#which means the question of Life. The Universe. And Everything is how many chapters does it take

[adaines-furious-feast]

I think there might actually only be two more chapters of Wizard and a Sorcerer. I've got everything I need, but I feel like I'm forgetting something.

I need someone to ask "how are you going to resolve this bit" to make sure I have all the answers.

[dem0batz]

Curiosity Killed the Kitten

Sylus x MC!Reader // Love and Deepspace

Author's Note: First I was horny about Caleb's return, but catching up on the lore has me in my feelings. No smut, just emotional hurt/comfort with Sylus. All of my LADS fics take place in the same universe and is a connected story which means MC is romantically involved with ALL 5 love interests. This is just me trying to put the pieces together that we get in the game and applying it how I think makes sense in MC's situation.

Summary: After going to Skyhaven for an undercover mission and learning that Caleb is alive and well, as well as discovering some unsettling information about the Farspace Fleet and his role in it, MC returns home to Linkon City. All of the men in her life are concerned about her sudden unexpected vacation, but Sylus most of all does not accept the flimsy excuses of her brief disappearance. Content Warnings: Reverse Harem/Why Choose (MC is with all five love interests in my au), afab!MC, she/her!MC, tracking device without MC's consent, canon-typical Sylus stalking, Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff Word Count: ~2600 words | Read on AO3 | Chapter List

Since returning to Linkon City after your extended “vacation” in Skyhaven, you have felt an uneasiness settling in your gut. You should be over the moon that your long-dead brother wasn’t dead after all but everything about Caleb seemed… off.

There were still traces of the boy you remember. He still doted on your every need. Was still over protective in the most annoying ways and still used humor and guilt to soften your irritation. He had never been straight forward with you, always willing to do whatever he needed to protect you even if it meant keeping you in the dark. So the fact that he deflected most of your suspicious questions concerning the practices of the Farspace Fleet was not a surprise, but you couldn’t shake the feeling that he had lied right to your face about many of the things he did answer, which was new.

He had always seemed a little haunted to you; like there were things he wasn’t saying or couldn’t say and that hadn’t changed, but the depth of it now seems insurmountable. What was it they said about gazing into the abyss? Well now, often times when Caleb looked at you, you felt the abyss gazing back. Like your caring brother was gone and the cold officer he had become was steering the wheel. You couldn’t decipher where Caleb began and the Colonel ended.

While in Skyhaven, you hadn’t received any of messages and had connectivity issues with the wifi. Initially, you had reasonably blamed the shoddy signal on the fact that you were in a city in the sky and that the near-constant storms were to blame, but after uncovering some suspicious information about Caleb’s new life, you were no longer convinced it was a mere accident. Which left you to believe either the Fleet had more of an influence on Skyhaven than anyone suspected, despite what their public policies claimed, or Caleb himself had intentionally isolated you. Both were concerning and likely had some truth to them, but the former was more painful to think about.

Your phone had been buzzing nearly non-stop since coming back to the city, updating with message after message. Messages from Xavier about hot pot and confusion about your sudden approved vacation days that you never mentioned taking; Rafayel feigning danger, saying he needed his bodyguard to come and check on him asap; Zayne concerned that he hadn’t heard a word from you after Mia’s unfortunate death and insisting you check in with him as soon as you are able.

They had been relatively easy to appease for now. You informed them all you had just returned home and would make sure to see them in the coming days— you just needed one day to sort through your thoughts and feelings about the Caleb situation. Besides, what were you supposed to say? I didn’t actually go on vacation because I went on a solo undercover mission for the Association connected to the explosion of my grandmother’s house just to find my long-dead brother/sort of ex-boyfriend is actually alive and well, and is now one of the top ranking leaders of the Farspace Fleet who may be involved in some unethical practices because I had one conversation with a little boy whom they had been searching for and he seemed to have a complete personality change in the two days after his sister’s death?

It wasn’t exactly something that could be explained in a text message.

Needless to say, your men were worried about you, but Sylus most of all. Though his messages where a lot more direct in their efforts to get to the bottom of your disappearance. They started off playful enough in their probing, but the longer you were gone, the more insistent they became.  

Mr. Crow: Mephisto reported that you packed a bag. A big one. Where are we going? 

Mr. Crow: Now he says you boarded a shuttle. Why would you do that when you have a helicopter in the N109 at your disposal?

Mr. Crow: Your return date is a week from now. Did you go on vacation without me, kitten? You never mentioned a work trip.

Mr. Crow: I know you’re a busy big time hunter but it’s unlike you to ignore my messages like this, sweetie.

Mr. Crow: Mephisto lost you. The twins can’t find you either.

Mr. Crow: Where are you?

Mr. Crow: You disappeared on me and I’m worried. This isn’t like you.

Mr. Crow: I’m very unhappy with you right now.

Mr. Crow: You can’t hide forever, kitten…

You knew without a shadow of a doubt that Sylus saw the moment you returned to the city because your mechanical bird companion was tailing you again. You hadn’t intentionally slipped his detail or left Sylus hanging during your leave. It was no secret that the Onichynus leader kept watch of you and it had actually become a welcome security over the months since you began seeing one another.

It should have struck you as odd that Sylus didn’t hunt you down during your two week stay in Skyhaven but the truth was you had been hit with near constant surprises in the floating city that you had no time to think about anything but what was happening in that moment. But now that you were away and had space to think, you were left to wonder why Sylus never came for you. Why you were able to be imprisoned on a military fleet ship against your will and your mighty crime boss didn’t track you down and bust you out.

Your phone buzzes again, shaking you from your thoughts.

Mr. Crow: Look who’s back in town.

Kitten: Will you meet me somewhere?

Mr. Crow: Turn around.

You lower your phone, eyebrows drawn together as you turn against the flow of pedestrian traffic. Your eyes flit through the decorated streets, colorful ribbons and lanterns decorating the way in preparation for the New Year. The crowd parts, making way for a hulking man in a leather jacket walking steadily toward you with danger flashing in his crimson eyes, his mouth set into a hard line. It never ceased to amaze you how Sylus was able to blend in with a crowd when he stood out to you so much. He towered over everyone and had a dangerous aura to him, yet no one batted an eye in his direction.

You gulp nervously, knowing he wouldn’t let you get away without an explanation. One you still weren’t even sure how to say. Anxiousness has your feet moving quickly as you duck into an alleyway to wait for him. You couldn’t do this with an audience. Though it’s still light out, the strings of decorations above has the alley appearing more dark than usual, allowing you to slink into the shadows and away from prying eyes. It doesn’t take Sylus long to catch up, his own shadow eating up whatever light remains as he draws closer until he’s towering above and caging you against the stone wall.

“Sylus—”

“Would you look at that? I caught myself a stray.”

His fingers curl under your chin, not-too-gently angling your face toward his. That simmering anger in his eyes softens at the sight of you, disappearing completely to be replaced with concern. He reads you entirely too well, even if he doesn’t know the cause.

“What’s wrong, sweetie?”

You let out a vulnerable sigh, lip wedging between your teeth to combat the sting in your eyes as the relief of this secret you’ve been holding onto is lifted off of your shoulders the slightest bit. You didn’t realize just how much you had been carrying since Caleb’s return, but if a single soft look and concerned question from one of your boyfriends was enough to make you feel like crumbling, it must be a lot.

You still hardly believed it yourself that Caleb was alive and well after all this time. Had seen him with your own eyes and yet you still felt the loss of grief from his death and the sting of betrayal at his return. A confusing whorl of emotion builds up inside your chest because along with the relief that he was alive, you felt an overwhelming sense of resentment toward him.

For so long, Caleb was the only one you saw, blinded by the tunnel vision of his affection. Then he went and died before you could navigate the complex secret relationship the two of you shared only to return from the death of a literal explosion to metaphorically blow up your life just when you had started learning how to live without him. Just when you had begun to find comfort and care with Sylus and the other men in your life. They had become your new foundation in the rubble of Caleb’s place and now he was returning from the dead to level it once again. The rebuilding process had been overbearing and painful and lonely and you didn’t know how much more you had in you to start over again.

As much as you loved Caleb, he never played well with others when it came to you. Sylus thought Zayne’s jealousy and reluctance to share your time had been a hurdle but your childhood friend was nothing compared to your brother’s jealous streak. In the handful of times you were shared between Caleb and Zayne in your youth, it was always at Caleb’s command. Nothing happened without his approval. What he said went and neither you nor Zayne ever dared cross that line to try to further explore your attraction to one another. Not until after the explosion, anyway.

A gentle thumb on your jaw brings your attention back to the present, sympathetic ruby eyes grounding you.

“Does it have to do with how much time you spent in Skyhaven recently?”

Surprise and panic flicker across your face at Sylus’s question.

So he did know where you had gone, after all.

“Please, sweetie. After all this time and you’re still surprised that I keep tabs on you?  Mephisto may well be glued to your side. And that’s not even taking the twins into consideration or counting the various tracking devices planted on you and in you.”

“Sylus!”

“What?” he feigns innocence.

“Mephisto following me is one thing but you can’t bug me! I’m an agent of the law. Not to mention, where the hell did you get plant devices that can evade government detection? And more importantly, how did you get one inside of me without me knowing?”

Sylus’s proud grin widens as a thick leather-covered arm wraps around you like a vine. He pulls you into a slow dance in the alley, no musical accompaniment or reason for it other than he wanted to and he missed you.

It soothed some of the warring emotions within you, making your irritation with his stalking tendencies dissipate. Truth be told, you were grateful that he cared so much about your safety. You know Sylus now and know that his only intentions are your safety and success. Though you wouldn’t ask it of him, he would burn the whole world down if you requested him to, for the mere purpose of pleasing you. You couldn’t same the same about Caleb, who only ever kept you in the dark about his intentions.

“You should know by now that nothing is out of my budget or reach, kitten,” he purrs.

His playful demeanor slips a fraction. To anyone else it would have been undetectable but having spent so much intimate time with the Onychinus leader, you have learned to read him nearly as well as he reads you.

“What is it?” you ask, cupping his jaw.

Sylus nuzzles into your palm, a heavy sigh puffing through his nostrils, reminding you of a mighty beast that had been tamed.

“Nothing is out of my reach,” he repeats, “except whenever you disappeared into Skyhaven. Mephisto managed to follow your shuttle all the way to the city gates but the moment he tried to cross the threshold he began to short out. He had no choice but to turn back. Once you crossed over, I also lost signal of every tracking device on your person, including this one,” his finger lightly trace a spot between your shoulder blades. So that’s where it is. “I lost the ability to track you. To keep you safe. That’s never happened before and naturally was a cause for concern.” He hesitates for a moment as if afraid to ask but does anyway. “Where did you go during your ‘vacation’?”

“I don’t know where to start,” you admit as the tightness in your chest starts to constrict to a painful degree. The cardiac event monitor on your watch begins to beep erratically, indicating a dangerous rise in your pulse oxygen levels.

“Shhh, it’s okay,” Sylus pulls you close to his chest, resting your head and hand against the steady rhythm of his own heartbeat.

He talks you through the attack, his calming voice like a balm to your ringing ears. After several long moments, you feel like you can breathe again and your watch finally goes quiet.

“Yes, I’m with her right now and she seems to be coming out of it,” Sylus’s voice drifts clearly to your ears once more. His voice tightens irritably at whatever the person on the other end says. “I wouldn’t put her in that kind of danger. I called you as soon as her symptoms began, didn’t I?”

He pauses again to listen to whatever was being said, giving you a reassuring smile though he still looks annoyed.

“I can drop her off at your office tomorrow morning. Or if you’re truly concerned and thinks she needs immediate medical attention, you’re welcome to meet me in the N109 Zone in an hour.”

Pause.

“That’s what I thought. I’ll continue to monitor her and if anything changes, you’ll be the first to know. Have a nice day, doctor.”

Sylus hangs up the phone and tucks the device back into his pocket. Hearing his side of the conversation, you have an idea of who he had been talking to.

“Dr. Zayne wants you to report to his office first thing in the morning. He said he won’t clear you to return to work until you do.”

This news comes as no surprise. Since an event was triggered, you would have to answer to Zayne about the cause, yet another conversation you weren’t ready to have. But he deserves to know Caleb is back. You just didn’t know how to tell him most of all. At least Sylus, Xavier, and Raf were a degree removed from the situation. Zayne would be almost as affected by the news as you, considering that Caleb was his best friend and the odd nature of the relationship the three of you previously shared.

“You could start from the beginning, sweetie,” Sylus murmurs against your hair, lips brushing your head in a loving kiss as he reminds you of what caused your heart rate to spike in the first place.

“I can’t,” your voice croaks. “Not now. Not here. It’s… too much.”

