#well they weren't SUPPOSED to be ingesting it...

[marzipanandminutiae]

"most alleged radium-laced products of the 1910s and 1920s actually contained no radium at all! they were medically harmless scams!"

"oh, okay! so wait- which ones actually did? surely nothing anybody like...regularly ingested by accident or anything, right?"

"..."

"...right?"

[maimaily]

the lads boys as kittens !! 🪼 ‧₊˚ rafayel

summary: You were living in your new apartment now, a free space for yourself, but maybe it was too free. You weren't quite used to the silence and loneliness of it, so you decided to welcome a little one to your home. After considering many options, a cat seemed the most adequate: clean, independent, wouldn't take much of your time as a dog… right?

characters: kitty!rafayel + mc as reader (other characters will be posted separately).

a/n: cat breeds are selected based on the "Yes, Cat Caretaker" event. If there's any change, it'll be based on the appearance of each breed, but not its personality traits strictly. proofread but if there's any mistake please let me know! (eng isn't my first language).

xavier 🢒 zayne 🢒 sylus 🢒 caleb (coming soon)

Rafayel — Siamese How did he get to live with you?

Oh, the classic mistake: "My first cat is an angel so I may adopt another one!" Did you expect another quiet and calm kitty? WRONG. But let's start from the beginning: you were worried that Xavier would feel lonely being the only cat. You heard it's recommended to introduce them to other cats so they can learn to socialize and avoid aggressive behaviors, especially in younger cats. Xavier was already an adult, but it wasn't too late, right?

And it happened by coincidence, really. You were strolling around, enjoying the fresh air and your well-deserved day off, when you heard the first weak and pitiful "meow" behind some shrubs. You quickly found him; his leg was hurt, and he looked like he hadn't eaten in a long time. You carefully got closer, trying not to scare him, but he still hissed and even tried to scratch you.

It was understandable, he was hurt and you were multiple times his size, how could he not be scared? So you offered some of the small treats you carried with you since adopting Xavier, a new habit. That managed to make him calm down enough for you to pick him up with your jacket.

At the vet, you felt relieved that his injury wasn't serious and he'd get better soon. The lady asked if you were interested in keeping him, and you were about to refuse when you remembered Xavier. Some company wouldn't hurt for either of you so... why not? After the corresponding paperwork and paying for the treatment, little Rafy was all yours to take care of. The walk back home was quiet, only filled by Rafayel's massive smugness of owning you.

The expression of utter betrayal on his little face was beyond words when he discovered he wasn’t the undisputed king of the house!

Picky eater. Dry food is too dry and wet food is too wet. Oh, and he gags at certain veggies, don't put them near him. He loved cooked fish yesterday, but who said he wanted it again today? Also, he has already made it clear he doesn't like that brand of tuna. And once again, where's his salmon treat? You can't win with him, Siamese cats weren't supposed to be this picky!

Food thief. Pretty ironic how he's so demanding about his food, but he'll do anything to have a bite of yours. He wants to taste that vanilla ice cream you bought, the steak you treated yourself with, and your drink looks tasty too. You have to push him away all the time, and sometimes he stretches as if he wasn't doing anything. He's not slick.

Gagging Gatsby. You observed him all day, worried sick for your little boy who wouldn't stop gagging. With your heart squeezed by worry, you rushed to the vet, only to find out that he... had swallowed a fly. He spent the entire afternoon writhing in disgust, convinced that ingesting a mere fly had doomed him forever, and you stabbed your wallet at the vet for this little lord who was just feeling icky. You really didn't know what to do with him anymore.

Doesn't like = will destroy. The precious cat mug you bought at the thrift store ended up broken on the floor after Mr. Perfectionist felt it looked at him wrong, or something like that. The vase with flowers gifted by your colleagues? Dumped on the table, the poor flowers scattered all over the place (Xavier joined in his antics, double scolding for misbehaving). And the curtains? Oh Lord, they were a bit too white for his liking, they had to go away! This means he jumped to the top of the window and slid down them with his claws :)

Spoiled rotten. Bows, collars, outfits, jewelry, fancy oils for his exquisite fur and paws, special brushes for grooming, the comfiest bed and blankets? He wants them all. Have I made clear enough that your wallet is suffering?

Needs attention like air to breathe. Contrary to Xavier, he meows a lot. When he sees you passing by he meows happily as he follows you, does it when he's angry, hungry, needy, or just wants you to stop doing whatever you're up to and cuddle him instead. He's mostly dramatic, but when you leave he meows up a storm, and that's what hurts you the most.

Loves baths like no other cat! You could have been expecting this, so yes, he does love baths very much. You bathe him with Xavier, who doesn't really mind them, and it's so cute seeing Rafayel being the most playful he ever is, even trying to get Xavier into the action (he's dozing off due to the warm water…). Let him enjoy his time, he and Xavi get a bit upset with the blow dryer if air gets into his sensitive ears.

His favorite place to make biscuits it's your ass. Do NOT leave your rear exposed while you're lying down, he will jump onto you and start kneading the soft flesh without warning. It's up to you if you let him do it or not, but he thinks he's soooo funny.

"You know… we really need to work on this, little man." You sighed, hands supporting your head as you sat on the toilet. "Privacy and all, don't you think?"

The coffee cream cat stared at you with big eyes, almost blinking happily as you talked to him. This was usual everyday life since you brought Rafayel in... personal space dissipated completely and privacy became a once-in-a-while-luxury.

Rafayel not only wanted but needed to be glued by your side each minute of the day. When you woke up, the first thing you saw was little Raf on top of you, eyes expectant of breakfast; at noon he climbed to the table as you ate to keep you company, at evening he sat next to you on the couch if you decided to watch some TV and at night he ran with full batteries around Xavier who had won the best spot of the bed.

"Meow". You sighed again, almost sure he understood what you were saying to him, and actively decided to ignore it. "Come on, Rafy. Just a minute, please!" You tried to carefully push him outside, but he just jumped up on the counter and looked at himself in the mirror.

When you got out of the bathroom, a groggy Xavier waited on the couch for breakfast. He saw how you carried Rafayel's body with one arm and brushed your teeth with the other before letting him down on the hallway floor. The little cat at your side looked away for a second before losing his concentration completely, his wide eyes now landing on an earring you lost some days ago.

He jumped on top of it and tapped it with his paws, looking its shiny colors, the gem-like shape, and- oh! That smell!

"Breakfast's ready!" You called them both and they hurriedly attacked their bowls. Sadly, there was no time to spare as the clock marked near eight in the morning, threatening you to get late to work. Your presence was like a fleeting shadow, going from here to there, taking interrupted bites of your breakfast, tripping as you put on your socks halfway through, and buttoning your shirt wrong.

"Bye-bye, my loves. See ya. Behave," you said as each busy head received a kiss between their ears. "Bye-bye, Miss Hooman!" was probably the thought inside Rafayel's mind before he heard the automatic lock of the door. Only then he did notice your absence, and by the time he reached the door, it was already too late.

The day felt longer than usual, and even more tiresome. You dragged your feet inside and closed the door behind you, taking your shoes off as you turned the lights on. The living room looked empty, a thing you noticed after putting away the groceries in the cupboard. Xavier's bowl was almost empty yet Rafayel's one was mostly the same as this morning. By looking at the hour they were most likely asleep by now, so you'd make sure everything was alright the next morning.

With slow movements, you made your way to the bed after taking a shower and tucked yourself under the covers where Xavier had fallen asleep. You scratched his head, scrolling on your phone to find the app for the new security camera you installed for the front door. It was your new acquisition after adopting another cat, you needed to be sure you had a way to take care of them even from a distance. To optimize energy, the camera only recorded when it detected movement at the entrance, but the curiosity soon broke your heart.

7:49 a.m. The first recording, just as you left the house. Rafayel's thin body paced in front of the door with a sad meow, his ears flattened after a long time of meowing. 8:36 a.m., he probably heard someone outside and ran to greet you, only to find a closed door. 10:31 a.m., he was trying to find his way out, jumping to turn the doorknob, only to fail. 1:23 p.m., he decided to take a nap there for an hour, and by noon there were no more videos.

Your heart clenched, and you didn't waste a second before getting off the bed and finding Rafayel after looking around, curled up behind the sofa cushions with the shirt you wore that morning. "Hello, baby," you smiled when he opened his eyes, meowing loudly one more time as he bumped his head against your hands, "Hi, love. Were you sleeping? Are you comfy?"

His paws tried to reach your face as you cradled him in your arms, taking him with you to the bed. "I'm back home, sorry for taking so long, Rafy." He protested, of course he did. You left him alone all day! Do you know how long is that, Miss Human? That's like. A whole year in cat years! And Xavier is not exactly the best company, you know? He naps all day and doesn't play with him and-

Smooch.

His feline rambling subsided after your soft lips touched his small head. "I'll make it up for you tomorrow, I got you a little present for being such a good boy". Rafy The Lover was back, purring happily against your hands as you caressed his soft fur, lulling him to sleep on top of your chest with a warm smile only you could provide.

You knew better than anyone the feeling of being alone, and you'd do anything to avoid making Rafayel feel left behind again when he called out for you.

© MAIMAILY. Please do not steal, copy or plagiarize this work. Likes, reblogs are comments are greatly appreciated!

I'm so sorry it took me this long! I had so many ideas for Rafayel I had to cut back many, maaany of them, also I was a bit busy (๑-﹏-๑) . I'm not 100% happy with how the story turned out, but I really hope you like it.

tag list ! @animegamerfox, @princessofenkanomiya, @aethercoreria

Dividers made by: @uzmacchiato, @v6que and @haecunt

[kittykittycatnip]

can you make a list of all your sparklecare contributions?

yeah sure i'll put it all under a readmore because it's a lot. sorry this answer is so late, i was kind of debating on whether i should answer it but since there seems to be some confusion on who made what i figured i should

i made the composition for the v5 cover. here's the original sketches:

if i remember correctly i was mentioned as having made it in a patreon post, but i was no longer credited once it actually released

i made a lot of the update art for early v4, most of them are rushed because they were done last minute (there was no schedule for update art, if it happened it happened but the process was usually kittycorn saying "who wants to do tonight's update art" a few hours before it was due to be released). a few of them were collaborative between me and other zcp members and some also have easter eggs in them:

this one in specific was meant to foreshadow nightstars characters because we were all really excited about it at the time, it was my special interest while it was being developed. unfortunately it never came to fruition. the k, l and c were supposed to represent my ocs

i designed brigh's sister. she wasn't named by me, kittycorn named her. i'm pretty sure i named his parents though if i remember correctly? my old art is so bad i'm so sorry

i made shorbs too, i didn't even know these were being used until a couple weeks ago. they were supposed to cause an illness resulting in extreme fur growth all over the body that needed to be cut often if someone ingested their wool somehow but i guess that was changed? i think they were originally named by carmen and then i designed them afterwards

i was the one who asked for funfetti to be genderqueer, as that was the label i used at the time. my idea was that she used she/her pronouns but presented androgynously and preferred traditionally masc clothing like suits, but after kittycorn said yes to the gq label she was changed to use she/he/they with no further input from me

kittycorn made this character's design after i half jokingly came up with the allotpun. the pun is monophyly, i suggested it as a name for a barry/hemera kid because it's a science word and their love of science was like the only thing they had in common lol

i always wanted there to be a jay/hemera kid in cometcare, not as a romantic thing but from emem as a way to bring them together and become closer if that makes sense.

their name is memo r. philly, the allotpun is memorabilia. yes that allotpun fucking sucks but i avoided making anything ending with -philia because hemera is aroace and a word with a root relating to love didn't feel right with me. they used every pronoun and hoarded neos and were a smug bastard that spent most of their time making alt accounts on discord to fuck with levi and make him mad. idk why this art doesnt have pupils, i guess i forgot to add them or something? they weren't acknowledged by kittycorn as far as i can remember but they were canon in my Heart /lh

speaking of cometcare i'm the one who came up with the comet symbolism. i had no idea it was going to be used for a disgusting incest comic.

some things i have no proof of: i designed funfetti's parents, her mom was a stereotypical nice grandma who bakes cookies and her dad looked like a furry version of ron swanson from parks and rec. they were both cats. i don't have the art of them unfortunately since it was on my old hard drive that died. i made puppy's backstory with the neglectful dad as well, his name was spadezen harts if i remember correctly and looked similar to puppy but was black and red with a spade theme instead of a heart theme. i also don't have him anymore. i also was the one who asked for hemera to be less antagonistic and more easily sympathized with from v5 onwards, since i felt like a lot of the fandom hated her unfairly. i tried finding a way to make the perfect patient either survive or live on somehow but it didn't work narratively. i also made a post canon design for noah, which i can't find so i don't think i have it anymore.

i do have this though, this was a concept i made for v5 i think? to sorta imply noah's existence as a huge motivator for hemera's actions. noah was only brought up once in v2 and i thought it was odd that such an important character to hemera's story was mentioned Once

please don't steal these last few characters, i'm still actively using them in my own story completely unrelated to sparklecare

this is nerva, he was miley/hemera's kid in series 3, he was going to be jointly raised by caroline and doom. his deal was that he secretly knew about the hospital (he found out about it while researching because he knew something was being hidden from him) and was always stressed because of it and despised his parents for trying to keep it from him. kittycorn eventually decided to put him in cometcare to be introduced alongside miley's other kids like jolly and soob, but i left before then so he was removed. there might be an older version of this with worse colors floating around from when i first made him, but this is the final version. he's supposed to be around 14 or 15 but he looks like a kid here for some reason

and now a nightstars dump

brody was gonna be barry's friend. the joke was going to be that nobody knew what his actual name was and every time he showed up a new intro card would be shown with a different name. he was a huge nuisance and prankster and hated authority. he was strictly aro and was not up for shipping under any circumstances

he also had three parents who were poly. they owned a bakery together

this is carter, they were going to be another friend of barry's. they were very energetic and silly. they also had type 1 diabetes and generalized anxiety disorder and loved things like skating, aerobics and yoga

and this is justine. she was going to be uni's friend and helped her make lps roleplay videos on youtube. she loved hippie culture so she dressed like one and was super chill and laidback. she spent her free time foraging for herbs and mushrooms to use in cooking. she also had a girlfriend:

ellis' colors, name and outfit were chosen by emsody. all i made was the final design as a slow loris (emsody originally designed her as a cat but sparklecare has way too many cats so we changed her). her voiceclaim was mort

i also contributed to the worldbuilding of the town nightstars took place in, idk if the town's map has been leaked or not but a few of the landmarks were my idea like the forest and the lake

i think that's all, let me know if i missed anything or if you have questions ig. sorry if this is hard to follow or disjointed, it took over an hour to find all these in my files

[lokisprettygirl]

Utopia (Modern! Daemon Targaryen x female reader) (Non Canon AU) (18+)

Read chapter 5 here // Series Masterlist

Chapter 6

Summary: Daemon doesn't show up for the date but he makes up for it.

