#and the best tree still hasn't changed like. it's FINE

[gammaraydeath]

officially stopping my heuristic search for real this time. 19k rearrangements. like ok it's not that serious

[blackcat-star]

Lost Spirit.

Sung Jinwoo x Ghost Reader

« Chapter 7 ✭Chapter 8: Red Gate.

__________________

"Where are we?"

"It doesn't look like a dungeon at all?"

"The Gate is gone!"

The Hunters looked around and couldn't help but panic. Jinwoo examined the area by squinting his eyes as he remained composed.

'I don't feel anything suspicious...'

Thanks to the system, at least in this situation, Jinwoo was able to maintain his usual concentration. The first thing he analyzed were the trees. The giant green pine tree, which didn't exist in Korea, was reaching up as if it wanted to touch the sky, covering the landscape. The treetops were covered with a thick layer of snow.

Jinwoo looked down and met the eyes of the A-rank Hunter. He was also wary and observing the surroundings.

'...'

'...'

The two exchanged glances until they turned their faces simultaneously. You stood next to Jinwoo while you automatically held onto his shirt and observed the surrounding area with anxiety.

Red Gate.

So by chance, everyone was pulled into a red gate, or rather, another world, from which there was no way to return without defeating the boss.

Even though you couldn't feel the temperature around you right now, you couldn't help but shiver. In your hazy memories, a part of you could still remember and sense the danger of this situation, that it was very possible that everyone would be stuck here for a long time, or worse, killed.

A frown crossed your face as you held Jinwoo's shirt with a firm grip. Jinwoo noticed your discomfort so he took your hand while sending a reassuring look through his eyes.With him here, everything would be fine.

This worked, you relaxed a little more. More than anyone, you knew and saw that Jinwoo's power was stronger than anyone else's, and he was becoming more and more powerful.

Oh, and why you are in a Red Gate?

We need to return to several days back.

_________________

"I would like to request a favor from you if it's acceptable."

Jinwoo nodded. "If it's within my ability!"

At the very least, Jinwoo would try to hear what it was. He didn't refuse right away. First, he didn't know what it was, and second, he felt that she was a very enthusiastic person.

The teacher quickly spoke as if she was afraid that Jinwoo would change his mind.

"A female student here has just gone through an awakening phase. And she's planning to drop out of school to become a hunter. She hasn't come to class for a while now..."

You frowned.

That was quite common. Some people, after awakening and receiving their abilities, quickly threw themselves into the Hunter profession. Even though they didn't know what the job required or what it would achieve, they were still proud that they had become different from ordinary people. Achieving the hunter title and easily making money had blinded many people.

"If this continues, the school has no choice but to take strong action. I don't want that to happen. Even if you’re a hunter, I think it's better to have a high school diploma, right?"

Jinwoo nodded in agreement. At the positive response, her face brightened a little. "Can you help me, try to convince her, at least get a diploma?"

_____

You and Jinwoo leave the teacher's office.

"What is everyone in the world thinking now? Dropping out of school to become a hunter? How reckless, how stupid."

You complained.

Jinwoo just chuckled lightly at your annoyed attitude. He calmly replied, "Everyone has their own reasons. Besides, Songyi is still very young, she doesn't know what she's facing."

You pouted. "There's no need to be so reckless! She was just awaken, her rank is low... And she hasn't even graduated from high school yet."

Your voice carried a hint of reproach, as if you were the one whose best friend suddenly dropped out of school. Jinwoo glanced at you, his deep eyes seemed to be pondering something.

The sound of your footsteps blended into the stream of students leaving school in front of the school gate. You unconsciously stepped closer to Jinwoo, snuggling up to him to avoid the sudden cold wind.

Jinwoo silently shielded you, not saying anything more.

The two of them arrived in front of Han Songyi's house, a troublesome girl that he had to convince.

'People like that will die first in the Dungeon...'

Jinwoo had experienced it himself, so he understood it very well. The thin line between life and death that an E-rank Hunter always encounters. If it weren't for his mother's terminal illness, he would never have set foot on this path. For an E-rank Hunter, the Dungeon was too dangerous. The situation would become irreversible if he delayed his action because she would definitely end up with regrets.

'That happens pretty often.'

Every day, dozens of Hunters in the world lost their lives. Jinwoo didn't care, nor did he have the right to care about their lives. Simply put, those were their decisions.

'However...'

This person was no stranger. If the teacher didn't give her name, even if she was Jinah's classmate, he would still refuse. But, she was someone Jinwoo had met before, there was no way they could have the same name.

"Uncle, why are you here?"

As expected, the girl recognized him.

A high school girl who wanted to become a Hunter. The only female member of the Yoo Jinho raid party. After all, his relationship with her had been established before the teacher proposed it.

'Han Songyi!'

Hearing the name spoken by the homeroom teacher, Jinwoo knew who it was without even looking at the file. The day she left school was the day he started raiding with Jinho. When he realized this, even though he knew it wasn't true, Jinwoo still thought it was partly his own fault. Because those were extremely unreasonable raids, it couldn't be used as a measure of a Hunter's income. In just one week, a high school hunter had earned 30 million, it was unimaginable.

'But one thing is certain.'

In the future, if he heard that the girl died in the Dungeon, it would prick his conscience. A thorn in his heart that could not be erased. That was why, today, Jinwoo decided to persuade Songyi, not to let things go any further.

Han Songyi stared at Jinwoo with wide eyes. She hesitated for a moment.

"So the Hunter that the teacher wanted to introduce to you is an uncle?"

You started laughing because Jinwoo appeared annoyed by the uncle title yet he managed to force a smile.

"I don't what the teacher told you and I won't return to school. I won't give up on being a Hunter!"

The girl firmly cut everything off before Jinwoo could say or do anything. When she was raiding, she was quite quiet, but when it came to the future, she was a decisive person. Kids these days really grow up fast.

'It's like some little girl living at home with me...'

He said calmly.

"I don't intend to make you give up being a Hunter either..."

Songyi reacted with stunned disbelief after hearing the news. "Really?"

"Jinwoo?" You were surprised, too.

He looked at you with a reassuring gaze. Jinwoo knew very well that telling a child not to do something was the best way to make them do it. From the beginning, he had no plans to persuade them with words. Reality was a thousand times better than talking.

"Then, why are you here?"

Jiwoo stepped forward. The little girl stepped back in surprise but still didn't flinch. Looking at Songyi, Jinwoo smiled. He didn't mean anything by it, but it was a rather 'sly' smile, with a hidden evil nature.

"I want to train you to be a top hunter!"

No need for any more convincing. The vision Jinwoo had drawn of the Baekho Guild's rookie training course made her unable to hold back any longer. She eagerly followed Jinwoo without any doubts.

_________________________

And that's why you all are here.

Han Songyi hurriedly approached and pulled your shirt.

"Excuse me, but something's wrong, right?"

Before you could reply, Jinwoo spoke. "We're in a Red Gate. That means until we're all dead, or the Dungeon explodes, no one will come to us."

Her eyes were filled with fear. The confident appearance before entering had completely disappeared. You looked at her, it was terrible that Songyi was caught in this, after all, she was only 16 years old. Suddenly, a sense of danger came over you, making your heart stop. Unconsciously, you quickly waved your hand in front of Songyi.

Her eyes widened.

Whoosh!

The arrow that was caught was still swaying in your hand. It seemed like it was still angry because it missed its target. It was right in the middle of Songyi's forehead. Then it crumbles to dust, your hands are completely fine.

"Ah... ah..."

As if she had just realized what had happened, Songyi's face turned pale. But she couldn't say anything. Screams came from the remaining Hunters.

"Kiyaaaaaah!"

"U-uwaak!"

Thud!

Blood leaked from the unfortunate Hunter's mouth. He fell to the ground with the arrow aimed straight at his forehead. The crimson blood spread evenly on the white snow. The remaining Hunters groaned in fear. Two arrows flew towards them at the same time. And like the other victim, they didn't see the arrow you caught.

Immediately, Jinwoo stood in front of you and Songyi.

Kim Chul pushed away a person who was approaching.

"You, you, you and you!"

Apart from the man just now, Kim Cheol pointed at a few more people, including you, Jinwoo and Songyi. Jinwoo's eyes twitched. He realized Kim Chul's intention. The muscular man pointed at five people. Five C-rank Hunters and below.

"Unfortunately, I can't take you guys with me. A day in here is only an hour outside. Worst case, it will take months until I take down the Boss. Babysitting does not suit my natural abilities."

Your expression showed disapproval while you crossed your arms in front of you. 'How arrogant. How presumptuous."

The hunters who were eliminated by Kim Chul tried to protest. But Kim Cheol's glance silenced them all. With false kindness, he continued.

"It's not too bad. You just have to survive until I take down the boss of this place."

The Hunters were looking at Kim Chul's team with pleading eyes, but in vain. All of them ignored them, except for one person.

"Excuse me!"

A female B-rank Hunter in Kim Chul's team raised her hand. When Kim Chul turned around, she gestured towards Jinwoo."Can I go to that team?"

"If you want!"

Without hesitation, she walked straight towards Jinwoo. Kim Chul was quite surprised by this situation. He looked towards the female Hunter and Jinwoo, but quickly snorted and said loudly. "Well, it seems like there's still a vacant position, I'll recruit another member..."

"I... it's me..."

The man who was pushed down earlier, he hurriedly ran over. It seemed like everything was already arranged. Jinwoo clicked his tongue.'This woman, she's strange...'

Jinwoo studied her face with a mixture of curiosity and caution. She quietly approached Jinwoo to speak directly in his ear so he could hear her words alone. Your discomfort grew as she approached Jinwoo because their proximity made you frown.

"Kim Chul, he didn't see the arrow coming!"

"So what?"

She smiled. "You're not an E-rank, right?"

________

Jinwoo's group moved towards the forest. As soon as he saw them disappear into the bushes, Kim Chul laughed loudly. It seemed like he had stopped laughing for now.

"Fools"

"Huh?"

"Look over there."

Kim waved his arm and pointed at the trees in the forest. It wasn't just a few trees. That direction was filled with scratches, made by giant beasts.

"Ice bears!"

Bears were especially dangerous among beasts! The scratches on the trees were how they marked their territory. The Hunters in Kim Chul's group clicked their tongues.

"I'd rather wait here."

"That E-rank guy will lead the group to their deaths."

"What the hell does an E-rank know?"

Kim Chol looked at the forest. "That's right. What the hell does an E-rank know..."

Wait. Suddenly, Kim's smile disappeared. 'There are two C-rank Hunters in that team, and even one B-rank Hunter.'

But why did he think Jinwoo was the captain? He still didn't understand why. 'Well, whatever.'

They'll die soon. Kim shifted his attention to his responsibilities while dismissing those weak individuals. Living requires hard work to discover survival methods because death comes easily. Kim Chul turned towards the road and spoke with authority.

"Let's go."

___________

Jinwoo was leading the way. You walked side by side with him, and Songyi was still holding onto your sleeve, wary. However, Park Hee-jin had already run up in front and blocked your path.

"Are you crazy?"

You crossed your arms, not hiding your annoyance. "Watch your words."

Park Hee-jin softened her tone after seeing your expression. "There is something important I must share with you." Hee-jin's fingers pointed at a nearby tree. "Do you see that?"

A large claw mark on the trunk. All the trees around them were severely damaged, to the point that it was hard to find an intact one

"That's how bears mark their territory! This entire forest is the Snow Bear's territory!"

In the animal world, a dog or a monkey is weaker than a tiger or a lion. The same is true for the magical beast world. A tiger or a lion is much harder to deal with than a dog or a monkey.

And what about bears? They are definitely strong, especially when they take the form of a white bear - one of the strongest carnivores. Now Jinwoo's group has set foot in the territory of those terrible beasts.

That's why Park Hee-jin is furious. "We have to go back now! Before the bears come!"

Jinwoo clicked his tongue. Hee-jin thought he would make one of three expressions: angry, surprised, or dumbfounded. But contrary to her expectations, he looked at her with pity. Park Hee-jin's face turned red with embarrassment.

"W-what?" She raised her voice again.

He sighed and opened his mouth. "It's hard to find an intact tree, which means there's more than just one or two ice bears, right?"

"Yes, so we have to go back soon..."

"That's why we moved into the forest."

Hee-jin looked at him with wide eyes.

'She still doesn't understand?' You pouted. Strange, why do you feel angry at this person?

"When we're in the forest, we only have to be wary of bears."

Hee-jin finally realized what Jinwoo wanted to say. If the forest was the territory of the snow bears, then there was nothing that threatened the bears. The system protected them from the appearance of more powerful beasts.

'I should have considered that earlier...'

Hee-jin felt ashamed about her loud outburst directed at Jinwoo. Her face was red all the way to her neck, and she didn't dare to look up.

You clicked your tongue, and Jinwoo looked over at you. He wondered why you were more upset than everyone else. Then he saw that everyone was shivering. Maybe it was because you were cold?

Sighing, Jinwoo called the store and searched through the list of available items. He picked out a thick down jacket and winter boots. He gently put the jacket on you, and making sure you were warm enough, he pulled you closer to him. You blushed.

