#2. to pay attention to these apparent dice rolls and when they happen

[curly-cottage-girl]

how come I never realized that sound was dice rolls??? and supposedly they are from actual rolls/decisions of the patreon supporters?? bro that’s just. that’s just a whole other level. no wonder arthur’s always talking about how things seem preordained….

[snowdice]

A Twist of Fate {Part 6} (Everything’s Fine Universe) [Dice Roll 13]

Fandom: Sanders Sides

Relationships: Remus & Janus & Patton, Remy & Patton

Characters: Janus, Patton, Remus, Remy

Summary: It wasn’t unheard of for people to gain soulmarks later in life, but it was quite rare. Usually fate was set in stone. Yet, when one’s fated death was prevented, fate had to make some adjustments.

As he fell, Patton may have felt a strange prickling feeling across his skin. He however, was not paying attention to that, far too distracted and confused. All he knew was that by the time he hit the ground, both of his hands were covered with marks. Later when he went home he’d notice even more in other places, but the ones he noticed when he hit the ground were the obvious ones on his hands.

Then, there was Janus. Janus had only one soulmark on his body. At least. He had only one soulmark that hadn’t been burnt off years ago. When he landed on top of Patton, he did not notice the marks that suddenly appeared on his arms and face. Patton did, however, notice two little designs appear on him: one along the side of his nose and the other right below the scaring on the left side of his face. The second was already colored in by the time they hit the ground.

Universe: Soulmate AU and Superhero AU

Genre: The Dice Roll said fluff and it is… but… it’s more fluff and angst, hurt/comfort-ish

Notes: Child abuse, homelessness, malnutrition, acid burns, platonic soulmates, car accidents mentioned, blood mentioned, death mentioned, chronic pain, abnormal growth

My Master Post Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5

Patton hurried to his front door, his mind frantically trying to figure out what he was going to say to Remy when he opened it. Yesterday, Remy had been his only soulmate, but now that was very much not the case. Patton wouldn’t know how to begin to explain the change even if he didn’t have two easily spooked children in his kitchen right now. Even if he knew where to start, he wouldn’t be able to explain without bringing up Evan and Jimmy, and their trust in him was so fragile, he feared even saying their names aloud to someone they did not know would shatter it forever.

He wanted to tell Remy though, if for no other reason than to have someone he knew and trusted to talk to about it. Patton had done his best to take everything in stride, but his head had been spinning since yesterday. Part of him thought he really had been hit by that car, and he was now having a vivid hallucination as he died. Maybe his mind was recalling the conversation about wanting children he’d had earlier in the day and was spinning a web of dreams before his consciousness faded away.

…Reality had yet to truly sink in even after a night’s rest.

He’d stayed up later than usual after he’d managed to finally find a sleeping arrangement that the children would tolerate. He’d taken the time to find and categorize every single new soulmark on his body before finally letting himself collapse into bed long past midnight. Considering what he’d found, it still took him a while to calm his brain enough to sleep.

There were, of course, the first ones he’d noticed on his hands. Three of these were in the middle on the back of his hands. Evan’s stood alone on his left hand. It was slightly towards the wrist, but still firmly in the territory that meant it was a parent-child relationship. Jimmy’s and one of the unfilled in soulmarks were on his right hand. They were so close together than someone might mistake them for one soulmark if one was not filled in and the other not.

The other two on his hands drifted more towards the side of each hand, close to, but slightly out of the range of a parental soulmark. When he cross referenced it with a diagram on the internet, he found it was more than likely a very close uncle like relationship. He wondered if, or well, hoped that those might match up with Remy’s two parental ones. It would be what made the most sense, after all.

That was five new soulmarks, but that was not where the surprises ended. When he’d finally gotten a chance to look at himself in the mirror, he’d been shocked to find a little crescent moon shaped outline on his neck. That was. Well. Patton had not expected that. It made sense, he guessed, that it was on his neck. He had definitely not expected a romantic soulmark which would be more towards the chest. He’d never really had those feelings, after all. On his neck meant it was a platonic soulmate, but not exactly friends. They probably shared the children as soulmates, at least the three definitely parental soulmates. It was probably a good thing considering all of the children Patton was suddenly responsible for. Or at least… he hoped he would be responsible for.

Those six had been startling enough, but he’d also gotten a few more. His back was now filled with friendship soulmarks that had not been there before. There were 5 more, in fact, putting him at a grand total of 14 soulmarks.

He was considered a Well-Loved now. He was an Unloved yesterday and a Well-Loved today. It was wonderful, but also strange and a bit terrifying. How was he supposed to explain this all to Remy, the one soulmate he’d always had, without even being able to mention the two new ones he’d found by name?

He still had not found an answer to that question even as he opened his front door.

“Sup babe,” Remy greeted immediately. “I brought coffee, but I already drank mine, so I’m going to go invade your kitchen. Kk? Here’s yours.”  Patton took the coffee cup automatically as it was thrust at him. Remy then went to push past Patton into his house, but Patton quickly stepped in his way. Remy’s nose scrunched up in confusion.

“I’m actually busy today,” Patton lied. “I forgot. I have plans. Could we reschedule?”

“Busy?” Remy asked. His voice was skeptical. Patton wasn’t a good liar in general, let alone to the man who had known him since elementary school. “Busy with what?”

“Uh, just… stuff.”

Remy studied him for a long moment, his gaze somehow sharp even though Patton could not see his eyes. “What’s that on your neck?” he asked. “‘Cause it looks like some sort of weird ass hickey, but you’re ace as hell.”

Patton quickly slapped a hand over the soulmark there. “It’s uh, nothing,” Patton said.

“…What’s on your hand?”

Remy reached for Patton, but Patton jerked away, tilting his head to hide the soulmark on his neck and hiding both hands behind his back, almost spilling coffee on himself in his haste. “It’s nothing. Sorry, I can’t spend the day with you today. Can you leave?”

Patton saw Remy’s eyebrows pop up over his sunglasses. “Gurl what is wrong?”

“Everything’s fine,” Patton promised, “but I need you to leave. I’ll talk to you later.”

“Uh huh…” Remy did not seem convinced. In fact, despite his standard cool demeanor, he looked rather alarmed.

“Oh god,” Evan groaned from behind Patton, “just let him in.”

Patton turned back to look at him. “But…”

“You’re a shit liar, and he’s going to call the cops on us if you don’t,” Evan said. Patton really wanted to correct the swearing but held his tongue. “Just… let him in.”

Patton turned to look at Remy who was giving him that slightly to the left head tilt that meant ‘I’m squinting at you in confusion.’

“Why don’t you come in?” Patton said. He stepped out of the way to let Remy walk into the house and closed the door behind him. They all awkwardly stared at each other for a long moment. “Let’s…” Patton finally said. “Living room. If that’s okay with everyone?”

Evan didn’t respond but stalked back towards the kitchen. Patton assumed he was getting Jimmy. That or bolting.

“What the hell, Pat?” Remy asked, voice low.

“They’re my soulmates, apparently,” Patton said. He waved the hand with Evan’s soulmark at him.

“You’re what?” Remy asked, then, “… ‘They’?”

Patton reached over to grab his hand, giving it a little squeeze, more for his benefit than for Remy’s. “I’m just as confused by it as you,” he said. “I got new soulmarks yesterday and two of them are already filled in.” He pulled him towards the living room. “It’s not just those two either. There’s… there’s a lot Rem.”

Remy took the coffee out of Patton’s hand and set it and his own empty cup on the coffee table so he could study both of Patton’s hands. One of his thumbs rubbed gently over one of the marks on the side of his hand. Had he done the math too? Patton had to wonder. Had he wondered why Patton did not at least have soulmarks for Remy’s children? Patton had never dared to bring it up, but Remy wasn’t stupid. Did he see the same thing in those two soulmarks as Patton?

“And some on my back too,” Patton told him.

“Not to mention…” Remy gestured at his neck. Patton put his hand over the mark, blushing a bit.

“Yeah…”

Just then, Evan and Jimmy entered from the kitchen. Jimmy looked at Remy and instantly opened his mouth. “Oh! I know you.”

Patton glanced over at Remy, but he seemed just as confused as Patton, so he turned back to the kids. Evan had gone tense all of a sudden as though readying to run. His hand dug into Jimmy’s shoulder and Jimmy’s head jerked to him. “No, something happened to him. He didn’t do something.” That confounding statement made Evan slowly relax, but he still looked over at Remy and Patton leerily. Jimmy did not seem to have the same hesitancy as Evan. He shook off the grip on his shoulder and waved. “Hi! You’re a doctor!”

Remy opened his mouth slightly. “…Well,” he said slowly. “I’m currently in medical school.

“…That’s what I meant.”

Patton watched curiously as Evan’s eyes slipped closed in frustration. Something was… off with Jimmy. Patton could not quite figure out what it was yet, but clearly something about him was being hidden, and Evan knew what it was. Patton had some suspicions, but like his knowledge that Evan was shapeshifter, he kept them to himself.

“Uh huh,” Remy replied.

“Why don’t we all take a seat?” Patton suggested. Remy looked over at him and then sat on one of the armchairs next to the couch. Patton sat on the couch next to him a moment later. Jimmy bounced over to the couch too and with no hesitation, he climbed into Patton’s lap. Patton put a hand on the boy’s head, heart in his throat. He did not dare to hug him though, as Evan was already shifting nervously without Patton effectively trapping Jimmy. Evan was left the only one standing, and he did not seem inclined to rectify this. Patton did not comment.

“So, you three got new soulmarks yesterday?” Remy asked.

“Uh huh,” Jimmy answered for them all. He curled one of his fists into Patton’s sweater seemingly not even aware of what he was doing.

“I’m not quite sure how,” Patton said. “I didn’t even know that could happen.”

“Usually it can’t,” Remy replied. “There are only two documented cases in the last century. We learned about them a few weeks ago. One was a polio patient for his doctor in the 1950s, and the other was only a year ago in New York, I think. Someone born with no soulmarks gained one randomly. In both cases, they only gained one. I haven’t even heard of any instances where multiple were gained and why it happened is greatly debated, but there aren’t enough cases to prove any sort of pattern.” Remy looked at him curiously. “Was there anything that happened to you that may have caused it?”

Patton hesitated. There was a clear answer to that question, but it wasn’t exactly easy to tell your best friend that you’d almost di-”

“He almost got smushed by a car!” Jimmy informed him. “Evan ran across the street and shoved him out of the way, but he was going to bleed out in the street and die.”

Patton winced as Remy looked at him, expression unreadable. “You were going to die?” he asked.

