#you know because of the [REDACTED] after jumping into the [REDACTED] to avoid the consequences of their actions.

[quietwingsinthesky]

I mean rn I wish you would write a fic w a description of 11089 so I can draw them 👉👈 :lookingaway:

bold of you to assume i even know what they look like alsjfjgljdksk

things i know about 11089’s appearance (revealed to me as if receiving prophecy):

1) You know those posts about how the ultimate image of androgyny in our society ends up being people who are skinny and hairless and sexless? so there’s our starting point, the horror story of that being forced upon you because it’s more useful for you to be as similar to the rest of the crew as possible because then you can simply be quantified by the amount of resources you can provide versus those you take. because every single time i think about this spaceship, it becomes an even more dystopian situation because how else would they survive when they were underprepared and have no way of getting help.

1a) what i’m saying is there’s a very good reason they’re instantly fascinated by visual modes of self-expression like dyeing hair. (similarly fascinated by other bodily changes, whether natural, like when Donna gets a burst of freckles across her face when she’s been out in the sun, or unnatural, absolutely transfixed by piercings and good for them.)

1b) they are going to be so much better off once they’re living on the TARDIS and can put on some weight and some muscle from running around with aliens and let their hair grow out all fluffy and uneven (and eventually accidentally turn it orange through hair bleach mishaps and keep it that way)

2) related, but they tend to prefer bright colors on other people rather then themself, for the most part. fun sometimes but attention-grabbing in a way that layered shades of gray are less so. so however they dress, it’s with a trend towards darker colors with little splashes of brightness from accessories or such.

3) set in stone for me now is the idea that where this story ends up going is ‘Someone Has To Keep An Eye On Donna And Her Completely Human Friend, John Smith’. If a Donna can’t survive being a human metacrisis or whatever with all the Doctor’s memories in her little human brain, why should Ten 2.0 be any different. Donna gets mindwiped, but Ten Again goes voluntarily to keep living, to stay near her, a measure that will mean if her memory starts itching her about some ‘Doctor’, she’ll associate his face with John instead and stop digging.

Which wraps back around to 11089 because I’m now very attached to Another Ten getting FOB watched and 11089 wearing it on a chain at all times. It’s definitely a totally normal and reasonable burden for them to carry their friends’ lives around their neck. this is very healthy behavior and does NOT show a lack of ability to set boundaries in situations that will end up hurting them or a need to prove that they can be useful that overrides everything else. they’re fine. this will not end up going horribly wrong as the guilt of hiding these things from people they love gnaws at them, and they start looking for any other solution only to find dead end after dead end and get desperate enough to start thinking ‘well, if the doctor couldn’t figure it out, maybe if we had another timelord-’

3a) but that’s not important. what’s important is watch on a chain that they can never ever open.

[thegodthief]

Keri drops several hundred useless words after the jump.

When things get entangled and dark, I will drop as much "learned" stuff as I can and go back to how it started: Dreamwalking. And each time I've done so, what gets confirmed is that I will always have more than one way to get things done. Even when I deliberately try to walk a single path, I get pulled back to a certain crossroads where the answer is not "one" but "many".

I will do This and I will do That and I will go Here and I will go There and while some of these have overlap, they are each their own individual thing to reckon with. Each time I then try to research whether or not I can actually do what has been shown to me, I wind up walking face-first into a locked door. The traditions have either been closed off by survivors or salted into oblivion by conquerors.

My blood is too dirty to wash the path clean.

Writing things down for peer review started off good for me, in that I had people willing to call me on my bullshit and wishful thinking. And then shortly before the pandemic, there was a shift online and it wasn't safe to be public about public things anymore. The worst and most obvious example is "tarot reading is a closed tradition" bullshit.

Bear with me, I'm trying to sort out what I'm trying to say, because each time I start to get close to the concept, self-preservation kicks in and I wind up self-censoring because I don't want to get dogpiled again.

But...

Kinda hard to be controversial if you don't even have the words to describe what you're being transgressive about.

I know some of my posts have certain words and phrases redacted, and they are going to stay redacted, because there are worse consequences than an internet mob to avoid.

But...

There is this thing, and it is something I'm supposed to be doing, and it's something that I'm supposed to be doing along side all the other shit that I'm doing. But I lack the vocabulary to even begin to describe the thing in except with words that are No Longer Authorized™ to be used in public, and...

It feels like everyone wants to sell me an identity that is Safe For Public Use™.

...

(stares at the screen)

(stares at the keyboard)

The proliferation of AI along with the already endemic SEO salt means trying to find information as a "solitary practitioner" makes me feel like I'm better off walking off a cliff to confirm gravitational force than trying to learn anything online, regardless of disposable income and the doors that income could unlock.

...

I just want to know just what the fuck I am.

Why is that so hard?

