#god the footage is absolutely miserable...

[juergenklopp]

DAYCARE SHENANIGANS feat. JT

BRYSON STOTT 4 for 5, 1 RBI, 2 R @ Tampa Bay Rays (July 5, 2023)

[misshugs]

₂The Cameragirl² || snc

After an eventful night in the haunted asylum, you and the guys began looking at the footage, only for you to start making cocky remarks that might've set a spark you weren't expecting.

contains: just fluff and reader trying to be funny (but failing miserably), cheeky comments from reader, cursing, slight flirting? idk i suck at it

a/n: "part 2" of The Cameragirl, no need to read the first part though! but for context: you got choked by a ghost and you almost died but colby saved you by giving you mouth to mouth

[part 1] [part 2] [part 3]

word count: 2.3k

[u n e d i t e d]

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You don't exactly remember when you fell asleep, you're just sure that right after you fell on your bed you were knocked out.

It wasn't something that happened often, but boy you were tired due to last nights events. Beause of that and because of your commonly terrible sleeping habits, Sam and Colby didn't even want to bother you much.

They did however check on you after they woke up hours later, making sure you were still breathing. The experience has somewhat made them paranoid about what could happen to you.

Although they cleansed you before returning, they'd much prefer to be one hundred percent sure you were alright.

The problem was, you were a light sleeper. After they finished checking up on you, your eyes opened up slightly. Groaning a bit from the ache in your body from the fall you had a couple of hours prior. You stretched yourself nonetheless.

Yawning, you sat down and rubbed your eyes. Taking your phone from your nightstand, you looked at the hour. 01:17 PM. Sighing softly, you stood up and fixed yourself up before walking out of the room.

Looking around, you heard mumbling from the other room. It was the office. You walked inside and saw them both looking back at the footage.

You furrowed your brows. Usually, you were a part of this process. Why did they begin without you?

Since they haven't noticed you yet, you started walking closer without making any sounds. As quiet as you possibly could, you basically stood behind them, watching the footage.

"What're you doing?" You asked, gaining a scream from Sam and a jump from Colby, almost falling off the chair. A smile grew wide on your face after that reaction.

"Fuck! You scared me!" Sam exclaimed, putting his hand on his chest.

"Oh my god, my heart." Colby said, hiding his face in his hands.

"That's for beginning without me." You said, crossing your arms on your chest.

"You were sleeping so soundly after all that happened, we didn't want to disturb you. And... we were curious... sorry." Colby admitted. You sighed.

"It's alright, I guess. What's this part?"

"We just started watching the part where... it happened." Sam said, looking at you.

"Ooh, okay. Then go back, my head's a little fuzzy, I can't remember clearly what happened, I want to know." As you said that, they nodded and ran back the video.

You didn't miss much anyways. They rewined right when they began arguing about it not being a good idea and whatnot. They haven't seen the whole night or anything, they just skipped right to the end.

After the arguing and the preparation for everyone to go into their respective corridors, the challenge began.

They paused the video. "Even though it made sense, it was still strange for you to be so persistent about it, was it not?" Colby said, looking at you. "Also, can you please sit down? There's a chair right there. You're stressing me out."

"No." You quickly answered.

"Why?" He asked.

"I don't want to, it's my fight or flight mode. It's easier to run while standing up." You giggled softly, which gave them both a sense of peace that you couldn't even imagine.

You were their everything, and thinking that their everything could've ended up like that made them so overprotective that they would've absolutely slept with you that night... to keep you protected, of course.

"Also, my legs feel numb, I don't want to cut the circulation again, it felt weird last time." You admitted.

Sam quickly stood up, concerned. "Are you okay? Do you need an oxygen mask again or something?? Water?"

"Wha- no. Calm down. Jeez." You said, grabbing his shoulder and making him sit back down. "Anyways, about the video. Um... I do remember having this urge to do it. I don't think it might've been anything bad, but I did have this... feeling, I guess."

"Maybe it wasn't you?" Colby said, raising a brow. "Maybe something was making you feel that way, just so that you were left alone... like it happened." You thought about it.

"I... guess it's an option." You shrugged.

"It could've also been a possession. It is said that people tend to quickly switch emotions when one is possessed." Sam continued. "Or... it could've also been the fact that you were so indifferent about it all."

"I'm just used to it, it's not like I don't believe."

"Yeah, but since we were making our reactions so... extra in comparison, maybe the spirits were trying to target you?" Colby added.

"...yeah, it does add up. Well, continue. Let's see what truly happened. I genuinely can't remember." They nodded and the video rewined.

As you began walking through the corridor, you began to speak on the video, it was almost automatic when you heard your voice that you started whining. "Oh, fuck no. Nevermind. This is so cringe. I remember this."

They started laughing and kept on watching although you pleaded for them to skip it. You tried to stop it yourself but Sam quickly held you back, hugging you and your arms, unable to move.

You didn't have the strength at the moment to try and get out of his grasp, but you tried anyways.

Not like it mattered. Not like you minded, actually. In the way he was holding you back, he basically let you sit on his lap while watching.

You didn't mind at all.

"You guys know I suck at youtube, I was trying to be funny, it didn't work." You laughed a little bit while your voice also seemed on the edge of breaking, mainly fake crying.

"What do you mean? You did great." Colby said, hiding his smile underneath his hand. Listening to your cute attempts on making jokes. It melted him.

"I can see you trying not to laugh, Colby." You fake cried again.

"Whaaat? I would never." He said. Sam didn't hide anything. His smile only giving away how much he was actually enjoying this version of you. If only you were open enough for them to be able to record and replay more of this.