“Yeah,” Patton replied softly.

He could tell that the thought badly hurt Remy, but he seemed to shove the pain down. “And being saved caused the new soulmarks?” he asked.

“They were there by the time we hit the ground,” Patton confirmed.

“I guess that makes sense,” Remy said after a moment of thought.

“It does?” Patton asked.

“If you suddenly weren’t going to die when you were before, it makes sense you’d gain soulmarks.”

There was silence as the room absorbed that.

“What’s your name?” Jimmy asked suddenly, voice lighter than it probably should have been considering the previous topic. “Why are you a doctor? Why are you wearing sunglasses inside? Why are you carrying around an empty coffee cup? Are you going to refill it or just throw it away? Did you know that 16,009,402,282 disposable coffee cups were thrown away last year? Wha-”

“Whoa, whoa, one at a time kid,” Remy said, his mouth edging up into a smile. “My old brain can only process so much at once. My name is Remy.”

Jimmy frowned. “Not being able to remember many things is probably bad if you’re going to be a doctor,” he said.

Patton couldn’t help but laugh and pat his head.

“I guess you’re right,” Remy agreed. “I’ll have to work on that. What’s your name?”

“I’m, uh, Jimmy,” he said. “Like I said, that’s Evan. He’s not going to introduce himself because he’s crabby.”

“I see,” Remy replied, lips twitching. “That’s okay. He can be crabby if he wants to be. I’m sure he’s a little stressed out about everything.”

“He’s stressed out about a lot of things all the time,” Jimmy confirmed. Patton glanced up at Evan to see he was very displeased with this statement, but he kept his mouth sealed shut. “Oh!" Jimmy said, bounding a couple of times in Patton’s lap. “You should do a doctor thing to Evan!”

“Jimmy,” Evan hissed.

Jimmy didn’t even blink at the vehemence of Evan’s tone. “His bones are growing in wrong,” he declared, matter-of-factly, “and he’s bad at being warm enough. Like a snake!” Patton internally winced. He wasn’t an expert, but that sounded like it was probably the result of shapeshifting too much and for too long. “Plus, he has bad burns on his back that are healed but still hurt him.”

“Traitor,” Evan accused hotly. He looked like he wanted to escape the room, but he obviously wouldn’t leave without Jimmy, and Jimmy was in Patton’s lap. Patton wondered if that was on purpose.

Jimmy frowned at him. “You need to see a doctor,” he insisted. “You almost pass out every day!”

“No.”

“Yes.”

They stared at each other for a few long moments.

“I’m not going to make anyone accept medical care they don’t want,” Remy said evenly. Evan looked at him. He was pretty twitchy and looked like a trapped animal. “If you want me to look at you, I will, but I won’t make you even if you are sick, and you can stop me at any time.”

“Really?” Evan asked suspiciously.

“Really,” Remy confirmed. “It’s an open offer, but we can stop talking about it if that would make you more comfortable.”

Jimmy was frowning at Evan, but Evan just glared back. The younger boy seemed to shrug it off after a moment. He tilted his head back to look at Patton. “Can we make the cookies now?” he asked.

Patton laughed. “Sure,” he agreed. “We can make the cookies.”

 Evan slowly seemed to relax just a bit as the day went by. As promised, Patton made double chocolate chip cookies with the help… well ‘help’ of both Jimmy and Remy. Jimmy was a bit too enthusiastic and often almost knocked things over. He also had… interesting ideas for additions to the batter that he did not always remember to ask for permission for before putting them in the bowl. Remy, on the other hand knew exactly what he was doing when he tried poring coffee into the batter, and Patton was very unhappy with the fact that he was trying to caffeinate Jimmy of all people. Evan ended up being the most help despite insisting on just observing. He warned Patton about almost all of the potential disasters before they were put into the batter.

After the cookies were put in the oven, they went with Remy and Patton’s original plan of watching movies, though they chose more age appropriate ones than the planned romantic comedies. If Patton was being honest, he actually preferred the Disney movies over whatever Remy would have inevitably chosen.

Despite there not being any caffeine in the cookies they ate, Jimmy insisted upon bouncing between sitting on the couch with Patton and in the recliner with Evan every 30 minutes or so. This had been going on for 2¼ movies and didn’t show signs of stopping. He’d just jumped onto Patton without warning, causing Patton to jerk and accidently knock over a bowl of popcorn into Remy’s lap. Remy just laughed, looking over at Jimmy with a smile and that’s when Evan broke.

“What would you do?” he asked.

Remy blinked over at him, one hand still distractedly brushing popcorn off of his front.

“In the doctor thing or whatever,” Evan clarified.

Remy didn’t move from his seat in the armchair next to the couch, instead just folding his hands together over the popcorn in his lap. He calmly explained from across the living room with Lady and the Tramp running in the background every part of a normal doctor’s check-up. Then he explained about wanting to take a look at his burn scars as well as do a couple of X-rays.

“How would you do the X-rays?” he asked suspiciously.

Remy smiled slightly and tapped the edges of his sunglasses. “There’s a reason I wear sunglasses inside,” he said.

“You have a superpower,” Evan said, something odd in his tone.

“X-ray vision. Believe it or not, that’s not why I’m becoming a doctor.”

Evan bit his lip. “You can… do the first few things. We’ll see about the rest.”

“Alright kid,” Remy agreed easily. “Pat, you have a thermometer and blood pressure cuff, yeah? Can you get those for me?”

“Sure,” Patton said, gently pushing Jimmy off of his lap and walking to the main bathroom to grab what Remy had requested. When he returned, Remy had stood and crossed to kneel next to Evan’s chair and Jimmy had abandoned the couch to sit on his armrest.

“There was also a stethoscope,” Patton said. He set the instruments on the side table and then quickly backed off to give Evan some space and sat on the couch again.

“Thanks Pat,” Remy said without looking at him. He was careful not to crowd Evan, giving him the thermometer to take his temperature himself and asking him to tilt his head so he could flash a penlight in his ear instead of guiding it to the side himself like doctors usually did when Patton got checkups. Evan even allowed him to put the stethoscope under his shirt to listen to his breathing.

“Okay,” Remy said once he was done with that. “We’re done with that part. Up to you if you want me to do the rest.”

Evan hesitated. He glanced over at Jimmy. “Fine,” he said after a moment. “You can look at the burns.

“You’ll have to take your shirt off,” Remy said.

“Right.”

“Would you like a blanket to cover up the rest of you?” Patton offered.

Evan glanced at him. “I… Yes, I would.”

Patton nodded and grabbed one of the blankets on the back of the couch. He walked it over to him and handed it over. He took it and wrapped it around himself before starting to squirm out of his shirt from underneath it.

“Okay,” he said after he was finished. Patton could see the stress at his vulnerability growing in his eyes.

“It’s on your back, right?” Remy asked, his voice gentle.

“Yeah,” he said.

“Alright. I’m going to touch your shoulder,” Remy soothed. When Evan nodded, he reached out and slowly pulled the blanket away from his back. The acid burn scar there was much worse than the one on his face, deeper and more widespread. It made Patton’s chest ache to think about the pain that injury had caused when it had happened, especially if it was bad enough that it still hurt him now. “Okay?” Remy made sure.

“Yeah,” Evan answered.

Remy nodded and leaned forward, his fingertips just brushing the skin on the child’s back. The second their skin touched, they both jumped. “Interesting,” Remy said, surprised.

Patton’s eyes were glued on what had startled them both. A soulmark had filled in on Evan’s back right in the middle of the deepest part of the burn. It looked like nothing Patton had ever seen before. Before he and Remy had touched, Patton hadn’t been able to see that there had ever been a soulmark there. Whatever had been used across his shoulders had seemingly completely erased it, but now there was an emerald blot of color, twisted and distorted by the burn, but still definitely there. Whatever shape it was meant to be before was indiscernible, but the way the color subtlety popped out against his dark skin was still incredibly beautiful.

“I…” Evan twisted around to try to look at the soulmark in confusion, “didn’t know you could get a soulmark that was burnt off.”

“You can’t,” Remy said. He squinted at Evan and then at Patton, “but I guess you’re weird kid.”

Evan’s eyes flickered up to him. “You’re the other half of this equation,” he pointed out, “so what does that make you?”

“Eh,” Remy replied with a smile. “I already knew I was weird.”

Evan smiled tentatively back. He seemed to be calmed by the fact that Remy was his soulmate, contrary to how he’d felt when he’d learned Patton was his soulmate. Patton was a bit surprised, but he guessed it made sense considering a friendship soulmark didn’t give Remy any legal rights to him unlike a parental one. His fear was about control, Patton had surmised by the way he’d acted and the things he’d said, about autonomy. He felt Patton was a threat to that, but Remy was not one.

“I’m going to continue looking, okay?” Remy said, laying a hand on his shoulder again. Evan allowed it and Remy kept looking at the burns through his glasses still. He asked questions about how much and when they hurt, and then sat back after a few minutes. “How about the X-rays.”

Evan took a breath. “Yeah, why not?”

Remy nodded and took off his sunglasses. He spent a few minutes looking at Evan, asking him to move into certain positions every so often. Eventually he put the sunglasses back on and sat back.

“I’m going to be straight with you kid,” Remy finally said. “Are you a shapeshifter?” The tension that had left him after learning Remy was his soulmate returned full force. “It’s alright if you are,” Remy placated. “I won’t do anything or tell anyone outside of this room, but I haven’t heard much about impaired thermoregulation in anyone without a brain or spine injury unless they were shapeshifters. That combined with your bone growth irregularity imply you’ve been using shape-shifting too much.”

Evan did not seem inclined to answer, his eyes on his knees. Jimmy did not have the same reluctance. “Yes, he is,” Jimmy said.

“You’re a dick, Jimmy,” Evan grumbled.

“You probably shouldn’t teach him that,” Patton tried.

“He taught me most of it,” Evan replied with an eyeroll.

“I know all of the bad words!” Jimmy declared, cheerfully. He held up a finger as though starting to count. “Cu-”

“No, no,” Patton quickly cut him off. “I believe you.”

Evan seemed amused at least, his mind evidently taken off his powers for the moment.

Remy snorted a bit himself. “You are a character, aren’t you?” he asked.

“That’s a nice way of putting it,” Evan said.

Remy reached out to pat Jimmy on the head, and really Patton shouldn’t have been surprised when they both jolted a bit.

“Cool!” Jimmy enthused. “I have a doctor soulmate. Can you X-ray me, like with a real X-ray machine not with your weird eyes? I want to see my insides! Then can you label all of my bones for me?!”

