own thing. Like a weird sequel almost?

Does this still qualify as fanfiction?

This piece is also riddled with original characters I decided to make up for shits and giggles. I don’t know why either, this fanfiction came to me in a vision right after I finished watching the movie and it stuck with me, so I had to purge it. This is also very much NOT beta read, like, at all. I barely skimmed through it after I was done with it, so any mistakes or incongruenties are entirely my fault and likely will never be fixed. I’m sorry.

Proceed with caution all ye that might even read this. You were warned.

(Also, I would like to say that any opinions expressed about Yoko Ono in this fanfiction are not necessarily that of the author’s. Enjoy.)

—

“I became good at pretending. I became so good that after a while the lines blurred between my truth and fiction. And sometimes, when I did a really good job of pretending, I even fooled myself.”

Ruta Sepetys

—

When I walked into the room that day, I hadn’t expected to leave as a monster. I don’t know what I did expect, in the cold air of that deadly tower where we made love every day for two months. Maybe to see him again. Maybe to be free. They told me he— I didn’t want to believe it. I wanted to see with my own eyes and remember what we had. It is a stupid thought in retrospect, considering what I know now, but you have to understand that those two months were the best thing that happened in my life. I know it sounds sad, but I didn’t have it great, not always. You have to be a peculiar type of person to fuck a clergyman, I guess, to look at that life choice and pretend it’s a good one. But Jonathan wasn’t like other men. Jonathan was perfect.

—

Sally was waiting for her sister to come back home. She looked around for the comfort of the window, anticipating, with an anxious heartbeat, for the car to arrive at the door. She hopped on one foot, then the other, then checked the cupboard for more muffins, then the cooking books her sister kept on the white shelves, beside the potted plants. Nothing was enough. She ended up at the counter again.

At present, the place where Sally stood in was a perfectly suburban kitchen. It was immaculate in its tidying and cleaning, thanks to the matriarch of the house, Susan “Said” Brady, née Elmer, the eldest of the Elmer daughters. Sally was the youngest and Sandra was the middle child, and now was finishing her art course at an university. There was a difference of roughly eight years between Susan and Sally, which would put the eldest at twenty-five, nearly twenty-six and the youngest at a measly eighteen, which she loathed with all her might.

“What’s taking her so long?” Sally wondered, supporting her face on her hand and playing with her brother in law’s car keys, a car that was parked at the garage and that she looked at as if it was some sort of demon “She should be here…”

Sally looked at the glistening metal and at the chipped, black top, that was scratched all over and sighed a dramatic sigh that only someone that had been waiting an awfully long time could make sound so incredibly disgruntled and miserable.

“How you holding up, Sal?” a male voice asked and she jumped in place, making her long ponytail move up at an alarming speed “Sorry, didn’t mean to scare yo—Ouch!” he continued, after she playfully hit his arm. It was just David, her sister’s husband.

Her sister’s perfect husband.

“I’m okay,” she answered with a shrug, “Just worried about Said, that’s all.”

“Oh, she’ll be home soon. She had to go to Betty’s house to help her with the baby, these things take time. Sometimes even a whole night. You know how she gets over that kinda stuff, especially now that Betty’s husband died. Saint Susan,” he joked, looking a tad uncomfortable. Sally wondered what it was about, that uncharacteristic smile, but David’s teeth were perfect, so she couldn’t concentrate on much “She had no idea you’d be arriving today, otherwise I am sure that she would have thrown a party.”

The Elmer family was from California, but Susan lived in North Carolina now and Sandra went to college in New York, leaving poor Sally stranded back home. She usually spoke with her sisters over on the telephone whenever she could, and even if San usually had time for her, Susan was a respectful family woman now, a far cry from the unruly teenager that a five to nine year old Sally admired so much.

“I’m so sorry, Sal,” she’d say to Sally, over the telephone, sounding clearly tired enough to pass out right there “I can’t really talk right now, David is having a situation at work and I need to go there to help him, then to church to assist in the fundraiser that I’m helping the ladies with. It’s all a chaos right now. I’ll call you back, yeah?”

“Yeah…” Sal answered in the present, lowering her head and finding herself unable to hide her discontentment from David. Either that, or not wanting to. He lowered his head to look at her better, which made her smile.

“Don’t worry, Sal,” he said, with a smile “She’ll be here in a jiffy.”

—

A jiffy turned out to be fifty minutes more, which Sally used to unpack her things and occupy the guest bedroom, making sure to put up her posters. It was like preparation for college, if she decided to go. She was to stay for one month, and her parents hoped that one month with her best, most responsible sister would be enough to dissuade her of the idea of a sabbatical year. Shrugging that off, she took the next poster in hands. No way would she forget to pin up her Tears for Fears poster, or her Culture Club one. It was a far cry from the Beatles in the sixties, whom insisted in staying black and white for so long they became a stupid fucking band towards the end, just to break up over a dumb bitch.

At least that’s what she heard her friend Brittany say.

“That Yoko Ono woman is the worst fucking bitch there is,” she’d say in the bathroom of their school, when both were sixteen and Brittany hadn’t graduated and gone off to live with her boyfriend.

“Why?” Sally would ask, shamefully coughing through the drag she took of the cigarette offered, the smoke filling her lungs as her system tried to expel it back out. Brittany pretended not to notice. They were close like that.

“Well,” she turned around, her brown hair swooshing around her in a halo, putting her arm on top of the cold, white sink. “Simple,” Sally, engulfed in a white cloud, passed her the cigarette, which she dragged on without any issues “You don’t cheat on your husband and then steal another woman’s man in the process. It’s not even sanitary, for Christ’s sake. You got a dick and you go after another? She probably got a venereal disease,” Sally chuckled at that.

“Maybe you’re right… I mean, cheating is wrong, obviously” Sally said, adding the last part to not sound so dull. She wanted to agree with Brittany because Brittany was older, but, even though she knew she was correct, it just made her sound pathetically young, a toddler by comparison. When Brittany turned again, Sally pretended she wasn’t looking.

“Cheating. Is. Wrong,” Brittany agreed, putting emphasis on every single word with a swing of the cigarette hand, before taking another drag. She blew out the smoke in a circle, to a starry eyed audience “Remember that,” Brittany continued, tapping the cigarette on the sink “My dad went with that dumb bank cashier and no good came to either him or my mom. Or the bank cashier for that matter. It’s all a fucking mess. If you wanna hear my opinion, you find someone you like and you mate for life. Got it, kid?” Sally nodded.

“Got it,” she said, smiling.

“Good girl.” She turned to look at herself in the mirror, “Now, sex is different of course.”

Sally was aware that Brittany had several sexual partners. In fact, everyone in school was. It didn’t bother her, but they needed to meet in the bathroom, something about both of her reputations being in jeopardy if anyone saw them together. Such as high school goes.

“Of course,” Sally answered. “Of course.”

“Sal?!” David yelled, bringing her out of the trancelike state she found herself in and making her realize she had been staring right at Boy George’s face the whole time.

“Yeah?!”

“I think I see Said’s car turning the corner!” in a moment, Sally nearly jumped over the perfectly made bed (with her favorite bedsheets from home, which she insisted in bringing), and ran out of the room, nearly slipping on her socks before the promised land could be reached.

“Woah, there!” David said, catching her at the nick of time, looking into her eyes “Be careful, kid!”

“Got it!” she said, nearly pushing him away, running the remaining distance and opening the door with such gusto David had been certain it might come off of its hinges.

“Hey Said!” Sally began, all smiles, trying to still her ponytail as much as she could, before taking a glance at the woman leaving the shiny silver car, amidst the illuminated trees. On first glance, all was well – Susan hadn’t forgotten her scarf or purse, like she usually did, being so forgetful. Her hair was in place, her clothes were as if they had been put on at that same minute and her countenance seemed serene. But there was something wrong.

Her sister’s face twitched into a smile.

“Hello, Sal,” she said, and the words were so odd coming out, as if it was the first time they were being said. Sally instinctively stepped back “How are you doing?”

“I’m… fine.”

“I didn’t know you’d arrive today.”

“Yeah. My plane, uh, landed three hours ago. David came to pick me up at the airport.”

