#everything is fine and i can write a normal amount for an update

[pastel-peach-writes]

Hii, i just read all and i mean ALL of ur fics, but i saw you wrote for arcane women and was wondering if you could write headcanons abt them with a socially awkward/anxious reader?? If not thats A-Ok 👌 with me

Sure! How is everyone doing after the first three eps? I still haven't seen it but the edits I've seen... oh boy.

"I Got You." | Arcane Ladies Headcanons

╰┈➤ PLOT: How the ladies of Arcane(Jinx, Vi, Caitlyn, Sevika, Mel) act with a socially awkward and/or anxious partner

╰┈➤ WARNINGS: Spoiler Free, On The Shorter Side, Cursing, Not Proofread

⍣ ೋ Enjoy!⍣ ೋ

JINX

– At first, Jinx didn't get that you were socially awkward. She was used to people being awkward or even scared around her so she thought it was the same case with you until you two got closer.

– After knowing that your awkwardness was just you and not your fear of her, she observed you in social situations and noted what made you more anxious than normal.

– For example, she noticed you're more anxious and timid in bigger, louder spaces but if a space was quiet and quaint, you would be just fine so she often took you to quiet places for dates.

– If Jinx notices you're anxious in places you typically aren't, without a doubt she's removing you from the situation and taking you home where you can relax. No words, just grabs and tugs.

– She's tried the pep talk route before but it ended up in her rambling and somehow planning a terrorist scheme aloud... (yeah, a few patrons quickly left the area after hearing that), so she decided to scrap that idea altogether.

– At home though she would prepare what she calls, "A Safety Nest". It was a place in your shared space that had all your favorite things and trinkets, and she usually kept the space dimly lit and played your favorite music to calm you down.

– In social interactions where you take the lead in conversation, Jinx would quietly encourage you with big, almost alarming smiles and "gentle" pats on your back. Let's face it, Jinx can be socially awkward herself.

– Once the conversation concludes, she'll jump on you proudly, ruffle up your clothing, and pinch your cheeks endearingly all while calling you weird nicknames and quoting what you said while mimicking your tone and cadence.

––

VI

– Before you've had your first real conversation together, Vi could sense that you were an anxious individual.

– You fidgeted with your body while speaking, didn't hold eye contact long, and used a decent amount of filler words to casualize your sentences.

– She thought it was endearing to watch you act and move as if you thought no one truly cared about what you were saying or were afraid of boring others but you never bored her. She didn't think it was possible.

– You had tells and quips that revealed themselves with each conversation you two had. You showed more and more of your personality the more you got comfortable with her too. Vi loved it.

– When you spoke to her, especially when you went on tangents about things you were interested in, she always showed signs of active listening by nodding and asking follow-up questions. Even days later, she'll bring up the topic again to see if you have any updates.

– She made you feel seen and heard, something you've subconsciously craved. And when you went on your worry rambles, she consoled you and tried her best to stop you from spiraling.

– You thought about a lot of things and oftentimes about things no one else thought about. Vi thought your brain must've been exhausted with all the worries, doubts, and judgments that were usually wrapped up as others' but were truly your own; it was a lot for one person to handle so she strove to let you know that you were not alone.

– Is there a night you can't sleep because of your racing mind? Vi is there, holding you or reassuring you that everything is going to be okay. She can't sleep until you do anyway so why not speed the process along?

– You often had yourself stuck with your head stressing and worrying about multiple things at once and Vi was always there to bring you down to Earth.

__

CAITLYN

– Caitlyn's an encourager and a comforter with you.

– She's patient and silently allows you to take your time when gathering your thoughts midconversation but she'll also be the one to say, "It's okay, take your time," in the sweetest way possible.

– If there's an instance when you two are out and about and you really want something but are too scared to get it, she'll spring into action and get that thing for you. (Even if it was just a napkin).

– The only time she's frazzled socially is when you both are in an unfamiliar area and need to ask for directions. She'll stumble over her words and try to get someone's attention but they're moving too fast to hear her soft words.

– She'll get frustrated and you end up comforting her, but after a few backrubs, she's ready to try again. Her voice is strong and powerful, and people have no problem hearing her.

– You secretly thank whomever you have to for her determination but there was no way in hell you were going to walk up to a stranger and ask for directions like a tourist... which you were.

– Since Caitlyn's job has her socializing with a lot of people, she can get burnt out easily. Especially if work hasn't been going her way lately but even if she's burnt out and tired, if you seem to be more awkward or anxious than her, she's more than happy to step up socially.

– When you both have someplace to attend to or some event that holds significance, Caitlyn will not hesitate to stage a "social rehearsal" with you. She'll make flashcards of topics you could bring up, you'll both dress accordingly for the event in her living room, and she'll pretend to be an assortment of people so you can get used to different personalities all at once.

– It may seem like this is all for you, but honestly it helps her too. Sometimes she misses the personal cues of conversation leading the other to think she's a black-and-white thinking who has no time for pleasanties. Not true! She's very pleasant... sometimes she's just shy.

– Shyness is not a crime!

– After talking with the host and a few others she has to talk to due to her job, her social battery is depleted. She's extremely thankful you're able to recognize this and suggest leaving early. What would you two do without each other?

––

SEVIKA

– Oh, man. This lady found your awkwardness charming as hell.

– Your awkwardness was different than all the nerds and scaly-beings she's forced to be around. You were cute, looked perfect sitting next to her, and your awkwardness, as mentioned before, had a certain charming quality she can't quite place.

– She'll see you in your workplace trying to make casual conversation or small talk but none of your topics seemed to be landing. Your coworkers would give you a thin pressed-lips smile that she wanted to strike off of them to your attempts and then scoff at you behind your back.

– You were authentically yourself and those bastards didn't know what to do with it. They were scared, not her though.

– When you two got closer and comfortable enough with each other that you could tease one another or make playful jabs at the other's expense, no doubt she would tease you about your awkwardness.

– With those gorgeous eyes of yours, you would look everywhere else but her own, prompting her to say, "You know you can look me in the eyes, right? I won't bite", with the stupidest most shit-eating smirk on her face. And then when you look at her, a bit shocked and playfully annoyed, her smirk would only grow. "Unless you want me to."

– Sevika never made your awkwardness seem like a flaw. Your awkwardness came with you and she wanted all of you so she often encouraged your awkwardness.

– If she caught you trying to "reel" it in or realizing that you've talked for a few seconds too long, she'll playfully scold you and tell you to continue or to "let it out". Y'know. As someone who seethes dominance does.

– There would be an instance in which you go to Sevika asking for advice to be "less awkward" and her only response would be, "Why? I like your awkwardness, you don't need to change it. Anyone else who thinks otherwise is a sad loser and don't deserve to be in your life anyways."

– like damnnnn, okay!

– Safe to say you never asked her a question like that again.

--

MEL

– Mel understands your worries about what others think and the awkwardness that can come with it so she likes to help you in any way she can.

– If you're stressed about a council meeting and afraid of what everyone's going to think about the new perspective you'd like to bring to the table, she'll reassure you and tell you she's right by your side.

– If she can't physically with her hand on the small of your back, she give you nods of encouragement, raise her brows proudly, and look at you with that sense of pride and admiration in her golden eyes.

– After the meeting goes well, which she knew would, she'll congratulate you with your favorite drink and a night in doing all your favorite things.

– Even if there were parts in the meeting that were rocky, like the council people asking questions you weren't prepared for or getting rowdy, she'll say you did an excellent job and what you presented will help the people of Piltover.

– Oh, and don't think for a second that she wasn't sending glares and daggers to those who stirred up your anxiety even more. If looks could kill.

– Mel sees that sometimes your awkwardness and anxiety result in people-pleasing and she would shut that down real quick. She's fallen into that dangerous pool before and knows how hard it feels when you disappoint others and how much harder it is to get out of that mindset.

– She can get quite spirited with her encouragement...

– "Well, if they don't like it, that's on them! They don't know something good when they see it." "I've learned that hard way that you can't please everyone. You might as well say what you have to now. They can get over themselves later."

– It's actually quite attractive to see her stand up for you, even if she was standing up for the possibility.

– Always keeping her words in your mind, you find yourself navigating through life easier and you only have her to thank.

WC: 1,705

[jakesduskwood]

even statues crumble if they're made to wait

Pairing: Jake x Fem!MC

Genre: Post-Episode 10 Duskwood, Post-Episode 1 Moonvale

Words: 8,916

Summary: It's been three months since the explosion in the mine. Three months since Hannah was found. And MC's accepted that Jake is never coming back. When she gets roped into another missing person's case, it makes for the perfect distraction. Jake is dead. It's fine. That is, until she finds herself on the phone with Alan Bloomgate who says he has something to show her. But it's fine. Jake is dead.

Until he's not.

EPISODE-1 MOONVALE SPOILERS AHEAD (MAYBE)!

[ A/N: Hello! :)

I know it's been a while since I've done this, but I finished Moonvale Episode 1 and if you've seen the ending (and used its Duskwood code), you know what happened and how excited I was to receive that bit of Duskwood. So, I took it and ran with it, and out came this extremely long fic. I did not proofread this as it took me literally almost 12 hours to write so it is completely and 100% me and my love for Jake and I hope you love it.

Side note: I suck with anything related to timelines, so I made one up on my own. I know Episode 1 of Moonvale takes place over the course of a day or two, but for the purpose of this fic, it made sense to make it longer, so it's not a typo, or me losing my mind, it's just the way my brain processed this.

Enjoy! :) ]

It’s been three months since the explosion in the mine.

Three months since Richy had been killed. Three months since Hannah was rescued. Three months since I had last spoken to Thomas or Cleo or Lilly or…or Jessy. I didn’t blame her then and I don’t blame her now. Any of them, really. I didn’t share the bond they had with each other. I wasn’t from Duskwood. It didn’t matter that we’d experienced a tragedy together—and yes, perhaps them more than me, but I loved Richy too. I had lost Richy too. And Jake—

But mostly, I think they just wanted to forget. To move on. They didn’t want to remember that their friend had been capable of…of that. And I was a constant reminder of that to them. So I understood why we didn’t necessarily talk anymore.

The one person I did keep in contact with from Duskwood, oddly enough, other than the occasional update from Alan Bloomgate, was Dan. We weren’t best friends or anything, but he allowed me to check in on our friends in a way that I didn’t know how to do with anyone else. Maybe because I thought he was the least affected among them. I knew he cared about Hannah, but he wasn’t to her what Thomas or Cleo or Lilly were. And he wasn’t to Richy what Jessy had been.

I’d learned from him that Thomas and Hannah had broken up. There was no bad blood, but Thomas hadn’t quite figured out how to accept the things he’d learned about his girlfriend when she’d been gone, and Hannah hadn’t quite figured out how to re-trust someone after Richy. Even if that person was Thomas. But I’d hoped they would find their way back to each other in the end.

I thought about reaching out to Jessy every once in a while—even just as an apology for everything that had happened. I’m sorry that Hannah was found at the expense of Richy. I’m sorry that he did this to you. I’m sorry I didn’t realize it sooner. We should have. We should have. We should have. I miss you. But I never send it. I’m not all that sure she’d respond anyway.

Cleo and I were never all that close. She has her best friend back, so I think she’s probably as okay as she can be. Helping Hannah find a new kind of normal in a time where her childhood friend had kidnapped her in order to prove a point. I don’t know how you come back from that—I don’t know how you come back from knowing that you killed somebody at all.

I hadn’t found the courage to ask if somebody had told Hannah about Jake.

Not that I think it would matter anyway. I hadn’t heard from him since before the explosion in the mine, which was, like I said—three months ago. I waited the appropriate amount of time—twenty-five days—before I broke down and concluded that maybe he hadn’t survived. Which just piled a shit-ton of guilt onto my shoulders because it was supposed to be me in that mine. He had gone in place of me and now he was dead.

It was the only explanation that made sense. I was used to Jake disappearing for days at a time, but never as long as he had been now. And he didn’t seem like the type to tell me he loved me and then leave without a single explanation. Not unless he had to. But it had been three months and as much as I missed him, as much as my chest ached with the thought that we would never eat Chinese food out of shitty motels and have that on-the-run ending we talked about, I had accepted that he wasn’t coming back.

I wonder if he had known about Richy or if he had died still thinking Michael Hanson was the one who had kidnapped Hannah. I wonder if his last thoughts were of me. Maybe it’s selfish, but I kind of hope they were, because I’m pretty sure I’ll think about him for the rest of my life.

I wonder what it would have felt like to run my hands through his hair. To kiss him. To spend every waking moment with him and know it was because I loved him. Because I would have. Talking to Jake became about more than just finding Hannah. It became a part of my day I looked forward to more than anything else. He confided in me in a way that told me he never had with anyone, maybe not even Hannah, and I needed that from somebody. I needed somebody to trust in me the way that Jake did. I needed somebody to love me the way that Jake did.

It was strange—and maybe a little ironic—the thought that something so beautiful could come out of something so tragic.

Anyway, my point is: it’s been a long couple of months. Of thinking about my friends. Of thinking about Jake. Of wondering if I should have done things differently. I should have gone to Duskwood to help. Not even with the mine, but sooner. I could have. I could’ve gone when Jessy was attacked on the way home. I could’ve gone when the group made plans to cut out of town and hide away in the house Richy had found. Selfishly, I should have. In that moment, when they were settled around the fire and Lilly called me, I had never remembered wanting anything more. I should have grabbed Jake—metaphorically, maybe even literally—and rode it out with them to the end.

I don’t stop missing them after three months. Of wishing things could have been different. Wishing I could have done more. But exactly ninety-five days after the explosion in the mine, seventy days since I had accepted that Jake was never coming back, twenty-two days since I had last heard from anybody from Duskwood (Dan included), my phone dings with a new message.

And the cycle starts all over again.

It’s somebody named Eric, who claims he needs my help to find his friend Adam, who disappeared while he was waiting for a ride in someplace called Redlog Pines. And much like with Duskwood, I have never heard of Redlog, and the case reminds me way too much of Thomas’ first message to me, so much that it makes my chest ache, but I can’t say no because there’s somebody missing, and if I’d say no the first time, God knows where Hannah would be.

So, I say yes, and I help out where I can, and Eric decides he needs to bring about four more friends in on his little plan and I try my best to stay emotionally unattached because I remember everything that happened the last time and I can’t go through that again. I offer up information when I can and keep my words short and careful because I’m not ready to get attached to somebody else I know I might never meet.

I know how this ends.

Two days in, Ash, one of Eric’s friends, brings up my Duskwood past and the unhealed wound I’ve been trying to mend breaks open again. She asks about Richy, and about the mine, and then because I’m me and I can’t help myself, I tell her about Jake. She tells me the news never mentioned another body and I shove that thought to the back of my head because hoping for something that will never come true will kill me.

Four days into Adam’s disappearance, and the police not giving a shit—as Charlie, somebody who reminds me far too much of Richy for comfort, points out—my phone beeps with an incoming call from somebody I haven’t spoken to in a while.

“Go for [MC].” I answer my phone.

Ever since Hannah had been found in the mine and Jake had…you know, my phone had been more silent than I’d gotten used to. Until this new case. But even that—it was only a few days old and I didn’t want to go down the same path with them that I did with my friends in Duskwood. We didn’t really know each other that long, sure—even though sometimes it’d felt like it—but it felt like I’d finally been a part of something. Like, I had found these people who had chosen me for me.

And originally, maybe they had. Maybe they’d had every intention of keeping me around, but then Richy was the Man Without A Face and Alan Bloomgate had rescued Hannah and nothing was the same as it had been when we’d met each other. We knew too many secrets about each other by the time the town settled. Secrets we would have to take to the grave.

Or maybe I’m losing my mind a bit and I had really only been a means to an end.

Either way.

“Alan?” I raise my voice when there’s nothing but breathing on the other end of the line. “Did you mean to call me?”

His tone is clipped. “I found something.”

“You found something.” I repeat.

My heart clenches. For all I know, it might fall into my stomach. As far I know, from watching the news, from what Ash told me, Jake’s body was never found. Richy’s was. Or what was left of him to find, anyway. I had assumed that there just hadn’t been enough of Jake left. The thought left me nauseous, but it was better than hoping for something I knew I could never have.

“I’m sending it to your phone now.” He responds. “Let me know what you think of this.”

And then he hangs up.

That was a riveting conversation, I think as my phone dings with a message. I do my best to ignore my other messages—contacts from Duskwood I’m still not ready to acknowledge—and click Alan Bloomgate. He sent me a video that looks like—oh God.

Immediately, I’m overcome with emotion as an all-too-familiar forest pops up on my phone. It’s a video of Alan’s bodycam footage. He’s searching the Duskwood forest. A forest I’ve seen too many times in the background of other video calls.

I watch as he stumbles upon an object that’s too dark to make out at first. When he gets closer, it’s clear that it’s a backpack. It’s simple. Black. Nothing about it that screams this is mine and I left it here about anybody in particular. You stupid, stupid idiot, I tell my heart when it rattles against my chest in hope. He’s dead.

Alan stands and treks away from the backpack—I want to scream at him to go back, to open it and look through it and tell me if it’s what my heart aches to believe, but I can’t, because this is a video and I’m simply watching with wide eyes, waiting for…for something. But then. But then, he moves further into the forest and I watch as he stumbles upon an object that makes my knees tremble and tears rush to my eyes and my hands shake. A black hoodie. It looks like it’s been through hell, with holes scattered up the sleeves and dirt cakes into the hood, but it’s unmistakably his.

And then—Alan lifts the hood and picks up something that makes me sink to my knees with a sob that wracks my entire frame. Because I’m staring at Jake’s mask. The mask he doesn’t go anywhere without. The mask that protects him. And so my relief is short-lived, because I realize that even if he’s alive—which seems like a very big possibility at this point—he’s alive without the things that he needs to survive.

And then the anger kicks in. Because if he’s been alive, on his own, for three months—why has he not contacted me? Unless he survived the mine but he didn’t survive the after. But that didn’t make any sense. So, okay, he wasn’t dead. But that didn’t make any sense either. He told me he wouldn’t let them catch him. Because catching that meant he would be apart from me. Did something happen that prevented him from being able to reach out and tell me he was at least okay? A quick text that said didn’t die in the explosion in the mine, you don’t need to mourn me, by the way, going off radar for another year. Did he think I would have given up on him?

I wipe my eyes and shoot a message to Alan.

ME: Recently?? Did nobody search the forests before?      

