#when is it my turn to have good luck
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> get heart broken in a brief gay romance
> come down with vicious sinus infection
> start uni classes
> ex bf threatens to travel across the country and assault me
> car completely breaks down and has to get crushed
can whichever one of you that put a curse on me for not posting undo it, iâm working on drafts and a sunday cannibalism concept ・ďž(ďžÂ´Đď˝ďž)ďžď˝Ą

#IM TIREDDDDD#when is it my turn to have good luck#iâm so serious this year has been nothing but suffering for me#throws up smashes head thru wall#whatever⌠if anyone reads tags#pls let me know if youâve played tokyo debunker#bc iâve been on my GRINDDD and i have sick things to say abt jin and jiro#but thatâs a separate thing#me me me!
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at least I got to see Marc
#I think I stole any luck that he had this weekend#free cota ticket + my work was paying for my hotel since I have to come in for a meeting Monday + a good friend has this weekend off#sometimes things line up in the craziest ways imaginable amajsjsnsj#swiping my company card like our company didnât just get bought out KAJSJSNSSN#when he crashed and my friend turned to me like I did it đ#it was so fucking humid so you can imagine how much more miserable I got#maybe the ones I love are cursedâŚmuch to think about
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as a Jewish transsexual, the Jewish ethno-nationalistš sales pitch has always left me cold.² over and over again, i've heard people plugging the State of Israel offer some form of the following: "history teaches that we can never fully trust non-Jews with political power to protect Jews; the only way to make sure Jewish people are always safe is to create and maintain a state where Jewish people have the political power, so we can look out for ourselves"
but the thing is, the worst transphobic harassment i've experienced in my life has come from Jews. i don't think this says anything about the relative transphobia of Jews vs non-Jews, anymore than the fact that most of my birthday presents come from New Yorkers says anything about the relative generosity of Californians, but still. the people who followed me out of the subway filming me while yelling transphobic abuse were Jewish. two of the most relentless boosters of the current wave of transphobia in the US â Ben Shapiro and Chaya Raichik â are Jewish. i should be safe in a state run by such people?
and the obvious response is to say that, well, this is about keeping me safe as a Jew, not necessarily as an anything else. it's a bulwark against anti-Jewish violence, not every other -ism under the sun.Âł but the thing is, i'm not a potato-head person. you can't just snap off the trans part of me and the Jewish part of me and say the latter part is safe even when the first isn't. i'm 100% Jewish and 100% trans; if i'm not safe as a transsexual, i'm not safe as a Jew. and if i'm going to be having to fight transphobia anyway, what difference does it make if the people passing bills stripping my rights are Jews or not?â´
if you really lean into the logic at play here â "no one outside a vulnerable demographic can be trusted to care about people in that demographic" â it's easy to wind up in absurdity. because if i can't trust goyim to have my back as a Jew and also can't trust cis people to have my back as a transsexual, perhaps i need a state run by and for Jewish transsexuals. but wait! white Jewish transsexuals are certainly regularly horrible to, eg, Black Jewish transsexuals, so we probably shouldn't be in the same state together, to say nothing of separating out the poor, the disabled, those without college degrees . . . and before you know it, you're committed to the idea that the only just world is one where we're each a state unto ourselves, perfectly safe in absolute isolation from one another â no society, no coming together across difference to lighten the burden of living, just infinite atomization, the perfect unending unwinnable war of all against all
and this, i think, reveals the fundamental futility of the project. as a transsexual, i don't think my safety will ultimately come from removing myself from people not like me. safety, i think, comes not from cutting ties, but from building them. i will only really be safe in a society that accepts difference, multiplicity, strangeness, variety. i will only be truly safe in a society where we come together â across the gulfs that separate us â to take care of one another
i think there are illuminating parallels with feminist/lesbian separatism here. in its most extreme versions, such separatism abandons the demand that women be safe around men and instead attempts the task of building a space without men for women to inhabit. similarly, it seems to me that Jewish ethno-nationalism abandons the demand that Jewish people be safe around goyim and instead attempts to build a space without goyim for Jewish people to inhabit.âľ i think Jews can and must be safe among goyim. i think women can and must be safe among men. i think trans people can and must be safe among cis people. that is the kind of world i am committed to fighting for, not one where we give in to fear and retreat into gardens walled by suspicion and hostilityâś
i'm not going to pretend that that's an easy world to build.⡠i'm not going to pretend i can point to a bunch of stable, just, pluralistic societies and go "eh, just do what they did!" (altho there's no shortage of societies i can point to that went the "this place is for us and only us" route and wound up producing dystopian nightmaresâ¸). i'm not even going to pretend that i think building a just world from where we are now is inevitable, or even that i always think it is possible. there are days it is very hard to believe. but i always think it's worth striving for. if a just world that guarantees a good life to all isn't worth striving for, what is? if we are to suffer defeat, let it be a slow defeat, a long defeat, a fighting defeat. i am not willing to give up on my neighbors. i am not willing to abandon the charge of seeking the good for those not like me. i am not willing to abandon the hope that will seek the good for me despite my strangeness to them. and i reject any philosophy or politics that asks me to do so
_________________________________________________
ši'm using "Jewish ethno-nationalist" here because i think it's been subject to less semantic dilution than "Zionist", and i want to avoid semantic arguments here as much as possible. whatever prescriptivist arguments you want to marshal that this or that term should mean X, i think it's clear that the descriptivist ship has long since set sail when it comes to "Zionism". (when pushed for specifics, i've seen self-professed Zionists and anti-Zionists outline essentially identical political programs, which certainly makes it seem to me that these terms are of minimal utility at best)
²obviously, what's happening on the ground is very bad. but critiquing what's happening on the ground often runs into severe questions of evidential reliability and can also leave the impression that Jewish ethno-nationalism is a good idea implemented badly, which is why i want to take aim at this level here
Âłgiven the European origins of this movement in its modern incarnation, i think it's unsurprising who gets imagined as "just a Jew" and not any other marked category. and from there, i think it's also unsurprising (if depressing) how various Jews who do exist in other marked categories have been and are treated by the "Jewish State" â the promised safety turns out to be predicated on all the usual axes of whiteness, wealth, ability, and so on
â´indeed, i have often found that groups predicated on the idea that "we're all in alignment here" are often much more resistant to acknowledging members' various bigotries than groups not predicated on that assumption
âľand, similarly, this attempt to cleave the world along one axis of hierarchy invariably reveals the inadequacy of one-identity-only frameworks for tackling the full complexity of the world. among other things, feminist/lesbian separatism has come under sustained critique from Black feminists like Barbara Smith for sundering ties of solidarity that are critical for fighting racism. victimhood and oppression are not fixed, ontological states, but fluid, shifting, contextual relationships. we cannot undo the snarlingly intertwined systems of oppression by replicating them in miniature