“Oh, did he? I must thank him.” Sally observed as her sister seemingly drank in the environment she was in – the other houses, perfectly aligned and white, the lawns, the sidewalk, her own well-manicured hands (Susan was always great at painting nails, while Sally was a poor slob). She looked past her, at the blue door, the living room and David, also standing by the door.

“Said?” Sally asked, finally, but not without some reserve, uncharacteristic to her. Susan looked over.

“Yes?”

“Are you okay?” her face twitched into a smile again.

“Of course,” Susan answered and closed the door of the car with an exaggerated bang, which made both David and Sally step back a half inch. That went unnoticed by Said “I’m quite fine, just tired” were her next words.

“I can tell,” Sally answered, determined to seem well-humored in spite of it all. She took to the three steps in front of the house running, even if only in socks, towards her most beloved sister, before opening her arms and engulfing her into a hug. For being in heels, Susan was taller than her at the moment. Sally felt as if seized by a giant.

“You’re so cold!” she exclaimed, feeling her sister’s hand on her neck.

“Maybe you’re too warm; and you shrunk!” Susan joked with a chuckle. That was more like it. Good old Said.

“You’re cheating. I’m not wearing heels!”

“You could be, though, you are a woman now after all,” she smiled down at her, a smile that Sally, quite frankly, had never seen on her sister’s face. She looked into her eyes. Susan’s were blue, she being the only one amongst the three Elmer daughters that had been fortunate enough to inherit their mother’s eyes instead of the “dull brown” of their father’s. Sally hadn’t envied that per se, even though she had grown up hearing Susan get complimented over them. She thought blue eyes made a person look slightly off, maybe evil, which was somewhat of an unpopular opinion she rarely expressed. Her sister, however, wore hers well. It was impossible to accuse her eyes of not expressing anything, they were the very door to her most heartfelt emotions – they spoke when she was sad, they spoke when she was glad. There was nothing she could do to tame such an outburst. It was her very nature to be that way.

That night, however, Sally found her sister’s eyes to be the very cold she never envied.

“Let’s go inside,” Susan said, taking her sister’s arm into hers. She guided Sally there, but the latter made sure to look at the ground instead of Said’s eyes. Her sister’s black velvet heels glanced back at her. Were her stockings ripped? What happened?

“Hello David,” Susan said, breaking Sally’s trance. She was looking at her husband with a smile. “How have you been?” David chuckled, maybe put off by the way that Susan phrased the question. Why so formal all of a sudden?

“Well, I’ve been good! What about you? How’s Betty?”

“She’s wonderful,” was the simple answer. “Dinner?”

While Susan worked in the kitchen, going back and forth amongst the pans, Sally observed her from the couch. She was separated by the dining table and chairs, which made her feel safer. From what, she didn’t know. What she did know was that she should be helping – that’s what good sisters, women, and guests do, after all – but instead she preferred to watch. Almost as if perceiving the fact, however, Susan halted in the middle of the kitchen.

“Is everything okay, Sal?” she asked, not looking at her, but at the sink. Sally turned around fast, burying herself into the couch as if to say she had never known to look in the first place.

“Yeah, of course!” she answered, sounding as casual as possible, completing with “I’ mean, I’m here with you, duh!”

“Oh, isn’t that sweet?” Susan asked, dutifully resuming her activities. There wasn’t a hint of sweetness in her tone, though. It felt to Sally almost condescending, as if she was looking down on her for being a little girl.

“Uh, there are muffins in the cupboard,” Sally decided to say, even if to hear her own voice being echoed “David and I bought them on the way from the airport.”

“Yum,” was all the answer she got. The pans continued moving and the stove was lit up. After ten minutes of mindless television, Sally lifted her head to look over the cushion behind her head and found her sister looking straight at her.

“Dinner’s almost ready. Why don’t you set the table, hmm?”

“Sure.” Obediently, Sally turned the TV off and got up from the couch. She went straight for the lower cupboard, having been in the house before and knowing that her sister liked to keep things at reach. From the other side of the kitchen, Susan watched.

“How was your trip, Sal?”

“Good, thanks!”

“Are mom and dad quite alright?”

“Yeah, they’re fine.” Sally put the plain, white plates over the counter, with the shiny glass cups next.

“Hmm,” she hummed “I’m sorry I couldn’t make it to your graduation. Things were hectic.”

“Yeah, it’s okay. At least we get to see each other now.”

Susan smiled.

“Yes. At least that.” Sally carried the cups and plates over to the table and began to spread them out, when she spoke up again “You know what, I’ll take care of the rest; will you please tell David dinner’s ready?”

“Sure,” Sally said, turning around and going down the hallway. With each step, the typewriter keys banged louder. David was really going at it, Sally thought. Upon arrival, she knocked.

“Yeah?!” The muffled voice answered from the inside.

“Hi David, dinner’s ready!”

“Already? Said is getting quick!”

“Yeah,” Sally agreed, but not with much enthusiasm. She prepared herself to turn around, when a cold hand slowly closed upon her shoulder, each well-manicured finger leaving a different, subtle feeling.

“Is he coming out?” Susan’s voice sounded behind her, a velvety quality having been added to it. Had she walked there? Sally hadn’t heard a thing. She instinctively looked down at her sister’s heels.

“Yeah, I’m coming right out,” David’s muffled voice answered, his chair moving almost immediately afterwards.

“Good. Let’s go, Sal,” she said and steered her away from the door once more.

“Are you sure you are okay, Said?” Sally asked as they crossed the hallway back to the dining room with David’s door opening behind them. Susan smiled; her arm wrapped around her sister’s shoulder now.

“Of course, darling. Why wouldn’t I be?”

“You’re… different.”

“How come?”

“I don’t know…”

“Oh, Sal, don’t be ridiculous,” Susan continued, changing her tone so fast that Sally’s eyes darted towards her face, mouth slightly ajar “I just had a rough night with Betty, that’s all, and I’m tired. I can’t wait to eat and go to bed!”

“Yeah… But these are the most words you said to me all night. I thought you’d be happy to see me!”

“Oh, I am happy to see you, silly!” she continued, animated, standing in front of her sister now. When Sally looked into her eyes, though, they were still cold “You’re my little sister, I am always happy to see you!”

“Aren’t we all?” David sounded behind them, making them turn their heads “Good little Sally,” he said, flicking her ponytail up. “Shall we eat? I’m starving!”

“Sure, I’ll serve,” Susan said, leaving with David. Sally stood there and looked upon the two of them.

—

Dinner went as all dinners with Said and David usually go. Susan seemed as she had always been: Lively, telling Sally not to talk to Brittany anymore:

“A girl like that is not good. I would know.”

Telling Sally she’s proud of her grades:

“She’s even smarter than Sandra and Sandra was smart! It’s no wonder she’s in early acceptance at—”

Telling Sally she should go to church more often:

“A good relationship with God is essential to all of us, remember that young lady,” but at once Sally noticed her cross was missing. When she pointed that out, Susan looked and stroked her empty collarbone.

“Oh no, I must have left it at Betty’s!” she said, “Oh, I was so afraid the baby might grip onto it and tear it that I had to remove it, you know how babies can be.” Sally drank her orange juice and looked down at her plate.

“You never take that thing off!” David said, his mouth slightly ajar “That’s a first.”

“Yeah, it was a gift from our grandma,” Sally clarified, looking at David “It has “immensurable sentimental value”. It was gifted to her right before she died.” Susan’s smile twitched.

“Yes, well, that is true, which is why I needed to make sure it wouldn’t break, of course,” she took her wine glass and sipped the content of it. Sally nodded. That made sense to her, of course.

“What is Betty’s baby name again? I don’t think you ever told me,” David asked next, finishing her orange juice. Susan finished drinking as well and looked over at him.

“Oh, I think it’s Kayla. Right, sis?” Sally asked, looking up. Susan smiled warmly at her, like a nice hug.

“Yes, of course, Kayla. Little Kay. She’s just two months old, but she’s getting so big.”

Huh.

“Well, I’m glad to hear it, Said,” David said, sounding genuine, or as genuine as someone could sound with food in their mouth. Sally could see her sister’s face contorting to that, that despicable display of speaking with one’s mouth full, even if in trace amounts – as if it was a great offense. That was also strange, of course. Said doesn’t usually care about that kind of thing.