ALAN: Searched the forests for what, [MC]? The logical assumption seemed to be that if anybody was inside the mine when Richy set the fire, they would have perished alongside him. Officers were stationed outside every known entrance and exit. Besides, after the story you and your friends spun around this town, do you think anybody would have gone back into its forests?

ME: But it’s possible?

ALAN: I would say these items had been there for some time. But I would say it is likely he ditched them when he fled the mine, yes.

Another sob tears through my throat. Jake is alive. I don’t know quite what that means for us as of now, but I know it’s the best news I’ve heard since Hannah was found. Jake is alive. He’s out there somewhere. And even if it’s been three months, and even if I’m a little bit mad at him right now, I know that if he was here, I would throw my arms around his neck and hold on to him until someone dragged me off, and even then—I would fight kicking and screaming.

I close out of my messages with Alan and pull up a conversation I haven’t had the heart to look at in quite some time.

ME: Jake’s alive.

LILLY: …

LILLY: Have you spoken to him?

ME: Alan called. He found some of Jake’s things in Duskwood. I don’t know a lot of details. But I know he made it out of the mine.

Lilly types for a long while, but she doesn’t respond. I don’t take it personally. I think it’s probably hard for her to be happy that her brother’s okay while also trying to accept that her sister may never be okay again. Her sister, who had once-upon-a-time been kind-of-sort-of in love with their brother she didn’t know she had. I think that would probably mess with any family’s heads. And on top of all that, you throw in manslaughter and a kidnapping. I wouldn’t wish anybody, not even my worst enemy, to have had to go through what the Donforts had.

When it becomes adamant that Lilly isn’t going to respond, I start scrolling through messages with the rest of the group in Duskwood. I click on Jessy. I’m here if you need me. That had been the last thing I sent to her, a couple of days after Richy’s death. She hadn’t responded. I click out of Jessy’s contact and click on Thomas’ instead. Thank you for everything. That had been his last message to me after we found Hannah. I’d liked it. I hadn’t expected at the time it would be the last thing we’d ever say to each other. I click out of Thomas’ and click on Richy. So, you want to turn yourself in? I’d asked. That was before he called me. Before he lit a match and burned himself and the mine to the ground. Some people would call that heroic. I mostly call him a coward.

I click on Jake’s name. It’s been a while since I read messages between the two of us. Maybe before I had accepted—thought—he was dead. In that twenty-five-day period when I’d hoped with all I’d had that he would come back. I love you. That was the last message he sent me. I’d responded with I love you too, Jake. Then, four days later: Are you okay? A week later: Jake, please, you’re starting to scare me. I know you said you would contact when you could, but it’s been a week. After twenty-five days, when I had finally accepted our fate, I’d sent one final message: I hope you know that I love you, and I will always care about you, but I think it’s time for me to move on. I’m so sorry that I sent you into the mine. It should have been me. And I will probably feel the guilt from that for the rest of my life. Thank you for everything. Take care of yourself, wherever you are.

After that, I had closed out of our messages and hadn’t looked back. Partly because I couldn’t bear the pain of it. It felt like I had given up on him. I hadn’t—if I had thought for a second that he was alive, if I knew then what I know now, I would have never sent that message. But holding out hope for somebody who I thought was a ghost at the time? That was slowly killing me.

It’s only then that I notice the screen flickering. Much like the way it used to whenever Jake would hack into my phone. I don’t think he’s much in the mood to be hacking right now, but somehow, I know it’s him. When had he done this? Recently? If I had opened our messages, would I have seen this ten—twenty—even fifty days ago? It hadn’t looked like this the last time I texted him. Did he see my last message about needing to move on? Was that why he hadn’t reached out to tell me that he was okay? Because he thought I was moving on happily without him?

No, my brain supplies. He wouldn’t. He would reach out anyway, because he knows how much the thought of him not being okay would have destroyed you.

The screen flickers once more and then a message pops up, bright and blue-tinted and clear as day on my phone.

[MC]

I WILL FIND YOU

And the world around me shifts.

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

Maybe it sounds crazy, considering I’ve never seen his face before, but I always thought that if I’d ran into Jake one day, maybe on the street or at one of those motels he stayed at or maybe even in Duskwood, surrounded by all our friends, I would know it was him. I would, because it’s him, and it’s me, and we’re the only two people who understand each other quite the way we do.

I still believe that.

I believe it when I book my flight to Duskwood (or rather, twenty miles outside of town, which is the closest airport). I believe it when I board the airplane and find a seat next to a mother with her screaming child and when I shoot off a quick text to Eric to let him know I’ll be MIA for the next few hours, but to message me if he needs anything—and I think about how much easier this case would probably be to solve if we had Jake.

Maybe it would have been harder to find Hannah without me, but I know damn well they would’ve never found her without Jake.

Dan picks me up from the airport. I haven’t told the others yet. Something about it felt off—like I shouldn’t message them and say hey, I know we haven’t spoken in a while, but I’m booking a flight to look into why my maybe-slash-not-really boyfriend left his belongings in a forest we really wish we could forget about, and by the way, can I crash at your place?

It’s quiet on the car ride back into town. I’m looking through my messages from Eric and the group from Redlog Pines and thinking about how I’m Duskwood with this group and I want so badly to laugh because it’s ironic, but Dan wouldn’t understand. He might just call me crazy. Better yet, he would ask how I manage to get myself into these situations, and really, I don’t have an answer for him.

“How have you been?” I ask, just to break the tension, as Charlie, in my messages, tries to persuade his friends to head back into that creepy cave in the middle of the forest. He’s going to get someone killed, I think.

Dan looks over at me. “Are you still with Hackerman?”

My chest squeezes. “His name is Jake, Dan. And we were never really together.”

“Hm.” He nods like he doesn’t quite believe me. “You already know mostly everything that’s been happening here. Thomas and Hannah called it quits. They say it was some mutual decision, but it’s hard to find them in the same room together. Jessy hasn’t been out with us since. I think we remind her too much of Richy. The group’s all changed.”

“And you?” I ask.

He gives me a cheshire-like grin that doesn’t quite meet his eyes. “I’m always the same.”

We make it to Duskwood just as the sun’s going down. Much too late for me to try and trek through the forest and retrace the steps Jake might have taken that night. Not that I think it would help give me any clues as to where he might have gone, but mostly because I wonder if it will make me feel closer to him. We’ve never been in the same place before, and even if he’s not there now—he once was.

“Can you drop me at the police station?”

Dan blinks. “The police station.”

I nod. “Yeah.”

“We answered their questions for weeks, [MC]. I don’t think anything you have to tell them at this point is going to help. The investigation’s closed. Everybody knows Richy did it. He died with the fire in the mine. Everybody’s trying to move on from that.” He works his jaw. “Did you come here to open old wounds after all this time?”

I try not to show the hurt look on my face. “This isn’t about Richy. Look, Alan called me. He asked if I could look at some things. I figured it was better for me to do it in person. That’s it. Nothing to do with Richy. Nothing to do with Jessy. Nothing to do with you.”

He sighs, and I’m not entirely sure he’s going to abide by my wishes until we pull in front of a tiny building—tinier than most—that says Duskwood Police on the sign. Duskwood must not have that much crime. Well, not until this, I suppose.

“Thank you.” I tell him as I reach over to undo my seatbelt and climb out of the car. “This is a nice ride, by the way.”

He raises a hand in some mock-salute. “Need me to pick you up?”

“Nah.” I shake my head. “Think I’ll explore the town for a little bit.”

“Suit yourself.” He shrugs and then he’s off.

I square my shoulders and take a deep breath before opening the door to the police station. It wasn’t like Alan asked me to come down here. He hadn’t. Even during the investigation into Richy’s death and Hannah’s kidnapping, when he questioned us, he never asked me to come to Duskwood. We’d done way too many video calls and phone calls and at one point, I had asked if he thought it would be easier for me to come to Duskwood, to which he responded back, are you ready for that?

No, I hadn’t been. I’m not even so sure I was now. But knowing that Jake was alive, that here was the last place was, I had to try.

“Can I help you?” The woman at the front desk asks.

I clear my throat. “I was wondering if I could speak to Alan Bloomgate. I’m one of—I was involved in the Hannah Donfort case. My name is [MC].”

Her eyes widen. “Give me a moment.” She stands and heads to some back office—which looks to me more like a closet—and then returns with a clipped smile. “He’ll be right out.”

Apparently, she isn’t lying, because not two minutes later, Alan is stepping out from the same door and staring me down. I hold his gaze and hope it says that I’m not here to argue. I will tell him my truth, but only my truth, not Hannah’s, not Jake’s, not anybody else’s.

“I was wondering when I would see you.” He says.

I shrug one shoulder. “Isn’t a few months later better than never?”

“Let’s go into my office.” He says, and leads me around the desk and back into the closet space he had come out of. He sits behind the desk and motions for me to take a seat opposite him. “I’m just going to guess you’re not here to talk about Miss Donfort.”

“I want to see them.” I tell him. “His things. I want to see them for myself. And whatever you want from me in return, I’ll give to you.”

“You’re playing a dangerous game here, [MC].”

“He isn’t a game to me.” I snap back and then sit back and try to relax. “I appreciate that you called me. It’s—I helped you find Hannah. I would do it again. Even with knowing the things that we do now, I would do it all again. That’s how much that group means to me. That’s how much he means to me. I’m not asking you to break any rules or to lie for him or to—to let him hide in your basement for the next five years. I’m just asking you to show me what you found.”

He stares me down for a moment. Then, he sighs, says “wait here for a minute” and disappears to another room. When he comes back, it’s with an evidence bag in his hand filled with the objects I saw on his bodycam footage. My breath hitches in my throat.

“I can’t let you touch them.” He says as he lays them in front of me.

I stare into the eyes of the mask. “Did you tell anybody that he’s alive?”

“I don’t know that he’s alive,” is all the answer he gives, which is an answer to my question. I slide my gaze down to the black hoodie, to the dirtied sleeves and muddy hood, and think about the fact that Jake wore this. I’m so close to him.

And yet I’ve never been further away from him.

“Thank you.” I tell him. “For—for this. And for listening to me about Hannah. If you hadn’t, I—I don’t know what would have happened. How much longer he would have gone on for. If he would have ever stopped.”

Alan’s silent for a minute. Then, he clears his throat. “You know, it was strange to me. Both Hannah and yourself swore to me that neither of you knew the other.”

“I don’t.” I swear.

It was one of the (albeit many) things that didn’t make sense to me. How Hannah got a hold of my number. How she sent it to Thomas. She’d told Alan she hadn’t really remembered texting him my number at all.

“I believe you.” He reassures. “I just think it’s strange. One mistake, if you can call it that, and you throw yourself into a missing persons case to help a stranger.”

“They’re not strangers.” Even though Hannah is kind of still a stranger.

“But they were.” Alan reasons. “You had no reason to say yes to helping Thomas. I doubt anybody would have held it against you if you turned the other way. But you decided to follow this until the end. To make sure they found Hannah. And you care about them. Maybe that’s why I find that I’m more lenient with you than maybe I should be. Why you’re sitting across from me right now calling the shots. Why I’m not asking you about the hacker.”

“I wouldn’t tell you if you did.” I look him in the eye so he knows I’m telling the truth.

He returns my gaze. “Maybe that’s the other reason.”

“Hm.” I acknowledge before I turn my gaze away—from him, from the objects that I know belong to Jake and it takes everything in me not to snatch them up and run. “Well. Thank you for allowing me to steal some of your time. For letting me—” I cut myself off before I say something that makes me break down in a fit of tears in front of him. “—just thank you.”

Leaving the station is easier than coming in. I’m still not any closer to knowing where Jake is than I was when I arrived here, but there’s a comfort in knowing he walked these streets. I wonder what he would think if he knew I was here. He hadn’t wanted me to come to Duskwood when everything was happening…but now that it was over, would he be happy that I was here? That I had come to Duskwood to piece together where he might have gone? Would he track my location and come to find me and…or was I grasping at straws?

It felt like I had just gotten him back. Not really, not entirely…but knowing that he was alive, that he was out there somewhere, maybe thinking of me and looking for ways to come back, to live the life we talked about when he asked me if I was sure…that was worth it. The thought that we could maybe someday have that—even if it was a twenty percent chance.

I check my phone again to see a new message from Ash. She’s asking me if I’ve heard from Charlie in the last few hours. Apparently, he’s AWOL, and I want to help, really, but…it doesn’t really feel like that’s where I am at the moment. Not just physically—obviously—but mentally. We got lucky with Hannah. And that was really only because we had Jake. Adam didn’t have a Jake. Or…maybe he did and I just hadn’t met him yet. But I already had a Jake and I didn’t want another one.

Maybe—if I found him, I could convince him to help. That was a big maybe. Not because I thought Jake would say no. He would say yes to anything I asked of him. The maybe was whether or not I could find him. More likely, the maybe was whether or not he would find me.

Three months ago, I would have been able to come to Duskwood and have no shortage of things I wanted to do and people I wanted to see. Now, as I stand outside Duskwood’s police station, I feel nothing but loneliness. Nobody knows I’m here. I could pass Thomas on the street and he wouldn’t even know it. I could run into Jessy at the library and she would walk by me without even a second thought. Why would they? I hadn’t told them I was here.

So, with nothing left to do, I walked. Toward the town center. Toward the library that Jessy showed me on our walk through Duskwood. Toward the Rainbow Café where I knew that Cleo and Hannah had spent a lot of their time. Toward the Black Swan. Toward—

Ah, what the hell.

I had nothing better to do and The Aurora seemed like a great place to drown my sorrows. To think about my next steps. To figure out—now that I was in Duskwood—what I planned to do. The thing about Jake being so secretive (and on the run) was that I couldn’t retrace his steps. I wasn’t able to ask if anyone had seen him. One, because he would make sure nobody had. And two, because three months was a long time to forget somebody’s face if you didn’t know who you were looking for.

I pull open the door to the bar and step inside. Immediately, I’m hit with the stench of whiskey and a handful of chatter. Duskwood’s a small town. And The Aurora definitely proves it. The bartenders move melodically around each other, serving patrons on the other side of the bar. If you walk down further, there’s a handful of tables.

And dead in the center is a table with my friends. Or, some of them. Dan and Cleo and Lilly. Could I still call them my friends? Ex-friends, maybe? Acquaintances? I didn’t know what they were. Or how to address them. It wasn’t like we had gotten into a fight. We didn’t stop talking for any reason other than that we did. We stopped talking.

I make a beeline for the bar to avoid a confrontation and plant myself on one of the stools. One of the bartenders—a girl cute with bleach blonde hair and brown Bambi eyes—asks what I want and I channel my inner Dan to order a whiskey—neat.

Looking over my shoulder, I focus on the table of them. On Lilly, who’s smiling at something Cleo said. On Dan, who’s the only one of them who actually knows I’m here. But even he’s focused on the conversation they’re having. It’s strange—to see Dan a part of something I’m not sure he would have been before. It’s nice.

“[MC]?”

I turn my head away from the table of my friends and focus my attention across the bar on someone I should’ve expected to see. “Phil.”

“I thought I recognized your voice from when we talked.” He smiles. “I wasn’t sure, but I saw you staring longingly at them—” He nods towards Dan and Cleo and Lilly. “—and I knew. What brings you around here? I expected you to show up maybe a few months ago, but by now, I thought you’d moved on without us.”

I was tired of the words move on. Like I’d had a choice. Like the people from this town might open their arms and welcome me back into their lives. So I’d been part of the group who’d saved Hannah Donfort. So had a lot of people. It didn’t make me special and everyone here knew it.

I offer him a smile in return. “I’m looking for somebody.”

“Anybody I know?” He asks.

I shake my head. “Nah. At least nobody you would recognize.” I pause. “How’s Jessy?”

“She’s—Jessy.” He answers, like that is an answer. “I don’t know if she’ll ever really be okay with the way things happened with Richy. I wouldn’t expect her to. Obviously. But I don’t know. I think I just thought she would have gone back to her normal life by now. And then I remember that most of her life revolved around him. He was her best friend. She worked for him. And I’m trying to be patient about that. But—” He shakes his head. “Maybe you should talk to her.”

“She doesn’t know I’m in town.”

“Okay.” He hums. “So, you’re not in town for my sister. And you’re not in town for your group of friends because they’re over there and you look like you’d rather be anywhere else. There’s always Hannah, but I don’t think you knew her that well. Or at all. Would I be right to assume this is about a certain hacker who helped to find Hannah?”

“He didn’t help find Hannah.” I defend. “He was the entire reason we found Hannah. I would have never been able to do it on my own. Even with the others’ help. He’s the only reason we found out about—” I pause before I say something I maybe shouldn’t. “It doesn’t matter. He’s the only reason we found her. Everything I did was just dumb luck.”

“That wasn’t what the news said.” A voice cuts in and I turn my attention from Phil to focus on the stranger that slides into the seat beside me. Not too close—a couple inches away. I don’t recognize him. I don’t know him. But I don’t know every person in Duskwood. Maybe a total of like nine or ten. “I’m sorry to interrupt. But I heard you had a lot to do with finding Hannah Donfort. The news said you were some kind of hero.”

I offer him a tight smile. “That’s nice of them. But…if they knew my—friend—knew what he did to find her, I don’t think I would be as much of a hero as everybody says.”

“That’s noble.” He says, eyes meeting mine, and it strikes me at once how handsome he is. He has dark hair. Bright green eyes. Focus, [MC]. I scold. You have a…a someone.

My phone buzzes.

ERIC SENT A PHOTO.

ERIC: What do you make of this?

I sigh and click on the photo. It’s of—some object. Much like the one that was addressed to me on the envelope in Adam’s glove compartment. The image is a bit different—but I don’t know enough about what it means to have an answer as to why.

ME: Was this one addressed to me?

ERIC: Nope. Ash.

“Are you okay?” Phil asks.

I clear my throat. “I’m a popular person—apparently.” A thought strikes. “Have you ever heard of a place called Redlog Pines?”

Phil frowns. “No.”

I turn to look at the stranger. “You?”

“Redlog Pines is a small town about two hundred miles north of Duskwood.” He answers. “Known for their wooded forests, much like Duskwood.”

“Why are you looking into a place with forests as creepy as ours?” Phil asks, incredulously. “Didn’t you get enough of that with Hannah’s case?”

“Yeah.” I sigh. “You would think.”

“Hey, [MC]!”

I wince at the sound of Dan’s voice. Shooting Phil a look that screams please help me to which he shakes his head amusedly, I turn and plaster on a fake smile as I take in the shocked looks on Cleo and Lilly’s faces. I should have known better than to come to The Aurora and talk to Phil when the three of them were having a conversation across the room. I should have known they would sooner or later see me. I just hoped it was later.