“Okay,” he relents. “But I’m taking you home with me regardless. After spending two weeks worrying about your safety and unable to reach you, I need you with me tonight. Then after a good meal and a lavender bath soak, if you feel like telling me what’s going on, I’ll be all ears.”

The sting returns to your eyes and you grip the back of his leather coat like an anchor. You were so grateful for your dragon and the way he kept you safe, even from yourself. That when you were spiraling down a vortex he would always catch you.

“I love you, Sylus,” you whisper, throat tight with emotion.

“I love you too, kitten.”

OpaLADS Taglist: @i-messed-up-big-time

[asterixia]

Dimension Λ-16 — Rick and Morty Fantasy & Magic AU

Far outside the Central Finite Curve exists a dimension where instead of science, there is magic. 

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Dimension Λ-16 is driven by magic as an innate power inside all living individuals. A person’s life force is tied very closely with their magical essence, and is strongly influenced by emotion and strength. Those who devote their lives to training this ability can harness immense amounts of energy, shaking the Earth with their powerful magic.  

While most use their magic for just the necessities and aren’t concerned with gaining power, Morty is not one of them. All his life he struggled to control and strengthen his magical abilities, despite his best efforts. Growing tired of constantly being reminded of his weakness and told he would never learn, he decides to set out in search of his mysterious grandfather, Rick Sanchez. Morty has heard whispered rumors of this cryptic figure — a man said to be the most powerful in all the land, practically a god. One who has left a trail of destruction and death in his wake. 

But Morty quickly realizes how difficult it will be to find him. The man is incredibly elusive, having not been seen in public for countless years. Traveling far across the country, Morty runs into lots of trouble and many false leads. But when he is finally able to track the man down, he is nothing like expected. A washed-up alcoholic, Rick has no interest in training Morty. Determined to prove himself worthy of apprenticeship, Morty follows Rick closely despite the grumpy older man's protests. But finally, when Rick has been convinced to take Morty under his wing, he does not go easy on him. He is a strict, unforgiving teacher, but Morty learns quickly under his training, finally showing his true potential. 

As they traverse the land together, more is uncovered of Rick’s past. What, or who, has Rick been searching for all these years, leaving his footsteps soaked with blood as he goes? And what will Morty do when he learns of Rick’s true motivation?

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Additional Information down below~

I am currently outlining the storyline for a fic; it will consist of four parts, each multi-chapter. I may also write additional oneshots in the future that can be read separately and fit into the general timeline, but aren’t part of the main plot. Everything will be contained in a series on AO3, which I will link here once I begin to write. As of posting this, I'm currently in the very beginning stages of planning and am not anywhere close to beginning a first draft, but I will continue posting about it and drawing characters/scenes! I plan to write the first part fully before beginning to upload chapters, then continue with weekly updates -- but this may change in the future.

Hello everybody! I am officially introducing my R&M Fantasy AU that has been in the works for a little while! All posts regarding this au will be under #fantasy au on my blog!

This dimension is self-contained, meaning it will not interact with other dimensions. Due to the nature of the universe and the fact that it is outside of the Central Finite Curve, there is a very slim possibility it would be known to any other dimensions, and much less traveled to.

Feel free to ask questions about this AU or chat with me about it! I would be thrilled to talk about it, but obviously I cant reveal too much-- I don't want to spoil everything!

[esther-dot]

I was reading your comments about Jon's chivalry and protecting the vulnerable. This all brought to mind Jon's TV ending of stabbing Dany in the heart while kissing her. While we don't know whether or not this version of Dany's end is close to what will be the written version, it seems as though it's possible in part because of the Nissa Nissa legend. Jon doing that in the books (or something like it) would align with the Azor Ahai story, but in a warped sort of way, leaving events open to interpretation (as is usual with the prophecies and legends). But in any case, Jon killing a woman will be an act that is antithetical to so many of his values that it seems like it would come close to destroying him even if justified within Jon's universe. I wonder if Martin really plans to bring Jon this low, but also how it will be received. The optics of portraying such an ending for Dany given today's sensibilities could be viewed even more dimly than it would have been when Martin started writing the series?

(about this ask)

I'm so sorry that it's taken me this long to respond! I have finally reread some pertinent chapters to situate my thoughts.

First, I just want to acknowledge how upsetting this spec is to some, and remind everyone, no one wants this ending. We all think it's gross, we're just discussing the possibility, not merely because of the show, because it's an old theory. I looked around and saw posts about this starting in 2013 by Dany fans. So, the presence of this myth is substantial enough, even BNFs/Jonerys shippers felt like it had a strong chance of manifesting (although they believe Dany would willingly sacrifice herself) well before D&D committed their fuckery. I suppose all that answers your question. Man killing his lover is a gross trope, being forced to kill a loved one to save the world is overused, so now, I can't imagine anyone reading it and being happy about it.

In trying to look at the context in-canon Martin has created, he's taken it out of the strict man kills lover idea of the AA/NN myth, and is discussing the idea of sacrificing an innocent child to a god which fans have already compared to myth, Stannis & Shireen = Agamemnon & Iphigeneia. This sacrifice hasn't happened yet, but it's been confirmed as a Martin plot point. Stannis is already burning people alive, justifying kid killing, and Davos has already planted the Stannis=AA, kid=NN idea:

Davos was remembering a tale Salladhor Saan had told him, of how Azor Ahai tempered Lightbringer by thrusting it through the heart of the wife he loved. He slew his wife to fight the dark. If Stannis is Azor Ahai come again, does that mean Edric Storm must play the part of Nissa Nissa? (ASOS, Davos V)

Although, rather than this being a justified death, the fans will be horrified as we're meant to be. Davos' thoughts call into question the idea of killing another for your "magic sword":

A true sword of fire, now, that would be a wonder to behold. Yet at such a cost . . . When he thought of Nissa Nissa, it was his own Marya he pictured, a good-natured plump woman with sagging breasts and a kindly smile, the best woman in the world. He tried to picture himself driving a sword through her, and shuddered. I am not made of the stuff of heroes, he decided. If that was the price of a magic sword, it was more than he cared to pay. (ACOK, Davos I)

and Martin impresses upon us the value of each life:

"Your Grace," said Davos, "the cost . . ." "I know the cost! Last night, gazing into that hearth, I saw things in the flames as well. I saw a king, a crown of fire on his brows, burning . . . burning, Davos. His own crown consumed his flesh and turned him into ash. Do you think I need Melisandre to tell me what that means? Or you?" The king moved, so his shadow fell upon King's Landing. "If Joffrey should die . . . what is the life of one bastard boy against a kingdom?" "Everything," said Davos, softly. (ASOS, Davos V)

The talk of greater good/killing kids reminds me of AGOT in which Ned's story is inundated with the topic of child murder/protecting kids. We have Mycah, his memories of Aegon and Rhaenys, his promise to protect Jon, his guilt over his lies and treason bubbling up repeatedly, his fight against the assassination of Dany, his attempt to save Cersei's children from Robert...we all know, kid killing is wrong according to Martin, so we've already been told that this wannabe AA's actions are contemptible. The myth in which the sacrifice is happy to die, that sacrificing someone is heroic, it's being contradicted by what we're being shown in the Stannis storyline.

Now, while Stannis is being declared Azor Ahai, we're constantly being told he isn't. Jon calls the act a mummer's farce and comments on his cold sword and that is right before a Dany chapter, so the idea is, Dany is actually AA. @trinuviel is the first person I saw lay out the argument for that and contend that being AA is a bad thing (meta parts 1, 2, 3). People have said that Drogo kinda becomes her Nissa Nissa in that scenario. She burns him to get the dragons, and what are the dragons called?

"When I went to the Hall of a Thousand Thrones to beg the Pureborn for your life, I said that you were no more than a child," Xaro went on, "but Egon Emeros the Exquisite rose and said, 'She is a foolish child, mad and heedless and too dangerous to live.' When your dragons were small they were a wonder. Grown, they are death and devastation, a flaming sword above the world." He wiped away the tears. "I should have slain you in Qarth." (ADWD, Daenerys III)

That kinda makes us think, oh, the myth already has a canon counterpart, don't need to worry about it anymore. Only, we've also said Rhaegar impregnating a young Lyanna could be read as a play on Nissa Nissa, with him risking her life to get the prophecy baby, otherwise known as the third head of the dragon. And Jon is not only a kind of dragon, he repeatedly intones that fun little phrase about being a sword, and sometimes, that happens within an interesting context (for speculation purposes):

"I will." Do not fail me, he thought, or Stannis will have my head. "Do I have your word that you will keep our princess closely?" the king had said, and Jon had promised that he would. Val is no princess, though. I told him that half a hundred times. It was a feeble sort of evasion, a sad rag wrapped around his wounded word. His father would never have approved. I am the sword that guards the realm of men, Jon reminded himself, and in the end, that must be worth more than one man's honor. (ADWD, Jon VIII)

So, although there is one character that seems to be Azor Ahai (Dany), I am definitely open to the myth manifesting, or rather, being examined from multiple angles. IMO, that's what Martin is doing and we can use each variation to reassess what he's saying with it. We have Dany and Drogo (the official one/successful one), Rhaegar and Lyanna (not AA, but Jon is born), Stannis and Edric (denied), Stannis and Shireen (he will kill Shireen, but we don't know if he'll get what he wants and we do know he isn't AA)... lots of pics of a similar idea. To emphasize Stannis not being the dude and Dany being the "real" AA, we have that Jon passage and chapter transition:

Even though we have lots of contenders and commentary about this myth with the canon characters, none of it romanticizes human sacrifice, and all works towards the twist that what is said to be a hero/the weapon that will save people brings destruction. If we look back at it critically, Dany has a habit of accepting, or even causing, the suffering of others for her greater good, including sacrificing Mirri to get her dragons. We might even argue that Mirri is a Nissa Nissa for her, as Dany had taken Mirri under her protection before killing her to get dragons.

That being said, even though we're getting told this shit is bad in canon, the indictment of killing innocents and people who depend on you to protect them, it wouldn’t apply if someone were to kill Stannis or Dany. It isn’t on the same moral level as killing a child, or a spouse who loves and trusts you. It isn't the same as invading and then killing people who won't worship your god or accept you as a leader. It isn't the same as killing a slave, simply because, when their times come, Dany and Stannis will be guilty. After their actions, it would be justice for them to die. I think why other parts of the fandom entertain the idea of Dany as NN while also condemning us for entertaining it, is that Dany's vision does have her being grasped at by hands of her "children" and fans have this idea that she is sacrificing herself/her happiness for the greater good already, and in the AA/Nissa Nissa story, it does sound like she offers herself willingly for the tempering of the sword. So to them, it’s part of Dany’s heroism. Dany's death is inevitable to some, at the hands of Jon is ok, but her not dying a hero, that's unacceptable.

But thinking about how it's been discussed thus far, I can't imagine we're gonna get a romanticized version of the AA/NN myth in canon when so far, it's pretty dark/condemned. None of that precludes Jon killing Dany in what you described as a:

warped sort of way, leaving events open to interpretation (as is usual with the prophecies and legends).

which really sticks out to me as the important part of all this.

The idea that Jon might do it and characters recognize it as a tragic love story a la the myth, that fascinates me because of how Martin has written wild rumors into the story (rumors about Dany, Robb, and Sansa spring to mind), and some of us have written reality and what the public thinks into fic as two distinct things because it feels like a potential way the story might go. What is widely known to be true, like say, Jon being Ned's bastard, may not be the truth that we the readers come to know. There's no guarantee that Westeros will know what the readers know about past or future events. We may get a take on AA/NN, the characters in-world may not understand it the same way.

Jon is undeniably a hero, in a world where institutional corruption is rampant and ideals abandoned, he’s a standout in his values. We would expect, and we find, contrasts between him and these other characters (Dany, Rhaegar, Stannis), primarily, his practical actions that are about saving life/protecting life, even from Stannis, so the idea that he would abandon certain values, it's a tough one. The difference is, while Stannis, Rhaegar, and Dany were acting on these prophecies or visions or dreams, things we're repeatedly warned against trusting in the text, Jon would be taking action based on the fact that Dany is a mass-murderer, a threat to all of Westeros. It isn't a sacrifice to an unknown god for some promised mystical good, it's justice. The religious fanaticism wouldn't be a factor, the killing of an innocent wouldn't be a factor, killing a child wouldn't be a factor, killing to achieve a self-serving end wouldn't be a factor. All the things that have been criticized thus far aren't at play.