Warning: 18+ sex ,period sex (if it bothers you skip the scene) death and destruction that comes from a ship wreckage, smut, sex, menstrual sex, unprotected sex. Some inconsistency with ship sinking, i researched as much as I could

You sat there on the couch for half an hour before you began fiddling, when the clock finally hit 8 you realized he wasn't going to come. He didn't even call or text to inform you that he won't be coming and that's what hurt you the most because you had hoped that he cared at least that much. You were expecting such courtesy after what you both have been through together.

Perhaps he changed his mind or perhaps he realized that he was still in love with Lily. Your eyes welled up as you thought about that possibility, you didn't want to be that person, you didn't want to be someone to come between two lovers but a part of you always knew that Lily didn't care about him as much as he cared about her. Wasn't it supposed to go both ways? Ships sink, planes crash and in those moments she'd always pick herself up first.

As the clock struck 9 you felt the familiar churning in your uterus and knew there won't be any dates today even if he did show up miraculously. You grabbed a sanitary pad from the closet and made your way to the bathroom, cursing his stupid face throughout the way as tears filled your eyes.

You knew you were about to burst into a fit of cry sooner or later.

Around 9:30 while you were preparing a cup of tea after ingesting a pain killer you finally heard the doorbell ring. Taking a deep breath you crossed your arms, and stared at the door for a moment to make him sweat before you decided to answer it.

And Why did he have to look sooo hot?

You were mad at him. Completely furious but he had a maroon shirt on with the top few buttons opened that showed the silver of white satin skin, fitted black pants, his hair was ruffled in that ' i either had sex or a strenuous workout' way. He leaned against the door frame as he looked at you up and down, you still had that stupid black dress on. The bouquet of flowers he brought wasn't going to fix anything if he had fucked Lily and was swept back into her charms.

“What do you want?” You asked him so he gave you the flowers, you grabbed it and threw it behind you, feeling awful for doing that to those poor flowers but you were raged in the moment.

“Can I explain?” He asked you as he sighed deeply.

“Go on”

“Can I come in at least?” he mumbled as he stepped closer to you so you took a step back but he grabbed you by the waist and stopped you from moving, his body pressed against yours as he closed the door behind him.

“You could have called that you weren't coming” your teeth gritted as spoke to him, anger visible in your voice.

“But i wanted to come and I'm here” he answered nonchalantly and that only spiked your irritability.

“You're 3 hours late”

“I have a reason for that”

“Did you fuck her?” his brows furrowed in slight offense as you asked him.

“Noooo”

Your heart felt still for a moment as he diffused your fears, you were so sure that he was with her, fucking her and realising that he was still madly in love with her. As your eyes welled up he grabbed your chin between his fingers and made you look up at him.

“I'm sorry i have let you down” his tone was gentle now and somehow that made you feel even worse about the situation.

“Why didn't you come? Did you change your mind?” your lips trembled as you struggled to keep your emotions in check. The thought of Lily being the reason for his absence was too much to bear.

“Do you think I'd look like this if I had changed my mind?” You looked him up from head to toe as he said that as if you weren't checking him out as soon as you had opened the door. “I was on my way when Lily called and told me that she had slipped in the bathroom. I thought that I'd take her to the hospital and still be here on time but it took longer than i had expected” you shrugged as he said that to you. What a convenient fall that was from Lily, you felt so selfish in the moment but you were extremely jealous and hurt.

“Why didn't you text or call?”

“I left my phone at her place when I picked her up so I had to go back.. good because now I have your number memorized” he mumbled softly as he placed his hands on your shoulders to pull you closer.

“You memorized my number?”

“Mmmhm..you should too”

“Okay” you both stared at each other for a moment before he cupped your cheeks. You felt a surge of emotions as he slowly leaned in and kissed you, a gentle kiss that seemed to melt away all the tension and anger between you.

“Ummm is she okay?” you asked him as you realized that you might have overreacted a bit and had allowed your emotions to get the best of you.

“Her right leg is fractured but she'll be okay”

“How do you feel about that?”.

“Fine? She's going to be alright”

“I'm still upset for some reason” you told him honestly because you didn't want to pretend as if him not showing up wasn't affecting you at all now that you knew the reason behind it.

“I'll fix that”

He picked you up in his arms and turned around to press you against the door to kiss you again, this kiss wasn't as gentle though, it was heated, full of passion and needy.

“I really wanted to treat you right baby..I'm sorry” he mumbled against your mouth so you curled your fingers around his neck.

“It's okay..you can treat me right.. here”

“Sure can” as he lifted up your dress you placed your hand on his.

“I'm on my periods”

“So?”

He put you down and pulled your underwear down and placed it on the dresser next to you , grabbing your waist by one hand. He slipped his other hand between your thighs, teasing you until you couldn't take it anymore and had to buck your hips into his palm. Your fingers clutched on his biceps as you tried to stifle the shameless moans that were erupting due to his skilled ministrations.

He leaned down and sucked a mark on your neck as he continued to rub your lips, mixing your dripping arousal with the blood. Your fingers traced down as you felt the bulge in his pants rubbing against your midsection, that's how close he was squished against you.

“Hold your dress up for me darlinn” his words came out almost in that of a drunken slur but his voice was sharp and commanding so you quickly grabbed the hem of your dress to lift it up, a loud moan escaped your throat as he wiped his bloody wet fingers all over your thighs, making sure to clean it well before he unzipped himself hurriedly as if he couldn't go a second longer without fucking you right against this wall.

His cock was hard and leaking already as he rubbed the tip over your clit repeatedly, your arms wrapped around his neck as he lifted you up swiftly and entered you in one quick motion.

“Mmm is this good sweetheart..you alright?” You bit on your lips as you noticed the concern evident in his voice,

“I am in heaven..keep going please”

“Oh you sound so sweet like that love..do it again won't you?” He mumbled in your ears as he teased you with his torturously slow thrusts of the hips.

“Please Daemon..i..need you to keep going please” you mumbled sweetly, your voice went higher and turned more sensual than he had ever heard from you.

“I'd do anything for you if you'd speak to me in such a way”

Your hands wandered to grab his gorgeous ass, they were always begging to be held. He let out a grunt as you squeezed those cheeks.

This was new, he knew that, he also knew the raw electric passion he felt in the moment would fizzle with time like how it did with Lily but the way you had your arms around him and how tightly you were holding onto him, you'd continue to hold him in the same manner right?

Even when the sex would become a routine between you two he hoped that you'd still look into his eyes when he's making love to you and and he hoped that you'd look at him with the same passion you had in your eyes right this very moment.

He really hoped so, he really wished for this feeling to never end.

He didn't want to fall out of love again, certainly not with the woman who had risked everything for him..

“Why did you come darling?” He whispered in your ear as his thrusts slowed down again.

“When? Last night ? Because you're so good at this..?” he chuckled and pressed a soft kiss on your lips before his expressions turned serious.

“That night..you came for me..why? You'd have been on that lifeboat with the rest of our friends..far away from the wreckage if you hadn't done that. Why did you do it?”

Your eyes teared up as he questioned you ..

“Because you came for me first, remember?” you caressed his cheek with your fingers as you answered him even though it wasn't the complete truth.

“I was right next to you. I didn't't do you any favor. What you did was risky and life threatening..you could have died” his grip around your waist tightened as if he was afraid of losing you like that.

“No regrets..i..think about that moment a lot..that one fraction of a second where I see myself standing on the top of the deck with our friends and thinking if I had made a different choice.. the one where i never ran after you and that thought scares me because..i picture you all alone on that Island and it breaks my heart..” his own eyes welled up as tears rolled down your cheeks, his lips wiped those tears away and he picked up his pace again.

Every inch of his presence was burning with constant hunger for you, he was all inside you at the moment then how come he was still not satisfied? How come he still felt so hollow as if he wasn't already submerged so deeply into you?

He has been in love before and it wasn't a fleeting sort of love either but what he was feeling in the moment was something so magically profound, a feeling he had never really experienced before.

That wasn't it though, what astonished him was the fact that he never wanted to experience this again with anyone else either, he wanted you to be it, from now to the end.

As he came so suddenly inside you, your walls clamped around him and milked every drop of cum he had to offer. Your mind felt hazy as you convulsed against him, everytime he made you cum you felt your soul leaving your body for a moment.

You were still soaking in the orgasmic bliss when he took you to the bedroom and laid you down on the bed, after cleaning himself up he came back with a wet napkin to clean you thoroughly, then he went into the living room to grab your panties.

“Do you need me to change the pad sweetheart?” he asked you softly so you denied,

“No, I have hardly bled on it” he proceeded to pull it up your legs. On the island you were using the same two pieces of clothes every month, you'd wash the other one and Daemon would keep it in the sun to disinfect it as much as possible, sometimes the life you lived on the island didn't even feel real, it felt like a nightmare or a dream depending on the situation.

“Had Dinner?” He asked you as he laid down next to you so you shook your head “Want me to cook?” He questioned, making you giggle in response.

“You can cook?”

“I have fed you that slightly charred fish for months.. of course I cook”

Before you could answer him he received a call from Cole, they were at Lily's place to check up on her and he was surprised that Daemon wasn't tending to her needs on hands and feet.

“Don't you think you're being a bit of an arse?” Cole said to him on the phone and Daemon excused himself away from you as he didn't want to have this conversation in front of you.

“What are you on about mate?” He asked Cole as his jaw clenched, he didn't really appreciate the snarky tone Cole was using with him.

“She's hurt and crying..come on..it's Lily..your Lily” Cole reminded him as if it was something Daemon could ever forget.. Daemon and Lily, that's how people always knew them together but he wasn't the same man anymore.

“I took her to the hospital and brought her back home..what else am i supposed to do?” he asked Cole in a frustrated voice, he didn't want to get tangled into her selfish mess again, not when life had something so precious and selfless to offer to him. Only a fool would let go of a woman like you, he wanted to move on from that failed relationship and explore the depth of this thing between you two.

“She's not wrong you know..You have changed man..” Cole chuckled and it only angered him further.

“Yeah well live on a fucking uninhabited island for months and then preach to me” he hung up the phone and when he turned around you were leaning against the bedroom door with a small comforting smile on your face.

“You should go check on her..she's hurt”

“Oh..I'll go but you're coming with me”

“Daemon –”

“Just come..let's just tell them about us yeah?”

“Us?” You asked him so he walked towards you and placed his arms on your sides, you had no option but to look up at his tall frame.

“Us..me and you..Us” you bit on your lips as he said that, he had a way of making you feel all flushed and warm with his words, one of the reasons why you were even attracted to him in the first place.

“Okay…Calm down cavemon” he was huffing and puffing about something so you traced your fingers over his chest, the half unopened shirt gave you plenty to play with.

“Doesn't it bother you? The way they're treating us? The way everyone is treating us?” he spoke solemnly so you sighed deeply as you truly resonated with the frustration he felt regarding the matter.

“Treating us as if we have just returned from a long isolated vacation? Yes it does bother me” you cupped his cheeks to make him look at you “But it's not their fault, they won't understand..for them the ship sinking was the worst of it all and it was a huge trauma in itself and they went on with their lives thinking that we were dead. But we aren't, we are back.. alive and well..so it's as if nothing had ever happened to us, they think we suffered the same as they did but it's not the same and it won't be the same. But you can't expect them to understand that. We ate fruits and fish everyday and slept on the bed of leaves..they hear those details of our survival and they think it was easy and that's okay..let them think that we had it easy”

He placed his forehead down on yours as you finished speaking, your soft soothing voice melted in his ears like honey.

“Are you always this wise?”

“Mmmhm” you smiled before you kissed him softly “Do you feel betrayed by Lily? Is it anger that's making you drift away from her?”

“Not her first time when she looked out for herself only. She was scared when she realized what was happening on the ship..I understand that..it's just hurtful that I didn't cross her mind even once”

“I'd feel the same way”

He didn't want to go see her tonight so while he attempted to cook you grabbed those poor flowers and placed them in a vase as you mumbled softly apologies to the mother nature for the disrespect, then you cuddled him on the bed to make him feel better. Daemon, not the flowers.

However, you awoke in the middle of the night to the sound of Daemon's pen scratching the paper. Despite your curiosity, you refrained from disturbing him, assuming he was in the midst of writing a song or a piece of music. So you simply snuggled closer to him, taking comfort in his presence as you drifted back to sleep.

It was surreal having no jobs but having all that money that would feed you well even if you never work again. It wasn't really the employment you needed but the passion for the art you felt so strongly about before your life changed so drastically..

The following day, much to your displeasure you went to go see Lily with Emma but you could tell she wasn't at all happy about your presence there and as soon as you had stepped inside her house you regretted your silly decision of coming here, you two would never become friends, even more so now that you were with Daemon. As Emma excused herself to go make coffee the air around you both tensed even more.

“Thanks for the flowers..they're my favorite” she said to you as she grabbed a cigarette. The way Daemon spoke about her you really thought she was against his smoking.

“I know.. Daemon told me..i hope you're feeling better” she smiled as you mentioned him.

“Of Course he knows me more than anyone..Do you mind or want one?” she pointed towards the cigarette so you denied.

“No and no..thank you though” you gave her a polite smile in the hope that Emma would return soon and rescue you from this uncomfortable situation.