“Yeah, great!” Sally decided to add and then immediately ask to be excused. When allowed, she bid her good nights, saying “I had a long trip and I want to get some rest,” before running for the refuge of her bedroom. Once the door was closed and she was “safe”, she allowed herself to think freely.

Betty’s baby’s name was not Kayla, it was Kimberly. It was not a difficult leap to be made and Susan was allegedly exhausted, but her sister would never make that mistake. Not Susan. Betty was too dear a friend.

Looking back upon the doorknob, Sally verified if the key was on the lock.

“Ok, Sal, this is ridiculous,” she thought to herself, but couldn’t help it. She turned it, at a torturous pace, as to not alert the rest of the house, and locked herself in.

–

When Sally opened her eyes again, she wasn’t in the guest room of the Brady house – She wasn’t engulfed in her favorite bedsheets from home or looking at Boy George’s face as she had been, once upon a time. In fact, she couldn’t see anything in front of her, other than the pale spot the moon seemed to illuminate, from over at the only window. The bricks around the place were gray and there were soft, white curtains being gently blown by the air current.

“Hello,” a male voice sounded behind her, making her jump for the second time in what seemed to be the most Sally had jumped in her life. Turning around, she was faced with a small man, almost her height, with soft looking brown hair. He had green eyes and a charming smile… With a touch of something else.

“Hello…” Sally began, her position indicating her mounting discomfort, one hand behind herself and one foot ready to go at any minute “Who are you?”

“Jonathan,” he introduced himself with a small bow “I’m a… Friend of your sister.”

“Said never mentioned you.” He faced away from her and gave a light chuckle.

“There’s a lot of things Said didn’t mention.”

“Sure…” was all Sally could think to say. Was this a dream? “Where are we?”

“Oh, that doesn’t matter,” he said, with some joviality on the “Oh,” which made his voice higher. His voice was interesting, Sally thought. It was almost soothing, but seemed like could go off and become loud at any moment. He had an interesting way of standing too, very straight and almost controlled “You’re Sally.”

“Yes… How do you know that?” Sally asked, but he simply smiled. He wouldn’t take his eyes off of her. Usually, Sally didn’t mind when a beautiful man paid attention to her, she wasn’t stupid to think that any of them were interested, and truthfully she didn’t know if she was interested in them. It was just a pastime. This time, however, she curiously wanted him to stop “Where are w—"

“I already said that isn’t important.” Sally took a step back at the answer, which sounded much more forceful than his words had before. They were at an impasse now, looking at one another “Forgive me, I didn’t mean to frighten you.” Sally didn’t believe that for a second, that man was too strange.

“How do you know my sister?” She asked next, looking at his clothes for the first time “Are you… A priest?”

“Yes,” he began, amused, touching his collar reflexively “A servant of the Lord. No more, no less.”

“Oh, so you know Said from church?” he paused, his green eyes glistening and his smile growing ever so slightly.

“Something like that.” He approached her and Sally instinctively went backwards “I, however, am here for you Sally.”

“For me?”

“Yes,” he smiled “You are very similar to your sister, after all. Did you know that?” he asked, stopping his advances and prompting her to halt too “Except for the eyes, of course, but I feel like you know that. Your sister, she’s… Somewhere else now. Somewhere no one can quite reach. It’s far away. Even I have never been… But I know people who have.”

“What do you mean by that?” Sally asked and Jonathan laughed, making her shrink.

“You really are an ignorant little one. Tell me, did you notice anything strange with Said lately?”

“I’ve only come over from California yesterday or…” she paused, but he picked up.

“…Or was it today?” She couldn’t remember.

“Well, doesn’t matter,” Sally said, finally.

“No, it doesn’t. Time doesn’t mean much anyway. Your sister was stuck here once for a time, but she got out,” he smiled yet again “Oh, she got out alright.”

“I can’t imagine Said being in this kind of place,” Sally said, confident of it.

“You can’t imagine much of what your sister was actually like. She was good at pretending to be something she is not. Tell me, do you trust her?”

“Yes, of course!”

“Yes? Would you trust her even if her skin was a bit too cold or if she forgot her friend’s baby name? Would you trust her even if, against your better judgement, you felt threatened by her presence?” Sally couldn’t answer “Oh, little Sally,” he approached her again and this time she let him “You are still too young, too naïve. One day, you’ll figure it out. You’ll…”

“Sally?” David’s voice spoke through the walls of the strange place, interrupting the other man’s speech. Sally looked around.

“David?”

“Oh, David, David…!” Jonathan said, with scorn she wasn’t expecting, nearly supplicant. He looked at Sally “I must go now. Goodbye, little Sally.”

“Sally?” David slightly shook the young woman and was taken aback by how violently she was brought to her senses, as if terrified of something “Hey, hey, take it easy. Relax. We have breakfast, Said told me to wake you up before going to work,” he looked at her closely “Are you okay? Did you have a bad dream?”

“Yeah… I’m fine, though.”

“Good… Anyway, get up. Breakfast is getting cold,” he smiled at her and then went out of the room.

Sally got up and took a deep breath. It had been a dream, of course. How else could she have woken up in a stupid… Tower? Is that was it was? Definitely looked like one. Like Rapunzel’s, from the book she had when she was a little girl that Said used to read to her when she was nine. Even an unruly teenager has a soft spot for children. What did Jonathan mean by “Your sister is not what she seems” or whatever it was he said? She could only remember bits and parts now.

“Hi Sal,” another voice sounded from the door and she immediately raised her head. There, standing in full, long white nightgown and robe to match, was her sister Susan “Will you come eat?”

“Yeah, as I told David I’ll be right out.”

“David told me you had a bad dream.” Had he? Sally wondered. He was there five seconds ago.

“Yeah, but it’ll pass.”

“I’m sure it’s nothing a good breakfast can’t heal. Off you go, c’mon.” Obliging, Sally got up from bed and followed her sister.

The breakfast table was full. There was orange juice, what seemed to be more than a dozen fried eggs, a pile of bacon, fresh fruit, hashbrowns, waffles, and French toast.

“Wow, Said,” Sally couldn’t help but be shocked “When did you do all this?” Susan shrugged.

“I got up early, couldn’t sleep. I kept hearing this noise in the walls...”

“In the walls? When? What noise?” David asked, fast enough to sound like it was just one question, and Sally noticed, for the first time, that he had been diligently eating while they talked.

“Sounded like rats,” Susan said, simply shrugging “You know how they like to roam walls.”

“We never had rats in this house,” David said, looking at a fixed point of the table “However, I think the Johnsons said something about mice. I should get it checked, kill them while it’s time.”

“Oh, don’t!” Susan said, looking at her husband fixedly “They’re God’s creatures!”

“Rats?!” David interjected “Rats are not God’s creatures, honey. They’re a plague. You keep filling your head with that bible stuff and look at you now. No, we need to eradicate these rats, if there are any, which I’m not saying there aren’t” he raised his hands defensively, before resuming his eating “I’ll find someone to look at it for you and tell us definitely, how about that?” Susan didn’t answer, but stared instead.

“Great!” Sally did the talking, putting her hand on her sister’s arm and then removing it. Still cold. “That sounds great, David.”

“Yes. Great.”

“Good!” David said next, finishing his food and getting up “I’ll put this in the sink for you.” When he passed them by, he kissed his wife on the cheek. Susan smiled at him warmly, but Sally saw when she raised her hand and cleaned her cheek. “I’m off to work now. You two behave, will you?”

“Absolutely,” Susan said, still smiling. Sally smiled too. With a last wave, David closed the door behind him and made his way to the car that Sally stared at the previous night as if it was a demon. Now, she couldn’t fight the feeling arising in her chest: She wished Susan had never come back, as stupid as that sounded.

“So, it’s just us girls!” Susan said, smiling at her too “Now, you should eat. Sit down.” Sally did so, looking at her sister all the way to her chair, which she occupied “Care to talk about your dream, darling?”

“Oh, it was nothing.”

“I doubt that. You seem very pale.” Sally instinctively lifted a hand to her face while Susan put some eggs on her plate, “You can trust me, you know? I’m your sister,” Sally’s eyes immediately went to Susan. What did Jonathan say again?