âśthe fear is certainly a real emotion; it is one i have felt at times myself. sometimes it is even based on an accurate perception of the world! but also: sometimes not. my fear of kitchen knives spontaneously levitating and flying around the room certainly feels real to me, but it's not a thing that can actually happen. one of the really hard things to do in the world, i've found, is parsing out the fears that are just feelings i'm having from the fears that tell me actual actionable information about the world and then striking a livable balance between reasonable precaution and paranoia. precautions against danger often come with their own set of risks: locking a door to keep out potential thieves ups the odds of being trapped in a building fire; using a different complex password for every site raises the risk of forgetting one and having a critical account shut down; the medications that drastically cut the frequency of debilitating migraines can raise the likelihood of other adverse health effects. more broadly, viewing neighbors with suspicion, fear, and distrust has a corrosive effect on the social fabric, and makes it harder to structure society to make sure everyone has food, clothes, housing, healthcare â all the things a society is supposed to do. (it's hard to convince people to take care of people they're afraid of, especially if they believe (rightly or wrongly) that they will have to give up something they care about (usually money, but also convenience, prestige, power) for that to happen.) and that corrosive effect can get very extreme â when fascism wants to recruit you to its cause, the sales pitch is usually less "hey, do you want to unleash horrific violence against those folks over there?" and more "hey, aren't you tired of being ~afraid~? don't you want to feel ~safe~? isn't it about time you had all the wealth, respect, and power that's rightfully yours and that's been kept from you for so long?". fear isn't the only way that horrors get unleashed, but it's a very potent one. (i don't think there's a formula for striking the right balance here. as with so many balancing acts, too much comes down to context and the specifics of all those involved, not least because the scale and nature of threats can vary so wildly. i believe that everyone deserves to be safe (insofar as any of us mostly hairless apes clinging to a thin crust of dirt on an iron ball whirling thru the cosmic void around a sphere of nuclear fire can be safe from loss, grief, accident, disaster, or misfortune...), but being and feeling are different matters, and pursuing the feeling of safety without limit can easily lead to logics of annihilation.) (and indeed, i am not the first to be struck by the fact that in many ways it is in the interests of the State of Israel, as a state, if Jews feel unsafe in the rest of the world, because that feeling of unsafety is so easily leveraged to both increase political support for the State of Israel and encourage Jewish people to leave the Diaspora and move to the State of Israel. which, unnervingly, is where you sometimes find the State of Israel and its agents taking the position that Jews don't belong anywhere that isn't the immediate environs of Jerusalem, a position that is ultimately indistinguishable from any number of dime-store Judeophobias)
âˇindeed, i think this is one of many places where it's easier to identify the problem than it is to solve it. many middle schoolers can explain the problem of Fermat's Last Theorem; barely a handful of professional mathematicians in the world could explain the proof. my cat can figure out how to break a vase even tho he can't reliably find a toy he's just been playing with when he's sitting directly on top of it (it's fine, he doesn't follow me on here, i can say that about him); in some cases, a skilled artisan can repair the vase so it functions again; no one in the world can turn back time so that the vase was never broken to begin with. it's easy to invent chessboard solutions to entrenched societal conflicts â move this border here, enact this constitution there, change this societal attitude for all involved, and hey presto!, utopia. but the world is not a game of chess. education, advocacy, activism, political organization, even wildcat direct action â these are all slow, effortful, uncertain processes, and everyone with a different vision of the future is also exercising their agency to change the course of events. i think societies are easy to break and hard to repair. in many cases, i don't really know how we go from here, the real world as it actually is with all its shattered bones and aching wounds and long-festering resentments, to there, a world of true justice. but i think it's worth trying. i think it's worth imagining. i hope you do too
â¸like, idk what even to say if "Germany for the Germans" doesn't set off alarm bells. even if they raised up a brand new continent from the ocean floor, i still think i'd be wary of the political project of building a ~Jewish state for the Jews~. i don't trust nationalism of any flavor. i think the Diasporic notion of feeling kinship with and responsibility for people all around the world regardless of borders, flags, kings, bureaucracies is beautiful and worth cherishing and protecting. i don't dream of finally being on top of the hierarchy; i dream of there not being a hierarchy to begin with
#the master's house is built of hierarchy and oppression; we cannot use hierarchy and oppression to dismantle it; in fact#attempting to do so will only result in building another master's house#lmao this is 2200 words long good luck#when i was exposed to it â either thru my fault or my teacher's who can say â#i understood âthe master's tools will never dismantle the master's houseâ to mean like#âscience and logical thinking are tools of the patriarchy and thus cannot be used in or to build a post-patriarchal worldâ#but over time i have come to understand it as#and i really do feel that a number of people looked at European ethno-nationalism and went#âhm. this seems bad. what if we made an ethno-nationalism for *ourselves*â#instead of like âah yes the problem here is ethno-nationalism how can we Not do thatâ#anyway#i'm being restrained in adding useful tags to this b/c i'm sure it will turn into a cesspool if it goes viral#but#it's probably the clearest articulation i've written personally about what goes on behind my self-identification as a Diasporist#so there's that
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just learned that the vials of allergen extracts they gave me last week to bring home so i can get my injections at my local doctor were supposed to be refrigerated pretty much immediately
#robin.txt#they did not tell me this.#(i only found out because i looked it up just now)#the lady simply handed them to me in and envelope and sent me on my merry way#so i assumed there were supposed to stay in the fucking envelope and for me to not mess with them#because how the fuck am i supposed to know???? iâve never done this before#iâm not shooting up allergen extracts at my house#this means iâm gonna have to make a phone call. or else theyâre about to inject me with some fucked up shit#itâs a good thing they didnât do my injections today because i apparently showed up outside the timeframe for when they do them#(i was also not made aware of this but it probably saved me. unless someone at my doc wouldâve noticed the non-refrigeration)#sigh. can something go right for me please. like medically lmfao#every time i turn around i have a new ailment bro please iâm not even 30 yet#jk i probably used up all my luck on the car situation#tho lowkey iâm still kinda holding my breath and waiting for something to go wrong LOL
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ive seen ppl saying smth in the wider plagiarism discussion to the tune of "don't worry anxious people, it's impossible to accidentally plagiarize!" and i feel like that lacks a lot of nuance that anxious brains like mine latch on to to just dismiss the possibility outright, as well as a lack of life experiences fueling it.
it is possible to "accidentally plagiarize" in that you can read something, forget about it, then a while later have your brain spit the ideas back out without telling where it got them. so of course you just assume they're yours and share them as such, because That's Where Most Of The Thoughts In Your Head Come From! and it both is and isn't plagiarism, you weren't /intending/ to pass someone's else's work off as your own, i'd even say in a way you were just as much a victim of misinformation as your audience. but you very much so did still resuse the work of someone else, even if you don't remember it.
but in my experience, this kind of thing also happens to a lot of people. you tell a friend a joke then wake up in a cold sweat two days later realizing the reason they didnt laugh was because they'd told you that joke a month ago. you reply to a friend's text and after sending you realized you ended it with the same exact phrase as theirs. you're writing edgy poetry and write a line you really like only to see it in a text post two days later saying youve already liked the post. like, it happens. so if it DOES happens and you're just honest and explain, people will understand. something like "oh shit im sorry, i totally have read that, i mustve forgotten and only remembered bits and pieces and just thought they were mine. thank you for letting me know and for the source" works wonders.