[morphogenetic]

i recognize this might be a bat to a hornets nest but curious about more in-depth ndvr3 opinions

hi anon im sorry this took one million years to answer properly (bc i never got an answer back about how long you wanted this to be) but im answering it now. spoilers for v3 and very concentrated dislike of dr as a series (and especially v3 lol) below the cut

as a whole, dr does a very poor job at making its characters feel fleshed out. this is, i know, kind of the point - they're all supposed to essentially be very exaggerated versions of some specific tropes common in jp media, i.e gundham being an extreme chuuni. after the first game though, which feels like more of a proof of concept than an actually well-designed game, the extreme flatness (ironically shown very well by the pop-up-book art style lol) just gets worse and worse and the characters in v3 in particular are even less fleshed out than before. i realize that for v3 this is somewhat a consequence of them trying to drive home the 'these are characters written by someone else' point, but like.......even if you're trying to make the point that someone wrote the characters to be like that, you can still write the characters well if you're trying to pull off genuinely emotional moments w them. e.g. every time they tried to make kaito's illness sad i could not give LESS of a shit about it because he just has the one-note personality.

dr has always had the problem where characters - outside of komaeda and hinata in sdr2, who are IMO the best developed characters in the whole series, especially komaeda - are only as well developed as the amount of time you spend doing their social links (or occasionally the particular trial that focuses on them, if that applies). of course, it's literally impossible to complete everyone's social events during the main mode of the game - unlike, for example, p4 or p5, where you can at least get close if you dont finish the whole social link. as such, it is extremely difficult to form an attachment to more than 1 or 2 characters before they kill/are killed. this is especially true when it's immediately obvious who has less of a personality than everyone else - or has more of a trope of a personality - and it's intensely predictable who is going to die early. for example, in v3, it was almost immediately obvious to me that tennis guy, maid girl, and angie and tenko were not going to make it to the end of the game, and were all early deaths, because of how paper-thin their personalities are. of course, this meant that i didn't bother doing their social events at all, so i had no attachment to them when they did inevitably die. this is a problem w every single dr game but its especially bad with this one.

(don't even get me started on how ive been able to figure out the majority of the solution to each case before the trial even starts or gets farther than like 30 minutes in. or how the issues that the students raise are often incredibly stupid and take WAY too much time and energy to shoot down when its so obvious that they're completely wrong. it's just. filler for in so many of the trials and it is incredibly annoying. the amount of filler before seesaw effect made me insane.)

now for my main v3 specific complaint: the fucking ending.

i actually like meta endings, you must understand that about me before reading the rest of this. meta in video games in general is something i love as long as it's well executed. i adore how uchikoshi handles it in [GAME REDACTED TO AVOID SPOILERS], for example, even though a lot of people seemed to have missed the point with it entirely.

the key word there is "well-exectued." v3 is not.

first of all: if you're trying to make this a meta case where v3 is part of the ongoing DR series....why are you trying to say that the video game you're playing is part of a TV show???? it feels as natural to say that a TV show you're watching is secretly a book someone else is reading. it's not a natural jump between mediums in the slightest, and what makes it even more annoying is that dr as a series is a primarily-video-game series!!!!!!!!! what on EARTH are you doing trying to be meta about your video game secretly being a TV show. it makes no fucking sense. if they tried to say that it was a mixed-medium franchise, that I would accept, because DR IS a mixed-media franchise. but it feels incredibly stupid to retroactively say that 'these two video games we wrote in the past are actually tv shows.' what? no. that's not how mediums work.

secondly: the meta does not work effectively in a series like dr to begin with when it already is constantly breaking the 4th wall for comedy - which i don't actually have any significant problems with. i personally think it's a lazy way of trying to be funny when it's the primary way you try to make your game funny, but i can accept that it works with the general character trope adherence of the series as a whole. however, because of how meta is often used as a joke in the series, when they suddenly try to make the meta serious, while also still keeping elements of the meta comedy at the same exact time that you're revealing that the meta Is Dead Serious Stuff, the complete tonal dissonance really works against you.

lastly: it does not really feel like the writers wrote v3 as a whole to be meta, if that makes sense. [redacted uchi game] feels like it was always meant to be that way, and so it feels completely natural that it leans into fourth-wall breaking all the time. however, the way that the meta ending comes across in v3 is just that they didn't have any other better ideas on how to end the game/were running against a time deadline and just threw in the 'ehhhhhhhhh we're already meta all the time for comedy let's do that for the ending but serious this time' towel. as i said earlier, i like meta in games when it's well-exectued, but poorly executed/written metanarrative always sticks out, and in the case of v3 it is especially bad because it doesn't even seem like they wrote the first case AFTER the last case....which you need to do in order to successfully pull off the meta in a case like v3. and is also wild considering the very beginning of the game makes it clear that they did actually go back and try to drop foreshadowing earlier without editing much of the rest of the game to accommodate for that.

tldr the writing around the metanarrative ending is just so intensely bad that it's kind of unbelievable to me that people think it's a good ending.

sorry if you like dr but tldr its a mediocre series and its baffling to me how it got popular, but also people saying v3 is better at being meta than [redacted uchikoshi game] is an opinion ive seen more than once that just makes me fucking laugh.