“Yes, I know,” Sally began “I just don’t feel like talking about it.”

“That’s okay. Now, I need to go to church today. Will you be coming with me?”

“Uh, do I have a choice?”

“No.”

“Ok then,” Sally said, serving herself of a portion of each thing that was at the table “Said, this is a lot of food. What are you gonna do with the rest?”

“Oh, I’ll pack it and bring over to church too. There’s always people there who need it.”

That seemed like a reasonable enough answer.

In a second, everything was over and Sally was leaving the table to change. She took a glance at Susan’s plate before that, though, and saw the eggs were untouched.

“You’re not gonna eat?” Susan looked down.

“Oh, where’s my head, of course!” Good old Said, Sally thought to herself, going from one foot to the other absently, always forgetting things. Always.

–

“Here we are,” Susan said, parking the car in front of the church. Sally looked over her sister’s body. Yep, it was the same as she remembered from her previous visits “Care to help me carry the boxes in there?”

“Yeah, sure.” They stepped out of the car and it was a second to open the trunk, get the boxes, cross the street and enter. The church was truly fuller than Sally had thought, but it was the weekend.

“Hello, hello!” Susan said to everyone. Sally didn’t know anyone there, so she fell behind. Everyone seemed to adore her sister, but that wasn’t really a surprise. Said was incredible, of course.

“I’ll carry some boxes over there!” she said, indicating what she had in hands with her head when Susan turned. Said nodded affirmatively and soon Sally was off to a nearby table.

Putting the box down, she turned her body back to find her sister, but the latter had disappeared.

“What the…?” Sally said.

“What’s wrong hon?” A woman with short, pitch black hair in a bob cut asked. Sally had not noticed her there. She was carrying a baby, wrapped in a pink towel “Wait, are you Said’s sister?”

“…Yes.”

“Oh, which one?! Sandra…? Sally…? Sally? Oh, Said told me all about you!” She was all smiles now, bouncing the baby up and down “She didn’t tell me she was back from her trip!”

“Trip? What trip?” The woman stopped now.

“Well, that trip that Said told me she and David would take, to celebrate their anniversary! Or something like that,” she didn’t seem sure, but continued anyway “She said it was gonna be a long one, that he was taking all of his weeks off; and then she’d be off to see her family. I had no idea you’d be coming over! Did you come back with her?”

“…Yeah, something like that. Are you by any chance Betty?”

“Yes!” Betty said, excited “She told you about me?”

“Oh yes, she did. She told me all about you. Congratulations on the baby!” Betty waved her hand.

“Oh please, this? She’s just the light of my life. Little Kimmie… I can’t wait for your sister to meet her. She was so excited for her arrival, just as much as me.” Sally went mute for a long second, looking at the baby being bounced up and down. The girl slept so peacefully; it was as if she never found a moment of chaos around her. Sally wondered what kinds of dreams must she be having?

“I’m so sorry, Betty,” she began again, with a tentative smile “Will you excuse me? My sister is somewhere around here, and I can’t find her…”

“Oh, darling, absolutely!” Betty, ever the best said, looking at the general direction of the other groups of people “Tell her when you find her that I said hi and that I am waiting for her to visit me! I’ll make blueberry muffins, her favorites!”

“I’ll tell her, thank you Betty. Goodbye!” Sally said, at once stepping away from the gentle woman and rushing, as much as she could in a church without attracting attention to herself, towards the backdoor. If Said wasn’t around the main hall, then she could only be at the back. With some difficulty she opened the old, wooden door. No one stopped her from entering, so she figured it was fine.

The back of the church was a simpler building. The walls were beige, quaint, and the lights were yellow. All were on at the moment Sally took her steps through the hallway.

“Said?” She asked the nothingness. There was no answer, so she decided to keep going “Saaaaid?” The hallway was echoing her footsteps back at her and the place, for being so beige, seemed almost endless. She could feel a certain brand of loneliness coming from the environment itself. How many priests had roamed this place, she wondered? How many nuns, how many boys and girls?

At the end, around the corner, she started to hear noises. They sounded wet, like someone was making out, hidden away from the world, like teenagers. Feebly, she tried:

“Said?” Her words barely left her lips. She kept going, silently this time, masquerading the sounds of her footsteps by gradually slowing her pace, until…

“Sally!” Susan said, at once separating from the man she had been kissing – or even more, considering the motion he made towards his pants – and moving closer to the wall “What are you doing here?”

“Yeah, you’re not supposed to be here,” the man said, as if he was in any position of chastising her. Sally couldn’t believe it.

“You can’t imagine much of what your sister was actually like. She was good at pretending to be something she is not. Tell me, do you trust her?”

“I wanna go home.”

“Would you trust her even if her skin was a bit too cold or if she forgot her friend’s baby name?”

“Yes, of course,” Susan said, trying to smile at her, even if painfully. The man looked at her and, coldly, she said a simple “Leave.” As if under a spell, he obliged and went away, looking down and avoiding Sally’s face.

“Betty told me to tell you to say hi,” Sally decided to say, defiantly looking within her sister’s cold, dead eyes “She said she can’t wait for you to meet her baby.”

–

Before leaving, Susan did talk to Betty. All Sally did was stand by the church’s front door and observe them, watch as Said gushed over the child. Who was that woman? It wasn’t her sister, that’s for sure. Jonathan had said… Something about her sister being someplace far away. What the hell did he mean by that?

“Ok, all done,” Susan said, coming towards Sally “We can go now.” All Sally did was nod faintly and turn around, determined to get to the car as soon as possible. Once in, she looked only at the road while her sister dutifully drove, also just as focused, at least at the beginning.

“Sal, what you saw at the church…”

“Spare me,” Sally said “I can’t believe you are cheating on David. It isn’t even…”

“What?”

“I don’t know. It isn’t even sanitary,” instead of scolding, Sally got a laugh back. It seemed so out of place she abruptly turned her head to finally look at her sister. Susan had a wide smile on, with all of her teeth showing.

“Would you trust her even if, against your better judgement, you felt threatened by her presence?”

“Stop that, Said,” Sally began, but the woman kept laughing “Said!”

“Oh, I’m sorry Sal. Did your little friend Brittany teach you that sanitary talk? I bet. You two talked about sex all the time.”

“So what if we did? That’s none of your business!”

“Oh yes, why not? Don’t you trust your big sister?” She was still smiling when she turned to look at the road again “We’re almost home. I’m gonna drop you off and go do some grocery shopping.”

“I’m sure. It’s not like you lied before.”

“My life is no concern of yours, Sal. One day, you’ll be old enough to understand what it’s like to have a marriage like mine.” She pulled the handbrake and the sound startled Sally as much as anything else. “Go out now. I’ll talk to you later, darling.” Sally looked at her sister in mute indignation before resigning and opening the car door. With a last smile, Susan said “Goodbye, little Sally.”

“What did you c—” but at the moment she turned around, her sister had already turned the car back on and driven off.

—

Sally got through dinner somehow. Said did come back with groceries and right at the nick of time: David arrived with her and the two shared a passionate kiss together. When they were done, he seemed a little tired.

“Are you okay, David?” Sally asked, observing his countenance. He gave her a weak smile.

“Yeah, I’m fine, just couldn’t sleep properly last night. That’s all.” Susan looked from one to the other. Sally could tell that she was afraid anything would come out of her mouth, so she kept it shut and excused herself extra early. For one reason or another, David barely argued against that and she was off to bed.

Once the door was closed, she didn’t mind to hide the locking sound this time. She wanted Susan to hear it. Sally wasn’t a child; she knew infidelity was normal. However, she also thought her sister would never cheat on someone like David. He was the perfect man! She said so herself. I mean, she did, right?

“So, you and your boyfriend are getting pretty serious, right?” Sally asked, looking at Brittany doing her make up at the school mirror. They were extra early this time, to avoid a crowd. Last time they wanted to talk, people kept coming in and out and it wasn’t exactly the ideal scenario. She smiled before answering.

“Yeah. Billy and I are gonna move in together after graduation. He’s got a house behind his parents’ and etc. They’re loaded, but want nothing to do with him, etc. Obviously they want nothing to do with me either.”