“Hey.” I hop off my stool and make my way across the bar to them. “It’s, uh, fancy seeing the three of you here.”

“What are you doing here?” Cleo asks.

“I haven’t really figured that out.” My eyes meet Lilly’s. “It sounds crazy to say it out loud. But I was hoping that—I’m not sure if Lilly told you—”

“That Jake’s alive.” Cleo nods. “None of us ever really thought he wasn’t.”

I don’t think she means it as a dig—but it still feels like one. Like she’s saying you gave up on him you gave up on him you gave up on him even though she’s not and she didn’t really know him and the only person I can talk to at this table who even might understand is Lilly and even—Jake didn’t confide in her the way he did me.

“Right.” I acknowledge. “So I thought that maybe if I came here, I could trace his steps from when he was here and—I haven’t really thought that far ahead. It’s not like I thought he left me any clues in the forest or anything like that. I don’t think he expected me to be here. He hadn’t wanted me to be the last time we talked. But that was before everything happened.”

Lilly’s eyes track behind me. “Does Jake still have Nymos on your phone?”

“Uh.” I furrow my brows. “I think so. I hadn’t heard from him in a while, but I went back and read through our messages after I talked to Alan and…my phone glitched, like it used to when Jake had hacked it. And then this message appeared on my screen.”

“And by chance, can Nymos track your location?”

“What—” I shake my head. “Maybe. I don’t think I ever really asked him. It didn’t seem necessary at the time.”

“Uh huh.” She focuses on me once more. “Let’s say, for one minute, that Jake has access to Nymos who has access to your location.”

Cleo must catch onto something I’m not sure of. “Jake didn’t want you here.”

“Uh, thank you?”

“You know that’s not what I mean.” She waves me off. “He didn’t want you in Duskwood. He had been adamant about that when we were talking about the mine. That’s why he went. If you showed up in Duskwood—”

“Nymos would have alerted him.” Dan finishes.

“Okay…” I’m not entirely sure I’m on the same page as them. “So—you think that Jake found out when I came to Duskwood.”

“Correct.” Lilly beams like she just solved life’s greatest mystery.

“And you think he would—come find me?”

She smiles sympathetically at me—like I’m the world’s biggest idiot for not realizing what she has been trying to say sooner. “I think he already has.”

“You think Jake’s in Duskwood.” I deadpan.

“[MC].” Cleo grabs my shoulders and turns me around. “We think he’s in this bar.”

Stranger, as I had nicknamed him—AKA the guy sitting beside me at the bar, with Phil and Redlog Pines (which he probably only knew about because of me) and the whole Hannah being kidnapped and not taking any of the credit thing—was looking back at me. So was Phil. Like they thought I was the crazy one. Like it would’ve been so hard for him to look and me and say it’s me or anything that might have clued me into the fact that—

“Jake?” I whisper, because I’ve lost quite a bit of sleep over the past couple of months and I’m not one hundred percent sure what—or who—I’m seeing is real. “Are you here?”

He tilts his head and smiles at me. Actually smiles. A bit shyly, like it’s something he’s not used to doing, but maybe like it’s something he could get used to. And I think about how terrible I probably look right now because I’m not wearing makeup and my hair is tousled from constantly pulling at it and my clothes are wrinkled from the plane and the police station and I look like a mess. But our relationship has never been about looks. Clearly. I didn’t even know the person I’d been talking to until Lilly and Cleo and even Dan pointed out the obvious.

“If I—” I close my eyes and open them again. Nope. Still there. “I need you to still be there by the time I reach you because it’s been a—” I sniffle. “—it’s been a rough few months and I don’t think I could handle you disappearing again.”

He stands from the stool he was sitting on and shuffles his feet. Like he’s not quite sure where he’s supposed to stand. If he thinks about moving, I’ll tackle him onto the floor of The Aurora and then apologize to Phil later. It feels like everything I wanted is right here in front of me. And I’m scared to death that it’s not real.

“What’s one thing you would take with you if you were stranded on an island?”

His smile stretches. “My computer.”

And that—that’s what breaks me. I think I might start blubbering like an idiot but I don’t remember the time it takes for me to cross the measly twenty feet between us. All I remember is grabbing his black hoodie—because of course—and dragging him to me. I don’t kiss him, despite how much I want to, because I don’t want our first kiss to be tainted with my snot and tears. Instead, I bury my face in his collarbone and wrap my arms around his neck and hold on for dear life.

Because I can. Because he isn’t dead.

“Y—You’re here.” I pull back and cup his face with my hands. “How are you here?”

“You came to Duskwood.” He responds, and then—hesitantly—he presses his lips to my forehead in a kiss. “Alan called you.”

“He found your things in the forest.” I whisper back. “He said they’d been there a while. The police hadn’t searched the forest because they assume you died in the mine.”

“They aren’t looking for me here.” He confirms. “I didn’t expect it to take so long for them to find my belongings, but I anticipated that you would find out. At the time, it wasn’t safe for me to reach out and contact you. They kept on my trail for a while before they assumed I died in the mine with Richy.”

“Why didn’t you contact me then?” I ask. “Is it because of what I last messaged you? I didn’t mean it—I swear, I thought you were dead. If I had known you were alive, I would have waited, however long it took. I wasn’t trying to give up on you.”

“Hey.” He places both hands on either side of my face. “I know. I know that, [MC]. That was never why I didn’t reach out to you. I know you said you wanted this life with me. But I didn’t want that for you. But I was selfish. I couldn’t let you go. So I was trying to find a way to make both of those things true. But I was always coming back to you.”

“And did you?”

“Come back to you?” He asks.

I sniffle. “Find a way to make both of those things true.”

“Not entirely.” He admits. “Nymos alerted me you had boarded a plane headed in the direction of Duskwood and I—” He shook his head. “I knew I would find you here.”

“You could have found me sooner.”

He lets go of my face and he feels like he takes my skin with him. “It wasn’t that easy.”

“It could have been.” I demand.

I’m angry again. Now that I know he’s alive and okay and that he could have found me, I’m angry that he didn’t. I told him I would choose that life with him. Over and over and over. He didn’t need to make the decision for me. He didn’t need to try and protect me. And yes, maybe the fact that he did makes my heart flutter a tiny little bit, but that’s besides the point.

“I told you before you left me.” I tell him and I’m aware it sounds like we’ve been in a relationship for five years and I’m aware that everybody in here is watching and listening in on our conversation and they probably all know we’re who we are, two people involved in helping to find the kidnapped Hannah Donfort, and maybe that’s all we’ll ever be in this town. But I would rather be the girl who found Hannah Donfort in Duskwood with him than be me anywhere else. “You told me you would let me go with you.”

“That was before I told you I loved you.”

My heart skips a beat. It screams I love you I love you I love you back, but I say— “What does that have to do with anything?”

He looks somewhat amused. Like he knows I would never hold it against him. It’s clear to both of us that I wouldn’t because even though I’m glaring up at him with my furrowed eyebrows and my lips pouted, I’m still pressed tightly against him. His hands—even though they’ve moved from my face—are now resting on my hips. Pulling my tighter to him. There’s no space in between us. If it was up to me, I’m pretty sure there never would be again.

“[MC].” He says, and oh god I wish he would say my name every day for the rest of his life. “Have I—in the short time we have known each other—ever struck you as the type of person who says I love you? But with you…” His words are a whisper against my lips. “It’s easy to fall back into old emotions with you.”

“I want to be angry with you.” I tell him.

He shakes his head. “No, you don’t.”

“No, I don’t.” I agree. “But I might be if you don’t kiss me.”

He brought one finger underneath my chin and tilted it up until our lips were separated by a fraction of an inch. My eyelids fluttered. I didn’t care that everyone in here was about to see just how much Jake meant to be. I didn’t care because I had waited too long for this. And then—just as I’m leaning toward him to press our lips together, he whispers— “[MC]?”

“Hm.” I acknowledge.

“Who’s Eric?”

My eyelids crack open and I shove at his chest. “That’s what you’re worried about right now? Here I am, in front of you, covered in snot and tears and who-knows-what-else because you’re here right now, and you’re worried about some guy I don’t even know?”

“Who’s Eric?” He repeats.

“Ugh.” I run my hands through my hair and take a step back. “I don’t know. He’s the other side of Thomas or whatever you want to call him. If we lived in a different town.” I glare back at him and try not to admit that I think his jealous side is a little cute. “He messaged me. Thought I picked up his friend from some parking lot and I didn’t, but his friend sent him my number, and it was Hannah all over again. I’m trying to help them.”

“This Adam has been sending you a lot of videos.”

“You know I hate when you hack my phone.” I complain, even though I really don’t. Even though I had prayed for him to help me with this case. “I really don’t know Adam. Like—even less than I know Eric.

“But you know Eric.”

“For like a week.” I reassure. “He added me to this group chat with him and like three other friends of his. They’re desperate to find Adam who has apparently dropped off the face of the earth and I don’t know what to do. I had you with Hannah’s case. And you knew her. And they—” I look over my shoulder at Cleo and Dan and Lilly, who are pretending like they’re not listening in even though I know and Jake knows they are. “—they knew her. And obviously Adam’s friends must know him but I don’t and you don’t and there is no Jake in Redlog Pines.”

“I don’t trust him.” He shakes his head. “Any of them.”

I laugh. “Jake, you didn’t trust half the people in this bar when we first started talking.” I look over at Phil and then Dan. “It doesn’t mean they committed a crime. If I had backed off when you asked me to help you find Hannah, we may never have.”

“I thought that was all thanks to me.” He sounds smug, like that little smiley face he loved to annoy me with (AKA make me fall in love with him). “Did he flirt with you?”

“No.” I deadpan. “I think he was focused on his missing friend.”

“I was focused on my missing sister.” He shoots back.

I close my mouth. Alright. He has a point. But I wasn’t flirting with Eric. He was focused on finding Adam and I was focused on mourning—and then finding—Jake. Maybe it felt like Eric and I were two sides of the same coin. Maybe that’s why I agreed to help him. Because I didn’t want to happen to him what I thought had happened to Jake—to me.

“You’re being ridiculous.” I say instead. “How do you think I could ever entertain the idea of being with somebody else when for the past three months—more than that if you count the time we have actually had together—I’ve been focused on you? On discussing Hannah with you and then talking to you about anything and everything and then worrying about you and then hating you a little for convincing me you should me the one to go into the mine and then mourning you when it was hard to even think about you and then finding you?”

His eyes are wide. I think I’ve rendered him speechless. Which—serves him right. I know he’s not somebody who serves their feelings up on a silver platter. I know that. Obviously, I knew that from the first time I spoke to him. Back when he was nothing more than ??? and I was almost convinced that Dan was right and he was the Man Without A Face—a thought that I now hate with everything in me. But I need him to trust me. Jealousy streak and FBI and the missing persons cases aside, he needs to trust me.

“Trust me.” I cup the sides of his face again. “He’s nothing like you.”

He swallows. “Some people might consider that to be a perk.”

“I don’t.” I say.

And then I’m kissing him and it feels like coming home.

[trashfangirlsworld]

Hello! I've been inactive due to the current events in the mcyt community, but I've been keeping up with the qsmp admin situation and I thought I'd share some opinions because the amount of doomposting I've seen the last few weeks has been more than I've seen in any fandom in a while and I feel like it's reached the point where people really need to chill the fuck out because they're not thinking straight and actively not helping. Everything I'm gonna say is based on stuff I've seen on both tumblr and twitter.

they should not promote/release merch! : one of the things that baffles me the most tbh; how do you expect any employee to be payed then? Merch is so far the only big source of income for the server besides q's own cc salary or whatever income they get through the official qsmp channel on twitch and youtube (which I don't think is a lot). "I get that they said they have no funds, but still it doesn't feel right"... sorry but at this point I don't know what to tell you, do you expect them to pull money out of their asses? You can't demand that they stop making merch and then complain that they can't afford the twitter admins at the same time. If you don't feel comfortable buying anything from them it's fine obviously, but if your reason for it is that you're helping the admins then I have bad news for you. I have seen people propose that quackity sets up a patreon, and while I think it would be a good idea, I understand why he's not doing it, since with the merch he can at least give something back to the people that choose to support his project instead of people just giving him money for free, especially with what's happening now. Also with how much hate he's been receiving simply for the merch I can't imagine that a patreon would be recieved well.

we don't know if the money is going to the admins/ they should not use pomme's likeness! : the money is definitely going to go to the employees and admins because otherwise the server would not last. And as much as I understand people feeling protective over pomme's admin, quackity studios is very much allowed to sell merch of the character because it is not the likeness of the admin, it's a minecraft model made by the people that work there. Would you have rathered they skip her character entirely? Do you really think that would have been okay?. Also correct me if I'm wrong, but I've seen posts and tweets saying that pomme's admin has been confirmed to come back with the other eggs whenever it happens by pierre, who talked with her admin.

the admins of the update accounts got fired, it means they want to fire everyone, they aren't making things better! : it sucks that the updates accounts had to end and I feel bad for every twitter admin that clearly cared a lot about the project, but unfortunately it had to happen if there simply isn't enough money to pay them adequately like they deserved and ultimately the update accounts were not essential to keep the project going, so it makes sense that they were let go unfortunately. This is not gonna be the case for the egg admins because if they got fired (which they didn't), the server would basically end. Just because a cc does not know when they will be back does not mean it's not gonna happen. Just because tubbo randomly said that he's not sure if they will be back does not mean they were fired; tubbo is normally not a reliable source of information, even less so when he's been live nonstop for the past 20 days, which is prior to everything happening. If you genuinely didn't expect a reduction in non essential staff considering everything, then you have unreasonable expectations on how this stuff goes. As I write this, I'm seeing people saying that "they would understand this decision if q had set up a patreon to pay the admins", and once again I don't understand how people don't realize why quackity might not be keen on the idea of having his fans pay his own employees for his own project instead of, you know, doing it himself; and, again, do not fool yourself into thinking it would be recieved well. That being said, it's fair to criticize how everything was communicated to the admins, but I'll get to this in more detail later.

quackity should not have uninstalled social media, he's trying to avoid everything! : he's not avoiding anything, he's been off social media for a while now, which is why it took him that long to remove wilbur from the server. He has every right to not want to look at social media, as his focus should be on restructuring his server instead of doomscrolling on twitter because people think he needs to see how much people dislike him. The only people that he should talk to are those that have important information to tell him, like josè with the document. He explicitly said on stream where to contact him if you have helpful information and I'm sure that despite multiple well liked posts saying not to spam his email, people are definitely doing it anyway, which is probably gonna slow the whole thing down even more. I hope josè's document is able to be seen with pierre's help as well.

quackity studios is not communicating with their employees and leaving them in the dark and that's not okay : I agree with this. i think a huge chunk of doomposting lately has been due the lack of communication not with the audience, but with the admins, and they deserve to know what is happening behind the scenes more then us since this is about their current or future job.... that being said, I do kind of understand why they're being so secretive and shutting everyone out, and that's due to all the "leaks" that have been spread online. I understand the anger but I really wish some people would realize that discussing leaked bts lore stuff in ccs discord servers does not help the situation at all and instead makes it seem like they're only doing this to rile up the fandom against quackity studios by using the lore of people's fav characters.

At the end of the day, I think people just aren't used to dealing with a situation that does not have a clear cut solution and someone to clearly hate, so the result is this doomposting and the over aggressiveness toward anything related to the project. Personally, I haven't witnessed anything that made me lose faith in the qsmp like some people have been saying, as every change that we've seen so far coincides with what quackity said on stream a while ago. I only wish things were communicated properly to the admins clearly, as they're the ones most affected, so I hope that's resolved soon. Ultimately quackity is singlehandedly restructuring the server from basically zero, has had to fire people that were misusing money and power and, depending on what josè's document said, is probably gonna have to fire some more. This is not an easy process, nor a quick one, you're not gonna hear about sunshine and rainbows for a while and doomposting about everything you hear because you expected quick change is useless. Think before you speak, have a clear head and most importantly have empathy.

[inchidentally]

"short and easier to read" babe I am so sorry to you and everyone else for how my insane posts come out - it's why I link to so much stuff bc it is a struggleee for me to not write just run-on sentences ;__; but I do get what you mean and I promise I tried my best - it's def shorter than the og and in smaller bites if that helps ??

(I actually wrote this on someone else's laptop so it's got proper punctuation and capitalization and everything!)

For those who don’t know: Oscar is an acts of service guy Lando is a words of affirmation guy. Let’s remember that someone’s love language is how they choose to express themselves, not what they should demand of others!

Oscar is also very much not a PR guy, for anyone totally oblivious to the obvious (and that all his "greatest hits" in PR were done unintentionally or bc he's awkward or bc his mom is cooler than him). For example, Oscar brings up his girlfriend of 4-5 years a fair amount but it’s almost hilariously not gushy or romantic (having a “cuddle” is as far as it goes lasfgjlsagfl). But he’s said himself that for the most part he’d prefer not to have too much private life available to the public. *His downtime with Lando joins in with all his other social life in being extremely limited to the public. 

The “thanking the sponsors” thing is one of Oscar’s safe, approved speeches he pulled from Andrea so that Oscar doesn’t have to do spontaneous on-camera speaking. Sorry but not all of us are good at it and it’s wayyyy easier to just have some rehearsed pre-approved soundbites. He tends to have a few that he repeats for a while until he updates the list lsafjslafhlafh.

He also very openly struggles to do on-camera speaking and no one knows that better than Lando who’s had to help him a huge amount. 

It does seem to be mostly cameras that make him stressed bc he was fine thanking Lando for his help in Baku at the fan stage in Singapore and overall he can use more of his dry humor when he's speaking to people rather than just to a camera. 

Lando’s recent inclusion of Oscar in his media responses to this degree is a reaction to Hungary and Monza - normally, his post race responses focus on himself and his own performance (which is literally normal and the default for drivers!!). The recent emphasis on teamwork/Oscar is something he feels he needs to do with his own PR work right now. He’s a smart man who’s been doing this a long time, so his reasons are valid no matter what fans think. He’s not sitting there working out or analyzing Oscar’s PR, just his own. 

People are absolutely running away with themselves over Monza and ignoring that apart from that one moment, Oscar is widely popularly seen as the supportive teammate role. To the point where last year and even part of this year, Lando was criticized by a lot of fans for not acknowledging Oscar enough.

Going off of that, let’s show how easy it is to take PR and media to make one of them look bad by turning it around onto Lando (!! this is for an example, I do NOT endorse hating on Lando for any of it !!)