The moral quandary presented to the audience in AGOT is killing someone who might be a threat, but is a child at the moment, and Martin presents the sneaky assassination / child killing as abhorrent:

Grand Maester Pycelle cleared his throat, a process that seemed to take some minutes. "My order serves the realm, not the ruler. Once I counseled King Aerys as loyally as I counsel King Robert now, so I bear this girl child of his no ill will. Yet I ask you this—should war come again, how many soldiers will die? How many towns will burn? How many children will be ripped from their mothers to perish on the end of a spear?" He stroked his luxuriant white beard, infinitely sad, infinitely weary. "Is it not wiser, even kinder, that Daenerys Targaryen should die now so that tens of thousands might live?" "Kinder," Varys said. "Oh, well and truly spoken, Grand Maester. It is so true. Should the gods in their caprice grant Daenerys Targaryen a son, the realm must bleed." Littlefinger was the last. As Ned looked to him, Lord Petyr stifled a yawn. "When you find yourself in bed with an ugly woman, the best thing to do is close your eyes and get on with it," he declared. "Waiting won't make the maid any prettier. Kiss her and be done with it." "Kiss her?" Ser Barristan repeated, aghast. "A steel kiss," said Littlefinger. (AGOT, Eddard VIII)

which is all interesting context for Dany later being assassinated, especially because the first lesson Martin gives us on justice is one that Jon is there for, and then is reiterated in relation to Dany:

Ned had heard enough. "You send hired knives to kill a fourteen-year-old girl and still quibble about honor?" He pushed back his chair and stood. "Do it yourself, Robert. The man who passes the sentence should swing the sword. Look her in the eyes before you kill her. See her tears, hear her last words. You owe her that much at least." (AGOT, Eddard VIII)

The convo about killing Dany with LF is about a bedding and before that it was presented in terms of a wedding gift, which makes me squint now knowing the AA/NN stuff:

Yes, it's awful, and I do understand, almost agree with you here:

But in any case, Jon killing a woman will be an act that is antithetical to so many of his values that it seems like it would come close to destroying him even if justified within Jon's universe.

but the way it might tie together the initial discussion of killing Dany and the eventual act weighs heavily with me when determining what Martin might do and why/why not.

The other suggestion is that Arya kills Dany. If having dragons is Chechov's gun for KL burning then Arya being a trained assassin feels like a Chechov's gun for killing Dany. But in that scenario, there is no conflict. No inner struggle. We spent so much of AGOT weighing the morals of killing Dany, it's hard for me to believe when the time comes, it's presented without any moral complexity. Arya is already able and willing to take a life, even when it isn't justified. It doesn't feel right to me that killing Dany would be a presented without an inner struggle, that it would be done easily, as easily as Arya now kills. TBH, it removes the drama if someone other than Jon does it because it will be so highly necessary and just when the time comes. Jon is really the only character who can make it squeamish because of the guy killing a woman thing and because it will be kinslaying.

There is a lot of talk about poison, so I think it's totally possible Arya tries to kill Dany with poison first, but I think Jon is more likely to be the one to successfully kill her, and in a way that calls to mind Ned's opinion on it, See her tears, hear her last words. That would allow Martin to make sure we see it as just/moral, bring home the Targ v Targ issue, and it shades Ned's decisions and values in a very interesting way.

After s8 fans said Ned was wrong to fight against killing Dany in s1, but Martin thinks he was right to object to killing children, so for the two Targ children he was protecting in AGOT (Dany and Jon) to come face to face and one kill the other prevents the conclusion that Ned was wrong. It was the same mercy, the same refusal to see the child of an enemy as an enemy, that saved the boy who will in turn save Westeros. IMO, it's a way to uphold the belief in mercy. I tend to think it’s also Martin’s way of addressing one his questions about his beloved LOTR (what about orc babies etc).

If another person ends Dany, we still get dead Dany, but it doesn't say anything interesting? Killing her wouldn't be a sacrifice on anyone else's part, she won’t be loved and she has to go. But, Jon, who so desperately wants to have honor, if he kills her, it's right as well as an egregious "sin." Ned dishonors himself to protect Sansa (and obvy was committing treason to protect Jon), it feels like coming full circle for Jon, who so wants to be worthy of being a son to Ned to follow his path there too. Also, one thing I expect we’ll keep tracking is kinslaying. Kinslaying comes up with the AA/Nissa Nissa issue in the Stannis storyline, so I do expect that to be addressed in Jon chapters:

We have the whole baby switch to assure us, Jon values human life a great deal. All the same, that involves a moment of cruelty on Jon's side, so Martin isn't interested in keeping him perfectly pure. He likes those moments where doing the right thing is very difficult, even compromising in some way. It's why, while we say Ned committing treason for Jon is a no brainer, Martin writes Ned tortured by it. He likes the inner turmoil over decisions, placing a societal good (honor) against another obligation or ideal and asking what is right.

I wonder if Martin really plans to bring Jon this low, but also how it will be received. The optics of portraying such an ending for Dany given today's sensibilities could be viewed even more dimly than it would have been when Martin started writing the series?

Despite all the ways I think it makes sense, yes, I def think this is one of those areas that if he had finished the series as quickly as he'd hoped, would have gone over better. Dany has dragons, therefore, she will be an overwhelming threat to Westeros, so it isn't like Jon will just randomly kill a woman, yet it's distasteful all the same. Martin is looking at things from the context of his story and the ideas he’s already introduced/talking about though which is why I can wince but kinda understand it. There are other issues where my sensibilities diverge from his, so didn’t like it on the show, I don’t like it for the books, still think it’s probably gonna happen. 🤷🏻‍♀️

[bi-leigh-bi]

I saw Bee post on your account and thought - well why don’t I ask you some questions Leigh 😂

1. Okay so! Why exactly “time travel” trope? just coming back to the past and waking up in the lab but not some cottage for example in another universe? What made you make that decision?

2. Which character is easier for you to write - Jayce or Viktor?

3. Which part/chapter was really hard for you to write? and the easier one.

4. How many more chapters do you think you will write till the story ends?

5. I know we will get the wedding chapter, which makes me really happy and excited, I treat it a little as “extra” if you know what I mean, but I’m just curious - will we get more chapters like this? little snippets from their life that we didn’t get to read before as the main story?

6. Side character that you like to write - Mel, Salo, Vi - is there anyone?

7. Will we get to see other timelines with other Viktor and Jayce again?

8. I’m really curious because it’s never mentioned - how old exactly Viktor and Jayce are in your fic? Do you know it Leigh? lmao

9. I know that you said you’re a smut writer but! as someone who wrote a few times smut fics which made me just embarrassed and also shy - does it stress you? do you find it hard to write? or it’s actually more easier than writing for example their emotional bond?

10. Why this bond? WHAT MADE YOU MAKE THIS BETWEEN THEM because it’s so beautiful and also good. You write it so good that it makes me speechless very often.

11. Do you like some headcanons? And if yes, will we get to see them in Second Chances?

12. Was Heimerdinger on Jayvik wedding in Second Chances? I NEED TO KNOW! Also, who is the biggest supporter of Jayvik in Second Chances lmao?

for now I have only these questions because it’s 5 a.m for me but don’t worry I will come back! for any typos I apologize

!!!! I love this!!!!

1) The entire fic happened because I wanted them healthy and young again but also wanted them to remember everything that happened so they could sort of work some of it out. I almost made it an entirely different universe but then I just couldn’t stop thinking about how that moment when Viktor keeps Jayce from jumping is such a life changing moment for both of them. So that was just the moment I wanted to throw them back to. Almost like they both thought of it at the same time and the arcane was like “okay that’s where you’ll go.”.

2) It totally depends! It changes day to day honestly, that’s why the fic changes from part to part (and in the most recent why it shifts within the part itself.)

3) Part 15 Let There be Blood (Let it Flow) was hands down the hardest. I am not good at action/fights. And I had to keep checking where exactly I’d put all the characters when time reset again. And also decide how events would change each time to finally get Jayce to the point where he survived.

4) I wish I knew! I know now (sort of) how everything ties together and they’ll definitely have a happy ending. So maybe a few more actual chronological parts? But I definitely introduced the excerpts idea so I could go back and play with them again (like the wedding) so who knows?

5) Yes! There will definitely be more excerpts.

6) Mel. For sure. I love writing her take on them. She’s so badass in her own right and she’s got her own plans and without meaning to those guys are thwarting her. Lol. Like her flirting with Jayce is lowkey just a jab at them for fucking with her plans. She wanted magic! And Vi actually is really fun to write. When I was writing the part where Cait corners Jayce she was like my comic relief almost and it was fun to write that.

7) There will most likely be ones that are just one of their alternate lives- like the violinist Viktor one, only hopefully not so sad. That one got away from me.

8) Hahahahahaha! Do I know exactly? No. I do try to hint that they’ve aged without making it obviously exactly how old they are. They’re getting gray and they’ve both put on a little weight. I would say probably like early forties at this point? But that’s not a legally binding answer lol.

9) I am so comfortable writing smut lol. I literally am writing it at work sometimes. It doesn’t faze me. But I really always want it to be more than just smut. I want there to be more to it, I want it to say something about them. So there’s always a reason; why they’re touching this way, why they’re doing this, why they’re saying what they’re saying. Like the Jayce choking kink thing is really about control and trust and safety and I want that to be apparent within the smut. And their emotional bond comes pretty easy too. It’s action that I have the biggest problem with. I’m still convinced the fight scene in the warehouse and the one dr at the banquet are crap!

10) Well that’s a compliment!!!! Honestly it just came to me. I was thinking about how close they were, literally touching each other, forehead to forehead as it all went boom and I just thought what if that basically tied and twisted their souls together so that they feel what the other feels. And then from that grew that touch was so important because it was always Jayce’s love language while Viktor avoids it, but between them it’s like their own secret language? It just kind of grew. I can tell you when I wrote the first part I did not have it all thought out at all! lol

11) I think things like Jayce not liking the cold, Viktor having a sweet tooth are headcanons I’ve seen that I like? And then I have my own, like Viktor liking Jayce with a beard and longer hair because that’s what he looked like when he pulled Viktor back to himself and stayed with him to die.

12) Heimerdinger was definitely there! And that depends! Who would be the first to fight anyone who talks shit to or about them? Caitlyn and Vi both. That’s their brothers, they can weird all they want, don’t fuck with them. Especially because they know the truth. But Powder is lowkey obsessed with them because she legit thinks they’re proof of soulmates. Which really, she’s not wrong.

@saltedsan thanks for all these questions omg! I loved answering them!!

[thelunarfairy]

hey, what chapter do you think TBHK will end?

i mean, we already got to 100 chapters, do you think we'll make it to 200?

also what do you think could be the ending of the story?

hopefully Yashiro gets her life span back

It's a good question, the chapters can increase or decrease according to the fame and success of the manga, and since sales are good, it's likely that it will become a little longer.

There's still a lot that needs to be developed and explained, although the mysteries are almost all without the yorishiros, we still have the story of the twins, Yashiro, Mitsuba, the family of exorcists, the entity, Tsuchigomori (who seems to have a very important role here), there's also the possibility of more alternative realities emerging and of course, the development of the original story itself.

So, in addition to that, we still have the development of their relationships, we're following the problems, we need to find out how everything will develop over time in relation to many things.

We are still in the discovery phase, in this current arc, we will still see the new changes, how they will deal with it and try to reverse it, and then the story of Number 1, we may still see more about the twins' story directly or indirectly, but if you want to know, this year will probably only focus on this arc.

Considering that it is a monthly publication, then we have 12 chapters per year, it all depends on the size of the arc that will be developed. The arc of number 6 was long, we basically went 1 year without seeing Hanako.

So, even if we have a list of everything that will still happen, what determines the size of the arc is how it is developed.

While the arc of number 6 was very long, the arc of number 5 (Tsuchigomori) was very short, it was an arc of introduction of the character.

So my answer is that we cannot have a precise idea because it will depend on the development, however, I believe that there is still a lot ahead.

And about the ending, wow, I really have no idea! Aidairo is so unpredictable, literally anything can happen. But if we are to follow the anime's credits and what happened to the school when time advanced, the twins will probably "become one", with this entity and great destruction.

I talk a little about this here:

The possibilities:

Everyone dies

Nene sacrifices herself and saves the twins

Amane lets the illness he had as a child develop and Tsukasa wouldn't have sacrificed himself.

Amane accepts that Tsukasa sacrifices himself and lives his life.

Reincarnation (I don't know if it's possible in this universe, but I don't want to rule it out)

Hanako does something terrible, but manages to make Tsukasa and Nene stay with him in a controversial way.

Of all the situations, I believe in 6, because Amane is not the type to easily give up on the person he loves and is capable of doing something terrible to have the one he loves by his side.