And so as not to discriminate, he also gave the jackets to the others. Everyone's eyes widened in surprise.

"Space magic!!?" Hee-jin was surprised and raised her head.

Ignoring their expressions, Jinwoo said calmly. "Each of you choose one." The man reached for his coat while continuing his speech. A sudden force pulled at his hand.

Jinwoo rotated his head to spot Han Songyi. She tried to avoid his gaze and stammered, "Uncle, what are you?"

You stealthily removed her hand from Jinwoo's.

Jinwoo frowned. The stream of questions showed no sign of stopping which would give him a headache. "We need to reach an agreement."

Jinwoo said sternly. "I bring you here, so it's my responsibility to protect you. But..."

Jinwoo lowered his voice. "Don't ask me anything." Jinwoo looked up, looking at Hee-jin and the other hunters. "You too. Don't ask me anything, and don't ask for anything."

And he continued. "If you don't agree, just leave. I don't forbid it."

"What's about her?" A hunter pointed at you, who was still daydreaming about Jinwoo's gentle actions just now. Seeing yourself mentioned, you raised your head in question.

Jinwoo looked at you for a moment, then said. "This person is an exception, she's my partner. Of course, you don't have the right to ask her anything either. Otherwise, then leave the team yourself."

______

Screams echoed throughout the forest.

"Oh my god!"

"Ice bear!"

You froze, looking at the giant monster in horror - a white snow bear twice the size of a polar bear, its chest glowing with magical marks.

"Gwahhhh!!!"

The bear roared, the heavy sound making the air tremble. The Hunters were almost frozen in place, except for Jinwoo. Beside him, you unconsciously clung to his shirt tighter. Park Hee-jin ran up in panic.

"I'll attract it, everyone hurry-!"

Before she could do anything, she was pulled back decisively by Jinwoo. He said coldly. "These magical beasts, leave it to me."

You saw his eyes clearly, strangely calm, as if life and death were nothing. Not paying attention to the shouts of resistance behind him, Jinwoo walked straight in front of the ice bear. Jinwoo briefly turned his head towards you while you held your breath from fear before he tried to comfort you with eye signals. "Don't be afraid."

You pursed your lips, nodding slightly, though your heart was still churning with unease. The bear swung its huge claws like a white storm.

Woosh.

But Jinwoo disappeared from its reach in the blink of an eye.

Immediately after, BAM!

A decisive punch landed squarely on the ice bear's head, sending it crashing to the ground, blood staining the snow.

[Level up!]

The announcement rang out in Jinwoo's head, while you and the other Hunters could only stand there, speechless. Park Hee-jin stood frozen as she asked "You...what the hell are you?"

Jinwoo checked on you before he turned around to scratch his head in a lazy manner while saying "I told you. Don't ask anything. If you don't like it, go back."

But Park Hee-jin, after a moment of shock, immediately bowed her head deeply. "Please lead us! We will follow you!"

The other hunters also nodded vigorously.

You looked up, meeting Jinwoo's gaze, which, compared to when you were facing the monster, was much gentler. He gently lifted his hand, gently brushing the stray snowflakes that had just fallen into your hair. "Let's go."

His voice stayed steady but his eyes showed a soft warmth that existed only for you and could be felt only by you. Your belief in safety rested on staying near Jinwoo because his presence shielded you from both the frigid conditions and potential threats.

________________________

To be continue.

_________________________

Chapter 9 »

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tag: @weaponxgames @sky2lar @snowy-violet @joannthebish @fackeraccount @tanspostsblog @perkypeony @ssolarsystm @winter-soldier-101 @soft-dots @snowlycanroc @sweetchimpeaches @daiyanomochi @sabrina-senpai

(let me know if I forget to tag anyone)

and special thanks to @delusionillusion3322 and @o-qi-shisme who have supported and motivated me a lot while making this serie.

Love you all! ❤

[bun-z-bakery]

𝐶ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑠ℎ 𝛭𝑦 𝐿𝘰𝜈𝑒

Paring: Parent!Mammon x Parent!gn!Reader

CW: None

A/N: Hiiii helllooooo!! I finally got around to writing for my other best boy! this one is a cute lil holiday inspired one! Also rip obey me :( btw requests are still open but i hope you guys are enjoying what my brain cooks up on a chilly afternoon cause its cold as hell over here! 😭

Obey Me Menu | Works Menu | Ao3

"Treasure don't worry, the kiddos will be fine. I'm great with them!" The demon of greed stood proudly as your children climbed him like a tree. You couldn't help but let out a small chuckle at the sight before you. How did you get so lucky? You sigh in defeat before you put on your coat and slip on some warm boots. Mammon who's still being mauled by your children, runs over and places a soft kiss on your lips, one thing that hasn't changed is the way he'd often become flustered at such gestures, either way, he's the avatar of greed after all, who's he to send off his spouse without a reminder of who they're married to?

"I'll be back as fast as I can, Mamms" you affirmed as you placed a gentle kiss on your son and daughter's cheeks, earning a giggle out of them both. "Bye-bye!" your daughter waves at you, and you give her a wave back as you leave for the day. Mammon stands before the door for a few seconds, inspecting the nob as if his life depended on it. Your children did the same, it wasn't until they heard the sound of the door locking and the jingling of keys fading did they break out of their trance.

Mammon smiles and claps his hands as he turns his back towards the door, his voice loud and eager "Alright troops, it's show time!"

You walk around the shopping center and window shop as you pass by each store. By now you have already been to a few, groceries, cleaners, the usual boring stores that seemed more exciting when you were in the devildom. You sigh as the memories come flooding back from your time in literal hell terrifying, exciting, and fascinating all rolled into one.

You take out your phone and decide to send your husband a text, a simple "everything okay?" just to quickly check-in. Once that's sent you put your phone away and walk towards the parking lot, however just as you were going to leave, something caught your eye in one of the shops.

You bite your lip, wondering if you should go in and check it out, surely mammon would worry if you come back later than you said, it wouldn't be his first freakout searching the whole city for you. With a sigh you decided to bite the bullet, you'd be quick, you promise.

"I'm homeeee~!" you sang as you entered your house. "Welcome back treasure! I missed ya!" Suddenly you're engulfed by your husband's embrace as he held you close and tightly. "Sorry, I'm late i-" you paused as you let go of him, you looked around your house to find it cleaner than how it was left. The lighting in the house was cozy, lights were hung on the ceiling, and a sturdy-looking couch fort that seemed just as warm and cozy. Walking closer to it you couldn't help but smile at the work he had put in. The crackling of fire made to turn around, and a video of a fireplace was on the TV which he had moved to the floor. Your lips quivered at how much thought and care he put in.

"D-do ya like it?" Mammon asks shyly as he places a kiss on your cheeks before taking the bags that are still in your hands. "Like it? Oh, Mamms I LOVE it!"

You pepper his face with kisses, and you both giggle like idiots. "Get comfy, hot chocolate is almost done! Kiddos say it's a need." He grumbled the last part, but you could see the corner of his lips curling. He loved to make you and now your children happy. "I'll take this one, I'll be back soon!" you quickly grab the bag and run to your shared room. You exhale with a stupid smile on your face. Placing the bag on the bed, quickly you changed into something comfortable and practical, you felt like you could melt if you had stayed in your coat and fleece pants if you wore them for just a second longer.

Once you're satisfied with your choice of clothing you decide to test your luck to see how much longer you'd have some time to yourself. You take the box out of the bag and neatly wrap it in holiday wrapping paper, you smile, silently hoping Mammon will like your gift.

Your moment of peace however didn't last as long as you'd hoped for, Mammon was already knocking and about to burst down the locked door. "Oi, darlin' open the door!" he pouts from the other side of the door. You can hear the faint thumps of feet running across the wooden floors. Quickly you shuffle your way to the door and open it as you hold the gift behind your back. "Greedy and impatient I see." you joked as you walked past him, hiding his gift in the pockets of your pants. Of course, Mammon follows behind like a lost love-sick puppy, his love for you and your little family was unmatched, ironic to say but you were blessed.

"Well, the hot chocolate is gonna get cold! And yer takin' wayyy too long! I thought somethin' happened." he pouts more. Gently you place a hand to his face and stroke his cheek with your thumb. "About that hot chocolate?" "Treasure whatcha got there?"

Crap… he saw the gift you tried oh so hard to hide. "Mammoney listen," you raise your hands, grinning as you try to speak. "I'm listening" he walks closer to you, making you take a step back. "And I heard that someone is hiding something from the great Mammon!" he shouts as he lunges with grabby hands in an attempt you hold you and tickle the truth out of you. Quickly you dodge his attack. The two of you ran around the house like maniacs, your pleas of mercy and his threats of tickling you to death were loud enough to possibly get some kind of noise complaint from a few houses down.

"Mammon pleaseeee!" you quickly rush towards the fort and carefully take a seat there. Mammon runs towards you however lets out an oof in pain as you kick your feet out which lands on his stomach to stop him from his attack.

"I'll show you if you gimme some hot chocolate please." you pout and flutter your lashes. He clicks his tongue but stifles a giggle as he makes his way to pour you both a cup of hot chocolate. While he's gone, you carefully pull the gift out of your pocket and place it on the empty spot on the couch next to you. Once again you admire the handy work he and your kids managed to accomplish within a few hours. "Your order my dear." mammon jokes in a posh tone as he places your cup on the coaster in front of you and his on the coaster in front of his seat. "Thank you my good sir." you joke back as you pick up your cup to take a sip, you pause, raising a brow at how good it was. Mammon seemingly was a man of many hidden talents and you've seemed to learn more about him after you two got married.

"wow! It's delicious!" your approval of his hot chocolate skills made his eyes sparkle and cheeks flush. "That's g-great to hear, of course, ya like the great Mammons hot chocolate!" you giggle as you roll your eyes. Setting down the cup of hot chocolate you take the gift and present it to him. "This is for my amazing husband who makes my day better." For a second mammon could've sworn you were actively trying to kill him with such words. He eyes you suspiciously and then takes the gift. "Mammon I promise you everything is okay, you really are an amazing husband."

You place your hand on his arm, giving him a small reassuring squeeze. Sometimes he doubts his ability to keep you happy. But you were happy, he made you happy and you did the same for him. That's all that matters.

He opens your gift, his eyes growing wide and his mouth falls again. Carefully he pulled out a gold-toned watch with a black enamel face. The face is surrounded by a bezel set with small rhinestones. The watch looks elegant and screams expensive. Mammon's golden blue eyes teared up, and he turned to you, "H-how did you even afford this?" his lips quivered as you watched you. You take another sip of your hot chocolate and sigh with a smile. "I've been saving up for a while, I'm so glad they finally brought back that model, it screams you!" you tilt your head as you two gaze at each other, Mammon seems like he is about to burst into tears. "Well put it on don't just-"

"Thank you my treasure." he holds you in a tight embrace, and with your free arm you return the hug. You can feel his body slightly shaking. "Mamms I love you so much, you deserve it." "I love you too treasure." he sniffles as he breaks the hug, planting a kiss on your lips, you can taste his salty tears.

"Sorry 'bout the tears… And yer hot chocolate…" he points to the chocolate-covered floor. "ew gross." A small voice coming from behind the fort made you stand and raise a brow, it was your eldest. Mammon grins at your son "Hey kiddo, wanna watch a movie? Call your sister down." with that the little white-haired boy runs upstairs. Mammon couldn't help but stare at the mini version of you, it all still felt like a dream to him.

"Sooo waiter another round of hot chocolate?" you poke his cheek, taking him out of his daze. He pulls you back onto the couch and into a warm and cozy cuddle, you love every moment of it. You used your magic to clean the spill, a nifty spell Solomon had taught you for little things like this. But still, you wanted your hot chocolate.

"Let's have another." Mammon says in barely a whisper, "Well yeah I'm waiting for another round." You giggle at him, and he turns his flushed face.

"I didn't mean the hot chocolate…"

"…" You stare at him blankly.

"I just wanted hot chocolate."

As the night went on and the movie now coming to an end, you and your two little ones were already fast asleep by the time the credits had rolled around. Mammon was just barely keeping his eyes open.

Carefully he carried the kids to their beds, then came back to get you. He smiles as he admires your sleeping figure, the way your face shines under the soft string lights, the way your breathing is soft and gentle, the way your skin has little nicks and scars that tell a story of your time in the human realm he wishes he could've been apart of. He strokes your face with the back of his hand before he carries you up to your bedroom.

Gently he places you down and makes his way to his side of the bed, sleepily you reach out to him, who is he to deny his spouse of his warm embrace?

As sleep begins to take hold of him, he strokes your hair "Thank you fr'everything my treasure." he whispers before sleep finally takes hold of him, drifting off with a smile on his face. Oh, how he loved his treasures.

A/N: One of my favorites to write tbh! I hope you enjoyed your order!☕🐇

[appleblueberry-pie]

Im back with another yandere satoru request hehehe

So, I was wondereding what would happen if Satoru's beloved found out about his very unhealthy obession with her?