people know you can forget things. people won't automatically doubt your apology just because all true plagiarists say it was accidental. HOPEFULLY people can understand the nuance between a genuine remorseful explanation, and a thief who hoped no one would find out scrambling for excuses for why they did it. and those who can't, that's a them problem, not a you problem, you've taken responsibility for your actions as much as you can. they think the answer is simple, that the only thing stopping you from saying "yes i did it on purpose, i knew the whole time and deliberately copied them" is shame/inability to admit to your actions. but sometimes things AREN'T that simple, so imo ppl who are shitty to you for not following the script they made up for you in their head should be ignored
#youre allowed to make up scripts for people in fact good luck stopping yourself since thats kinda just part of how conversation works#is you try to predict how your audience will react to a certain statement#and my therapist actually encouraged me to practice run stuff i wanna talk about in sessions because That Makes It Easier To Talk About#like who cares if it's rehearsedâ it's still the truthâ yknow?#however that only applies to the things /you/ want to say. you are the only one aware of this script and the only one who agreed to it in#the first place which is why you plan contingencies into the script#is because you only have control over one character and can only take guesses at what the others might say#if you guess wrong and they do something different that doesnt mean /theyre/ not following the script#it means /your/ copy was a misprint and you filled in the blanks wrong. so do what good actors do and improvise. you'll get back on script#eventually. or notâ if your guesses devolved into wildly speculative fanfictionâ but frankly you knew going into it that#most of your script was guesswork so you should be prepared to have to make some things up on the fly#or see again: prepare contingencies#if your guesswork on your copy of the script turns out to be wrongâ wouldnt it be sooo handy to have a second copy which follows this#version of events much better?#and if not that oneâ maybe this third? how about this fourth? etc etc etc#but really just. when guessing at what others will say. know that you are guessing and dont hold it against /them/ if youre wrong#sorry ik that wasnt super related to the post itself im just also passionate abt that#plagiarism#james somerton
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God ok maybe me seeing my therapist more often is really really helpful right now actually
#its wild . i saw her at first to help with hrt and any mood swings or dysphoria i might encounter#and ive spiralled but in a way seperate to all of that#we do love her though she is very very good#but man . what a fucking 4 months it has been#all of feb sick as hell and briefly in hospital. still recovering and deeply fatigued#then all of march with a friend from america that while i enjoy them did also worsen the fatigue and i did not have an ounce of free time#all of april playing catchup with myself and turns out when you are drained and dont see friends for a month you feel Really Shit#so i qctually just spent the whole time feeling quite bad and isolated and was alone with my thoughts for far too long#then a week of gig work doing 4am starts. definitely did not help my sleep either!#and now im on the other side of it and my joy is coming from the theatre production im in#but thats only once maybe twice each weekend and also my friends are also adults. meaning there is drama and people who dont like eachother#and so while im not there enjoying yhe vibes im so worried that shit will hit the fan at any point#ive spent so little time with my partner and friends that im also starting to doubt my worth in the whole equation#its only 9pm. but im honestly gonna go to sleep now#and not feel better in the morning#goodnight tumblr wish me luck in gettung through tomorrow ans the day after and the day after that and the day af#ren rambles#ren rants
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I'm not saying therapy is making me Feel So Much At Once, but I AM listening to Frank Ocean on repeat again
#if I play Nights on repeat then I can't think about anything else#Swim Good if I want to work on some Ed-focused fic#Novacane for Jack lol#but mostly it's gonna be Blond on repeat and I think I might go into GTA#bc I managed to film the second take for the custom in a diff location#and both turned out really nice so I'm giving them a buy 1 get 1 free#bc they've been really kind and patient after the cashapp issues and not a lot of folks are patient#when it comes to these so I wanna reward that#anyway wish me luck finding the animals in GTA online that I need to take pictures of#and if you know where to find the fucking crows let me know#bc all the guides I've consulted have been useless. I hear the damn birds but can't see them!!!!!#crows are my fave. Let me see them!!!
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tomorrow at five is - hopefully please god let it be - my last dentist appointment for a while, since i'm supposed to get the temp crowns replaced with the permanent ones. we've hit the point where my anxiety fucking skyrockets as soon as i step in that place so uhhhh good luck me...
#wonder what The Dentist will say about the bits of gum tissue that turned white and peeled off the day after my last appt#when they left the retraction cords in for almost an hour#which. seems to have killed some of my gums. that i cannot afford to lose#good luck me x2
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Day 1 baby!!!!!!
I'm a little rusty w my art so I just went w the first idea that came to my mind lmao
ID under the cut!
[ID: a drawing of natsume sitting on top of a roof, gazing into the sky. In the background, a crescent moon can be seen, youkai flying through the night below it. Towards the bottom, mountains and a forest can be seen in the background.]
#my art#natsume yuujinchou#natsume takashi#natsume week#asdfljkasl;df this turned into the background challenge for me#i hate it here but i must persist!!!!#literally have not drawn actual pieces in a hot minute bc ive been busy irl#but i cant NOT do this#especially when season 7 was announced#anyways good luck to everyone else!!!!!!
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HII HAPPY NEW YEAR!!
As promised, here are seven wips from the last uhh 3 years I've been writing dragons book fanfic on my silly gay computer. They're a mix of unfinished/abandoned/in-progress-but-not-that-important-rn
There are summaries in square brackets between each separate fic with a quick description of what the fuck is going on, when it's going on (e.g. book number, where appropriate) and main players/relationships. (plus a fun little word-count and look at the last time i touched the file⌠yeah, fun⌠whoops). These have been bolded to hopefully make them a bit easier to see while scrolling at high velocity.
All under the cut because it's too long for me to do that to your dashboards đŤĄ
[Lucy & David, chatting about author photos post-book 4. 475 words. (Oct 2022 đ)]
âHang onâŚâ
David paused, finger still wedging the spine of the book open. He was staring at the flap of the dust cover, frowning slightly to himself.
âDid you use my student ID for my author photo?â
Lucy leant in closer. College David was a little younger than David Rain â same dark blue eyes, but with a rounder face and hair that hadnât been bleached white by his time elsewhere. The dusty brown still crept in at the ends of his hair, where it was now stuck to the inside of his collar.
Lucy couldnât remember how many times she had taken down her copy of The Nutbeast and stared at the little card. It was odd to compare the man whoâd lived only in her head for so many years to the one sitting on the edge of her bed.
He looked tired now. In-her-head-David had never been tired.
âIt was the only one mum had.â She said.
It was the truth; Liz had run through his entire film collection and hadnât found a single photo of Davidâs face. Heâd been more of a landscape photographer â lots of buses and bridges that hadnât consoled her as a child. Well, a younger child.
David cocked his head to one side, looking decidedly distraught. âBut itâs awful â thatâs not an excuse!â
She glanced back down, as though the image might have twisted into something else in the time sheâd released her focus from it.
Nope. Still David, if a little pixelly.
âIt looks fine.â
His hair was staticky and spidering out in a mess of flyaways, and David had a slight manic glint to his eyes, grinning in an angular, uncomfortable way. There might have been a stain on his shirt â it was hard to tell.
âIt does not.â
Lucy cocked an eyebrow. âAnd where did you want us to get another? Your return address isnât even real.â
He flailed the book wildly, âI donât even have parents! That makes it double your fault for not having a photo of me.â The cover was still propped open an inch or so, the paper caught on his ring. âThere has got to be a better one in this house.â
âCanât fix your face, David. Theyâre all going to look like that.â
âThis is inhumane!â he sputtered.
Despite it all, Lucy found herself smiling.
âWe used it at your⌠not-funeral too.â
âIâm sorry.â David scoffed, eyes very wide. âYou used my student identification photo at my funeral?â
âAnd where were we meant to get another one? You were gone remember? Canât exactly call ghostbusters and ask them to snap a photo of you.â
David frowned, nose wrinkling at the bridge.
âI donât think they do that â they bust the ghosts, remember?â
Lucy rolled her eyes. âYouâre a very annoying ghost. Maybe I should give them a ring regardless.â
-----
[Lucy & David, the audacity that some people have to move on and remodel the kitchen while youâre gone, really. 535 words. (March 2023)]
Irrevocably and stupidly, the only words he can get out of his mouth are:
âYou moved the fridge.â
Itâs not incorrect â it used to push up against the backdoor, and no amount of goodwill could stop you from nearly decapitating Bonny when he pattered through the cat-flap on short notice.
Now, itâs on the opposite wall â plastered in the same old stickers and fridge magnets reminiscent of days gone by. Itâs the same fridge where he used to drink straight from the milk carton and look out over the rockery and crooked garden fence, but it doesnât face the window anymore. David would have to turn fully around, which rather defeats the purpose.
Itâs nothing intelligent, nothing profound â so much, so fucking much, has happened in five years and the only thing he can think about is the fridge, Lucy filling her water in the moonlight, barely tall enough to reach the faucet, and the rattling of the entire house in the winter months, post it notes and postcards and crayon drawings of a clan of squirrels.
There are new drawings now â Alexaâs, he thinks vaguely â but itâs not the same. She holds her markers much tighter.
It shouldnât be a shock. Itâs been so, so long since he was last here, but in the same breath itâs as though David had only closed his eyes for a second to rest, and the house has grown and shifted around him.
He knows that this is how things work, he hadnât expected or wanted them to dig in their heels and sink into the snow with him. Itâs a good thing, he tells himself, that things have changed, but he chokes on the inhale anyway.
Heâs been left behind.