A couple of minutes into the video, you started panting, heavy breathing could be heard. It was when you began to explain that you could barely breathe. "It feels... hard to breathe." You said in the video, your lips visibly shaking.

As you began walking faster, you could see through the video that you stopped on you tracks. Blinking your eyes as you looked at, what you remembered to be, a figure.

You tried to breathe.

"Holy shit. Holy shit! Did you see that?" Sam said, letting you go and pausing the video and quickly going back a couple of seconds. You stood up from his lap to let him search quickly.

"What?" Colby asked. Confused, you got closer. He started playing the video once again, this time, slower. You could see the light on your neck moving.

"Holy fuck. Look at that. It looks as if something is like, pushing on your neck. Like pressing onto as if you're getting choked." Sam explains, pointing at the marks on your neck where there seemed to be a dent suddenly forming.

"Oh my god." You said as you touched your neck, remembering what happened barely a couple of hours ago. Colby had his mouth wide open after watching that.

"That's... that's poltergeist activity right there. It's undeniable." He said, looking at the both of you. You nodded, shocked at how much power this entity seemed to have. "We need to get you properly cleansed, we can't be having another demon up someone's ass." He contined, looking directly at Sam, who seemed offended. You chuckled.

As they continued the video, they heard the soft 'help' that you could barely spit out, your voice breaking in the midst of it. The quick movement of the camera as you turned around only to be thrown to the floor. Seconds later, watching as you tried to crawl back but your body seemingly giving up as quickly as you tried to do so.

It broke their hearts, even more so knowing you tried to scream for help. And so, the camera kept rolling for what felt like an eternity.

"How long did it took for you guys to come look for me?" You asked, seeing as the video kept going.

"So far, it's been five minutes..." Sam said softly, painfully watching the screen.

"Oh my god, I was dead for five minutes?"

"Don't say it like that." Colby looked at you, almost sad. Fear went through his body at the thought of not have gotten there on time.

"It is true though... oh, there are my heroes." They smiled softly as you said that. As you heard the conversation they had while you were unconscious, you scoffed. "You guys thought it was a joke?"

"Hey, listen. We've had our jokes and giggles with extreme pranks before, it could've been a possibility." Colby put his hands up in defense, looking at you truthfully. "Honestly, I was wishing it was."

"Sam. Call 911. This is real." Colby said on the video. Before you could completely understand what was going on, you saw him kissing you.

Well, saving your life, but touching lips nonetheless.

Your cheeks started switching colors. You obviously don't remember much, but your brain didn't thought about the fact he had to give you some oxygen back.

Your fingers touched your lips softly as you were watching. They seemed to be immerse on watching what happened, thankfully. You don't think you could handle their stares right now.

Trying to calm yourself down, you saw yourself waking up. No further from that, you saw as Sam helped you up for a split second before the camera was turned off.

"And that's the footage alright. Wow." Colby sighed and looked at Sam, and then at you.

"That was... something. I can't believe we caught that on camera... it's proof, yeah, but... you were seriously hurt." Sam says, looking at you. "Are you... okay with this?" He asked, you looked at him, confused.

"What? You mean for posting it? Oh yeah, I don't mind. Don't worry about it. I'm safe and sound anyways." You said, smiling as you put your hands on your hips.

"Just making sure you're okay with it." He said and you nodded, understanding his kind gesture.

"So..." You began, gaining the attention of them both. "Are you gonna keep the part where Colby kisses m- uh, gives me mouth to mouth?" You quickly correct yourself, trying to act cool. Not leaving your stare from the screen.

"What?" They smirked at your sneaky comment.

Fuck.

"What?" You asked back looking at Sam, seemingly ignoring their cocky smile as much as you could.

"What did you say?" He asked.

"If you're gonna keep the mouth to mouth on the video."

"Not that, when you stuttered." Colby obliged, making you nervous.

"...I said Colby?" You raised an eyebrow, looking confused although you perfectly knew what they were talking about. They shook their head.

"You know what we mean." Sam says, reclining back on his chair, getting comfortable as he looks at you, amused by the situation. Mimicking Sam's actions; Colby lied back, a hand underneath his chin, smirking back at you.

Like Gods. They looked like Gods.

It was driving you insane.

You sighed, "I'm just saying. A bit upset that that was my first kiss with any of you- I mean, not like I was... waiting for one anyways, of course. Ahem." You started mumbling at the end, looking away while scratching the side of your neck.

It wasn't anything strange for all of you to have some sort of stupid flirting in between conversations, but usually they were extremely noticeable jokes.

These? Oh. These weren't jokes. These were genuine mistakes.

And a part of you hated these silly accidents. Mainly because they knew.

"There seem to be a lot of mixed signs in what you're saying." Colby said, smiling at Sam then looking back at you. "I'm a bit confused in what to believe here."

You shrugged. "Believe what you want to believe, good sir."

"It's just that I don't know if we're on the same page, you know?" Colby continued, looking at Sam. "I only know he's with me."

"Oh, for sure." The sexual tension only filling the room even more. Usually, the jokes were seemingly too overboard and hence, you could tell they were that, plain jokes.

Usually.

Just like your silly little mistakes, these weren't jokes.

"And what does that mean?" You raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, we know what we want. We don't know if it is what you want though."

You sighed heavily, seemingly loosing yourself for a moment as you whined. "Dear God, why are y'all so hot?" You looked up, dozing out of existence after thinking about their looks, their positioning, their everything.

.

.

.

Wait.

Wait.

WHAT DID YOU JUST THROW OUT OF YOUR MOUTH?

You accidentally said your thoughts out loud.

How does that even happen?!

When you realized what you've done, your eyes went wide, quickly looking at them. "Oh. Fuck. I didn't just- oh God." You didn't even wait to see their reaction as you began walking away. They quickly stood up, and you quickly sped up.