Hold on, lemme cook rq- So, instead of getting the fuck away from him (like most logical people would do) she decides to try her best to get him some help. Like, she'd confront him about his very distirbing behavior, (basically tearing down his entire facade and presenting it to him) and when he's begging her not to be afraid of him, not to abandon him, she tells him that she wants him to get help.

Heres where I kinda got a little stuck....the thing is...he would listen to her every beck and call, but would he really get the help he needs, or would he decieve her and trick her into beliving that he's getting better when in realitly he hasn't changed at all. (He's just alot more careful about what he does behind her back.)

Mkayyy, thats all folks. Thanks for coming to my ted talk.

You kept hearing noises from your backyard.

It woke you up. You couldn't really recognize what it was, but you really hoped it wasn't raccoons eating your berries again. You admit, your garden has many fruits and vegetables, but you certainly didn't want them being eaten. They took too long to grow! So, you got out of bed, threw on your robe over your night gown and quickly made your way downstairs to your backdoor.

When you opened the door and stepped onto the grass, everything seemed fine. Your strawberries were intact. Carrots still growing. No lemons dropped from the tree. But to the far right, you did see a familiar figure continuously puncturing another man's insides with a pretty dangerous looking knife thing.

Someone was in your yard.

Someone was being killed in your yard.

You're within distance of a killer.

By the time the realization set in, the familiar looking man had already saw you staring at him. It was Satoru Gojo.

You both stared at each other. It grew painfully silent and you took a step back, your eyebrows furrowing. You began hearing your heartbeat in your ears and began breathing faster. Your lips separated, probably to scream, and Satoru dropped the knife, immediately running over to you to shut you up in time.

When he trapped you in his arms, you tried to scream in surprise, but he already had one of his hands covering the entire bottom half of your face. "SHHHHHHHhhhhhh. shhhhhhhh. shhhhhh." His heartbeat thumped against your upper back and you tried to look up at him. He was already staring down at you with those big blue eyes and you tried to take his hand off of your mouth. "It's okay, baby. You're alright. It's alright."

Well, he didn't kill you, so clearly you didn't have to be scared. You still tried to talk and he tilted his head. "......you gonna scream if I let you go?" You shook your head. He stared down at you, as if he was trying to catch you in a lie. But then he laughed and finally loosened his hold on you. You took his hand off of your mouth and turned around. "...............Why are you killing someone in my yard?"

He says nothing.

You try to look back at the corpse and he blocks your way. "Fertilizer."

You avert your gaze and hug yourself. "For your tree."

"I already fertilized it two weeks ago. You were there. It doesn't need fertilizer until like a few months later." Satoru goes silent and sighs.

"Alright, babe. You caught me." He stalks closer to you and stops when he's directly in front of you.

"I killed him because he was a terrible waste of space." His smile was unnerving and you only felt more uncomfortable and confused. "What....?" "....He was useless. And he got in the way." The way he spoke made things a little awkward between the two of you. Did this have something to do with you and him? You hoped not. But with the way he said it, and the way he was staring at you began giving you confirmation that this was the case.

"He doesn't deserve you like I do." You inhale sharply and take a step back towards your door. "Satoru-" "No, I'm serious."

"You can't just....kill someone. He's dead!" His shoulders shake as he laughs at your statement. "You think I don't know that? That's the whole point. To die." You shake your head, "I-I need to get you help. This isn't okay. You shouldn't think it's okay to kill someone just to....I don't even know."

"To have you," He states. But you didn't hear. You were already back in the house to research different forms of treatment he could possibly receive. You didn't know what you were going to do with the body.

Satoru did plan to use it as fertilizer.

He lied to you for 12 weeks. And he hated every second of it. He never liked hiding shit from you. Which is why he straight up told you that he killed that dumbass from a while ago. You deserve better than some liar. But he'd be damned if he let some random take you away from him. So, he told you that he was going to the therapist that he been paid off and also killed.

He told you the body was taken care of and you didn't have to worry about it. After all, your tree leaves looked perkier than usual(he didn't tell you that either).

When you heard he was consistently meeting with his therapist, you let him take you out more often. You let him hang out at your place to have sleepovers if you had the time, and you realized that you might have a small crush on him. You shouldn't have a crush on a killer, but here you were. You should've called the police on him a long time ago(not like he'd get rid of them either), but he promised you he'd be good. And he has been. So you trust him.

Satoru learned to stop doing things like being a killer when you're around. It was smart to do it at night. But definitely not where you live. Probably the stupidest thing he's ever done. He should buy that house a few towns off. Everyone would be better off dying in there anyways, especially if there'd be no trace of them in the first place.

He's lucky you're gullible.

[pushovermediacritic]

The Land Before Time Liveblog 4

The Land Before Time IV: Journey Through The Mists

Last Time: The Gang must have done something to piss off Dino-God, because the Great Valley (which is supposed to be a paradise) had 6 natural disasters, all in a row: earthquake, meteor shower, drought, famine, wildfire, and a flood. This cavalcade of natural disasters taught everyone an important lesson about bullying.

This Time: You know, I've actually never seen this one. My memories of 1 were pretty clear. 2 and 3 were fuzzy, but I had seen them before. I'm completely unfamiliar with 4. I'm curious to see what happens.

The Universal Logo is still not Pangaea.

We open on a slightly shorter narrator spiel this time, still introducing the concept of dinosaurs to the audience in movie 4 of a franchise about dinosaurs. The plot-relevant part happens near the end of the speech:

Narrator: "But the realm of the dinosaur was changing. The weather, the plants, and the animals were beginning to transform." *a gigantic rainstorm starts up* "Still, despite the changes happening in the outside world, life in the Great Valley remained the same."

This tracking shot is probably the best aerial view we've ever gotten of the Great Valley. And it's basically the generic fantasy isekai circular walled city with a river running through it.

I will NEVER be able to unsee that now.

Also "remained the same"? I guess we've recovered from the giant wildfire that left everyone with a limited amount of green food to eat, then? That was quick.

The movie begins proper with our regular reminder that Dinosaurs are Built Different.

Cera charges and headbutts this tree and bounces off it, but she also knocks down ALL of the leaves! Every single one! That's good progress, considering she tried headbutting a similar tree in the first movie and didn't knock any down, Littlefoot had to humor her by throwing down some leaves. Also probably not very good for the tree.

Ducky and Petrie join her to eat, but Spike is already in the leaf pile, chowing down. Meanwhile, Littlefoot chases a dragonfly through a small hole in the Great Wall to a ledge, and on the other side he sees a herd of Longnecks walking toward the Great Valley.

Interesting visual callback to the first movie, with the Longneck shadows being similar to Littlefoot's shadow he mistook for his mom. Also, Littlefoot is more pink in this movie, like in the first one. In 2 and 3 he was more brown.

Also, what is this, the third hole in the Great Wall so far? First was the one they entered from in the first movie, second was the one in the third movie they used to find the water, now this one. They made a fourth one in the second movie, but they filled that one in, so I don't count it. Still, the Great Wall isn't nearly as airtight as it's hyped up to be. And the adult herbivores can come and go as they please by just walking up and down some stone ramps, as we saw last movie.

The rest of The Gang join Littlefoot and discuss the herd briefly. Littlefoot goes to tell his grandparents, who are washing their heads in a waterfall. They already know about the herd of Longnecks, and Grandma starts licking Littlefoot to make him clean and presentable for them. They are a migrating herd, and Littlefoot's "cousins".

As they start to leave, however, Grandpa feels faint and leans against a wall.

He recovers quickly and says that he's fine. Littlefoot brushes it off but Grandma stays concerned until he insists he's okay.

I'm sure this is relevant to something in this movie, but I'm honestly surprised this hasn't happened sooner. In the last two movies, Grandpa did a lot of running around and fighting. Hell, he did the MOST Sharptooth fighting in both movies! He fell down a cliff! Supposedly, he's an old man, but this is the first time we've seen age affecting either him or Grandma.

The other Longnecks arrive in the Valley and their leader, a female elder just called "Old One", questions Littlefoot's grandparents about the climate and land. They're confused but answer that everything's fine here. Old One comments that could change soon, and Cera makes fun of her. Old One says that things are changing everywhere. For some reason, this really sets off the crowd of dinosaurs that have gathered, they all gasp and whisper in hushed tones about "changes".

Littlefoot's Grandma: "Old One, are you saying changes will happen here, too?"

Old One: "I don't know. All I do know is that once, our land was just like yours." *flashback* "Then, water fell from the sky for weeks on-end. Our land grew wet and soggy. Strange creatures began to make their home on what was once dry land. Other creatures moved into the trees that were our source of food. The once green land we had migrated across for years had become... the Land of Mists."

The "strange creature" in question:

That is a Deinosuchus. A giant relative of modern alligators, averaging 30 feet in length. The "other creatures" mentioned to be in the trees are just shown as some eyes, kept in mystery.

Elder: "We had no choice but to leave."

Littlefoot's Grandma: "Does this mean that you and your herd will be staying with us, Old One?"

Old One: "We stay in no place very long. You and the other Great Valley Longnecks may join us when we leave. After all, there is safety in numbers."

Littlefoot is concerned about migrating, but Grandpa says they won't. The Gang are relieved to hear Littlefoot won't be leaving because they would miss him. Cera is too cool to admit it, though, so she makes them chase her to find out. While chasing, Littlefoot loses track of Cera and then gets messed with by a new giggling girl.

After some shenanigans, they meet properly. This is Ali. Elsewhere, Petrie and Ducky have cornered Cera in a bush with two sticks and then Spike exposes her by eating the bush. She admits that she'd miss Littlefoot.

Ducky: "Hey, look! There are two Littlefoots!... Feets?"

The Gang realize that Ali is a girl, not another Littlefoot. Not sure how they can tell by appearance alone, she looks exactly the same, just slightly darker pink. They even have the same eyelashes, which is usually cartoon shorthand for "girl".

The Gang all introduce themselves. Ducky's line is interesting, this is the first acknowledgement in the series that Spike not talking has gone past the point of being justified by his age, and thus now needs to be justified some other way:

Ducky: "And I am Ducky. And this is my brother Spike."

Spike: "Heeh."

Ducky: "He cannot talk like us, oh no." *Spike nods* "But he still says hello!"

So, first confirmation in-series that Spike is mute, not just too young to talk. He definitely understands language, he reacts to the things people say. But he just can't talk. I remember Spike being one of my first exposures to mentally disabled representation in media. While I'm not mute myself, I am Autistic and I have interacted with non-verbal people in various special needs programs. I always liked Spike's portrayal, and I still like it today.

But Ali is not that enthusiastic to meet them. In fact, she's scared. Petrie jokes about being scary and puffs himself up. This is also a behavior we've seen from him in previous films, he asked Chomper to teach him how to be scary and tried to puff himself up against the bullies. Petrie's got a bit of a complex regarding his height. But then Cera joins in acting scary and Ali is so frightened she hides under Littlefoot.

Littlefoot scolds Cera, then tries to reassure Ali that his friends are actually nice. She whispers to him that they're not Longnecks like we are, then excuses herself and runs away.

Interesting! After Cera's father's character development last movie, I was worried we'd toppled the load-bearing pillar of the racism theme, and that would just stop being a theme altogether from now on in this franchise. But nope, here's Ali (and presumably the other Longnecks in the migrating herd who taught her this) to keep it going, at least for this movie.

Cera: "Humph! She's not scared! She's stuck-up! Who needs her?! Come on!"

I think that's a little bit of a misread, but it's not entirely wrong. The rest of The Gang decides to leave, but Littlefoot hesitates. Turns out, Ali didn't actually leave. She whispers to him, hiding behind a nearby tree. He asks her if she changed her mind, but she looks down, sullen. Ali then decides to lighten the mood by making a bunch of silly faces.

I don't know if these faces are all that great, but they make Littlefoot ROFL, so I guess they worked. The Gang hears Littlefoot laughing and looks back to see them.

Cera: "If Littlefoot would rather play with her, than he's not our friend!"

Petrie and Ducky: "What?!"

Wow, that's a big switch-up for little miss "Littlefoot will always be my friend" from last movie. Despite their objections, The Gang leaves.

Later, Littlefoot and Ali are playing in a pond and Littlefoot realizes that he left his other friends behind. He looks for them, but it's getting late and it's time to go to bed anyway. The two return to the Longneck herd to find Littlefoot's grandpa collapsed on the ground.

As an aside, I think this scene is the first time in the franchise the characters have spoken the word "dinosaur".

Old One has seen this before. He's got a fever, and the only prescription is More Cow Bell eating the Golden Petals of the Night Flower. The only place to find it is in The Land of Mists.

Grandma's ready to go, but none of the Longneck herd are willing to accompany her and leave. Ali wants to help out, but her mother takes her away. Then, Grandpa wakes up and makes Littlefoot promise that if something happens to him, he and Grandma will leave with the migrating herd. Grandma tells Littlefoot to go to bed and she sings song 1 of the movie, Grandma's Lullaby.

And, uh, if you don't want to watch the entire proceeding scene, skip to 3:20 in the video.