Lucy leans into the counter, dragging the cuff of her jumper between her thumb and forefinger. She bites the inside of her cheek the same way she did five years ago, but thatâs wrong too.
Itâs something in her eyes, something heavy and dark thatâs never going away â sheâs tired, much more tired than a child has any right being, and it seizes something in his chest.
He did this.
She sighs, moving to play with the collar of the jumper instead.
âBonny likes to be big now and household fridges arenât really made to withstand the force of a hundred-pound tiger⌠it got old real quick.â
David wants to say something, to lapse back into the way things used to be, but his mouth betrays him. He nods instead, and Lucy keeps tugging at the green fabric at her neck. Itâs his old geography society jumper, he notices absently. It looks older than he feels, silver lettering faded black and brown, eroded away entirely in places. He hadnât been to many of the meetings, not after truly being inducted into the Pennykettleâs nonsense, but the dusty smell of the common room and their pilfered coffee machine fills his nose.
It makes him want to gag. Where exactly are those members now? The idea of what will become of them if he fails has the prickle of ice rising just under his skin.
How can things be so much the same and so different all at once?
-----
[Henry & David: excerpt from the wider âwouldnât you be mad as hell if you were a normal guy and found out your birth dad is your landladyâs new boyfriend?â au, post family dinner explosion/revelation. 703 words. (September 2023)]
âExiled from my own house.â He muttered darkly.
Henry arched a massive eyebrow. âYou donât pay the rent, boy.â
âI do â that is literally the one thing I do.â
âThatâs rough, man.â Tam mumbled, hands weighed down by the tall coffee mug he had pilfered. It tipped dangerously as he raised it to his mouth, threatening to douse them all in yet more sludge. Henry frowned and steadied it with one hand. Tam blinked slowly and reset his angle.
âThereâre camping beds under the stairs. You can set yourself up in the living room.â Henry narrowed his eyes at the two of them, âYou will not be rumpling my upholstery by sleeping on my sofa.â
Tam hummed, setting his mug down owlishly before slogging out of the kitchen. He looked much more jelly than human, and David had half a mind to go and help him before he gave up on assembling the bed and curled up in a heap on the floor. He wasnât sure if that had been on Henry Baconâs extensive list of house rules or not.
âDid you know for long?â Henry asked quietly.
The tone took David off guard, breaking him out of his considerations of how comfortable Henryâs plush carpet was and how likely it was Tam was going to get a good nightâs sleep in the inevitability that he collapsed from exhaustion.
âKnow what?â
âDonât be stupid boy.â Henry huffed, his eyes softening more than David had ever seen. It was an odd expression for the hard lines of his face. âHow long did you know Arthur was your father?â
He laughed.
Turning his wrist to check the face of his watch he answered,
âOh, about seven hours.â
âMm, so ruining dinner was a crime of passion then.â
âOr you could say Arthur ruined dinner twenty-three years ago. Ultra-pre-meditated.â
Henry sighed.
âDonât start writing crime novels, boy. Youâre dreadful.â âIt must have been a shock to the system then, youâre not one to get angry.â
David shrugged. It sounded almost like a compliment. Two years ago he would have told you with full certainty that dragons were a fantasy. Now they warmed his tea in the mornings. A lot of things had changed in his life since then.
He shifted his mug between his hands and took another sip. The dregs were starting to cool.
âIt would have been better if it had been literally anyone else. Arthurâs been so⌠kind to me since we met and all this⌠itâs just-â his nose scrunched, âhighly contradictory to everything I thought I knew.â
Davidâs family had come up in conversation before â once Henry Bacon had hold of a thread he yanked and yanked until it came loose, no matter how many loose teeth he took with it. Perhaps that was why he and Tam got along so well.
It was no secret how David felt about the concept of his father. Henry Bacon had shared enough choice words about the man himself that David had to wonder what calculations were running in the back of his mind. Was he unravelling all of his interactions with Arthur, sliding the threads under a microscope? Was he a good man? Honourable?
David didnât have the answers to that himself.
He shook his head to clear it.
âIt doesnât matter. Heâs barely a father â he wasnât there to raise me and he certainly wasnât there when I needed him.â He rolled his mug around to observe the escaped leaves. âI think you did a better job at that.âÂ
âArthurâs⌠a complicated man. Iâm sure you two will be able to have a civil conversation once this is all said and done.â
When exactly does this get to be done? He wasnât sure anyone could tell him that. Not for all Arthurâs understanding of the universe and all its components therein was there an equation he could use to fix this. Replace x and y and find how he had missed this. To be so impossibly close and so far away at the same time. No doubt, he would have invented time travel before he would have noticed what sat right in front of him. Â Â
David hummed into his empty mug.
âSure.â
-----
[Tam/David, General Pennykettle Clan. David is weird after being resurrected, and everyone has questions about Co:pern:ica. There is another family dinner because those are all I write apparently. Tam and David go for a smoke break. 3067 words. (November 2022)]
ââNot like it can kill me anyway.â He says. âI didnât eat for four years, itâs not like a bit of smoke will do me in now.â
The silence is suddenly oppressive, and when David looks up the entire damn table is staring at him, slack-jawed. He has missed something.
He quirks an eyebrow.
âWhat?â
âFour years?â Liz is still holding the plate of roasters, stuck in the motion of sliding more onto her plate with the flat of her knife. There is something akin to real horror in her eyes.Â
âI was dead for one, yes.â
She extends the plate to him jerkily. âThen youâd better make up for it now.â
Ah! Yes, the human concept of starvation, heâd forgotten that one. Generally pretty upsetting to the average person â makes sense.
David pushes the plate back her way, gentle not to disturb the roasters as he laughs. Theyâre the herb covered kind and it would be a dire shame to spill them all over the floor, no matter if Bonny might thank him.
âNo, really. Iâm fine. Had other things to worry about â slipped my mind if anything.â
Other things, yes⌠letâs say that, shall we?
Arthur has inclined his head towards him in the way that means heâs grabbed the string of an intriguing theory and intends to tug it until the entire tapestry unravels. He gets that look about him a lot.
David shivers despite the British cold always being abrasively hot to him these days. What an odd image to set him on edge.
âWould you call that typical for the Fain? Not needing to sustain a physical body?â
He rolls the unlit cigarette around between his fingers.
âNo,â David hums, âI donât think itâs a Fain thing, I think itâs a dead thing.â
âBut youâre not dead now, are you?â Thereâs a tension in Zannaâs words that he wasnât expecting. If he were sentimental he might have called it concern. But heâs not sentimental, heâs Fain â he doesnât do that anymore.
David shrugs. âNot entirely sure if I count as alive either.â
âYou do.â Sheâs quick â always has been to cut off the things she doesnât want to hear. Zanna has made it clear enough that she doesnât like the thought that David Rain was never real, that he was some construct given life. He canât blame her. Â
âCan we not talk about how youâre dead or not dead.â Lucy snaps, her plate clinking a dangerous tone when she slams down her fork. David flinches at the sound. Tam has his eyes on him again. âYouâre finally back and I donât want to think about -â she glares at the fireplace, â-all that. I just want to have dinner again.â
He feels a twinge of the heaviness and lightness of space winking back at him. The same sensation of holding Bergstromâs pocket watch in his open hand and staring into its face, and all that that entails.
Good, it seems to say to him, youâre not here to be liked.
ââCourse. Sorry, Luce.â
She shakes her head, and seems to think better of whatever was on the tip of her tongue. She picks up her fork again and returns her gaze to the plate,
âWhatever, answer Arthurâs physics questions.â
David slides his Yorkshire pudding onto her plate in some semblance of a peace offering. Lucy douses it in gravy and almost smiles at him.
âItâs probably an⌠Illumination thing, rather than a Fain thing.â He tucks the cigarette into the pocket of his shirt. With the way Arthur has crossed his hands on the tablecloth there is no way David is going to get a smoke break any time soon. âI was in limbo for a long time, but I remember that my parents used to cook.â
Those eyes are all on him again. Even Bonny has plodded back into the living room to stare at him, though heâs probably waiting for one of their entourage to drop a piece of chicken.