Lando openly disliked being referred to as the “older teammate” and kinda left Oscar to his own devices so much last season that Oscar wouldn’t know where he was going a lot of the time and even semi-joked “my teammate’s abandoned me” (again, reminder this was not a source of drama for anyone but fans). He got called a little duckling a lot bc he’d tail Lando closely so as not to lose him. In fact it started irking some people that Lando would spend so much time with Carlos or Daniel and not getting to know his new teammate and helping him out with his rookie season of F1 the way Carlos did for Lando.

In every team photo where Lando has had a podium and Oscar has had nothing (and sometimes due at least in part to team orders!) which is very often! the comments sections have always had plenty of ‘Oscar is such a great team player, always happy and showing up for Lando no matter what’. So the whole ‘Oscar doesn’t do enough for Lando’ narrative is extremely recent and at odds with the rest of reality.

Please read the very first part of my enormous full post bc Lando didn’t thank Oscar for his Miami win, he praised his driving.

Even though at Silverstone this year Lando got on the podium and Oscar didn’t, Oscar made the fan stage all about bringing Lando out of his disappointment and even said he did the shoey “to make us feel better” and then dedicated the top row of his IG that week to photos and videos of him and Lando. Special note that this is in no way Oscar’s home race and he was solely seeing it as emotional for Lando and McLaren - and he had zero reason to personally be very happy after that weekend.

I’ve seen Melbourne this year get mentioned in the team orders discussions on my fyps, so that’s a handy example in many ways: Despite Melbourne being Oscar’s literal hometown race - and Lando even filming some Quadrant stuff at Oscar’s childhood karting track where a corner is named after him* - this year Lando didn’t acknowledge Oscar really at all over the weekend until someone mentioned him at the end of the podium press conference. Lando acknowledged that Oscar following team orders made his (Lando’s) drive a bit easier in Melbourne this year but said that he was faster than Oscar and deserved third over him anyway. (Good contrast to Hungary and even Carlos stating that something an undercut due to pit strategy shouldn’t erase one teammate being faster/more dominant in a race in order to give the other teammate the win!) He did PR work with pretty much everyone except Oscar actually, even doing promo for his (Lando’s) dad’s electric scooters on the new dotmov acc. Kind of like him being on a similar PR campaign at Singapore this year because of a sneak preview of Quadrant rebranding and announcing the Landostand at Silverstone  - he went for the biggest PR hits and posted Daniel on his jpg account, did a golf day with Carlos and Max F and was more active on socials than he had been for months. All while only having Oscar in one photo out of the whole weekend’s carousel despite the McLaren double podium. You could even read into him cutting Oscar and Oscar’s trophy out of two of the shots if you wanted! (He did include Oscar in the big group photo after the podium celebrations.)

*I saw some ppl say he didn't include Oscar in the Melbourne karting filming bc McLaren doesn't cross over with Quadrant, which isn't true. Zak has shares in Quadrant and Bianca has been included in the Quadrant rebranding launch with Lando's Singapore helmet design.

See how easy that was to flip it around?? If you’re even slightly biased against a driver or never see flaws in another- or are dying for two teammates to hate each other - then confirmation bias will always find plenty of “evidence”! Because the reality is that after the Austin GP, Lando found his “older teammate” mode and began helping Oscar out with his rookie year. In Melbourne, Lando spent his first day filming for his .mov account including the Oscar jersey and merch he came across - and Oscar mentioned how he and Lando talked about Lando filming at his old track. (Again, not PR coordinated or filmed, just mentioned!) And that after the Singapore race this year, they beamed at each other every other second of that night, filmed a deliriously happy post race video and joked in the cool down room - I honestly doubt have even noticed yet what the other has posted to IG salfhsalfafa. All of the negativity fans are coming up with is their own personal spin and does not resemble how Lando and Oscar are behaving to or speaking about each other.

They base their relationship on their conversations and interactions solely away from the public and the cameras and don’t do any inflammatory commentary about each other. They bragged about the door in the team hub that separates their drivers rooms from everyone else and leaves them open only to each other. Their communications only matter to each other when in private.

Segueing on from that: media and social media are literally PR. Lando is extremely skilled at it now and Oscar is not at all naturally skilled and is still learning. Lando is quick to be able to adapt his media responses, Oscar is not and often sounds stilted and uncomfortable. But it still has nothing to do with how they think of each other and talk to each other personally.

And “Landoscar” has never had the typical PR bromance aspect that we all love in other teammates, and it never will. Lando and Oscar mention but don’t broadcast or package their downtime together and they don’t share their private dynamic with fans or the media apart from the glimpses we see in more relaxed content. It’s just their choice! And just like it doesn’t mean Lando and Oscar are less friends because they don’t PR their relationship, it doesn’t mean the friendships who do utilize PR are less friends! 

And tbh that’s a good note to leave on: that seeing two drivers with no PR to gain from openly liking and respecting each other should mean that we as fans place less importance on the PR responses they give to media and put on social media. So many people want them to hate each other (Netflix even begging them outright) and rivalries get far more headlines and fan engagement, that if these two didn’t like each other or even were blah about each other, they wouldn’t waste time trying to fake it (side note ppl actually thought this joke was deadly serious for a short while). F1 isn’t team sports, no one really cares if drivers or teams appear “friendly” unless they’re desperate for money/engagement to keep them afloat (even there, Alpine prove it clearly isn’t a priority to have friendly teammates when you’re lower down the grid!)

There is absolutely nothing to be gained for them in faking the smiles and laughter and twinning. Equally there’s nothing to be gained by us as fans in judging them and their relationship based on their PR responses and PR work. Lando beams and smiles the same at Oscar after all of Oscar’s awkward, stiff debrief speeches and I kind of want one of these crazy stans to say to him that Oscar is a bad team player and doesn’t show Lando enough appreciation just to watch what his adorable face does in response (don’t do that I’m joking).

[cyncerity]

AU Masterpost

This doesn’t have links to all my stories, that would take forever, but here’s a rundown of all my aus and what you can find with each!

(i ran out of room in the pinned post for tags to keep track of my aus)

wss dni

Any vore-centric aus will have “^^” while any aus that have vore but can be understood with the vore content blocked will be “^”. Reminder: if you have “#tw vore” blocked you can avoid those specific posts entirely!

If you wanna see my longer stories specifically, they’re under the tag “#cynwrites” my art is under “#cyn art” and my oneshots are under “#cyn oneshot”

i’ve tagged as many of these aus as i can in this post so you can get to them right from here, though i ran out of room for the bottom four so you’ll just have to type those out.

all of these aus are always open for asks and suggestions! even the ones that haven’t been updated in years. if any of these aus interest you, please send asks!!

also i’ve said this before and i’ll say it again: i write for characters. only characters. i don’t like/have never watched non-dsmp content of half of the people i write about, but their characters hold a special place in my heart so im stealing them for my own uses. their creators didn’t deserve them anyway (dteam, william gold, and anyone who in the future proves to be a bad person, this means you).

last edited: 6/27/25

The Big Ones:

#cynborrowerau^

* First au i made on this account! It’s a bit hard to describe cause of the sheer amount of characters and lack of solid plot, but it’s your run of the mill humans and borrowers/tiny hybrids.

#moth!tommy au

* During the Big Innit Hotel debacle, Tommy is turned into a small moth hybrid by Jack. Good news: Tubbo found him! Bad news: the whole server thinks Tommy is missing and he can’t get Tubbo to recognize him.

#sizeshifter!tommy au^^

* Tommy is a size shifting humanoid creature trying to pass as a normal human in a normal world. Thank god his family and two best friends are around to help him keep his secret.

#grow your own tiny au

* “Grow Your Own Tiny” is a weird new-fangled toy for kids similar to Sea Monkeys, where kids can plant a pod and end up with a tiny living doll. Phil caves and buys one for Tommy, and he gets twins Techno and Wilbur. Everything is fine until the dolls go missing suddenly, but evidence of them starts turning up over a decade later…

#Giant Techno AU^^

* Techno is a wanderer who happens upon a town where tinies are treated as food and pets. He saves 3 tinies from a royal feast and finds a family. Shenanigans ensue.

#store shifter au^

* Some borrowers and humans have a gene that makes them able to change size once they experience a trauma. Sapnap, a borrower born shifter, lives in a store with his 2 fiancés and poses as a human who works there. Things get a bit more complicated when Sapnap’s boss and the store owner, Dream, turns out to be a human born shifter.

#Naga!Phil AU^

* Phil becomes a tiny naga. it’s up to his three basically incompetent sons to take care of him (this au is also being written for by @ totallynotbat)

#Eyes Off Me AU

* About one hundred of years ago, the Crafts were cursed to be immortal small antique dolls that freeze when looked at by humans. This isn’t a huge issue until their “dollhouse” gets sold to an anxious teenager and they’re left with a kid named Tubbo who had no idea his dolls were alive.

#Dad's Troubles AU^

* A young Schlatt adopts a borrower toddler named Tubbo who left behind after his colony was exterminated. Years later, Quackity becomes a co-parent. Now, Tubbo is a teenager and his dads are adults, raising their son in a world where borrowers are seen as animals.

#Trapped Wilbur AU^^

* c!Wilbur has just been revived and, unfortunately, is stuck at Ghostbur’s tiny size. Tommy decides that Wilbur is a dick and doesn’t deserve to be free around the smp until he learns to be nicer. And Tommy knows just the place to keep him.

#Flubber AU

* A re-write of the Disney movie Flubber. Quackity is a distracted and frazzled scientist, constantly stressing between his failing engagement and his university job, who only catches a break when he makes a scientific breakthrough: Slimecicle.

#creature tommy au^

* Tommy is a borrower genetically engineered to hunt other borrowers as prey, since borrowers are overpopulated. When he escapes from his lab and is taken in by Wilbur, though, he starts to learn actual morals and compassion.

#bet on the crown au^

* Tommy is the young king of a nation that was just attacked by a ruthless emperor named Dream. One day Tommy is approached by someone who offers him a magic weapon: a knife that can instantly kill what it cuts. In a world of magic where humans are the weaker minority, Tommy takes it. It’s then that Tommy meets Phil, a man cursed to be a weapon who just wants another chance to see his family.

#crimeboys runaway au^^

* Tommy is a teenager in an abusive home. He needs to get out, and he needs to run away to a place his family won’t find him. Thank god there’s a new service to help the bond between humans and giants that would be perfect for what he needs.

#Home Home au

* In a world where borrowers are treated like pets, Wilbur adopts a troubled one named Tommy. While he wanted a pet, Wil ended up with a brother. He’s come to learn Tommy was treated poorly by the world, and it’s his job to teach Tommy his worth.

#epic au

* A re-write of the 2017 movie Epic. Tommy is the prince of the forest whose father has just gone missing. In his attempt to find him, he accidentally shrinks and summons a man named Technoblade to his kingdom. Now he and his friends have to get Techno home and save King Phil from Techno’s mom.

#Hiraeth AU

* Tommy doesn’t remember his past at all. He spends most of his life alone looking for any home he may have. When he gets caught by Ranboo, he decides maybe he doesn’t have to look alone anymore.

#superhero au^

* Sapnap, George, Karl, and Dream are 4 of the top heroes of L’manburg. Quackity is one of the top villains. Dream doesn’t know. Meanwhile, Tommy’s whole family are villains, and he’s just lost his brother in a fight. Now as a vigilante, he wants to make the top villain, his dad, pay for letting it happen.

Going on Account^

* Sapnap, Dream, and George are navy men tasked to hunt down a troublesome team of pirates. When they get kicked out, they learned that some of the pirates were family they were stolen from. Now these three navymen have to learn that pirates aren’t what they were taught, and Sapnap isn’t what he was told.

The ones with only a few posts and no stories:

#tiny avian au

* Phil is a small avian who’s on the run with 3 eggs he saved from being stolen by humans. He thinks he finds a safe place to keep them, only to figure out too late that he kept the eggs in a human house under construction and now the homeowners have his kids…

#Deep Sea Mer AU

* Tommy was lost at sea as a kid on a boating trip with his scientist family. After years of searching and mourning Phil, Techno, and Wilbur give up. Until one day in their studies of deep sea fish, they discover not only mermaids that live below the depths, but that their little brother has been taken in as one of their own.

#Lab Twins AU^^

* Techno and Wilbur were made in a lab to be inseparable: literally. If they stop physical contact with the other, they can’t breathe. Oh, and they have to co-share height, so keeping two separate lives while being forcibly stuck together gets more difficult when they enter high school.

#unnamed swamp au^^

* Boomer is a frog hybrid and Hannah and Purpled are insect hybrids. In a world where hybrids are almost extinct, the three of them are taken to a hybrid sanctuary by Sam and Ponk to keep them safe.

#giant!fire au

* Sapnap is a giant fire demon and Karl and Quackity are two very fearless villagers who happen to run into him

#witches and gems au

* Ranboo is a very lonely teenage witch. Thank god someone dropped off a few gems pieces that he could enchant into a pocket sized best friend!

#Shark Tale AU^

* AU of the movie Shark Tale. Ranboo is the little brother of the head of the shark mafia. Tommy is a poor merman with a need to be loved. Tommy pretends to kill Ranboo and the two end up becoming unlikely friends.

#tombelina au

* Thumbelina au. Tommyinnit is just a kid who grew out of a flower and is living with his human family. Until he gets kidnapped. Now he’s lost in the woods and it’s up to a weasel and a bee, Ranboo and Tubbo, to help him get home while his family goes out to look for him.

#Vampire Culture AU

* Quackity was born a vampire. Vampire hunter Sapnap has been a vampire for a few months, and his vampire historian fiancé Karl is a human who just wants to help. Quackity takes them in to try and help after the hunters leave them to die, but what they don’t know is that Quackity is the leader of Las Nevadas, one of the biggest and most dangerous vampire covens.

#Infested AU

* In a world where giant bugs coming out of the woods to kill you is normal, humans have learned to deal with it. Tommy is one of these humans. Well, at least he thought he was. Until he starts to get psychic messages from the insect hive mind and learns that it’s not just the giant bugs humans need to be fearing, it’s the Parasites: giant bugs that can perfectly disguise themselves as humans…

#fairy au

* (will think of a better name later) Tubbo is the son of the dictator like mayor of Manburg. Tommy is the little brother of one of the most powerful fairies in his forest. Tommy runs away right into Tubbo’s political schemes and the two make fast friends.

[sporesgalaxy]

updated a little flashback Vladlence script thing that I started writing in like 2020. some of you may remember this comic

Smile :)

•••

[The year is 1990-something-- before Vlad betrayed and temporally displaced Silence that one time. Vlad and Silence (in human disguise) are at some kind of businesspeople shindig. They've stepped outside for some air and are basically alone. Vlad has a glass of wine.]

S: Lord. I'd forgotten how tedious these are.

V: They're really not worth it unless you can drink. It was so much worse when my parents would drag me to these as a child.

S: Hm. I didn't mind my father's business functions, but my ex-husband's were insufferable.

V: [chokes on wine] "Ex-husband?"

S: Well... "Ex" in that my untimely departure left him a widower, yes.

V: ...is he a--

S: [rolling eyes] NO, he is not a ghost.

V: Still! How have you not mentioned him once?

S: [shrugs] It didn't come up.

V: That isn't fair! I've spilled my guts to you for your research. You HAVE to tell me something!

S: You're being ridiculous.

V: ...That's it. I've decided.

S: Decided what?

V: The favor you owe me for bringing you along as my plus-one tonight!

S: Oh, please! All I've learned this evening is that you're still capable of being intoxicated by normal amounts of human alcohol.

S: Now, you've learned that I had a husband once, a very long time ago. I'd say we're already even.

V: [pouts]

S: Why does it even matter to you?

V: .........if I say, will you tell me more about your human life?

S: I--! Oh, fine. Whatever. Yes.

V: Because marriage is--! It's--! Marriage is everything! It changes your whole life! You finally have someone to always be there for you, in sickness and in health and all that.

V: How could you just...[mimes swatting something out of the air with his free hand] move on, after that? It makes no sense!

S: [tuts, rolls her eyes] You're insufferably romantic, you know that?

S: Marriage is not "everything." My marriage had everything to do with finances, and precious little to do with anything else.

V: ...Oh.

S: That's less common these days, I'll admit, but forgive me if I still feel you're overselling it.

V: ...Well...Still, he was there, right? At least you had someone.

S: [annoyed] Sure. Can we talk about something else now?

V: Did you have a family? [leans against the balcony, resting his chin on a hand, smiling expectantly]

S: [frowning] ...Not the change of subject I was hoping for.

V: [just keeps looking expectantly]

S: [sighs heavily] [trying to be annoying on purpose] Well, I had a mother and father, two siblings-- both of which died in infancy-- and on my mother's side, my cousins--

V: [impatiently] I meant with your husband!

S: [twitches] ...No. It was just he and I, and then I died.

V: Oh.

S: [snarky & bitter] ...Then, he remarried a nice young lady who got to keep all of our money. They, I believe, had several children together.

[Silence is quiet in a sort of uncomfortable angry way. Vlad, oblivious, gets lost in his own thoughts.]

both: .......

V: [CLEARLY thinking about Maddie. a bit dreamily] ...do you ever wish that you could do it all over?

[Vlad is looking at the sky, and doesnt see the judgemental, incredulous look Silence immediately shoots him]

V: That you had more time to make it work?

S: [humorless laugh] HAH! No!

V: [snapped out of his reminiscing, looks at her, surprised] No?

S: [like its an uninteresting, obvious fact] My life didn't have anything worth going back to.

V: [disgust directed at the percieved failure of the faceless husband figure] He was that bad?

S: [waves dismissively] No, no. Our marriage wasn't bad. It just wasn't--

S: ......well, it wasn't much of anything, I suppose.

V: [furrows eyebrows] Hm.

S: [after a short pause] I much prefer this.

V: [for some reason, his heart skips a beat] This?

S: [a bit frantically] My research! In the Ghost Realm. The achievement, the influence, you know. Much more fulfilling.

V: [nods, a bit spacey because of a weird inexplicable feeling he's having] Ah. I see.

[stardustluvs]

hi, me again... I'm sorry but I need Nolan (I fell in love with your writing, please don't be mad at me)

I have one more idea for Nolan.

Let's go..... Nolan is participating in a video and has to win the challenge. But he gets hurt (nothing too bad) after getting hurt he keeps begging them to call his girlfriend, he needs her by his side

kiss it better || n.h.