“Look y/n..I like you and I feel for you..that tragedy was hard on all of us but me and Daemon..we are like soulmates. People come and go..but in the end it's me and him for each other. I'm telling you all this because I don't want you to get hurt by him eventually and then end up hating me for the rest of your life” she spoke softly. Despite her gentle tone, you felt the jab of her words and the dismissive attitude towards your relationship with Daemon.

“Okay ummm..maybe you should talk to him about this because I don't think he's on the same page as you anymore”

You mumbled as politely as you could as you didn't really want to offend her in her own space and her well crafted delusions but it was apparent that your words had bothered her greatly..

Her smile dissipated for a moment but she quickly recovered and gave you a sly retort. And then she said something to you that hurt you to the core especially after what he had said to you last night about you and him being Us.

“I don't think so..i don't think he'd have made love to me last night if he wasn't on the same page as me..he's just upset but he'll get over it.. he's my Daemon i know him”

👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀

Note : Raise your hands if you think she lying.

Taglist

@mcufan72 @123forgottherest @shuichiakainx @stupidthoughtsinwriting @tmlbdv

@ammo23

[humaforever]

A kiss underwater for Huma, I feel like they'd have fun with it. Is Harry drowning? Well maybe but do you think he cares??

Yay I wrote a thing. I took the "Harry might be drowning" bit very seriously. Enjoy!

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

Well, they were swimming. But like usual, now they were kissing. It's called multitasking, because they were still in the water, they were still swimming. Just, with kissing now.

Harry found himself being supported by Uma, her tentacles wrapping around him as she kissed him tentatively. His fingers caressing her soft arms, as his mouth moved to her neck. They slowly started to sink below the water. Uma losing focus to stay above the surface, lost in the blissful feeling of the kisses.

Harry moved his lips back to her mouth, realizing that his oxygen was going away. He hoped to gain some air by using Uma's breath, or however the fuck that worked. Well, it wasn't working, Harry was pretty sure he was swallowing water, but whatever. Uma bit down on his lip, making him lose all train of thought as he gasped. Except there was no air to gasp on, and the amount of sea water he was ingesting was making him feel a little dizzy.

Harry was either losing consciousness or he was just so lost in Uma's kiss that he forgot how to function. It was probably the second one. Though he couldn't explain why his movements were becoming so much slower and sloppy. It was probably just... Well he wasn't sure, something to do with Uma probably, because he was so enchanted by her and what not. Yeah definitely.

That was the last thing he remembered before he passed out.

That didn't last long though. At least as far as he was concerned. Next thing he knew he was laying in the sand, and hey Uma was still kissing him! Except she was also pounding on his chest really uncomfortably with her hands. Some would call this CPR, Harry would call it being lucky that Uma was touching him and putting her lips on his. That was disrupted by the fact that he felt like he was going to throw up though.

Harry jerked suddenly, leaning to the side as he coughed up large amounts of water. Uma sighed in relief, sitting on her knees and watching him.

"What happened?" Uma questioned

"What do you mean? We were having a good time?" Harry said confused, still choking slightly

"No I mean, you started drowning. That wasn't supposed to happen, I was using my magic so you could breathe" Uma said

"Well, I think you may have gotten a little distracted" Harry said smirking

Uma looked away embarrassed

"If the curiosity of your tentacles was anything to go by" Harry continued

Uma shook her head

"You were getting pretty touchy as I recall" Harry flirted

Uma snorted out a laugh "Shut up! Weren't you just dying like two seconds ago?"

"Yeah but then this beautiful goddess of a woman saved me, which was really hot by the way. So Hades is just going to have to try harder to get my soul. Harry said

"I don't think he wants your soul" Uma commented

"That's his loss. People would pay good money for that" Harry said

Uma quirked her brow "You're so weird"

"And you're the one who's always making out with me, so I don't know what that says about you" Harry smiled

Uma laughed again, feeling the sand beneath her fingers. She moved to Harry's side and laid next to him, placing her hand on his chest. Harry grinned brightly, wrapping his arms around her.

"Hey, don't scare me like that again. If you're drowning please swim to the surface" Uma told him

"But you were busy, and I was having fun " Harry said. Uma clearly didn't realize what was important here.

"No 'but's' Harry. I do need to remember that you can't stay under water as long as me though" Uma said

"I can" Harry insisted

"Oh yeah? Since when" Uma said sarcastically

"Since I decided I don't really need air" Harry said

"Clearly" Uma said, recalling how she had to drag his limp body out of the water because he supposedly didn't need oxygen anymore. "I'm serious Harry. Have some concern for your safety"

"Fine" Harry said

Uma wasn't sure she believed him. But that was a bigger problem for another day. They laid on the beach in silence, enjoying the feeling of the skin to skin contact. Uma smiled looking up at Harry.

"So... You wanna go for a swim?" He asked

Uma's smile fell.

[primatechnosynthpop]

Losing My Mind In This Isolation- Part 2 of 3

[Part 1]

The cameras went off, the lights in the recording booth went down, and the scientist with horn-rimmed glasses clapped. "Well done," she said. "Another timeless episode in the bag."

"Why do you keep saying 'another'?" Ryan muttered, massaging his pounding head as he took a few shaky steps away from the greenscreen backdrop. His legs gave out before he could get far, and he faceplanted onto the rough concrete floor. With all the drugs coursing through his system he barely felt the impact, and he raised his head to continue his thought as though there'd been no interruption. "This was the first time I've done that."

"Oh, please, not this again," the light-haired scientist sighed. Bending down, she pulled back Ryan's hair to remove his earpiece and microphone, handling the equipment delicately and Ryan himself not so much. "We keep telling you, you've been doing this for more than five years now!"

That didn't sound right, but Ryan didn't feel well enough to argue. He lay there, eyes twitching out of control in their sockets with his other muscles periodically joining in, and made no attempt to get up. Lying down like this wasn't so bad. The floor was cool. He was too hot under all those lights, with the makeup they'd smeared all over him and this heavy black suit they'd stuffed him into. Sweat coated every inch of his body, and each breath he took was its own undertaking. But he did it! Just like the scientists told him, he got up there and acted out the role of TV psychic. An unusual test, but that was fine. It was a nice break from the same room, same chair, same restraints every day. Best of all, they'd given him a proper shower beforehand, brushed his hair and teeth, and even lent him these new clothes. Even lying on this dirty floor, he felt cleaner than he had all week.

"Alright, get up," one of the scientists-- he thought the one with glasses, but all of Ryan's senses were a bit distorted, like he was underwater-- barked, grabbing his arms and hoisting him to his feet. "At least take the suit off if you're going to laze around. You're getting it dirty."

"Oh," was all Ryan could manage.

He swayed on his feet, still not quite in command of his body, while the two scientists stripped him down. Once he was naked, someone tossed a dirty hospital gown in his face. It took a few moments for him to remember it was his, and he was supposed to put it on. It closed a little tighter at the back these days (he'd asked about getting more regular meals and they chided that a TV star like him had to watch his weight) but his shaky hands couldn't manage to tie a knot. Luckily one of the scientists stepped in to help.

"Ah, the life of a world-famous TV star, eh?" The scientist closest to him patted his head, and he leaned into the touch with an involuntary whimper. "Always getting waited on hand and foot."

"All the drugs you've been taking at parties aren't good for you, though," the other chimed in. "That must be what's been messing with your memory."

Without him realizing, a pair of arms had locked around his torso, and now a needle slid into his thigh. He coughed, a queasy flutter in his stomach, then promptly went slack and blacked out.

***

A scientist Ryan hadn't met before held his jaw open, poked a pill into his mouth, and forcefully moved his jaw up and down to make him chew it. He nearly gagged at the bitter taste, moreso because it was the only thing he'd ingested all day. Behind him, another scientist held Ryan in place with an arm around his throat which tightened ever so slightly when he hesitated. This latest experiment, keeping Ryan awake by giving him concentrated caffeine pills, meant he couldn't be sedated, so the staff fell back on cruder methods of keeping him in line-- but he couldn't say those methods weren't effective.

Ryan swallowed the pill with a grimace, already feeling his pulse build up speed again after it had just been starting to lapse back into a normal rhythm. They'd been at this for 24 hours already and he'd almost gone numb to the migraine. He just didn't know if he was supposed to be shivering so much.

"Yeah, there's a good psychic," the scientist who gave the pill crooned, fingers continuing to pinch Ryan's chin longer and with a firmer grip than necessary. "We'll be back in a few hours; you know the drill."

He bobbed his head obediently; the movement came out more rapid than intended, which just made him dizzy. The arm eased off his throat and the two scientists left, leaving Ryan to his devices or lack thereof. Testing wouldn't be for another 12 hours. Until then it was just him and the hornets' nest that seemed to have taken up residence in his skull.

After several minutes of pacing in circles, he stopped at the sink to try to rinse the pill's taste out of his mouth. While splashing cold water on his face he noticed congealed blood from his last nosebleed still matting his mustache. His facial hair was getting longer, making it more of a hassle to clean, and the blood he scraped out got caught under his overgrown fingernails, which meant he then had to clean them too. It was a whole ordeal, but it gave him something to do in these moments when he was alone with himself-- whatever "himself" was.

"So, are you looking forward to filming another episode this weekend?"

Ryan imagined the question coming from the poster above his cot. The fact he was imagining this didn't surprise him-- if anything, it struck him as inevitable. "I suppose I am," he answered after thinking it over for a moment. "If it's anything like last time, I'll get a nice bath first. Those are hard to come by around here."

"Oh, I know," he imagined his posterized self responding. Its voice in his head resembled a recorded version of his own, tinny like the scientists running tests through their speakers. "I'm sure looking forward to it myself. I've always loved being a TV star."

"I wouldn't say I love it." Content that his face was as clean as it was going to get, Ryan shut the tap off and watched the rose-tinted water spiral down the drain. "I still don't like being here, you know. I'm just trying to look on the bright side."

"Oh, but our job is so much fun! And it is our job, remember-- just read the words above my head again. I'm your psychic friend!"

"Well, psychic or not, you're no friend of mine," Ryan said decisively. "And I'll never be you. Not really. It's all just an act."

With that he shook his hands dry and stepped back from the sink. Though there was no mirror to look into, he took a moment to examine himself. The swelling at the back of his neck had finally gone down enough for him to identify the raised area as a number branded into his skin. 09, if he wasn't mistaken. Little white bandaids peppered his arms and legs; behind each one was a pinprick surrounded by a bruise. He ran his fingers through his beard and wondered if the staff would trim it before the next show.

"So concerned with appearances," the poster's imaginary voice rang through his head. "You really are a TV star, letting fame go to your head."

"Shut up," Ryan hissed.

"Soon you'll probably forget all about your old life. Or did you even have an old life to begin with?"

"I said shut up!"

"Face it, Ryan. Everything you knew is a lie. A psychic is the only worthwhile thing you are, so you might as well embrace it."

Ryan grabbed the soap bottle off the side of the sink and lobbed it at the poster. It hit the wall instead, spurting out its slimy pink contents all over the cot. The version of him in the poster just grinned away, mocking him.

***

"Sorry, but Ryan Murphy isn't in right now," a woman's silky prerecorded voice crackled through the phone. "Call again on Sunday night, 4 PM to 7 PM. We'll be waiting to hear from you."

Neil lowered his cellular phone as the voice message ended, eyes stormy. "So if we call tonight, that'll be our chance to talk to Ryan," he summarized. "But we'll have to be quick, so other callers don't snatch him up first."

Kevin nodded slowly, struggling to take in the information. "...Well, if they're waiting to hear from us, maybe Ryan knows the call is coming and they're saving us a spot," he suggested hopefully.

"Maybe," Neil echoed without much enthusiasm.

He lowered himself into the chair next to Kevin's, placing the phone facedown on the table and slumping over with his head rested on his folded arms. The two sat in silence for a moment, the only sound the ticking of the clock reminding them of every second spent not knowing where Ryan was. They'd held off on finishing their webisode for the first week he was gone in hopes he'd come back, only to run out of time and have to scramble to meet the studio's deadline. What they'd uploaded to http://hollywoodeasttv.com earlier that week had been a half-finished product, missing so much of what made their earlier work great.

Kevin broke the silence before it became too much to take. "I still say there's a chance it was special effects. You know Ryan; he's into dark stuff like that. He could've put it in as a joke."

Neil sighed softly, a vaguely guilty look passing over his features, and shook his head.

"Normally I'd agree with you, Kevin, but... there's something I should tell you. After your football game, I snuck into Ryan's house to take a look around." He reached into his back pocket and drew out a crumpled piece of paper that looked like it had been torn up and taped back together. Kevin's brow furrowed as Neil pressed the paper into his hand. "The blankets on his bed were all messed up, and a bunch of stuff in his room was knocked over. I found this in the trash."

It was definitely Ryan's handwriting. Kevin had to squint to decipher the scrawling cursive that fell halfway between 19th-century noble and possessed horror movie child, and the page being all creased and taped up wasn't helping. When he pieced together the message, his heart first rose and then quickly sank.

Dear Von Reuter Psychic Institute,

Thank you so much for your consideration. I'm thrilled that you considered me for your program. Sadly, after a long and careful consideration, I'm afraid I'm not the best fit for your program at this time. I'm sure it's a wonderful program, but I already have a well-paying and fulfilling job that keeps me busy, and two very good friends who help me with that job. I wouldn't want to leave them behind, because I know they'd be hopeless without me. Thank you for understanding. I'm sure you'll find plenty of other eager candidates to fill your program.

Best wishes, Ryan Murphy.

The paper trembled in Kevin's hand, threatening to rip anew in his white-knuckled grasp. "I don't get it," he muttered, even though deep down he was scared he did. "He turned them down, so why...?"

Beside him, Neil bit his lip and looked away, fingers pressing into his knees hard enough to bruise. He'd stayed impressively stoic while playing back that voicemail message, but now his face crumpled until he was visibly on the verge of tears.

"Kevin, I think they kidnapped him." His words were barely a whisper, and immediately Kevin felt bad for being too afraid to voice that conclusion himself and make Neil spell it out. But to his credit, Neil rubbed a hand across his face and quickly regained composure before going on. "I looked for the Von Reuter Psychic Institute online but I couldn't find anything besides the hotline. That's why we've gotta call Ryan, to find out where he is and if he's okay."