Remy snorted. “I reiterate: a character.”

“I don’t know what ‘reiterate’ means!” Jimmy declared proudly.

“Say something again,” Remy informed him. He glanced down at his arm. “Huh,” he said. “That one wasn’t there yesterday,” he said. There was one on the back of his hand almost at his wrist, meaning it was somewhere between an older brother and an uncle relationship. Jimmy likely had one higher on his arm.

“You didn’t notice?” Patton asked.

“Bitch please,” Remy waved him off. “I woke up 5 minutes before I had to leave for my exam and came right here.”

“Remy, can you please not…”

“He almost said the ‘c’ word Patty. I think they’re a lost cause.”

Patton frowned, unhappily, but decided to let it slide for now.

Remy turned back to Evan, still smiling softly. “So,” he said. “I’m guessing you’ve been using your shapeshifting a lot.”

Evan nodded.

“Well, doctors typically recommend that people don’t shapeshift much until their around 14,” Remy informed him. “Mostly because overextending it can cause some problems. How old are you?”

“Twelve,” Evan answered after a beat of hesitation.

“Alright,” Remy said. “That’s a little bit young… and I can tell you’ve been doing it for a while. You’ve honestly messed up a bit of your growth process.”

Evan looked at his lap, not saying anything.

“I don’t blame you,” Remy said. “I don’t think you probably wanted to do all of that, which means you probably had to. You’re obviously a survivor, but it does pose some issues moving forward.”

“So, should he try to stop shapeshifting?” Patton asked.

“It would actually be worse if he doesn’t use it at all at this point,” Remy replied. He turned to Evan who was still not looking at him. “There are exercises I can give you. For now, you should only do those twice a day and no other shapeshifting. After a couple of weeks, you can start using it a bit outside of that, but no full shifts and not for more than a few minutes at a time. That should get your body heat to regulate more normally.”

Evan did not look happy with this prospect. “I’ll try,” he said dubiously.

“I guess that’s all I can really ask,” Remy said with a sigh. “The bone growth would take more to fix. More physical therapy with your shape shifting as well as without. Some of it’s probably permanent damage.”

Evan shrugged. “I’d figured,” he said a bit bitterly.

“It will be alright though,” Remy assured, putting his hand on Evan’s knee.

Evan looked up at him and Patton could see exactly what he was thinking. The being able to not shapeshift at all for two weeks. The extended physical therapy necessary to even start to fix the bone growth irregularities. Those things depended on having somewhere safe to do so. It depended on staying with Patton, and Evan still wasn’t sold on that.

“Of course,” Evan said, and Patton could tell he was lying.

Patton would need to do his best to convince him to stay. A lot more was on the line than he’d thought.

Want to read more? Click below!

Part 7

[amethystroselilith]

I don’t know if you’ve done something like this but a head cannon or fic the brothers and mc playing a game of monopoly that gets heated I mean like, tables have been flipped, fires have been caused at some point, and yelling. Lots of yelling.

I’m not sure if this is chaotic enough for you, but I hope you’ll still like it, anon! :)

Brothers x MC Playing Monopoly

You are currently in your room, on your bed, leaning against a snacking Beel and cradling a napping Belphie to your chest.

In front of you three, are the two eldest brothers, arguing over what to put on the tv.

“Play in your fucking room, Levi! I wanna watch Harrison Porter!” Mammon growled, trying to hold Levi in a headlock.

“Take your own advice and watch it in your own room! Y/N and I need to play this asap!” Levi growled, protecting the remove to his chest.

You sighed, it’s a common occurrence and you’re just waiting for another brother to burst in the room to complain about the noises the two are making.

“Can you two stop bickering?” the door opened, revealing Lucifer, who looks tired.

“I will if Levi will just give me the fucking remote!” Mammon growled, reaching for the remote, only for Levi to push him back.

“As if! This is way more important than your show!” Levi growled, using his foot to shove Mammon away.

“What’s that?” you asked curiously at the box Lucifer was carrying.

It also caught everyone’s attention, except for Belphie who just nuzzled on your chest, sleeping peacefully.

“Diavolo had returned from the human world and bought this as a souvenir, he claimed you have talked to him about this board game?” Lucifer explained as he showed the box.

“Oh, Monopoly!” you smiled, “Yeah, it’s basically a game about money-”

“Let’s play it!” Mammon pushed Levi, who groaned in annoyance when he hit the floor, “I wonder how much money I can make.” he grinned as he snatched the board game from an irritated Lucifer.

“We use fake money.” you chuckled, “It’s basically buying properties and hope someone lands on them so you can earn money back.” 

“Eh? Can we use real money?” Mammon suggested.

“Do you even have enough on you to play?” Lucifer raised an eyebrow, “Because I just received-”

“Alright, alright, enough!” Mammon huffed with an embarrassed blush.

Lucifer smirked before turning back to the game, “Anyway, Diavolo’s begging us to play it as soon as possible. Apparently, he wants us to be familiarised with since he’ll be throwing a board game night next week or something.” he sighed, “Might as well get it over with so I can go back to my work.”

~~~

“These pieces don’t make sense,” Asmo commented as he’s trying to choose which piece to use.

“It doesn’t really matter, Asmo, just choose something,” Satan said, quickly taking the cat piece.

“Fine, I’ll get the car.” Asmo rolled his eyes about to pick the said piece.

“But I want the car,” Mammon whined, stopping Asmo.

Lucifer sighed, picking a random one, which happened to be the top hat, “Asmo, just give it to him, I don’t want to hear his annoying whines for the whole night.”

“I guess I’ll take this.” Belphie shrugged as he took the dog.

“...but I want the dog…” Beel pouted, ending up with the shoe piece.

Belphie just shrugged and exchanged pieces, smiling softly when Beel lightened up.

“I like the ship, it reminds me of the ocean.” Levi smiles as he admires the piece.

“No one asked.” Mammon rolled his eyes.

“Fuck you, thimble piece.” 

You sighed as another argument broke out.

~~~

“Pay up, Belphie!” Mammon cheered as Belphie landed on his space, “That’s $10.” 

Belphie sighed as he gave $10 out of his $1500 pile, “I don’t think I want to play anymore.” 

“You’re 3rd leading though.” Satan raised an eyebrow.

The game had been going for a bit long. Beel was out first, having spent all his money on every property he landed on, unfortunately for him, no one lands there frequently and went bankrupt on Mammon’s spaces. Asmo was out second for landing on one of Satan’s very expensive tiles filled with a hotel. You were next for landing on two consecutive expensive spaces from Belphie.

Levi, as expected, had taken it seriously, he’s the 4th leading at the moment with stable incomes from his properties. Belphie is currently on the 3rd one with only 2 properties and having collected the 4 railroads. Satan had also very well planned his properties, always checking if his spaces are landed on and collects the rent. You didn’t really expect Lucifer to be invested, he had owned all the expensive properties, filled them with houses and hotels and sitting at the top.

Mammon’s last with his $50 and 2 cheap properties, he started out pretty strong but had the bad luck of landing on Satan’s and Lucifer’s spaces he had to mortgage some of his properties.

“This is getting too long.” Belphie sighed, “Just take all my shit, Mammon.” 

“Best baby brother ever!” Mammon cheered.

“Wait, can he do that?” Levi complained, eyeing the greedy brother enviously with his new properties.

“Rules didn’t say anything about it.” Satan shrugged, it wouldn’t really push him out of his current spot, it would be a different scenario if it pushed him to 3rd spot though.

“We could’ve given it to the bank,” Levi mumbled.

“Ah stop whining, Levi!” Mammon teased as he counted his money.

Levi rolled the dice and landed on Belphie’s, now Mammon’s very expensive space. He swore in his head when he couldn’t afford it, but Mammon wasn’t looking.

No one said anything, they made it a rule to not snitch as to make it more interesting, it becomes a new mechanic where the player tries to distract whoever’s space they landed on.

However, when it comes to money, Mammon activates a new instinct.

“Don’t think I didn’t notice that you thief.” his eyes darkened as he looks at Levi, “Pay the fuck up.” 

“It should’ve belonged to the bank!” Levi argued, not accepting the fact that he’s losing to the scummy brother.

“Belphie gave it to ME so, therefore, it’s MINE!” Mammon shouted.

Not wanting for another fight to break out; because Belphie is sleeping and waking Belphie this time will just cause more chaos, and you don’t really want to deal with that at this late of an hour, so grabbing your portable console you smiled at Levi.

“Levi, can you help me finish this boss?” you asked sweetly, “Been stuck with it for a while, I don’t want to play with randoms.”

The 3rd’s angry quickly faded, someone needs him! And it’s not just someone, it’s his favourite person in the whole world!

“Of course!” he smiled brightly, smirking internally when he felt Mammon’s elated mood go sour with jealousy.

“Can we go on with the game now?” Lucifer sighed, getting bored of the game as well, but refusing to stop until he’s on top.

“Whoa! I’m second leading now, Satan! Rags to riches, baby!” Mammon bragged as he counted his money, “Lucifer’s next.” he snickered with a determined glint in his eyes.

You began to worry as you felt the beginnings of Satan’s wrath. 

The blonde smiled, “Why don’t we move on yeah?” 

No one seemed to notice, but the dice had a subtle purple-ish glow.

“Yeah, yeah, peasant.” Mammon snickered before picking up the dice.

Satan’s smile widened as the dice rolls.

Mammon moved his piece, freezing when he saw where it landed.

“Oh my…” Satan tsked.