For a neutral ending: They go back in time and completely destroy the entity, without the entity, nothing bad happens, but in this case, Nene and Amane will not be together, Amane will probably die of the disease and only Tsukasa will be left. (assuming he doesn't take his own life in the process, which could also happen.)

For a positive ending:

Let's imagine that Amane got sick because of the entity (it's a hypothesis) so, if they go back in time and destroy the entity, the twins will live normally, but in that case, Amane will be too old to have a romantic relationship with Nene, but at least he and his brother will be happy and Nene will live her life normally.

For an even more positive ending, everyone would die and be reincarnated, so they would live together normally.

Negative ending:

The entity inside Hanako breaks free, he loses control and destroys everything, Nene tries to stop Hanako, but since he is not under control, he kills her, Kou will have to exorcise Hanako, a promise he made at the beginning of the manga and I think that this is not here for nothing.

Kou will be the only one who does this, Tsukasa lost the seal to make Hanako weaker, and before Kou exorcises Hanako, Amane will realize that he destroyed everything he loves and had neither Nene nor Tsukasa, and he himself asks to be exorcised.

Probably, only Kou will be left among all of these.

I only gave a few endings, there are many other possibilities.

[nextonmy-tbr]

Book Review: Ninth House

Author: Leigh Bardugo Genre: Dark Fantasy

Imagine being thrust into the world of magic and getting to attend one of the world’s most elite universities. Sounds like a dream come true right? But Galaxy ‘Alex’ Stern knows that nothing comes for free and this opportunity sure hasn’t but she will not let this slip away from her hands. At any cost.

But when there is a murder in the campus, it forces Alex to question whether magic is made for her and whether all of this is worth it. This raises a question – will she be able to survive in this world? Will she be able to navigate her way amongst dark spells, new responsibilities, old secrets, shady societies, untrustworthy authorities and growing powers? Read the book to find out…

My thoughts:

The crow series have been one of my all-time favorites. Hence when I saw this book from Leigh Bardugo, I knew I have to read it and let me tell it did not disappoint. As soon as I started reading it, I could not put it down. Tbh this book has everything – a gripping story, badass characters, magic, mystery and a fitting plot twist.

One thing I loved in this book as compared to other fantasy books is that here magic has consequences. When I say consequences, it doesn’t mean just ones where the characters somehow manage to find a loophole and get out of it. Here characters had to face some gruesome and cruel situations for their actions.

If this is not enough to convince you guys to read this book then I hope it will after the end of this.  

Plot:

“If you were going to hell together, murder seemed like a good place to start”

Here you will witness an unlikely plot where the protagonist is already aware of her powers, she doesn't need to learn how to use them; she needs to learn how to protect herself from them. The plot is fresh, dark and intense. The plot revolves around our protogonist trying to find a balance between her truth and her lies, the magical world and normal world, her magical duties and her academics, maintain her true self and her facade. While she juggles around all of this, we see politics, dirty work of the societies, Yale campus, murder and everything in between.

What I liked about the plot is that it consists of lots of elements and this could have easily seemed cluttered but the way Leigh has beautifully weaved the plot, it looks effortless and we'll put together.

Characters:  

“I let you die. To save myself, I let you die”

Alex is strong, beautiful and a badass. She is traumatized because of her past and the bad decisions in her life but is adamant to turn her life around. Her life at Yale gives her the clean slate to do so but her investigation with murder on campus and her secrets can put this life at jeopardy. One of the qualities I liked about Alex is how fiercely loyal she is to her people. She will protect them and stick for them no matter what. There are no limits which she won't cross for the people she loves. She is also a survivor and those instincts can be clearly seen throughout the book. This was the one quality that made me relate to her. There are few questionable decisions she makes, but with her being a survivor it makes sense for her to do those things.

“‘Gentlemen scholar��� seems like a good description for you”

Darlington is one character that I have been dying to talk someone about. If you need to learn how to make presence of a character felt without him being in the book, you will get that from him. He is such a charismatic, snobbish but by far the most adorable character in this book. I think adorable doesn’t do justice and if fictional characters could hear our emotions, Darlington would also feel the same. At first, I was very intrigued by him coz Alex in any of the chapters would just not shut up about him but then I quickly realized Alex, I get it. There is a lot of mystery to this character, where is he, what is he doing, what is he going through right now, why did he join Lethe, does he have any powers? There are so many questions around him, which will be answered eventually in the book. I think that’s what makes him a really interesting part of the book.

Other characters have their own flavours to add to this story. If you are looking for a dark plot, murder mystery with magic and complex traumatic characters with questionable decisions all mixed together in a concoction in form of a book then you know which book to go for. Let me know what are your views on this book and if you have any books in store for me to read or write further reviews on.

[askpenpals]

✉️ Welcome to Ask Penpals! 📫

FAQ under the cut

(The FAQ will be updated over time)

-General Comic Questions-

Q: What is Penpals?

A: Penpals is a highschool au for my two favorite OCs, Saturn Lonli and Graham Berry. It starts set in early summer of 2008. It was based off the idea of Saturn and Graham meeting in their teens due to a chance encounter, and becoming friends after that.

-

Q: Why is the AU called Penpals?

A: Because its about Saturn and Grahams long distance friendship and eventual relationship, and how the main way they talk to eachother often is via online chat clients or email, making them like pen pals, but like. digitally.

-

Q: What genre would you call the comic?

A: I didn't really have one in mind when I started, but it's been called a teen drama before, and looking at everything that happens, I'd say that does fit. It's usually more lighthearted than one though...most of the time.

-

Q: How many arcs are planned?

A: Arcs cant really be planned out like story chapters can, but I have set ideas for the plots of the first 7 arcs currently, and a few more that I have concepts for.

-World Questions-

Q: What is the name of the planet the story is set on?

A: Terrafurma

-

Q: Is the old saturation lore still a thing?

A: In a way, yes. If the person who was truamatized was also a magic user, or a naturally magic species, like a dragon or demon, they can saturate and desaturate due to it being emotion-based magic. It is very rare, since it only effects people with string magic or people who are often around strong magic. Other people can see the change, but because its so uncommon to happen, most people won't know what it means.

-

Q: Why do the characters still have punny names?

A: I wanted to keep it, I thought it was fun. There is no big reason for it, in-universe pun names are considered more traditional, but names that aren't puns also exist, they are just not common.

-

Q: What is the main species of animal people called? And what do they have as their version of animals/pets?

A: The animal people are called anthromals, anthros for short, and they evolved from animals. The creatures they keep as pets are called miximals, due to them looking like mixes of already existing animals.

-

Q: What kinds of magic anthromals are there?

A: Theres a lot, so I might be missing some, but currently there are: demons, dragons, vampires, slimes (shapeshifters), griffins, pheonixs, mind readers/ESPers, and, after an anthromal dies, ghosts.

-

Q: Does homophobia/transphobia and the like exist?

A: It's complicated. Generally they don't exist, but a lot of people still have heteronormative and allonormative views. Objectum people are also seen generally by society as being weird and not taken seriously, like in real life. Objectum people are still given eggs, however.

-

Q: Where do eggs come from?

A: The Eggster Bunny.

-

Q: Who is the Eggster Bunny???

A: The Eggster Bunny (any pronouns) is a rabbit anthromal that learned strong life-based magic after anthromals stopped being able to reproduce 20,000 years ago. He makes and gives out eggs to people who want kids. She used to be able to check if the person getting the egg would be a good parent, but with how many anthros are in the world now, he doesn't have the time anymore and usually just guesses. Because of this, there are a lot of people who get eggs they didn't actually want, or people getting eggs when they shouldn't be parents.

-Character Questions-

Q: Are any of the characters neurodivergent?

A: Saturn, Graham, and Bugsy are all autistic. Saturn also has depression, which will be touched on more later, and Graham has anxiety.

-

Q: Are there any queer characters?

A: Most characters are, I'll be making a seprerate post listing all the characters later.

-

Q: What other kinds of characters will we meet other than Saturn and Graham?

A: A lot of the other characters here are either Saturn or Grahams classmates from school, or people they meet through chance encounters who they end up becoming friends with. You'll get to see Saturn's school friends, as well as Graham's.

-

Q: What's Bugsy's last name? Why doesn't he have one listed?

A: That will be answered later.

-

Q: Is Saturn's past with Forge canon here?

A: Unfortunately, yes.

-

Q: For any new readers that don't know about Saturn, what IS his past with Forge?

A: Forge was Saturns boyfriend during his freshman year. When Saturn felt like his other friends were abandoning him, Forge swooped in and convinced Saturn that he was the only person that cared about him. Saturn believed him for a while, despite how horribly he was treated. Eventually Saturn told his sister, Lily, about what was going on, and she stepped in to help.

- Have a question? Send an ask to the inbox! -

[spiritsglade]

7, 10, 23, and 49 :)))

[questions for fic writers]

HI HI BIRDIE !! TY FOR THE QUESTIONS THEY WERE FUN.

7. Any worldbuilding you’re particularly proud of?

lies of omission's au-verse... i think it's just really fun how it organically grew together in real time while i was posting chapters of the fic. which is probably not the recommended way to worldbuild but whatever. i had fun with it!! jason's character is such a fun and particular combination of things i like in that one. unfortunately half of that worldbuilding is still a spoiler for unfinished chapters. whoops!!

honorable mention to one bird, two birds, red bird, dead bird because the worldbuilding for that au involves both the original and alternate universe/timeline. more worlds per world. awesome. what if i told you the nonsense tim and jason reference in the first chapter of tower, tumbling is actually relevant in the sequel. what then.

honorable honorable mention to snowshank, the beautiful island that all my beautiful horrible awful ocs are kissing and killing each other on.

10. How do you decide what to write?

i am afflicted with visions and if i am not able to release them i will simply be slowly consumed by them from the inside. this is what suicide watch is doing to me. if i ever pass away it'll be because that fic coalesced into something tangible and then stabbed me dead.

for a slightly more serious answer i mostly just go 'hey wouldn't it be cool/fucked up if x happened?' and then something comes out of that. that's what happened with what crawled out - 'what if jason didn't even view himself as jason post-resurrection.' hollowed soul - 'hey jaybin was in heaven. does that mean jason was walking around without his soul -> idea expands from there.' protocol - 'wouldn't it be fucked up if they put jason in baby jail every time the joker escaped.' etc.

as for how many of these ideas actually turn into fics... i am not in control of that process. dick & jason phone call fic i am missing you forever. maybe one day.

also a surprising amount of it is spite? if i see enough of an interpretation that i simply do not think is correct i will find myself inevitably writing a fic of an interpretation that i like. to bring balance to the world or something. compound fracture and then batman kills his son are sort of companion fics in this sense despite being wildly different in tone and style--they both started from me thinking 'i simply disagree with this take on jason's relationship with his parent'.

tower, tumbling sort of came out of this but that is not spite. that fic-verse is crafted with love.

23. What’s a trope, AU, or concept you’ve never written, but would like to?

TIME LOOP. i am thinking about time loops all the goddamn time. eventually i will stumble across a time loop concept that's not terrible annoying frustrating awful to plan out and write. and then i will write it. and things will be beautiful.

i love time loops so much it cannot be overstated. there's such an existential horror to them. you get infinite tries!! and that endlessness is exhausting and everything seems so futile but there is also infinite boundless hope!! and this is true of life as well.

49. What are you currently working on? Share a few lines if you’re up for it!

paragraph from tower, tumbling chapter 3 :]

It was something his mom used to do, Tim remembered abruptly—checking on him in the middle of the night. Just making sure you're all right, dear. If he pretended well enough, sometimes she'd slip in and adjust his blankets, or brush the hair out of his face, a tenderness that she rarely let herself display otherwise.Bruce hadn't done that—he'd made a whole speech about how he'd never enter Tim's room without permission, instead—but he had probably surrounded the room with so many sensors and cameras that he would know if Tim so much as twitched in his sleep.

for something that's a little further out from escaping wip hell... here's a little bit from a fic for batfam week that could very well be scrapped.

"Aren't you like, nineteen?" Jason asked stupidly. Shit, was he twenty? Knowing your sibling's age was probably something Jason needed to know. "You're not supposed to drink until you're twenty-one." "We break the law every night, Jay, it's fine." There was a shuffle on the other end of the line. Well, who was Jason to stop Dick Grayson, first and greatest Boy Wonder extraordinaire, from doing whatever he liked?

^ this is. funnily enough. not the aforementioned dick & jason phone call fic. this is the other dick & jason phone call fic.

[juanabaloo]

20 questions for fic writers!!

thanks to @coraniaid for the tag!

(1) How many works do you have on AO3?