You started laughing but you were absolutely dying inside out of embarrassment. "Come back here!" Sam yelled as he got a hold of you and hugged you from behind, quickly throwing you over his shoulder.

"Let me gooo!" You yelped, moving your legs as you laughed purely by reflex. He held your legs in place. You were blushing hard.

"Nu-uh. We're gonna have a chat, young lady." Colby said, crossing his arms as you looked at him with a pout on your face. Sam turned around and slapped your ass, walking back to the room. You yelped, not expecting the sudden movement.

"A nice, long chat." Sam said as you sighed.

Oh boy. It's gonna be a long night.

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how do you guys like the banner? i got creative(ish)

also pls tell me what you thought about the fic, cause i don't really know if i did good with the idea, i did want them to review the footage but i also wanted a bit of tension or something extra to make it spicy, i'm not sure if i did a good job tho...

thank you for reading!

-nikkõ

smol taglist: @lemonnightmare @yourfavoritefangirl @stardollswrld

[polyhexian]

Okay so obviously one of the stupidest funniest things about the Pregnant Belos AU is how Belos truly is stuck in this social and political nightmare just as much as Hunter and Jasper are, but like, the more I think about it the more ridiculous it gets.

Like sure, okay, Hunter never wants to be successfully "rescued", obviously. Jasper never wants Hunter to be successfully "rescued", even more obviously.

BELOS ALSO DOES NOT WANT HUNTER TO BE SUCCESSFULLY "RESCUED".

The stupid Belos-Jasper stalemate cold war ONLY WORKS because neither of them makes a move against each other. They're both hoping to keep this rickety peace that they've never even negotiated with each other and they're constantly hoping that the other one won't escalate the situation. Belos decides the effort to take down Jasper isn't worth it unless Jasper is actively working against him, and Belos is well aware that if Hunter gets "rescued" there is a 100% guarantee that Jasper will immediately actively work against him by making him dead.

So like. Belos is ALSO sabotaging the Coven Heads' attempts to rescue Hunter, is what I'm getting at here.

Like, Lilith excitedly outlines her newest Grand Plan to save Hunter and capture Eda, and Belos nods and immediately has a meeting with Terra where he drops hints about what Lilith is up to and Terra uses this information to go crash Lilith's mission and try and grab the glory for herself and that's how the two of them end up getting regurgitated by Hooty a mile away from the Owl House.

Belos has been scheming and plotting and manipulating for centuries, but Hunter is a big blank bubble of DO NOT TOUCH in the middle of his plans because Belos knows the second that kid is in his grasp, everything he's worked for goes to shit. So he's constantly trying to keep track of all his Coven Heads' and other officials' Super Secret Prince-Rescuing Master Plans and strategizing who is best to pit against who to make sure no one makes any progress in this whatsoever. It's absolutely galling because the Day of Unity is SO CLOSE and he REALLY should be focusing on preparations and coven recruitment so he can effectively murder these people, but nooOOOOooo, everyone's obsessed with his undercooked Grimwalker and he has to make sure the little brat NEVER ends up in the castle, because even IF Belos survives Jasper, his miserable excuse for a government probably would not, and he does NOT want to spend another few centuries starting this whole plan over from scratch, and also this is the last eclipse the Boiling Isles will see for DECADES, he CAN'T mess up this timeline and if he needs to spend any longer in this hellhole than absolutely necessary he's going to go insane.

So here he is zoning out in meetings, doing mental math on who is capable of beating who without beating them so hard that they end up dead and Belos has to find a new Coven Head, because that's ANOTHER thing he can't afford to mess up right now.

He wakes up one morning to find Perry Porter on the CB reporting on a disasterous overnight secret mission at the Owl House led by Kikimora and Belos just stares in horror because HOW did he not know KIKIMORA was planning this?? She actually managed to take them by surprise? Oh god, how close did he just come to Jasper-induced death? He watches the footage of Hooty eating scouts while Eda uses Owlbert to smack Kikimora away like a baseball and is just thankful that his enemies are competent enough to not let their little brat get captured.

And like, idk how much Jasper is gonna suss out, but he's not stupid and at the very least he'll realize that hm, okay, Belos isn't coming after us as hard as I know he could. He doesn't know the specific criteria in Belos's head that will make going after Jasper worth it, but clearly the current state of affairs means it's NOT worth it, so Jasper will just stay the course and keep it that way. He still thinks Belos might be doing all this for the greater good anyway, so it's no skin off his back to keep the emperor's secrets and not join a rebellion and ignore Raine everytime they try to pry information out of him.

The Boiling Isles equivalent of Dr. Phil is constantly trying to invite the Emperor and the Golden Guard onto his CB show to talk through their issues for the good of his ratings the empire, and every time Belos and Jasper burn the invite and pray that the other one is doing the exact same thing.

The Collector doesn't get it. Belos tries to explain the situation without getting overly frustrated and the Collector's just like "This sounds like a really stupid game" and Belos is just like "IT IS THE STUPIDEST GAME" and the Collector's like "I think I can see why everyone's playing it though, you're super mad all the time and it's HILARIOUS."

Belos and Jasper are just stuck in a really weird edition of the Prisoner's Dilemma and are doing their best to keep it that way.

Then Hunter is successfully "rescued" just before the Day of Unity and Belos stares at the kid in absolute horror that he manages to disguise as parental shock and relief. He frantically wonders if there's some way he can turn the boy loose, but no, the scouts are seriously upping security around the newly-rescued prince. Fuck. Maybe he can manipulate Luz again, get her to come re-kidnap the prince, it shouldn't be hard to convince her she has to stop the dastardly plans he doesn't have for Hunter, and Belos will give her the entry codes to the castle vaults and everything. (PFFFT what if Hollow Mind in this AU is literally just Belos dragging Luz around his mindscape like "Yes, yes, I'm Philip Wittebane, get over it, listen, I need you to kidnap Hunter.")