And just like that… Mammon’s out.

~~~

You never knew Monopoly could be interesting in the late game, but here you all are, watching intently as Satan and Lucifer battled on the board, even Belphie stayed awake in hopes of Satan beating Lucifer.

The turns consist of the other almost bankrupting their opponent, having been saved by having $5 leftover but gaining the empire again when the other landed on their spot. 

“Just give up, Lucifer,” Satan smirked at Lucifer and his $1, “Two of my spaces are in front of you and the chance of you landing there is pretty high.” 

“The most expensive space is a few steps ahead of you, while the chances are lower, it will push me to victory,” Lucifer smirked.

Satan eyed the space the will surely doom him, but so far throughout the game, only 2 had fallen victim from it. 

He began to calculate the possibilities of him landing there, slowly picking the dice and hoping that lady luck is on his side.

Everyone held their breath when the dice revealed the result, Satan moving his piece to the number shown.

“I…” his eyes widened at the last space he landed.

“Pay up, my dear brother,” Lucifer smirked.

“FUCK YOU, LUCIFER!!!” Satan burst into his demon board, flipping the board and jumping on Lucifer.

“Jeez, Satan, it’s just a game!” Mammon rolled his eyes, “Don’t be a sore loser, I mean even Levi didn’t flip the board when he lost to me.” he snickered.

“You only won over me because Belphie helped you! You’re as hopeless in real life!” Levi snapped.

“Awww, did I hurt you gamer otaku pride? The only thing you’re good at but still lost.” Mammon mocked before he was thrown on the other side of the room.

The sudden move accidentally bumped Beel, causing whatever he was eating to fall on Asmo.

“BEEL! THIS IS ONE OF MY EXPENSIVE SHIRTS!” Asmo shrieked in horror as the oily liquid ruined the fabric of his shirt, “You idiot! Can’t you just eat in the fucking kitchen?!” he hissed.

“Why are you wearing an expensive shirt indoors in the first place? Not his fault you’re so desperate to impress Y/N.” Belphie defended, his sharp tongue going off due to his crankiness.

“That’s so rich coming from you, Belphie, aren’t you the one who’s leeching on their side like the desperate sad little fuck you are?” Asmo hissed.

“You fucking take that back,” Beel growled before the three of them began arguing, transforming in their demon forms.

You sighed as you step a bit further from them, a text notification taking your attention from the chaos in front of you.

Diavolo: How’s game night going? 

You typed your reply,

You: The usual. 

[iridescent-hallucinations]

Your Hands Were Made For Mine - Chapter 2

Second Chapter of my first ever Jemily Fic! Pairing: JJ/Emily

Summary:  Games can be fun, but the only way someone can win is if the rules are known to both parties.

Word Count: 1615

Read it on AO3

For a few months now Emily and JJ had found themselves playing an unnamed game. It was exhilarating, both women not entirely sure of the rules, so pushing the boundaries until they were able to determine what they were. Silently scoring points and keeping score of who was winning, never speaking a word of the edge they were precariously walking. It was as though by participating in this game, they didn’t have to acknowledge the stolen looks, the flushed cheeks & the small smirks that were exchanged between them. 

The first time they played had been like the practise round, considering neither of them were aware that there was a game to be played up until that intense walk down the corridor, desperately keeping from touching each other to savour the delicious tension.

So far they had worked out that it was safe for Emily to squeeze JJ’s shoulder to grab her attention when she entered a room, sometimes Emily would flinch because as JJ turned to look up at her, her cheek would ever so lightly brush against the knuckles balanced between her shoulder and her neck. Emily soon learnt that if she left her hand to hover over the toned shoulder, she was more likely to feel the tingle of JJ’s skin on the backs of her fingers. When this incidental contact happened, they both knew a point each had been scored. Confirmation of this came from blue orbs locking onto brown, quietly acknowledging that perhaps something was happening. 

 It was also safe for JJ to run a hand down Emily’s triceps to hold her elbow as she manoeuvred past her on the narrow jet, occasionally adding a second hand to Emily’s other arm and squeezing to lock in the extra point she knew she’d scored.

The boldest move played so far happened when JJ was walking into her office ahead of Emily and stopped suddenly causing the brunette to reach her arms out and grab onto the younger woman’s hips in an attempt to prevent her body slamming into JJ’s back. 

“Woah, nearly caused a collision there” Emily quipped, giggling to herself, making no to attempt to move her hands from their resting place. 

JJ had been so engrossed in the document she was reading she hadn’t realised her mistake in stopping so suddenly. That is, until she felt warm hands meet the small but pronounced curve of her hips. Eyes snapping forwards, she realised their position, noticing that Emily’s fingertips were pulsing ever so slightly, causing JJ’s breath to catch in her throat. 

Realising she hadn’t said anything JJ slowly lowered the document in her hands, finding courage in the fact she couldn’t actually see Emily meaning Emily couldn’t see the colour flushing her chest at the small but significant contact. 

“Yeah sorry about that” she choked out, wondering which of them was going to break contact first. “I uh, I wasn’t paying attention” JJ continued, playing her move by intentionally ‘losing’ her balance and stepping backwards slightly to close the gap between the two women. Just enough to show it was intentional, but not enough to seek the contact her body was screaming out for. Not knowing if she’d pushed the game too far, JJ began to panic at the silence echoing from behind her. 

Unbeknownst to her, the brunette was struggling to form words, not because the move was too far, but because she realised it was her turn and the stakes were suddenly very high - she had forgotten how to do anything. Her senses were totally flooded by the warmth of JJ’s body so close it was teasing her, the sound of JJ’s breathing becoming laboured, the smell of her vanilla hair that she could almost taste, her brain was simply short circuiting. 

Feeling JJ’s body tense under her hands, Emily realised she was running out of time to counter the move. Taking a deep breath, she tightened her grip and pulled JJ closer, so their bodies were flush. It was only a second of total contact, but it was a move she knew had the potential to end the game all together. Pressing her blunt fingernails firmly into JJ’s hips, she then pushes away breaking contact entirely. 

“What’s so interesting then” Emily finally managed, also now panicking because as JJ turned around, she knew there was no way to hide how flustered she had become. 

Busying her hands by fumbling with the papers, JJ’s head was spinning from the past 10 seconds. Clearing her throat, she reluctantly turned towards Emily, attempting to prepare herself for what she knew would be the final turn in this round. 

Keeping her eyes fixed on her own hands, JJ chickens out deciding to throw the match, she wasn’t ready for the game to end, that would make everything too real - this way was easier. 

“You know, it doesn’t matter actually, sorry about that” finally reaching Emily’s eyes, JJ immediately regrets looking up, because what she finds staring back is confusion painted across the older woman’s face, disappointment and even hurt etched into the hazel orbs that flicker slightly before they dip down to glance at the floor. 

Swallowing, Emily responds a little too quickly “Okay, no problem, yeah, you gotta be careful Jayje, I’m not exactly renowned for my coordination you know” JJ winced internally as she physically watched Emily’s guard snap back up. They were only stood 3 feet apart, but the change in the air, paired with the fact Emily had taken a step backwards away from her, was so apparent it felt more like 30.  

Desperately wanting to go back to their safe game, the younger woman sighs before running a hand across her forehead, into her hair and speaking “Yeah, the last thing I’d want is to cause an accident, wouldn’t want to hurt you now, would I?” Smiling softly at Emily, JJ curses herself for being a coward and stares at Emily, begging the brunette to look in her eyes, knowing the words she can’t speak are written in them - in a language only Emily is fluent in. 

Tentatively glancing up, Emily smiles back, reading JJ’s message, and causing her to soften her defences despite herself. The sting of the subtle rejection was nothing compared to the unspoken fear in JJ’s eyes, it was a fear that hinted to Emily that perhaps she should throw the match too, no one would win this game in the end. It may have been fun while it lasted, but if it was going to end in each of them getting burnt, the constant pain may turn out to be unbearable, because everyone knows a burn continues to burn even after the heat source is taken away.  

“What are we talking about?” Emily boldly asked, once again challenging JJ with a hint of sadness etched into her eyebrows. 

The challenge took JJ by surprise, she was sure she’d blown it, but here was Emily, giving her a rare chance to re roll the dice and go again. After contemplating her options in silence, JJ stepped forwards, this game wasn’t one of chance, it was of strategy, and in order to keep on playing JJ realised, in that moment, watching Emily, that the woman before her was worth losing for. Not losing the game, not losing the match, but losing control. Losing inhibitions. Losing self doubt. 

Watching the emotions play out on Emily’s features, JJ took another step forward, until they were toe to toe. Lowering her voice JJ mustered up the courage from the hope she found still alive in the depths of Emily’s eyes, dancing behind the sadness, and whispered “I’m talking about you”.  Reaching out, she took Emily’s hand in her own, ignoring the buzzing emitted from their joined hands, turned it palm down, then lifted it to gently place a soft kiss across the calloused knuckles, letting the scent of lavender hand cream intoxicate her. 

Emily inhaled sharply as JJ’s lips connected with the tough skin on the back of her hands. Her mind was so clouded, this was not how she had anticipated this round to go. She was sure JJ would bail, hadn’t even allowed herself to imagine a reality in which she’d get to know what JJ’s lips felt like, although that didn’t stop her from storing the information away like a precious relic now that she had it, forever imprinting it to her memory.

Yet here they were, stood in the middle of the blonde’s office, skating around the inevitable, flirting dangerously with the edge that they had been tight rope walking for months.

JJ moved her mouth away from Emily’s skin, moving her own hand and slipping her fingers so easily between the brunettes, noticing immediately how as their fingers interlocked the world stopped spinning. It was as though their hands moulded together, two parts of a whole finally finding each other. It just felt right.

The only sound in the room was the thumping of two hearts, beating in time, and as Emily opened her mouth to let words fall out, JJ reached her other hand up and placed her index finger over Emily’s lips. Pleased with how soft they felt against her digit, JJ pulled her finger down slightly to stretch the older woman’s plump bottom lip, holding back a moan at the moisture she felt from the inside of the lip. Successfully silenced and totally mesmerised, Emily surrendered herself entirely to JJ, sucking in air around the blonde’s finger as she eagerly awaited the words that were to follow. JJ continued her whisper, moving even closer, allowing her breath to lightly caress Emily’s face: “your move”. 

[violetwolfraven]

Legacy Heroes

After Nora and Joe showing up, Barry hadn’t really thought anything stranger could happen.

Long story short... he was wrong.

“Let me out,” the girl said sweetly, not seeming at all bothered by the fact that she was behind the glass of a meta containment cell.