The cat glides under the table, and from the sound of pattering paws David can hear him settle in Arthurâs lap. The professor removes a hand from the table to rest in Bonnyâs fur. Then his eyes move from the patch of wall over Davidâs shoulders to his face.
Right. Being stared at. Thatâs whatâs happening.
âNot my parents,â he corrects. âOne of meâs parents.â Thatâs worse.
âThe me that does not have this specific earth body, but existed in Co:pern:ica.â Better? âThe me that had parents.â Nope, thatâs even worse.
No one looks like they know what to say. He canât blame them. This whole family thing is a mess.
âWe do eat.â He settles on, then shoves a piece of parsnip in his mouth for good measure. He is safe for the next five to twelve seconds, if he really pushes it.
Theyâre curious, but no one wants to touch that mess, so Arthur breaks the quiet of everyone glancing off awkwardly at various dĂŠcor, grimacing slightly. âYou had mentioned that the Fain donât do many menial tasks unless theyâre unavoidable â if you remember it that way, then youâre likely right.â
âWell, I donât remember it, but based on Co:pern:ica David, Iâd say so.â Good Godith, what was in that fucking wine? âHis parents cooked, so they had to eat. Probably...â
The looks return, so he moves on quickly, waving his hands vaguely.
âMultiple timelines,â he says, âThereâs several meâs, doing about the same thing now. Several youâs too. Iâm just aware of them because of the d- Illumimation thing.â
Why did you say that?? Now theyâre going to want to know-
âThereâs multiple of us?â Tam looks at him over the rim of his glasses, half-smirking, âWhat, am I still a journalist?â
âUhhhâŚâ Well. âOf a sort. Itâs hazy, but I think you worked for the media.â
Donât say he got arrested, donât say he got arrested, donât say he got arrested for treason and left for dead, donât say he used to look at you with admiration in his eyes, and that stupid overgrown haircut, donât say you were jealous of the way he looked at Rosa, for Godâs sake David you can keep your thoughts to yourself you stupid bastard.
âYou guys have a media?â
Oh great, youâve just made him more interested. Good job, jackass!
David tries to make a non-comital sound in the back of his throat. It comes out strangled. Zanna frowns at him as she sips her wine.
âVery⌠State-operated, if you get my drift.â
Tam, ever the journalist, has just opened his mouth to probe for more answers when Liz cuts him off. She has piled up the empty plates in her quadrant of the table. David hopes it isnât obvious that heâs floundering, but from the fact that sheâs diffusing the situation he has to accept that it probably is.
âWell, donât leave us hanging â who were the rest of us,â she laughs, âwho was I?â
You used to read me to sleep. You painted the walls of my bedroom green when I said the grey made me sad. You were the only person we knew who made things with her hands instead of Imagineering them. You went to the Dead Lands and made life. You were my â
 âYou were a potter.â
Tam rolls his eyes,
âGod, are we all boring?â
It makes him oddly defensive for some reason.
âZanna worked at the librarium.â
You know the reason. You knew all of these people in a way they can never know. Youâve loved them every universe youâve been alive in. You always will. They cannot know that. It would be too hard. It would make you cry, and the Fain donât cry.
âLibrarium?â Arthur asks, Bonnyâs round face pouting over the edge of his plate, eyes focused on the sliver of ham across a moat of gravy. Itâs safe for now, itâll take at least another ten minutes for Bonnington to figure out that he can step up onto the table.
âItâs⌠basically a library, but the books are alive and itâs run by Henry Bacon.â
âMr Bacon?â Lucy looks frankly appalled at the idea.
âA weird Fain Mr Bacon, yes. I think I â I think the other me was living there.â
âLike when Gwiliana kicked you out.â
David snorts. âYeah, like the week from hell.â
He shakes his head, re-adjusts course, then looks back to Arthur. âWe havenât had physical books in over a hundred years â the librarium was where they all went, Henry-â he nods to the woman on his right, â-and Zanna kept them in order.â
He sips from his glass.
Probably a bad idea, youâve been running your mouth all night. Shut up.
âThey were bloody tricky bastards.â
Zanna looks at him oddly. Her brows are pinched but she doesnât seem overtly disgusted with the idea. Itâs possibly the first time she has been at least neutral on the discussion of the Fain.
On the discussion of who you are.
âYou couldnât have lived at a library. You wouldâve made a pigâs ear of it.â Her voice is not cold â itâs a joke, probably. She thinks itâs funny.
âOh, I did.â He pauses, tries to recall the details. The librarium is hazy for some reason.
He recalls Rosa and her kicker boots, lying in the grass by the well, firebirds overhead. He remembers being eleven, reading about pianists⌠then being⌠twenty? He decides not to poke around too hard in that gap, though its vastness is mildly concerning.
He worries that there is something there that is worse than not knowing.
You felt that way before. When you were first living at the Crescent. You had huge gaps in your childhood. Scattered dates and one or two fixed points. You donât even know if that was real. You donât know if you want it to be.
David swallows thickly, âI donât⌠actually remember what happened while I was there â while he was there. But he must have been there about ten years â thatâs what the memories tell me anyway.â
You wanted me to leave the librarium so I would stop distracting you. You made me daisy chain bracelets and we used to curl up in the hammocks together to read. There wasnât enough room but I would race you to see who could finish their volume faster. You almost always won, but I paid more attention to the details. I never did understand what was meant to be more or less important â it was in the book, so it had to be relevant, right? Mr Henry said we complimented each other nicely.
David is vaguely aware that he has slipped into a long silence. He watches Tam glance across the table at Zanna. His fingers itch for that cigarette.
âThere are two of us left wise guy.â Lucy says, finally pushing her plate away. She hasnât touched the sprouts. She never does. âWhat did Arthur and I get up to?â
He pretends to think for a moment, leaning back in his seat. His plate still has a mound of mash and peas. Itâll get cold and start going soggy soon. He hasnât felt hungry since he died. Heâll still eat it.
David rolls his shoulders.
âArthur was a physicist â it goes over my head but I think it was something to do with time.â Arthur tips his head not unlike a dog. He would love more details but David isnât lying when he says he doesnât get it.
You were my dad. You worked a lot. You did a good enough job when I did see you.
âI think⌠you had a cool name. Itâs on the tip of my tongueâ
Lucy snorts. âBoring. Just me left!â She arches a curious eyebrow â the one with the carefully placed slit. âAnd I better be more interesting.â
This is vague too. Sheâs young â no, really young â and then sheâs⌠less young? But still a little kid. Thereâs the same chasm in his memory.
How can I know sheâs my sister and have no idea when she was born? How do I have no clue what happened after I left â is it just too close? Do I need to write it down?
At the thought of writing a familiar green snout noses its way into his head. Zookie sits on his desk, looking up at him expectantly. The little dragon taps his pencil on the edge of his pad in a way that betrays some irritation. I canât believe youâre making me fish through your memories, heâs saying.
Nonetheless, Gadzooks scribbles down his answer, then flips the wire-bound book so David can decipher it.
Angel.
It makes his mouth go dry. What the hell did Lucy have to do with an angel, and why does it make him so uneasy? Zookie shrugs and, as he dissipates like smoke, David takes a long drink.
When he finally has enough sense about him not to melt into the carpet or storm off into the night and never return, he smiles at Lucy.
âYou were the most boring child Iâd ever met in my life. You liked maths.â
âI still like maths!â Lucy snaps, rolling her eyes. âIâm an engineering student!â
David shrugs, âYou literally canât get more boring, Luce.â
She lobs a pea at him and Liz starts gesturing at the two of them with her ladle. Thereâs the usual lecture about acting like adults, and how Lucy really should know better by now, but David isnât listening. His eyes keep drifting to the window, out into the garden. He feels odd, though he canât place it.