“That sucks,” Sally said, but Brittany shrugged.

“It’s what it is, kid. Life’s never perfect.”

“Are you two gonna be okay together?” Brittany looked at her.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean…” Sally adjusted her jacket and poufy hair a little in front of the mirror, even though she knew it would never stay that voluminous “You have no money together.”

“Oh, we’ll get by. What did I tell you, kid? Catch one and keep ‘em for life. That’s Billy and me. Never one without the other.”

“Hmm…” Sally said “My sister married young too, she was eighteen.”

“Nobody said anything about marrying, but go on,” Sally did.

“Well, she met her husband when they were both in High School. They seem like the perfect couple, but…”

“But?”

“Well…” Sally looked at her friend “One time she called me, Said did, I mean. And she was crying I guess. Something about David.”

“Did she tell you what it was?” Sally waved her head.

“No. It was the last time she ever even mentioned it. I think she regretted calling me. I wish I had the guts to ask what the hell it was all about.”

“Well, I think he was probably a dick to her. He probably didn’t turn out to be what she expected to be. Maybe he cheated. The usual story.”

“Not David,” Sally said, resolute. Brittany looked at her for a second, red lip liner in hand. Sally thought that, like that, she looked like a worse for wear Kelly Kapowski from Saved By The Bell. Like a Kelly Kapowski that had cigarettes burned onto her skin multiple times, but remained beautiful and incredible through gritted teeth.

“Suit yourself,” it was all Brittany said before turning back to the mirror and finishing her lips.

—

When she woke up back at the strange tower from last night, Sally wasn’t surprised. She looked around with little interest until Jonathan showed back up again.

“Sally,” he said, with that usual voice of his. She smiled at him briefly.

“Jonathan.”

“You’re back.

“Not on my own volition.”

“Oh, I’m sure not. You wouldn’t do that, of course.” Sally crossed her arms “How’s your sister?”

“She’s fine.”

“That’s not what I see.”

“What do you mean by see?” Jonathan lowered his head and smiled.

“I can see you. Your head, I mean. I know everything you know when I appear in your dreams. It’s a… Subconscious thing, of course. I’m not really here. Neither are you.”

“Where are you then?” Instead of from right in front of her, Sally heard the answer from right behind herself.

“Somewhere else…” he whispered in her ear, startling her. She rapidly turned around, but he was gone. In his place, there was a shadow of something else.

“What is that?” she asked, looking closer at the floor. There, a dead carcass of what seemed to have once been a rat was, inside a rat trap. She flew back immediately, in time to hear what seemed to be Jonathan cackling.

“What the fuck is going on?!” Sally asked, almost yelling now.

“Don’t you know, you ignorant little girl?” A third voice asked and Sally looked at its direction, by the illuminated window. There, a man in robes was sitting, his face bloody and mashed in, with an air of unsurmountable sadness “You’re just like your sister, oh…”

“What do you know about my sister?” She asked, approaching the man. He didn’t make a move at first, but upon further inspection, Sally realized he was waving his head.

“Unfortunately, I know all about your sister. I know all about what she and that man Jonathan did in this filthy room for two months, about their desire, their consummation, their screams of unbridled passion.”

“What?!” Sally’s face contorted in an ugly frown “You’re lying!”

“Am I?!” He asked, his voice going louder than she thought possible, making her instinctively raise her hands to her ears “Am I?! Wasn’t she doing the same back in the church today? Oh, dead people see it all, little girl. That Jonathan man… He wants you too. He can’t have your body in its physical form though, she won’t let him.”

“Who?!”

“Your sister! He has her body, he has it, but she’s still in there, in their collective head. Oh, she was supposed to be somewhere else. She was supposed to be in Hell!”

“Sally?” Susan asked, gently shaking her sister “Saaally…?” She asked again, singing the name like a siren’s song. When Sally bolted awake, she smiled “Good morning sleepyhead. David has gone off to work already so I came to wake you up. Have you slept well today?”

Sally did nothing but stare at first, before smiling.

“Yeah, I did. Do we have breakfast?”

—

While they ate, Sally took to observing Susan again. She was humming to herself while spreading some jam on her toast, before biting onto it so hard, the crunch of the bread almost made Sally cry. She didn’t realize she had been so on edge until her hands started trembling. She needed to keep it together. First of all, nothing indicated that her dream was true, after all how crazy was that? Just because her sister was cheating on her husband – who may or may not have been an asshole in the past – does not mean that she is possessed by a former lover. That doesn’t make any sense!

“Darling?” Susan asked, looking at Sally’s plate “You have to eat.”

“Oh, yeah,” Sally answered “Right,” but she couldn’t bring herself to “Hey, can I borrow your car?”

“What for?” Sally smiled.

“I wanted to go to church,” Susan smiled at her as well.

“Sure. The keys are in the bowl, but you’re not leaving without eating.”

“Ok, fine,” Sally said, a semblance of normalcy seeping through as she devoured the eggs and drank the orange juice “Satisfied?”

Looking at her, more like leering, Susan smiled.

“Very.”

—

Sally did go to church at first. There, she stood alone, looking at the stained glass windows, the figures of the Lord, at Jesus Christ on the cross. She prayed for the first time in five years and cried to what seemed to be no one. She couldn’t believe she was actually doing what she was doing. What the hell was wrong with her? If she did everything her dreams told her to do, she would have kissed Brittany and told her not to go with Billy, to stay with her. That would have been a bad choice, wouldn’t it? Should she call Brittany now? Would she know what to do? She had before. She always knew what to do. Saint Brittany.

“Saint Said.” She remembered David saying. This was all wrong. He was suspicious of her; Sally knew that now. He had to have known she hadn’t been seeing Betty, that she had been seeing him. Jonathan. She wondered if David even knew Jonathan.

“Miss?” A male voice asked and she turned around. It was a small, old priest, with a kind face. She immediately smiled, but regretted it. She hated priests “May I help you?”

“Oh, no. I’m just… I’ll be right out,” he nodded his frail head and started to turn, when she gathered enough courage to ask “Hey, do you know a priest by the name of Jonathan?” he seemed to stop.

“Jonathan you say?”

“Yeah…”

“Yes. I know a priest by the name of Jonathan, or knew, rather.”

“Do you know what happened to him?” He looked pensive for a second, less confused about the events, but more pondering whether or not he should share them with the young woman in front of him.

“He went up to the tower of a Church a ways from here and took his own life. He had to do so; He had been excommunicated. They found some… Reprehensible things he had been involved in. It’s not really a subject to share with a woman as young as you…” but as he turned to leave, Sally stopped him with a hand on his arm.

“Please. I have to know, it’s… Important.” The priest looked up at her.

“What do you want with this information, miss? Wait a minute dearie, aren’t you Susan’s little sister, Sally?” He looked at her closely “Yes, I am recognizing you now. So similar to her except… Yes, her eyes are blue.” He paused, his expression turning to a resigned one as the small priest decided to tell her everything, in light of the new information, perhaps out of pity “He… He had taken a lover somewhere,” he gesticulated vaguely, slowly, gripped by the immobility of old age “I don’t surely recall. She ended in a mental asylum. They also found another one, but she was already in a much better place. He had left her in a deplorable situation, some said “lying in her own blood.” I don’t really recall…”

“Where is this Church you mentioned?” Sally asked, interrupting in a manner that would have seem rude, if not urgent now.

—

Sally took to her car and drove as fast as she could. It wasn’t really a far away drive. The place stood in a town a few minutes from the one they were in now, more deserted too. There were no people on the streets as she slowly drove up to the only church. By the color of the bricks, it looked like the one from her dream alright. The priest told her only one person was at the church at this time, an old woman who took care of the place.

Sally parked and got out of the car at lightning speed, knocking at the door mere ten seconds after getting out of the car. Minutes later, a face emerged. It was probably the old lady that he had mentioned, her hair and make up matched the description she inquired on.

“What are you… Oh. I’m sorry, you’re not her,” the old lady looked at her from top to bottom “Yes. You are certainly not.”

“Hi, I’m Sally,” she said, still breathing with some difficulty, from the running she had done, ignoring the strange introduction, “I’m Susan Brady’s sister.”