The girl in question had been dubbed ‘Treble,’ despite her insistence that she already had a codename, but couldn’t tell it because she was from the future and it could jeopardize her past.

Treble had brown hair, dyed with streaks of purple, tan skin, and green eyes. She was maybe Nora and Joe’s age, and her nonchalance reminded Barry of someone. He just couldn’t remember who.

“She’s radiating tachyons,” Cisco mumbled to him, “Definitely a time traveler; must have followed your kids here.”

“Duh,” Treble said with a roll of her eyes, “Of course I did.”

Barry and Cisco both tried to hide their shock at the fact that she had even heard them. Then she pointed to her ears.

“Sensitive to sounds? That’s literally my whole thing.”

Cisco snorted, “Yeah, and leveling buildings with those sound frequencies.”

That was an exaggeration. The girl had whistled at a hotdog cart and sent it flying against a building, but she hadn’t caused lasting damage to anything except the hotdog cart.

She rolled her eyes, “That was just to get your attention. Truthfully, I was hoping for the Twin Tornado Terrors, but—“

“You mean the Tornado Twins,” Barry clarified, “My kids, who you conveniently borrowed the time sphere to follow here, but definitely aren’t an enemy to?”

Treble huffed in frustration, “You think I’m an enemy? You’re the one who sent me here! Well, technically it was your wife, but she sent me to bring those two home so they don’t mess up the past anymore than they already have!”

“You keep talking about the twins,” Cisco noted, “But you don’t actually say their names.”

“Fine,” Treble said, “Joe and Nora West-Allen. You’re Cisco Ramon and the Flash is Barry Allen, married to Iris West-Allen. Are you going to let me out, now?”

“You could have gotten that information as an enemy,” Barry said untrustingly, “I’m going to need more information than that. How’d you meet them?”

She sighed, “Fine, if it’s so important to you. Not too long from now, Team Flash and Team Arrow kind of merge into one with a bunch of other heroes to form the... the Super Friends. Fast forward a few decades, everybody’s got kids and all those kids grew up together. We’re basically cousins. Of course, some heroes never joined up or split over time, so some dating between the younger generation does happen, but...” Treble’s face reddened, “I’m getting off topic here. The point is, we call ourselves Legacies. Ask Joe or Nora and they’ll confirm it.”

Now that Barry was paying attention, the story made sense. Treble had a nervous tick belonging to Ray and a faraway look in her eye that reminded Barry of Caitlyn when she was concentrating. Her mostly calm mask was Sara’s and her relaxed-but-powerful stance was a mix of Rene’s and Kara’s. The more he looked, the more he saw his friends’ body language. Now that he thought about it, it was a thing Nora and Joe shared with her; as if they’d been raised together by a large group of heroes who’d have to pass the young kids off frequently leaving one person babysitting so the others could go on missions...

Joe and Nora were on a trip with Iris to meet Wally. Barry was hearing a vague hunch, and that wasn’t enough reason to call them back.

He shrugged, “Look, just tell us who your parents are and maybe we’ll believe your story.”

“I can’t do that.”

“Why not?”

“Because my parents aren’t together yet at this point in the timeline, and I kind of like existing.”

Cisco held up a glass from when they’d given her water earlier, “Well, we’ll know who you are soon enough.”

Treble’s face darkened, “You don’t want to do that.”

“Why not?”

“Because my parents have a very specific arc of enemies-to-friends-to-lovers and they’re only in the friends stage right now!”

“Don’t worry, kid,” Cisco said, “Finding out about you will probably just bring them closer together.”

Barry and Cisco were about to walk away when the brunette responded.

“Well, let me narrow down the search a little.”

The containment cell was set up to combat the frequencies they’d heard from Treble before.

It was not set up to contain a full sonic scream.

That definitely narrowed the search on Treble’s parents. It narrowed it to two known metas.

“I warned you,” Treble said simply as she took the glass from Cisco, “I’ll just go find those two speedy idiots now if you don’t mind.”

With one sharp note, she shattered the glass and ground the pieces into the floor with her shoe.

...

“So, Siren or Canary?” Cisco asked as they ran the DNA test, “My bet is on Laurel with that attitude, but she does kind of have Dinah’s coloring.”

Caitlyn shrugged, “Well, could be either depending on who they end up with. It’s a toss of the dice; this girl looks neutral enough that she could be either of theirs, or neither.”

Treble had cut herself when she broke the glass. She’d probably thought the blood sample was too small and too ground into the floor, but Barry had scraped some off for Caitlyn to run a paternity test on.

The test beeped and Caitlyn looked confused at the results.

“Wait, no. That can’t be right.”

“What can’t be right?” Barry asked.

“The test didn’t just come back with a match from the database of known metas and heroes,” Caitlyn said, strangely serious, “It came back with two.”

“Well, which was it, and who do they end up with?” Cisco asked impatiently.

Caitlyn shook her head, “No. You don’t understand. This girl isn’t just a match for Laurel Lance or Dinah Drake. Genetically... she’s a match for both of them.”

...

Dinah didn’t believe it, and she was staring at a computer screen that clearly linked her DNA and Laurel’s to the meta from the future Barry had captured.

Barry had gone to get a Laurel from Earth 2. Dinah wasn’t sure she wanted to face her.

“How is this possible?” She asked finally, “Two women can’t have a child.”

“Barry called Kara,” Caitlyn said, “It’s not possible for humans yet. But her people have a kind of tech that can create a baby from a sample of DNA as small as a strand of hair. It doesn’t matter what the parents’ genders are.”

“And this girl definitely acted like Laurel,” Cisco pointed out, “But her cry sounded like yours.”

Dinah stared at the security image of the kid. She had Dinah’s hair and Laurel’s facial structure. Dinah had to admit... she did look like the perfect combination of Siren and Canary.

“How sure are you?”

“Very sure,” Caitlyn said, “The match for both of you was 99.98%. If she somehow faked her DNA, she did a very good job.”

“What’s her name?”

Cisco shrugged, “We have no idea. She wouldn’t tell us anything. We called her Treble before, but... now I’m thinking we need to come up with something more avian for her.”

“What’s this I hear about a kid from the future who claims to be my—“ Laurel stopped as she rounded the corner, “Dinah.”

“I was going to wait to tell her,” Barry said, somewhat defensively as he came around the corner, “But she was very persuasive.”

“So apparently we have a kid,” Dinah said simply.”

“Naturally,” Laurel responded, “Barry said it was alien tech.”

“Yup.”

“You both are being surprisingly cool about this,” Cisco said.

“I come from a parallel universe where you were one of the most feared men on the planet,” Laurel pointed out, “Babies made with by two women via alien technology is not that far fetched.”

“First of all, ouch,” Cisco said, “Second, we wanted to wait until we had both of you here to try to find her, so any ideas how to do that?”

Laurel shrugged, “If she’s my daughter, you might be able to track her cry. Felicity did that once.”

“But then we won’t be able to find her until she uses it,” Caitlyn objected.

Dinah shrugged, “Well, I kind of doubt she’s going to hurt anyone, being our kid.”

“You never know,” Laurel muttered, “I wasn’t exactly an angel child when I was young.”

...

The brown-haired girl guessed she wasn’t that surprised when two birds landed behind her.

What would become the Justice League was too good not to.

“Hey, little girl,” the Siren said, “We heard you’ve been causing a lot of trouble.”

The girl didn’t respond.

“You got a name?” the Canary asked.

“Violet Canary.”

“How about your real name?” the Siren pressed.

Violet Canary finally turned around to face her mothers, “Quinn Olivia Drake.”

“You’re here to get Nora and Joe,” Dinah said.

“That’s right.”

“So,” Laurel said after a few seconds of awkward silence, “Which of us is ‘Mom’ and which is ‘Mama?’”

Quinn shrugged, “I don’t know. You both died before I was born.”

“What?” Dinah asked.

“What happened to not being able to tell anything about the future?” Laurel added.

“It’s different,” Quinn muttered, “I never knew you, but I spent my whole life missing you. I understand why Nora and Joe did what they did. I wish I could do it, too. But I know that I can’t make you survive the Crisis without possibly making something worse happen in response.”

“What could be the harm in spending a few days here?” Laurel asked, surprising both Quinn and Dinah, “If you never got to know us in your time?”

Quinn smiled sadly, “More than you think.”

“Whether you knew us or not, you’re our daughter,” Dinah said, “We want to know you.”

“I can teach you some tricks with your cry,” Laurel volunteered.

Quinn knew it would lead to more harm than good. She knew she could disrupt the very timeline she had come here to preserve.

But the chance to spend time with the mothers she never knew? To possibly prevent them from ever dying in the first place?

“Just for a couple days.”

[hoodoo12]

Chapter 12/15 SFW

Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11

@turtlepated @anyamercury​ @beetlewise-and-pennyjuice​

Another day or two passed, and she didn’t return. Beetlejuice hated that in his boredom he began to want her company, and missed her when she wasn’t paying attention to him. 

He was back to picking at the gap in the floorboards, just for something to do. Lisette continued to wander through the house, but here today was something interesting: the sound of her footsteps changed. Previously the floors creaked but there was a shuffling quality when she walked; now her footfalls were sharper. Clickier. 

She was wearing shoes instead of padding around in bare feet or socks. 

She was going out!

Beetlejuice almost yelled a reminder to get more rolling papers, then almost yelled to just buy some damn cigarettes, but held his tongue. 

He heard her walking through the lower floor of the house. Pause by the closet; getting her coat. Now through the living room. Now in the kitchen. Back to the living room; forgot something? Kitchen again, and the unmistakable sound of the wooden inner back door opening. Next the squeaky hinges of the screen door--

There was no sound from the squeaky hinges of the screen door. 

Beetlejuice cocked his head. Maybe Lisette had oiled those noisy things?

But after several moments, he heard the wooden door again. It had slammed shut. Lisette was walking back through the house, towards the front doors. 

The same sounds drifted up to him: the creak and drag of the heavier wooden door, but no additional squeal from the second set of hinges on the outer door. There was a pause, then a heavy pounding that rattled the door loudly enough to startle him. 

He almost called out to ask what she was doing, but as Lisette’s footsteps hurried back through the kitchen to try the back door again, he decided against it. A second, more frantic, angrier pounding drifted up to him. 

He jammed his fingernail between the floorboards again. 

After several more minutes, Lisette came rushing up the stairs and burst into the room she’d imprisoned him in. Wide-eyed and breathing heavily but obviously angry, she glared at him sitting passively on the floor.

“What did you do?!” she demanded, without preamble.

Beetlejuice looked up with eyebrows raised, conveying the utmost innocence. 

Lisette stormed right up to the very edge of the chalk circle she’d drawn on the floor. Another half-inch, and she’d have smeared the inscription with the toe of her flat. The force of her anger and the underlying fear that drove it radiated to Beetlejuice, and it felt good to invoke such strong emotion.

“I can’t leave the house!” she continued loudly. “The doors won’t open! What did you do?!”

Beetlejuice couldn’t help but grin. 

⁂

Because he’d smiled at her while she was upset, he had a hard time convincing her he actually didn’t have anything to do with the fact she couldn’t leave the house. 

“Babes, it wasn’t me! I’m fucking trapped in this fucking circle. How could I manipulate anything in this house?” he told her.