[elegant-etienne]

❛ You’re good at fixing things. I keep hearing this about you, is that right? ❜

The Haunting of Hill House Prompts!

((Thank you for the ask, @astrolevitation!

So, in March of this year I will have been playing this character 4 years! With them having undergone some major life changes this year and last year, I’ve been reflecting a lot on their journey. A lot of the characters mentioned here are [REDACTED] because they are other people’s characters, they no longer exist anymore, or I’m not sure if that character is keeping those aspects of their shared history!))

WARNINGS: References to binge drinking and its consequences, suicidality, suicide attempts, drug abuse, partner abuse, transphobia, oblique references to other bad things, parent death, and a dick joke.

@thanidiel and @atomicdeke for references!))

“Fixing? I don’t know about that.” Etienne chuckles lightly.

Alone in their bed at night, Etienne has been filling nights with mental lists of all of their unfixable mistakes, working backward, the list keeps getting longer:

Laughed and joked with that silly man who clearly just wanted an introduction to their handsome male friends. Let him make comments about their tits like they’re friends like that when they’re not.

Flirted, but wasn’t explicitly joking about it it.

Wanted. Not really sex, although that is amply available from silly men and probably others. Wanted – wanted someone like one wants a fresh pastry, wanted to pull people apart with their fingers, peel off each fragile layer and eat it separately – wanted the satisfaction of that upper hand, wanted to be the one who wasn’t vulnerable, wasn’t hurting, was the one with the knife, not the knife with the butter but the knife making the cuts, just openly wanted, let other people see them wanting

Talked too much, was too honest. Gave some speech about how they were terrified of how they’d organized their life into increasingly smaller boxes and then realized they didn’t fit into those boxes. Something like that.

Cried

Didn’t die of alcohol poisoning somehow when really, there wouldn’t have been any surprise if they had, after that fucking display.

Threw up in the canal

Decided the best way to break two years of sobriety was to drink some moonshine from Halone-fucking-knows-where

Wanted to find out more, and backed themselves into a losing game

Letting Vander and Xiaohu see them sweat.

Bought several unneeded decorative items for the apartment when, let’s be honest, they’re only using it to sit in the dark and cry and feel very sorry for themselves

Etienne explains, “I don’t really think folk need to be fixed. I think sometimes folk can get mixed up. They’re hurting, they’re confused. They aren’t sorted out about things. I’ve helped folk with that. I can help in sorting out beneficial changes, but it’s not like mending a torn dress, you understand?”

Didn’t pick a fight in the cafe when they really, really wanted to.

To be fair, some of the things that don’t feel like mistakes during the last two turns probably were. And some of the things that feel like mistakes right now are probably alright.

But they shouldn’t have let things move so fast. They got swept up. They know better than that. They knew the whole time. They just wanted so badly to be normal, to feel normal things, to have a normal life.

Somewhat started to date the first person to sincerely show interested after finding [REDACTED] had been clueless, and it hurt, and they wanted someone to notice them, damn it.

Never told [REDACTED] how they felt before he started seeing someone else. Now he’s gone.

Didn’t call Adi out immediately.

Never found out if xaela have different dicks. Wait, that one could still be fixed.

Went on a sennight-long bender in Othard and was never sure if they hit on their rival or yelled at him. Relapsed in the face of the potential of this beautiful, normal, happy fairytale romance that was just what they thought they always wanted, and thought, well, that was a hiccup and refused to examine it.

Let [REDACTED] get away with confessing to being in love with them for years and just fucking off about it.

Didn’t sleep with that lovely samurai lady they met at the party after the divorce.

“If you’re feeling something is out of sorts in your life, I can work with you on it if you feel we’re a good fit. I’ve aided several patients on their transition journey, and I also offer therapy on addiction recovery, handling anxiety and trauma.”

Didn’t just fucking kill [REDACTED], or kick him out after the affair-that-wasn’t-an-affair-they-both-swore came out. Let him be the one to leave, the one to make that choice, because they were too weak.

Believed [REDACTED]’s promise he would find a way for them to have children together, as if that would fix everything, and then being shocked he left instead.

Didn’t stay with Rosa when she gave that option.

Didn’t leave when [REDACTED] drugged them into unconsciousness rather than have fights or face consequences. Didn’t report this behavior to Rosa, or anyone with authority.

Didn’t go all-in on the attempted suicide.

Didn’t jump.