This song is great. Like, it gets a little repetitive at points, but that's one of my only critiques. It really breaks down what the Circle of Life means as a metaphor, the visuals showing parents and children of all different types of life are really poignant (I especially love the spiderlings ballooning away), the melody is good, the flow is interesting at points, and the thematic imagery of the lyrics is really evocative.

And I REALLY love how it ends with Grandma weeping. It shows that she's not just singing this song to reassure Littlefoot, but also herself. This is one of my favorite songs in the franchise so far.

That said... I do have another critique. Not just of the song, but of this scene as a whole. And that's that there's no acknowledgement whatsoever that Littlefoot's mom died in the first movie, this is the second time he's going through something like this. None of the sequels have even mentioned her so far, but not mentioning her here feels ESPECIALLY egregious.

Anyway, back to the movie, Littlefoot can't sleep. And he decides to sneak off to find the Night Flower. Littlefoot wakes up Ali and asks her to tell him the way to The Land of Mists. She doesn't want to tell him because it's too dangerous to go alone. Littlefoot is planning to go with The Gang, but he wasn't planning to bring her since she doesn't like them. Ali will go with him, but on the condition that he doesn't bring The Gang because "they'll slow us down". Littlefoot hesitates, but Ali takes the decision out of his hands by insisting that she knows the way, not them, and they have to leave right now. The two run off.

Next day, Petrie and Ducky are exhausted from looking for Littlefoot.

Cera: "Oh, he's probably just hiding from us so he can play with that dumb ol' Ali. Oh, LiTtLeFoOt, i'M aFrAiD! YoUr FrIeNdS aRe SOOO sCaRy! KeEp ThEm AwAy, kEeP tHeM aWaAaAaY!"

The other kids crack up laughing. But when they hear Littlefoot's grandma calling out for him, they realize the situation is serious. But Grandma knows her grandkid, she's afraid he went to go find the Night Flower.

Meanwhile with the Longneck kids, they're trudging through a desert and Ali reveals that she only sorta knows where they're going because her herd moves around so much she forgets where she's been. But Littlefoot doesn't really have a choice, so they keep moving on. The two eventually reach a waterfall with a double rainbow.

THIS is a memorable landmark, for sure! Ali remembers the way now, it's through that cave next to the waterfall. But there's deep water in the cave that Ali's mom carried her over before, so Littlefoot suggests they explore the cave for another way. The two Longnecks don't know they're being watched by the Deinosuchus we saw earlier and...

A BIRD?! A BIRD. THAT'S A BIRD! UH, HEY MOVIE, I know you're from 1996, but birds evolved from dinosaurs, they didn't really co-exist at the same time!

What does Wikipedia have to say about this?... Oh. Well, then. Egg on my face. Apparently, that's an Ichthyornis and they actually did exist in the time of the dinosaurs, approximately 30 million years before the meteor hit. The exact time period isn't that significant, most of The Gang's species didn't coexist at the same time anyway.

Ichthyornis looked like this:

That's REALLY close to what's depicted in the movie. Okay then.

Once again, I'm pleasantly surprised by the prehistorical accuracy these 90s direct-to-VHS kids movies have. I really just assumed they half-assed these sequels more than they actually did.

I guess this is what they meant by "changes". The meteor theory wasn't widely accepted in the 90s, so the prevailing theory for the extinction of the dinosaurs was just that the weather got real fucky for no reason and they couldn't keep up, and I guess that's what this movie is hinting at. That's simultaneously really dark and really funny, since we've got 10 more sequels to go, we can't have the apocalypse just yet.

The two Longnecks reach a cliff in a wide open part of the cave.

Littlefoot: "Iii... think we'd better go back!"

Echo: "Go back, go back, go back, go back..."

Ali: "What was that?"

Littlefoot: "I don't know, but I think he wants us to go. WHO ARE YOU?"

Echo: "Who are you, who are you, who are you..."

Littlefoot: *gulp* "I'M LITTLEFOOT!"

Echo: "I'm Littlefoot, I'm Littlefoot, I'm Littlefoot..."

Ali: "You can't be down there if you're up here, can you?"

Littlefoot: "I don't think so."

This is a funny scene, kids getting confused by echoes. Especially the Ali line at the end, that was like a modern-day surrealist internet punchline.

All this yelling triggers an Earthshake and tons of stalactites fall! The kids run for their lives but a wall of rocks comes down between them and Littlefoot is trapped in the cave. Ali decides to run for help.

Back at the Great Valley, Grandma explains the situation to The Gang. Cera still thinks he might be playing with "what's her name", but Grandma retorts that Ali's missing too, they're probably both out searching for the Night Flower. Ducky offers to go find them, and Grandma orders them to promise her they won't go. All four of them "promise" while crossing fingers behind their backs (well, Petrie and Ducky cross their fingers, Cera and Spike just cross one back leg over the other).

After The Gang leave, Cera starts ranting.

Cera: "The more I think about it, the madder I get! Littlefoot should've asked us to go with him, but nooooo, he wanted to go alone with his new friend!"

Petrie: "Yes, his new friend!"

Ducky: "Maybe Littlefoot thought we would not want to go? Maybe."

Cera: "HAH! Well, maybe I changed my mind! Maybe I don't wanna go after Littlefoot after all!"

Ducky: *gasp* "Cera!"

Cera: "Ooh, besides, who even knows where that dumb ol' Land of Mists is anyway? I'm sure the grown-ups aren't gonna tell us!"

Cera's clearly having a hard time grappling with the feeling of jealousy, she's flip-flopping on what she even wants. Petrie's just been mindlessly parroting what Cera says about Ali, he's turning into Nod. And Ducky, as the oldest and the big sister of the group, always tries to keep the peace, but that only inspires Cera to rant harder.

Then Ali arrives through some tall grass, yelling their names. Cera demands to know where Littlefoot is, but that scares Ali and she can't explain clearly, so she just rambles something about a cave-in and tells them to come with her. The others are ready to go, but Cera thinks she made the story up, putting them at an impasse. Ducky asks Spike what he thinks, and he gives Ali this great intense glare of skepticism.

After a few seconds of mental deliberation, he decides to go with her and that's good enough for Ducky and Petrie. Not for Cera, though. She just yells "OOOOOO" a few times and turns her back to pout.

Back with Littlefoot, after failing to clear the rocks and call for help, he decides to find another exit. In a room with skylights, he's stalked from behind and taken by surprise by this old turtle guy named Archie, who immediately loses all intimidation factor.

Archie is an Archelon, from the same minds that brought you Hyp, Mutt, and Nod. The sequels may not half-ass the research, but they do half-ass the names. He was actually trying to scare Littlefoot to keep him on his toes, since the cave is dangerous. Weird.

Ali leads Ducky, Petrie, and Spike to the waterfall, which has been downgraded from two ranbows to one. On the other side of the wall, Littlefoot gets Archie to help moving the rocks.

And now we're finally, properly, introduced to our villains for the movie, who've been lurking in the background for so long. Dil is a female Deinosuchus, and Ichy is a male Ichthyornis. They immediately jump into singing song 2 of this movie, Who Needs You.

Okay, this song kinda rules? It's styled like a classic Broadway argument song (reminiscent of Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better), and it's really fast-paced. The lyrics are really fun, creative, and surprisingly edgy at points. The flow is immaculate, and some of the back-and-forth burns are actually sick. And the character animation, especially on Dil, is great. And yes, that is Tress McNeille playing Dil, AKA Dot Warner, Babs Bunny, and the modern Daisy Duck. Apparently she was in the last two movies, too (as Ducky's mom), but I didn't even notice. This is her in her element.

This is definitely the best villain song so far, it's way better than Eggs and When You're Big (and Standing Tough if we count that). It's structurally similar to Eggs, but the two villains are actually bouncing off each other in a genuinely entertaining way. So far, this movie is 2 for 2 on great songs.

I also like how these two demonstrate a real phenomenon in nature. They're clearly referencing the (apparently fake?!?!?!) reports of crocodiles with teeth-cleaning plover birds, but their actual relationship is closer to that of wolves and ravens, where the bird leads the large predator to prey, the large predator takes it down, and then shares the carcass with the bird. That doesn't quite make sense, crocodiles are ambush predators, not pursuit predators, but whatever.

I wish these two were in the movie more. I wish we had seen them interact before now, at the halfway point of the film. This song is fantastic in isolation, but I don't know how well it works as an introduction. I think it would have been better if we had a little more set-up before they do a big break-up song. Maybe the writers didn't have confidence in these two as interesting villains since they're not dinosaurs.

After the song, Ichy spots Littlefoot and Archie pushing rocks, and he calls Dil back over. Littlefoot and Archie actually manage to push a large boulder, but it's barely a scratch on the giant cave-in wall.

Littlefoot then hears his friends on the other side, trying to dig him out from their end. Spike dislodges a keystone rock and triggers a small rockslide, which Littlefoot hears on the other side. He's worried for his friends, but then Ichy flies in, leading Dil to them. Littlefoot and Archie run past her, and Littlefoot hides in a crevice while Archie tucks into his shell in a nearby pool. Dil walks right past them, and Ichy redirects her to Littlefoot's hiding spot, but her mouth is too small to fit, so she starts tail-whipping the surrounding wall.

Dil's tail whips actually crack the wall and make stalactites fall. On the other side of the cave-in, the other kids can feel the earth shaking from her tail whips and hear her roaring. The kids are worried for Littlefoot, but then Cera shows up and explodes a rock with a headbutt. The Gang works together to really clear the rocks, and Ali wants to help, but Cera just tells her to stay out of her way.

Dil manages to break the wall with her tail and reach Littlefoot, but before she can bite down, Archie steps in her way. She slaps him down and then tail whips. But before her tail hits, Littlefoot hops on Archie, and Dil's tail whip launches Archie in his shell like a hockey puck. They chase after, but on the other side, Cera rears back and charges for one mighty headbutt and HOLY SHIT!

CERA, WHAT THE HELL!!! Exploding one rock is one thing, but exploding an entire WALL of rocks is INSANE! I can't believe the power-scaling has only gotten CRAZIER in this franchise, Cera is legit strong enough to fight some Marvel Superheroes at this point! And remember, she's like 2 feet long and Dil is 30 feet long.

One of the bigger rocks from this blast falls on Dil's head, knocking both her and Ichy out cold! Those are big rocks! Seriously, someone add this to Cera's vs battle wiki page, this is a crazy feat.

Littlefoot climbs up the wall to the hole Cera made and reunites with The Gang. He thanks Ali for going to get them, and there's a neat moment, completely free of dialogue, where it looks like she's starting to warm up to them, but then she looks down, Cera looks mad, and Littlefoot sighs in disappointment.

Archie: "Hello! We gotta get moving before that Big-Mouth Belly-Dragger and her Sharp-Beaked Friend wake up!"

Ducky, Petrie, and Ali: "Who's he?"

Littlefoot: "I'll explain later. Now, come on!"

In another room, Littlefoot explains what happened to The Gang. Cera takes full credit for the save, and says that he should have asked his real friends to help him find the Night Flower. Archie asks what's up, and Littlefoot explains the situation with his grandpa. Archie leads them through a shortcut to the Land of Mist. He tells them to stick together from now on (Cera just says "humph" at Ali in response), and says goodbye.

The kids exit the cave, and we get our first look at the Land of Mist Valley of Mists.

Not sure why they changed the name, but it looks cool. The kids descend and Ali warns them not to get lost. Cera takes point until a salamander walks across her feet and she runs in a panic, immediately getting lost.

The mist clears only for the kids to have to take cover from a huge pack of Stuthiomimuses (same exact design as Ozzy and Strut), then they get caught in the middle of two Pachycephalosauruses dueling (we saw those in the first movie). Then it starts raining and the kids (minus Cera) take shelter under a tree. A tree full of MICE! One falls out and lands on Spike, and the kids scream and avoid it as it runs for cover in a flowerbed.

Spike recognizes what went over the other kid's heads, that mouse was just as scared as they were. He goes over to it and makes friends with it.

It hugs Ducky and she names it "Tickles", because of its ticklish fur. Littlefoot asks Tickles if it's seen Cera, and it climbs a tree to show Petrie which direction she is.

Cera is curled up on a ledge over a river. They call out to her and she looks up to see Petrie, but then the ledge collapses and she falls in the rushing river. Ducky throws her a vine and the kids try to pull her out, but then Dil and Ichy show up (thanking them for showing them the shortcut) and Ichy bites the vine to break it.

The Gang throws a hail of small rocks down at Dil and Ichy while Ali decides that she's gonna be the hero this time! She's gonna save Cera! Littlefoot warns her the riverbank wall is too steep, but she's got thi-

Ali immediately trips, tumbles down the wall, and gets knocked out. Ichy then diverts Dil to target her.

Ali does manage to wake up just in time to dodge a swoop from Ichy straight into that tree behind her. She then jumps on Dil's back and despite Dil bucking and swerving to get her off, Cera manages to grab onto Ali's tail and then both of them jump off Dil's back when she collides with that same tree. Dil and Ichy start arguing while Cera thanks Ali and reassures The Gang that they're friends now.