Lisette had bristled at the nickname, but other matters were more pressing. 

“Seriously. The doors! Tell me what you’ve done to the doors!” she replied, standing just as close as she could to him without breaking the chalk lines. 

Beetlejuice stood up to face her and held his hands out. “I can’t even conjure a damn cigarette, baby. I. Am. Stuck. In. Here! I can’t do anything, I haven’t done anything!”

She was panting, breathing through her mouth. There was color high on her cheeks, she’d run a hand through her hair so it was mussed, and despite have applied a touch of mascara, she looked frazzled. Lewdly Beetlejuice wondered if that was how she’d look after a quick lay.

She didn’t completely seem convinced at his innocence. 

“Well, something happened. I can’t get out and that’s a big problem!”

Beetlejuice managed not to smile outwardly again, but inside he was gleeful.

⁂

Later he heard her trying the doors again, with just as much luck as she’d had previously. Then he heard her attempt to open windows. No dice there, either, apparently, because some very creative cursing floated up the stairs to his ears, followed by a scream.

He liked screams. It was a beautiful sound. Most that happened near him were of fright, however, not pure frustration and rage.

He decided he still liked them.

Finally, after she’d wasted a majority of the day trying to exit the house, Beetlejuice heard Lisette tromp back up the stairs. She came into the room that had become his cell, and leaned against the wall, sliding down it into a sit.

“I can’t get out,” she announced in a daze, like she was still trying to wrap her head around it. She looked in his direction, but it took several moments before he could tell she actually saw him. “You didn’t do this?”

“Nope. Cross my heart and hope to die. Again,” he replied, making an exaggerated “x” over his chest. 

Lisette nodded, and her gaze drifted away again. “Okay.”

“Did you try to break the glass in the windows?”

“Yes, and in the doors too . . .” she replied, in a vague tone. 

“Did you use any tools?”

“Yes . . .”

“Did you try to cut through the screens in the doors?”

“Yes . . .”

“And nothing? Not even a crack?”

She shook her head as she whispered, “No.”

Although he was secretly a little pleased she was getting a taste of her own medicine, Beetlejuice wasn’t sure if he liked this soft-talking, bewildered Lisette. Without another word to him, she pushed herself up and crept out of his room. He called her name after her but she ignored him. He heard her get into her bed, and then there was nothing else from her the rest of the day.

tbc

[thepencilnerd]

- 𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐛𝐨𝐝𝐲 𝐓𝐚𝐥𝐤𝐬 3 -

➳ Part 1 || Part 2 || Part 3 || Part 4

➳ Pairing: Mark Tuan x Reader

➳ Summary: AU! The members of GOT7 take a year off from being idols and decide to go back to school. Mark is the jerk with a temper, but what happens when he meets a girl with an attitude to match his own?

➳ Genre: AU, fluff, angst, enemies to lovers

➳ Word Count: 2.7k 

➳ Warnings: Swearing

➳ Really Really- WINNER

a/n: Masterlist & links to other parts can be found @ my main URL

Cracking the egg on the side of the bowl, I whisked in the diced carrots, chives, bell peppers, and red onions into the omelet and poured it onto the pan. It was Saturday morning and I was distracting myself from my impending doom by cooking.

“Breakfast on a lazy Saturday?” Claire yawned. Tying her bird’s nest of a bed head into a makeshift bun, she clasped her hands over her heart in an exaggerated manner. “My best friend is truly the best.” 

Laughing at her antics, I flipped the omelet and slid it onto her plate. She pressed her hands together and bowed forcefully before digging in. 

“Slow down,” I chuckled, pouring her a glass of juice. “You’re going to choke on a piece of carrot.” 

“I will die a happy fat bunny,” she said with a full mouth. Crinkling my face in fake disgust, I wiped the corner of her mouth with a napkin and laughed. 

“What time are you leaving?” Claire asked, taking a break to sip her juice. “You don’t want to be late for your study date.” 

I glared at her slightly but couldn’t help and laugh at her wiggling eyebrows. Shaking my head, I sighed and began doing the dishes. “It’s not a date, Claire.”

“Well, what time are you leaving? Hello? Earth to Y/N?” 

“I’m leaving in—” I craned my neck to glance at the living room clock. “10 minutes.”

She crammed the last few pieces of egg into her mouth and quickly got up to snatch the dishes from me. “Go go go go go-” 

“Claire, it’s okay—” I chocked through my laughter. “I’m not going to be late, don’t worry.”

She responded with grumbled words and spat out a few pieces of onions and bell peppers. She then chewed, swallowed, and then paused before resuming to talk again, now much more understandable. “Just get there early and wait while drinking some coffee. I’ll do the dishes and clean up, so go!”

Rolling my eyes, I glowered at her before changing, then was practically thrown out of my own apartment. Living at a ten-minute walking distance from the college made Claire and I grateful, but also forced us to go to classes every day, as we didn’t have any excuse not to. The only exceptions were the rare instances that we got sick or class was canceled. 

The entire stroll to campus was filled with anxiety and light panic, to say the least. Would I be able to control my temper around Mark? Was he even going to be there? Did he know I was going to be the one helping them? What if I get mad and lash out on everyone else in the group? Swallowing my worries, I shut them out and found myself already at the entrance.

The door to the coffee shop jingled open and I was surprised to see that it was pretty empty. There were a few regulars huddled in their groups, but the usually bustling weekend scenery was now quiet and calm. Greeting the cashier, I ordered 8 iced coffees and brought them to the largest group table. 

“Idiot,” I facepalmed. “What if they don’t even drink coffee?” Getting up and grabbing packets of sugar and cream, I placed them in sets along the drinks and waited. Almost immediately, the door opened and a group of guys walked in, the tallest locking eyes with me. 

“Y/N!” Jaebum greeted, the guys following him as they all walked towards the table. Everyone wore smiles and cheery grins except for Mark, of course. 

“Wow!” BamBam squealed. “You bought us drinks?”

I nodded and smiled in response, all of a sudden feeling shy for some unknown reason.

“You shouldn’t have,” Jackson wailed. 

“And she laid out the cream and sugars for us,” Youngjae awed.

Shuffling into their seats, Jaebum sat on my left and Jackson sat to my right, organizing the circle table so that the seating order was me, Jackson, Youngjae,  Jinyoung, Mark, BamBam, Yugyeom, and Jaebum. Of course, the cheeky bastards had arranged the seats perfectly so that Mark was sat directly across from me, causing him to shift uncomfortably in his seat.

“I’m Yugyeom by the way,” the new face introduced. “I was sick on the first day, so my apologies for the late greeting.” 

“Oh, it’s alright,” I smiled, grateful for his cheery and polite demeanor. “My friend told me about you guys.”

At this, everyone looked at me with their eyebrows raised in surprise; even Mark. 

“Yeah, she’s a bit of a fan.” Rubbing the back of my neck and forcing laughter, I prayed that someone- anyone- would change the topic. 

“So that means you really didn’t know who we were when you first met us?” Jinyoung asked with wide eyes. “Woah.”

“That’s so cool!” BamBam laughed. “We haven’t felt that normal in years.”

The group erupted into a warm fit of laughter that helped me relax a little bit. 

“Sorry about that, I don’t really listen to—” 

“Don’t apologize,” Jaebum assured. “You don’t have to know who we are. If anything, it feels nice when someone gets to know you for who you are, not just for what record label you’re signed under.” 

“Or how handsome you are,” Jackson added.  “Or how much money you make,” said Youngjae.

“Or your savage personality,” Jinyoung quipped.

“Or how adorable you are,” Yugyeom and BamBam said in unison, high-fiving each other but then earning a smack on the head from Mark and Jinyoung, respectively. 

“I’m glad I could help with that,” I giggled at their impish nature, but then I remembered that we still had to study. “Should we go over the lecture notes?”  

Nodding in unison, I started going over the key points from last week’s abnormal psych presentation, I couldn’t help but notice how calm Mark seemed today. He hadn’t glared at me, yet- and seemed like he was actually somewhat paying attention to my makeshift lecture. Almost as if he was refusing to meet my gaze, he never made eye contact with me for an entire hour and kept his focus glued on his notebook. We took a few breaks here and there and talked about each other’s personal lives more. Apparently, they were attending as undeclared majors and taking a few classes that they found interesting. 

Once we got to the topic of their lives the year before, I was nearly taken aback as they talked about it as if it were a live-action movie. Their idol lives sounded even more hectic and unbearable than a working college student’s; constantly being watched by the public eye, not having an inch of privacy for themselves, pushing through grueling daily rehearsals with extra training hours, and not even being allowed to do normal things like date or go out to parties. Add on the pressure of meeting their fans’ expectations and feeling as if they would never reach their own? No wonder some celebrities felt so miserable in the spotlight; it seemed like glamorized hell. 

Meanwhile, my less interesting pre-college life involved working overtime to help my parents pay rent and bills, spending weeks on end staying up late to keep up with my part-time jobs and extra homework; I even missed out on prom because I couldn’t handle any kind of large social situations or loud parties.; my anxiety always ended up getting the best of me. 

“We can’t lie and say that we don’t miss it,” BamBam said, “It’s tough, but we still love it a lot.”

Jackson and the others nodded in agreement. “I gave up everything I had set up for me just to become a trainee; fencing and a full scholarship to one of the best colleges in the world, but I wouldn’t have traded it for a thing.”

“Sometimes I really do wonder what our lives would have been like if we went to college and grew up like regular 20-year olds...” Yugyeom pondered, sipping his drink in deep thought. 

“We probably wouldn’t have even gotten to meet each other,” Youngjae responded, making the guys nod their heads at the realization.  “And we wouldn’t have gotten to watch you kick Mark’s ass on the first day of school,” Jackson chortled, choking on his coffee as Mark punched his shoulder. “Hit me again, do it—I dare you!” 

Suppressing my laughter and looking down into my hands, I blushed. “Yeah. It was-” I paused, trying to think of an appropriate word.  “—an interesting introduction, to say the least.” 

The guys started laughing again, pointing and teasing each other about their first impressions that day. Glancing slightly up to Mark, I saw that even he had a hint of a smirk playing on the edge of his lips. Taking this as a sign that I was hopefully getting on his neutral side, I felt myself relax a little. 

I couldn’t tell if it was because of the caffeine rush or how much I’d been laughing, but my face was now bright red and I was on the verge of tears. Not to mention their constant sibling-like bickering and childish insults made them the literal definition of ‘grown-up children.’

After three more hours of discussing the history and progression of psychotherapy, what typically would have been a group of mentally exhausted college students was instead a bundle of vibrant 20-year olds. Normally, I would have been completely drained and ready to knock out, especially considering it was a Saturday, but for some reason, I was much more energized and awake than I was earlier.

"Regret coming back to school already?” I asked them, scanning across their tired faces and chuckling to myself. 

“We can’t all be like you, Miss Einstein,” Jackson sighed with his hand pressed on his forehead like an actor in an overdramatized aspirin commercial. 