At some point he's desperate enough to stare at his scroll and consider sending Jasper a text message like I swear I didn't mean to capture your kid, it just kinda happened, he's fine, please don't kill me?

Caleb Wittebane's Hallucination Ghost somehow got ahold of Ghost Popcorn and it is NOT HELPING.

Like he is close, he is SO CLOSE to cleansing this perdition, he just needs to stave Jasper off a liiiiiiittle longer, he just needs to hold it together until he can get the draining spell started and then he'll never need to worry about Jasper again.

In the days before the eclipse, he downloads one of those dumb Countdown To The Day Of Unity! apps and obsessively checks it every hour.

ITS SO FUNNYYYYYY

Like the stand off... I think jasper is also on the same page that like. Jasper is powerful and he has a staff and he knows the damage he can do. And maybe he can't kill Belos. He isn't sure. But he can expose a LOT of dangerous secrets. He can kill a lot of people. He can REALLY fuck him over. But he doesn't want to because that could be bad. He could definitely die. Hunter could get killed. Not worth it. And also, jasper believes that even if Belos is A Monster. He still is trying to save the Titan from dying and he's the only one who can. So he doesn't WANT to fuck that up.

Neither of them want to fight because it's going to cause so much damage to everything they'd be fighting over. both of them would prefer no confrontation. And as long as no one starts anything... No one has to finish anything. It's just.... So funny.

The idea of Belos texting jasper "please come take him back and go home I don't want him" is so fucking funny. I suppose it's more realistic that at that point he's going to be holding hunter at the TIGHTEST possible leash like. He has to literally have him at his side at all times. He can't sleep, he has to be holding a knife to hunters throat at ALL times to keep jasper from jumping into action. The second he looks away jasper is IN there fucking shit up. Maybe it's right before the day of unity and Belos has to be incredibly sleep deprived and paranoid carrying around an angsty antagonistic sixteen year old boy while a man people think impregnated him is stalking him waiting for an opportunity to Kill and still trying to get everything to come together and Also there's this fucking human girl here wrecking shit and Oh My God Everything Is Terrible

[seasurfacefullofclouds1]

https://www.tumblr.com/seasurfacefullofclouds1/767942662848446464/would-love-to-hear-your-thoughts-on-aotv-what-did

ive always thought it was telling that the only footage of simon in the entire doc (from what i can rmbr - if there’s any other footage i think it would be from his xf audition) is simon making him cry after his JHO performance in 2016 and him making louis roll his eyes exasperatedly after 1d’s final performance in 2015.

if they had this “close bond” that louis has said a few times and simon has repeated, verbatim, even more - i think louis would want to show that to us (if only just to get us to lay off simon a little lmao). i think he showed the truth of his relationships with liam and niall - slightly awkward/unfamiliar in front of cameras but still amicable and reciprocated. it felt a little like when you see your favorite coworkers from a job that made you really miserable. 😭 they don’t make digs at each other like Corden makes at louis for going mia and louis makes at Corden for not listening. and then there’s harry - who is entirely absent…. lmao.

but circling back to my original point, i remember watching the JHO performance live, my eyes glued to the screen. i just burst into tears at the end - because of how proud i was of louis and his strength. and i was so thankful that they didn’t make it “too tv” and exploit his grief like the xfactor always did with every contestant’s grief. and as he’s stood there smiling and leaning on steve, being praised by dermot and applauded by the crowd, you can notice his strength start to ebb a little. i started to think the pause here was getting a little lengthy and louis looked exhausted.

and then lo and behold, dermot says simon wants to say a few words. and my stomach dropped. i knew exactly what he was going to say, but i was so disgusted by the mention of jay. it felt so unnecessary after such a beautiful performance when we knew that was why louis was doing it, everyone did, it made national news. you couldn’t tell him that his mother was proud backstage? you had to have him break on tv and make him hyperventilate and try to hold it together? for the sake of ratings?? i vividly remember being absolutely livid over that one moment - and i was taken aback by it being included in aotv.

side note- i think 16 year old harry hit the nail on the head when he said they “just wanted to make good television” by making teenage boys cry, putting the camera in their devastated faces, and calling them back on stage. it’s sad that he used to be so self aware to an almost cynical extent (“the script was written and i could not change a thing, i want to rip it all to shreds and start again” etc) & put up a substantial fight against being totally controlled for so long, but i suppose the allure of fame and money was too much to resist in the end.

Well, it’s a lot of money. On a level that’s hard for ordinary people to imagine. It’s on a level of the obscenity where a $100 million is considered poor. Harry is still young, his net worth is well in excess of that, and this is only the beginning.

If I take away anything from social media activity this year, it’s that Niall and Louis both unfollowed Simon. It’s a sign of how far from X Factor they’ve both come. Even in 2017, I think, Harry performed on the X Factor. None of them would touch any projects of Simon’s now, thank God.