As the kids walk, Ali explains that she never knew anyone besides other Longnecks, but now she understands that diversity is important. She then sings song 3: It Takes All Sorts.

It's pretty decent. Better than just okay, but not as good as the other two songs here. It's definitely the most overt anti-racism, pro-diversity song so far in this series. It's a good message, but a good message cannot carry a song on its own. The wordplay of the verses is kinda clever at points, but aside from that, it's really repetitive.

And unlike Grandma's Lullaby, the animation doesn't demonstrate the message at all. It would be more effective if they were constantly running into small obstacles during the song that require The Gang's unique and diverse talents to deal with. Like a rock for Cera to break, splitting paths for Petrie to fly over and tell them which way to go, a water section for Ducky, etc.

Back with Dil and Ichy, Dil bites Ichy out of the tree he embedded himself in, scaring the hell out of him. The animators must have died laughing at this frame, because they hold on it for like 5 seconds.

It is pretty good.

Hours later, they're still searching for the kids and they're tired. Ichy decides to get some shut-eye while Dil keeps searching, despite her poor eyesight. Without him to play look-out, Dil sleepily runs into tree after tree.

The Gang are also still walking, looking for the Night Flowers. Ali admits that she's never actually seen them before, so she's not exactly sure what to look for. The Gang decide they're tired and go to sleep in a field of buds. Wait, buds?

The clouds expose the moon and the buds open!

Who would have guessed the Night Flowers would bloom at night? Thankfully, Spike wakes up, and his reaction when he realizes what he's looking at is GREAT.

Spike wakes up Ducky and then she wakes up everyone else. The Gang celebrate that they found the flowers they were looking for and can save Littlefoot's Grandpa. They carry a bouquet of Night Flowers on Spike's back, Tickles and Ducky holding them steady.

But then Ichy jumps out and calls Dil over. The kids scream and run, hiding behind a boulder. But Ichy deduces that's where they're hiding and he flies over and grabs Petrie! Dil wants to eat, but Ichy pulls Petrie out of the way and points out he's barely enough meat for him.

The two start arguing over Petrie, since they're both hungry, and when Ichy's about to bite down on Petrie, Tickles runs over and puts Dil's tail in his mouth. Dil is pissed at Ichy, and Petrie runs back to The Gang, who sneak off. Cera chuckles at the two hunters and Ichy uses that to convince Dil to go after them instead. The Gang cross a log over a river, but one Night Flower falls off Spike's back. Ducky goes back to get it, but then Ichy catches up and grabs her. Petrie flies up to pull her out of Ichy's grasp, but they both lose their grip and she falls all the way down into the river.

The impact knocks Ducky out, and Dil surfaces beneath her. She tosses Ducky up to catch her in her mouth, and everyone is yelling Ducky's name to wake her up.

Wait, everyone?

Yes, everyone.

Spike screams Ducky's name!

So, I guess Spike isn't completely mute. This tracks with him being able to make nondescript noises previously, and he clearly struggles quite a bit with just forming the word. That's what makes it for me, the rawness of it. It sounds strained, almost painful for him to do. His voice is extremely raspy, it's not a pretty or smooth yell. If it was, if he yelled her name with no issue and had a cool voice doing it, this scene would be frankly terrible. But I think the rawness sells it pretty well.

But that scream is enough for Ducky to wake up mid-air, she grabs a tree and avoids getting eaten by Dil. Dil takes a few more swipes at the tree, and Littlefoot and Cera start climbing down to save her. Ichy decides to gloat and Spike slams him with a tail-strike that launches him downward into Dil's mouth. He demands she let him out and they start arguing again and decide to split up, for good. Dil tail-whips Ichy on his way out and sends him flying over the horizon. She then makes her way forward and runs into a gigantic plesiosaur.

Which chases her off. I don't think there were any plesiosaurs that big, but I've been wrong before.

Petrie flies Ducky up and the kids reunite. They make their way back to the cave and say goodbye to Tickles. We don't see them pass Archie on the way back, so I have to assume Dil ate him when they discovered the shortcut. I'm kidding! But it is odd they don't acknowledge him.

The kids return to the Great Valley and feed the Night Flowers to grandpa, and he gets better pretty quick. He reassures Littlefoot that they can stay in the Great Valley, and Littlefoot delivers the good news to his friends, who all realize that their own parents are probably worried sick, and each return home.

Later, the migrating herd are leaving, and Ali says goodbye to The Gang, and that they'll meet again someday (though according to the wiki, Ali doesn't come back until the tv show between movies 13 and 14, and even then, just for one episode). Cera and Petrie are all bashful, and though Ducky encourages Spike to say goodbye himself, he just eats some grass.

Then the movie plays a flashback reel of all the times Littlefoot and Ali interacted and like. I get it movie. You want me to ship them. Even though the text of their relationship never went past friendship, you really want me to see romantic subtext. The narrator reassures us The Gang will meet Ali again one day, but obviously they didn't have a real plan for that, since they relegated it to the tv show.

You know, for a movie titled "Journey Through the Mists", I was expecting a lot more of it to take place IN the Land of Mists. I think we spend more time in the cave than in the Land of Mists.

I think this movie was trying to recapture the magic of the first movie. Littlefoot being more pink, more focus on Longnecks, an adventure in the Mysterious Beyond, Littlefoot's family member on death's door, Cera being more standoffish, and the whole movie flashback at the end was also something the first movie did. Not sure if they succeeded.

I was expecting this movie to be worse, since Wikipedia said it got mostly middling reviews. But I was pleasantly surprised. The songs especially are the strongest line-up of songs we've had so far, Grandma's Lullaby is great, Who Needs You is fantastic, and It Takes All Sorts is still above-average.

The story is really cliche, though, I rolled my eyes when I realized it was doing the "family member comes down with sudden illness and we need to go on an adventure to find the cure" plot. I was wondering if the movie would say that Grandpa got the disease FROM the migrating Longnecks, since that would make sense. But it never implies any such thing and Grandpa is already feeling the effects before they even get there, so it seems to just be a coincidence. And Littlefoot's mom not even being MENTIONED is a huge oversight.

Also, this movie was definitely trying to imply a love triangle between Littlefoot, Cera, and Ali without actually doing one. Partially because Cera instantly makes it weird and gross, but also because this is a kid's movie and they don't want to imply romance (even though the first movie ended with the narrator straight-up telling us that the kids will have kids of their own in the future).

Overall, Ali is fine. The writers clearly wanted me to like her more than I do (even Chomper didn't get a flashback montage), but I only like her okay. For the amount of screentime and focus dedicated to Ali, she should at least be better than Hyp. My favorite thing about her (which might have been unintentional) is that she kinda sucks. But in an endearing way, a "Tumblr Girlfailure" way. She's a prankster, silly, mildly racist out of ignorance, a coward, manipulative, forgetful, lies by omission constantly, clumsy, and panics under pressure. But she does learn and grow over the course of the story. I do really love that quiet moment where she can't quite push past her fears.

I liked Dil and Ichy much more than Ali, though I got the impression the writers had a lot less faith in them than they did in her. They don't even get any screentime in the first half. And the climax is a little weak. I liked Ichy grabbing Petrie and Ducky, but Littlefoot, Cera, and Ali basically just stand around. Petrie and Spike do almost all of the work. Also, the plesiosaur comes out of nowhere, that needed some kind of set-up.

Pros: The dialogue is still stilted, but it's a bit more witty than in 3. Same goes for the character animation, there were some good faces here. The song line-up is really strong this time. Dil and Ichy are easily the best villains the franchise has had so far. Ali continuing the racism theme is appreciated. Spike's big moment at the end was risky, but I think it worked.

Cons: The story is cliche and the first half really drags (a recurring problem I've had with the sequels, but it's worse here). The writers dedicated a lot of screentime to Ali, but she's only decent to me. Dil and Ichy don't get enough screentime, and their climax is underwhelming.

Score: I'm gonna give Journey Through The Mists a 7/10. It has higher highs and lower lows than The Time of the Great Giving, and I think that evens out to the same score. As a reminder, 7/10 just means "Good". 8 means Great and 6 means Above-Average.

The Land Before Time: 8/10 (hypothetical uncut version: 9/10)

The Great Valley Adventure: 8/10

The Time of the Great Giving: 7/10

Journey Through The Mists: 7/10

[canirove]

Rice, Rice, baby | Chapter 29

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Masterlist

“Thank you very much for this trip, Declan.”

“You're welcome” he smiles. 

We've been on the road for a while now, and things haven't been awkward between us after what happened the night before. And with that, I mean the best make out session ever, and we've shared a few. 

Once we managed to break apart we just went to our rooms, both of us smiling like idiots. And in the morning while having breakfast, we still were like that. Smiling and feeling in cloud nine, enjoying our last moments together before having to go back to the real world and talk about what all those kisses meant and whatever he also wanted to tell me last night.

“Also, the playlist you made is so good. Banger after banger, no skips. Well, maybe just… Careful!” I scream when a car suddenly invades our side of the road.

━━━━━━❃━━━━━━

“Olivia!” my mum says, storming into the room. “Oh, Olivia.”

“Hello, mum” I reply while she hugs me as if her life depended on it.

“How are you? Are you alright? And the baby? When the hospital called us and told us that you had been in a car accident I feared the worst.”

“We are fine, mum. Don't worry.”

“Then why are you keeping you here?” she asks.

“They want to make sure I don't go into early labour. It apparently can happen after big moments of stress.”

“And what is he doing here?” 

“Oh, dad. I hadn't seen you there with mum squeezing me” I say with a nervous laugh.

“I'll ask again, darling. What is Declan Rice doing here?”

“What?” my mum says, finally letting go of me and looking around the room. “Olivia, what…”

“I… He… I…” I mumble, trying to look for an excuse. Can the bed open and swallow me? Please? Or maybe the baby could choose to come now. Anything to avoid giving them an answer.

“I was the one driving” Declan says, the tone of his voice making me look at him and stop freaking out. I think I had only heard him talk like that in interviews after big defeats, when he's on captain mode. 

“You were doing what?” my dad says.

“Driving the car, sir.”

“So the accident was your fault?”

“What? No!” I say. “Declan actually acted super fast and thanks to him nothing serious happened to any of us, the other driver included.”

“You still hit a tree, tho” my dad says, his eyes fixed on Declan.

“Better that than the other car” I reply.

“But why was he driving, Olivia?” my mum asks. “Weren't you going away with Kennedy?”

“I… I… I lied” I say, that last word almost a whisper.

“You lied? Why?” 

“Because… Because I…”

“Olivia, were you away with him?” my dad asks. He's used my name, he hasn't called me darling. And he only does that when he is angry with me. Shit.

“I… yes?”

“Are you dating him?” he asks again. He still hasn't looked at me, he only has eyes for Declan.

“No.”

“Then why were you away with him?” 

“Because… Because I… We…”

“Olivia, stop rambling and answer me” he says, finally looking at me. Though I wish he hadn't, because I had never seen him this mad and it is scary as hell. “Why were you away with Declan Rice?”

“Because… Because he's the baby's father.” 

“Olivia!” my mum gasps. 

“Is that true, boy? Are you the father?”

“Yes, sir” Declan says, taking my hand on his and giving it an encouraging squeeze, the confidence on his voice making me once again look at him. He is standing like he always does before a game, all serious and focused. I usually find that super attractive, and despite the circumstances, the feeling hasn't changed. It probably is stronger than ever. Because there also is some… protectiveness in him. Something that tells me that everything will be ok and that nothing will happen to me or the baby as long as he is there.

“Let's go” my dad says, turning his back to us.

“What? Where?”my mum asks with a confused look.

“Home.”

“We can't go home, Louis. What if Olivia goes into labour?”

“I don't care.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“I don't care” he repeats. “She's betrayed me. Us.”

“What are you talking about?”

“She got pregnant from an Arsenal player!” my dad says, looking at us again. “That baby has blood from the enemy!”

“Oh, c'mon, dad! Seriously?”

“Yes, seriously! And as if that wasn't enough already, you've been lying to us for months, Olivia. Making us believe that Alex was the father, making us imagine a future where both our families finally become one as we've always dreamed of, playing with our feelings. You lied to us all, and that's something unforgivable.”

“All that is Alex's fault! I was planning on explaining everything, but he told you I was pregnant before I was ready and then lied about being the father because I hurt him when I said no to being his girlfriend. He was bitter and jealous of Declan and did it all for revenge!” 

“Alex would never do something like that” he says.

“Oh, so you now believe him over your own daughter?”

“He hasn't hidden from her parents that she was dating a fucking gooner and that she was stupid enough to let herself get knocked up!”

“There is no need to yell or insult her, sir” Declan says.

“Oh, you shut the fuck up, you bastard!”

“Louis! He is the father of your grandson, show some respect!” my mum says.

“He is nothing to me. None of them are anymore. So when they let you go…” he says, looking at me. “Don't come to us. You are not welcomed in our house.”

“You can't be serious, dad” I say, tears starting to roll down my cheeks.

“You are not welcomed, Olivia. Neither of you are” he says, looking at Declan before walking away and leaving the room. 