And so, at 4 PM on the dot, Kevin grabbed his trusty landline off the hook and dialed the number. He was the designated caller not for his phone etiquette (though he did pride himself on diplomacy), but because Neil was occupied with some kind of fancy machine he'd set up next to the phone to trace the call. The first few times they tried calling, the line was already busy. Kevin waited breathlessly through each ring of the phone and groaned at each busy signal. A few minutes in, Neil flipped on the TV so they could watch the broadcast live and know when Ryan was between callers-- though they both tried not to watch too closely when he started convulsing. Finally, at almost halfway through the program's timeslot, their call got picked up.

"Ryan Murphy, your psychic friend!"

The voice in his ear sounded so wrong. For all that he and Neil may have shuddered at their friend's creepy tendencies, this fake cheer was far more disturbing. Kevin swallowed down the twisting sensation in his gut and, as per Neil's suggestion, tried to affect a fake accent so the institute wouldn't know who he was.

"Um, hi, Ryan. How are you feeling tonight? You doing okay?"

He watched the TV screen while Ryan spoke into his ear. The two were out of sync, like a bad cartoon dub Neil had shown him once. Ryan's eyes widened slightly in a delayed reaction to his voice, and Kevin's heart sped up as he wondered if his friend could see through the phony accent.

"I, uh-- I'm doing great, thanks for asking!" Unless the broadcast was falling more out of sync by the second, it took him a few moments too long to shape his face into a smile. "So, what mysteries of the universe can I reveal for you tonight?"

"Okay, so, I'm a big fan of your program, and I was wondering, where's it filmed? If you could just tell me the exact address, I was thinking it'd be great if I could..."

He trailed off as he realized the line had gone dead. They hung up on him! Stomach sinking, Kevin glanced at Neil, who solemnly shook his head-- no luck tracing the call. The broadcast cut from a wide shot of Ryan looking around in confusion to stock footage of galaxies as an unfamiliar narrator voice cut in.

"Sorry about that, folks-- not even the great Ryan Murphy can always see prank calls coming. We'll be back in just a moment with more legitimate callers."

"Prank calls, schmank calls," Kevin spat, already punching in the number again. "I'll show you..."

But the phone didn't even get through a full ring before it seemed to suddenly hang up on itself. Neil shook his head, dismay written across his face. "I think they blocked your number, Kevin." Then he held up his cellphone, the same one he'd used to demonstrate the phone number earlier that afternoon. "Good thing we've still got this."

But by then the broadcast had cut back to Ryan talking to someone else. They tried calling a dozen more times, but it seemed like no matter how nimbly Neil's fingers raced across the keys, they were always a second too slow. They didn't get through to Ryan again that night. Just like before, they could only sit and watch him suffer live on air.

***

On a day that began like any other, the pieces of Ryan's already thoroughly shattered world were turned on their head. He was pacing in his cell, muttering little stories to himself to stave off boredom, when he heard the familiar clip of approaching footsteps. Ryan stopped and stood still, bracing himself for the latest round of testing. He'd cooperate this time, he decided, rubbing his neck and recalling the sting of a needle that had missed the vein on the first few attempts. The footsteps stopped outside his door, followed by a series of soft beeps as the scientist entered a combination on the keypad, and Ryan's door unlocked with a muffled click.

"Okay, you should know the drill by now..."

Ryan's heart skipped a beat at the familiar voice. When the door opened and the dark-haired young man stepped through, he nearly broke down crying right there. Drawing in a shaky breath, he broke into a grin so wide his bottom lip split and a thin trickle of blood spilled out along with his joyous cry.

"Kevin!!"

"Huh?" Kevin looked startled when Ryan ran to tackle him in an embrace. He stumbled back upon receiving said embrace and did not return it; rather, much to Ryan's confusion, shoved him off to hold him at arm's length. "Hey, woah, I don't know what this is about, but I don't swing that way."

"What? Of course not, that's not-- I was just... glad to see you..." Ryan trailed off into a confused mumble, brow creasing, and looked the man who stood before him up and down. Although he wore a labcoat like all the scientists at the institute, the face was unmistakable. But Kevin was looking back at him the way one might look at a chained dog that barked when you walked past it. Gulping down a stir of apprehension, Ryan stepped away from his friend and addressed him in a hushed tone. "How did you get here? Is Neil here too?"

Kevin blinked, no recognition showing on his face at first, then slowly nodded. "Right, yeah, Neil, uh..." He tilted his head back and rubbed his chin with his other hand resting on his hip. "He's just waiting for us down the hall." His nodding picked up pace; he seemed more sure of himself now. Ryan still wasn't sure what to make of his friend's strange behavior, but then Kevin dropped his hands to his sides and flashed him the confident smirk he knew so well, and just like that all his worries were pushed aside. "So, just come with me and I'll take you right to Neil, and then we can get out of here. Sound good?"

Ryan nodded vigorously. He reached for Kevin's hand as they moved in stride out the door, but Kevin grabbed his wrist instead. He couldn't deny the faint pang of disappointment that his friend was acting so cagey about physical affection, because he really could have used some, but oh well. That was all about to be behind him. He practically waltzed down the hallway, forcing Kevin to jog to keep ahead of his eager strides. To think his time at the institute was over so soon-- but he sure wouldn't miss the place! Why, he could almost smell the fresh air already.

They rounded a corner and Kevin came to a stop in front of a small glassed-off room, where a scientist stood waiting in the hall with a clipboard and a stopwatch. Ryan's stomach sank. His first thought was that they'd been caught, and their escape plan was foiled. Then Kevin and the scientist with the stopwatch nodded to each other, and Kevin, tightening his grip on Ryan's wrist, pulled him toward the testing room.

"No..." Ryan whispered, shaking his head.

He didn't want to believe it. Looking over his shoulder, he was sure the path they'd taken wasn't the same route he'd walked or been dragged along half-conscious every day since ending up here. It wasn't even the same room. This one housed a table where a boxy machine with switches sat, and the chair had extra pieces hooked to the machine. But he was led to that chair and strapped down to it just like any other time. The restraints, which Ryan had almost grown used to, dug into his swollen flesh all the tighter when fastened by familiar hands. And he understood. Kevin hadn't come to rescue him. He was just carrying out his job as an employee at the Von Reuter Psychic Institute.

"We've noticed some adverse effects to the stimulants," a clipped voice crackled through the speaker. "So we're going to try a different method of expanding your capabilities. Let's start with a simple question: which participant in next year's top-rated reality show will die first, and how?"

With no stimulants in his system and a glaring distraction before him, it took effort to answer, but with a bit of pained thrashing Ryan caught a glimpse of a future tabloid headline and choked out the words.

"Very good. And can you tell me what regrets they'll die with?"

He couldn't. It was on the tip of his tongue, just out of reach, but his brain was already pounding so hard that he felt like his skull might physically implode under any more strain. He admitted this, and the scientist gave a new order-- not to him, but to the assistant.

"Alright, hook him up. Let's start with a low voltage."

The words put Ryan's hairs on end. Looking at that strange machine again, he got the chilling feeling he knew what it was for. The assistant scientist-- the one who looked like Kevin-- grabbed a set of nodes connected to the machine and hooked them to Ryan's temples. When he came in close enough, Ryan hissed into his ear.

"You're not Kevin. Who are you?"

The scientist raised his eyebrows. "What do you mean? Of course I'm this Kevin guy. You just got a little confused about what our relationship is."

"Alright then," he challenged, "If you're really him, then where's Neil?"

"I don't know anybody with that name." The scientist didn't look up to return Ryan's accusatory gaze as he reached into his labcoat pocket and took out a wooden block. "You probably just made him up. My bosses said your memory is messed up pretty bad."

"Well, I don't believe-- mmph!"

Ryan's retort was cut off when the scientist jabbed the block between his teeth. He tried to spit it out, but the man held it in place with one hand. With the other he reached back and pressed a button on the machine. It hummed to life, and he waited a few seconds before flipping a switch. Ryan knew what was going to happen but couldn't quite wrap his head around it until a short but searing jolt coursed through him. His body spasmed and for a moment his senses whited out. He wanted to scream but couldn't around the wooden block, which his teeth dug into hard enough to leave splinters on his tongue. But for a split-second his brain lit up and he knew the answer.

"She regrets never trying to repair her relationship with her aunt," he gasped when the scientist pulled the block out of his mouth.

"Very good! Now, tell me, will anyone involved in the show's production feel any guilt over this incident? If so, why, and will they do anything about it?"

Once again Ryan tried, and again he came up empty. He wondered if it was because they hadn't given him stimulants in a couple days. Had he really grown dependent on the drugs so fast? When he failed to come up with an answer, they shocked him again at a higher setting. This time the jolt and accompanying seizure made Ryan's stomach lurch violently and it felt like a hole was being burned in his mind. Rinse and repeat with more questions.

After a few shocks he began to wonder what was happening and how he'd gotten there. The last thing he remembered was getting up that morning. Something flashed through Ryan's mind as Kevin reached for a switch on the machine-- not a vision, but an exchange from when he was first discovering his powers. That seemed so long ago now.

"Kevin, wait!" he blurted around the block in his mouth. "Remember what you said about Ghostbusters! You don't want to be like the guy from Ghostbusters, do you?"

The scientist barked out a sharp, incredulous laugh. "The fuck are you talking about?" He prodded the bite block back in place and flipped another switch whose output nearly stopped Ryan's heart. "I've never even seen Ghostbusters."

***

Mercifully, electric shocks must not have improved Ryan's output enough, because they only tried that once more and then went back to drug injections. That was good, because after being on the stimulants for a week Ryan found he'd come to expect them, and even as he continually flinched away from needles, he'd end up curled on the floor sobbing if he didn't get enough. They were giving him a lower dose now, so he was less likely to get sick from too much in his system. All in all it was about the best outcome he could hope for.

That brought him to the next episode they filmed. His third one, he thought, though everyone else insisted the numbers were well in the hundreds. He wasn't quite sure which to believe as he sat backstage in a trance while the crew dabbed makeup over all his bruises and brightened up the space beneath his eyes. Combing his hair was the hardest part. He'd given up trying to keep it nice, and now each yank of the comb through the mass of tangles made him wince. The staff didn't seem to like it either; he heard a few murmurs exchanged about chopping his hair off and putting him in a wig for the shows going forward.

The suit went on, the earpiece went in, and one last dose of stimulant slipped into his wrist. Ryan stepped into the filming booth and gave the cameras his signature grin. The one he had in the poster.

"Hi, I'm Ryan Murphy, and in a world of enemies I'm here to be your psychic friend. Yes, that's right, I'm offering my support to each and every one of you who needs it-- all for only $4.99 a minute. That's a mere 8 cents a second!"

The first few calls were the usual fare: relationship advice and so on. An awkward teen wanted to know if the girl of his dreams would ever sleep with him, and Ryan warned him that she wouldn't, and on top of that he'd soon lose a body part-- "But don't worry, you'll get it back once you learn your lesson". His first-ever international client asked why his friend had been getting nosebleeds lately and Ryan foresaw a brain cancer diagnosis-- "But it doesn't matter," he rasped when the caller gasped at the news-- "You won't remember this conversation once he changes the timeline!"

Toward the end of the programming block, Ryan was wishing he were less lucid. But he brushed stringy clumps of hair away from his sweat-soaked forehead with a hand that wouldn't stop shaking and pressed on to the next caller.

"Hi, Ryan. I'm a big fan of your work. Um, I was wondering about..."

Ryan went still. The staticky voice in his ear pierced through the fog in his mind and the vision of a familiar face flashed unbidden before him. Before he could stop himself a name left his tongue in what was barely a whisper. "...Neil?"

Silence hung over the booth for a moment. Past the glass, the camera crew exchanged suspicious glances. The person operating the phone line appeared poised to hang up. Ryan's heart thrummed in his chest at an irregular rhythm. He'd been too drugged up to remember much of last week's episode, but this all gave him deja vu.

"...Hah!" The caller's awkward laughter broke the silence, and when he spoke again it was with somewhat more of a southern twang. "Yep, that's my name-- how'd you know? You really are amazing. Neil Smith from Kentucky; that's me."

The caller kept chuckling, and Ryan joined in without being quite sure why. "Ohhh, yes. I knew that, of course." He didn't, really. He thought-- he'd hoped, for a moment-- but no. Don't get distracted; you have a job to do. "So why are you calling, Mr. Smith? If it's just to chat, I'm afraid I'll have to let you go."

"Well, see, I've got this friend who's on a football team, and they lost their last game pretty badly. I was just wondering if they'll win their next game, or if I should give up and bet on someone else."

"Alright, Neil." Ryan let his eyes fall shut and lifted a hand to his temple in preparation for the oncoming headache as he cast his mind through space and time. "Let me guess... is the team's name a type of person? A historical figure... something cultural?"

"Yeah, the Vikings," the caller supplied. Ryan smiled knowingly and nodded; he could have gotten there himself, but it was always nice when clients helped out. It brought back a sense of teamwork that had been sorely missing from his life these past few weeks.

"I thought so. Okay, so for their next game I see them doing pretty well... I think they've got a good shot--" Ryan broke off, voice hitching and neck involuntarily wrenching sideways as the visions flashing through his mind took a violent turn. He sucked in a gasp and managed to keep talking through the bloodstained haze that clouded his perception. "They'll win the game, but at great cost. The quarterback will suffer an injury that leaves him paralyzed."

"Aw, dang..."

"He'll be forced to retire and turn to art therapy to work through his trauma," Ryan went on. He was caught up in the current of visions now, his body tossing itself this way and that, just lucid enough to feel every harsh angle his muscles twisted themselves into. "He'll end up becoming a successful painter and find new meaning in life."

"O-oh, okay. That doesn't sound too bad, then."

"And the running back will be decapitated!"

That last string of words burst out in a dizzying rush and then the visions cut off. Ryan was left out of breath, head and neck muscles twinging painfully... but at least when he swiped his tongue around his upper lip he didn't taste any blood this time. Ryan took a few short deep breaths and straightened up.