Didn’t leave [REDACTED] when he sealed them into the apartment to stop them drinking.

Let [REDACTED] decided that he’d attempt to follow Halone. Let [REDACTED] turn the incident with Henri into his personal pity party. Promised to tell [REDACTED] the truth of everything that Henri did and then never did, to spare his precious feelings.

Stayed when [REDACTED] said he’d never love them if they had breasts, if they’d been born a woman, that he finds breasts disgusting.

Tried to go after Henri alone and let him get the upper hand.

Married [REDACTED].

Asked [REDACTED] to marry them on a whim because they were upset, they were worried, they wanted to prove to everyone that this was real, this was permanent.

Didn’t jump.

Didn’t snitch when they found [REDACTED] had been misusing clinic painkillers.

Thought [REDACTED] could be cured. Did desperate things to try and cure him.

Stayed after [REDACTED] threatened to kill them, because he was an important in the FC, and the FC was the only family they had, and they were afraid of being alone after, they didn’t want to lose that family.

“I think it is easy to look at folk as either broken or functional, and in my experience, no one is broken. Someone’s life might not be working for them as it currently is, and it might be greatly improved by changing something. But the journey is not to make that person fixed, because we are not machines that are either off or on, working or not. There is a journey to making our lives more of what we want them to be. And I think most folk are working on that!”

Gave up too quickly on Arcanism when it got difficult.

Never sincerely tried to find out about any blood relatives after leaving Ishgard.

Didn’t fuck that priest who clearly wanted to.

Was mean and petty and resentful to Mother as she was dying.

Didn’t leave the lifestyle. Drank themselves deeper into debt instead of trying to get away.

Henri.

Didn’t avoid dangerous situations.

Didn’t even try to stop drinking.

Didn’t leave for Coerthas with Mama Amelie.

Didn’t slit their wrists the right way.

Didn’t jump.

Stopped smiling.

No, that wasn’t their fault.

Neither was that one.

Neither was that one.

Being born, maybe? If they hadn’t been born, then maybe their birth mother–

No, how could they have prevented that one?

“What I’m trying to say, of course, is that I cannot say I fix things. And honestly… the work, the real hard work, the bravery and the grit and difficult questions – that’s going to come from you. Are you alright with that?”

[writethehousedown]

Bottled Up Feelings, Chapter Two (Cheryl/Blu) - Zyan

a/n: chapter two is here! this time, we’re seeing things from blu’s perspective. The POV will change with each chapter :) again, thanks to Frey for beta-ing. You can find me over at @chachkisalpaca ~

Chapter Two: Playing Cupid

Being a genie wasn’t the easiest job out there, nor was it as amazing as Disney had made it seem in Aladdin. Blu would know - she’d been one for quite a long time now.

She wasn’t really sure how she ended up being a genie, though; like most things in her life, it just happened. She had very few memories of her life as a human, the main one being that she was from somewhere in Ireland and that her name wasn’t actually Blu, but she couldn’t remember it, so she’d given herself a new one.

When she wasn’t granting wishes, she usually hung out with genies from all around the world. Humans would be surprised to know the lamps were actually portals to their realm, where they lived in peace, and language barriers didn’t exist.

It was a normal day for Blu, she was having lunch with some of her friends, telling them about this couple that acquired her newest lamp, but they hadn’t summoned her yet, which she found really weird, but it wasn’t as if she was complaining.

“It’s been so long since anyone summoned me, I don’t think I can go back to dealing with humans,” she commented, taking a bite of her sandwich.

“Oh, I totally get you,” Dearis replied, “Last time I was out of my lamp a wish I granted got me suspended. How was I supposed to know they’d added wishing for a baby to the Don’t List? It literally happened while I was out!” She complained, folding her arms.

“Well, at least y’all have the opportunity to be found. My lamp’s been lost since the Titanic drowned, and I can’t reclaim a change until two more years. I’m tired of training new genies,” Scarlet added with a scoff.

Blu was about to reply when she disappeared from the table and transported to her home, the distinctive signal that someone had summoned her. How convenient. She looked at the portal and sighed as she crossed it, praying this time she wouldn’t have to grant any wishes that could harm her owner or herself.

The portal made her fall on a table, landing on her butt. She coughed a little when she tried to breathe and inhaled smoke instead.

“Shit, I forgot this was part of the deal,” she complained, trying to dissipate the smoke.

Once it cleared out, she looked around to face her new client, only to find, possibly, one of the prettiest women she’d seen in her very long life.

“Who are you?” She asked, clearly afraid. Blu hopped off the table and offered her a smile.

“My name’s Blu without an E, and I’m the genie of the lamp. I’m here to grant you three wishes,” she introduced herself and the woman blinked repeteadly.