“Dad… Dad!” I cry.

“Don't listen to him, Olivia… Liv” my mum says, cupping my face and making me look at her. “Don't listen to him. He is saying that because he's angry and hurt, but he loves you more than anything. You and the baby. He just needs time to process it all. We all do” she says, looking at Declan.

“Rose!” I hear my dad call for her from outside.

“I better go. But Olivia… We love you. Both of us. Never forget that.”

“Ok” I sob.

“Will you take care of her?”

“Of both of them, ma'am” Declan says. 

“Thank you. I know you are a good boy, and Louis knows it too, but… Football” she sighs. “You know how intense it can get.”

“I know, ma'am.”

“Call me when they send you home, Olivia. And please take care of her, Declan. She'll need you.”

“I will, ma'am. You have my word.”

“Please call me Rose. We are family now, aren't we?” she smiles. “And I better go. I love you, Olivia.”

“I love you too, mum.”

“Ok…” she says, kissing my head and then caressing my bump before leaving.

“Declan…” I whisper when the door closes behind her.

“It's ok, Liv” he says, sitting on the bed and hugging me, the feeling of his arms around me being what finally breaks me and makes me start crying like a baby. “I promise you I'm not going anywhere, that I'm not going to leave you alone. I'm with you, Liv. I'm with you now and always, you hear me? Now and always.”

[ego-meliorem-esse]

inspired from your post on arthur's love for alfred being compared to his home, what would arthur's affinity (i don't think it's love? but more like fondness?) for matthew look like as a house?

I wrote this more in Matthews POV, not Arthurs and realised too late. I'm sorry :/

Mathieu comes under Arthurs care in 1763. His home is both prepared yet also unprepared. Alfred is the beloved son who lacks nothing, is granted every wish, from literature of his choice, to expensive astronomy equipment. Yet, while this home is very child proof and child accomodating, it's all those things for a particular child though: Alfred. For a whole year Arthurs home is Alfred centered. That started to change, but I'm afraid not by Arthurs will or trying. Alfred found his platonic soulmate in his brother. They become inseperable. Matt starts to speak more English and Alfred is asking him for his oppinion more and more. Eventually even Arthur finds out what Matts interests are.

At a certain point the boys room becomes his own. The furniture is a fine dark wood color, it matches. But not in a painful way for Matthew. The wood is scratched and old. It's used and clearly loved. The boy has a good quality bed with dark red bedding and missmatched pillows. The matress is fine too. It's new. Matthew appreciates that. By the side of the bed stands a wayy too large drawer, and atop it are notebooks. some used to write in some to sketch in. Mathieu, now Matthew, is sketching less and less though. He's smiling more. He is playing outside more. He hasn't touched a rifle in a while. The only blood he sees is when Alfred cuts himself on the book page he is turning. He considers his brother to be slightly annoying in the beginning, though as time passes, Alfreds charm and kindness shines brighter than any negative notion Matthew has of his brother.

His room isn't empty. Even if no-one is occupying it at times, it's still very much full of life. And not only by his own things, but with knickknacks Alfred brought and left there. Alfred doesn't like Matthew's room. He doesn't like that the window in his brother's room face north. It gets less sunlight and that's something that annoys Alfred a lot. There is also a rather large tree in front of Matthews window that obstructs any view of the nights sky. Very annoying to Alfred.

But Matthew is not Alfred. Matthew's room is the best and safest place the boy has ever had. It's not cold at night and the door is opposite of the window. Also, he gets to choose where his desk is to be placed. He settled next to the window, but changes it quite a bit.

He is on guard and tense less and less as time flows. He starts to live in his new home instead of staying in Monsieur Kirklands house. Matthew is not keeping company to the lord's son anymore, but playing and jumping and telling stories with his brother.

The feeling of being an imposter and not belonging never truly left the boy, but feelings of being care free and happy buried the insecurities quite deep down in his chest.

Naturally, life seems to have a personal vendetta against the boy, so as the 12th year of his new life comes to a close, things change and feelings hidden float up.

The feelings resurfaced after Alfred stubbornly decided that he ought to buy passage on a commercial ship headed to Boston. The fear of being not wanted or needed came back when Matthew received a letter from Alfred telling him that he wasn't coming back "home". The only family he had, had left him once again. The feeling of being left to fend for himself pierced a cannon shaped hole in his heart once more. It wasn't until the early 20th century that he would actually consider Arthur his father, not just a mentor and patron. So in his mind he was left again with no family.

And so his room changed. He left fewer and fewer belongings out in sight on tables, drawers and the bed. His room was clean and clothes tucked away. He didn't draw anymore and the books he read were the ones which found themselves already in his room.

It's funny how our mental state reflects in the spaces we occupy. I need to clean my room.

[mediawhatwiveswatch]

The Wives Watch: Supernatural S3 E7-E11

The boys have emotions and finally get a dad

E7 - You either die a hunter or live long enough to become a vampire

It took a unsurprisingly short amount of time for Gordon to go full batshit

British girlie standing up for the boys (she claims its for the business but doubtful)

She is a Professional Smartass and we love her for it

One day the boys will learn basic first aid and where not to cut themselves

"He was old, like 30"

Imagine seeing some guy poor what is Obviously Blood into your drink and going "yum can't wait to get high"

We once again return to the moral quandaries of vampirism

Gordon and Willem Defoe Jesus Doppelganger (WDJD) really lack the human touch that is required for pretending to be a federal agent

Okay so Gordon kinda popped off with the term "fang-whores"

Sam is gaining the bloodlust gene

British Girl and the spirit having a mini tea session 💅

Once again the cinematographer is Going Off

Gordon has become his worst nightmare and still gains no sympathy

For a drug dealing, woman drugging, vampire... bros more sympathetic than Gordy Boy

This man looked Dean Winchester(tm) in the eye and asked about being reckless

WDJD can Act. also RIP

The boys have an actual emotion lets gooo

They are yet to think of walking next to each other and keeping watch

Gordon took less than a day to go from I Hate Vampires to I'm Gonna Turn Some Innocent Lady And Evil Villain Laugh

Damn Sammy's getting BRUTAL

The little days within incident sign in the back needs to be changed

Family bonding but with a sad and traumatic twist!

E8 - HE SEES YOU WHEN YOUR SLEEPING

you better watch out You Better Watch Out YOU BETTER WATCH OUT

COLD OPEN - Grandpa is so sweet rip to him getting evil santa'd

Evil Santa!

"What should I tell my daughter about this graphic death" "The FBI sends its regards"

Continuing the trend of Dean not having seen a Disney film

UNCLE BOBBY! WE LOVE HIM

The boys traumatic flashbacks episode but with a ❄️Holiday Spin❄️

Leather Santa is really putting this little 4 year old Through It

Evil Wreaths, Evil Trees, The Nature is Killing Christmas

Why does Sam have pictures of the Green Man like he's related to evil santa. He's just vibing at the rando renn fairres and promoting fertility

Sammy give Dean one last Christmas come on now

Who Gave 12 Year Old Dean A Gun (yet another reason to hate Dadchester)

Alternating between disliking the Christmas couple for being too Christmassy for their own good and respecting the bloke for having a pipe

Did the Ancient Pagan Gods like turn up on a boat? Did they hitch a ride with the Mayflower? Did they have to go through customs? Do the Ancient Pagan Gods have green cards?

They were very rude to that womans fruitcake.

Special Effects team went hard this episode

Baby Dean We Love You Please Stop Idolising Your Dad

A suprisingly wholesome episode considering 5 minutes ago they were getting tortured and murdering an old couple with trees

E9 - Lets Join A Bookclub!

Why use witchcraft to live the best life when you can use it to cheat at knitting competitions

"I need a few minutes to freshen up" *proceeds to fall victim to a pagan ritual in the bathroom*

This is what women are doing when they go to the bathroom together btw

When the "CDC" are asking if your wife had enemies you know your in trouble

Who hasn't sadly eaten a burger in their car after their wife got hexed to death via her teeth

So we apparently can do torture and beheadings just fine but draw the line at teeth and maggots

Girlie got wolverined. Hugh Jackman is a demon

At least this witch was an aesthetic note taker

Dean during all ritual investigations:

Honestly bookclub sounds fun as hell

The housewives using devil worship to participate in the most milquetoast activities

They're giving Desperate Housewives

You know what award winning crochet probably does need demon interference

These demons cant even wait a couple months to get Dean. Quit trying to kill him he's on a repayment plan

Asking a demon to lower your mortgage is real and relatable

Why do all the demons in this show end up with fuckass haircuts (not you Ruby your perfect <3)

"voted off island" Love Island: Coven Edition when??

Gay demons?? Please??

DEMON LORE: Humans turn to demons uh oh. So they aren't fallen angels? Or some are? Is there a hierarchy?? Can't wait for Dadchester to come back in season 38 as a demon

Big Demon Lady is real bad at controlling her Demon Kids

Final Bookclub girl was trying her best and we respect that

They keep describing Sam as "almost there" with being able to hunt by himself but buddy spends at least 10% of every episode pinned to a wall asking Dean to shoot someone

E10 - Bobby Our Beloved <3

Putting all our emotional stakes into a side character is bold considering this shows history

New Bobby lore??

If Bobby dies this is becoming a TinTin watchalong blog instead

Drunk Sam is saaadddd

Bobby being actually intelligent and hiding his insane conspiracy board somewhere else

Dean buddy your brother is becoming an alcoholic cuz you keep running off into danger. Please Stop

Shout out to this doctor for drugging up random students??

Bobby keeps fighting damn right that's our emotional support hunter

BRITISH GIRL IS CALLED BELE?? We have not been paying attention to her name

Even Brit loves Bobby

Cannot stress enough that the editors are killing it this season

Sammy dont split up. You are literally never fine when you go off by yourself

RIP Bobby's wife. Join the fridge club sweetie

Sam is having a chill garden walk while Dean watches Bobby have a breakdown

BOBBY YOURE A DAD IF YOU LIKE IT OR NOT

48 hours awake and Dean is still driving the car....

Mr Repression and Mr Emotional Wreck go spelunking in Deans psyche

Dreamon??

Dean vs Dean who will win

Sam once again getting got the moment he's alone

YES DEAN FINALLY SAID IT. JOHN SUCKS AND YOU'RE RIGHT TO HATE HIM

Sometimes beating yourself up is free therapy

Daddy issues meets daddier issues

E11 - When Tomorrow is This Morning Again

Time is a flat circle and some circles are smaller than others

Their toothpaste tube is genuinely rank

One of us had this episode spoiled by Tiktok. A time loop of ones own perhaps

In this episode the boys investigate the Mystery Shack

Owner dude is completely unbothered that he just killed a guy

Roll End Credits. It was a good run

Groundhog day but with slightly less creepy love story

Not a dingo ate my baby joke....

Immediate damage control from Dean about how cool his deaths must be

This show is slowly devolving into becoming the Loony Tunes

One day the boys will learn CPR and the Heimlich Manoeuvre and like 60% of their problems will be solved

Hey Doris. Learn How To Shoot Doris. You Have Bad Aim Doris

Dean immediately using the time loop to die and flirt

I too would pet the doggo

Trickster guy returns!

Wednesday must feel so good

Dean's been double death jeopardied

Sammy buddy you doing good?

Sam answer your father. He wishes to hear from his last living son

The Bloodlust gene is dormant until Dean leaves for more than 10 minutes

Bro trickster dude is just being mean at this point. Chill out bro imagine some hot women in an empty theatre again or something

{{17% through}}

[arvadthecursed]

Well, we tried to reintroduce Bug and Stella after several months of her living in my room. I did my best to get them used to each other's scents, I tried to create positive associations... But Bug is still aggressive toward her. I was trying to get her back downstairs, and Bug swatted at me hard. It would've been a big bloody mess but luckily I cut his claws the other day, so I just have a bunch of welts.

I feel like I've failed Stella. I don't know what to do. I don't know if my parents will have the patience it takes to try the reintroduction process again. That was the initial problem, they totally refused to properly introduce the two. And it hasn't fixed. I feel like a fuck up and I'm afraid they'll try and convince me to get rid of her.

They think I'm "keeping her cooped up" when to me, she seems happy in my room. She eats, she plays, we cuddle every night, she greets me when I come in the door. That's not an unhappy cat! But my parents think it's "cruel" to keep her in my room. Which, maybe it is, idk. But she's been fine with it -- my room is pretty large, about the size of a single-occupant college dorm. It's not like she's in a cage or something.

But also, her being in my room 24/7 isn't good for my health. I've been battling a bad cold/flu and I'm just now getting over it, after a couple days spent sleeping upstairs. I don't want to be sick all the time. I have my boards on Wednesday and I start my new job next Monday. But I also don't want Stella to suffer. And for a more selfish reason, I don't want her stressed out and having accidents in my room/on my bed. She ruined my sister's bed when she was stuck in my sister's room, and my parents have to replace the mattress (tldr, the door wasn't closed, so Bug would stalk outside the door and keep Stella from using the provided litter box). Which I'm not blaming her at all for, it's not her fault, she's a cat. I should've closed the door, but my parents thought that would stink up the room. I understand that she can't speak to me and tell me what's wrong, and I have to meet her on her level.