21 works on AO3, all fics (+ 1 work about HTML code tips)

(2) What's your total AO3 word count?

195,661 word count (for those 21 works, not counting the HTML work)

(3) What fandoms do you write for?

I exclusively write for Buffy the Vampire Slayer!

(4) What are your top five fics by kudos?

All but the last one are part of my all human / no powers AU series where Faith and Buffy meet post grad school, but these fics are in their "established relationship" era.

My top 5 fics by kudos:

I don't care about the presents: E-rated long multi-chapter about Christmas in Sunnydale where Buffy brings her girlfriend Faith home to meet her Mom. There's a lot of feelings and processing and also lots of E-rated fun. (A little in ch. 5 and then a ton in ch. 8 and 10)

Game of Tag: E-rated well established Fuffy, with 4 short chapters.

Cool Granite Countertop: E-rated short one-shot.

I can see you with my T-shirt on: a WIP! E-rated Fuffy on a vacation trip. This is my current posted WIP. 2 of 4 chapters are posted, but does NOT end on a cliffhanger. I do plan to finish this.

Praise Her Blindingly Scrumptious Luminescence: (the only one of the 5 not part of the AU series) Canon divergent T-rated long slow burn one-shot. Faith awakens from her coma in Season 5 and ends up helping Buffy fight Glory. Nothing bad happens to Joyce. Featuring The Mayor (who survived S3) and several Bring It On characters.

(5) Do you respond to comments?

Yes I respond to comments although sometimes slower than I would like. I ADORE comments, they give me life.

(6) What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

The ending is hopeful but my angstiest fic (so far) is facing sorrow with Faith. Please do mind the tags. It is E-rated, but not really smut. (There's a little but it's VERY brief.) It's about Faith dealing with some of her past trauma, it means a lot to me.

(7) What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Almost everything else I write has a very happy ending, whether they are blissed out post bedroom fun (E rated), or smiley happy sugary good (G and T rated). There's some angst in I don't care about the presents but I consider it mild, and it has a happy ending.

(8) Do you get hate on fics?

Nope! Probably means I need to be writing less boring stuff, haha. Or just more unconventional stuff. But also fuck the haters.

(9) Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Yes. I mostly write E-rated F/F smut but I've dabbled in F/F/M and F/M. (Only one fic with the dabbling is posted, but I'm working on more, including a sequel / fill-in.) Also typically what I write is older-than-canon Fuffy. (gif inspo one and inspo two) I try to write PWP but often feelings get involved. For example, if a scene includes a smutty milestone, then sometimes that MEANS something, and feelings intrude.

(10) Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

I rarely write crossovers. Praise Her... (from 4 above) includes several Bring It On characters, but they are in Sunnydale in the Buffyverse. (So that's not tagged a crossover.) I did write a T-rated Seinfeld crossover (My summer vacation in NYC) where pre-teen Faith visits her aunt Elaine, so it's Faith in NYC in the Seinfeld universe. (Although she only interacts with Elaine, not the other characters.)

Neither of those are especially "crazy." I have a rough idea for a weird crossover fic... imagine Bring It On but with elements of Fight Club. Which means: Cliff and Missy are actually both just Missy. Torrance imagines Cliff sometimes, because she's very deeply repressing her attraction to Missy. (Except since I prefer Fuffy over Missy x Torrance I would probably soften Buffy into Torrance, or sharpen Torrance into Buffy.) So Fuffy but no powers AU and they're in the Bring It On world and Faith is both Cliff and Missy.

(I don't think we ever see anyone but Torrance acknowledge both Cliff and Missy as 2 separate people, which is what sparked this idea. Like usually when Cliff and Missy are in the same shot they are alone with each other or talking to Torrance.)

BUT I don't have any idea when this will get written. So if any readers want to take this idea and run with it, feel free! (Maintaining the manic hyper cheerleader campy vibe of Bring It On feels like the trickiest part of this, for version in my head.)

(11) Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of.

(12) Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope but I have a blanket permission statement in my AO3 profile that includes translations.

(13) Have you ever co-written a fic before?

No, I think it could be fun.

(14) What's your all time favorite ship?

Buffy x Faith aka Fuffy.

(15) What's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

I plan to finish all my WIPs. There is only one posted WIP too, so I technically only have one to finish, that y'all know of! (*evil laugh*) I might decide to cut some short, so instead of writing a multi years long version, better to just chop it into one season. Praise Her... was originally way longer in the outline, but I'm glad I shortened it.

(16) What are your writing strengths?

Writing fics in a series out of order, which I'm treating as a strength. Working in canon dialogue but in a remixed way. (I have a no powers/no vamps AU drafted fic that works in something very close to the famous "tell me staking a vamp doesn't get you a little bit juiced" line. Cracks me up every time.)

(17) What are your writing weaknesses?

Lots of things I want to get better at! Titles for sure. Getting better at discarding ideas I am in love with. Also, I dislike having to describe what people look like. I will gladly use a famous character from another fandom (any fandom) just to avoid having to describe them. In several fics I pair up Tara with Letty Ortiz from the Fast and Furious franchise. Although I think I just call her Letty and don't describe her, so it was all in my head oops.

(18) Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

I can probably swing it in Spanish, for short exchanges. I can definitely do it for a "Fuffy in a situation where they need to speak Spanish but it's sort of broken" scenario. (In my head - Faith speaks it OK, she's not fluent but she understands it and people can understand her. Buffy really struggles with it though.)

(19) First fandom you wrote for?

Same, Buffy the Vampire Slayer! I think I wrote maybe half a story in middle school with my friends, some mean RPF, and then I put fanfic writing in a box and forgot about it. Trying to make up for lost time now I guess.

(20) Favorite fic you've written?

It really depends on my mood. (ahem) I'm proud of my fics but don't want to get into smut talk here. For non smut I'll say a tie between Praise Her... and facing sorrow with Faith. (Again mind the tags on the latter.)

Thanks again for the ask!

No pressure tagging:

@beatriceeverytuesday-old @hersterical @thenewbuzwuzz @rahirah @fictiongods

@blazinwolve @andremichaux @charmedslayer @doggirlbuffysummers @chasingfictions

@veronyxk84 @fancyflautist @explosionshark @shittinggold @whatisyourchildhoodtrauma

(apologies if you don't write fic or someone else already tagged you)

anybody else, feel free to tag yourself in too!

[technicallywrite]

20 Questions for Writers

Thanks for the tag @envexenveritas, you're enabling me to procrastinate on writing a rather tricky scene.

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

Just two but one of them is sort of a song parody (about writing fanfiction, to the tune of Losing My Religion), not a fic. But the question says 'works' and... for better or worse, it's a work, I guess.

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

393,520 across both works but the song is just 273 so, yeahhhh. That should tell you everything you need to know about my One Fic.

(42 chapters so far, in case you're wondering, including one that was a whopping 20k+ words)

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Doctor Who, specifically the new UNIT gang, with heavy emphasis on the Big Finish audios in terms of sourcing story material. I'm basically rewriting the new UNIT storyline, centered on the developing relationship between Osgood and Kate Stewart.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

I mean, if we're specifically talking fics, I have just the one. So it's my best fic and my worst fic at the same time, on any metric you choose to apply!

My Cosmos is Yours, aka Cosmos or sometimes Cosmosgate, has 297 kudos so far. Also, 30 bookmarks and 10,493 hits, in case that matters.

5. Do you respond to comments?

Do I reply to comments? Hah. Yes, yes I do. Religiously. Not always immediately, as sometimes I need a bit of time to digest them before replying; but I do read them all right away and I reply to everything eventually.

I welcome every kind of comment, from one-line "GAAHAHHHHHH" eructations to multi-paragraph analyses, rambles and vocal if not always coherent expressions of enthusiasm.

Funny thing, there's a bit of a culture of commenting that has grown around Cosmos. For reference, it has 1,194 comments (though half of that are replies from me).

Part of it, I suspect, is that word has got around that I'm pathetically needy for comments (I make no secret of it), so most of my regular readers have got into the habit of feeding me comments at every chapter, which is very lovely of them. And perhaps because there are so many comments on every chapter, some of the more occasional readers do also seem to find themselves motivated to leave comments, which is a wonderful effect, if true.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I haven't finished a fic yet so, no overall endings to speak of, but if I look across the 42 chapters I've written so far, Chapter 38: Endgame has got to be the most grim in terms of where it leaves Osgood and Kate.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Hah well if we apply the same principle of looking across Cosmos chapters, Chapter 42: Life, the Universe and Everything has got to be the winner, with no fewer than three happy endings (one of them a double), if you'll pardon the phrase.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Not so far, no. I occasionally get razzed by my British regulars for committing Americanisms (most famously, writing 'faucet' instead of 'tap') but it's all in good fun.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Yep. Though I've been told it's not actually smut, it's erotica, which is the best compliment I can imagine. It's all character-driven, and it's very necessary to the story (I say to justify myself). I won't put any labels on it; I'll just say that by intent, it's loving, it's very mature, but it's never unnecessarily explicit. Though it does get people quite hot under the collar, reportedly, which is very gratifying!

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

Well, I did pull in Malcolm Tucker from "The Thick of It" for one chapter, and he'll be showing up again because he's so fun to write. But it's not a zany kind of crossover.

I don't think I have any crazy crossovers in me, at least not at this moment in time; when I'm in the mood for that sort of thing I go to Lambrookmist.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Nope.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

No, I'd be terrible as a fic co-author. I've co-authored a technical book in my professional life and it went well enough (the book got published and we're proud of it) but I suspect it was a frustrating experience for my co-author. I'm very critical and I change my mind about important stuff all the time.

14. What’s your all time favourite ship?

Osgood/Kate Stewart obviously. With a side of Gabrielle/Xena and Janeway/Seven. There may be a pattern there.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

I'm like a dog with a bone, I will finish everything, eventually. Although with Cosmos, I can't imagine running out of story to tell anytime soon. It could take years. Unless I find a good stopping point and just finish + start a sequel. That's an option.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Accurate characterization, I think? I'd like to think I do a pretty decent job with pacing and balancing action vs. talk. Also my real-life scientific/technical background helps me write credible plot details for our two favorite science geniuses.

From a stylistic standpoint, I've been told my writing has a cadence and musicality that's very enjoyable. That's something I care a lot about, so, yay.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

I'm painfully aware that I overuse certain phrases. And I overthink things a lot, so it takes me ages to ship out new chapters. Especially now that I have a full time day job again, which I didn't when I started writing Cosmos— long story for another time.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

A few lines here and there can be very helpful when the setting calls for it (the characters are abroad, or working with people from different cultural backgrounds) but you don't want to overdo it.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Well, I wrote a one-off Picard/Crusher ficlet in the late 90s, so I'm legally obligated to say Star Trek: TNG. But I never wrote anything else (fic-wise) until Cosmos.

20. Favourite fic you’ve written?

Surprise, it's Cosmos!

In case anyone is curious, I'm about 1/3 of the way through writing Ch. 43, so hopefully it won't be nearly as long til the next update. (For reference, it took me three months to get Ch. 42 out.)

I think I'm supposed to tag some other writers now? Let's say @starfleetwitch, @kowarth, and gosh I need to look up some usernames. Will add those later. Got to go feed my family now.

EDIT: adding @colourmestoked04 to the taggees

[jinmukangwrites]

Weep little lion man (9.5/14)

First - Previous - Next

Fandom: Jedi: Fallen Order / Survivor Rating: T Warnings: N/A Ao3 Notes: next chapter is officially the beginning of the endgame. Thank you everyone who has joined me for this story. This is the final .5 chapter.

Summary: After defeating Dagan Gera for a third and final time, the Compass ends up in Bode's hands without a scratch. He could go back to Jedha with Cal... but he's holding what he wants. He doesn't see the point in pretending any longer. He makes a split-second decision. Or: Bode's betrayal goes a bit differently.

-o0o-

Never in Merrin's life has she been so glad to have so many friends willing to take charge. So many friends that knew how to make quick and effective plans on the fly; allowing her to set her mind on autopilot and simply do as Cere or Cordova tells her to.

They can worry about the specifics, the details, the intricate strands of unwoven tapestries, and she can just work.

"Merrin, can you help find Zee a way up this cliff?"

"Merrin, I need assistance moving some equipment from the smuggler tunnels."

"Hey witch, keep an eye on Caij for me, will you?"

She does everything anybody (except Caij, though the questionable woman never requests anything anyways) asks, because she's happy to help and she's a creature of action. Having a set of instructions and a task at hand helps her keep useful and productive even though she's no good at knowing the history of ancient Jedi civilizations, nor is she much of a use for putting together technology which will make it possible to traverse an un-traversable and chaotic plume of abyss in space.