“I think that tea Vinegar gave me had something on it, ‘cause I must be hallucinating,” she replied, stretching an arm with the intention of reaching for her. Blu stood where she was without moving an inch. The woman poked her arm, and that was enough to make her look absolutely terrified within a second. “Oh my God, you’re real, aren’t you?”

Blu snorted - she hadn’t gotten that reaction in years; majority of people screamed in happiness, jumped all over the place, or said their first wish right away, without thinking on it much.

“I mean, I will disappear once you run out of wishes, but for now, I’m very much real.” She shrugged, there was an awkward silence for a few moments.

“I can’t think of anything to wish for right now,” she confessed, scratching the back of her neck. “Maybe just eating dinner without another stranger arriving un-invited to my home.”

“Hey! You invited me the moment you bought my lamp, so, really, you set yourself up for that,” Blu pointed out, wandering off to the living room, the blonde coming right behind her.

“That makes sense, I guess? No. Nothing about this makes sense,” she said, leaning against the doorframe of the kitchen. “Please, don’t break anything while I have dinner; I don’t wanna go back to Vinegar’s shop and end up buying yet another genie lamp or something.”

“Fair enough, we can use anything to hide in, to be honest,” Blu commented while she looked at the woman’s pictures. She stumbled across a frame with a photo of her wearing a graduation robe that read “Cheryl”. She read it out loud and she poked her head from the kitchen. “You have a lovely name.”

Cheryl’s cheeks got a slight rosy tone. She gave a small smile and mouthed a ‘thank you.’.

*

About an hour had passed since Blu had appeared in Cheryl’s home, and she hadn’t wished for anything yet. It was weird, but then again - she could be thinking about what to wish for. Every other decade Blu would get someone like her - someone that thought well on their wishes. After all, three wasn’t nearly as enough to wish for everything they wanted.

Cheryl was taking a shower after having explained Blu how to use the remote of the TV, only for her to deadpan, “I was already an adult when these were invented, I know how to use a remote.” Cheryl had cocked a sceptical brow and left in silence, though Blu was pretty sure she heard her say something along the lines of 'Okay, boomer’.

She was watching a weird show called The Bachelor, when Cheryl sat next to her, wearing pyjamas, and trying to untangle her wet hair.

“Let me see if I understand correctly,” she said, while still battling with her hair. “I can wish for anything, without any conditions?”

“Well, there are some rules, like - you can’t wish for someone’s death, nor to have a baby, you can’t wish for someone to love you, huge amounts of money, or winning a competition unfairly…” Blu listed and Cheryl listened carefully to each word she spoke. “I think that’s basically it — unless The Council is redacting new laws as we speak, it has happened before.”

Cheryl’s interest seemed to spark when she heard the latter, but didn’t ask about it.

“So, exceptions aside, I can wish anything without any consequences?” She asked again and Blu nodded. “I wish some of the mothers of my junior students would stop acting as if they’re on fucking Dance Moms — like, goddamn Nancy, why can’t you understand that if your child didn’t get the main role was because someone is better than them?” Cheryl complained, making Blu laugh loudly.

Well, she certainly wasn’t expecting that.

“Okay, um, you should definitely word that better if you want Nancy to stop being such a pain in the arse,” she suggested making Cheryl laugh.

“Oh, God, no. Even if I want that, that’s not my wish. Can you imagine? It’d be such a waste; no amount of magic can change Nancy, she’s just the worst,” she said, stifling a yawn. “Let me think of what I actually want and then I’ll come back to you.”

Blu pursed her lips and knitted her brows together in a frown.

“You do realize that I have to follow you around until you make your final wish, right?” Cheryl’s eyes widened in fear.

“Oh no, I can’t have you over at the studio, I’m already incredibly busy with the Valentine’s Day show!” She rubbed her eyelids, feeling tired and in need of a good sleep. “Ugh, listen, it’s been a long day and I have no energy left to try to understand you and your genie quirks. I’ll bring you a blanket and some pillows, and tomorrow we’ll sort out that following me around thing. All right?”

Blu wanted to tell her that there wasn’t any need for the pillows and blanket, she could just go back to the lamp and sleep there, but Cheryl was out of the room before she could open her mouth.

She sighed. Cheryl seemed to be one of the strangest clients she ever had the pleasure to have, but at least she was a charming woman.

*

“Miss Cheryl, who is her?” Cheryl gave the kids a nervous smile and Blu was already having the time of her life.

After waking up and nearly having another heart attack because she forgot for a moment Blu was sleeping on the couch, Cheryl had made breakfast for them and asked every single question that had to be asked.

Was it really necessary for Blu to accompany her throughout the day? Yes, it was a strict rule made to avoid anything bad happening to their clients; countless times there had been a genie stuck in the human world because their human had unexpectedly died before running out of wishes. It was to be safe.

Did Blu know anything about ballet? No, she didn’t. But what was magic for?