"Does that answer your question, Mr. Smith?"

***

"Oh, does it ever," Neil muttered under his breath. Then, into the speaker where Ryan could actually hear him: "Yep, it sure does! Thanks, Ryan Murphy! You sure are a great psychic friend. Remember, a lot of people out there love you, buddy."

His fake accent morphed into more of an old man voice at the end, but by that point they'd already hung up and moved on to the next call. Neil stared at the tacky rhinestone-encrusted rotary emitting its dial tone for a long moment, gripping it as though it were Ryan's hand. On the TV, Ryan talked to another eager caller on mute; the vibrant projected image bounced off Neil's glasses, which slipped low on the bridge of his nose the longer he sat there. Dozens of other phones were piled on the couch and coffee table around him. Beside him, Kevin had been silently holding a nokia halfway to his ear for the last five minutes while Neil talked to Ryan. He lowered it now, adding it to a precarious stack of flip phones on the coffee table.

"...So, what did he say about the game?"

"That doesn't matter," said Neil. "The important thing is I got through to him. Now we wait."

He'd spent much of the past week refreshing search results for the Von Reuter Psychic Institute hoping something new would come up, all the while kicking himself for not asking Ryan about the address he delivered his initial psychic test results to. If only he'd gotten that information when he had the chance-- but how was he supposed to know it was going to end up like this? His searches still yielded no address or other contact information, but besides youtube uploads of Ryan's show and a couple fanpages, he found one new thing: an official website. Gold text on a pink background touted the accuracy of Ryan's predictions, with supposed testimonies from previous callers and a blatantly falsified biography blurb claiming Ryan had worked with them for over five years. But what grabbed Neil's attention-- the only thing that made it worthwhile-- was the blinking rainbow popup that proclaimed:

THIS WEEK ONLY! Call and show your love for Ryan Murphy: your Psychic Friend (tm) to earn the chance for an EXCLUSIVE IN-PERSON INTERVIEW! Calls must be at least 5 minutes long and paid in full for callers to be eligible.

He'd had to read the ad several times to be sure he got it right, and his heart sped up each time his eyes leapt over the words. An in-person interview... that sounded like a chance to see Ryan! And if not, then at least a chance to learn more about the VRPI... but once Neil's hopes were up they ran wild. As far as he was concerned, this was their best shot. Now, with Ryan's voice still ringing in his ears, Neil leapt off the couch and scampered to the kitchen table where his laptop sat. Sure enough, at the top of his inbox was a new email from RMPFfans@VRPI.org that read:

Dear valued caller, congratulations! Now's your chance to meet our staff and appear on the air alongside Ryan Murphy: Psychic Friend (tm) on next week's broadcast. Come to the following address at the listed time and let our film crew know how much you love Ryan Murphy. Click the link below to register. Only registered clients may attend.

PS: In the future, please refrain from using false names and addresses when speaking with Ryan Murphy: Psychic Friend (tm). Incorrect information may impact accuracy of predictions.

"Wow," Kevin said with a vaguely stupefied grin when Neil showed him the email. "You really think they're gonna let us see him?"

"They'd better," Neil scoffed as he set the laptop back down and hunched over it to bring up his bank account info. "I'm not paying these creeps twenty-five bucks for nothing."

***

Even after seeing the first episode played to a packed stadium and fighting tooth and nail to place a call amidst all the others coming in, somehow Neil couldn't quite believe Ryan's show was that popular until he saw all the cars parked outside the warehouse. It just felt wrong. Couldn't these people tell the man behind the screen was suffering? Didn't they notice the spasms and nosebleeds? What was wrong with everyone?

Kevin stalled his truck beside the curb after not finding any available spots left and patted Neil's arm like a parent dropping their kid off at school. "Alright, good luck. And hey, if you can't get Ryan out of that hellhole..." His voice dropped a few decibels, sadness softening his eyes. "Tell him I said hi?"

Neil nodded. He didn't think his phone call with Ryan had been anything to envy, but he knew Kevin regretted blowing his own chance to talk to their friend. But with any luck, none of that would matter after today. Neil would find a way to free Ryan, and they could all go home together.

The entryway of the warehouse was packed with fans discussing in hushed tones what drew them to Ryan Murphy: Psychic Friend; whether or not they really believed Ryan Murphy had powers; how cute they thought he was. Neil hung toward the back and shifted uncomfortably, ears burning. He had to bite down on his tongue when a teenage girl confidently proclaimed she was going to ask Ryan to marry her. Neil had worn a hoodie to avoid being recognized, but he regretted that now, as it was already warm inside the warehouse and moreso with all these people shuffling around. He had half a mind to throw caution to the wind, rip his hoodie off and charge through the crowd proclaiming these Von Reuter Psychic Institute people had better show him Ryan now or else.

The line moved at a glacial pace down a long hall toward a set of unmarked doors. Someone was leaving as Neil's group approached, and after a muttered remark he didn't catch, disappointed murmurs rippled through the line. Neil's brow creased and he glanced anxiously around as several people split off and trudged back toward the exit.

"Um, excuse me..." He tapped the young woman ahead of him on the shoulder and she glanced back at him with a hum-- "Did you hear what that guy said to make everyone start leaving?"

The woman nodded, face pulled into a grimace. "Oh, yeah. Apparently Ryan Murphy isn't actually here, and this isn't where they film the show or anything. We're just supposed to talk in front of a film crew about how great he is."

Neil cursed under his breath. He should have known it wouldn't be so easy. In the pocket of his hoodie, his hands clenched into fists, freshly trimmed nails digging into his palms. Don't give up, he told himself. This is still a chance to get info.

"And that sucks, because I really wanted to thank Ryan Murphy in person," the woman went on. "His advice got me out of a bad relationship. See, I'd just gotten engaged to this guy who seemed really nice, but I'd only been on one proper date with him, so I called the psychic hotline to ask if we were really meant to last. Ryan told me Scott was cheating on me with some other woman, and he'd gotten her pregnant and everything."

"...Oh, wow," said Neil lamely. He only processed some of that, caught up as he was in his own angst, but the woman had turned to face him and there were still several people left ahead of them in line, so it looked like he was officially engaged in conversation. After a beat he stuck out his hand for a shake. "So what's your name? I'm Neil."

"Lauren," she supplied. Her handshake was tight and energetic, and her smile possessed an almost sisterly quality. "What about you? What did Ryan Murphy help you out with?"

"Uh, all sorts of things, really..." Neil wracked his brain for a moment-- he supposed he could just say the thing he'd pretended to call about, but he'd already forgotten what that even was. "One time I was looking for some treasure, and Ryan helped me find it."

Lauren's eyebrows rose at that. "Ohh, that's... interesting. You know, I have half a mind to track down the woman Scott cheated on me with and give her Ryan's number too," she went on with renewed vigor, largely skipping over what Neil said. "It's not her fault my ex-fiancé is a two-timer. She deserves to know what's happening too, and Ryan Murphy can give her that."

Those words settled uneasily with Neil. For a moment, looking into the glimmering eyes of a client whose life had been fixed through Ryan's psychic advice, he almost wondered if it was so bad a tradeoff. Ryan was on television with loads of loyal fans, he was getting the chance to put his incredible abilities to work, and he was helping people in their community. Maybe Neil and Kevin could even use their connection to Ryan to further propel their own fame, now that the popularity of this psychic show seemed to have surpassed their own webisodes. Couldn't that be a good thing?

Then he remembered the strain in Ryan's voice when he made his predictions; the way his head jerked around like he was possessed and blood ran in streaks down his flushed face. Neil's stomach clenched at the memory and resolve settled over him anew. No, he thought. Even if Ryan's predictions could bring about world peace and cure every known disease, it wouldn't be worth it for him to suffer like that.

They were almost at the front of the line now. A dark-haired woman with horn-rimmed glasses and a bored demeanor ushered a giggling teenager out of the interview room. Another VRPI employee came up and draped herself against the first, mumbling something about these rabid fans being a pain to work with, to which the first employee responded something like "If only they knew what we do to him when the cameras are off..."

"Oh, they'd throw a fit," the lighter-haired employee giggled. "That'd be fun to watch."

Overhearing this exchange made Neil bristle, but it also gave him an idea. He turned back to Lauren with a smirk playing around his lips.

"Hey, you wanna talk to Ryan in person, right? I bet some of the staff here know where he is." Lauren's eyes lit up at that. Encouraged, Neil leaned in closer and dropped into a whisper. "So if you get me that information, through any means necessary, I'll give you his personal number."

Lauren clamped both hands over her mouth to stifle a squeal; Neil grimaced at the noise so close to his ears. "Oh my god. Promise?"

He nodded solemnly, holding out an extended pinky finger. "I swear on my best friend's ashes." (She didn't need to know that said friend was waiting for him outside as they spoke.)

They shook on it, and when Lauren headed into the interview room she locked eyes with him and mouthed "I won't let you down". Neil gave her a salute in response. Fifteen minutes later, she came back out and slipped a folded-up piece of paper from her sleeve into his hoodie pocket. Excitement sparked in Neil when his fingers brushed against the frayed edges of the paper, but he couldn't let it show. He was too close to the door now to turn around without raising suspicion. Finding out what this piece of paper was and how Lauren had gotten it could wait.

In the honestly underwhelming interview room, the employees directed him to sit in a plastic chair against a greenscreen backdrop. It became like getting a school picture taken, with directions on which way to face and what expression to make (in this case, full of awe at Ryan's psychic abilities). A dark-haired man was bent over a camera, adjusting something. When he straightened up and announced they were rolling, Neil did a double take.

"Kevin?!"

The cameraman quirked an eyebrow in an expression that was the spitting image of his friend-- but it wasn't him, clearly. Sweat dripped down the back of Neil's neck under the employees' questioning stares and he scrambled to backpedal.

"...Kevin was the murderer? I don't believe it! That's what I said when Ryan Murphy told me who killed my father. But it's true, and now the case is finally laid to rest!" He punctuated his babbling with a finger jabbed triumphantly in the air. "So thanks, Ryan Murphy!"

"...Alright, kid," the cameraman said, and man it was weird to hear such a familiar voice address him like that. "How about you tone it down a notch. Just tell us how much you trust Ryan's predictions."

"Right, yeah." Neil cleared his throat and adjusted his bangs. "Well, yes, of course... I trust Ryan Murphy..."

He rattled off the generic speech he'd practiced beforehand, but his focus kept drifting back to the cameraman. The whole time he and Kevin-- the real one-- had been trying to figure out where Ryan was, their plan hadn't gotten much further than "go to where they're keeping Ryan and bust him out". Any smaller details were a bridge they could cross when they came to it. But now, looking at this VRPI employee who was identical to Kevin, the beginnings of a real plan took shape in Neil's mind. It was going to be risky. But it just might be the only way to save Ryan.

***

"We've got a bit of a different test lined up for you today," a voice came through the speaker. Ryan thought he recognized it as the man who'd run his first test. Like coming full circle-- how quaint. "You'll notice that my lovely assistants are standing in a different position than usual."

Indeed, those two scientists who tended to work as a unit, one with horn-rimmed glasses and the other with dirty-blonde hair, stood facing Ryan rather than behind him or to the side. (He'd tried asking some of the scientists their names. Nobody ever told him. At most they'd giggle and say he should already know, since they'd been working together so long.) Neither held syringes that he could see. Instead, as Ryan looked on in mounting dread, the two women each drew out a thin metal rod and advanced on him in step.

"You must direct your psychic abilities outward to convince them not to harm you," the voice from the speaker instructed. "Starting in three, two, one..."

The scientist with the glasses drew her rod back and slapped Ryan across the face before he could manage to form a complete thought, let alone figure out projecting it into someone else's brain. It wasn't a hard impact, but it stung. He wheezed, head turned to the side from the blow, and ran his tongue around the inside of his mouth to check that no teeth had been dislodged. In his periphery he saw the second rod coming at him. He squeezed his eyes shut and thought as hard as he could.

Leave me alone. Don't hit me.

Whack! A second blow knocked Ryan's head back the other way. He bit back a whimper and tried again. Stop. Put those down. Go away. He even mouthed the words as they formed in his mind, hoping it would act like a spell to make them stronger. (Oh, he missed performing rituals. That was something he'd almost forgotten. There were no ingredients for magic here besides the food, and those meals were infrequent enough that he didn't dare waste a crumb.)

"Oh, wow, did you hear something?" the light-haired scientist murmured to her companion. "I thought I did, but hmm... maybe I imagined it."

She hit him again. Ryan kept trying to make his psychic projections louder, but nothing worked. The rods struck him over and over: on the arms and shoulders; across the chest; even the fleshier parts of his legs. Ryan flinched at each impact, any concentration he'd been building up broken anew.

"This is no good," the light-haired scientist chided as she smacked Ryan across the back repeatedly. "You're going to have so many big bruises. The makeup artists aren't getting paid enough for this."

"Well, maybe you should stop hitting me, then," Ryan suggested.

"I believe your instructions were clear," the one in horn-rimmed glasses said bluntly. "Perhaps you just need more motivation."

Moving at an almost leisurely pace, she moved behind Ryan and hooked her weapon around his neck. Ryan, of course, was helpless to resist. The metal was cold against the skin of his neck, which pulsed against it with each beat of his frantic heart. The rod was thin enough to be flexible, bending slightly when it met resistance, but still very strong. Strong enough to crush his windpipe.

No. Stop. Don't do this. Ryan's mouth opened and closed like a caught fish, but he could no longer speak his pleas aloud even if he thought anyone would listen. You're going to kill me. You can't kill me! I'm a television star! I have been for years!

The woman choking him laughed right in his ear. "You know, the timing actually works out quite well. We recorded interviews with some of your fans this week. If you don't make it, we can rework it into a memorial broadcast." She pulled the rod tighter. "I'm getting emotional just thinking about it."

Half-formed thoughts and primal emotions spun like a whirlwind through Ryan's brain. Shadows crept over his vision and it all hurt so much, and part of him wanted to let go and sink into it. His life had been torture for however long he'd been in this facility. Maybe that really was for over five years. Maybe the old life he thought he had, the friends he dreamed of getting back to, were all a delusion. Maybe this wretched life was all he'd ever had. Even so...