She at least also got to protect Rambler's Reach from vengeful raiders and even the occasional troupe of Imperial invaders. She knew that she could do the leg-work, she enjoys the leg work. She had spent so long alone on Dathomir, desperately trying to cling to control as the forces of the universe did everything in its power to rip it away from her. Finding Cal... all those years ago... It gave her a greater purpose other than control. He helped her move on and focus on doing something. Let someone else be in charge, let the legacy of her sisters and mother not weigh her down so hard.

Helping Cere and Zee explore old Jedi chambers and temples, helping Cordova build a way to track through the abyss, even just keeping Caij in her sights, it made her feel like she was helping build progress on finally rescuing Cal and figuring out what exactly Bode's problem was. Singe the hairs of his eyebrows while she's at it.

Once Cere found a breakthrough in the mysterious Arrays, once Cordova managed to find a weak and unstable signal on Cal, Merrin couldn't help but think it took the Galaxy long enough to turn in their favor.

"So what's the plan?" She asks, folding her arms across her chest as Cere explains that activating the final Array just outside the Reach would make a temporary safe path through the abyss.

"Merrin, you'll get Zee to the array," Cere explains, her face calm but her voice twinging with undisguisable excitement. "Activate it, and join us on the Mantis. We should have just enough time to fly through the abyss, and with Master Cordova's work on the bounty puck, we'll know where to find Cal."

"Well," Caij says, leaning against the center console of the Mantis, Merrin narrows her eyes at the 'former' bounty hunter. "What are we waiting for?"

-o-o-o-o-

Getting Zee into the final array and getting herself back onto the Mantis was... concerningly uneventful. She thinks most people would celebrate things going easy, but things never went something as simple as easy when involving Cal. Too many things going exactly as planned couldn't mean anything good. Luck and karma didn't work that way for her family.

She kept her worries to herself, however, because if she were asked what was worrying her she wouldn't even be able to explain it. The Mantis hummed perfectly as ever as Greez lifted the old thing up and toward the Koboh atmosphere. The seats were comfortable. BD didn't leak oil. The array stayed lit like a beacon. Caij didn't suddenly get yellow eyes and cut down her family.

Geez punches it towards the triangle puncture going through the abyss, hands only shaking a little, but pure determination kept his flying steady. Silence filtered around the crew (and Caij) as star speckled black space turned into swirls of pink, purple, and blue. It looks like something only a child could draw with those glitter markers she saw once on Coruscant. It feels like flying into the heart of a supernova.

That feeling of something about to go wrong lingers. She can barely restrain herself from fidgeting as she stands behind Geez's pilot chair. She forces herself to look dead ahead at the carved path before them, a squeezing sensation wrapping around her heart.

"The path is getting thinner," Cere says, and Merrin closes her eyes for just a moment to breathe.

The array is shutting itself off, and they're already too far in to turn back. They need to go faster, onward, or they'll lose themselves here.

Cere grabs onto the hyperspace controls, ignores Geez's panicked shouting, and closes her eyes.

Something has finally made itself complicated; and while it seems Cere is about to initiate a solution, Merrin can't help but find a little comfort in the tides turning into currents. Deep down, she knows this will only be the first of many problems, but at least now it's familiar.

"Now!" Cere shouts, mostly to herself, and flicks the switch.

Geez screams, Caij swears, Cordova calmly breathes a visible breath, BD clutches into Merrin's shoulder, and Cere looks dead ahead at the streaks of hyperspace. Merrin... Merrin doesn't know what she does. Everything gets so loud and so real in her brain where if her physical body does anything, it wasn't her consciously controlling it.

She trusts Cere, but she doesn't trust fate. They'll get through this, but whatever is waiting on the other side is promised to be a thousand times worse.

Hold on, Cal, her brain desperately screams, it's almost over.

-o-o-o-o-

With a flash, the empty space above Koboh suddenly finds itself filled.

The pilot, sitting alone within the cockpit that used to belong to his father, frowns beneath his helmet as the signal he had just been tracking suddenly disappears.

He reaches for the puck, moving his gauntleted hands over the small FOB and checking to see if there's a loose wire or something else as temporarily inconvenient. He can't find anything wrong with the tool, which means something else had caused the signal to suddenly disconnect.

A flash of light, and he blinks ahead at a strange cluster of space dust that's settled itself as near to the planet as a moon would. Three beams of light tear through the center of the plumage, though one is in the process of going out.

The bounty hunter glances back at the tracking puck and quickly checks the last known coordinates of his target. He's almost not surprised that they point him directly towards the mysterious abyss.

The third beam gives a final, violent shudder, then flickers out in a blaze of glory. Whatever path it has carved, it's gone now, and so is Caij Vanda.

Only at a slight loss, he bites his lip and looks down at Koboh. He can't give up on his target, not quite yet, and perhaps wherever that broken beam had come from, there will also be someone who knows what the point of it was, and if his target is dead or not.

He has enough of a reputation that simply confirming a death will get most contractors good faith. He can still get paid here, and then he can move on to other bounties with no sleep lost. Bigger bounties, maybe that red-hot one the Empire just tripled.

Turning Slave 1 towards Koboh, Boba Fett makes preparations for landing.

[bambirex]

It's A Game We Play: Chapter 4

Pairings: Geraskier, Yennskier, Radskier

Characters: Jaskier, Geralt of Rivia, Yennefer of Vengerberg, Radovid, original female characters, Essi Daven, Priscilla, Ciri of Cintra, Valdo Marx

Additional tags: inspired by Mamma Mia! (movies,), crack, alpha/beta/omega dynamics, omega jaskier, alpha geralt, alpha yennefer, beta radovid, awkwardness, jaskier is a good parent, protective jaskier, weddings, found family, post mpreg, fluff and humor, alternate universe- modern setting, jaskier is having the worst time of his life, valdo is here to make everything worse, confusion, banter

Rating: teen and up audiences

Full word count: 10,713 words

Chapter word count: 3,324 words

Chapters: 4/?

Summary: Jaskier's daughter is about to marry the love of her life, and she decides she wants both her parents at her wedding. Only problem is that Jaskier has slept with a little too many people in his youth, so the identity of the other parent is a mystery. That does not stop the bride-to-be from inviting three potential daddy candidates and unleashing absolute chaos in the process.

*

Otherwise known as Jaskier's terrible horrible no good past decisions leading to terrible horrible no good outcomes. Also known as the Mamma Mia! AU nobody asked for, but I wrote it anyway.

Chapter summary: Running into familiar, unwanted faces and meeting weirdly eager strangers.

Author's notes: Chapter title speaks for itself, since this question will pop up during this chapter many times. I liked the suggestions in my comment section about Geralt, Yennefer and Radovid knowing each other so much, that I decided to work that in, thanks for the idea!!!! I am also bringing you all a beloved beloathed character, and Amaryllis's big meeting with the "daddies" as well.

Read on Ao3

*

If someone told Yennefer just a week prior that she would literally drop everything and get herself an emergency sabbatical from the bistro, and she would force herself through a nearly four hours long ferry ride, all because she received a mysterious letter from someone she's slept with twenty years ago, she would've called them a fucking moron.

Yet, there she was, staring at the waves licking the side of the ferry as they made their way over the sea. Yennefer put her elbows on the railing with a deep sigh. She closed her eyes as she breathed in the salty air. Twenty years ago, she was traveling across the sea just like she was doing it now, full of youthful energy and hope. She had none of that now. She was just anxious as all hell, because seriously, what could Jaskier possibly want from her? How was she even supposed to react when she saw him standing on the docks, waiting for her? How was she supposed to greet him, what should she ask? How was she supposed to cope with the fact that she had to face someone like that from her past?

"Yennefer?"

As Yennefer turned around fast, the wind blew all of her hair into her face. She cursed and sputtered as she tried her best to remove it from her mouth and eyes.

When she finally came face to face with the person who called out for her, Yennefer suddenly felt the urge to throw herself off the ferry and into the water.

“Geralt,” she hissed, her eyes widening, “what the fuck are you doing here?”

Geralt cleared his throat awkwardly, a habit that he seemed to never have abandoned since Yennefer last saw him. Her and Geralt had dated about ten years ago, and for a while, Yennefer was convinced that maybe he could be the one. She was wrong, like she always was, about every person she dated. Geralt wasn’t a bad person, not by any means, and Yennefer did love him. But maybe two Alphas were just never meant to work out; their too similar personalities soon led to constant fighting, which lead to a not very nice breakup, during which Yennefer told Geralt he was a ball-less coward who really needed to get off his high horse, and Geralt called Yennefer a control freak with anger issues.

And now, to make this already weird and frustrating situation ever worse, here he was, staring at Yennefer with that constipated look on his face.

“It’s nice to see you too, Yen,” Geralt grumbled, arms crossed over his chest. Yennefer scoffed.

“Don’t call me that.”

“I was hoping we could have a civil conversation, but clearly, I was wrong. I just wanted to say hello.”

“Okay, you did. Goodbye.”

“Yennefer,” Geralt sighed, “let’s not be childish, okay?”

Yennefer gripped the railing again to stop herself from committing a crime that would’ve earned her a life sentence.

“Oh, yeah, says the man who’s allergic to commitment, and drops everyone like a hot potato the second things turn serious!”

“Yeah, because you handled everything so maturely,” Geralt growled, “you were only looking for flaws in everything, of course you found them!”

“Did you come here to antagonize me?” Yennefer spat. “You should have just ignored me.”

Geralt deflated at that, somewhat. There was a small, barely-there smile at the corner of his lips. Yennefer hated to admit, but it was still stupidly attractive.

“You’re right, I’m sorry,” Geralt said, his voice much softer. “I didn’t expect to see you here.”

“Same. So, what are you doing here, Geralt?”

Before Geralt could answer, a teenage girl rushed over to them, knocking into Geralt so hard it looked painful. Her ashen blonde hair was mussed from the wind, and her grin was mischievous.

“Dad,” she called out with a giggle, and Yennefer’s eyebrows shot up to her hairline. Dad!?

“I’m gonna drive a Bentley!”

“What?” Geralt turned to her with utter confusion. Yennefer was pretty sure she was going to pass out and into the sea.

“I never said that you could drive it!” Came a voice from behind the cackling girl. “I just said that you could see it if we reached land!”

A tall man with long, reddish-blond hair approached them with a huff. He looked utterly miserable, which might have had something to do with the seagull shit that covered the shoulder of his clearly expensive silk shirt. He looked familiar. Yennefer narrowed her eyes as she stared at him, trying to figure out where she knew him from.

Geralt blinked at the man with a similarly confused expression. “I’m sorry, do you know my daughter that you’re offering her a car show, or should I call the police?”

“Did you just accuse me of… rude!” The man huffed. “She walked up to me and asked me if the Bentley was mine! I wasn’t gonna send her away!”

“It’s a nice car,” the girl chirped, seemingly uncaring of the adults’ impending brawl. “Can I get a driving license, Dad? I’ve driven your car before, I’d do good!”

“I’m sorry,” Yennefer interrupted them, “Geralt? She’s you daughter?”

Geralt gave her a wounded look. “Yennefer… she’s Ciri. My daughter.”

Yennefer opened her mouth then quickly shut it again before she said something that wasn’t meant to be heard by a child. Geralt used to insist he could never have a family of his own. That he would be a shit dad, and children were too much hassle. He clearly found Yennefer’s desire for kids weird and unnecessary. And here he was, with a kid- a kid that was clearly a teenager. Holy shit, he had a kid while he dated her, he must have had a partner he cheated on with Yennefer, then. He made her into a homewrecker. Yennefer was going to kill someone today.

Ciri nodded towards her with a grin. “Nice to meet you! I like your dress!”

“Thanks…”

“Wait,” the blond guy turned towards Yennefer, “I know you!”

Oh, no. Now that Yennefer took one more look at him, it became obvious where she met him. It was the evening she officially ruined her career as a chef, and she was pretty much exiled to cook at a cheap bistro. She had to cater at some expensive business party, and she was so nervous around all the stuck-up suits, that she messed up the meal, big time. And that guy was there, his stubble was a little thinner and his eyes were a lot less stern back then, but Yennefer recognized him. He was the first to spit out her stew, which then drew attention to the mistake she’s made.

“You put sugar in the stew instead of salt,” the guy said, “it tasted like cake smothered in grease.”

“It wasn’t as bad as you all claimed!” Yennefer snapped. “But your spoiled ass had to make such a frenzy about it! You’re the reason I’m still cooking at a shithole bistro!”

“Oh, thank the stars, that’s better for everyone.”