Word Count:

Pairing: Nolan Hansen x fem!Reader

Summary: What the req says

Warnings: Slight injury(?), Mention of blood (not a lot)

Author’s Note: Changing up how I’m styling the title of my fics slightly! I wrote this instead of sleeping. Also, thank you anon for the request! I appreciate you! Also most of my fics are set in the older style of MrBeast videos as opposed to the newer ones just because I miss when it was his friends competing instead of random people LOL Also I know I haven’t posted a fic in two weeks, shhh…

Requests are open! || masterlist

Everything was going smoothly, he’d spent a lof of time in preparation for this upcoming video, a challenge whereas to win, a sort obstacle course race must be completed. Nolan completely understood the challenge he was faced with, though he may have underestimated the difficulty of it.

Upon looking at the race in person, he could see it would give him a plethora of challenges and problems. It also looked overwhelming, slightly dangerous. Jimmy spent a lot of time already reassuring him and the rest of their friends it would be fine and if God forbid something did happen, they'd be able to safely resolve the issue.

You would've gone to watch Nolan compete, you normally did, except this time you had plans that you needed to get done, having put them off for months now. You could easily expect a few updates from Nolan throughout the day though, he was constantly checking in.

The first part of the course was easy. He just had to not fall and get to the other side. Among him and his friends, everyone was able to make it easily, a few sly remarks from Kris and Karl, but Nolan knew it was all in good fun.

The second part seemed much more terrifying than the first, it looked harder too.

This course was longer, and it consisted of having to run, dodge, and balance at multiple areas.

He didn't get a lot of time to process what he had been looking at when Jimmy called out saying it was time to go.

He started out strong, actually, he was quite far in the lead compared to the rest of the group.

Karl was a close second, calling out to him and making joking banter towards Nolan. That was however, when things started to take a turn for the worst.

Nolan's foot caught against a bit of the course where the ground came up, causing him to trip. At first glance you'd assume he'd have been able to get up and carry on, no big deal. However as he fell, his knee scraped one of the nearby obstacles, sharp enough to break skin, even through the material of his pants.

Immediately he sat up, clutching his knee. He held back curse words and bit down on his lip to try to mask the pain.

Karl saw him first and immediately rushed over towards him.

"Woah- Hey, are you okay?" Karl urged.

Nolan just shook his head, moving his hands to see how bad the cut was. It wasn't so deep he would need immediate medical attention, however it was deep enough to form a nasty cut, and draw a decent amount of blood.

"Jimmy- Hey we need to stop, Nolan's hurt," Karl called over.

Jimmy wasted no time on listening to Karl, putting everything about the video on the back burner. He rushed over to where Nolan was sat on the ground. A few people from around set had rushed over with first aid supplies, being more than prepared for the incident.

"Can someone call Y/N?" Nolan asked to no one in particular. He allowed the people who rushed over to help clean up his knee, wincing a little at the pain from all the movement.

"Yeah- yeah, I'll give Y/N a call," Kris reassured, pulling out her phone and moving quickly to get to her contacts list.

Meanwhile, you had been sat in your car, parked in front of the grocery store. You had been scrolling through your phone momentarily before getting a call from... Kris?

It was odd, and you wondered why she would be calling if she was meant to be filming with everyone right now.

You answered, a little worried and concerned.

"Hello?" You asked as you pressed the phone to your ear.

"Hey, Y/N, can you come to the set right now?"

"Uhm, I'm a little busy, why? Is everything okay?" You asked, concern filling your voice more and more as you wondered what the issue was.

"Nolan's hurt- He's okay, he didn't like break anything or anything like that, but he fell, and his knee's kind of fucked up now," Kris explained, hurrying to tell you that he was okay, knowing you would worry.

"He asked for someone to call you," She added.

"Okay, oh my God, thanks Kris, I'm on my way," You said, ending the call and putting your phone away.

You sighed, knowing that it was probably going to be okay, you reminded yourself that Kris told you Nolan didn’t break anything and was okay except for the fact he got hurt. You were about fifteen minutes out from where the set was, and you could only do so much to get there quickly with all the traffic.

Back at the shoot, a medical team continued to try and get the bleeding to stop. It was slowing down…slowly, and it hurt like hell.

“Did you call Y/N?” He asked Kris when he saw her show back up beside him.

“Yeah, she’s coming,” She replied.

The reassurance that fell over his body at the news you were on your way was visible to anyone who paid attention. It was no secret that he was extremely dependent on you, and that was fine, it wasn’t like you minded him clinging to you any time something happened. It was cute.

When you got there, the first person you saw was Jimmy, who greeted you and was immediately guiding you over to where Nolan was.

It looked…worse than what you imagined in your head, which made you panic slightly, seeing all these medical professionals around your boyfriend. It seemed excessive.

“Hey, you okay?” You asked him, sitting down beside him.

Immediately he pulled you into a hug, wincing slightly when he had to move his leg.

“What happened?” You asked him.

“I fell, cut my knee pretty bad,” He replied.

“We’ll go home as soon as they’re done, okay?”

He was about to object, saying he wanted to continue the video, but before he could, his friends all seemed to agree that was for the best.

You waited with him, allowing him to rest his head against yours while the medical team seemed to finally be finishing up after what felt like ages.

They explained that he may have a bit of a difficulty walking since the cut was pretty nasty, but it should heal up in no time, which you thanked God for.

“Ready?” You asked him, starting to stand up as you reached your hand down to help him up.

He nodded, grabbing your hand. You helped him up the best you could. He inhaled sharply at the slight pressure being put onto his knee.

You allowed him to use you to lean on and help balance, saying goodbye to everyone and getting to your car.

“Thanks for coming so quickly,” He thanked you.

You shook your head, “Why are you thanking me for that?”

“Because I know you were busy today is all,” He said, shrugging a little.

“Never busy if you’re hurt,” You smiled softly, leaning over and kissing him gently.

[tgrailwar-zero]

For those that follow me outside of here, you may have been present for my waffling as to whether to continue a few weeks back. And I've made a decision.

THGW-Zero will be continuing!

And while I don't play FGO anymore, I'm not against shamelessly using their assets for this.

Of course, there's a bit more than just that, so let's get into it!

'Major updates' will occur weekly. They won't be just prompts for polls, though. Rather than somewhat-daily polls with a limited amount of options, the main posts will put into consideration as many of the asks, comments, and suggestions sent in throughout the week as possible- and the characters will respond. And then, generally at the end of the post there will be a poll pertaining to a major choice to vote on.

However, smaller one-day polls will occur during the week (mainly pertaining to item usage or smaller interactions). They'll also serve as ways to steer the narrative in the 'main post', giving players a chance to nudge things in either a more or less favorable direction. For the sake of simplicity, I'll probably give them a name like 'mini polls', or something.

(This means that some asks will show up during the week before the 'main post', and some will only show up when the 'main post' happens)

So, more akin to this. But hopefully with a better outcome.

This will be the main factor of story progression, and gives people more of a chance to think about what the next desired outcome is rather than feeling like you have to catch everything day-of in order to follow along. So, a 'main post' will be uploaded, a week will pass to discuss, send in asks to learn more about the situation, or give suggestions about what to do for the next 'main post', and then there will be a update a week later (give or take a day to write and gather responses). The day being a chance to gather together people's responses and write the next part of the story. This should help make things both less stressful (both for me and you guys), and easier to keep up with. No more accidentally missing a week and then suddenly everything's changed.

We'll call this a test run. If it doesn't work, we can always go back to normal!

The HP/MP system is going to receive a facelift, as well as the 'success' system. I think a more overt 'gamification' ended up causing more undue stress, so I'm going to try forgoing that for a more narrative approach. Every action will have set pros and cons, some of which will be clearer than others. I want to prompt more exploration and communication, rather than simply 'get the most votes here and everything will be safe and fine forever'.

There will be stricter moderation regarding inter-player discussion. Doing some backreading, there were a lot of moments where I could have put a heavier hand down and cut things off before they got too intense.

And, considering how a recent Grail War got, in a word, 'nasty'- I'm not fond of recreating that. If you're displeased with a situation, then you can make that known without being condescending and unpleasant to other people- and if you're going to do it via anon, then be known that I'm not obligated to post it.

And… that's about it! Keep a lookout for a new 'Main Post' that'll briefly recap the details and push things forward! Hope you all have a good week!

[ghostofasecretary]

[placeholder, to be filled with more goals later] list

Monday plots:

- (Mon) call that one guy and see if you can become a New Patient (i hate everything) (i don't WANNA) (i do want reliable access to meds 2k25 so. UGH. FINE. GOD) (find office phone number, that's step number 1)

- (Mon) update finances spreadsheet

- (Mon) write cards MONDAY? correspondence, something like "Dear [Name], Happy New Year! I hope you had a peaceful and restful holiday season, and I hope 2025 brings you exciting opportunities and joy. All best, Ghost" is fine

- (Mon) walk cards to post office; also check in re: the fucking "locker" (9400 140 2023 71 001 476 469) (got follow up step for later)

- (Mon) rinse off, shampoo hair

- okay. well. The Guy does not exist (or at least i could not find them) so i'm back to finding a new guy. have a list. gotta decide if i want a psych or pcp; if i trusted the pcp i could theoretically knock out my pap smear with them but this would require me to trust the pcp, so. that seems. unlikely. i trust psychs more than normal doctors for whatever reason. so maybe go with the psychs? but also my last visit with my pcp was March so i WILL run out of refills from that guy in the next three months and DO need a pcp. uuuuuuuuugh. let's...call that pcp office and check c 1pm. next available isn't till mid July! try another guy

- (Mon) make pumpkin bread to share with fremb

- (Mon) sort out Polluted Yarn

- (Mon) hang with J Monday afternoon (2ish) <- solidify plans, send text (done Sat night, Sun morning)

- (Mon) get that jump ring measurement to J for 3d printing so you can fix that cami

- (Mon) what am i gonna make Monday to eat Tues/maybe Wends for work lunch. tofu curry! yum! nice

- (Mon) eat leftover dal + broccoli

- do limited amount of lesson planning. like. more than zero not more than two

- nutrition spreadsheet

food:

- (1/13? 1/14?) use up last two bananas

- make pumpkin seed granola to give yourself more snacky foods

- (try granola bars with dates????)

- (Sun 19) wash blue shirt

(Sun 19) wash clothes:

- (Sun 19) wash misc clothing

- (Sun 19) wash gold sweater

- (Sun 19) wash another sweater

med quest:

- call hospital pharmacies re: med availability

- see about dental etc care here

- call lgbt friendly pcp providers

""Ghost's academic life:""

- poetry (1) type edits to t1, 2) type edits to t2, 3) type draft of M, 4) work on M and/or R (1/10/25), 5) do new smooth English translation (your fav song, that one) + send, 6) set + confirm meeting time)

- new poems! yay!!

- uh. class on Friday??? fuck my lifeeeeeeeeee (or let me rework my priorities)

- i really need to like. do a general Arabic grammar review

- and get back into Anki for Persian

mending:

- coral house skirt mending

- pj pant hem maintenance (coral hole, grey hem)

- preventative-ish darning/reinforcement of every canvas bag you own

- (Sun 19) repair main slip

- hem blue pants so you can actually wear them

- sew strap covers onto green dress

dreams:

- haircut nice for Ghost brain good of long Ghost neck

- could i grow herbs in my room? cilantro (and maybe mint, if controllable, which. it's mint) would be ideal

(Sat 18) plant green onion sprouts

- any free performances in my area? try to go See More Live Art

- give yourself more knitting time

list items 1/2/24 in blue

outfits 2024

outfit spreadsheet?? meh

meal plan for Being Cheap

free grocery store

make list of food banks to explore

1/7/25 list leftovers in purple

"contact" "people" for your ""career""

sort papers for real and not just for fake

make a scarf for A with the other yarn?

bonus Arabic reading practice (prolly not gonna happen)

list items 1/12/25 in black

done list (min. 1 day ago):

- (Fri) change sheets + wash sheets & apron

- (Sat) game with friends

- (Sat) 2025 Calendar

- (Sat) start yogurt making (finish tomorrow (Sun) 7:45am)

- (Sat) roast squash seeds

- (Sat) make banana bread with 3/5 bananas

- (Sat) turn mint skein into a yarn ball

- (Sat) call M

- (Sat) refill meds for the week

- (Sun) job paperwork

- (Sun) request anticonvulsants from doc

- (Sun) clean toilet, bathtub

- (Sun) attempt once again to destain/deep clean bathroom walls and floor boards

- (Sun) repair coat pockets

- (Sun) repair coat lining hem

- (Sun) groceries (stay under $30! thoughts: i would love peanuts and dried apricots but. strugglier items for budget, so select produce (+ milk?) first. sweet potato!! more broccoli/leafy greens. carrots and onions in bags if available. tomatoes, obvs. good on ginger for the next week. could buy an onion bag to cut up + freeze some extras for future use, which could save on future bills. also remember food pantries Are An Option To Explore) (well. got apricots and peanuts AND paper towels which took me over $30 but once my roommates pay me back for their share it should only be over by, like, 4 cents)

- (Sun) help roommate out a minimal amount. or for. two hours, of course i took two hours, fuck me

- (Sun) TIMECARD

- (Sun) MAINTENANCE REQUEST FOR BEEPING. GAH. text housemate for advice (Sat) it's on the rent portal, cool, you can do this

- (Sun) CANCEL OBGYN APPT (call tomorrow even tho closed b/c insurance bs)

- (Sun) make tofu + broccoli with peanut sauce. or spiced broccoli + tofu curry? need to use broccoli first and also eat spinach soon. or just cook broccoli! fine!

- (Sun) see what MS texted (re: med advice?)

- (Sun) ask group chat for rubbing alcohol/hairspray/acetone to try on coral skirt marker stains!! (also J + A) (can you borrow from someone)

- (Sun) wash another slip

- (Sun) leisure items: knit, drink tea, finish Jenny Nicholson video, new Cult Flav, check out some cookbooks to browse

[musclesaber]

Growth Drive: Rob's 2nd Report

[Story Gallery] [Week 0] [Week 1] [Rob's 1st Report] [Week 2]

Rob gives Sam an update on Jared's growth and some developments he's discovered about his cum.

Sam stirred the cauldron and tossed brightly colored vials into the mixture as he heard a ding emit from his tablet. Walking back over to the front counter, Sam saw another unopened message from Rob.

Dear Sam,

I have done as you’ve instructed and the giant’s temper has been satiated. He is out of the city and in the ocean where he can grow as much as he wants without any human casualties or major property damage. However at the rate he is growing, I worry he might threaten the stability of the entire planet. What would you have me do if he reaches such a size?

Your hypothesis about his growth has been correct. He has now reached sizes that would even be marveled at by the king. Especially for someone who is so untrained in growth. His vitals all appear to be normal if not above average now and he has taken to the size with flying colors. He has had a remarkable amount of growth in the cock department which is surprising. The speedo should be growing it, but not at the rate it is currently growing. It’s almost grown bigger than the rest of his body. It’s unheard of for a giant of this caliber to also experience such a potent amount of growth in their cock as well.

I also have an update on your questions about his cum. It appears that even in its preejaculate form, it is potent enough to grow the worshippers on his body who ingest it or come in contact with it. I saw some worshippers with over blown body parts while the rest of their bodies remained normal size. And others that drank it had their whole bodies grow in every department. That might have something to do with the magic within the speedo, but it is unclear. I do worry that if his pre is able to do just this, what might his actual load do to a normal sized individual?

Please write back quickly as there is very little time in between his large growth spurts for me to interject.

Sincerely,

R-08

Sam walked back towards his potion station and waved his hand in the air, making the tablet begin to float and follow him. “Dear, R-08,” said Sam aloud. “Continue this experiment as instructed and allow his body to grow as much as it can. I would like to see the limits of what he can do if he’s already reached such a large size.” The tablet started writing out a message as Sam talked and fiddled with bottles of potions. “If he starts to cause problems for the structure of the Earth, fly him out into space so that he may truly grow with no limitations. Move the atmosphere and the civilian population of the Earth to his body so that they may live out the rest of their existence on his body. Nowhere close to his head though.”

Sam snapped his fingers and a flame appeared below the massive cauldron and the black liquid inside began to bubble. “As for his cock and his cum, do not let any of his real cum get out into the general population of the Earth. If I’m correct, it could be even more catastrophic than him destroying the planet. I am sending you a zielian condom that shall ensure that not even a drop of cum will be wasted.” Sam stirred away at the mixture as the black mucky color brightened into a magenta like color that sizzled like a fresh can of soda.

Sam brought a small spoonful of the potion to his lips and began to blow on it. “Keep Jaren happy and the citizens safe and you’ll be fine. This isn’t the first time we’ve had to relocate a population because a fish decided it got too big for its pond. This will just be on a much grander scale. Do not fret R-08. Everything will work out fine. Keep growing him until he breaks or the speedo does. You have your orders, now get to growing,” said Sam as he took a sip of the mixture.

“Sincerely, Sam the Sizemologist.” Sam managed to get those last words out before he felt a jolt of energy. His eyes widened and his clothes got tighter on his body instantaneously. He grunted as his muscles began to expand in their already tight clothes. His head started rising up towards the ceiling of the small shop. Sam moaned as his shorts got tighter as well. Both from the front and the back as his dick lengthened itself inside his underwear, his balls dropped lower, and his ass inflated like balloons getting blown up.

Steadying himself against a counter, Sam blinked a few times and got his barings around him. He definitely had to crane his neck down further to see the massive book laid out on a podium and he could barely see past his bulging pecs. Walking back towards the clothing department of the shop, Sam got to the wall mirror and looked at himself.

He was at an impressive size before, but now he looked like a cartoon with how overblown his body looked. His muscles were fighting for space on his body so much so that he could barely bend his arms and legs giving him a waddle. He could feel his dick hitting his knees with each small sway Sam did with his hips. Tears in his clothing had popped up on his entire body as they couldn’t contain most of his now giant form. And with his new height, even the XXL’s he’d had on looked like children’s clothes.

Sam flicked his wrist and the tablet zipped to floating next to him again. “Sizemologist’s log. Entry 163. Testing with the new ingredient has been beyond successful. I thought I had diluted the substance enough, but it grew me to the size that would normally take 10 different potions to achieve with just a single sip. I will reexamine my measurements and see if I can make this in a less potent form,” said Sam as he opened up a cabinet door and fished out a fresh t-shirt and pants.

“But this failure does reveal the true strength of the substance. In its raw form, this stuff could have the potential to grow entire armies from just the sample I have now. If there is to be peace, no one must be allowed to learn its true capabilities until it can be countered. Luckily, I believe a very large sample should be arriving for testing in a few hours.” Sam put on the clothes and they fit his body like a glove. He walked over to the window and peered out at beautiful constellations of stars twinkling in the distance. Looking down, he saw a blue and green planet and a growing white dot emerging from the northern hemisphere.