Ryan didn't want to die.

That thought, that urge, became the last thing in his quickly slipping consciousness. And it leapt out through the only channel available to a psychic who couldn't move or speak. Ryan's eyes snapped open wide and his body, on the verge of going slack a moment ago, stiffened with the effort of containing the psychic power that burst forth from him. Blood gushed freely from his nose and mouth, spilled out his ears and even leaked from his eye sockets. He didn't feel any of it. All he felt was a rush ten times greater than what any injection could give him.

The scientist choking Ryan staggered back and fell to her knees. The rods both women had been using hit the floor with a clatter as they each clamped their hands over their ears and screamed. A burst of feedback screeched from the speaker. Even the scientist running the test out in the hallway wasn't spared. This was the power of a caged animal's bite.

When Ryan regained consciousness he was still bound to the chair. All his senses were gummed up; a dull metallic taste overwhelmed everything save the pins and needles in his skull. It hurt to take even shallow breaths. He couldn't open his eyes at first; his lashes were stuck together. Once he pried them open the world was a blur. He blinked several times until his vision cleared enough to make out the two scientists curled into fetal positions on the floor, stiff and unmoving. Their heads lay in pools of slowly drying blood.

The door creaked open. Ryan didn't look up at the employees marching in to retrieve him. He didn't have to see their stony expressions to know with heavy certainty that he would be punished for this.

--To Be Concluded--

[PART 3]

[popcorn-plots]

Day 1: Helpless | 100 words | Wong reflects on being sick. | Ao3 | Tumblr

Day 2: Solitary confinement | 100 words | Stephen Strange laments. | Ao3 | Tumblr

Day 3: "Bit down on this" | 689 words | Sherlo-- Stephen gets injured on a casemission. Watson Wong to the rescue. | Ao3 | Tumblr

Day 4/5: Obedience/Rope burns | 932 words | Stephen and Wong are held captive in their own home in a robbery gone wrong (mostly). | Ao3 | Tumblr

Day 6: "You lied to me." | 500 words | Tony confronts Stephen about a choice he made. A choice that ruined both their lives. | Ao3 | Tumblr

Day 7: Suffering in silence. | 150 words | Stephen Strange was fine. | Ao3 | Tumblr

Day 8: "Why won't it stop?" | 200 words | Stephen Strange breaks after using Atlantean Black Magic. | Ao3 | Tumblr

Day 9: Bees | 1128 words | America gets stung by a bee. Stephen comforts her when she admits her biggest fear. | Ao3 | Tumblr

Day 10: Killing in self-defense | 100 words | Stephen Strange is found guilty. | Ao3 | Tumblr

Day 11: Time loop | 100 words | Tony Stark is stuck in a time loop. | Ao3 | Tumblr

Day 12: Semi-conscious | 741 words | Stephen has a nightmare in the library, one he didn't quite wake up from until he was safe in Wong's arms. | Ao3 | Tumblr

Day 13: "You weren't supposed to get hurt." | 176 words | Stephen watches his daughter grow up. | Ao3 | Tumblr

Day 14: Blood-stained tiles | 59 words | Wong reflects on his husbands death. | Ao3 | Tumblr

Day 15: "Who did this to you?" | 150 words | Stephen visits a grave. | Ao3 | Tumblr

Day 16: Alt -- "I love you." | 903 words | Stephen plays the bait in a mission to take out a group of rogue sorcerers. Wong intervenes and feelings are felt. | Ao3 | Tumblr

Day 17: Hostage situation | 694 words | Strange or the people of New York. Tough decision. Who lives, who dies…. You are playing a delicate game, Sorcerer Supreme. You decide who survives. Play God, just for a second, or we destroy your planet. Your choice, Sorcerer Supreme. You have 24 hours to decide. | Ao3 | Tumblr

Day 18: Alt -- Found footage | 756 words | A video is posted about Stephen Strange and the death of his sister, Donna. Stephen watches his old high school bullies vandalize his locker -- and his well-being. | Ao3 | Tumblr

Day 19: "Please don't." | 100 words | Stephen and Eugene’s relationship is all but healthy. So when Stephen gets home and finds his father drinking, he tries to avoid him at all costs... but avoiding Eugene is near impossible when you’re the one he’s angry at. | Ao3 | Tumblr

Day 20: Truth serum | 367 words | Stephen ingests a truth serum. The students of Kamar-Taj are curious, but some take it a bit too far. | Ao3 | Tumblr

Day 21: Unresponsive | 567 words | Tony finds Stephen nearly dead, barely breathing, an empty bottle of painkillers just out of reach. | Ao3 | Tumblr

Day 22: Alt -- CPR | 866 words | Tony Stark has a heart attack during an event. Peter performs CPR with the help of a mysterious stranger. | Ao3 | Tumblr

Day 23: Presumed dead | 200 words | With the cloak returning from the fight alone and radiating sadness, one could only assume the worst. | Ao3 | Tumblr

Day 24: "I'm doing this because I care about you." | 261 words | Wong is not the person he once was. | Ao3 | Tumblr

Day 25: Waterboarding | 1110 words | Stephen Strange is part of the .1% of the world's population that can see their soulmate's experiences. Great for Tony Stark, not so great for Stephen when his soulmate gets waterboarded in the middle of Stephen's shift. | Ao3 | Tumblr

Day 26: "Help them." | 375 words | Stephen knows he's going to die. Why waste time on him when others need it more? | Ao3 | Tumblr

Day 27: Left for dead | 455 words | The Illuminati on Earth-838 don't kill Stephen Strange. They maroon him on Titan, alone and stripped of his magic.

Stephen doesn't believe this is punishment enough for his crimes. | Ao3 | Tumblr

Day 28: "No... not like this."/Alt -- last words | 500 words | Wong finally confesses his feelings for Stephen... just as he's dying in the man's arms. | Ao3 | Tumblr

Day 29: Not allowed to die/Alt -- immortality | 682 words | Stephen Strange is cursed. | Ao3 | Tumblr

Guys we did it. We finished Febuwhump!

[naresnani]

Overture

Fandom: Ikemen Prince | Nokto Klein/Adam Kain (OC) | Words: 880

Tags: Jealousy, Bodyguard/valet AU

Summary:

I am not a jealous man. I do not feel strongly towards people.

Notes: Supposed to be for @xxsycamore 's AU event... right? is that still going on? well anyway...

If I ever were to fancy somebody I shouldn't, it is trivial to simply abandon those feelings and let go. It's been easier that way, and none was ever the wiser. 

Some light sounds of laughter were being carried by the evening wind. A pair. I stayed behind. Higher up the rose hill. It was a cool evening with petals fluttering around me while the sky turned a warm colour. The breeze lifted up my sweat. I couldn't feel the sun. The prince and his maiden squeezed each other's hands. Their whispers couldn't reach me. 

It feels wrong, but it's my job to watch him. It's been my job for years. Five, maybe seven. Since I left my tribe I've never known anything else. From writing his letters to dressing his wounds to dressing him in the morning. From a clueless lad to the only one who knows of all his needs.

I am paid well. I am respected. Although he doesn't always make my work easy, he's fortunate that I do care for him. I do, beyond what they paid me to. 

I don't think anyone else would care for him if it isn't me. 

"I can't let you go through with this. My… heart wouldn't let me."

"Adam, all you need to do is pick me up outside the building and ride. Do you have no faith in me?" 

"I do. But my faith holds no water in what will actually occur. Please, your Highness, look for another way. You cannot be more needlessly reckless."

"...I revealed all my plans to you because I trust you. You're someone I trust the most. No one else would do this for me but you." 

"Then let me come with you!" 

"No!"

"Why? What difference would it make?"

"I'm someone they can't hurt. I could walk out of there without a single worry in my life whether or not I succeed. You, on the other hand, have a bright future ahead of you."

"What do you mean by that, what are you saying?" 

This maiden. She's a commoner, here for purposes I am not privy of. He's different. She's not like the other women he's had taken with him. He doesn't play around or use her. He is smitten by her looks. He told me so. He's smitten by her voice and laughter and by the way she does care for him. She caresses his hair and she reads to him at night and she allows herself this. He lays his head down her lap and he allows himself this. He is smitten. 

He took her near one of the rose bushes and hid her face in his hands. I avert my eyes. I shouldn't be allowed to follow them this far…

The rose hill is too large even for a hundred people, much less an individual. I don't know what to do with myself. I'm too large and too small. I hear too much and too little. I'm curious, and I'm sick to death of them. If I could leave I would. His laughter is the only sound that reached me. I'm sick. 

He always has his way with words. He's too kind, too caring. He "trusts you the most." He misleads people all the time, who was I kidding? He "likes the company." He "likes having you at all times." He "wants you to feel like you belong." He, "If you have nowhere else to be, then I want you to be with me."

"Adam…"

"It's me, I made it. I mean… you did."

"Where are we?" 

"You took the antidote too late, your Highness. You took them too late, my God. It could've been it. It could've been… If it weren't for…." 

"You made it."

"The doctor got to you just in time, I could have been too late. I'm sorry. Please, please don't ever do this again. I can't do this again." 

"I told you, I trust you with my life, and I was right." 

"Please don't… not me." 

"Hahahah… who else?" 

They're all just words. I should never have allowed myself this delusion, that he even slightly cares for me beyond how much he paid me. Yet who could blame me? I've carried him on the verge of his death after he ingested that poison. I didn't sleep for a week, I never left his bedside. I changed his clothes, I cleaned him. I've once fought till my blood beat out of me for him. I've killed for him. I've loved him. I couldn't do any of it without some form of love. Does anyone? Can anyone? 

I didn't think anyone else would love him if it wasn't me. 

"Adam, what are you doing here?" 

He was right behind, the maiden still tailing him. 

"Ah, I apologise. I thought you should have your own space." 

"Me and Emma are going to the city. Do you have somewhere else to be?" 

I do not, of course. 

"I'll take your Highness there, don't worry."

They smile. Seeing them happy, content, I do not feel any bitterness, nor sadness. I don't really feel anything. I don't think I'm a jealous man, nor do I feel strongly towards people. 

[originemesis]

@poisonedspider xxx

"Ha ha ha. Yeh're soooo funny." He rolled his eyes, shaking his head as he realized that his favorite resident bartender wasn't even here. Which only made it even that much more depressing that Adam was at the bar. Alone. "Yeh'd be so lucky. Guess it's yeh' luck that Charles isn't exactly into that sort of thing. Not really great towards the whole redemption look." Not that he would touch Adam with a ten foot pole. Ever. Even if the guy was kind of hot. He hopped over the bar, two of his arms rummaging through the many bottles of alcohol that Husk kept stored up, while one of his other free arms grabbed a glass. He was listening to Adam talk, one of his many other free arms basically mocking the angel, puppeteering his hand in a display of 'blah blah blah', because he really didn't give a fuck what this guy thought. Not after what he had done to himself and his friends. He poured an extra strong double of gin and tonic, finally leaning against the bar, far enough away from Adam, but closer than he had been. Angel and boundaries? Non-existent, typically. But he also wasn't in the mood for a fight today. He'd already experienced that with fucking Valentino earlier. "If yeh' didn't think it was all that great, ah' don't think yeh' would have fought so fuckin' hard tah' make sure that none of us could be redeemed." He pointed out, sipping at his drink in amusement. "Besides, anything has tah' be better than this shithole." He was certain of that, and he wasn't going to let Adam take that away from him. Hope had been something that had started to drive the hotel. "Either way, yeh're stuck here now asshole, so might as well at least try tah' get along with us, yeh' hear?"

With his chin propped on knuckles, the talons below give a flex from forefinger to the last crooked tip and then back again as if the mustered mirth he's met with is but a scuttling roach (heaven knows this dump had em) that had yet to pass by close enough for him to squash with a firm ram of the wrist. Of course, he's technically supposed to play nice to match the whole theme of the place, right?

Yeah right. This was temporary residence until that buffering TV fuck could figure his busted helmet out enough to fashion it back together again. After all, he's not keen on showing his face around hell after all the mass genocide, but hey...it wasn't like hellizens weren't out committing mass murder and other deplorable acts in the brimstone streets on the daily; they could stay hypocrites and mad for all he cared. "Lucky to miss a blowie from a professional whore? I mean, you're not exactly selling yourself as relatively STD-free here, now are ya?" And he's not exactly selling himself as lacking in all the cunt he's providing as a so called 'dickmaster', but hey! That's equality for ya.

As the sinner scrambles over the bar, he considers the amount of arms all performing their own duties, including mocking him and makes a note of which one for whenever he gets the opportunity to twist it, a smug twist of his lips settling at the thought. Nudging the lid of his glass against his lips in a notably awkward fashion (still accustomed to ingesting liquids and the like via a face shield and a well timed, mouth shaped portal) the man makes it a point to annoyingly slurp the last bit of the potent Pepsi before jangling the leftover ice around, which he showed no signs of stopping until there was more liquid to be leeched.

"Spoilers, slutbag: hell is generally the end of the road. Always has been. No one's fighting to keep you here. You and the rest of them chose to be. Not such a great gift- that free will, huh~?" Neither is the persistent sound of ice jangling, but it's what he's getting. "Nothing's ever actually free. Somebody always pays the price..." With a shrug, he leans into his knuckles more, considering just how many of Lilith's last batch of his seed surrendered amalgamations were still scuttling around, blissfully unaware they'd been thrust into a half aware sentience just to fall to the concentrated fury of a creator that cared as little for them as his own.

Maybe God was down here after all.

"There's a lot more to this shit than any of you realize, but be my guest thinking otherwise. Forgive me if I don't make like your landlord and queef a rainbow." Though he will abandon his instrument of half melted ice in favor of shifting a suddenly summoned axe in his lap where he could busy his talons with tuning it with tinkering twists and occasional plucks. "Come to think of it, wasn't that the plot twist of... oh yeah. Season five. 'Taste the Cumbro?'"