BamBam was practically sleeping on top of Yugyeom. “The professor is more merciful than you,” the youngest remarked in a sleepy voice, snapping awake when Jinyoung scowled at him, probably sending a telepathic message for him to wake up before he was killed in his sleep. 

“The devil works hard, but Y/N works harder,” BamBam’s voice muffled through his sweater that was now pulled over his face. 

Jaebum was the most awake out of all of us, which I found surprising considering the fact that he had been the one who had paid the most attention for the entire cram session. “How about we all celebrate our first official day of hanging out like normal people by going out for dinner?” he offered. 

The guys all eagerly agreed without giving it a second thought, then turned towards me to confirm that I was also going. “I’m not sure—” 

“Please?” Yugyeom whined. “You deserve it the most out of all of us.”

Jinyoung and Jackson both nodded enthusiastically; Jackson was clearly the more fervent one. “You took time off of your Saturday to tutor seven single brain celled idiots; it’ll be our treat.” 

“Please?” Jinyoung even pleaded. 

“You even bought all of us coffee!” Youngjae pouted. 

“Your roommate should come too,” Jaebum encouraged. 

“Okay!” I finally agreed, holding my hands up to shush their seemingly never-ending badgering, and began packing my stuff up. “But I’m paying the next time I help you guys.” 

Giving each other high fives, Mark finally decided to speak. “You’re tutoring us next time too?” 

I blinked a few times before processing that he had actually spoken for the first time today, and to me of all people. “Ye-yes. Yeah. I mean, if you guys- only if you’re okay with it. Me. Helping. Studying?” 

My cheeks flushed bright pink again. Why was I stuttering so bad today?

He didn’t respond, only making a small ‘hmph’ before closing his notebook. 

“There’s a really good place barbeque place two blocks from here,” Youngjae mentioned as he and the others rushed to chuck their belongings into their backpacks. “We’ll meet you guys there!” 

Before I could ask him what he meant, the five imbeciles- minus Jaebum- were burning across the floor as they dashed out the door. Looking to Jaebum with my mouth wide open, he gave Mark and I a quick wave and a tight-lipped smile before following them out—the only one of them to actually walk out like a sane person. 

Mark wore the same expression as me but scoffed as if it were a usual occurrence. When his eyes locked onto mine, we both repelled like opposite poled magnets, then he resumed gathering his things. 

Deciding to break the ice and be the mature one, I tried to start a conversation with the temperamental prick. “Do you know what that was about?” 

Mark only shrugged. I wouldn’t have given up this easily, but something told me that he wasn’t in a mood to be bothered today, so I thought it’d be best to just let him be. 

“I guess I’ll see you at dinner.” Not wanting to test his or my patience any further, I said goodbye and marched out. About eight strides out of the coffee shop, a pair of hands suddenly grasped me by the shoulder and spun me around. 

Mark had his lips pursed and discomfort was written all over his face. Gently grasping his hands and taking them off of my shoulders, I stood there with my arms crossed and gave him a look of expectancy, waiting for him to talk or walk away. 

“Well?” I finally blurted out. “Did you forget something?” 

No response; just a puckered lip and fixated stare that was directed to the ground. After a few more seconds of him with his hands crossed behind him and swaying back and forth like a toddler, he spoke. 

“I’m sorry,” he mumbled apologetically. 

My eyebrows knit in confusion at his sudden apology. 

“For being such a dick to you the first time we met and for acting like a douchebag the second time.” His hands rubbed the back of his neck, appearing to be a habit that showed when he got nervous. “–and for waiting this long to apologize.”

I pressed my lips together and tried to resist the urge to grin, smile, chuckle, or even giggle. I gave it my all, but a small snort came out of my nostrils that then turned into a full-blown fit of laughter. 

Mark’s eyes were wide open in shock and he was utterly speechless at my reaction. 

“It’s okay—” I choked, wiping the edges of my eyes that threatened to spill tears. “It’s really- it’s- it’s okay!” I pat him on the back lightly while still wiping my damp eyes. 

“You’re not mad?” he asked with his jaw-dropped. 

My snorts had finally somewhat subsided, giving me a chance to breathe steadily again. “No, I’m not mad. At least, not anymore.” I placed a finger under his chin and helped him close his still-agape mouth. 

“I’m not going to lie and say that I wasn’t mad before, but I tried to understand where you were coming from. You lived a completely different life for so long before coming here, so maybe you’ve never dealt with someone as standoffish as me or as similar to you.” 

“But I thought you—” I held my hand up, stopping him from overanalyzing anything further.

“You were rude. I was rude. It doesn’t take a therapist to see that we both have issues managing how we feel things and let them out, but it’s fine. As long as you don’t act like a dick for the remaining time being, we’re okay.”

He opened and closed his mouth a few times, struggling to find the right words to say. “So, we’re—good?” 

I nodded my head, giving him a small smile and another pat on the back. “We’re good.” 

“Thanks...” he mumbled and rubbed the back of his neck again. 

“If it makes you feel any better,” I whispered while leaning closer to him. “I hate apologizing first too.” 

Just as he was about to falter his words again, I began skipping excitedly to the dinner rendezvous. Pausing to look behind me at Mark who was standing still and looking at me wide-eyed, I motioned him to follow me. “You said you guys were paying for dinner tonight, remember?” I shouted, ushering him to walk by my side again. 

Snapping out of his daze, he nearly ran into a bench before catching up to me. 

[trpg-dingusmaster]

+ 2 new DMs

The .... 13yo? Kid in the group wanted to try being dm. This is the second time.

The actual first time I’ve only heard about, but I guess it was very bad and honestly I’m not surprised because he was taking bad contradictory advice from the worst sources. Some of the advice was like... not even at all anything those guys even do? Like. “I give my players absolute freedom! I plan nothing!” Honey.... honey no you don’t. You plenty often rewrite every persons character backstory and then railroad us for 3 1/2 hours to accomplish what could have just been a 5 minute explanation.

Stuff like that.

So, you know. He followed this shit advice and the shit advice of overly complicated home brew mechanics and rules and nonsense and world building even though the game already has rules that mostly work. They were tested at least by people and not just a few dice roll generators.

He made up a complicated world and weird rules but didn’t plan anything and was shocked and frustrated when the players did what players do without direction (hell even if they do have direction??? Honestly???) and nobody ended up having any fun. Everyone was confused and annoyed and obviously it was a bad time.

He was actually banned from dming again until he had a solid plan of action and accepted that players will always make a mess SOMEHOW. Which is weird to me because that doesn’t sound anything different than some of the other games that have gone on and nobody stopped those guys from running games without planning or practice communicating. But whatever I guess.

For a couple weeks this kid was made fun of and bothered about this fiasco which.... I mean was only partially his fault. Like. He did exactly what he was told and surprise surprise it didn’t work out just like it doesn’t work for the guys who told him that shit but they do it anyway.

Then he comes in last week and says: I have a plan. I want to run this pregenerated adventure but you can make your own characters but only use stuff from the core 3 books for now. It’s an official wotc adventure made for learning how to play and I think it’ll be a good way for me to learn how these things work.

The response?

Largely negative. Though the one who initiated the ban of course allowed the game to happen and supported it. The guys who gave him the shitty advice though? Kept giving him shitty advice and were not understanding that: wotc content does not equal AL play. Like. They couldn’t grasp this at all for a weirdly long time.

While they puzzled this I pulled the kid aside and tried to assure him he was making a good choice with the premade content and to not listen to those idiots because what works (or “works”) for them isn’t going to work for everyone and sometimes different people just enjoy things differently and it doesn’t match up nice all the time “just take your time and try your best, figure out what works for you and whats important for building your style”

I think he appreciated it? I guess? I dunno. I really just wanted him to know that like, I was ready to support his creative growth. I think that’s important.

Eventually we get started and I have who is probably my most favorite character I’ve had, though I might scale back his stats because the stat rolling system he picked was very generous and I rolled very well on top of that. But I think some lower stats would be more fun to role play and more interesting to roll play instead of the almost obnoxiously high stats my sweet boy has. Almost obnoxiously high because that honor goes to the guy who usually has suspiciously high stats all the time. Oh?? You have a 19 str in this character too? For the 8th character in a row that that hasn’t been forced to use the standard array? .... interesting..... but it’s fine, it makes him happy I guess and it doesn’t really take away fun from other people so whatever.

And I know how this adventure is supposed to go, I think a few people at the table have at least skimmed through it- the lost mine of Phandelver. He’s played it pretty straight, though it was weird a bit because I was playing an aarakocra and really playing up the bird business. though of course I did my best to try and make sure things moved along but it wasn’t really needed because with clear directions and objectives like? Things just? moved along? On their own? It felt like that anyway to me. Which was a great change of pace. I don’t mind being left to my own devices of course but some kinda direction is be nice now and then. Often the games I get involved in feel like: sit here for 3 hours while I tell you a story and pretend you’re playing a game with me or sit here for three hours and find out something to do on your own I’m not giving you shit to play off of. Or there is shit to play off of but the group actively ignores it or the dm put it there but.... doesn’t want us to play with it? It’s just a one time talking point we are Supposed to then forget about?

Over all, I think he did a good job. He did get frustrated and a little overwhelmed in a few instances but in similar situations I have ALSO been overwhelmed and I wasn’t even the dm at those times. I think his biggest issue is he, being the 13 yo he is, has a curfew more strict than the other teens so he gets very annoyed when side conversation and silliness take time away from play, but rather than say: I have a time limit please pay more attention. He just gets angry. Apparently he did a lot of yelling the first time but has since figured out some restraint from then. Also doesn’t ever throw things or hit people like some of the other teen DMs have done.

He does have some things that need work of course but it’s hard to know what’s a technical issue with using a pdf on a phone instead of a book and what’s he just needs practice but I’m sure he has some ideas on this and I think werewolf dm surely would have given him her thoughts on the subject.