He shakes it off â talking about the Fain, delving into the memories of people who are him but not quite always has him disoriented afterwards â thatâs all.
And whatever Gadzooks is on about will either happen or it wonât. He can dwell on it later. For right now, Tam is staring at him over the head of his beer â half empty. That seems a little more pressing than Zookieâs one-word puzzles.
-
âIâm gonna go take that smoke.â David says, already out of his seat by the time Zanna can send him a wayward glance. She still seems uneasy â she sees something in his face that she doesnât like, her brows furrow further and she returns to her wine.
Liz sighs, but makes no move to stop him. âJust donât throw the butt in the bushes,â she says, âI donât want you setting all of Scrubbley on fire.â
âWill do.â
He sends her a mock salute, then dips around the door into the hallway.
Tam is three feet behind him when his hand is on the front door. âFigured you might need a lighter.â
David looks back to him before pushing the door open. âYou are a shock Mr Farrell! A poet and a smoker â Liz will never approve.â
He gets a wry smile in response. âYou started it â youâre the favourite âround here anyway. We can call you a bad influence on me.â He pats his jacket pocket â itâs the one with the tartan print lining that comes through at the hood and the cuffs. âDo you need that light or not?â
David pushes the door the rest of the way open, then stops it open with his weight.
âI think between us we should be able to manage.â
They sit on the brick wall that lines the entire front side of the Crescent. Itâs perhaps a little too low even for David, but it beats standing around in the cold air, shifting your weight from foot to foot until the cigarette is biting your fingers.
Tam extracts a beaten-up silver lighter from his pocket, then fiddles with the latch for a moment. The cigarette resting on his lip wobbles as he swears, failing the ignition several times.
âNo juice?â
He sighs.
âNot even a spark.â
David shrugs, ââs alright, I do have a back-up for when handsome journalists donât have a lighter.â
He leans closer into Tamâs space, cupping his hands in a small bowl.
He had done this before â maybe not in this life, but the echoes of the action were strong enough that he could feel the order of operations like a phantom pain.
He felt vaguely that he was cupping his hands more to protect it from the wind than as a necessary motion. It would appear when he closed his eyes and thought it â dreamt it.
He conjured up the image of a small candle flame, the orange hue and white core, flickering slightly but solid enough in shape and colour.
Someone was talking over his shoulder â several someones, whispery and faint on the wind. The main voice was familiar enough â Liz, but not quite. He chooses to ignore the difference.
He feels the bright heat and the wobbling shape, forces it to become real, then David Rain opens his eyes.
It isnât that impressive for a little light that has completely shattered several laws of physics. It looks more like David is hiding a birthday candle in his palms. A very small, very shit birthday candle. Been there, he thinks.
Tam, however, had clearly not been there. His eyes have gone wide, and the cigarette looks in serious danger of tumbling straight out of his mouth.
âFuck me.â He mumbles.
âNot right now.â David says, raising his hands to his mouth.
The flame is real enough to catch, and David is soon offering his palms to Tam. He bends his head to accommodate the spark. Â
Once the second cigarette is lit, David pulls his hands away from one another, extinguishing the light. Tam takes a drag, still staring wide-eyed over the rims of his glasses.
âJesus fuck. Have you always been able to do that?â
David laughs. Have I, indeed.
âFirst time.â
âChrist.â
He takes a drag of the cigarette. Two men puffing smoke on the front door-step of the dragon-potterâs house â it was no wonder that rumours of real, scaly dragons have popped up in the neighbourhood. David imagines there might be more rumours of that calibre soon, but pushes it to the back of his mind.
âYou had something to ask me.â
He considers denying it for a moment, then lets it go.
âI did.â Tam says, chewing over the next syllables in his head before he finally lets them loose, âAre you alright?â
-----
[David/Zanna. I hit early series David with the transgenderism beam. Zanna does Davidâs makeup, she has feelings about it. 1038 words. (31 December 2022⌠omg happy birthday âtranses ur gender.docxâ)]
Itâs a joke.
Itâs a joke.
Zanna has joked approximately a thousand times that he has the right face for makeup. That David has nice lashes and deep eyes and a just slightly soft jaw. He is indulging in the joke.
It means absolutely nothing, other than that he has a sense of humour.
In fact, itâs so funny that David is sat stock-still. Committing to the bit and allowing his partner to work her magic is going to make the outcome objectively so much funnier.
Itâs a little bit secondary school sleepover â not the type that heâd ever been to, of course, there were a few more dicks and a bit less lip-gloss at those, but the thought remains â David perched on the edge of the bed, Zanna leaning tantalisingly into his space, a look of wicked concentration on her face.
He continues to avoid Zannaâs eyes. If he catches them then heâll just start laughing, and then Zanna will start laughing, and then theyâll be a mess and the joke wonât get finished. Given the time sheâs spent on his eye-shadow, it would be a shame at this point.
Lucy had never really been into makeup, or at least none of the fancy stuff. But she had found the idea of doing him up absolutely hysterical. Sheâd offered a hundred times but the thought had always struck something deep inside him â annoyance, was it? That she felt like he was a doll to practice on, maybe?
That she would absolutely fuck it up on purpose?
And considering the whole joke is that Zannaâs going to make him look like a girl, what wouldâve been the point in fucking it up? Theyâve already established that being overly serious is hilarious.
That looking convincingly like a girl when heâs not one is the peak of comedy.Â
On the desk over Zannaâs shoulder, Zookie huffs. He twiddles the pencil between his paws, scaley eyebrows drawn together.
He flips the page and looks up at David. Whatever he was hoping to see, he does not, and the dragon shakes his head, tapping the book with some impatience.
Hmph, David thinks, if only you had some way to tell me things that weâve used a dozen times. Or a language we both speak. What a crying shame.
âAlright?â
âFine.â His voice is a little rough from disuse and nothing else. They have been sat in silence for quite some time.
âSure?â a brush flicks around the corners of his eyes, âItâs not getting in your eyes, is it?â
âNo.â
She snorts to herself, dropping the brush back into a basket of the bastards.
âYouâre being very talkative, darling.â
âSorry, I forgot I was meant to.â
âRelaxing when other people do your makeup, isnât it?â
David hummed.
âBecca always falls asleep when I do hers. Nightmare when youâre meant to be going out somewhere.â
âBecca?â He tried to conjure an image of Zannaâs older sister in his mind. The result was a woman who was very much normal. Or at least, not someone who dresses remotely like her sister. âIsnât your style a little⌠much for her?â
âOi! Sheâs not boring, you know. And anyway, I can tone it down, and I am right now. I wasnât aware you wanted me to make you a gothic princess, David.â
Oh, that might have been ni- funny, it would have been very funny.
It would have been nice to see himself in so much makeup because it would have enhanced how funny the entire situation was.
Which it is right now â funny.
When he doesnât answer, Zanna knocks him gently with her elbow.
âIâm joking, you clod. Youâve got a perfectly normal face going on. The old ladies in Sainsburyâs will live.â
The idea of leaving the house like this â whatever this looks like â sends a jolt of ice down his spine. Itâs an electric feeling that he doesnât know how to place. It sits deep in his chest in a way that almost hurts. Somehow heâs not sure that itâs a bad hurt.
He forces himself to laugh, though it comes out a little mechanical. If Zanna notices, she is too busy trying to drag the eyeliner across his face in a straight line to comment.
âWhatâs the point then? Go big or go home, eh?â
-
âEt, voila! What dâyou think?â
He looks himself in the eyes and a jolt of panic runs the entire way through his body.
Oh God.
Itâs a thin pane of glass in the Pennykettleâs bathroom, but David is half convinced that if he reaches out, his hand will pass straight through the frame.
Thatâs not him. It canât be. Â
He watches himself crumple before he feels it happen, and once he cracks, the entire thing goes.
Zannaâs arm wraps around his middle, and she starts to pull him gently away from the mirror. Davidâs feet are cemented to the tile, they continue to stare over her shoulder at the reflection. Theyâre not convinced they could look away if they tried, as if some ancient magic has bound them to the spot, encased them in ice.