[alarrytale]

I remember those pictures the previous anon mentioned with Louis looking so scarily skinny. We know now that was when his mom was sick but at the time we didn’t. Makes sense with what Lottie said about Jay not wanting the family to say anything. I’m sure it’s weird of me as a fan but I look to see if he’s skinnier when we do see him because that clearly was a response to trauma. I’ve been here a while now and i remember seeing him like that another time when he was in the band. I can’t think of the year but he was wearing a green hoodie and while people thought he looked so good because he had such pronounced cheek bones, I kept thinking he didn’t look well at all. It’s good to see him beefier with muscles and abs now. With the alcohol, all the boys were very open with drinking while in 1D. With all the pictures and videos of fetus Louis drinking, it’s not an image thing. He definitely wasn’t a laddy lad then so it’s not that he’s promoting alcohol or using it as an image mask. He’s just continuing what he’s been doing since 18. Louis did talk about a time where he drank so much on stage he blacked out while in 1D, but he said he learned from that. I do find it interesting that last tour we saw him out constantly partying. This time we barely saw him out the entire tour, only very occasionally. Even in latam, we saw him out once or twice at a club (I can’t remember if it was the same night). He looked like he wanted to be anywhere but there. Absolutely miserable. Otherwise when we got the footage of latam after tour we just saw him swimming, hiking, motorbiking and then of course the partying after AFHF. God I hate his smoking though. It’s hard to quit, I know that from personal experience but I’m hoping he stops for so many reasons. We’ll see what happens after these festivals. I doubt anything will change for now but when he has free time, it will be interesting to see if he has any changes.

Hi, anon!

It's easy to see when Louis isn't taking care of himself properly or when he's sad and depressed. His weight has fluctuated a lot over the years. He was misrable during hay*or, and he was super skinny and pale in november 2014. Zayn was too at the same time, so i think that was due to exhaustion from touring.

November 2014 vs. June 2015.

I think we have to agree to disagree on the alcohol subject.

[snarkformysanity]

House of Earth and Blood Chapters 74-76

We're back with Bryce. She is, to the surprise of no one, angsting.

As if being a bastard princess meant anything. As if it said anything about her as a person.

Now, while I get what she's trying to say here, I don't think that's quite how it works. Even if being a bastard princess doesn't "mean anything" in terms of your personality, it most definitely "means something" in terms of broader impacts on your life. Political rivals of the Autumn King will seek to use her one way or the other, the press will be sniffing after her, she suddenly becomes targets for ransoms or fodder for political marriages, etc...

It's a very short-sighted and teenager-y way of looking at things, essentially.

She’d torn up Jesiba’s check, and with it the centuries of debts.

Also pretty sure that's not how that works, either. Jesiba's given you the money - whatever you do with it afterwards, you owe her.

None of it mattered now anyway. Hunt was gone.

Uuuuggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Yeah, I think the book has officially completely forgotten that Hunt is a lying, manipulative dickhead who brought his punishment on himself by trying to buy drugs and incite a rebellion while on parole. Protagonist centred morality at its finest. And make no mistake. Bryce is not the protagonist here. No matter how much the book wants us to believe otherwise.

She knew he was alive. She’d seen the news footage of the Summit’s opening procession. Hunt had looked just as he had before everything went to shit. Another small mercy.

But he's just in so much god damn danger you guys, no, really, he really did get the worst punishment of the lot!

...those gray wings that had now regrown.

............book. I was promised that the Living Death would at least last a few weeks. Hunt's only been in his cell there for five days, and was imprisoned by Micah for a few days before that, maybe. Fucking hell, he's just the biggest sook on earth. "Living Death", my ass.

She would have done it. Would have gladly traded places with Hunt, even knowing what Sandriel would do to her. What Pollux would do to her.

Given the only thing we've really seen either of them do is sneer, this really doesn't sound as dramatic as the book seems to think it does.

She’d spent the past few days looking through the laws to see if there was anything to be done for Hunt. There wasn’t.

Yeah, it's almost as if he broke the fucking law and that's why he's being punished now. I just. Am I the crazy one here? You guys remember him breaking the law too, right? Of his own volition? Knowing full-well what would happen to him?

An envelope with the Comitium listed as its return address had arrived at the gallery three days ago. Her heart had thundered as she’d ripped it open, wondering if he’d been able to get a message out— The white opal had fallen to the desk. Isaiah had written a reserved note, as if aware that every piece of mail was read: Naomi found this on the barge. Thought you might want it back. Then he’d added, as if on second thought, He’s sorry.

Just....... fuck everything and everyone involved in this. I can't even articulate how utterly, utterly done with this I am. There's no words left.

Of course, she keeps the stone.

“Athie looks miserable,” Lehabah observed, floating by Bryce’s head. She pointed to the tablet, where Bryce had paused her third replay of the opening procession on Hunt’s face. “So do you, BB.”

Go fucking drown in the nøkk tank, Lehabah. You've contributed nothing of value all book and I am utterly sick of you shoving the main ship down our throats. Especially when he was fucking lying to and manipulating her. Why are you trying to get your friend to hook back up with that guy???? Utter, utter, garbage-tier friend, right here.

“You’re a good friend, Lele. A really good friend.”

Bryce. Bryce, she's trying to get you to hook back up with the lying, manipulative, possessive jerk-off. She is the absolute antithesis of a good friend.

Ugh. Anyway. Next chapter. We're with Ruhn, at the conference.

Ruhn had anticipated that the Summit would be intense, vicious, flat-out dangerous—each moment spent wondering whether someone’s throat would be ripped out. Just as it was at every one he’d attended. This time, his only enemy seemed to be boredom.

No, that latter option is what conferences are typically like. You've just spent too much time listening to the book's nonsense, Ruhn.

Ruhn reports on what has been happening at the conference which, apart from Sandriel ordering more troops for the front lines, seems to be a whole lot of not much. Which is at least par for course for conferences. He does spend like a page telling us this, though, before turning his attention to Hypaxia.

Oh, right, he and Hypaxia were betrothed. I forgot that little detail. Too much fucking padding to wade through.

He’d managed to slip between two of her coven members as they filed into the dining hall the first day, and, like an asshole, demanded, “Why didn’t you say anything? About who you really are?” Hypaxia held her lunch tray with a grace better suited to holding a scepter. “You didn’t ask.”