[toast-tales]

i'm always happy to supply more questions! in my opinion, one of the best parts about sharing what you've made with others is the opportunity to explain the processes of its creation, and this world and characters were clearly made with lots of thought and care. ^^

are there any worldbuilding aspects that /you'd/ love to talk about but haven't been asked yet? or are there details you've cut in the editing process, and/or wish you'd kept/developed more, but didn't really fit within the overarching plot?

pivoting focus to characters, did any of them have "beta" versions in their early development? did aspects of their personalities change in ways that surprised you as you were writing? or have their aspects stayed pretty consistent with their "original"/first iterations? you've mentioned that these characters have existed since before you wrote ITWOM, so i'm really curious what their development and evolution has been like for you!

Oof, that's a hard question for me. Thing is, I tend to only develop worldbuilding as I need to for the story, or, well, whenever someone asks lol. Between you and me, anon, I feel like worldbuilding in general isn't one of my personal strong suits. I am constantly in awe of what some of my mutuals are capable of in terms of worldbuilding.

One thing that comes to mind, though, is something I've started developing recently in a roleplay with a good friend of mine - the somewhat darker side of the black market of humans, and the crime syndicate known as the Blackthorns that are set up in the city near Red Tree. I haven't gone too much in depth yet, but thinking through what that would look like, the methods they would employ to maintain control in the city and surrounding areas, the way they would buy influence, and the kinds of specialty products they would develop for the business is as fascinating for me to think about as it is, frankly, a bit horrifying.

One such product is something they developed called "rosewater" - a substance that, when ingested, triggers a giant's digestive process to quickly and involuntarily digest anything that may have been in their stomach (not something giants are used to, as they usually have control over the process), and then prevent them from digesting anything for a couple of hours afterward. It was developed, essentially, to ensure the safety of their stock, which they're very protective of.

Obviously this wasn't ever something I was going to be able to explore in the main story. Same with Christopher's history as a dealer of going after other dealers in the Red Tree area that, in his opinion, weren't "playing by the rules." I suppose this is more character details than worldbuilding, per se, but I can very much imagine him and Sam going after dealers who physically hurt their humans, or rent out to clients on a "blacklist" who have a history of doing so. As well as some of the more...well, horrific things that can happen with dealers, though that wasn't as frequent around Red Tree (things like...well, breeding humans).

Christopher definitely thought that there was a "right" way to deal humans, and he took it upon himself to make sure that other dealers in his town knew what that was. Blackmail or cyberattacks via Sam were generally the methods employed, though usually a visit would be enough to set people straight. Frankly, it's another reason there are so few dealers in the area.

I feel like if I ever rewrote ITWOM (again), I might go into that part of his backstory a bit more, as it was something I developed later, in tandem with the Blackthorns. But even before I developed it more, I had it in the back of my head as I wrote Christopher - he definitely compared himself to other, worse dealers he knew of at the time, and used that as a way to convince himself that he was "better."

I think that also leads into your next question about character development. I think that my characters stayed relatively consistent from their inception. Danny probably evolved from the typical trope of "demure, submissive, frightened female tiny character" in the very beginning, because I wanted to flip that trope on its head and see how things would go with someone more assertive and reckless about it. And I absolutely love her to death now. I think she is a perfect foil to Christopher - she combats his self-loathing and defeatist attitude here and there, and in contrast to him, is someone who is hopeful, reckless, and honest. I didn't intend for all of that in the beginning, or even as I wrote - it sort of developed organically, and it was made most apparent in hindsight, after the story was done.

Christopher probably had the most change, but only because his character was me working backwards from "okay, so he does this thing in the beginning. Now, what kind of person would he have to be to do something like that?" And as I developed him further, surprisingly, I realized he was kind of a much sadder, more pathetic sort of guy than I initially thought. Very complicated, very full of contradictions and cognitive dissonance and trauma, but I think as a result, to me he feels the most real now.

The rest, really, they developed as I wrote the story. Sometimes, especially at the beginning, I guided their personalities towards what I needed, but as I wrote on, they started guiding the story themselves. I never really understood what other writers meant by that until it happened to me!

I hope these are satisfying enough answers for you, lol. I definitely feel more proficient with characters than worldbuilding, but ITWOM for me is an exercise in both. I hope to keep coming up with cool stuff for this world and others in the future, and keep getting better at developing those kinds of things!

[moonieshinesims]

Generation One - Chapter Fifty Five

It is time for River and Ichiban to move off to the facility to get it live-in ready for Michiko. It was going to be a while, since Havarti and Cassie had already started research, but they were more than confident that they'd be seeing her in a few weeks...

Of course, the day they were leaving just had to be Michiko's birthday... She'd been warned about it for weeks, and her parents kept asking her over and over if she was okay with that.

Really, why did it have to be on her birthday? Couldn't it have been the day after? The week after? The month after? Never?

She knew her parents weren't abandoning her, but for some reason, it sure felt like they were.

Ako had been over more recently, trying to get to know Michiko more. Get used to being around her. He didn't have a lot of experience with kids, so both he and Michiko felt like it was going to be an awkward experience.

Michiko was excited to see this facility her parents kept talking about. It was going to be their base of operations from now on. Her parents were criminals, but high ranking ones. She wasn't too keen on the inner workings of the Simkuza or crime rings, but one day she figured she'd have to know all that stuff. After all, her dad kept saying it was a "family business".

"We love you so much, don't forget that. You have our phone number, so you can call us anytime you need us! And we'll call you every night. Okay?"

Michiko nodded, silently and watched them walk out the door...

Over at the facility, Cassandra and Havarti had pretty much cleaned the place up. They were both extremely stoked to have a ginormous piece of property to do their experimenting on and in.

Both of them had gone a bit haywire over the years with their research...

Cassandra had come back from space feeling ill and weird... Only to recover shortly after. Her skin, however, had a strange purple hue to it, and her eyes glowed purple as well. She said she'd ingested something in space, and that now she had "alien properties", but nobody knew what that meant yet.

She was very excited to see.

And Havarti had gone full on trans-siminist and had a fellow robotics machinist help turn her into a cyborg. River and Cassie were shocked when she came back home, half metal, and weren't sure where exactly she'd got the idea from.

River secretly wondered if the strange plants in Strangerville had driven them both insane...

After all, Cassie had always been good at physics, but to build a rocket by herself and use it to go on a one woman mission into space?

And Havarti... She was always into robotics and engineering, but where had the idea to turn herself into a robot come from?

These thoughts plagued River's mind, and she figured the answers lied in the strange plants... She knew first and foremost she was supposed to be running a villain empire, but if she could harness the powers of the plants and exploit it...

Who knows how unstoppable they would be?

The new facility was coming along nicely, the living quarters that was. She knew if she was going to eventually bring Michiko there, the place had to have some semblance of a home. Michiko would need a place to do school-work, and place to exercise, and play.

The research facility was already fully functional, and Havarti and Cassie spent most of their days there.

While River did most of her work in the containment lab where the strange plants were held.

Ichiban wasn't exactly the brainiest member of this group, so he was more focused on combat and business.

It'd been about three weeks since they'd officially moved in. River and Ichiban followed through on their promise to call Michiko every night. She really missed them, and they really missed her. She and Ako were getting along though, so that was good.

River thought she was about to make a breakthrough with her research on the strange plants, when one day...

She looked up from her work and saw the plant was moving more than usual. They always pulsed and shuddered, which really grossed her out. But this time it was seizing and shaking something fierce!

Then, right out of the center of the giant disgusting flower, something floated into the air...

River wanted to back out of the room, to give herself another layer or protection from this thing, but she couldn't move. She was frozen in place.

Ichiban, Cassie, and Havarti ran into the containment lab and stopped in their tracks.

"Ŧħ€ ş€ćř€ŧş…"

The room shook.

"Ŧħ€¥ đø ňøŧ β€łøňǥ ŧø ¥øu."

"Is that her...!? Is her hand glowing?"

"What's going on?!"

The glowing grew larger and larger. They could hear the sounds of white noise and hissing all around them. The electronics in the facility were being affected by this thing. This creature.

"GET OUT! WE NEED TO GET OUT NOW!" River could barely hear herself screaming over the strange noises surrounding them.

They all tried to turn and leave, but were enveloped in a bright purple light.

And then...

Nothing.

TO BE CONTINUED IN GEN 2

[moonyasnow]

Moony's TWST Vampire AU

Part 4: Scarabia

Heartslabyul Savannaclaw Octavinelle Scarabia (you are here) Pomefiore Ignihyde Diasomnia Extras

(listen I know what a massive contrast this is— it's just the only official art which shows the entire Dorm together)

This is NOT ORGANIZED lmao Literally just unfiltered thoughts and ideas, with some short writing snippets only sneaking in by accident. Literal brainrot stuff

Also some thoughts will absolutely be longer than others I wrote most of this in like 5 hours in one sitting

It will be in 8 parts. First the dorms, and then a final one for my thoughts on some side-characters' places in this AU

Basic rules of the Vampire AU:

A vampire is unkillable until they turn someone. As such, vampires are rare, and usually created on accident.

Vampires can't die of starvation. They can sure try, and by god will it hurt, but it can't kill them.

Vampires can drink liquids that aren't blood, though they get no nutrients from it, but they cannot ingest food. If they try to eat normal food, they just throw it up, their bodies rejecting it entirely.

They can drink any blood that is not from another vampire.

Kalim

Kalim was turned by an older family member It had just been a day like any other. A party, good food, music, a parade: the works. So basically, nothing out of the ordinary. Afterwards he was talking to a distant relative of his who'd come to visit, thanking them for coming and seeing them out, sad they wouldn't see each other anymore due to that relative bring very reclusive. "But you know, you haven't changed a bit since I was a kid! You're aging really well! I don't see a single wrinkle, either! It's almost inhuman! Ahaha!" "Do you want to know my secret?" His eyes lit up in curiosity "A secret? What is it?" Eyeing Jamil, which went unnoticed by Kalim, they said "…Say, didn't you tell me you had a gift you wished to give me?" "Oh? Oh! Oh that! I completely forgot!" "You there, Viper," Jamil forced himself not to bristle at the name. "Go and fetch it." "…I'm not supposed to leave Kalim out of my sight." "You're talking back to me, little viper?" Sensing the foul mood, he blurted out the first solution he could think of: "I can just go get it!" Jamil briefly muttered: "And risk some assasin lurking nearby? There are still people here; the party is still ongoing." Before saying: "…Fine. I'll go get it. I'll be back shortly."

Then Jamil was gone.

Kalim was glad he didn't have to put up with the relative being rude to him.

Then the relative once more asked if he wanted to know their secret, urging him closer.

Then his head was forcefully pressed to the side and he felt a sharp, burning pain in the side of his neck. Time was slow. Like honey. He didn't really know what to do or how to react so he just…stood there.

It was like he was in a weird haze of confusion. He just kinda kept blinking, stuck frozen in place for a while. By the time Jamil came back and snapped him out of it, he realized he hadn't even noticed the relative leaving.

He just kinda...forgot about it. Put it out of his mind. Because whenever he tried to think about it things would start to feel all foggy and unreal. But sometimes when he looked in the mirror he could've sworn those two tiny dots on his neck weren't always there. But when he thought about it for too long it got foggy again. So he just kept on doing what he always had.

But a little while later, he started getting sick.

All the world really knows about Kalim is that around 150-ish years ago, the then heir to the Asim family seemed to have died of an unknown illness and taken his closest servant with him to the grave.

Kalim felt really bad the first time he drank an animal's blood. He cried after having to kill it, and buried it. From then on, Jamil was the one who actually killed everything they ate.

Kalim and Jamil have visited Crowley's Vampire Castle in the Woods in the Middle of Nowhere™ exactly one (1) time, and Jamil was not happy about it.

Jamil

Jamil was turned by a fledgling Kalim who couldn't control his thirst

Kalim had been flip-flopping between being out like usual and enjoying himself, and hiding in his room with the curtains drawn tightly.

He was becoming agitated. Kalim clearly wasn't well. No matter what teas, herbal remedies or natural cures Jamil tried, nothing seemed to be helping. And worse yet…Kalim had started turning his aid away. He watched his Master's form begin to wither before his very eyes, skin losing its parlor and slowly turning a dark grey. And sometimes…his red eyes seemed to almost glow when he looked at Jamil.

He'd been shut away in his room for a week at that point. No parties, no chatter, no music…not even any time spent playing with his siblings.

Out of the blue, Kalim took Jamil's hand one day as he was helping to bathe him— as that was something Kalim could barely do himself anymore.

"Hey, Jamil…"

Came out sounding less weakly than his words had been recently.

A white-henna-tattooed hand ran a line from Jamil's inner wrist, up his arm, and stopping at his neck.

"It's…really easy for me to see your veins all of a sudden. Have you been eating ok? You can tell me if you want some of my food; I'm not gonna be eating it anymore anyway."

He'd never seen Kalim act like this before. He could sense something was about to happen, and it filled him with dread.

"Hey, you'll…you'll always be here with me, right? You're never going anywhere?"

His hand was on the side of Jamil's neck, his other holding the back of Jamil's loosely.

"As long as I am a Viper, you have my word that I will never leave your side. It's my duty to help you, after all."

The words usually tastes like poison in his mouth. But this time it wasn't as bitter.

"…You'll really help me?" The hand holding Jamil's began to travel up his arm and to his shoulder.

"…Honestly, I'm…kinda thirsty…"

His head was laid against Jamil's shoulder, and his arms encircled around his neck in a loose embrace that shouldn't have been nearly as strong as it was.

Jamil's heart began to best unsteadily, a sense of hesitation, of caution, engulfing his mind. Something was up. Something was wrong.

"For the longest time now…I've been so thirsty, Jamil…" short, weak breaths fanned at Jamil's neck, and needles of dread prickled all over his skin. He had to move, he had to do something, something bad was going to happen— but what?

"…Sorry…"

"K-Kalim— GH!"

He got his answer via the sharp pain of two small knives…no, of teeth, plunging into his neck.

At first he resented Kalim for it. Resented him for trapping him with him for the rest of eternity.