Their reflection is crying. Zanna brushes a hand through their hair carefully. Â
âHey.â She says softly. âWe can take this off, if you want.â
Sheâs already leaning for the makeup wipes when Davidâs head shakes.
âItâs not thatâŚâ Their voice catches, much smaller than it ever has been before. âItâs not bad.â
Then what is it?
The eyeliner has tracked all the way down to Davidâs chin now, and Zanna wipes away the offending drop before it can stain their jumper. Only when she blocks the mirror fully from view does David look back to her.
âNo?â she asks. Sheâs whispering, like this moment is something that could be broken by a raised voice. Davidâs not so sure thatâs wrong. They find themself leaning minutely towards Zanna. âThen what is it?â
âThatâs me.â
The waves finally crash to shore.
It washes over Zanna quickly, and David watches as the words hit them both full force. Her eyebrows arch, and the whites of her eyes widen around her dark irises. But just as quickly, any surprise is gone.
âOh.â She whispers. âOh, love.â
-----
[Tam vs Lucy. After winning at the battle of Isenfier, everyone bickers. Tam suffers. (yoinked from larger wip about the fallout of Isenfier) 576 words (June 2024)]
Tam blinked to clear his head. RightâŚ
âThe⌠cat.â
Lucy frowned in that vicious way that all teen girls seemed inherently skilled at.
âSheâs a girl now: keep up, Tam!â
He raised his hands in mock-defence, âRight, sorry. And this girl is⌠our problem why, exactly?â
Lucy huffed again, as though she thought Tam was being particularly dense. Perhaps he was, but he rather thought he was owed a little more leniency on account of only recently having been un-buried-alive. God forbid he be a little behind on his dragon apocalypse lore.
âSheâs one of us. She stays.â She crossed her arms in front of her chest and jutted her chin in Tamâs direction indignantly. âThereâs room in the car, anyway.â She added, as though that was that.
Tam chose to ignore that this was his car, and that it was rapidly going to become a tight squeeze if they continued to adopt every miscreant they encountered in the West Country. Surely âBellaâ had family, somewhere? She hadnât always been a cat - right? - and therefore didnât really have to become their problem. Though, undeniably, it was difficult to argue with the rapidly deflating look on her face; if she started to cry Tam wasnât sure heâd be able to argue. Perhaps someone could lay in the boot if it got too cramped. Maybe Zanna would do him a favour and knock him out before he had to do the tetris-ing himself.
âThatâs very kind of you, Mr Tam.â Bella said, as if Tam had anything to do with the offer. Lucy gestured wildly and with finality to indicate that everything had, obviously, been sorted.
Zanna and David were exchanging looks to the side. âWeâll discuss this in the morning,â Zanna eventually settled on, âNo oneâs going back to Scrubbley tonight anyway.â
Lucy started.
âWhy not? We have to tell mum that everythingâs okay â she needs to know it worked and that the ix are gone and-â
David clapped her on the shoulder, having to look up a little to counteract Lucyâs lankiness.
âItâs fine, squirrel. Weâre all going to have a chill evening to cool down from saving the world, and let Liz know over the phone not to expect us back yet-â He pat his chest, where the inner pocket of his jacket sat, and blanched. âWith the phone I donât have anymore⌠where the hell has that gone?â
David let go of Lucyâs shoulder and began to check the rest of his numerous pockets. It was a bizarre interpretation of the dance Tamâs father had done every few feet when he walked through an airport. After smacking enough of his clothing and finding them bereft of his beaten up mobile, David eventually gave up, slicking a hand through his hair and sending dust and soil through it in dark streaks.
âWell, thatâs somewhere. Never mind, Iâll call her at the lodge.â
Tam patted at his own jeans and was, for a moment, fooled by a particularly hard wad of dirt. He was forced to admit that he too had lost his phone. It was going to be a damn pain to replace.
âThereâs not going to be any electricity at the BnB. This entire place is shredded.â Tam said, as he certainly didnât have a phone of his own to offer.
âIâm sure I can figure something out.â David said.
Zanna rolled her eyes.
âWhy do I hate the sound of that?â
-----
[Sophie & Zanna, end/post book 2, reflecting on the whole âwait is this cheating??â situation (no itâs not, itâs Zanna having a big gay crush on Sophie that she will never completely recover from/come to terms with). They shouldâve made out đ. 277 words (November 2024)]
âSorry, I â I didnât know. About you and David.â Once sheâd said it, Zanna wasnât strictly sure it was true. Sheâd known David had a girlfriend; she just hadnât cared. It didnât seem that David had either. She felt herself flushing at the thought, well aware that sheâd been caught in the act.
âNo harm no foul.â Sophie said, an easy smile on her cherry pink lips. Her eyes crinkled at the corners â the irises very blue, like syrup dripped through ice. She didnât seem to care in the slightest that Zanna had been enabling her boyfriend to cheat on her. âI was on my way to break up with him officially and we were pretty much over in October. Youâre not on my territory, if thatâs what youâre worried about.â
Sophieâs territory truly hadnât concerned her at all â clearly â but Zanna still felt offbeat, an uncomfortable sweat building at her forehead. Sophie was far too calm about the entire affair, her straw blonde hair tied back in a ponytail low at the base of her neck, strands tickling her face. She brushed one away with her knuckles and brought her hand back to rest in her coat pocket. There was a security in the way she stood â relaxed, unbeaten by the breeze.
Zanna tucked a loose braid behind her ear, the beads and charms clinking in uneven tones.
âIt wasnât his idea.â She found herself saying regardless, feeling like a child at confession. âI kissed him first.â
Sophieâs eyebrows quirked curiously. Her smile widened, top lip curling away from her teeth. She inclined her head gently. âI would imagine so. Heâs dreadfully slow with anything romantic.â
#rangnar rambles#tldc#david rain#tam farrell#zanna martindale#i think theyre the main characters in... all that đ#i thought about splitting these into seperate readmores all in one long reblog chain but it turns out they all open at once no matter what#one you click on. which sort of defeated the purpose of trying to make them openable seperately#and to be real with you i cant be fucked to make seven seperate posts for fics i dont care that much about đ#that's so much text Good Luck#also if i decide i dont want these out there one day i dont want to be hunting down 7 different posts so.... sorry. but not That sorry <3#i yearn for Thoughts so please do whack your comments in a reblog if you have any#i think my brain stopped working when i had to go through all 47 docs in my tldc folder to put this together. which was several hours ago#and not all of those were fics or even solid thoughts. but too many of them were. ive written a lot of stupid cringe fanfic (/pos) about#these stupid cringe books (you can fill in your own understanding for this one)#whatevs. i could say its the â¨end of an era⨠but you know for a fact im back to the same old bullshit in 5 hours as i was 5 years ago#who give A SHIT!! time is soup. autism is forever đŞđ¤đŞ#if the formatting breaks when i hit post im going to... cry. and eat potato chip. and probably go back to whatever i was on about with#sophie and zanna in there#the fic tag
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High Priestess, Hermit, Temperance, Devil, and Sun
FINALLY answering these im so sorry lmao
High priestess: Which does Rook obey more, their head or their heart?
Ithelanas is pretty well balanced by the time the events of Veilguard roll around, but it took a LONG time for him to mellow out like that. When he first started with the Inquisition, he was in the habit of ignoring his feelings (his heart) in favor of "logic" or following orders (his head). It wasnt that he never did things impulsively or followed his own path, its just that he agonized about it for weeks, and made himself and everyone around him miserable in the process. Meeting and falling in love with Revasulahn (my inquisitor), helped start him on unlearning that habit. Letting go of the FOMO/regret cycle he was so prone to definitely saved him a lot of grief during the regret prison quest sequence in Veilguard.
This got LONG so the rest are under the cut!
Hermit: When Rook is alone with their thoughts, what do they think about? Is solitude a blessing or a curse for them?