So there she was, at Cheryl’s studio, wearing one of Cheryl’s ballet attires, ready to help her out with today’s class. The moment she noticed the kids wouldn’t stop staring at her hair, Blu knew this was going to be the funniest thing she’d done in a while.

“Kids, this is Miss Blu, she’s going to help me prepare all of you for the Valentine’s Day show. Be good to her,” she said, and immediately all the kids surrounded Blu, saying hi and asking why she had orange hair. “Oh Lord, I’m already regretting this,” she whispered.

On Blu’s side, she was over the moon with all the attention she was getting from the kids; she had always loved them, thinking they were the purest thing in the world.

“Alright, that’s enough, give Miss Blu some space. We’re gonna start in five minutes. Get ready, please,” Cheryl announced, the kids obeyed a bit reluctantly, but soon scattered around. “I’d say they’re like this ‘cause you’re new, but they’re like this every day. You get used to it at some point.” She shrugged, looking at them with a smile.

“Oh, don’t worry, I actually don’t mind. I love kids, I think they’re adorable.” Cheryl turned to see her with the same pretty smile she’d been giving the kids.

“Good, now let’s see if your magic can get the boys to line up and be en pointe when they get their cue.”

The class passed by in the blink of an eye; the kids absolutely adored Blu, laughing at all of her witty comments and obeying her quite easily. To say Cheryl was impressed was an understatement - she was completely blown away by the fact that even her feistiest student behaved well this time.

Perhaps Cheryl could wish her kids behaved that well on the daily; it would be like a dream come true.

The students were entertained by Blu’s funny stories as Cheryl talked with their parents about the show, the cost of the costumes, and whatnot.

“Miss Blu, how did you meet Miss Cheryl?” One of the kids asked, Blu chewed the inside of her cheek.

“That’s a good question,” she said, thinking of a somewhat believable story. “I was looking for a job, she needed help, and we just agreed to help each other out. We’re basically living together now.” All of the kids gave a collective gasp, though Blu didn’t know why.

“Are you Miss Cheryl’s girlfriend? My mommy told me only couples are allowed to live together,” a little girl piped up and Blu froze.

“Goddamn, Nancy,” she thought.

“No, we’re not girlfriends exactly—”

“You’re wives?” Another one asked, followed by a gasp. Blu’s cheeks got as red as a tomato.

“No!” She exclaimed, the kids around snickering. “We’re neither wives nor girlfriends, we’re just friends. That’s all.”

The kids were about to go on with their cheesy questions, when they heard Miss Cheryl calling for several of them and they finally left Blu alone. She sighed in relief, never in all her years as a serious genie she’d let a bunch of kids get to her her like that.

“Hey, you okay over there? Your cheeks are really red, is it possible you have a fever?” Cheryl asked, coming closer. “Let me see.” She placed a hand over Blu’s forehead. Blu thought her hands were as soft as they looked. “You’re hot.”

“Thank you,” she replied without missing a beat. Cheryl rolled her eyes, withdrawing her hand. “I don’t have fever, that’s not possible. It’s just that those students of yours were asking me some weird questions,” she explained, an amused smile spread across Cheryl’s face.

“What have they done now?” She asked between giggles. Blu was about to tell her that her students might think they’re dating now, when a girl tugged on Cheryl’s skirt to catch her attention.

“Miss Cheryl, my aunt’s here.” She pointed at the entrance and Blu could tell something changed in Cheryl’s expression upon seeing the girl’s aunt.

“Of course, love, stay here with Miss Blu while I talk to her,” she said, leaving shortly after.

Blu looked at the women for a moment and she could tell there was tension of all kinds between them.

“You got nice hair, Miss Blu,” the girl complimented, Blu looked back at her with a smile.

“Aw, thank you, love! Your hair is really pretty too,” she said, “What’s your name, honey?”

“Lily West.”

Blu chatted with Lily for a bit, learning in the process that she was seven years old, had been doing ballet since she was five, and she liked Miss Cheryl so much she wished she was her auntie too.

“I’ve asked my auntie Vivienne if she wouldn’t like to go on a date with Miss Cheryl so she can be my aunt too, but she said it’s not that simple. Do you know why it’s not simple, Miss Blu?” Blu looked over at the pair. She was ninety nine per cent sure they hadn’t just “had a date.”

“Sometimes people just don’t have the time to date someone. You can’t force your aunt to date Miss Cheryl if she doesn’t want to.” She shrugged. Lily seemed to think about it for a moment, until she ultimately sighed overdramatically in defeat.

“I guess you’re right.”

“Lily! C’mere, love, we’re going home,” Lily’s aunt called, and the little girl immediately said goodbye to Blu with a smile, saying she’d see her the next class.

Blu was probably leaving by the end of the weekend back to her lamp, but of course she couldn’t say that out loud.