“Oh, I see. Her sister.” The old lady snickered “He’s dead, you know? He can’t keep bringing people in like this. It was unethical in life and it’s even more now in death,” she motioned to close the door, but Sally desperately held it open.

“Please, I have to come in. Please,” she supplicated. The old lady looked at her.

“Did he do it to you too?” she asked. Sally couldn’t understand.

“What?” The old lady, however, refrained from answering. Instead, she gave out this cryptic comment:

“You and your sister truly are alike.” Sally stared at her, mute. The old lady stepped away “Go in. It’s all the way upstairs. I’m hoping to not hear anything strange coming from the walls, other than the rats.” Sally, who was going in, stopped.

“The rats?” She asked and the older woman, closing the door, nodded.

“Yes. There were rats in the walls. Curiously, I haven’t been hearing them lately.”

Sally couldn’t hear anything, but Said could. She was hearing rats in the walls.

“They’re God’s creatures…” Sally murmured to herself, like her sister had done before.

“What was that?” the old lady asked, standing with her hands over her stomach, very proper.

“Nothing!” Sally said and took to the stairs “Thank you, I won’t be here long!” once she was gone, the old lady walked towards the vase nearby.

“That’s what the other one said too. They always end up staying too long in that place. Long enough for the worm to get them… That vermin,” she looked up in time to see the door closing and locking. With a snicker, she finished “They never learn.”

—

The tower was illuminated this time and she could see everything. Sally looked around herself and observed the window, the bed, the empty space and the chair, standing at a strange point of the room. The priest had said he killed himself. Had he jumped from there?

Sally took to the bedroom. All there was, upon first glance, was the bed. It was made perfectly, and Sally suspected the old lady had something to do with it. Looking to the side, however, there was a table full of books. She assumed they belonged to the deceased. Why they were still there was the mystery. Maybe the old lady had a soft spot for Jonathan as well? That would make sense. Sally twisted her face into an ugly frown again. Ugh. He was quite the ladies man, huh?

Shaking her head, she started reading the titles and saw that the one time priest had an obsession with the occult. All of these were about demonic encounters, seals to summon specific demons, what they did and etc. She was surprised he hadn’t been thrown out sooner. Had no one stopped to read what he was researching.

“Sally, you’re here!” A female voice sounded behind her, strikingly familiar to her ears – so much so that she turned around at once – but there was nothing there.

She must be going insane.

“…Susan?” She asked the empty room, rubbing her forearm and immediately regretting it “God, what the hell is wrong with me?” was the next question, followed by quite a loud kick to the table, which shook everything on top of it, from candlesticks to books. She was dreaming of real dead clergymen she had never met, dreaming of also dead rats and now she was hearing voices which could only belong to her sister, who was supposedly at her house, far away. What had become of her life? She wondered, madly, if any boys would still like her if she was insane. She also wondered if Brittany would, back at home, with her boyfriend.

“Sally!” The voice sounded again, but this time behind her. Closing her eyes, as if to wish it away, she realized there was nothing she could truly do. She would either leave now, which was inherently unsatisfying, or she would turn around and see if there really was someone behind her. It was that or the mental hospital. Come to think of it, maybe it was the mental hospital anyway.

Slowly, but surely, Sally turned. There, in full display, was a pale reproduction of her sister Said, in her full glory. She was wearing the same clothes she wore on the first day Sally came to her house, the black skirt and white blouse. The scarf was nowhere to be seen, however, and around Susan’s neck, Sally noticed, were grotesque rope marks.

“Oh, I’m so glad you’re here!” Susan said and took to hugging her little sister, for the first time in a long time. Sally was shocked that she could even feel her. Ghosts weren’t supposed to be huggable. Right?

“Susan, what is going on?” Was all the thoughts that Sally could voice right now. When they broke off the hug, they locked eyes and she could finally see the emotion back into her sister’s blue eyes.

“I’m sorry, Sally. It’s so horrible, I can’t…” She looked away briefly and then went back to her face, with a smile “I’m so glad you’re here,” she repeated, but continued “I kind of wish you weren’t though. This is no place for you. How did you even find it?”

“This priest at church told me that Jonathan lived here before he killed himself. He told me you and him…” Susan closed her eyes.

“Let’s not talk about Jonathan. I wanna talk about you. How are you?”

“We don’t have time! Look, this might sound insane, although I’m not sure how much more insane than that you are here right now when you were supposed to be home, but I think Jonathan has your body,” Sally looked at the pale semblance of her sister and wanted to cry “I think you’re still in there with him too. I think you’re not all here. This man in my dream told me something about that. He had this completely fucked up face…”

“Oh my God,” Susan said and stepped away from her sister, looking at a fixed point “Yeah, I remember…” when Sally looked too, she saw her sister’s glance was upon the chair “I… I killed myself, Sally.”

“No!” Sally said, covering her mouth with her hands “No, it can’t be! You’re here!” But Susan confirmed the fact with a nod.

“I was so foolish.” She raised her eyes “I thought that he loved me, I genuinely thought that he loved me. Oh, it was all a mess with David. I thought he was seeing someone else. When I confronted him, he threatened to leave me destitute and then did even worse…” She shook her head and lowered her eyes “When I… When I met Jonathan, I didn’t know anything about him other than he was kind. At least I thought so, at the beginning. He was working at our church, but slept here. I wondered why he drove so far every day for work, but then he told me it was because of me – that he had seen me with David, that he needed to have me. It all went wrong from there. He apparently had these other lovers… I was just the next casualty. And there was this rat…”

“Yes!” Sally said, approaching her sister eagerly “I saw the rat! He had a weird appearance and he was dead. The rat was dead!”

“I remember that!” Susan said, agreeing frantically with her head “The rat was caught in this mouse trap and…! And I saw it bleed out!”

“Can you leave this place?” Sally asked next, but Susan adamantly waved her head.

“No. I tried.” Sally instinctively looked over at the table.

“Maybe one of these books can help us,” she ran towards the skewed contents of the once kicked piece of furniture and picked the nearest one. Luckily, it seemed to be the most worn “Wow, Jonathan liked to highlight his books, Jesus.” Pages and pages of the book had words circled or crossed or writing, on the margins. Susan stopped by her sister’s side and raised her hand to her neck reflexively. She was still wearing the cross grandma had given her as a ghost.

“Well, I don’t know if you should mess with these things, Sal…” Susan said, sounding unsure “I think you should go back to mom and dad. That’s what you should do.”

“Absolutely not!” Sally exclaimed, indignant “I came all the way here for you, I am not going to turn back now, I want to see Jonathan dead in his grave forever!” She read the contents of the book now “This seems to be what he did to summon the rat. Here.” She showed it to Said, who intently read “It states that you need to bring a certain amount of sacrifices to this specific demon, you see? He brought the designated amount for sure… But the rat’s dead, or rather the physical form of the demon. He died in the middle of taking the last one, which means that it was never fully completed in the first place!”

“But how does that help us?”

“Well, if your soul is still inside of your body and Jonathan is also there, that means that you’re in half, just like I thought, but… It means Jonathan is also in half.”

“Aren’t you a clever girl?” A male voice echoed through the tower. In a second, Sally saw Susan’s remaining spirit had vanished, and Jonathan, the clergyman, was beside her where she once had stood.

At once, Sally closed the book and stepped away from the now snickering man “Oh, Sally, Sally, Sally…” he took a step towards her, then another… “You are so alike your sister. You can’t stop yourself from digging, can you?”

“Go fuck yourself, Jonathan!” Sally said, backing away towards the wall. He couldn’t help but cackle that stupid laugh of his. Sally had enough “I’m getting my sister back.”

“I don’t think so. You know, I loved your sister,” he said, close enough now to put an arm over her head and his face close to hers “I did,” he was whispering now, inside her ear “I loved her body, that is why I took it for myself. You are so alike her, but… Smarter. Younger. Fresher.” He then did something she could have never foreseen: Slowly and delectably he licked her cheek from jaw to eyebrow. Sally pushed him away from her, but all he did was laugh “Run little Sally! Save your sister! You could never have saved your brother in law!” that made her turn.

“What did you do to David?”