Lanas is quite the introvert, and tends to do best when he has lots of time to himself for introspection. He daydreams a lot, and mulls over conflicts/problems he needs to solve (sometimes obsessively). Hes very inventive and is fascinated by enchantments/complex magic, so if theres nothing to worry over hes thinking about nerdy stuff. Solitude in moderation is a blessing. That said, he's also prone to feeling lonely, so having people that care about him around to force him to socialize every now and then is imperative. Give him his space, but pop in and irritate him sometimes to remind him hes loved lol.
Temperance: What does Rook do to deal with the stress of their situation?
Aforementioned alone time for introspection is how Lanas best handles stress. Giving him space to decompress and think things over is better for him than reassurance in most cases. If he's stressed enough to ask for help from those he trusts, talking things over won't do anything but upset him more. Distracting him until hes relaxed enough to go be alone with his thoughts for a bit is the best course of action. Suli's default "calm Lanas down" plan is giving him chocolate, sex, and drawing him a nice bath with candles and fancy herbs and salts and whatever else he wants. It turns into the "doing whatever my hot witch wife wants" meme every time. Whats the fun in marrying a mage if you dont indulge their funky rituals every now and then to help them relax?
Devil: What type of demon is most likely to target Rook? Why?
Despair demon! Lanas is depressed. By the time Veilguard happens, hes got it pretty well under control, but he had a rough go of it when he was younger. Spending your teens and 20s passively suicidal doesn't resolve itself with no lasting effects. Fear hes had mastered since childhood, you can't scare a man that thinks things cant get worse. Despair is the opposite. It tells him he'll never get better, that the world won't change, and that hes doomed to repeat the cycles hes trying to break. Nothing to lose vs wasted potential. If you'd thrown him in the regret prison a decade earlier, he wouldn't have escaped. Hes had a long time to heal and learn better coping skills. He has hope now (and the inquisitor) to see him through it.
Sun: What is Rook passionate about? How do they fuel that passion?
Lanas is most passionate about learning and teaching. This one was hard to answer but most of the other more specific thoughts I had can be boiled down to the pursuit of knowledge (magical research, reading, adventure) and the distribution of it (loves infodumping about his interests, journaling/archiving while he was with the inquisition, mentoring apprentice mages while staying with clan Lavellan between Inquisition and Veilguard. He'd tell you he doesn't have favorite apprentices but thats a lie. Suli's nephew, Fennas, is a teachers pet and definitely the favorite (hes 19 at the start of Veilguard and ive got an au where i made him my rook instead. If i were more of a fan of the teenager saves the world trope id make that my canon worldstate but im gonna let Fen be a kid and have his 40 something mentor do it instead))
#tumblr ate them for awhile and then i didnt have spoons to write for a hot minute when they showed back up#so here they are now!#thank you for asking about my guy! i love him so much#theres more of these coming but this one was the longest so i started there#ithelanas not lavellan#oc lore#i gotta get over the mortifying ordeal of being known and post about the au where fen is my rook bc its got a lot of hilarious potential#âhello inquisitor who is definitely not my uncle and ive never met before.â#âmy name is Rook and NOT something that could be interpreted as an unfortunate nod to the trickster deity im trying to stopâ#the whole start of the game is just all the inquisition contacts giving Fen the craziest side eye#and then turning around and writing to the inquisitor to snitch on him#Makes all the good luck and coincidences way funnier if its just Rook being babysat by everyone that recognized a family resemblance#that conversation with harding about the inquisitor is so much better that way#âyou been talkin shit behind my back?â âNO ROOK DEFINITELY NOT I BARELY EVEN KNEW THE INQUISITORâ âliarâ#hes a Davrin romance in game but ive been toying with the idea of shipping him with Kieran. i think he and fen would be adorable together
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me when my favorite song by an artist is the unreleased one she wrote the day before i saw her in concert and who hasnt had a concert since and i have half of it recorded on my phone but its not enough
#me when âi have traveled every highway from phoenix to maine and every sanctuary door is slammed in my faceâ#me when âim not asking for much just a small little manger to restâ#me when âive got good friends up in heaven but im too young to make that moveâ#me when if every underdog turns into god when is my luck turning around#need her to release this goddamn song#atlas screams into the abyss#joy oladokun song btw
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mihoyo really will be like here is this whole cast of characters dozens upon dozens a good bunch of which especially strong and useful you can have whichever you want as long as you roll for them and I'll really be like thanks I think I'll fixate on that one free to play dude you dropped in my hands at the very beginning of the game every single time
#it was kaeya back when i played genshin it's dan heng now with star rail history truly repeats itself#I'll look at my five stars characters and go yeah but if i build a team around them I'll have to bench dan heng.....no thanks#no because like i was playing months and months ago yeah? but i never got any further than#halfway into belobog#? yeah. i didn't even have nat yet when i stopped#but then my best friend a couple weeks ago was like check out this dude they're dropping soon#it was ratio#i was like đđđ#best friend was like you still got time to put aside the rolls đđđ#because he's satan#so i start playing again#turns out they're giving me ratio for free anyway#just to keep the tradition going of me being obsessed with free to play dudes#but also all the better because it means I'll have the rolls to try for the other dan heng when they'll rerun him#anyway my point was that I started playing again#and i had a whole bunch of rolls saved up so i was like okay one for luck#i rolled argenti#which is so ridiculous I'm starting to think i wasted my pity on that but whatever point is i have argenti#but for a good team with him in it i have to bench dan heng so I'm just leaving him there ??? ridiculous#literally a whole roster of characters to choose from and I'm happy with the one i got in the first minute of gameplay#i might just be a gatcha game's worst enemy
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may 6th, 2024
#rat of the day#my art#chappell roan#good luck babe#[sic]#i think its funny when i get lyrics wrong#especially on the rats bc theyre like. generally speaking. lyrics that have been stuck in my head#and then it turns out they were wrong like whoops lol
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perhaps as a ploy to become the world's most dedicated drakengard 3 hater, perhaps to strengthen my spite-based narrative design, perhaps even out of sheer desperation for drakengard content..... ive finally decided to do the unthinkable and holy shit i didn't even know it was possible but how is this even worse than i thought
#gu6chan's musings#why is zero such a fucking obnoxious brat like shut UPPPP holy shit#why is the gameplay literally 'drakengard 2 but make it 110% more linear and slap in a stamina bar for good measure'#i dont wanna bitch about enemy variety YET since ive literally only started but why does this make legnas aerial sections feel like they#have more weight#are they made of paper?????? when the heavy knights in dod1 and 2 came at you you FELT it (especially 2 with the heavy footsteps.....)#why are the designs just so..... unimaginative and bland (this goes for the environment AND the characters like... like???)#y'all im giving this game all the grave of gpd by turning off it's soundtrack so i won't have to deal with that like i did in nier#but my GOD blocking fans of this game with the thought of 'we have our differences :)' isn't enough i think i need to shoot them with a gun#actually kinda lied at that last point ive used 'liking drakengard 3' as a subtle red flag for ppl generally just being immature or even#downright shitty/blindsidedly obnoxious people but was like 'thats so mean im sure theyre not all like that'#but ladies and gentlemen#its worked every time#i kid you not with like 4-5 people online i was like 'okay; that's just coincidence though bc while taste DOES reflect personality to an#extent it can't be a red flag' until i met my best friend's shitty fucking girlfriend he's on the cusp of breaking up with right now and she#said she was a HUGE fan of Drakengard 3 our first time meeting and i was like 'đ uh-huh; how neat' and she turned out to be fucking INSANE#anyways wish me luck on this maybe I'll survive..
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journey to mall made! hair dye acquired!
#wish me good luck#im literally just dying my hair the color that it turns when its wet#so i know itll suit me but i am nervous honestly#its permanent dye too i didnt know if i wanted to dye it permanently but like#if im going to dye it. i feel like i have to go all in
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