I just feel very frustrated and alone. My parents like her, they think she's cute, but they don't love her like I do. They didn't clean up an entire room that had been left filthy for months just so it would be acceptable for her because they didn't want her to suffer. They didn't buy her food, toys, the cat tree. They don't cut her claws and comfort her when it's storming. That was me! I made the effort!! And I feel like they don't understand that.

Idk. With my parents' track record when it comes to my pets, I'm anxious. I guess I can go to the doctor when I have money, see about stronger allergy meds, and maybe change her food to one of those "hypoallergenic" diets. I don't want to put her through being tormented by Junebug, who I also love dearly -- I mean, I raised him from a kitten! I was the one who litter box trained him and worked to socialize him (...not well enough, I guess, but he's fine with my sister's older male cat so it's weird).

If Stella went back to the pound, she'd be euthanized, I just know it. She was on the euthanasia list when Liss got her and brought her home. She's 10, she's still overweight. She wouldn't stand a chance. I couldn't do that to her. My heart breaks just thinking about it. She already spent so much of her life in the shelter, I couldn't send her back.

Idk. Thanks for reading. I just am feeling very bummed right now. I'm with her in my room again, comforting her so she hopefully doesn't have an accident.

[patibato]

[Bitter Sweet Sixteen] 002-A16 - Scissor Words

Kiroku: … …

Egg: …

Kiroku: …L…legs.

Egg: ……

Kiroku: …Ah!

*shlap shlap shlap*

Kiroku: W-wait…!

Momiji: (It's about time for us to meet. …I wonder if Kiroku-kun had fun.)

Hm?

Woah, what's this piece? An egg yokai that's sprouted legs? Decorating the entrance with this is so creepy-cute!

I've gotta take a photo. Camera, camera…

*click*

Kiroku: Haa, haa… …!

Momiji: Wah!

Kiroku: -…!

Momiji: You surprised me…! What are you in a rush for, Kiroku-kun?

Kiroku: …

… …!

Momiji: (He's agitatedly looking behind me…?)

Kiroku: Ah, wha… ah…! (Don't look over there…!)

Momiji: Huh? What is it?

Egg: …

*shlap shlap shlap*

Kiroku: -…!

*footsteps*

Momiji: …He left.

Huh!? The egg piece disappeared…!

Kiroku: Haa… haa… haa…!

(…I've lost it, what do I do…)

(I'll contact everyone on the app…)

*bwing*

Dewawa: You seriously gonna tell 'em? Say the egg that's so important to them all ran away~?

Kiroku: …

Dewawa: They gonna be shocked? Your lantern art hasn't progressed either, yeah?

Pinfu: Yeah~ Might think you're so~ shameful~

Kiroku: ……

Rouzel: That's not it! It'd be best to joindre them! Tout le monde is surely worried!

Ripris: S'fine… either way… contacting and chasing… are both a pain… zzz.

KB: Nay, I believe getting in contact to be the optimal solution - what say you, Kiroku?

Kiroku: …

…I…… won't contact them.

Akuta: This olive somen is SOOO GOOOOOOD! I could munch on it forever! Infinite munching!

Muneuji: The fried somen from the other day was excellent, but this too is wonderful.

*door opens*

Nanaki: Is Chief here?

Akuta: Ooh, not riiight now.

Muneuji: I'm fairly certain they went out with Kinugawa.

Nanaki: Ah. I'll leave it for later then.

Akuta: Anyway, you doing good, Nanaki? You're all smiley. Something happen?

Nanaki: Nah, though I did manage to make a song with a BPM to match the encore fireworks.

Since it's done, I kinda want to show it to Chief.

Akuta: Eh!? You can make music and stuff!?

Nanaki: Well. Yeah.

Akuta: For real~~~~!? I've tried making songs before, but it was impossible, y'know~~~~!

First of all, I can't read sheet music. Can't see the notes as anything other than dancing tadpoles.

I really respect guys who can do it~! In other words, I really respect YOU, Nanaki~~~!

Nanaki: You're exaggerating.

Akuta: This is no time to be modest! I wanna make a song someday too, so help me out!

Nanaki: If I feel like it.

Akuta: Yippee! I'll work out a strategy to make you feel like it~~~!

Muneuji: …Incidentally.

The one on egg duty yesterday was Kinugawa. Yet despite the date change, he's yet to show himself today.

That is to say, he's still in possession of the egg.

Nanaki: Now that you mention it, you're right.

Muneuji: He hasn't been online, either… I'm a tad concerned.

Nanaki: Think he's in trouble?

Akuta: Nah, I'm sure he's fine. That guy's huge! Gotta be strong too!

Muneuji: No… …he may have been abducted by aliens.

Nanaki: I-I wonder about that.

Muneuji: I suppose there's no problem, as he should be with Chief, but just to be sure, I shall scout around outside.

Nanaki: No no, I think you're a bit too concerned about that. Calm down.

Muneuji: It'll be too late by the time he gets taken…!

*running*

Akuta: What?

Kiroku: … Finally… found it.

(But, the crows scared it, and now it's clinging to a tree branch…)

Egg: ……

Kiroku: …Can you not… get down?

Egg: …

Kiroku: (I'll hold out my shirt to make a trampoline.)

…Here.

Egg: …!

*rustle*

Kiroku: … Thank goodness.

Egg: …!

Kiroku: (… Cute… I need to take it to the others quickly…)

(But.)

(Where am I… everything's dark. I'll consult those kids… ah.)

My puppets are… gone…

(No, before I search for them, I need to hand the egg over to the next person…)

(There's a lot of notifications on the walkie-talkie app… I'll contact every… no, but.)

---

Dewawa: They gonna be shocked? Your lantern art hasn't progressed either, yeah?

Pinfu: Yeah~ Might think you're so~ shameful~

---

Kiroku: (It really is no good… I've gotta do something myself. I need to take the egg back quickly…!)

(But, I can't just leave those kids… Not somewhere I may never come back to…)

(We've always been together… They're-)

*car pulls up*

Kiroku: Ah…

Momiji: Kiroku-kun! Thank goodness…!

Sakujiro: So this is where you were.

Momiji: We had the GPS, but I was worrying about what suddenly happened!

Kiroku: I… I'm… sorry…

Momiji: No, as long as you're alright. But don't run around so much that you get lost, okay?

And… here.

Kiroku: …Ah…!

Momiji: They'd fallen by the side of the road. They're yours, right?

Kiroku: …Yeah… they're my… friends…

Momiji: I thought so. Try not to drop them next time, yeah?

Alright, let's head back to the inn!

Kiroku: ……

Momiji: …

(Kiroku-kun's been making an awkward face this whole time… Like he wants to say something, but can't.)

(Kiroku-kun's a lot more taciturn than others, but that doesn't necessarily mean he isn't interested in those around him.)

(Rather, it looks like it makes him more attentive to his surroundings than most. That's why-)

(If I could do something to console his heart…)

I know. Kiroku-kun, how about we use PeChat?

Kiroku: Eh…?

Momiji: Using words is difficult, but maybe you can spell it out. Let's give it a go.

Kiroku: …

Momiji: Don't worry about what happened today

I know you're truly a considerate person

Kiroku: Sorry for bothering you so much

Momiji: It's fine, I understand you've always got a lot on your mind

Kiroku: ……

…This might.

…Take a bit… to type…

Momiji: Got it. I'll wait.

*blip*

Kiroku: I'll tell you. Why I'm like this. Why I became bad at talking

I accidentally hurt a friend of mine with my words when I was in elementary school. Even though they were such a precious friend

I thought a lot after that. And decided it'd be best if I didn't use words

So I became bad at getting words out

I've not made any progress on the lantern art either, I'm sorry

Even though I can draw properly when nobody else knows. I feel that expressing myself may hurt someone. And it might come back around to hurt me

So I got scared. Sorry

Momiji: No need to apologise. It's incredibly brave of you to express that

There will be times you can't get your thoughts across and end up hurting something

But if you ask me, it's really important to communicate, even if there are times you clash and fight with each other

Face it with courage, and if you're wrong, you can take it back. It's fine to try your best until you can get yourself across properly

That way, won't you be able to build up your relationship with someone?

Words and art are the same. As long as you fear expressing yourself, you'll never understand each other

If you can face them with courage, I'm sure they'll accept you

Kiroku: …

(I'll… start up the walkie-talkie app.)

*beep*

Akuta: "Aah aah, testing the mic now. Is that Kiroku-san? Hey there."

Kiroku: -…! He-hello… Hey… there.

Akuta: "Finally connected! Muneuji was real worried about you, flew right out of the inn. Copy."

Kiroku: …Co …

Akuta: "Anyway anyway, how ya doin'? Still on earth?"

Kiroku: I… …I'm on my way back… …copy.

Previous Chapter | Next Chapter

Masterlist

[staghunters]

STAGHUNTERS NEOCITIES WEEE

Figured I should make a new post at this point because the other one is getting too long to keep reblogging. I've been tinkering away at the site and it is shaping up! Here's a lil page by page tour under the cut

you can view the site here!

Splash screen!

It's a little bumper so the css can load without it scrabling the home page. It looks alright, but to add some more text to the image, I have to make a new one in the death screen generator, which is not ideal.

The home page!

I've changed the middle window so it fits in better with the rest. Not very visually exciting there in terms of color, but it is for now the best look imo. Text there is aligned justified, I've condensed it a bit more and added the randomized quote section underneath it instead of it being a seperate window on the side.

To do list needs an update but is still accurate. The team is still there, but on the other side, I have set the blinkies to be a bit larger. The music player has been removed because I couldn't find a way to add songs to it that weren't included on the source site. Snufkin is here now. The webrings will need some more. Retronaut is there, but not functioning as it should. it just forwards you to random sites in the ring instead of where it should be, but I can't find what exactly I'm doing wrong with the code.

Another thing that is not working on neocities itself is the "last updated" part. For some reason it doesn't display there what it does display on my local html. Maybe a bug at neo.

And icons at the top on the nav par! Adds some more flair to the place. The footer has also received a minor update: it now has a sitemap link instead of another back-to-home url.

About!

I'm thinking of moving the small window with the short info to the right, but it is here for now. Links that are web-building related are on the right, also for my own referencing. The essentials lists on the left are hidden on load, but can be revealed by tapping the puttons. The lists are in tree-view and the window shouldn't expand over the cassette image once the construction sign is removed. Speaking of, the cassette has a lil playlist.

I might expand on the info a bit more, but that is for me to ponder. I liked including links to tumblr, the guestbook, and a button in case anyone wants to link my site on theirs.

Writing!

Hasn't really changed much. I've been looking at moving the sidebar info to be in the main section upon load, but idk if that would just make things more complicated. Right now it loads to an empty section there, stuff appears once you click a button. PDF support is only available once I'm a supporter of neocities, which i do wanna do but isn't a priority atm just for getting this part running. The links to ao3 will do just fine for now.

Journal!

The space for my rambling. It can be browsed by entry through the post-it, and all that seems to be functioning alright. Added a kitty and a sticker for decoration. The Stop Making Sense bumper sticker will now load a local video of the performance, but once again I won't be able to add this to the site until I get a supporter thing going. It plays/pauses on click, hehe.

Basement!

Decided to add a page for it. Basic info, schedule, link to the room, my letterboxd, and an overview of past movies. It's a nice spot on the site that is also the most cramped, but I like how it turned out.

BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH

In case any page/url error happens, you can send a movie recommendation to B (their askbox is linked when you open on desktop)

UNDER HEAVY CONSTRUCTION

The art and other pages are very much works in progress. Art can be up and running once I upload art to the site, but I'm not sure if I want to post full pieces here. Maybe I'll make it a space for sketch stuff that I'd otherwise discard.

As for the other page: I might be filing it under the writing page as a section, since the only thing here is WvW atm. It's cool that it has it's own thing, but I'm not sure if something that is basically a fanfic warrants such a space. That, or I keep it and drop all my other-media stuff in here so there's more to look at.

That's it for now! I got some ideas on how to continue, but they're not super-duper set in stone.