“I shall continue testing and send my findings to the guild once I have a completed product,” said Sam as he walked back towards his potions. “End log.” The tablet blinked and then went dark as Sam waved his arms and lifted the cauldron in the air. “Mcellian Revete!” shouted Sam and the liquid began to separate. Vials from all over the room flew towards the cauldron and disappeared into the mixture only to pop out with green, blue, or red liquids inside them. The mixture was unmixing itself until all that remained in the cauldron was a creamy white goo.

“Less cum, more potions,” said Sam as the cauldron floated towards the giant vat of cum and poured itself back inside. “Hopefully I have enough space to fit Jaren’s next load.”

[edwin-paynes-bowtie]

Re Follow up to Wessa spicy and loving ur work > CC and long fits Q

I CANNOT WAIT FOR WESSA SPICY, U WRITE SPICY SO FREAKING WELL! I also have never thought about historical spicy stuff. which obviously happened cuz hello folks back then did it as well, it's not just a present day thing haha.

I think I just feel ur engagement is way more motivating and higher than CC's. Obv CC has mad kudos for creating this Universe, but like any author who has made It so clear that she wants to move on from the universe, the fun part is playing within it YK? Not just creating plots and marriages just so that the union and the good ending is the telos of it. The pay off is now seeing them banter about together, have the dynamics shift as they age, see how they view the world and how they continue to problem solve yk? And it gets even more fun when you create ensemble casts, bc THATS why Downton abbey is so long! It's so much fun to see it through, throughout!

An example I use is I follow these two authors who LOVEE their book universes, and also write generational fun family (modern day) ensamble casts with friends, and they spend normally 3-4 books focused on one character's OTP, seeing it through, throughout, and than moving onto another. Not the traditional stickler predictable "one book per pairing" in a series we see too often. AND THAN, when they move on, they continue to write publish 2 bonus chapters, update their interests boards, and talk about everything on their Patreon for like less than 3 dollars a month. there are over 100+ chapters now at this point!

Not to say that's what CC wants to do, but when you have amounted such a huge fandom, a lot of it is not just about making annual deliverables and canon events occur, but having fun just domestically and I feel like she doesn't want to do that. Which is totally fine! I respect that. But obviously the type of fan I am, as you can see, I gravitate towards the way you produce, engage and write (u write for yourself and ur fans, yes u have fans and I am one) more so than her. That's kind of what I was trying to get at in my initial post :-). Bc when CC wants to move on, it feel so lovely and safe, to know my safe space won't go, because ur still leading it. <3 <3 So again, from the bottom to the top of my heart, thank you <3

This made me tear up. Thank you so much, friend.

Messages like this make me feel extremely motivated to write. I really hope you enjoy my Valentine's fic as much as I am liking writing it.

I think I understand what you're saying - Cassie does a really good job of creating characters and telling their stories. I consider her to be one of the best creators of our time, specifically in TID and TLH as well as Sword Catcher (even if that one has less of a hold on me, it's inarguably one of her best works world-building and plot-wise.) But yes, sometimes you just want little fluffy post-canon stories of the characters, which is not always possible for a world-famous writer with tons of ongoing projects. I'm looking forward to Better in Black a lot because of this.

I just write what I want to see and roll with it. I am glad that it's what you want to see, too.

Dear God, I am tearing up a lot. Thank you. From the bottom of my heart, I truly appreciate everyone who has read one of my fics and given me a chance to play with their blorbos.

[yourbestpalpercy]

(ACK!! Update: I forgot to mention!! Eira and Dianica are my IRL Friend’s ToonTown Ocs! Same friend who made April, May, June and wrote 7 in Hush btw. She’s been a great help writing my stories! She’s also in the same place as me, working with what information we have on games like ToonTown and Splatoon.)

Everything was going pretty alright with the teacher’s assistant job. This was about 2 weeks after Prethinker had been kicked out of the School’s Basement. Weirdo. Making plans in the school basement…

Leaf had a good amount of Gags now. And in case you’re wondering, no, still not allowed to fight Manager Bossbots. However, they had softened up a little, allowing her to speak to them to try to avoid conflicts. I guess having a neutral could be useful to The Resistance, avoiding pointless fights. Admittedly, she had made a few more friends and hey! Holly (Gatekeeper) had invited her to a DnD group. Leaf couldn’t’ve been happier!

Tonight she had a meeting with The Resistance. Apparently, Melody had heard from a Cog she was fighting, that new Bots were being introduced. Not by choice, interestingly. This quickly led to a side mission where a different toon (That same deer that called Leaf an Oillicker) was told to sneak in and record everything.

“Harold Lesser is dead. He lost control of that…Toon Cog experiment he was creating. It destroyed him beyond repair, destroyed his database too! It’s gone rogue and is converting the other Cogs in the area into…Mediabots she calls them. It’s worrying. …She’s on the side of the Toons, at least in her mind, we’re worried she’s coming for everyone in her database.” The recorder murmured. Leaf fumbled with her hands. Chances are, Flippy would send her to try to reason with the experiment. She had been labeled as the Peacekeeper after all because she was good with reasoning.

“That monster won’t…” The speaker was cut off by the Chairman. “Big Fish. That’s enough. Please leave. I need a moment to think…” There was a clear sound of a door closing before- “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!! Wh-WH-WHAT ARE WE G-GOING TO DO!?” There were sounds of someone running about and panicking. “G-Get all the suits in here! EVERYONE! This is a red alert!!” “Sir. I-I don’t think this room can..f-fit everyone?” “JENNIFER GET EVERYONE IN HERE OR ELSE YOU’RE FIRED!!” Leaf had to cover her ears! Normally she never had to do that!

The deer just smugly said, “It was louder in real life, anyways.” Flippy quickly paused the recording, “You could’ve warned us, Ronald…” Flippy mumbled under his breath. “Anyways, whatever this…experiment is, we’re gonna need to see if we can settle it…maybe? Leaf?” Leaf raised her head, uncovering her ears. “Yes, Flippy?”

“We’re sending you and Melody into this place, you’ll need to find a place in the back to sneak in through, we have no idea if the experiment is like the other places and we cannot take risks if she has Manager Bossbots in there. If things go south, Leaf, is your speaker done?” Leaf took out the speaker and stared at it for a bit. “...I’d say so, it has to be if we’re going to fight…”

So now Leaf was here…helping Melody pry a hole into the base.

“I’m still worried about this, Melody…y-yes, I’m a smooth talker b-but this is a straight up murderer!” Leaf whispered to Melody just as they pushed their way inside the base. “We’ll be fine, I promise. You’re a master at reasoning. I mean- you managed to reason with…which one was it? Chip?”

“No, I wasn’t allowed anywhere even slightly close to Mr. Chainsaw Face.”

“Uhm…oh right! It was Witchhunter.”

“The man could shoot fire, no way I was going to be allowed around him.” Melody was about to name another until, “Pacesetter. I was able to reason with Pacesetter. Graham.” Leaf looked around the base a little, being careful not to knock anything over or make a sound.

Didn’t matter though because, rather quickly, Leaf heard the sound of Melody yelling and trying to attack something. Leaf looked panicked and ran to where the noise was coming from. Melody was hanging upside down before a large computer.

Leaf panicked before throwing a Drop gag at the wire. A flower pot. She just had to hope it would land.

And it did!

A screech came from the computer before Melody was dropped and Leaf was grabbed. Without a second thought, she was thrown high into the air. Before she hit the ground, another wire grabbed her. “Who threw that!? Attacking Cogs!?” The voice stopped, holding Leaf upside down by the leg before that large computer. Before it was a large, mostly white dragon. Her face was nearly entirely rainbow. “Wait…are you-?” Another wire suddenly punched Leaf in the side. “Y-You’re not made of metal…y-you’re not a Cog! Oh my gosh!! What are you!?” The dragon started to excitedly shake Leaf about. “You’re absolutely adorable! S-So tiny a-and–! Oh wait, that’s because I’m big–! But still! Look at your green hair- Aw! You even have a leaf shaped pin in your hair! A-And your adorable little backpack!” Another wire grabbed Leaf’s backpack from her and squished her face. “You’re so squishy!!!” Her attention then turned to the backpack.

“I wonder what’s in here…” The dragon murmured and went near the bottom of the screen to look into the backpack. “Aww! You’ve got little gags! And they're Sound ones! Y’know, I’m a singer! I’m shocked not a lot of Toons know about me! I’ve released songs and yet- nothing! But you…you’re new! A-And something I’ve never seen before! Sooooo, I’m Iris! Iris Lovecake!” Iris flew about the screen for a moment before gently setting down Leaf. “You look fragile so :).”

“I-Iris huh…? A-And you must be the Toon Cog that’s causing serious panic for the Cogs?”

“That would be me! :P! And I’m a Toon. Just a Toon. Maybe an artificial one but still a Toon. I have no idea where the term ‘Toon Cog’ comes from!” Iris stuck her tongue out with a giggle.

“Sorry…i-it’s uhm..never mind,” Leaf approached Melody and helped her up, giving her support. “W-We’re here on behalf of the…the Toons to…convince you not to murder everyone?” Iris placed a wire over her mouth before she could continue. “I murdered 1 person and he totally deserved it! He was going to delete me!” Iris spun onto her back with a giggle.

“W-Well…I-I’m here as proof that there are good Cogs out there-.”

Iris let out an exaggerated yawn. “You’re on the Toons’ side? Who cares about a few dead Cogs? Especially when they’re ALL awful!” As Iris said ‘All’, her rainbow face shot bright red before it faded back into rainbow. “Well, I guess there are a few exceptions..”

“S-See!? Uhm-.”

“No. I don’t want your peace talk. I don’t think I made this clear enough…” Iris pinched her muzzle. “I don’t want “peaceful” mumbo jumbo. I want revenge!” Iris grinned at the thought, her eyes filling with black tears as her pupils changed to skulls. Her frill changed to bright yellow. “So please, if you’re going to yapping, I’m gonna have to remove you from the premises..” Iris smiled sweetly, folding her talons.

Melody looked back and Leaf could feel her freeze. “...Leaf..” She weakly pointed, causing Leaf to look back. There was a large cog right behind them. Its head was a stylophone. It didn’t seem to speak. Instead, it only buzzed to Iris. “Yes, yes, I know it hurts but you’re much better like this, Virtuoso,” Iris used her wires to gently cup the Cog’s face. “Now, if they mention another word about peace between Toons and Cogs, throw them out,” Leaf squealed, feeling the cold hand of the Cog.

“Look, it’s simple,” Iris said, still rubbing her muzzle. “Cogs and Toons will never get along. If they do, one or both of them are crazy. Cogs are too snotty! Just a buncha- blecks…” Iris rolled her eyes. “So, I’m eliminating them ALL!” Iris looked away from Leaf, only to reveal her tainted eyes once more as she grinned at Leaf.

“Th-They’re not all bad! Th-There’s Misty..a-and Holly–...”

“Well duh! I’m going to spare them. I’m going to turn them into Toons! I would do the other Cogs I like but…I couldn’t imagine them any other way…bye bye Mouthpiece…” Iris feigned (? Leaf couldn’t tell) sadness as she said this. “Poor Deep Diver too..a-and Flint…”

“Y-You don’t have to kill them! Cogs and Toons can-!”

“And that’s how Melody and I got literally thrown out of the base,” Leaf groaned, placing her hands over her eyes. “Believe me…I tried to reason with her but she’s convinced that she’s helping the Toons!” Leaf placed her head on the table. “I don’t know what to do…I-I’m also going to need a new backpack.”

“How lucky for you that you’re not the leader,” Mac chuckled, looking proud of himself. Leaf only lifted her head slightly to glare at Mac. Flippy just cleared his throat to quiet everyone down. “Ronald. Stop, Leaf, do you still have your speaker?” Leaf just..slowly took it out. “Hm…Iris seems more stubborn than we had expected…never thought The Resistance would have to stop a Toon from causing harm…” Flippy murmured. “Rocky? Do you have any opinions?” Flippy started. The tan dog looked to be thinking hard.

“...I think it’s only a matter of time before the Cogs come knocking at our door, begging for help.”

Dianica was tinkering with the MedPak 2.0 when she heard a soft buzz. She cleared some papers and picked up her phone, answering it. “Hello, this is L.A.B.S, Dianica speaking. How may I assist you?” On the other side was Flippy, the mayor of ToonTown. “Hey Dianica. We’ve got a…a big problem. Rocky theorizes that the Cogs will be knocking at the door soon, begging for our help.”

“What? Why would Cogs want our help?”

“Simply put, they were making this…Toon dragon thingy…and it turned against them. Normally, that would sound good, but…it’s kinda about to start going on a murderous rampage. Rocky also theorizes that’s not just going to be the Cogs she’s going to go after…”

“Oh, that sounds bad… I’ll be there in a bit, I just need proper equipment.” she farewelled Flippy, hanging up.

Leaf just sighed, “So…who was that?” Leaf asked, still sulking a little about the failure. “It’s an ally. Dianica. I’m shocked you don’t know her, her daughter goes to the school you’re an assistant at. She’ll most likely be here soon enough…” Flippy sat back down at the table and folded his hands. “Until then, we can try to think about-”

There was a light knocking at the door, and Flippy answered it. There stood Dianica, panting, with a weird metal backpack-looking thing. “Hi, did I arrive in time?”

Looking at her, she was clearly a Toon, but… She looked more like a Cog, with her skin color being silverish. Her eyes were reddish pink, and her tail looked like a cord of sorts. But, the most odd thing about her was the hole in her face, about where her nose would be, if she had one. A soft steam was drifting out of it, and her horns were slightly glowing green. She wore a lab coat that was torn a little, and streaked with mud near the bottom. “I came as soon as I could.”

Leaf sat up, looking at Dianica. She looked…a little- well, she definitely gave off…vibes. Vibes that made her a little uncomfortable. “Hi, y-you must be Dianica,” Leaf said, hoping it wasn’t too loud. She had a bit of a habit of talking loud due to her deafness.

“Hello, um, I believe Eira talks about you, but I’ve forgotten your name! Tsk, sorry, dear, I-I have a lot of things on my mind all the time, so I can be horribly forgetful. What was your name? Something related to a tree… Stem? No, Sapling? Probably not… Oh, wait, is it Leaf?”

“Yeah, but you can definitely call me Stem and Sapling, I don’t really mind.”

As Flippy turned away and guided Dianica to sit back down, there was a much rougher sounding knock at the door. Flippy’s expression changed to that of slight worry before he opened the door again. There stood one of the most terrifying Cogs Leaf had ever seen! He looked like a twisted fire fighter! Leaf grew tense before ducking under the table.

“Uhm..h-hi…is this The Resistance?” He spoke softly. Almost too quiet for Leaf to hear.

Flippy looked a little surprised too! He didn’t know for sure how to respond really. “Uhh..”

“Fl-” Dianica stopped herself, as if she didn’t want anyone to know she knew him.

“Y-Yes,” Flippy answered quickly before shaking his head, “I-I mean–...is this about the ToonCog?”

The firefighter just nodded. “...Is she…okay?” The firefighter asked, pointing to Leaf hiding under the table.

“Oh uh, that’s Leaf,” Flippy checked under the table. “Leaf?”

“...Y-Yes?” Leaf was shaking.

“What are you doing under the table?” Flippy asked.

“...Scary…” Leaf murmured.

The firefighter tilted his head and slowly pointed at himself.

Leaf responded with a nod.

“...Oh! You think I’m…well…I guess I look…” The firefighter looked himself over. “A little scary…”

Dianica just stared curiously at him. She then sighed and pulled something out of her bag, and a few tools, and started tinkering with it quietly.

“I’m Flint,” Flint smiled at Leaf and held out his hand for a shake. “...” Leaf just did the light shooing motion.

Flint looked immediately troubled. Flippy jumped in just in case, “Oh yeah, she does that when she’s scared. Don’t take offense to it, she did it to me too,” Flippy explained to Flint who nodded.

“Shockingly…I’ve never had erm…a-anyone be scared of me, Graham keeps telling me I need to…stop letting Toons walk all over…me…” Flint went on before noticing Dianica. “O-Oh! Dianica…I-I had no idea you…worked with The Resistance…”

“Yes, shockingly,” she said dismissively, “Good to see you again, Flint.”

Flint just nodded before anxiously standing off to the side. “O-Oh…! Right, I-I’m here to deliver a message from The Chairman of The C.O.G.S (as he insisted I referred to him as…)- We need your-”

“Help with Iris Lovecake?” Rocky finished for Flint.

He jumped a little, muttering, “I-...It has a name…?”

“Yes, it has a name. It- I don’t know where- I think H. Lesser named it. Don’t really know though. So.”

Soon, Leaf climbed out from under the table, retreating to the very back of the room and far away from Flint. “We uh…already tried talking to…it…”

“She stole my backpack…” Leaf added while slowly crossing her arms. “I lost all my gags but at least I still have my speaker,” Leaf refused to look Flint in the eye.

“She- we were afraid that- she would take over our lab, too. Uhm-...”

“So what they’re saying is, we accept helping the Cogs-” Rocky was cut off by Flint.

“O-Oh! Thank you-!” Flint smiled happily.

“On one condition,” Flippy said, holding up a finger for ‘1’.

“Oh,” Flint paused, looking a little more settled.

“You stop trying to take over ToonTown or at least stop attacking whatever Toons you see.”

Flint tapped his foot on the ground, processing the information. “...Should I go tell The Chairman of The C.O.G.S (as he insists I need to refer to him as) that? Y..Y’know, relay info…?”

Leaf nodded, finally making eye contact with the terrifying cog.

“Got it,” Flint nodded before leaving the building.

“Oh, and I’m almost finished with the MedPak, by the way,” Dianica cut in, adding a few finishing touches.

“Good, thank you Dianica,” Flippy nodded.

“Yes, I figured you’d be grateful for that. You’re welcome!” Dianica replied, then muttered, “Surprising that you all haven’t figured it out yet…”

“Figured out what yet? What, that you have connections to the Cogs?” Leaf asked with a slight giggle, she was teasing Dianica lightly because she was like a Cog. Now that Flint was gone, Leaf felt much better.

Dianica looked shocked for a moment, then masked it with a warm smile and a laugh. “Maybe!” she joked back- it didn’t really seem that she was joking, though.

Leaf picked up on this and-...never mind. “We need to discuss more about this..Iris problem,” Rocky spoke up.