Once he learned that a vampire is no longer immortal once they have turned someone else…realized that Kalim could die…he had two conflicting thoughts. One, a mix of anger and glee. Kill him so he could make him pay for what he did to him, for taking his life away and leaving him to fester in the shadows for the rest of eternity. But also a hint of panic. Kalim was, in a sense, mortal again— though he might still be ageless and immune to most harm, there were now ways of killing him, ways which wouldn't have worked before he accidentally turned Jamil.

He had to make sure Kalim stayed alive…'alive', in air-quotes. It was a reflex, an old remnant of the mortal life he'd lost. But also…a want. A desire. A need.

To exist without Kalim, just as for him to leave Kalim's side, was…unthinkable. Even if he night-dreamed about it, he deep down knew he never would. Was it because a slave is always a slave, if not by chains, then by his own mind? Or because he knew that he and Kalim were both just as lost, just as confused at being thrown into their unlife.

They avoided other Clans, out of what Jamil deemed necessity. It was safer to travel lightly, pass from town to town, eat what animals Kalim could lure to him…or what poor souls Jamil told Kalim he had found already on death's door. And stay hidden, not attracting any attention.

Two lost teens walking hand-in-hand through the night on a never-ending journey without a destination. The only familiar thing they still had to cling to. For when the world spun in an whirlwind and the walls tore apart, all that was left standing was the two of them.

There was some comfort in knowing that, even after 1001 nights, the one constant, them, would still be there, unchanged.

[riddlerosehearts]

baldur's gate 3 thoughts again except this time i made a mistake while trying to save the draft partway through and lost a bunch of random screenshots and things i wrote 😔 oh well. good news is that this post marks the end of act 1 for me!

the underdark is so cool. i really wish i had a better PC because even with my crappy specs this place is so gorgeous and fantastical while also being vaguely unsettling lol. definitely not regretting my decision to double back after finishing the mountain pass stuff. also, i feel like elenion would definitely enjoy getting to visit a myconid colony and see how they live and how their society works up close, so that could be an additional roleplay reason for me to be doing this.

...you know things are getting bad when at this point i really think elenion would be okay with trusting a literal mind flayer to help him because wtf else are we supposed to do LMAO. genuinely at this point it sounds less insane for the party to ingest dangerous mushrooms at the suggestion of a mind flayer than it would be to let volo give any of them eye surgery. we have to get these tadpoles out of our brains somehow, i guess.

omeluum is actually a fascinating character, though. an illithid who broke free and literally just wants to do good and live a peaceful life? i'm surprised that i wasn't spoiled on literally anything about him before i played. i hope that's not because he's a secret bad guy or something, because he seems really earnest and trustworthy right now.

LMAO GALE PLEASE. i'm so glad i brought him along to the arcane tower.

oh huh, interesting that the history check here was a bard-specific option! i'd always heard that the bard colleges in DND weren't neccessarily actual colleges and were more just representations of just different schools of thought and such, similar to wizard subclasses being called schools, but apparently larian wants our bards to have gone to college! sure, i guess i can work that into his backstory.

anyway, bernard makes me sad. the whole tower is incredibly ominous and makes me sad for lenore, who we don't even get to meet... like she literally programmed a robot to give her a hug and emotionally support her on command!! :( i wish that when we went back with the mushrooms we could tell omeluum and blurg that lenore was missing, because they act like they didn't even realize she wouldn't be there.

obsessed with the fact that this is a bard option for when omeluum wants payment for the ring. and that you get to make him so happy that he gives it to you for free awwww.

i love how sometimes, the bard specific dialogue options actually allow your character to be studious and knowledgable about poetry and folk tales and music, which i was not expecting considering the way bards are generally stereotyped--

and sometimes they allow you to be a snarky little shit ASFKJGDFHJ 😭😭

since i went mountain pass -> underdark and i've already found the adamantine forge and done everything else it seems like i can currently do in my journal, i... think i'm actually ready to move onto act 2? i will say that i forgot to talk to dammon for karlach before the tieflings left the grove so i really hope that won't be too big of a problem. but if i did miss anything in act 1 (and i'm sure i must have) or mess anything up, then i think that's fine with me because i'm planning on doing several replays of this game anyway lol.

i went up the elevator, ended the day, and immediately mizora shows up and starts barking orders. i passed a perception check to pick up on her being desperate and this possibly being a chance to negotiate wyll out of his pact, and now i'm really wondering what would've happened if i failed that check?? would i have missed out on this whole scene where we try to negotiate with her?? would i have lost the chance to do this??

ngl i'm not so sure elenion actually would do that because it's a little too goofy for such a serious situation, but i couldn't resist trying it. and then i went back and tried the history check instead and they actually result in more or less the same thing--you recite an incantation you remember from an old children's story and she laughs in your face. where's the option to punch mizora in the face smh >:(

and now we get another ominous visit from the dream guardian! also, astarion told elenion he wants to talk to raphael and they told him they want to know what he's planning, which he disapproved of and refused to do. astarion why are you literally so hard to get along with omg.

this seems like a good place to stop for now but i am so excited to be making it further through the story.

[geekns]

you sound like the qanon conspiracy freaks who were convinced there were litter boxes in classrooms for kids to piss and shit in lol. was gonna try engaging in a meaningful dialogue with you but since you’ve got your head so far up your ass you’re interpreting genuine kindhearted asks trying to help you as vicious hate and bullying, im not even gonna bother. i just wanted you to know you sound like you ingested horse antiparasitic to treat covid. also ps who the fuck is anne? are you just making up a person to blame everything on bc you can’t admit that you showed your entire ass and multiple people have come to clown? okay anyway you’re too bitter to waste the rest of my high on so byeeeeeeee!!!!

I have not ever been involved with the QAnon movement. Have no fucks to give, never thought any of it was real. In fact, I think it was controlled opposition. I don't fit inside your tiny box, Anne.

I haven't received any genuine, kindhearted asks in a very long time.

If you thought you were being kind, you are absolutely delusional. I am not here to conform to your hot takes. Who do you think you are, what gives you the right to tell me how to live, what to think, what to feel? I'm not here to be your echo chamber.

Oh yes, the Rona.

You want to know what. I feel sorry for you. That "horse antiparasitic" has been prescribed to humans for decades. The only reason the Rona Vax was able to be pushed into production is because the doctors and the MSM and the government lied to you. If they were to admit that a drug, one that's worked for decades, could work in this instance as well, then they wouldn't have been legally allowed to use people like lab rats.

And guess what? Now the people who were gullible enough to take the jab are paying the price, and it's horrible. Turbo cancers. Blood Clots. Heart attacks. Strokes. Bell's Palsy. Sterilization. The list keeps growing and growing and y'all still think you weren't sold snake oil? Wake up!

There had never been a vax for the common cold and the one they have provided still doesn't prevent the disease from being contracted or from spreading. That's a bunch of science fiction, germ theory doesn't even hold water and hasn't done so for 100 years. They were trying to prove it during the Spanish Flu and failed.

I feel so sorry for everyone who is living through this dystopic nightmare, even moreso for those people who are still hypnotized and refuse to acknowledge what they allowed to happen to themselves.

Anne is short for anon.

Specifically hateful anons. It's a term that the Reylos coined because so many people were hating on them. It's been in Tumblr usage for years. It's got "Sure Jan" vibes. An Anne is almost always a Karen. Someone who irrationally expects to get their way and be thanked for their tantrum. And what y'all have most definitely been acting like today is Karens.

I haven't shown my ass, WTF is that even supposed to mean. I mean, do you want me to moon you like in Braveheart or something? It's not my thing but I could probably find you a clip.

No, I'm not surprised that the brainwashed clowns showed up, haters gotta hate after all. It's like you guys get off on making yourselves look as idiotic and small as possible. I've always been perplexed: why do you think it's okay to tell people that they're full of "hate" if they don't agree with your delusions. Why would it ever be okay to tell someone that they should kill themself? Be forced to put up with abuse? Be raped? Does it make you feel powerful??? Because you sound pathetic.

So good, go away, rethink your life, since drugs seem to make you act like a fool that can't be taken seriously.

[untilthcyrot]

Great. Now he was just the asshole feeding ducks something that fucked their stomachs up so they weren't able to eat the right things like . . . well . . . whatever it was ducks were supposed to eat. As far as he knew, he just saw them dip their heads in the water from time to time but he wasn't really sure if algae was supposed to be nutritious or not. Apparently, he didn't know a lot of things when it came to what ducks were or were not supposed to ingest.

He flinched at the bread being flicked at his forehead, but at least it cracked a smile out of him instead of dwelling on duck gut health. What the hell was he supposed to do with all this bread now anyways? After Ren stole a piece, apparently he was feeding her with it. ❝ Hey, hey, you have your own bread. This is mine to not feed ducks with, you know. ❞

♡ — ren hargrove, reformed mean girl.

ren can't help her wry, sharp-toothed grin at jude's surprise. she's still got that mean streak, sometimes. it's all like, friendly teasing, though, she's not really going to rip into him or anything. maybe just a little bit.

"since, like, always," she answers, breaking off a piece of bread just to flick it at his forehead. "oh my god definitely not, fuck peta. it's just not really good for them, and especially water-soaked bread fills them up so they don't eat stuff they actually need. for, like, nutrition or whatever."

the next piece of bread ren pulls from the slice jude's holding she eats, stolen with a wink and a deep-mean laugh. it's more fun to take from his than the perfectly fine slice she's already holding.

[newmih]

A bit of liquid courage

Words: 1109

Characters: Minho x reader, mentions of Gally

Request: I would like to imagine about Minho, in Marcus' nightclub, the reader's best friend was Gally but like everyone else she believes him dead. With Minho they ingested Marcus' drink to find Thomas and Brenda and they find themselves half drugged confessing their feelings.

A/N: So... I find myself writing about two people confessing their feelings when it's never happened to me... so I hope it's realistic. /English is not my first language. Sorry for any mistake I made./

Masterlist

Bonne lecture

Y/N looked at the bottle handed to her by a man, looking disgusted. From what she understood, drinking the contents was the only way to get into the building and therefore to find Marcus. But she had very little desire to do so. She didn't even know what was in it and how many mouths before her had touched it. She winced at the thought. Minho, who was at her side, took the gourd and swallowed the contents. He closed his eyes and coughed violently afterwards.

The young woman observed him, wanting less and less to swallow the drink. But she had to do it, she knew. She had to find her friends. It was the only way they would have a chance to start a new life. Even if that chance was tiny, she couldn't afford to let it slip away because she refused to drink something.

Not thinking anymore, she took the bottle in turn. She felt the liquid burn her throat as it passed and tears welled up in her eyes. She thanked herself for not having smelled it before because she knew she would have thrown up directly. The foul taste would stay in her mouth for hours and she hated it. She closed her eyes to try to push through the urge to get it all out and concentrated to save herself a headache. It was nothing. She'd faced grievers before, cranks and escaped the wicked, all without dying. She was stronger than that.

She finally stood up and took Minho, who was still waiting for her, by the arm to join the rest of the group who had already entered. As she passed through the doorway, she heard the man behind them burst out laughing and she knew that this was not a good omen for them. So she tightened her grip on the former runner and continued walking.

The first thing that struck them was the foul odor that emanated from the place. They weren't sure if it was because of the people there or because of what they were eating. But something told them it was probably both. They shared a knowing look and kept moving. How to find the person they were looking for in this crowd when they didn't even know what she looked like, was the question Kyara kept asking herself. Maybe they should split up to cover as much ground as possible. She tugged on the Asian's sleeve and he leaned in to try to hear her. The music was deafening, the volume being so loud that it could be heard from outside.

-I think we should split up! It will be easier to find him!

He nodded and let go of her as she headed to the right and left. She wasn't the tallest or the most imposing so she struggled to make her way through the crowd. Someone jostled her and she fell against a wall. As she looked up, she realized that the room was spinning. Maybe she was supposed to stay on the floor after all. Still, she had no choice, and between getting run over by someone or getting back on her feet, she much preferred the second option.

The noise around her seemed to be getting louder and louder and she couldn't even hear herself think as she made her way through the party, stopping every now and then to ask someone where Marcus was. She still hadn't gotten a straight answer and was seriously losing her patience, especially since she couldn't think straight. What had that drink done to her? Several times in the glade she had drunk Gally's drink and never before had she been in this state after drinking so little. At the thought of Gally, tears welled up in her eyes. She was getting way too emotional for where she was. It was dangerous.

She spotted a chair in a corner and her confused mind asked her to sit down. So, playing with her elbows, she managed to get there and slumped on the piece of furniture which against the weight of the young woman fell to the ground. They were now two to be collapsed. Except that one was physically and the other emotionally. Memories of her life in the labyrinth came back to her without her being able to do anything about it. She felt as if she had no control over herself and that was probably the case. Why else would she be thinking about Minho right now.

She tried to compose herself. She wasn't supposed to think of him that way. She had no right. But she couldn't help it. Despite the fact that he had killed y/n's best friend she couldn't help but love him. She realized how wrong it was, but from the looks of it, you couldn't control your feelings. She wiped away the tears that had rolled down her cheeks without his advice and stood up with the help of the wall. She had to find him and tell him everything, no matter the consequences.

She stumbled a few times, almost fell, but eventually found Minho in the middle of the room. Their eyes met and she felt that what she was about to do was not a good idea but she didn't care. She rushed into the arms of the young man and without even waiting for a reaction from him embraced him as if it was her last day to live. She felt it tense during a few seconds and she was about to move back when he finally returned her kiss. He took her by the hips and brought her closer to him.

They finally broke apart and Kyara, on tiptoe, rested her forehead against the dark-haired man's.

-You don't even know how long I've wanted to do this. -Why did you never do it then?

They were so close to each other that they could hear each other despite the noise that continued around them. Yet they felt as if they were alone. Never in his life would Minho have thought that way, and yet it was so. He promised himself to stop bothering Newt and Thomas about this. He looked at the young woman in his arms and smiled sadly before answering her.

-Because I killed your best friend and there's nothing I can do to change that, ever. And it destroys me to know that the despair I saw in your eyes afterwards was because of me-

She interrupted him with a long kiss.

-Oh Minho, life is too short for that.

Maybe drinking the drink wasn't such a bad idea after all.