[sailorplanet1997]

my top 3 sacrifice from the Tinkerbell movies!

i love the feisty Terence during rat attacks while he was about to get ready for food and besides who will fly all day and night for Tinkerbell and purposely breaking the rules for her? (an another reason is because Terence knew the truth about Tinkerbell's situation and kept it as a secret to help her out by doing all of the damage control and covered everything up so no one will find out about Tink's plan, bringing everything with him to help her out too) who knows what could happen to the pixie dust tree or even Tinkerbell if Terence didn't showed up to Tinkerbell at all, i mean he literally saved the day for especially Tinkerbell but also for the others, either Tinkerbell always get stuck in the pirateship with no way out or if she do gives up hope for everything because she feels ashamed for her mistakes and thinks running away for the problems is the best choice for everybody so no one will find out about the situation

Tinkerbell sacrificing her wings is my second favourite because she called the winter fairies for help knowing she was gonna break her wing by doing so when her wings are freezing for too long, thankfully all turned out fine because everything was saved and the winter and warmer fairies reunited with each other once the pixie dust tree worked again after the freeze...all thanks to Tinkerbell everything ended up good even if she broke her wing that got restored shortly after Vidia as the third best after Terence and Tinkerbell because she did something no one has done it before and probably almost nobody has the courage to do so knowing they get caught and captured by the humans yet Vidia still choose Tinkerbell over herself despite everything knowing the concenquences for her actions and got captured instead of Tinkerbell, it's obviously seen she cares more about Tinkerbell then we probably realized, Vidia cares for Tink's well-beings more then she likes to admit (she's at the top 3 because an another reason is because at first she didn't wanted to have like anything to do with Tinkerbell in the first movie untill the third movie have happened with the humans event, she tried to keep Tinkerbell out from troubles but it ended the opposite instead however she puts everything aside to rescue Tinkerbell with or without the help of others, she told the others the truth about the situation with Tinkerbell and didn't give up hope after many struggles and Vidia wanted to get into Tink's life once everything was over...my thoughts on her was the exact opposite with everything in the third movie knowing how she was in the first movie but she did everything i didn't expected it from Vidia, that's why i also rank her so high with the sacrifice for others) i feel Vidia hasn't just done it for Tinkerbell but also for the others because without Vidia, either Tinkerbell was gonna get captured way TOO earlier with NO way out and dies or Tinkerbell was gonna introduce herself to humans and show them the existence of fairies and put them to danger so they get killed by the humans if Vidia didn't showed up to Tinkerbell (like iridessa said it could've ended otherwise if Vidia wasn't even there with Tinkerbell at all) Vidia belike: you can't get rid of me that easily i doubt i'll ever change my ranks unless maybe if they continues to make more Tinkerbell movies in the future

[forthedancingandthethriving]

Despite how level-headed he often presented himself as, Juliano was anything but that at the moment.

He leans over the railing of the bridge, gazing into the water of the river below. He was wearing an outfit wildly different than normal, which was a pair of gray sweatpants and a white tank-top. He was wearing normal sneakers as well and his tophat was nowhere to be seen.

Him not wearing anything to cover his arms for once showed missing texture patches littered all over them. Some small, some large, but they were apparent all over.

And they hurt. They hurt like hell at the current moment.

Juliano hangs his head and hisses softly at the sharp stabs of pain coming from the missing texture patches. It felt like every nerve in his body was being set alight.

But he knew why.

Slowly, he lifts his head and looks up at the moon. "I can't go home." he mutters to himself. "I've changed too much."

Something in him shouts that he hasn't. He has to go home.

"This is home." he argues. "This is home now. Our old home is gone."

It's not gone, something cries. It's not gone. He saw it.

"It isn't the same." he shakes his head, pushing away from the railing. "It won't ever be the same. I've changed too much."

He crosses his arms, glaring down at his body. He knows what's causing this frantic want. His Avatar code. Half of it was still there, doing its best to function.

And it had seen his old home, and now it wanted to go home.

Juliano grits his teeth, feeling the code demand and cry. It wants to go home. It wants to go back to his universe. That's where he belongs.

"I can't go back!" Juliano snaps, and it feels like electricity is gathering in and around his body. "If my universe comes back, it won't be the same! I won't be the same! Everything will have changed!"

He and the code continue to argue, back and forth. Slowly, the missing texture patterns on him began to glow a soft red. Then, it began to intensify.

Juliano slams his foot against the bridge, shouting as the energy that had been gathering in him released. "I'M NOT GOING BACK! THAT UNIVERSE ISN'T MY HOME ANYMORE!"

His eyes widen as the energy shoots out in all directions. He winces. While it didn't seem to affect the trees or any of the wildlife..

He glances behind him, towards the city, which was now dark as the night sky above. Cars were honking and people were shouting.

Juliano curses under his breath. It seemed like the energy had only caused a power outage, which was.. moderately fine. But he'd need to watch himself. He definitely wouldn't be as lucky next time.

With a heavy sigh (and the missing texture patches still feeling like they were burning), he turns and jogs off, heading back to the castle.

[chaos--mode]

@dgrayd continued from here.

she didn't mean for it to be, like, a thing. she just – she trusts peter, and he's like. one of her people. isn't he?

ren tenses, then pulls her hand back. she isn't fast enough to school her expression into anything other than the confused flash of unsurety across her face. her brows pull together, mouth quirked down at the corners, and her teeth worry at the inside of her cheek. but then peter grins and the tension goes out of her shoulders with a breath.

he was kidding.

she huffs and crosses her arms, not wanting to bring the mood down but she'd be lying if she said her composure wasn't a little bruised. christ, why is it so hard to read people sometimes? still, she does her best to shake it off. it's not a big deal, she reminds herself, it's fine, he gets it.

❝ you just had a little blood, like, everywhere, ❞ she quips, trying to ease herself back into something she feels a bit more comfortable with. and then, well. then he goes and says that and ren can't just – ugh. ❝ i dunno, maybe you're right but like ... isn't that a little sad? ❞

least now she's not thinking about the bodies.

peter walks off, and ren lets him. she keeps her arms crossed as she kicks at some loose little hills of dirt on the ground. she isn't gonna follow him at first, but then she remembers that she'd be left standing alone among a collection of corpses if she didn't, so. well. she follows him.

it's pretty out here, if nothing else. ren definitely doesn't like the woods ( it makes her arms itch and the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end ) but she can't deny it can be picturesque. there're still animals around, birds and fauna that flit amongst the trees off in the distance.

sunlight filters through the canopy of the trees above them. this is probably one of the few times in recent memory that she hasn't been completely fucked up about being in the woods. the golden light is warm and comfortable, and it's all just ... soothing.

peter turns off in a different direction after a bit, and ren stumbles a little as she turns to follow. she glances off in the direction they'd been walking, about to ask why the change, but he speaks first.

she hums in agreement, watching as he pauses at the river before walking along the bank, seemingly not happy with it here. no, it's ... she thinks it's too small to be a river. a stream, maybe? she's not sure, but that sounds about right. she follows him through the brush until the ❛ stream ❜ opens up into a bigger body of water.

the water bleeds red as peter washes himself off. ren watches the rose water ripple out from where he dips into its surface. it dilutes more and more the further out the colour flows, and she finds herself a little transfixed as she stands there, watching.

peter breaks the spell with a dose of reality. she nods, even though he's not facing her and can't see it, and huffs. just, to herself. she's really, really not looking forward to more fighting. but he's right. fucking, as always. she's not bitter about it.

❝ you and your fungi, ❞ she mutters, mostly under her breath. still loud enough for him to hear, of course.

❝ yeah, all right, whatever. ❞ she sighs, shakes her hands out, and rolls her shoulders back. her hand brushes over the knife sheathed on her hip. ❝ let's get this over with, hm? ❞

[memento-morianon]

(image description: digital painting in shades of pink with dark grey and midnight blue. the pinks have been kept as subtle highlights while the majority of the image is dark with the blue and grey. it depicts a grassy clearing surrounded by trees, with a mysterious black dog slowly stalking through the grass. the dog is wearing a heavy collar and its eyes are glowing. end description.)

artober day 12, still

this is my protagonist Morianon's service dog, Sitla! He's had her since he survived a hurricane as a child. She's just as spry as she was over two decades earlier. Hasn't really changed a bit. Those blank gleaming eyes are still so very very unnerving and she is so unusually intelligent and stunningly well trained. It's easy to forget she's there, since she's a service dog and she's quite good at her job. Heck, even I, the writer, forget to keep track of her in scenes when she's just passively waiting in case she's actually needed.

Sitla's job is to keep Morianon grounded when he has panic attacks or dissociative episodes. No one knows where she came from, or how she was trained. but she was there when he was rescued from the hurricane and she would not leave his side once during all the time he was recovering and being prepared to socialize and go through adoption. She's had that elaborate beaded collar the whole time too.

Morianon does know what her deal is and where she came from and who she originally belonged to. He just won't tell anyone. It's one of those odd mysteries the small town folks have just gotten used to. They don't question it anymore. Just like they don't question that old goblin who claims to be over 1500 years old. No, when there's are strange and potentially ancient or immortal beings around, these folks know how to keep their mouths shut and accept it. How nice that Morianon has such a good service dog, it's been such a help for him. How nice that old Obeli Moruga always has the best jams and pickles to hand out. Don't worry about that dog's strange eyes, don't question why Obeli Moruga knows details about the Goblin Revolution that the history books have long forgotten. It's fine.

[casspurrjoybell-27]

In a Heartbeat - Chapter 28 - Part 2

*Warning Adult Content*

Vince

"Where are you going?" Xavier asked.

"Fuck off," I told him but he stepped in front of me.

"Don't you start lecturing me as well."

"Where are you going, Vince?"

"What does it matter?" I fired back.

He wasn't fazed by my outburst, instead, blocking my path.

He sighed uneasily before looking at me sternly.

"Don't go after him. Give him some time and space. Simon is still adjusting and quite frankly, he's terrified of you."

"You think I'm going to go through with this stupid plan?" I mock.

"You're just as insane as Michael is."

"No," he frowned.

"But I think Simon knows that you'll want your title back and if that means being with you, he might consider it."

"He's dumb if he thinks I'll allow that."

I tried moving past him but he put up his hands.

"That's why I'm saying give him some time."

Time, my ass.

If he hasn't realized after sixteen years that I wouldn't accept him, then he's really a dumbass.

"Time will only give him hope," I scoffed.

"Hell, I'll tell him right now it's not going to work. I'll just find another way to get my title back."

"Vince..." Xavier tried to hold me back but I was determined now.

Every time he'd try to pull my arm back, I shrugged him off.

"Don't."

He was really getting on my nerves so I turned around and shoved him hard before sneering...

"Shouldn't you be looking for your mate?"

He froze, the look on his face was priceless.

Sure it was cruel but I didn't need my brother nagging me anymore.

Besides, if Simon really was considering it, it was best to squash it earlier.

Besides, there were other ways to take my title back.

If I trained harder, I could fight him in a duel again.

It's not like being with Simon was the only option and even if he considered it, there was no way he could stand to be in the same room long enough to act on it.

Yeah, it was better to tell him to forget what Michael said, that it was a lie or some sick joke my insane brother had.

I continued down the stairs, heading outside when I heard shouting.

Walking closer to the door, I peeked outside, hearing Aspen clear as day.

"Why did you even agree to come here?"

Beside him, I could spot Simon visibly upset, his hands balled into fists.

I stayed out of sight, remaining still in earshot of them.

If someone were to walk by, it probably would've looked suspicious to just be standing next to the tree outside the door frame.

Simon said something quietly out of earshot, which only fired Aspen up more.

Aspen fired back...

"We should just leave, Simon."

Simon muttered something else after that out of earshot, before Aspen continued...

"But look at what you got yourself into. Staying here is only going to cause you more pain. Mentally, you'll be destroyed, Simon."

I wasn't sure what he meant by that but Simon responded before I could dwell on it.

"I did it for you and for Cedar. You know I didn't want to come here."

Aspen gripped Simon's shoulders.

"We didn't have to, we were fine on our own."

I could see Simon shaking his head, saying something quietly.

Aspen ran a hand through his hair as if annoyed by his words.

"That asshole murdered your family, Simon. He ruined your life," Aspen screamed, flailing his arms in frustration.

"And you think there's still a chance?"

Simon had visibly flinched away from him, his eyes shut if he was in pain.

I had cringed inside as well, when he worded it like that, it was a tad harsh.

'It wasn't just me, jerk,' I had wanted to jab at him.

There was so much more to it than that.

I wasn't the one to pitch the idea of murdering them, hell, even I knew it was extreme but the council was so demanding at that time.

So emotional over my father's death, they didn't care what I had to say about the whole thing.

I was lucky I had managed to spare Simon's life at the last second but I had given the orders and I guess that did make me seem like the bad guy.

"He could change," Simon sounded unsure with his own words.

"There's a possibility..."

"Don't you dare finish that sentence. You're so naive to think that-that monster could have an inkling of remorse or feelings for you."

"I'm not saying that... it's just maybe..."

"If Sarah had hurt Cedar I wouldn't dare bat an eye at her," Aspen jeered.

"You can't blame it on the bond."

"But..."

"Don't even try and defend that asshole to me," Aspen said, pushing at Simon's shoulder.

Simon frowned, replying...

"I'm not. It's just... what if..."

"Enough, Simon."

Aspen's outburst nearly scared me with the amount of force he put into it.

A few passing pack members had turned to look their way, before going about their way.

They stood there for a bit, Aspen pacing in place before turning to Simon seriously.

"Seriously, why couldn't you just stay with Sam?"

I could hear Aspen sigh loudly before I heard them talking lowly as they walked away.

For once, I kinda agreed with Aspen, this whole thing was not going to work but the way he was handling it seemed a bit much.

Wasn't he supposedly Simon's friend?

His words were a bit harsh, even if they held some truth to it.

I had so many questions swirling around but two stood out.

Who the hell was Sam?

And why did I have the slightest desire to prove Aspen, of all people, wrong?