“Indeed.” Dianica agreed. “I can’t wait to study her! Must be so fascinating, being a Cog that looks like a Toon. Wonder how that works…” She grabbed out a notepad and started scribbling notes into it- at least, Leaf guessed it was notes.

“She’s also dangerous, Dianasaur…” Mac hissed, glaring at Dianica. “You’re crazy if you think you can just-.”

“Oh get off her *ss, Mac! Seriously, are you ever happy? You’ll turn into a Cog at this rate!” Leaf suddenly hissed, glaring at Mac. Mac wrinkled his snout, “Says you, Boltsmoocher!”

Flippy groaned and abruptly separated them both. “Enough yapping! Not everything has to be a fight!”

“It is intriguing when it is a fight though,” Dianica muttered. “Also, Ronaldo, my name, for the LAST TIME, is DIANICA!!”

Upon hearing Ronaldo, Mac actually stopped talking, causing Leaf to just…stand there silently. “Oh my god…you silenced him. Thank you, peace on this world at last!”

“Oh, it was nothing. That always works for me! He’s a snowflake around me, kind of.” Dianica snickered at the look on Mac’s face.

“I AM NOT A SNOWFLAKE!! YOU’RE A SNOWFLAKE! SCREW YOU!”

“Ha, no, fu…frick you.” Dianica flipped him off. “Just SHUT UP already, your pettiness is boring me.”

“BOTH OF YOU. Stop it now.”

Dianica subsided obediently, but Mac was still scowling at her.

Flippy sighed. “We’re going to need help. Ronald, you go to that base and monitor Iris.”

“What? Why shoul-?”

“No complaints, you’re the best at stealth here, now get going please.”

Dianica grabbed a rather large thing out of her pack- a bit too big for the pack, actually. It was a robotic spout-looking thing.

Leaf tilted her head and got a closer look at the sprout. “What’s that, Dianica?” Leaf asked, holding her hands away from the robot.

“It’s a mini Robo-spout!! Very handy, if you need water in a rush." She reached back in the pack and pulled out a glove, put it on, and set down the spout. She pressed some buttons and clenched her fist. She moved it up, and the robot looked up.

“A handmade squirt gag! Just like my speaker,” Leaf excitedly pulled out her speaker. It looked rather unassuming, just being a black box with some lights on it. “I’d give it a test but for all I know, it’s incredibly loud, maybe loud enough to make me fully deaf!”

“A gag? It’s not…” Dianica glanced at Flippy. Flippy was talking to Rocky about what to do about Iris. “I mean- of course it is! Ha ha, yeah, I’m good at making stuff. Need something? I’ll make it for you!” she improvised quickly, even talking fast with a nervous undertone to her voice.

Leaf tilted her head, “A makeshift gag is nothing to be ashamed of, again, LOUD is right here,” Leaf picked up her speaker, giving it a light shake. “Are you not very good at using Gags?”

“I build them, not use them- not very often, anyways. Normally, I can just control them using this.” Dianica gestured to the glove on her hand.

“That would explain it, some of the gags are hard to use…”

“I… make the ones that are easy to use.” Dianica clarified.

“Wait, did you make my horn?” Leaf showed Dianica the heavily used horn. It was decorated in stickers and various other things. It was given a nice life so far.

“Yes, sort of. I helped with it, mainly the sound it makes!! Pleasant to Toons, not very with Cogs!! Fun, ain't it?”

“Dang right!” Leaf cheered and gave it a mighty, powerful honk.

*HONK!!!*

“Ehehehe!!” Leaf started laughing before tossing the horn for Dianica to give it a try. Dianica joined in, honking it again.

*HONK!!!*

“Love this sound!!” she cried.

“Definitely the best noise ever…” Leaf chuckled.

“Yeah, the Cogs can’t stand it!” Dianica giggled, passing Leaf the horn. “Anyways, I should get to work on this little guy.” She picked up the small spout-bot. “Exactly why it’s the best thing for sure!” Leaf kept bouncing up and down.

“As adorable as you two weirdly are, we need to focus on the Iris situation, unless you two want to go discover your twin souls somewhere else,” Doe chuckled. Doe! Leaf completely forgot about Doe! Leaf loved the yellow deer, she was so nice!!

Leaf quickly turned towards Doe, “We need to focus on the Iris situation. We’ll also need the strongest Cogs if Iris is as powerful as everyone suggests they are.” Flippy nodded, “That’s correct,” He then turned to Doe, “And I think we know one who is a perfect 1st option…”

“No, no, Flippy, we cannot talk to him. He nearly took your head last time…” Doe murmured, immediately worried at the thought, “And we cannot risk Leaf getting hurt. His face is a chainsaw.”

“Then Rocky and I can go,” Flippy said nonchalantly, he didn’t really mind if he lost his head.

“...I-I don’t have to come along, I think we can also talk to Misty. Iris is a computer, she’s probably extremely weak to water and who better than Rainmaker herself?”

“Then that’s the plan. Me and Rocky will go grab the Chainsaw Consultant, you and Doe go get Misty, try to recruit any other Cogs you find on the way too.”

The meeting broke apart quickly afterwards with everyone separated.

[carinsurance11m]

Avoiding Nightmares: My Real Take on E&O Insurance

I Was Late To The Party

My bad. I thought, “I’ll wait till I get more clients before I buy coverage.” That nearly cost me everything. Literally.

A policy doesn’t work backwards. Nope. You can't cover something that already happened if you wasn’t covered when it did.

Woulda been smarter to get it the moment I opened shop. But I was young. Or maybe dumb.

Whichever.

Tailor-Made or Bust

I didn’t know all E&O insurance ain't created equal. My first one? It was cookie-cutter, barely fit what I did.

Some policies don’t cover the things you actually do daily. Wild, right?

Later I switched to a provider who knew my industry. I explained what I did. They adjusted everything. Felt kinda nice, being heard.

It weren’t cheap, but not being sued for six figures is cheaper.

Always Be Covered, Or Else

You ever let your phone bill lapse and then spend hours on hold fixing it?

Now imagine that—but with your whole business reputation.

If there’s a gap in coverage, even like, a day, and someone sues you for something you did months ago? Sorry, no dice.

I keep reminders on three different apps now. Ain’t gonna miss a renewal again.

Keep Records Like a Paranoid Squirrel

I used to trust my memory. Dumb idea. Human brains are like swiss cheese—stuff leaks out.

Now I save everything. Emails. Voice messages. Notes scribbled on napkins if they matter.

One time, I proved I warned a client about a risk exactly because I had the text from four months ago.

That text saved me a lawsuit. Not exaggerating.

Talking Ain’t Enough

Told a client once, “You probably don’t need that extra coverage.” Big oops. They took it as gospel.

Nowadays I speak, and then I send a recap. Like, “Just confirming what we talked about.”

Even better if they write back with “Yes, agreed.”

Paper trail? Lifesaver.

Know When to Shut Up

I used to try to look smart all the time. Like I had every answer. You know what that gets you?

Liability. That’s what.

Now, if I don’t know something, I say so. “I’ll look into it.” “Let me double-check.” No shame in that.

Better than saying something wrong and paying for it later.

Sign Here, Please

Disclaimers felt cold to me at first. Like I didn’t trust my clients. But it ain't that. It’s about clarity.

“I decline additional coverage.” Signature below.

Covering your butt isn’t rude. It’s professional.

These little papers? They’re shields. I don’t skip 'em anymore.

Call the Carrier (Yes, Really)

One time, I thought a client might get upset but didn’t say anything to my insurer.

Didn’t wanna seem dramatic, y'know?

Huge mistake. Turns out I was supposed to notify them early. Even just a “heads up.”

Now, if my gut twitches, I send an email to my provider. Fast.

One Size Doesn’t Stay Fit

My business changed. Grew. Took on bigger clients, more risk. Same old policy?

Wasn’t gonna cut it.

Every year now, I review it all. Coverage amounts, exclusions, deductibles—everything.

If I’m growing, my insurance better be too.

E&O Ain’t Just a Checkbox

People think it’s something to buy because someone said so. A license requirement. A formality.

It’s not.

It’s the thing that keeps you from losing your house, your savings, your sanity.

I carry it like armor now. Quiet, invisible armor. But it’s there. Always.

Mistakes You Don’t Know You Made Can Still Cost You

That’s the scary part. I did something totally normal—helped a client pick a policy. Nothing weird.

They didn’t read the fine print. Later they blamed me.

Even though it was their signature on the document.

Good thing I had E&O. They paid the legal fees. Still lost sleep, but not my wallet.

Stuff Happens. Be Ready.

Don’t assume you’re immune because you’re careful. Or nice. Or good at your job.

People sue for weird reasons. Emotions run high when money’s involved.

Being right won’t always protect you. Having the right policy will.

Final Bits of Brain Dump

Don’t delay. Buy early. Update often. Document everything. Say less. Follow up.

That’s the whole game.

Oh, and don’t rely on memory. It lies.

E&O isn’t exciting. But it is peace of mind.

And you can’t invoice for that—but you sure can lose it in a court case.

[xarrixii]

extra project/old writing bonus???

hey so i used to write with my friends a lot. i feel like this, this is a fact that some people might know. anyway. before i was super good with integrating descriptions i had a huge problem with writing stuff alone with only my narration voice/character voice, so in January 2021 (4 years ago. nuts) i challenged myself to write a ten page chapter to open up a character.

and if you want to see that, i mean i think i wanted to click off my own writing. i did not want to reread the original chapter. oh god.

anyway i took a few hours and rewrote it yesterday. it's safe to say i'm more confident in my abilities now, although i didn't get it to ten pages again. probably a good thing. it's more along the lines of a decent flash/burn chapter.

CW: cops, guns, me droning on pointlessly

word count: 5.5k | updated version (2.5k) // ghosts

It was a leap of faith, really.

He pressed himself against the metal building’s vertical support structure. The steel was dead-cold in the blanketed light, and he felt around the lucky inlet it contained. It was exceedingly filled with pressure as drips and splashes were heard beyond his level of sight. Listening in on the amount, there were a fair few, and he knew there was yet more to come.

Being on what would become a wall would be fine, yes, but extra precautions were something that you could never have a little too much of. Making sure he would fit, he turned himself around and laid his back against the cold metal surface, jumping up without a sound out of his mouth or his movements. He clipped his feet on opposite sides of the small space, helping himself further wedge between two semi-separate surfaces apart from his hands.

He was getting used to how cold it was to touch by now, and it barely fazed him as he climbed himself further up until he felt his make-shift roof right above his head. Angling himself, he scooted further up enough and made sure that he could stay safely up without making a sound. A careful, tedious process he could only wish was easier. It had taken him around a minute, but now there was something else to take care of.

He made a soft clicking sound as he pressed a button on a watch he had hidden under his sleeve, and a steel blue screen popped in front of him as he looked down only slightly. He made another light click as he pressed something on the screen, moving his arm away from the spot it was previously in. The screen stayed in the same place, and he took a deep breath.

It wasn’t hard to navigate, and he very quickly found what he was looking for. It was a relatively unused app among people, and it turned the screen a shade of black other than the still blue outline marking the screen. He slid up a keyboard that resembled a normal computer keyboard and began typing, no clicks or forms of sound. Only the splashes of people walking around in a panic.

It was a sound he was fairly familiar with at this point, something that was more calming than anything else. The text turned from white to red, flashing and then quickly fading to the blackened color of the translucent screen. A new window opened and he flipped to it. A loading bar moved very slowly across a white bar, a deep blue. He watched it move across until the bar filled up, blinked, and he now had a radar menu. He clipped the screen back to his watch’s movement and turned off the screen with another click.

This was called a localhack function. It provided a radar of the nearby surroundings to which you can turn at different angles to see a map of the area around you in grayscale. He could’ve activated this earlier, however he preferred the map with colors and auto-updating light sources, and hadn’t activated the grayscale one.

Everything was more black than you probably would enjoy, so it would’ve been hard to navigate. The point of this map wasn’t color, though. Given its name, it shows your local surroundings only and devices of a special brand within a certain radius of you. This brand is Elements, a multi-billion dollar company of expensive gadgets with different apps and functions. Elements aren’t an everyday item, however much they’d like to pretend to be. They were only convenient in so many ways, ways that applied mostly to criminals and people with jobs of high danger.

Any Element within range would begin a quick hacking process of his choice upon command, but he’s not one of those hardcore Element trainers, who walk around trained to use their screens while running around. To hack anything, he had to make himself still and concentrated, otherwise an antihack function would fight it off easily.

An antihack function is inside of every model since around twenty years after the invention of the Element in a bracelet. Hacking has gotten so terrible that there are companies that built themselves off of creating better antihack functions.

He slid down from his hiding place, which he had chosen so that from angles people would look at, they couldn’t find him. An extra precaution, something you might never know. There was a lot less splashing by now as people gave up, and his feet contacting the floor made a dull thud. He slid his hand in front of him, testing the wind.

Safe.

The sky was a thick black expanse, stretching over every visible inch of sky left to see. If you looked closely enough, you could see the radiating, dark grey clouds stretching over it like a fluffy blanket. The silver moon peeking through an open patch shined just enough light down on the midnight expanse of buildings, steel, and wood.

The scene was beautiful, a black and white city of colorful lights illuminating the rain that fell in a heavy downpour, the sky turning white as flashes of lightning strike somewhere clear of damage. Footsteps splashing into the reflective puddles made in the rain, it was a scene you could admire in ease. He took it all in as he looked out at the city before him.

Vibrant, green shrubbery hung from a few planters built into buildings, creating a sense of color visible in the daylight to keep you coming back. Climbing up to the level of those looking for him, he opened his small, lightweight bag and looked at what he had stolen this time. So beautiful, yet such a waste of time and money.

It was a small ring made from a variety of gemstones to create a one-of-a-kind display that must’ve cost a fortune, if somebody had contacted him to steal it for them. Any ring containing diamond had undeniable expense, but this was just crazy to imagine a simple little ring only worn once was worth thousands of dollars to somebody to obtain. He stared at it, a light breeze blowing his black leather jacket into a clever silhouette.

He took out a small black box rings were usually kept in and placed the stolen material inside, taking a dark grey box and fitting it over the black one. He shut it tightly before placing it back in his bag at which he closed almost instantly. He looked behind him at his pursuers, the officers, who heard the click of a ring box snapping shut over the downpouring rain and their own puddle splashes.

All was still for a few moments as they watched him pull up his blue hood in a calm manner to help block the rain from his face. You couldn’t see his appearance in the faded moonlight unless you looked close enough, but all that was required was his common silhouette among a familiar background.

The lights of apartment buildings flashed on and off as people chose how to spend their nights, whether just arriving home, going to bed, or staying up to play some more games or chat with friends. Same went with the hotels and offices towered high above, some shapes of people gazing out their windows at his sighting in their city. It wasn’t an uncommon thing if somebody was interested in a criminal chase, they could get interesting if you stay to watch long enough.

Depending on your criminal, people may die or become injured in different numbers. Somebody would’ve shot him by now, if he hadn’t been standing on the very edge. The officers had a pattern, they didn’t care about catching the criminal, they cared about safely regaining the object. If he were shot in this instance, he’d fall down to the damp concrete below, which would shatter the ring along with him.

He could stand there for quite a while, waiting for something to happen, but his legs would eventually give out and they’d take him off. He clicked on his screen and looked at the map, examining his options from a 3D perspective. He clicked off his Element screen when he felt ready on his options, turning back to look at the officers, who stood in the rain getting their uniforms drenched, the lightning flashing them into colorful figures for split seconds at a time, returning them to silhouettes on the skyline.

He smiled, little known to them, and turned towards his target of destination. Taking a deep breath in, and then out, the land he stood upon now had the potential to fit in with everything around it, bright, colorful, and illuminating. The breeze flew through his hair as he swept it to the side like normal, telling him of the danger he knew awaited beyond his standing point. Trains rattled as they went by as the city continued to get cloaked in the thunderstorm overhead.

Using his gloved hands to vault downwards, he splashed into a thin puddle, crouching to eliminate chances of getting hurt as much as possible. The officers had noticed his arrangement to get moving, and he could hear them splashing in the background, time slowing around him as he lifted his hand off of the cold metal in no hurry. Splashing wasn’t much of a big deal, but he looked ahead of himself as the blanket of rain fell down all around him, a reminder of how much noise he used to make dashing across rooftops.

The droplets made their own gentle splashes, another noise to fill the silence. Taking a step forward, he could hear the footsteps only slightly closer as the world seemed to resume at full speed, and he ran across the wooden board ahead of him, only stopping to look behind him once to stare at the officers, who didn’t even bother to help each other down from such a height, only began to run at him and lose their balance, stopping periodically.

He debated whether or not to use his localhack, but decided it was best if he didn’t let them get within range to hack him, instead. They didn’t have to stand still, all they had to do was send a radar attachment to somebody sitting at a computer desk, who would do the job for them. It may seem unfair, but that’s the thing about influence and working for the government, you have at least some people to rely on, rather than none.

Himself, had nobody to rely on within the boundaries of the current circumstance. He couldn’t tell the models the officers were using and therefore couldn’t predict their localhack radiuses. It wouldn’t be a problem, he just had to stay ahead.

Decision being made, he initiated a BlindHK, which also just meant Blink Hack. Within BlindHK, localhack breaks into the Element and activates and locks the screen in front of the user’s face. This itself isn’t that bad, however it’s bad when you realize what’s happening. The localhack will then infiltrate further and initiate a ‘keep in front’ protocol, which locks the screen in front of the user. The screens are translucent, so this wouldn’t do as much than to mess with them for a couple of seconds. That’s why BlindHK brings it even further.

It creates an illusionary art program and begins to cover the entire screen with an opaque, sometimes multi-colored image. It tends to be more effective when it’s a neon color, or in his case, a bright white, as it was incredibly dark out. The localhack also locks brightness at 100% and transparency at 0%, so you’re forced to look at the blinding screen unless you close your eyes until your antihack kicks in or you take off the Element.

He was going to take it a step further, though, and make sure they couldn’t hack him back once the antihack kicked in, and had a radar disabler ready to go in the queue right after it finishes setting up. It takes around the same amount of time as the antihack function, meaning it’ll shut down the localhack radar behind their knowledge, and they won’t be able to hack him. The shut-down will happen right before the antihack finishes, as the antihack takes around five seconds to search for problems after a localhack completes. It can’t sense in-progress functions, so it’s completely fool-proof.

He smiled to himself as he shattered the nearest officers’ outer antihacks with a simple swipe of hand, clicking off his screen and jumping backwards as they reached for him, who stood still. He collides onto a steel beam being hung from the sky too high for a normal person’s liking, and begins to slide off as the rain attempts to flow away his traction.