“Oh…” He paused and walked towards her, stopping half-way there “Did you really think he had gone off to work earlier that morning?” Jonathan waved his head “Oh, he was dead, right there in his office. You went right by it and never noticed it.” Shocked and muted yet again by the horror, Sally could only step away and run out of the tower as fast as she could, darting down the stairs. Even at the door, she could still hear the cackle in her ears.

“Gone so soon?” The old lady asked, but all Sally could do was nod, before crossing the threshold towards the parked vehicle. Behind her, the old lady uttered a measly “hmpf,” before closing the door.

—

When Sally parked the car outside of the house, night had already fallen. She turned her head to look at the house, illuminated only by the lampposts. David car was still parked at the garage and she cursed herself for not having looked before taking off that morning. She wondered if Jonathan was telling the truth, but it was useless. He obviously was.

She opened the door and stepped outside, closing it with moderate strength. She didn’t want to alert the neighbors, but she didn’t care if Said, or whatever the hell was in her body, heard her coming. She hoped it did.

Taking to the trunk, Sally stuck the key in the hole and popped it open. There, she brought out a brand new axe. She couldn’t bring herself to get a gun, she didn’t even know why she had that now. It seemed like a stupid precaution. She was not, in any sense, going to axe her sister. Still, she took it with her after closing the trunk and with a deep breath, she faced the house.

—

Inside, it was dark, as if no one was home. She opened the door, which was unlocked, and entered with ease, closing it back up. She looked at the kitchen, the living and dining rooms, and at the hallway, finally. Darkness there and nothing more.

“Said?” Sally asked.

“I’m here, Sally,” her voice came from David’s office. Soon, the door opened and a single light could be seen, yellow in tone “Come.” She started walking, wondering how she could have ever thought that was her sister. She couldn’t distinguish her cadence between that of Jonathan’s now – it was the same, through and through.

Sally wondered what she would see in that office, getting closer with each step. She wanted nothing more to end Jonathan, but she was still apprehensive. What did he do to David? Goddammit… Why was this fucking happening to her? She called upon God again for any help. She didn’t know if he could hear her, but she hoped so. The Devil was there, after all. Why not God?

When she finally reached the door, the first thing she saw was Said, sitting on the chair, smiling at her. Then, beneath her, she noticed the body of David, head bent away from her. His wrists had been slashed and there was blood all over the floor, in puddles.

“Oh my God!”

“Hello, little sister,” Susan said, waving a hand full of blood “I wondered if you were going to come back.” She looked down and pointed with her head at the axe “What’s that you got?”

“Can’t you see it? Are you blind now, or what?” Susan’s smile faded.

“That is no way to talk to your sister!”

“Oh, but you’re not my sister,” Sally stepped into the room, confident now in her words and stride, gripping the axe with force “I went to see you, at the tower – or whatever was left of you, Jonathan.”

“I haven’t the slightest idea of what you’re talking about. Who’s Jonathan?”

“Oh, cut the bullshit!” she said, clenching her free fist “I know it’s you in there, Jonathan and not Susan – Or at least not all of her. Did you know that you’re not full? Did you even notice? Or were you incomplete your entire life, so it didn’t matter?” Susan got up from her chair, a frown in place of the usual smile, and approached her sister, who jumped back, axe ready to strike. At that, she halted.

“What on Earth are you talking about?” Jonathan asked. It was him, through and through. Even if the body belonged to someone else.

“Your despicable familiar, that’s what I’m talking about! He died before bringing Said’s soul to Hell, or whatever the hell! She’s still in there with you.”

“That is impossible!”

“Oh, it’s not!” Sally said “I read your stupid book. You should have taken better care of that freakish rat, might have done you some good!” In a fit of rage, Jonathan darted towards Sally and immediately went for her hair, now loose, trying to grip it. Being faster, she dodged and managed to run away towards the kitchen, with him in her tail.

“Come back here, Sally!” He screamed, “Come back, you bitch!” She turned around to face him from the other side of the counter, where they came to an impasse. They shared a look “Oh, Sally, Sally… You might have read a book, but I’ve read thousands. What are you gonna do, huh? Save your sister?” he snickered, looking more and more like the deceased and less and less like Said “She’s dead! She’s dead!”

“So were you and now look at where we are!”

“Give it up, Sally!”

“Never!” she approached her face to his and said, in a low whisper “You’re gonna go down, little man.” With the small, paused reaction that caused, Sally ran around him, going towards the hallway and straight for the master bedroom.

“NO!!” she heard behind herself, but she was too fast to care about it at this point. At once, she closed the door and locked it, being almost immediately greeted with angry fists begging to be let in, making her back away fast “SALLY!! SALLY!!”

“You’re gonna wake the fucking neighbors, Said!” Sally yelled back as the doorknob was frantically assaulted. She didn’t have time for that. Doing an about face, she examined the walls and the floor closely “Now, if I were a nest of rats, where would I be?”

“SALLY!”

“SHUT UP!!” Sally yelled back “I’m trying to think!” she looked down at the floor. She knew what she had to do. According to the book, Sally needed to destroy any remnants of the familiar there might be. Rats proliferate rather quickly – as a matter of fact, so quickly that anyone would have a rat problem in no time – especially with a demon rat running around like that.

So, Sally took to swinging. First, she tried the walls, which crumbled easily. There was no success to be had there, as she came up mostly empty handed and buried in dust.

“Hope that wasn’t a foundational wall…” she whispered to herself and fixated upon the bed “Wait a minute!” she dropped the axe for a second and used all her might to pull one of the poles away. Surprisingly, the frame wasn’t that heavy, and the years of softball paid off in an immense way. In no time, the bed was out and she could see the scratches, even from the surface “Gotcha.”

“You bitch!” the voice on the other side still yelled, almost sobbed “Oh, I’ll get you for this Sally Elmer! I’ll fucking get you if it’s the last thing I do!” Sally paid no attention to him. He was bitter because he had lost. He had never lost so bad, after all.

She bent down and took the axe in hands, swinging at the floor full force. Soon, the room was filled with the sounds of rats. She swung again and it became louder. The screeching was deafening enough to drive anyone mad, but it didn’t matter. She wasn’t doing this for herself, but for Said, for her big sister. That was enough.

At once, she was done. No rats were felt at her feet though, which was strange. When she finally opened her eyes to look at the masterpiece, Sally observed the black hole on the floor. There was… Nothing?

A laugh started at the other side of the door, becoming louder.

“What…? There were supposed to be…” Then she had an idea. Bending over, Sally looked within the hole and, gathering all of her courage, stuck her hand inside. Feeling the darkness, she quickly found what she was looking for and pulled it out.

It was the body of Jonathan’s near lifeless familiar.

He hadn’t procreated, he was barely alive.

“You… Bitch… You whore…” he said, amidst blood gushing out. His throat was barely there.

“Are you fucking kidding me?”

“Are you?”

“Let me in, Sally!” Jonathan said, suddenly desperate again “Let me in and I promise you I’ll love you. I promise I’ll cherish you; I’ll adore you; I’ll fuck you with all my might, every day.” Sally contorted her face in disgust.

“Ew! I don’t think so,” she said and, throwing the rat on the floor, promptly stepped on him, ending his misery and hers.

—

The tower had become cold, or at least the wind indicated so. I couldn’t feel anything in the state I was in at that time. All I could do was sit down and watch the old lady tidy Jonathan’s things up day by day, like a sanctuary. I wondered what she’d think if she knew I was there. Most of the time, though, I wasn’t. I looked through the window and recalled the moments of passion I had spent there with him. It wasn’t worth it, in the end, even if I thought Jonathan was perfect.

When Sally came and went, I thought that I had a chance. I saw her leave and my heart sunk, as much as it could. I didn’t want my little sister to die. I sat in that tower for what seemed like an infinite amount of time – not that before it hadn’t, but it seemed even worse, as if the hours were dragging themselves, behaving like years. Goddammit! Goddammit…!

—

Sally opened the door in a hurry.

“Said?!” She asked, kneeling down to cradle her sister in her arms. She was not responding “Said!! Goddammit, Said, wake up! God…!” she looked up at the ceiling reflexively and then at the dead rat, to make sure. Maybe he was still…? But no. He had turned to mush at this point.