Honestly, I don't think that's such an asshole thing to ask, given the circumstances. Especially if she knew who you were the whole time. But, at the same time...... if you didn't even ask for her name, Ruhn, that's kinda on you. She hasn't been refusing to give it, each time it's come up it's been you forgetting to ask.

He asks what the go was with the clinic and such, and she gives some waffle about wanting to be "normal" before becoming queen. Whatever.

“Do you know what my father expects of you? And me?” “I have my suspicions,” she said coolly. “But I am not considering such … changes in my life right now.” She gave him a nod before walking away. “Not with anyone.” And that was it. His ass had been handed to him.

.......how is that handing your ass to you? If I recall correctly, you didn't even want to marry her when your father suggested it.

Fucking hell, he's even thankful she doesn't want to marry him in the very next line! Book, you can't just make dramatic statements like "his ass had been handed to him" and expect me to just nod and go along with it. You just erode any dramatic impact such statements can have in your story, even when they would be appropriate.

He reminds us about his Oracle prophecy about being the last of the bloodline again, and then...

He wasn’t the only one ignoring Hypaxia, at least. Jesiba Roga hadn’t spoken one word to her.

From the sounds of it, there's a few hundred people at this conference. I seriously doubt you two are the only ones not talking to Hypaxia. You're trying to generate drama with Jesiba here, book, but it just isn't working because, by all accounts, Jesiba doesn't give a single, solitary shit about what's going on in witch-land. And, thus, neither do I.

We get a tepid environmental message thrown in there at random, mostly to make Sandriel even more of a caricature than she already is. Tharion gives us yet another example of someone being thoroughly unscared by Sandriel. And then Hypaxia is also unscared of Sandriel.

To Ruhn’s eternal shock, it was Sandriel who looked away first

Not to mine. What's the literary equivalent of hot air? That's all this book's portrayals of its villains are. Won't stop the book making much fuss of how Hypaxia "somehow" managed to make Sandriel "yield" to her tho.

The book remains extremely preoccupied with how much attention Jesiba is or isn't paying to Hypaxia. I continue to be annoyed by it.

[Tharion] just casually lifted his paper, flashing what looked like about twenty rows of markings—counting something. Hypaxia’s eyes widened, bright with reproach and disbelief, and Tharion lowered the paper before anyone else noticed. Added another slash to it. A flush crept over the witch-queen’s cheeks.

Ruhn doesn't care about that, though, so it's clearly going to be important later.

POV switch to Hunt for like half a page. God forbid we go too many pages without him.

Hunt was so bored he honestly thought his brain was going to bleed out his ears.

Book, if your characters are bored, then I'm bored too. It's actually not that exciting to read about people being bored, believe it or not.

Anyway, Hunt insists that these are his last few days of peace before Pollux "unleashes", while Pollux continues to do nothing but smirk and sneer. Fuck I am so over this. If I roll my eyes any harder they're going to fall out of my skull.

Aaaaand.... that's it! Aren't you so glad we had that little insight into Hunt's mind? Didn't it just add so much to the plot? What the actual fuck is the plot, at this point? My thought would be it's Bryce saving Hunt from Sandriel, but so far, everyone's just sitting around with their thumbs up their butts. Except for Hypaxia and Tharion, apparently. But don't worry about that.

We return to Bryce. She's still angsting. She won't even go home now, eating and showering and everything at the gallery and cancelling all the client meetings.

And taken a new Archesian amulet right from the wall safe in Jesiba’s office—the very last one in the territory. One of five left in the entire world.

Holy fuck. As if you couldn't make the amulet anymore fucking pointless.

See, the problem with this is that, whilst Bryce giving up the amulet was framed as if it was some great sacrifice, it failed for two reasons now - the first being we had absolutely no reason to care about it in the first place, because we've only ever been told how awesome it is in passing. And now, the second, being that it is immediately and effortlessly replaced. It just renders the whole sacrifice thing absolutely null and void.

Bryce doesn't change or learn anything from the loss of her original amulet. She doesn't have to do anything to get a second one. The whole drama could be removed completely without changing anything about the plot - Sandriel could easily have laughed at Bryce's offer to buy Hunt without melting her amulet. Hell, make her rip up the check, if Bryce was going to do it anyway. And when something can be completely removed without affecting anything in the plot, it should be. This is the very definition of pointless filler.

Bryce has heard back about a couple of the jobs she applied for.

And if she got one of those jobs, she’d have to come up with a plan for repaying her debt for Syrinx—something that would please Jesiba’s ego enough to keep her from transforming Bryce into some awful creature just for asking to leave.

You've been promising us a creature transformation all book, book. We still haven't seen it. I'm really not that concerned.

Bryce sighed, running a hand over an ancient tome full of legal jargon that required a degree to decipher. She’d never seen so many ergos and therefores and hence the followings and shall be included but not limited tos. But she kept looking.

..............none of that is particularly arcane or jargony. Hell, none of that is even particularly academic. Which tells me a lot about why this book is the way it is, honestly.

Anyway. I guess they're looking for ways to free Hunt. You know. Looking for legal precedent where red-handed criminals don't get punished, I guess. We get another reminder that the nøkk exists. He sure has done a lot of existing. And then Micah randomly shows up.

Bryce is worried because she doesn't want Micah to see whatever books are down here. Everyone else is cowering in fear. No, really.

Syrinx was shaking on the couch; Lehabah hid behind a small stack of books. Even the animals in their various cages and small tanks cowered. Only the nøkk kept smiling.

Bryce tries to get him to go upstairs, but he does not, and tells her that he's looking for her.