“So, what’s the deal between you and Lily’s aunt?” Blu inquired, once they were walking back to Cheryl’s apartment.

She stopped dead in her tracks and looked at Blu as if she’d just offended her mother.

“Nothing worth remembering,” she simply said, resuming with her walk. Blu cocked a brow.

“Was she that bad in bed?” Cheryl almost snapped her neck with the speed she turned to see Blu.

“Fuck you, Blu,” she replied with her cheeks getting red. Blu let out a loud laugh.

“Oh, c’mon, you can vent to me, I won’t judge, I’ve seen it all.” And it was true; aside from being a genie, sometimes she served as a therapist for her heartbroken clients.

Cheryl bit her bottom lip, unsure if she should tell her or not. In the end, she gave in with a sigh and proceeded to tell her the story of her relationship with Vivienne.

For starters, it wasn’t even a relationship. They just hooked up once, and later it turned out to be that Cheryl was Vivienne niece’s ballet teacher, making it a little awkward when she went to pick up Lily for the first time since they slept together.

After that, they just kept bumping into each other wherever they went, their interactions awkward until Vivienne got tired of it and brought Cheryl home again. And again, and again, and again. They kept hooking up, and at some point Cheryl caught feelings.

But Vivienne clearly did not. She’d made that very clear when on New Year’s Day Cheryl had asked if she wanted to go on a date, like a real date, after roughly six months of sleeping around. Vivienne said she’d think about it, and she had yet to give Cheryl an answer.

“… And that’s how I kicked off the year by losing my dignity,” she concluded, causing Blu to whistle in amazement.

“Honestly, your life sounds like a soap opera, or a bad cliché novel written by a teenager. Whichever you prefer, but it’s bad.” Blu shrugged, making Cheryl laugh softly.

“Yeah, I know, my friends have already told me. Vinegar once said to me 'Your favourite song is New Rules, then why can’t you apply it to your life?'” She mocked, imitating her friend’s voice. Blu had no clue what New Rules was, but she laughed either way.

“It’s a shame I can’t make people fall in love, I think you’d benefit from that,” Blu commented, but Cheryl wrinkled her nose.

“I could, but I don’t think I’d want it. I want someone to love me for me, not because of a magic trick a genie pulled on them,” she admitted, and Blu thought it made sense; she wouldn’t want that either.

Suddenly, an idea hit Blu. Well, more like last night she’d seen a movie close to what Cheryl was going through and the way the protagonist had solved her problems was genius.

“But, you know, there’s nothing written about helping your clients with their love lives,” she suggested, but Cheryl didn’t look one bit excited about it.

“Blu, I appreciate that, but I’m a twentyeight going on twenty nine years old lady, I’m past the age of wanting that kinda rom-com nonsense.” Cheryl rolled her eyes, but Blu didn’t lose her optimism.

“Well, but it’s not as if my help counts as a wish, and you still have time to think on what you want in the meantime.”

Cheryl narrowed her eyes, thinking about Blu’s words. She was too old for this nonsense, but then again - she had nothing to lose; she’d already lost what was left of her dignity on New Year’s Day.

She massaged her temples before agreeing, knowing she’d very much regret this in the near future.

“It’s been a long time since I played Cupid, this is gonna be so much fun!” She exclaimed, linking arms with Cheryl as they changed their destination.

“Lord, please have mercy.”

[askcarmellia]

Mai Aikawa’s Journal: Entry No. [Redacted]

Listen up journal, today we’ve probably got your biggest scoop yet.

Events

It appears I have joined some project called the Wonderland Project. It is currently unknown why I would sign up for this as I hardly want to be around many children. [Redacted]? Others don’t appear to have any memory of joining either (And through first impression of said classmates some don’t seem to be types to be willing to sign up either). Despite this documents and signatures were shown via a group chat from one of our upperclassmen - there is still the possibility these may be forged and edited despite everything - Doubt must be taken in this entire situation. We were also informed we aren’t at Hope’s Peak but rather a separate facility which is just great considering [Redacted].On a lighter note I am against my will apart of a group called ‘The Lassies’ by Idzuki Amai with other members being Geiru Umemoto, Miwa Ose and Tomo Omori (the latter I added myself to suffer with me)

Before I was able to investigate further, gunshots were heard after a few days of being within the school we were urged unexpectedly to leave for a safe room we did not have instructions to locate. An upperclassmen (Sera) was stupid enough to walk right into the line of fire and was unsurprisingly, shot. Gas began leaking throughout the facility and I was forced to use my jacket as an impromptu gas mask. As expected for this situation almost all students began panicking, some more so than others and while I would much rather not come into contact with another person, I decided I would much rather not have any students die and accompanied a boy named Shiki Hoshino to try find the safe room, although I was more so dragging him to try get to the safe room faster (the gas got to him quickly as did many other students, I seemed to be one of the last bunch to pass out, although Geiru and another boy Dominic Vazquez were still conscious when I did as I was talking to them (I’m unsure when they did pass out however). I was later discovered that this shooter and gasser is a corrupted girl named Brynn.