Maybe there was no hope. Maybe Jonathan had fucking won, maybe not the way he wanted to, but the way he could. Maybe he dragged Said to hell with him, leaving her the mess to fix, the dead body in the office, her poor sister…

“S… Sally?” Susan’s voice said, strained, and Sally looked down immediately “What? Where…?”

“Said?!” She exclaimed and hugged her “Oh my God, Said!” she raised her head back again and looked into her sister’s eyes. Yeah, it was definitely her “Oh, I’m so glad you’re alive!”

“Yeah, me too…” Said looked at the master bedroom “What did you do…?” Sally looked back too.

“Oh, I had to do some digging for a stupid rat.”

“Oh…” She looked up at her sister “And David?” Sally’s countenance changed.

“He’s… He’s dead. I’m sorry. Jonathan drove him to suicide as well. I think it was his… Way of doing things.”

“Oh, God…” Susan said, closing her eyes in pain “Will you help me get up?”

“Yeah, sure thing.” Together, the two grunted as they made their way from the floor to their usual heights, now completely equal once again. They looked at the mess they were in “It’s not ideal…”

“No, but we’ll figure it out,” Susan said, sounding confident, positive, more than Sally has ever seen her being. She turned to her sister “Thank you so much, Sally. Thank you!” As the sisters embraced again, the rat bled onto the floor and Jonathan, the Evil Clergyman, would never be back again.

He was finally at his final resting place.

[terra-sketches]

9.8 fortitude meets 98% released combat power

(Long ship post with manga spoilers!! Be warned!!)

The thing about Narukaf is that they don't click until after they've fought beside each other. Outside of battle, they seem entirely disinterested in each other, mostly on Gen's side, but once they got on the field? BOOM! Freak chemical reaction. They're in sync.

It's the kind of chemistry that took them both by surprise too. During the fight with No. 9 and the ant kaiju i noticed that narukaf exchange looks that convey astonishment at the new alliance. They fight alongside each other as if they've rehearsed.

Neither party slows the other down or steps on any toes. Gen "The strongest division will do just fine with me around" Narumi is notorious for taking enemies on solo. So him not only allowing Kafka to assist but relying on the support? And doing it willingly after being reluctant to accept Kafka before hand? It's like a switch flipped.

In all fairness, a big chunk of that can be attributed to the abnormal circumstances they were in. It was dire. Their chemistry was sparked by similarities that can only be revealed in disaster. A tragedy can show who a person is at their core. As turns out, Gen and Narumi's cores aren't so different. They want to save Isao, and the others, as quickly as possible by neutralizing No. 9. Like how diamonds can only be forged under pressure, narukaf needed to be acted upon by a brutal external force to discover how they can relate to each other.

Gen, later, acknowledges their synergy in battle. It's why he's so insistent on Kafka lending his power even knowing how bad it'll be for Kafka to keep going. It's impossible to deny how strong they are when fighting together. They almost neutralized No. 9 the very first time they'd ever teamed up. That's pretty signifigant.

This leads into the next point: they're bonded by what happened... forever (Or, you know, until No. 9 is gone lol).

When Kikoru was too distraught to continue fighting, it was just Gen and Kafka. It was all up to them. Only them. No one else who was strong enough to help would've gotten there in time. Their battle with No. 9 was an isolated experience. Gen lost the mentor he'd sought the recognition of since his late-teens/early adulthood and Kafka watched a kaiju, who has endangered his friends since the entrance exams, absorb his friend's father. Both feel responsible; guilty.

To them, it's a shared sin that they need to atone for.

The Shinagawa operation was the push these two needed to kickstart what is inherently an unconventional and interesting connection.

I'd like to see more interactions between these two but whoooooo knoooows with what's been going on in these recent chapters lol.

It's not high up on my list of hopes for the manga, but it would be a nice addition to see how their strange friendship (??? Or whatever they have???) has progressed post Gen agreeing to secretly train with Kafka. (i.e Do they have more banter now?, Has Gen finally gained interest in Kafka as a person?, etc.)

[sytokun]

Watching the Spider-verse crunch discussion going on in relation to RWBY and the whole #GreenlightVolume10 thing has been interesting to say the least.

Of course, there's many fucked up people who don't care about the crunch, and even endorse it since ATSV did so well; but from what I've seen, most people have been sympathetic and acknowleged that waiting for the third movie to be finished in due time and treating the workers well is far better than rushing the conclusion to what could be one of the greatest animated film trilogies of the decade.

You make your best work when you don't have the gut-curling dread of unemployment and impossible deadlines hanging like a sword over your head. ASTV could have been even more amazing without the crunch.

Good God, if only we had voices this loud in the RWBY fandom. If only the RWBY fandom's loudest voices were the ones who advocate for ethical treatment above everything else, and not the ones pushing to get more RWBY content made above everything else, fighting tooth and nail and lining the parasitic company's pockets to see their beloved franchise continue, regardless of who would be ground to dust to make it happen.

I've seen many animators and artists saying they worked on shows most people look down on like Big Mouth and Mulan, and saying those productions treated them far better and they felt way better working on them, in spite of the end quality of the product. It made me at least respect the work more, because even if it was disliked, at least the people making it didn't have to suffer making it, or even gained much from it.

But with RWBY, it's a lose-lose game. The show's writing and animation quality is fleeting at best -- certainly nowhere near the level of Spider-verse. Its great moments are always undermined by the absolute worst writing decisions and character derailment in modern fiction. Outside of its core fandom, RWBY is the fucking laughing stock of the greater anime community and this is sheer fact. Nobody takes it seriously and every Tuesday a RWBY fan is going around picking fights with other anime communities or with other RWBY fans. I love RWBY but it does no favours for its own reputation at all.

If the workers making RWBY were treated well, I could care less how many Volumes they make and their quality, or how much of a laughing stock it is. But this is Rooster fucking Teeth we're talking about. Do you really think if they cared about RWBY's quality, they'd wipe out their entire animation department all at once after V9? This means every Volume's production is a literal coin-flip because there's no time to build a functioning team there with established lead animators.

So you guys want to bleed these animators and artists dry, just to get the same mediocre product anyway? Rooster Teeth had 2 years to perfect the script of Volume 9 to the finest detail and still somehow took a page out of GEN: Lock's universally hated suicide plot for their climax. We had the goodwill to give them 2 years to make V9 the best it could be, and they took that goodwill to cut episodes from it and go make the JL crossover movie instead. And even if we still get the same mediocre product, we fucking know like 80% of everyone who's worked on it are going to be crunched to the bone and left without a job afterwards, so there's not even the comfort of the staff having a good work experience or stable employment from it.

Every single thing I liked about Volume 9's action scenes, environments or characters, I have to live with the fact that the person responsible for it may never return to RWBY's production to keep making it better. There was a fight animator you really loved? Too bad! RT didn't find them valuable enough so they went elsewhere to offer their skills to Trigun: Stampede or Spider-verse instead. Oops! Those animated stories ended up doing really well are are praised for their amazing animation! Sucks that we didn't keep them around for RWBY, huh?

So, why the fuck is the fandom fighting so hard for Volume 10 then? Certainly it's not for the now non-existent animators occupying their empty offices, which as we speak Rooster Teeth is clamouring to fill job openings for. I wish the RWBY fandom knows that by pushing for Volume 10 just out of sheer stubborn attachment, they are not on the good side here, and never will be. No amount of emotional music and stellar fights are going to justify knowingly putting animators through the grindstone for another year or more, only to be tossed out until they are needed again.

You think I like this either? I really fucking don't. I believe RWBY deserves to see itself through to the end. I love its cast and world and want more people to give it a chance, if only to properly understand what they're dismissing. But real people are the cost here.

I don't care how "complicated" or nuanced you think it is because you have some imaginary box of who you think in CRWBY are good or not, or what scraps of representation you think people's livelihoods are worth ruining over -- it really is not. Either the workers are going to be sacrificed on the altar of your attachment to a fictional show, their mental health and compensation only a secondary concern, or you think that this shit is evil and should never be allowed to fucking happen.

And if the Spider-verse situation hasn't made that line clear already, then I seriously ask you to reevaluate whatever sliver of humanity you have remaining.