“Wait,” Geralt said, cutting off the mighty string of curses Yennefer was about to throw. “I know you, too. You have that company. And a tarantula.”

“Huh?” The man turned to Geralt. His eyes widened. “Oh, wait, I remember you too! We met at the vet. Your foal tried to eat my shirt and it also jumped out of your hands and started wreaking havoc in the waiting room!”

“And you were so convinced that your tarantula was more important than my sick horse that you ran in before me! It probably wasn’t even sick, you just didn’t know how to take care of an animal properly.”

“You leave Franz Joseph out of this!” The man yelled, pointing a finger at Geralt’s chest. “He was very sick!”

“Who’s Franz Joseph?” Ciri whispered to Yennefer. Yennefer shook her head, which was quickly growing dizzy.

“Okay, alright,” Geralt sighed deeply. “Your pet has nothing to do with your own arrogance. How’s, uh, Franz Joseph, by the way?”

“He’s dead.”

“Shit. Sorry about that.”

“Alright, will anyone tell me what the fuck is going on?” Yennefer huffed. “Geralt, have you had a kid all along? While you were dating me? Was that why you said you could never have one with me?”

“Maybe not in front of Ciri,” Geralt tried. Ciri narrowed her eyes at him.

“You two dated?”

Geralt released a long-suffering, deep sigh. “Yeah. Some time ago. Yennefer, I adopted Ciri four years ago. She is my daughter, but we haven’t met while we were together. Okay?”

“Okay, and why are you headed to Thanedd?”

“Why are you?”

“I… I got a letter from someone, it’s an emergency, or whatever, I had to drop everything at home, I’m really fed up already, and you are not helping!”

“What,” Geralt’s voice wavered slightly, “a letter? You too?”

“A hand-written letter?” The other guy chimed in, his face turning pale. “From someone on Thanedd? About… a life and death situation?”

“Yes?”

“Who wrote to you,” Geralt asked, his eyes widening with panic, which made Yennefer’s nerves even worse. Yennefer grabbed the railing again, this time to not faint.

“An old love… I mean, someone I knew. Is this an interrogation?”

“You started it,” rich guy reminded her. “And this someone, who sent you a letter… he’s not called Jaskier, by chance?”

“How do you know him,” Geralt growled dangerously as he turned towards the other man. They were about the same height, but he still seemed to tower over him. Yennefer could feel the angry Alpha pheromones oozing off him. It made her feel even more snappish, not to mention that possessive flare upon hearing someone else knowing Jaskier. Her Jaskier.

“Control yourself,” the man warned him, “your child is standing right there next to you.”

“Don’t bring me into this!” Ciri huffed, crossing her arms over her chest in a way that was so similar to Geralt’s. “I have zero idea what’s going on, I’m just enjoying the free show.”

“Why would Jaskier write to you,” Geralt continued, lowering his voice slightly. “Who are you to him…?”

“Radovid,” the guy helped him out with a sigh. His eyes narrowed to slits. “And how do you know him?”

“He wrote to all of us!?” Yennefer asked in horror. “What… why the fuck would he do that?”

They all stared at each other. Geralt chewed on his lip, his brows furrowed in distress. Radovid stared at his feet, stiff like a statue. Ciri looked from one to the other, both confused and clearly entertained by the mess she ended up in the middle of.

Yennefer turned back towards the sea and groaned. It wasn’t enough that she had to worry about what Jaskier needed of her after all this time, now she had to face the fact that her ex, and a random guy was also here, and they all got the same letter, apparently.

She really should have thrown that letter away.

--

Probably everyone thought Amaryllis was insane, what with the way she was pacing up and down on the docks, muttering to herself to calm her nerves. She couldn’t possibly know if her plan worked at all. There was a chance their address changed, and none of them received her letter, or if they did, they could have just ignored it. After all, twenty years have passed since then, what were the odds they would leave their homes so abruptly to come see Jaskier?

Amaryllis could only hope that her Papa left a mark on them deep enough that they would want to find out what he (well, Amaryllis) wanted. She knew her father was a remarkable and loveable guy, but she didn’t know how the other three were. She could only go off on the descriptions in the diary, hence why she was nervous if she would recognize them at all.

By the time the ferry arrived, Amaryllis was a hair’s breadth away from passing out. She watched the cars roll down, then the people walk off, her heart beating at an abnormal speed all the while. What was the chance she would get a heart attack right now? She pressed her fingers against her neck to feel her pulse. Oh, God, she was going to explode from anxiety.

Amaryllis craned her neck to see over the crowd that milled around the docks, trying to find faces similar to the descriptions. She really did hope no one went through a drastic style change that made them look entirely different.

The crowd cleared a little, and Amaryllis noticed a shiny white car- a Bentley.

He is literally blonde Prince Charming, not on a white horse, but in a white Bentley.

Amaryllis’s breath hitched in her throat as she approached the car slowly, her palms growing clammy with sweat. What were the chances the car was the same, that it was Radovid’s?

Once she reached the car, she was greeted with a girl somewhat younger than her, who grinned at her brightly.

“Nice car, isn’t it?” She asked proudly. “It’s mine!”

“No, it isn’t… whatever. Let the kids have fun.”

Amaryllis turned towards the voice. She gasped at the sight of a tall, lean man, with blond hair, dressed in expensive clothes there were only somewhat dulled by the smear that suspiciously looked like bird poop. It had to be him.

“Radovid,” Amaryllis breathed out. The man’s eyes widened comically.

“Do we know each other?”

“It’s you…”

“I’m sorry, how do you…?”

Amaryllis wobbled on her feet when a broad, white-haired man stood next to the teenage girl who declared Radovid’s car her own.

“Geralt…?”

“What? How do you know my name?”

“Okay, I genuinely don’t know what’s going on, but…”

Amaryllis turned towards the female voice, and yes, indeed, there was Yennefer. She couldn’t believe her luck.

“Yennefer,” she whispered, causing the woman to stare at her like she just massacred her entire family.

“Do you know my name too?” The young girl laughed. Amaryllis sent her an apologetic smile.

“Alright, this is strange,” Geralt noted, “how do you know us?”

“I… huh. Lord. This is weird, I know. Bear with me, okay?” Amaryllis bit her lip, trying to hold back an excited squeal. “My name is Amaryllis Pankratz.”

“Pankratz!?” They all yelled in unison. Amaryllis grinned. They remembered her Papa.

“Yes. I’m Jaskier’s daughter.”

She had never seen faces turn so white all at once. Geralt practically wasn’t even breathing. Radovid closed his eyes. Yennefer’s jaw literally dropped. The teenage girl grinned in delight.

“Jaskier has a daughter,” Yennefer whispered. She looked Amaryllis up and down, recognition lighting up in her eyes. “Shit. You look just like him. I should have known.”

“Yeah, do you know how many times I got the ‘oh, did Jaskier went back in time and turned into a girl’ joke?” Amaryllis chuckled. She swallowed in embarrassment when no one laughed. “Erm…so, yeah, Jaskier is my father. And I know you guys all know him, and I know you don’t know me, but… ugh, this is difficult! We gotta get to know each other a little better before my wedding.”

“Before the what?” Geralt asked. Amaryllis chuckled nervously.

“Yeah, so I’m getting married and I kinda need one of you to be at the wedding, but first I need to figure out which one of you should be there, because I think one of you is… shit!”

Amaryllis turned pale when she spotted Jaskier in the distance. He was luckily not facing them as he was walking towards the market, but she couldn’t risk him seeing his old lovers there before Amaryllis had a chance to talk to them.

“Trust me,” she practically begged the bewildered group, “and follow me, okay?”

Before any of them could protest, Amaryllis practically shoved them all towards the cars, away from Jaskier. The teenage girl went with them, and while Amaryllis wasn’t sure who she was, she kind of liked her already.

They would all have plenty of time to get to know each other, if everything went well.

--

Jaskier was contemplating which watermelon to pick when he felt a hand brush his side gently. He jumped, dropping both melons on the ground. They smashed on the asphalt, coating his new shoes in juice.

“Thanks for this,” Jaskier groaned as he stared at the mess on the ground, “I will not be paying for these, but you will!”

He looked up to see who touched him. The breath caught in his throat, and his head started swimming right away. He wobbled on his feet for a second, before he let out a mighty “what the fuck are you doing here, you ghoul!?”

“Oh, Jaskier,” came the snarky laugh in response, “you did not change one bit.”

What terrible sin Jaskier must have committed against the gods that they brought Valdo Marx, the bane of his existence, his formal rival, his archnemesis, the curse of his life, to the peaceful little island he lived on!?

“What are you doing here,” Jaskier huffed, hands on his hips, “I thought you were in jail for being a sex offender or something.”

“You wish,” Valdo grinned. He raked his eyes over Jaskier with an appreciative hum. “Look at you. You look lovely, still. Gained some weight, but that’s par for the course after having a child, isn’t it?”

“It takes me approximately one second to grab one more melon and bash your head in with it,” Jaskier warned him. Valdo laughed heartily.

“Oh, come on, now, Jaskier, don’t be so hostile! It looks good on you. You look gorgeous, was what I was trying to say, and yet, here you are, threatening me with assault.”

“Stop with the fake compliments,” Jaskier spat, “what the hell are you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be playing shit music with your band of disgraced theater kids?”

“Another thing that didn’t change: your deaf ears. We’re playing plenty, don’t worry. That’s actually why I’m here.”

“What?”

“Oh, haven’t you heard?” Valdo grinned mischievously. “A certain Mrs. Cooper is best friends with our manager. And he offered her a lovely band, ours, to play at her daughter’s wedding.”

“No,” was all Jaskier was able to say when he realized Valdo was talking about the mother of Amaryllis’s fiancée. Valdo laughed again, enjoying the horrified look on Jaskier’s face.

“Congratulations! I’ve heard Sara is marrying your daughter! Can’t wait to meet the lovely brides.”

“You. Are. Not. Playing. At. My. Daughter’s. Wedding!” Jaskier growled, emphasizing every single word. Valdo tutted at him condescendingly.

“Oh, don’t be like that! It’s going to be lovely! You can give your daughter away to the sound of my beautiful singing, doesn’t that sound good? You’ll get to watch me bask in the glory while you cry in the background. Just like old times.”

Jaskier let out a scream as he grabbed another watermelon off the stand. Valdo ducked away just in time before his head collided with the large fruit.

“See you around, Jaskier,” Valdo chuckled. The bastard had the audacity to grab his hand and kiss his knuckles, making Jaskier let out a sound that he didn’t realize he was able to make. He rushed away before Jaskier could attempt to murder him one more time.

“You’re gonna pay for all the melons you smashed, I hope you know that!” The clerk yelled at him. Jaskier nodded with a sigh of defeat.

His hands shook as he fished his money out of his wallet. This couldn’t be real. He must have been experiencing a terrible nightmare, and he would wake up soon.

He would have to come up with a plan to make sure Valdo wouldn’t get to make a mess at Amaryllis’s wedding. Jaskier won’t let that happen, that was for sure.

At least things couldn’t get worse in the meantime, he reassured himself as he walked home.

[vic0329]

Black Mirror: Season 3

Episode 3: “shut up and dance”

Synopsis:

In the midst of the bustling and interconnected technological universe we live today, "Shut up and Dance" takes us into a disturbing analysis of how our intimidated is violated and influenced by digital media. Set in the near future, the plot centers on Sara, a college student who sees her existence take an unexpected turn when she is involved in the world of cyber extortion. A mysterious hacker, using a lethal weapon: In order to protect her reputation, Sara is compelled to undertake a series of supposedly insignificant but embarrassing acts. As the pressure builds, she falls prisoner to a deadly game where technology stands as the worst of her enemies and threatens her freedom. Through surprising plot twists and a story full of tension, "Shut up and Dance" raises fundamental questions about online security, the fragility of our digital lives and how privacy occupies an increasingly sqlvático world. Exploring the darkest corners of technology and human nature, this Black Mirror release presents a visually striking aesthetic alongside poignant performances. While Sara faces a merciless enemy and struggles with her own feeling hopeless, the audience is captivated by an intense emotional experience that leads us to reflect on the real control we have over our lives during these digital times. In "Shut up and dance", it is clear how in the virtual world there is no clear separation between public and private boundaries; showing us how a simple action like clicking can distort both truths and falsehoods.

Analysis:

IA and social media: In the chapter we do not see that the AI does not affect, but if the social networks because of a harassment that has an unknown person, the main protagonist has to do things he does not like as meet more people with the same problems or more serious, even had to kill another person to q the last equal to be disclosed a video of him, many people suffer from this daily because they are manipulated through social networks or cases where they get into pages with viruses and watch them all the time.