.........if even fucking Micah is jumping on the "get back together with Hunt" train, I might have to light my laptop on fire.

Speaking of Hunt.

Today’s meeting was by far the worst. The slowest.

Great. Why are we here for it, then?

Boring meeting stuff is happening. Then, Jesiba gets a message. Everyone looks at her because it's more interesting than the meeting. Riveting stuff.

Jesiba’s thumbs flew over her phone, her red-painted mouth tightening as she lifted a hand. Even Sandriel shut up.

Yet another instance of Sandriel not being scary. Have we had even one instance of scariness from her yet? No, smirking isn't scary.

Roga said, “I’m sorry to interrupt, Governor, but there’s something that you—that all of us—need to see.” He had no rational reason for the dread that began to curl in his stomach. Whatever was on her phone could have been about anything. Yet his mouth dried up.

No, you do have a rational reason, Hunt. Jesiba probably isn't interrupting the meeting to show everyone cat memes.

Jesiba ignored [Sabine], and glanced to Declan Emmet. “Can you link what’s on my phone to these screens?” She indicated the array of them throughout the room.

Oh. Ohohoho. Now I know you've never been to an actual conference.

I mean, this is absolutely something that can be done.... with the proper setup. It's not something that can generally be accommodated randomly, on the fly, and certainly not by a random member of the audience. Unless Declan works for the conference hall and we just haven't been told? And sure, magic could be an explanation. But I assume that because she's asking Declan, the computer nerd character, it's a technological solution she's seeking, not a magical one.

But, who knows. Maybe this conference hall just sets that kind of stuff as a matter of course. Stranger things have happened.

Well, apparently what's on Jesiba's phone is "dozens of different video feeds" from Griffin Antiquities, as well as her conversation with Bryce. Book. Book, I may work mostly audio, but I'm pretty sure that is a whole other beast to have multiple VX things from a single source like that. Especially when said source is a phone. A phone going through a random audience member's laptop, even.

Bryce was standing in front of the camera

Which one? There's dozens, apparently.

Micah is with her. Everyone is Very Shocked by this development. I'm just wishing the book would get on with it already.

Declan hit a few keys on his computer, pulling up that particular feed. Another keystroke and its audio filled the conference room.

Yeah, for my sanity I'm just gonna assume Declan is the AV guy at the conference hall and the book's just failed to mention that.

Okay, it's all phrased a bit confusingly, so I'll try parse it as best I can. Bryce has messaged Jesiba and presumably asked her to pull up the gallery feeds. Micah is unaware that she has done this, and is apparently threatening her, or something, because Bryce is covertly messaging "help" to Jesiba. It's a real plea for help, too, because Hunt tells us all about his roaring instincts and such.

Ruhn orders Flynn to send some men to Griffin Antiquities, whilst Sandriel says that Micah hasn't done anything wrong. Which... I mean, yeah. Bryce said "help," but we don't know what he's actually doing there at this point, apart from drinking wine. But, Sandriel also took a jab at him about "poor choice in females," so that Hunt has an excuse to get snarly. He assures us that he would be punished for daring to snarl at Sandriel, except that Ruhn and Declan also coincidentally snarled at the exact same time so no one can tell. Yeah, yeah. Whatever, book.

Micah observes that Bryce has been poring over law books, looking for a loophole to free Hunt.

“What the fuck is going on?” Fury bit out.

Fury asking the real questions here.

Micah and Bryce banter for a bit, and then Micah gives us some actually interesting bits of worldbuilding. Only took 83% of the book.

“Humans died for these books,” Micah purred, motioning to the shelves towering around them. “Banned titles, if I’m not mistaken, many of them supposed to only exist in the Asteri Archives. Evolution, mathematics, theories to disprove the superiority of the Vanir and Asteri. Some from philosophers people claimed existed before the Asteri arrived.” A soft, awful laugh. “Liars and heretics, who admitted they were wrong when the Asteri tortured them for the truth. They were burned alive with the heretical works used as kindling. And yet here, they survive. All the knowledge of the ancient world. Of a world before Asteri. And theories of a world in which the Vanir are not your masters.”

Too bad it's got nothing to do with any of the plot so far. Again, why is this the climax? What the fuck is going on? All of this is just so random and disconnected.

Ruhn said to Jesiba, “What, exactly, is in that library?”

Were you not listening, Ruhn?

Jesiba said nothing. Absolutely nothing. Her gray eyes promised cold death, though.

I'll believe it when I see it.

Apparently, the gallery library is the Great Library of Parthos.

......for some reason, this is apparently a dramatic reveal, though I honestly don't remember if this great library has even been mentioned in the book before now.

This is not how you do climactic reveals, by the way.

Micah tells us how, way back in the day, when humans and Vanir were fighting, a massive human army fought and died to give the human priestesses time to smuggle out the most important books - the ones that proved their personhood without the Vanir/Asteri. And, honestly, I don't hate this. It's just had nothing to do with anything until right now, when the book's suddenly decided it's important.

No one so much as blinked as the truth settled. But Jesiba pointed to the screens and said to Tristan Flynn, to Sabine, her voice shaking, “Tell the Aux to move their fucking asses. Save those books. I beg you.” Hunt ground his teeth. Of course the books were more important to her than Bryce.

Not to sound like a dick, but... yeah. A hundred thousand humans died to protect those books, Hunt. That is history the Asteri want to wipe out, to make their subjugation of humanity complete. And I don't know, maybe it's because I am human, but I feel like it's kinda important to protect that?

Ah, who am I kidding. Neither he nor Bryce have shown any inkling of caring about the humans before now, I don't know why I expected them to start.

What I'd like to know, though, is why the fuck Micah randomly decided to show up there? Did he get some sort of tip-off about the books? What the hell brought this on?