This is where my tailor made hell began. I awoke in a very small, very cramped cargo room with all 21 other classmates and I’m ashamed to report that as as soon as I woke I began having a panic attack since I unfortunately have claustrophobia and journal as I’m sure you know it didn’t really help that the room reminded me of [Redacted]. It wouldn’t surprise me if someone were to exploit that weakness I expressed. People will always do that to get an advantage of others [Redacted]. It got so bad at one point that I ended up passing out although I was assisted by two boys at different points, Sverre Eiriksson, whom I played a word game with and appears to think an xylophone is food and we had a small discussion about Kiwi fruits, and Yukio Sato which did end up helping a lot as [Redacted]. <---Genuine? Moving on people were idiots as expected and touched the active electric fence surrounding the entrance. A girl in particular, a girl looking as if she just came out of a video game and is a bossy and loud misandrist named Yuin Yamano, did not touch the electric fence not once but twice and seems to be surprised by the consequences of touching it? What else did she expect it to do? Give her a massage? I also had to handle Amai and her disgusting Kava addiction since she thought it was a great idea to get high on it in a situation like this Why do I have to lumped with these people....at the very least it was good that I at least had some help from others. I should mention that I saw a decapitated head in a sack which started making me see red spots (Yukio said that was corruption or something and it something to be be avoided as much as possible). Other oddities included a wormhole in a box which everyone thought was a great idea to send Yukio in while I was asleep (to which I believed he too would end up a decapitated head) or at the very least a pen so he could communicate with us on the other side and it appeared I was the only one who was smart enough to send mine

Yukio came back from the wormhole and informed us about Brynn and the fact that the other class is from an apocalyptic wonderland. Umemoto also found a mysterious hallway in the ceiling and although I agreed with her that only Umemoto and one person at most should follow, just like the entire time nobody listened to me and Amai-san, Kimura-san, Sato-san and Bordeux-san went up into the hallway while Eiriksson-san and Sorakubo-san went to get medical supplies, blankets and clothing (or rather, the latter was just freaking out). Sato-san came back and after much protest from myself because it would only be a smaller area and it sounded like literally a nightmare. The temperature dropped and I was forced to go in despite having another panic attack and we had to experience blood rain, roaches, meat floors (?) and severe cold

Now I have arrived as what has been revealed as ‘Wonderland’ despite it being nothing like the storybook, although nothing seems to happen the way it does in the books anyway. We’ve been informed by the mysterious Brynn herself that we are to live indefinitely in wonderland unless we kill someone.To really drive this point in Sera was stabbed and thrown off a statue for once again being an idiot and jumping on her. People are angry of course and Katsumi-san was going to attempt to fight Brynn, Vazquez-san was also an idiot and kept slipping and falling in water in an attempt to get to Brynn despite her stabbing the last person who was up there with her. What a pitiful person. I had to try calm down Hoshino-san and I covered his eyes because god knows what would’ve happened if he had seen it. I eventually got him to sleep just because [Redacted] which thankfully worked. Sverre wandered off into the forest with his head in his hand <---Follow up on this. It is also unfortunate that while I’m here I have to stay with 4 other people, just like [Redacted]. How wonderful

People

General overview of my classmates that I have spoken to - further [Redacted] needed as I have only been with them a short while

Akiko - She’s loud and does what she wants, impulsive, violent and pessimistic. Would prefer to stay away from her however calling me Camellia is a nice breath of familiarity

Dia - Annoying and most likely an idiot

Dominic - Pitiful, angry, violent (?). reckless, appears for now to be self deprecating and is most likely colour blind as he said something about pastels and violet to me

Geiru: Disinterested and has no personality, monotone and boring. Does not spark current interest for further [Redacted]

Idzuki - Childish, excitable, positive, has an addiction to the disgusting drink, Kava and gets high on it. Probably the person I’m suffering most from currently because [Redacted]  however I want her to give me food

Katahiko - Narcissistic and has bad pick up lines, had the potential to be an okay person but he seems to only say smart things to try make people fawn over how smart he is, a bit amusing however and still appears nice enough

Shiki - Very Anxious, childish, quiet and seems like I need to protect him for now as I did start after all. [Redacted] again seems to be a good person though

Sverre - He say’s he’s not smart but that is yet to be seen, helpful, quiet, he is alright to be around although him suddenly walking off unexpectedly is interesting will follow up

Yukio - [Redacted]. Helped me with my panic attack as well as getting through the hallway and for that I’m thankful, seems like a good, helpful and friendly person

In short this should be interesting 

- Mai Aikawa