Mental health: Mental health has a great effect on our daily life and is related to our emotional, psychological and social well-being. It influences our most difficult moments and we react to various situations in which we face throughout our lives. This episode shows us a clear example of how, due to difficult situations and an imbalance in mental health, people made mistakes because they did not know how to deal with crises, stress, anguish, desperation and did everything to save their reputation.

Unfortunately we allow many people to play with our mental health and this is how it is presented in this episode, even though we want to be conscious in our actions, to manage our emotions, when we have pressure in various situations we make mistakes, stress wins us and our decisions go down, our life falls and in it our mental health and that is when we react and we realize that it was better to face the mistakes and not hide them no matter what, our physical and psychological health is worth more.

Positive aspects: social networks help us to manage our future, i.e. many activities in the future they will make our lives easier but they can replace us, through them we can communicate with our relatives at a distance and in emergency situations, social networks are a means of communication that when used in the right way are used to disseminate certain important news and be in context with what happens in the world second by second, the networks facilitate information, communication and entertainment and in our hand is the use we want to give it. Negative aspects: Social networks are categorized as a double-edged sword, many people take advantage of this knowledge in them to do evil, identity theft, theft of photos, personal information and manipulate people to do what they want, it is unfortunate that such an important and very useful tool little by little we are damaging it and so it is destroying us.

Rating:

The score we give to this chapter is 10, this chapter is one of the strongest chapters that in our opinion Black Mirror has had, it is known that Black Mirror touches on themes from the dark side of technology; This specific chapter talks about pedophilia and how hackers through the computer can be aware of everything the user does and use this against him. This 19-year-old young man violated his privacy by recording a video of him masturbating and How they threatened him that they were going to upload this video to networks and make him do illegal things.

This leads us to see the reality of many young people today and how this can influence their behaviors and mental health, leading them to commit illegal acts and even lead to death.

Technology is advancing rapidly, but even though it seems safe, we are always willing to take risks just by being on the Internet, in addition to the fact that technology today unfortunately handles everything and just one click away they have all our information. This chapter leaves many lessons, mainly about the care that must be taken with the devices and the information we give to them, because they can be within the reach of all hackers.

[lifechanyuan]

Preface to "The Chapter of the Greatest Creator"

Do you have further questions?

If so, I can address them in this manner. First, I will ask: “What does it mean to lift? If holding a stone with both hands and placing it above one’s head constitutes lifting, then what about this definition?” If not, what does “lifting” mean? If so, suppose the stone is the Earth, and I stand upside down, holding the Earth with both hands. Is the Earth above my head then? You might argue that it isn’t, because the Earth is below my head. Fine! Then, if I move along the Earth’s meridian 360 degrees while performing the same action, the Earth should be above my head at some point, right? No? So, which point in the universe is above us? Which point is below us? You might then argue that even though my hands are holding the Earth and the Earth is above my head, it’s not me lifting it but the Earth’s gravity pulling me. If so, we must first reconsider the meaning of “lifting.” What then is “lifting”?

Regardless of how “lifting” is defined, by changing orientation, I can claim to have “lifted” the Earth. If you agree that I “lifted” the Earth, then I can prove that I did not “lift” it. So, does the question “Can the Greatest Creator create a stone that He cannot lift” hold?

We must seek the Greatest Creator and understand the Greatest Creator; otherwise, we will never grasp the origins of the universe, the origin of LIFE, the past and future of humankind. We will also fail to understand animal instincts and the purpose of life.

I am 46 years old and have worked in over 20 different professions: shepherd, farmer, laborer, Youth League secretary, clerk, Party branch secretary, instructor of a commune cultural propaganda team, fitter, electrician, auto mechanic, middle school teacher, office staff, office director, translator, driver, salesperson, grocery store manager, restaurant purchaser, bar attendant, nightclub manager, fast food manager, and real estate developer. Except for the roles of office director and restaurant purchaser, which I held for only two months each, I have worked in all other positions for more than six months.

What have I gained from working in so many different occupations?

The gain is that a life without faith and without a goal is like a cloud floating aimlessly in the sky, driven by the wind.

A few years ago, a mysterious car accident I experienced personally prompted me to start exploring the meaning of life. What am I living for? For the motherland and the nation? Nonsense! I can’t even solve my own survival problems, yet I talk about the motherland and the nation. For my parents? Definitely not, because if it were for them, I wouldn’t be able to continue living after they passed away. For my partner? That’s absurd! If I didn’t exist, my partner might actually live better. For my children? No, why do people without children still continue to live? My children have established their careers, so why should I keep living? Living not only doesn’t help my children anymore, but it also adds trouble and burden to them. For myself? Ridiculous! I can’t decide my own birth, nor can I decide my own death. If I could choose, I would prefer to have no life, to be a zero. So, who brought me into this world? Am I a random product of my parents’ accidental union? Absolutely not! The universe is governed by laws and rules; everything is inevitable, and there are no purposeless accidental events.

Everything that exists has its own purpose. So, what is the purpose of my existence? I can’t tolerate living such a vague and confused life. Either I die, or I live clearly and transparently. Even if I don’t know where I came from, at least I need to know where I’m going! Otherwise, if I were to suddenly encounter another car accident and die tomorrow, wouldn’t that be an injustice?

Will money help me understand the purpose of life? It seems that no millionaire in the world has ever solved the problem of life’s purpose. If I wait until I am rich, I might not have much energy or time left to figure it out before I die. Besides, money is not something that can be obtained just by wanting it; otherwise, everyone would be billionaires.

Will power help me understand the purpose of life? Throughout history, how many emperors and ministers have appeared, yet which one of them understood the purpose of life? Who among them left us a "Treasury of Classical Advice"?

Will becoming a scientist help me understand the purpose of life? Even greats like Newton, Einstein, and Stephen Hawking didn’t understand the origins of the universe, humanity, or LIFE. Can I, after becoming a scientist, understand more than they did? Moreover, just as I am not naturally gifted with a singer’s voice and cannot become a singer, can I become a scientist? I cannot dream such dreams.

Will becoming some other kind of expert help me understand the purpose of living? Probably not, just like archaeologists and anthropologists who keep changing their theories about human origins. One moment they say humans originated in Europe, then Asia, then Africa, based on a few fossils they’ve uncovered. This kind of theory is unreliable, as they might discover another fossil somewhere and claim humans originated in Antarctica.

Will reading the Bible help me understand the purpose of life? Perhaps I am not gifted, but after reading the Bible for years, I still haven’t had an awakening. Where exactly is the kingdom of the Greatest Creator? Does it already exist, or will it come in the future? If it is in the future, then where and when will it happen? Is "the future" one thousand years, ten thousand years, or a hundred million years? My life is only a few decades! Can my body be resurrected? How is it resurrected? Jesus is god, no doubt about it, but are there other gods who can restrain Jesus? If there are no other gods, why did Jesus have to suffer? Why did almost all of Jesus' disciples die violently? Can't god control his own destiny? As god, why couldn't he protect his few disciples? Why must suffering be the path to future blessings?

I hope that Buddhist scriptures can point me in the right direction!

Buddhism discusses concepts such as past lives, future lives, samsara, karma, and the interplay of causal conditions, all of which are meaningful. But how exactly does karma transform? How should one live to ensure a better future life? Where exactly is the Western Pure Land? What is it like? I haven’t read all the vast Buddhist scriptures, nor do I dare to make rash conclusions. But Buddhism has existed for over two thousand years, and it still can’t make people understand the purpose of life. If life is merely a process of suffering, why did the Greatest Creator create so many beautiful things for humans to enjoy? If the purpose of life is to become a Buddha, then what is a Buddha? How does one become a Buddha? What is the probability of becoming a Buddha? If a thousand people practice Buddhism and only 2-3 people can become Buddhas, wouldn’t the rest have "wasted their life and lost their joy"?

Money, power, and status, scientists and other experts, Christianity, and Buddhism all have their own reasons, but none can make people live clearly and understandably. Moreover, as an ordinary person who can’t even solve the problem of daily meals, how can I have the time to master social sciences, natural sciences, and religion?

Is there a shortcut? Can I bypass gods and human-acquired knowledge and seek the Greatest Creator directly, since only the Greatest Creator knows everything and has the final decision?

Where can I find the Greatest Creator?

Read the "book without words" by observing the sky, the earth, people, and things. Fortunately, I have engaged in over 20 different types of work, experienced many hardships, and, after graduating from high school, attended school three times, living in rural areas, small towns, and big cities. This allows me to connect various phenomena and events for chain thinking, but the result is still rather vague.

Where is the problem?

By chance, I read the Quran and was greatly inspired. The Quran says, “O assembly of jinn and mankind, if you are able to pass beyond the regions of the heavens and the earth, then pass. You will not pass except by authority.”

Yes! How can I escape the "bounds of heaven and earth" without borrowing the authority and help of the Greatest Creator?

How to borrow the help of the Greatest Creator?

Rely on spiritual awareness. Humans are part of the universe; “heaven and humans correspond.” If a small thorn pricks the toe, the brain immediately senses it. If I send a "thought fax" to the Greatest Creator, the Greatest Creator will surely know.

Sure enough, the origins of the universe, LIFE, humanity, and 36-dimensional spaces gradually appeared on the "screen" of my mind. And the issue of fate resolved itself without further explanation.

At this point, I recognized the Greatest Creator, recognized god Jesus, recognized Buddha Shakyamuni, recognized Celestial Ancestor Laozi, recognized humanity, understood the universe, time, space, energy and material, the physical body and the spiritual body, the essence of LIFE, and the purpose of living.

I recognized the Greatest Creator through spiritual awareness, but spiritual awareness can only be understood and cannot be conveyed. To spark interest, I used 40 natural phenomena and 8 logical inferences to forcibly prove the existence of the Greatest Creator and explain the 8 characteristics of the Greatest Creator and the 8 relationships between the Greatest Creator and humanity. Whether you can sense the Greatest Creator depends entirely on your own spiritual awareness and wisdom.

[eabwriting2023]

ANY QUESTIONS - DAY FOUR

As I see you before me with all your smiling faces I bet your wondering “Who is this woman and why is she interrupting the last day of school?” Well, the answer is very simple and I shall tell you in precise detail. I would tell you to lean back in your seats, relax and enjoy my presentation but alas, you are at school, which means and I do not care otherwise you must obey the rules.

I want to see your young, scrumptious faces staring up at me with backs straight as planks of wood with legs and arms by your side. Of course there shall be no interruptions or no questions till the end, hands down at the back there!

We start at the very beginning, a fabulous place to start as you might say. We were all young once, even me would you believe it? All crawling and Scavenging for that sense of belonging. Your parents, how wonderful they are? Taking you in, looking after you all, what do they get in return? Many, many hours of crying and whinging. Life is so unfair!

This is where we start a new chapter of your life. Here. Stuck, day in day out doing the same

laborious activities. Some may call this a prisión, you cannot escape until whoever is in charge lets you, disgusting meals, decor left to be desired, but you would be wrong! Prison is far more cruel and ugly you have it far too easy here!

Somehow you have managed to go through this life just scraping by until we reach today, the big moment in your lives when the gates are opened and you are set free like baby birds falling from cliff tops.

You are finally let out into the big wide world, where life is your oyster! Only, sadly not. Society will always have rules and you will obey unless you really do want to end inside prison…

Some will move onto college, then university where even though you say “I’m free to do what I like.” Is that really true? Classes, and work schedules, hurrying to hand essays in time, is it really that much different from where you are now?

Ah, but some of you sat in front of me are probably thinking, “Once I leave this dump I’m working for myself, I’d rather earn my own money than to keep bowing to the man.”

Yes, at first, everyone seems swell. Freedom and responsibility without voices breathing down your neck… until it does. Unlike now as you ignore your teacher yelling to finish a Maths problem you have company bosses with stern looking faces, macho men and women thinking they’re far too important for the likes of you.

As I look upon you all, I sense fear and uncertainty, panicked eyes with life dying slowly. You probably think that by the end of this little chat I will raise your confidence, everything is going to be okay, your doing great hunny.. that’s what your parents would say, wouldn’t they?

Yet again, you are fooled, your tiny minds cannot comprehend the fact that someone really doesn’t care one tiny bit about you. You are a leach, prying upon its victims for nutrition and you won’t stop until something comes along to end it.

If that is what needs to be done, let me be the one to do it. You have had life far too good, handed to you on silver platters. WAKE UP and smell the chemical roses, take off your hue glasses, Life isn’t far.

As for I, I am you, far from now in the distant future, clinging on for any hope. You could say I was the ghost of future you in a sense…

I have been your future and I hope you all have a fantastic summer thinking about your mortality, Any Questions?