Digging his foot into the beam inlet, he grabs hold on the rope suspending the beam with his hands and turns the beam in a direction that would be unpreferable for somebody to jump across. It was a normal jumping distance, but the targeted destination of the jump is too unstable, and therefore would make the length unwanted. He looked at the officers in the patting silence of the rain and looked behind him, which was a normal roof made of concrete and metals. It was around another ten feet down, and he looked for something to fall into as the officers tried to figure out how to get to him.

He pulled up his screen and one-handedly increased his antihack’s functionality for the time being, which was really draining for an Element, however necessary to prevent any hacks from occurring to him in the standstill. This wasn’t time to think, more rather time to move. He took his foot out and stood up straight on the silver metal, hanging onto the suspension cord like it meant life or death, which it pretty much did.

By now he could’ve pulled out one of the 3D maps to examine, but the officers would be able to see it and would predict his next moves, preparing to shoot a particular location when he jumped down. That would be an unfortunate case, as he’d be so close to a solid surface that he would get shot but the ring wouldn’t intake any damage. Now would’ve been a fantastic time to call for reinforcements, if he had any.

He was like a feather standing atop the world, seemingly weightless as he stood on the steel swaying in the wind, slashed through by rain. His brown hair under a damp, vibrant blue hoodie was swept to the side. A small ponytail contained his unnaturally long hair for what people normally saw to be fit for a boy. The cold, vibrant blue of his hoodie would match his narrowed eyes if it wasn’t met with the oncoming rain.

A black leather jacket to keep himself warm in similar rainy days was matched with a small bag hanging over his shoulders, containing all that he needed while keeping himself as weightless as possible. An armband the same blue of his sweatshirt. A pair of glasses above his forehead in case of emergencies and some average-length black boots to prevent splashed water from hitting his lower legs, to help make it less cold while trying to run.

All met with a pair of miss-matching color-coordinated gloves, black on one side and the familiar blue on the other. Despite his affiliation with being outside, he was extremely pale and didn’t mind it much. However, he knew almost all of his physical appearance was fake, to throw off the search of his identity. Something you couldn’t just trace. All but a silhouette on the already black horizon of his night-time heists.

The reason he commonly performs his criminal expanse at night is because most of the time, it’s easier that way, unless there’s some sort of party or event held in the day that would allow easier access at daylight. Most parties and events were held at night, as in the morning and fresh daylight, everyone was at work. He didn’t complain, though. On the contrary, he enjoyed looking around in the night, as it cloaked out with his jacket more anyways.

Despite this, the outfit wasn’t designed to be stealthy. It was designed to allow him to be quick and agile, designed to let him know what he was feeling for if he needed his bag quickly or his phone’s flashlight in the dead darkness. If he wore a vibrant color, he was more likely to see some form of color to help him distinguish. You can think a situation like that would be as unlucky as whatever you’d like to, but it happens more often than you’d originally imagine.

In quick succession, he let go of the suspension cord and jumped below into a small pile of trash, quickly doing a form of roll so he didn’t slip upon landing. He lifted his hand off of the similarly cold concrete, looking up at an officer, who had moved a board across the gap and looked down at him, holding the cord he had held just moments before. He stood tall and looked back down at the scale of rooftops before him. That’s when he noticed the door to the roof and more officers beginning to file through it, forcing him to take off running after he lowered his Element’s antihack strength back down.

The soles of his boots collided with a fair amount of puddles as he began running across the building with the wind to help, uniforms of a darkened cold shade of blue chasing, trying to get within a localhack range. He vaulted over a roof edge, dropping a few feet below when he heard a glitched signal appear in his ears, running smooth after only a few seconds as he kept running. A familiar voice went through his earpiece, a voice he was thankful to hear.

“Atlas, this is Iris. I finally lost those damn guys, where are you?”

Atlas moved a hand up to the earpiece to turn it on. “Somewhere between that construction site and the leftmost Daniel Paper Co. office building almost on the corner. Meet me at the bottom of the one furthest to the right, it should only take a few minutes for me to get there.”

“Same with me, partner.”

This was perfect timing for him, as he didn’t want to run around a bunch of small buildings or a sidewalk getting shot at by every cop in the city. Which the guys behind him would’ve been doing, if they weren’t trying so hard to run and start a hack on his Element. He jumped up to a slightly higher building, climbing up and taking off immediately as the officer in the lead showed visual frustration at the close call.

Atlas stopped for a second and clicked on his screen, sending a hack to the lead’s way as a ‘your welcome’ signal. He had a higher range than they did, which was nice, kind of. Although weaker, he didn’t get to the second part as it was a localhack snipe. This meant the range was increased, but the further out you went, the less damage it did to the antihack.

He skidded to a stop as he met the last building on the block, right next to the building he had told Iris about, Daniel’s Paper Co., leftmost office building. These offices stretched down the entire block apart and took a curve, the only non-office building being the one he currently stood on, although still belonging to Daniel’s Paper Co. Atlas looked behind him, the officers finally getting up to come after him, and he looked at the glass-covered building, the rain still hitting the concrete with the familiar splats and ticks as always.

He turned towards the glass windows and jumped down after flying a BlindHK towards the nearest pursuers, which took hold in mere seconds. His foot met the glass with instantaneous force as intended just as a flash of lightning illuminated the world to color for a brief moment, almost as if it was intentional.

He skidded across the office floor before coming to a complete stop and raising his antihack strength again. He looked at the people on the roof before looking at the grayscale 3D of the building. He found the elevator rather quickly, and looked around at the people who were too shocked to move. He sighed, and forced out a “Sorry,” to make up as much as he could in the moment for shattering the window to pieces.

Iris sounded worried. “Atlas, are you alright?”

“Yeah, just broke a window. You nearby?”

“Give me a minute.”

“I’ll give you three.”

Atlas ran towards the elevator and waited for it to open on his floor, making sure nobody else was inside before closing it and instructing it to go down. He opened the elevator roof and examined multiple ropes before replacing the elevator roof door and grabbing hold of one that he deemed unconnected.

He was completely still as he held onto the rope, waiting for the particular event of the elevator crashing far below to take place, which happened around ten seconds after he had held the rope. It slightly shook the shaft before Atlas began to climb up using the rope, exiting through a small door at the top of the shaft, arriving on the tall roof of the office building. He shook himself off and held out his hand to the rain for only a few moments before lowering his antihack strength once again and running off of the similarly heightened rooftops, all the way down to the end, when he stopped and looked down below.

A red car pulled up next to the building just in time. “Alright, I’m here, now what?”

“Look up.” Atlas vaulted himself over the edge and began to slide down the wall using a small knife to cause traction. Sure enough, the person driving the red car looked up. That person was Iris.

Iris had long, wavy, reddish-pink hair that she kept in a loose ponytail topped by some black victorian-style sunglasses. She seemed to enjoy the color red like Atlas enjoyed his blue, as her short, shiny jacket seemed to easily reflect the same color. It only had one sleeve, the other covered in an arm-length worth of fake bandages. She had a white shirt with a small, almost pastel blue star on the bottom of one side.

On top of a medium-blue colored pair of jeans she had a black belt with a small chain to match. Also wearing boots of roughly the same brand, they had the color scheme of her hair, only dulled. The car, being red, was a representation of Iris’ expertise at one particular thing.

Atlas plopped onto the sidewalk, the rain puddle lightly splashing as he removed the knife, now pretty dull. “Ah, jeez. This is one of my best knives, too,” he smiled, opening the car door as he turned the mic off. “Don’t wait for me to get into a seatbelt, just get moving.”

Iris turned off her mic, thunder booming in the background as rain hit against the windows and Atlas closed his door. Iris was known as an acquaintance of his to many, but had her own life. They called her ‘Iris’ because of her eye for the best way to lose some cops in a car chase, which was what had brought them to becoming partners in the first place.

Atlas had been in the area looking for the same target she had been after, with increasingly different methods. He had been all dressed up ready to make a scene when she waltzed in and started shooting the place up. This would be a story for another time, as they both heard the sound of police sirens behind the car as Iris turned the ignition to get the car into gear.

“Get out of the car, drop everything you have, and put your hands up in the name of the police!”

Iris laughed, pulling out her gun and rolling the window down, looking in the rearview mirror. “No, I don’t think I will,” she shot the gun at the car’s tires and threw the gun at Atlas, pushing the car into acceleration and getting it moving, more cars showing up. He loaded the gun, as Iris used the last bullet currently inside of it, and took a deep breath.

Iris skidded the car around a corner. If you have motion sickness, it’s time you leave, aye?

The car basically flew across the road, a quick pursuit in behind, bullets thrown into the back of the car recklessly as Atlas glanced at Iris. “You plan on getting us out alive?”

“I would’ve killed you already if I wanted you dead,” Iris glanced back for a split second before returning her eyes to the road, taking a sharp turn to run over a long, straight bridge.

Atlas only smiled, looking through the rear view for a few seconds before beginning to shoot at their tires. Bulletproof. What else did he expect?

The car turned a full 180, and sped back into the city, the police cars taking longer to turn. Iris took a quick chance and went up a car-park, stopping at the top and positioning the car before anyone arrived. Skeptical, Atlas looked at what Iris had stopped from below. A variety of officers ran up without a car, stopping at the top level with them.

All had stopped for only a few moments, officers aiming their guns. Pulling up his screen, Atlas hacked all of their Elements in a quick swipe right before Iris waved them all goodbye.

Too bad they were all blinded, they could’ve been able to see what Iris was doing.

The car had sped forward off of a ramp, the bridge completely cleared of cars as the busy city lay asleep or watching. He almost had to let go of the gun just to hold on as the car’s suspension kicked in and they continued down the bridge they had just landed on.

“You are so lucky this is a nice car.”

“I’m not riding a vehicle with luck, I’m riding it with skill.”

The cops had pulled far behind now, which was perfect. Iris sped into a large market alleyway, knocking over a few barrels of oranges, drugs, and other assorted items. The goal was to lose them quick, rather than spend an hour doing neat tricks, so Iris pulled the car into an alley while the cops were behind and unable to see it happen.

They watched as all of the some five police cars sped past following a target they couldn’t see, and the car pulled out of the alley and onto the main road, pretending to be as normal of a car as possible.

Everybody minded their own business as the rain slicked everything, lightning still casting vibrant blasts of light every now and then. Atlas put the gun away and let Iris drive the car as if she was just trying to pass her driver’s test.

They rolled onto the side of the road before the car jolted and then stopped, allowing him to get out of the car and enter the train station, where he’d end up meeting his client that same night. “Why thank you, Iris.” He smiled, “Guess I’ll see you again sometime in the near future, hey?”

She just laughed and gestured that he got out of the car. Shrugging, he followed and stepped onto the sidewalk, closing the door. Iris pulled the car out and sped off like every other car, blending in easily. Atlas looked at the station and headed down into the subway, or the underground train. Many people were waiting on it and he checked the time.

Early. Didn’t change the fact that the client was already waiting where they had both agreed to meet. The concrete was a standard grey and he walked across it as nonchalantly as possible, blending in like just another anti-social cardboard cutout. The footsteps resonated through the area, and Atlas stood in front of the little underground alley entrance. His client wasn’t that impressive, and looked like any old alcohol addict trying to earn some money as a drug dealer.

They leaned against the wall, smoking, almost expecting him to just hand over the ring like it cost nothing. Atlas bit back a laugh from this absurd event, something he had experienced multiple times. People who attempted to avoid paying by getting what they wanted first.

Atlas was one of the many forms of a freelancer, one who did particularly dangerous things varying from petty thievery to whatever he really felt like. If it was a job about ‘eliminating’ somebody, it was almost always a no. Despite his extended criminal record, he knew what a moral compass was, and didn’t plan on completely forgetting he had one. Most people who looked for contact with him for jobs knew what they were doing and what they wanted, when they wanted it, and how.

Which meant in order to get a hold of Atlas, you had money. And resources. Skill, perhaps, even. Despite all of this, he had never fallen for a single government disguise, basically knowing who and who he couldn’t trust right off the bat with them. It wasn’t that hard, usually the people who had weapons on them. He could rule it out from there.

Atlas narrowed his eyes, looking straight at the client. They looked back, almost asking him to hand over the ring first. The thunder sounded outside, eerie and demanding.

He gestured to the person's backpack. "Money first, I'm not stupid."

They knelt down, annoyed, and pulled out the agreed money. For jobs like these, it ranged from hundreds to thousands. Part of the reason these people know what they're doing. They know that unless they have the kind of money to have Atlas do things like this, there's no point to go lengths to contact him in the first place.

They handed over the money and Atlas counted it carefully, there've been more than a few times people tried to cheapskate. They got impatient with him quickly, but waited for him to finish. After all, they kind of had to.

Putting away the new cash, Atlas brought the ring out of the same bag, setting it on the floor and sliding it over in the box. They picked it up, saw the ring, and walked away with their backpack. Atlas took a breather when they walked away. People could be so paranoid that it became obvious, even when they're trying to hide what they're feeling.

He walked out of the small alley, hood over his head, and took strides out of the subway back into the rain, which was still cold over the night. He was lucky he had a leather jacket.

Each concrete step brought him up onto the train platform above, where he walked across without splashing a single puddle he walked over, silent and gentle. Practiced movements each brought him closer to the train, which he began to hear off in the distance. The next scheduled train was in thirty minutes, so this would be the one leaving him with his little exit procedure.

Cops pulled up against the road, some swerving their cars into making dents and they rushed up the same stairs Atlas had just been on, flinging rain and yelling out for people to get out of the way. They shoved some people to the ground as they pushed through the entire unwilling crowd of unsuspecting civilians. He glanced behind him only slightly, smiling.

They weren't far behind at all, and Atlas tracked his footsteps carefully across the pavement, stepping over the metal tracks he could hear the nearby train rattling like no tomorrow. Opposite side of the train, a small platform, Atlas looked out at the sea of people making rude remarks towards the officers, who made it to the front of the line.

The wind blew through his jacket as his hands lay in his pockets, looking out at the officers who aimed their pistols, the black, sheeted train getting closer with every passing second. Atlas stood tall, looking at the officers getting ready to shoot on command.

10… 9… 8…

The train sped closer, officers waiting for command.

7… 6… 5… 4…

Atlas made a friendly smile, his silhouette beginning to turn color with flashlights.

3… 2…

The lights of the train illuminated the surrounding area, Atlas' bright colored clothing like its own crystal.

1… FIRE!

The train sped past as bullets flew out of the officers' guns on command, completely shielding Atlas as he disappeared, his silhouette gone as the rain continued to blanket down on the city with barely any effort, the train now gone along with Atlas, officers in disbelief and anger.

Only the city's colorful lights left as the strain of arresting Atlas fell quiet.

updated version (2.5k) //|

oh hey you finished that. hi. it's me. i'm under the cut. should i start a taglist for other wips of mine? if you want to be on it i'll make one

i scrolled up for one second and found a grammar mistake. nnnnm

[lethalhoopla]

 “Glad to see you’re still kicking.”

 “And who the fuck are you to care?” Patriarch grunted, crossing his arms. His armor was a similar style to Wrex’s, Kaidan noted - he was pretty sure that meant this Patriarch was similarly old. It wasn’t as popular a style with relatively younger krogans.

 Shep crossed her arms in mirror to him, eyes glinting in the lackluster light of the back room. “Someone willing to be associated with an old bastard like you.”

 Kaidan’s eyes snapped to Shep, equal measures horrified, frustrated, and baffled. This was starting to feel like a worse alternative to nursing a drink at the poison bar.

Latest update for Commanders in Chief is up! And it’s a big one 👀✨

[syn4k]

It took me an embarrassing amount of time to realize you guys wrote one of my favorite fics on ao3

Like I didn’t make the connection between the names on the different platforms then was like “ashes au haha like that one story?” Then realized it WAS that story and that you wrote it

I wanted to let you guys know that ashes au is The Best and every chapter rips my heart apart and stitches it back together halfway (in a good way)

I love how Gem and Fwhip are Trying to get along and sometimes it’s fine and sometimes it’s tenser than rubber band about to snap and oh god it makes me think of my own siblings. And Pixl!!! He is the densest and saddest character. The day he comes to terms with the fact people will want him around is the day the world will spring back to life haha.

I cannot wait to see where the story goes next and whenever I check my bookmarks for updates I always look to ashes au first

-Starry

anon, please know that the intial response up here when we saw this went like this:

lance [clicking the askbox expecting another ask game ask]: oh shit, ray look at this ray (the main person up here who has actually physically written the vast majority of Ashes): what? lance: look at this ask ray, walking up to the front screen: yeah? oh what the fuck? oh wow. holy shit. hold on WHOA.

and then we proceeded to keysmash about it on Discord. based on our very normal reaction, one can clearly judge that we get asks of this moniker a lot and are used to it (joking)

seriously though, this ask has made our evening and probably our entire weekend due to several reasons- hold on let me make an itemized list real quick hi its ray i stole the fingers i am going insane over this. Hello. Hey.

do not worry anon i would have done the exact same thing if this wasn't our fic that we were writing. it has happened to us before on multiple occasions as well you are not alone

AAAAAAAA???? AAAAAAA?? AAAAA? AAAA! AAAAAAAAAAHHHHH! AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!! AGH!

if you or a loved one have experienced physical or emotional pain while reading this fic, you may be entitled to financial compensation

yeah uh. Yeah theyre siblings alright! some days they are getting along just fine and some days they are literally ready to dropkick each other into a tree

pix is layered like a French pastry. this is intentional. how have we done this so in depth and so well? don't worry about it (it's a little technique called "mild to moderate projection") (yes, we are actively going to therapy and have been going for years. do not worry)

asks like these are the literal backbone of everything we write ever. i am not kidding when i say that we have been pouring all the effort we can into writing this, partially because we refuse to fully abandon a multichapter ever, partially to distract ourself from the huge amount of schoolwork we've been subjected to lately, and partially because of the readers (including you!) that leave so much godsdamned feedback that we read when we are sad

things like this are the world to me and out of all the words we've ever written, i don't think any of them would show our gratitude enough, so we'll stick to showing that by keeping this thing going for you and everyone else who keeps up with and enjoys this fic

thank you SO MUCH for this and please subscribe to the work if you haven't already because ao3 gives you emails every time a chapter updates. we love u and we understand so so much but desperately refreshing the page will not actually make us write it any faster although i wish that was how it worked </3

we wish you a Very and a Good :] hope to see you when the next chapter drops, whenever the hell that might be!