......I'll be very pissed off if it turns out the Asteri ordered him to go there just to fuck with Hunt.

Hunt tells us what Bryce is wearing, because that's so very important right now.

“Run,” Flynn urged to the screen, as if Bryce could hear him. “Fucking run, Bryce.” Sandriel glared at the Fae warrior. “You dare accuse a Governor of foul play?” But doubt shone in her eyes. The Fae lord ignored her, his eyes again on the screens.

And now even Flynn is brushing Sandriel off. I don't even know what to say.

More banter. More attempts to convince us of scariness.

“Have a seat,” Micah said, gesturing to the chair across the table. “We might as well be civilized about it.” Bryce obeyed, batting her eyelashes. “About what?” “About you giving me Luna’s Horn.”

....cool. Well, hopefully we'll get an explanation next chapter.

[theslyvoid9]

Oh god im just...thinking about Jimmy, like everyone bullies him and he usually playfully obviously overreacts to it in a offended matter but i feel like as everyone else gets more geniuen in the insults he also gets more geniuen in being offended, but like its jimmy hes always like this so like no one notices how far gone he actually is.

I feel like bc of that someone says sth mean, maybe scott tried to come by to get jim to go with him instead of staying with scars group (again him and his god complex needing some ally to feel superiour too now that grian, who was clearly just working with bigb and waiting for the moment to kill him, is dead) but his convincing is just belittling jim and trying get into his stupid head that he NEEDS scott to keep him alive, but it just completely sets jim off, like fully shouting and maybe even like truly trying to beat the shit out of scott, he fails miserably but he just runs off. They dont find him again after that, no one knows what happened to him.

Scott would use this to get even more hostile towards scars group bc "how didnt you guys notice how far gone he was???" while the others blame Scott for pushing jim over the edge and on purpose trying to divide them while they clearly have a better chance together.

This would fully just make Lizzie also just pull away from both groups i think, like scott is CLEARLY crazy so not staying with him but also...what if he was right about scar and mumbo...cant be risking that so without saying anything Lizzie just goes off on her own one day. She gets worse now that shes alone, even more paranoid of others because who could she trust?? anyone could be a source no matter how innocent they seem, just better to not risk it. Lizzie I feel like would somehow get one of those chest mounted go pros, she knows shes doing something when she blacks out, the video is usually completely fucked and she cant get it to play properly. She got a bit of the audio to work once, she swears she heard Jimmy talk to her. Her cough seems to be getting worse. Joel ABSOLUTELY now has it out for Scott bc not only is Jim missing now but also Lizzie is avoiding him like the plague. Even once yelled at him to stay away but he also thinks that Scott has gone fully insane and Joel just... for all his bark doesnt have a lot of bite to actually facing Scott in a fight, and Scott seems to be really good at dissapearing when he needs to so Joel is just constantly mad bc he feels helpless for not being able to do anything. Thought I do feel that he would not join but keep ties with the scar group, afterall he wasnt there when the actual fight happened so he doesnt like...fully trust them but also didnt hear scott accuse them + if scott hates them then they must be normal actually.

After the jim incident scar would become almost obsessively observant of mumbo and pearl, like god damn psychoanalyzing how they blink just to make sure that he can stop the influence before it gets too bad, after all hes lost too many close friends already. Pearl would be getting more and more sick but sticks with scar bc at least they WANT her around unlike everyone else. Mumbo just sets up an entire camera system around their base and is constantly just in his room reviewing the footage

Life Series but the operator (slenderman) is after them. Ok lets take some of the current teams so its easier to discuss I think Joel's first to go insane and start killing people. He can't handle the headaches and waking up in new places each morning without knowing where the fuck he was. He panics about everyt little odd noise and he can't handle the migranes and the tinnitus in his ear that keeps getting louder whenever the operator is near. He films absolutely everything, Gem is fine to begin with but will become paranoid alongside him. Just not to the same level. She definitely experiences memory loss. No clue who she spoke to before or what happened the night prior.

BigB is withdrawn. He's definitely under some influence. He's naturally suspicious of everything and everyone but it also means he isolates himself more than necessary. Everyone thinks he's working for the Operator but his mind simply too confused to know whats happening, he sees green maybe a bit too often. He can be seen filming people in secret. And when he's spotted he runs. Pearl sees him watching her so often she feels a bit calm when wandering around, she doesnt know if hes a danger to her but yet but at least she never feels alone.

Jimmy, Scar and Lizzie stick together. They're too stupidly curious about it so they attempt to get closer to it, try to get to the bottom of what the fuck is going on. Joel curses them out when he sees them. Tells them they will only make it worse, only bring it out more. They don't take him seriously. But Jimmy starts to experience severe paranoia after he thinks he was kidnapped at night and taken somewhere for a few hours. He woke up with his head bleeding and body covered in bruises. Scar doesn't know what to believe, Lizzie tries to convince him maybe he just sleepwalked. They aren't sure if Lizzie is somehow involved in it. She's not in denial about it existing for one. She might be coping over the fact that her husband no longer trusts her so she wants to avoid the topic of the effects this can have on people...

i think Tango might be the first one to go missing. He wasn't careful enough, he joked around with it, didn't watch his step. Didn't take it seriously. And now he's gone. Scar needs to go look for him. That's his friend, he can't just leave his friend out there. Jim and Lizzie discourage him for different reasons but Scar doesn't listen, why would he??? Pearl is also looking for Tango, so is Grian. Meanwhile Pearl has abandoned Scott because he tried to blame it reemerging and showing up again on her. Told her tjat if she goes to search for Tango she would doom them all. ....

I will come back i just need to cook this wait. enjoy i guess