There’s another chick, she wants to try dming and she told me a bit about her ideas, she explained they were still kinda rough but she had a clear goal in mind of what the end results would be. They seem pretty straightforward, clear objectives but a bit of room to roam around in between, which is a great way to start. I told her I thought it would be great and she should absolutely give it a try when she’s ready. I also gave her the same caution I’d give anyone who wants to gm for this group, and some examples of weird shit my other groups have done (investigation of street lights for a weirdly long time even though they were literally just street lights). I’d hate for her first try to go super bad like the 13yos did because she thought the group would play differently than they usually do or because of bad advice that some of the guys like to give that they may or may not know is bad advice.

She told another person in the group about her ideas. It didn’t go so well. He gave her lots of bad advice and would not listen to what she was saying. “These things you are telling me are not helpful and detract from the core of the adventure.” ; “You don’t know that! I’m being very helpful and smart!” ; “I do know that because I’m writing it??? No you aren’t?”

[the-walking-memelords]

Allegiances: Chapter 3

Prologue | Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 4

Series is rated M

Word Count: 3284

Clementine tries to keep her secrets on a day where everyone is discovering the truth.

Read it on Ao3!

Read it on Wattpad!

Brody was the first one through the gate once the school was in sight. Immediately, she pulled Marlon aside. The stress still evident in her voice as she recapped the afternoon’s events.

“You aren’t listening to me, I’m telling you, Marlon. The place was ransacked!”

“It’s fine. We’ll deal with it.” He brushed her off.

“There’s no use freaking out over every random survivor we come across.”

“But they stole from us! What if they’re more? What if it’s-”

“That’s enough.” Marlon cut her off, raising his voice.

“Calm down. We can talk about this later.” He looked past her at Clementine and the others. Clem raised an eyebrow, not hiding the fact she was listening.

“Hey.” Louis surprised her as he appeared at her side.

“Wanna help Omar and I with dinner?”

“Uh, I don’t really know anything about cooking.” Her standards in food were set to “Edible.”

“As if Omar would actually let anyone else cook anything. We’re just preparing the meat and stuff.” He lead her towards a fire pit with a large dented cauldron hung overtop. Omar adjusted the wood as he lit the fire.

Clementine already knew how to dress an animal, her skills actually impressing the perfectionist chef. Carefully, she diced the meat to the size that he demonstrated. Sensing a pair of eyes on her, she glanced over to see Louis watching her work. He studied her meticulous movements, hardly paying attention to his own work.

“Watch what you’re doing, Louis. Your blood isn’t part of the recipe.” Omar snapped him out of his inattention.

“Sorry, chef.”

“So what’s your story, Omar?” She asked. “Not much to tell I’m afraid.” The cook stated.

“In and out of different foster homes my whole life until finally, they sent me to this hellhole.”

“Foster homes?” She looked at him with concern.

“Yeah. Y’know this school is actually the longest I’ve ever lived in one place.” He let out an exasperated sigh.

“I always swore that one day I’d finally escape Virginia, but now I doubt there’s anything much better out there.”

“There are still some good people out there. Few and far between, but they're still there.” Her mind travelled to a long broken promise.

“Your dad ever teach you about baseball?”

“Not really.”

“Well, you come back, and I’ll teach you and AJ all about it.”

“It’s a deal.”

“You’ve just got to avoid the bad ones for as long as you can.”

---

Clem and Louis handed the chopped meat to Omar before dunking their hands into the wash bucket. Clementine rubbed the callouses on her knuckles, scratching away the blood. A practice she was used to, though not often animal blood.

She shook the excess water off her hands before wiping them on her jacket. She felt one of the cold droplets hit her nose as Louis playfully flicked the water at her. Reaching back into the bucket, she got her revenge by splashing him back. His green shirt became speckled with dark spots.

“Ahrg! You win! I surrender!” He dramatized, hand over his chest as he pretended to be wounded.

When Clementine chuckled in response, Louis seemed to have accomplished something.

“What?”

“Nothin’.” He stated, a big goofy grin still on his face.

“It’s nice to see you smiling all the time, that's all.”

“Don’t get used to it.” She rolled her eyes.

Looking at his freckled face caused an odd sensation in her chest, making her look away

“Oh, I think I will. I just gotta keep up my Class A humour to make sure you’re all smiles from here on out.”

She gave a nervous laugh as her ears turned red.

Why is he like this?

---

That night’s dinner was just as good as the one previous, even though the portions had been cut slimmer. Clementine found it hard to keep up with the ongoing conversation at the table. So many thoughts crowded her mind that it was difficult to focus. She ended up tracing her spoon around the inside of her empty bowl, the scraping sound ringing in her ears. She hadn’t even heard Marlon’s voice until the third time he called her name.

“Clementine?” Asked the boy who sat across from her.

“Uh, sorry. What did you say?” She shook her head, trying to regain her senses.

“I asked if you were feeling okay. You seemed spaced out.” Marlon, Louis, and Brody all looked to her with concern.

“I’m… fine. Just tired.” She still couldn’t think with any clarity.

“I think I’m gonna call it a night.”

Picking up her bowl, she headed to the wash bucket before Louis stopped her.

“Here, I’ve got it. Go get some rest.” His hands rested softly over hers, attempting to take the bowl.

Nodding wearily, she gently slipped her hands out from under his and made her way to the dormitory.

---

Clementine stumbled her way through the darkened hallway to her room. Fumbling with the handle, she let herself inside closing the door behind her. Her knees became weak, her body sliding down against the wooden door until she fully sank to the ground.

What is wrong with me?

Her chest ached. Any attempts to lift herself off of the floor was met with uncooperative legs. Numbness slowly encompassed her body. She gave up. Closing her eyes, she resigned herself to being slumped against the wall.

---

She must have fallen asleep at some point because when her eyes reopened, they were met with the pale moonlight as it seeped between the window boards. She stretched, cracking her stiff joints as she staggered to her feet.

As the fog of her mind began to clear, she realized what had woken her up. Clementine stared at the exposed pipes in the ceiling. Strange noises echoing through the metal.

Voices?

The muffled shouts were in clear distress.

Abel wouldn’t be here yet, would he?

That would go against the whole plan, but Clementine couldn’t shake the almost encounter from earlier.

Adrenaline shot through her veins as she ran down the hallway. The voices grew louder as she reached a metal door.

“Basement.” She squinted her eyes through the dark to read.

Pressing her ear to the cold metal, she held her breath as she tried to make out the words. Two voices bickered with each other in the depths of the school. It was no use. She tried the handle, letting out a frustrated growl when it didn’t budge.

Lock from both sides.

Can’t pick it.

An idea sprung to mind as she snuck her way into the yard. Thunder boomed overhead as the wind blew through her curls. The storm would be upon them soon. Approaching the heavy cellar doors, she fiddled with the padlock on the handle.

I’ll need to try a heavier hand at this.

Her hands ran through the cool grass until her fingers were met with the rough surface of a brick. She bounced the heavy object in her hand as she raised it to swing.

Clang

The brick made the first contact with the padlock, pieces of it chipping away as it dented the metal.

Clang

Clementine hoped the sound of the thunder disguised the sound of her breach.

Clang

With one final swing, the lock broke apart. She carefully opened one of the doors just wide enough to squeeze herself through, closing it silently.

She kept her body low as she snuck towards the now intelligible yelling.

“You will not put this all on me.” Marlon declared.

Clementine crept closer. The only light illuminating the otherwise pitch black basement was the flashlight he held in Brody’s face.

“You don’t even have any proof it was them! You can’t go freakin’ out like this every time some random person passes through.” Clementine hid behind a rusted metal shelf, peeking between the boxes.

“It’s been a year! We haven't seen anyone for a year and now all of a sudden we got someone sneakin’ around and stealing our supplies!” Brody practically screamed.

“Those bastards are back and it’s only a matter of time before they find us!” The glow of the flashlight shimmered off the fearful tears that streamed down her cheeks.

“You know what will happen if they find us.” She choked.

“I don’t know shit, and neither do you!” Marlon snapped, inching closer to her, causing Brody to back away.

This isn’t good.

If Brody was being so adamant about the presence of strangers in the area, Clementine feared for her cover. She knew it was still too early for her to go back, and if the others found out who she was, they might disappear farther south. She cursed internally at the frustration of the situation.

“There you go again getting so mad!” The girl sobbed, fists full of her fiery hair.

“What do you want me to do? You’re making me mad!” The way he growled the words at her was sickening.

“I can’t live like this anymore, Marlon.” She broke.

“Oh, we have to tell the others about what you did!”

Clementine’s foot kicked a metal pipe under a desk, the scraping noise horribly apparent.

Fuckin’ peachy.

“Who’s there?” The flashlight suddenly illuminating her hiding place.

Slowly, Clem revealed herself from her hiding place. Shock crossing both their features. Brody looked away, frantically wiping the tears from her eyes as Marlon got in her face. She squinted against the bright light, still ready to make a move if he decided to try something.

“What are you two doing down here, screaming at each other in the dark?” She questioned, already knowing all the answers.

“Brody and I were just talkin’. Why don’t you just go back to the dorms and get some sleep.” It felt more like an order than a suggestion.

“Didn’t sound too much like talking. I could hear you both from my room.” Fighting him wouldn’t be a good option. Clem just couldn’t help the way he made her skin crawl.

“S-so sorry about that.” Brody stuttered.

“I didn’t think anyone would hear us.”

“Is there something going on that I should know about?” She pushed.

“No.” He insisted.

“Nothing that’s any of your business.”

Rat Bastard.

“Fine then.” Brody looked up at her in surprise as she dropped the subject.

“Just keep it down, would you?” She hadn’t even fully turned her back before Brody yelled out to her.

“Marlon let them take the twins!”

Fuck.

“What?” She asked in fake confusion.

“There’s this group from the north. A few of ‘em came across our hunting party outside the safe zone last year. Marlon let them have Minerva and Sophie so that he could get away!”

“Shut the fuck up!” The enraged boy yelled.

“You were there too! I saved us both that day!”

“At what cost?” She cried.

“Every time I look at Tenn or Violet I die a little more inside.”

“Shut up.”

The tears returned as they slid down her already puffy cheeks. All Clementine could do was watch as all the bottle up guilt overflowed.

“I can’t keep lying to them anymore. Not for you.”

“I said shut up!” Her words enraging the boy beyond reasonable thought.

As Clementine saw him raise his arm, she didn’t even think. She grabbed Marlon’s wrist just in time to block the flashlight from bashing in Brody’s skull.

She pushed the larger boy back. He growled at her. Saying nothing but preparing to have his fists do the talking as he squared up.

“You’re going to regret this.” His first punch hit her cheekbone. Her face stung as she caught the second fist. A calculated strike to the carotid sinus was all it took to leave the young leader sprawled unconscious on the harsh concrete floor.

Told you.

He was fast, but she knew what she was doing. Skill beating haste.

“Marlon? Marlon?” Brody yelped as she rushed to the boy’s side.

“He’ll live. Unlike you, if I hadn’t been here.” She put a hand on the red head’s shoulder.

“Grab his keys. Let’s go.” She urged her up.

“W-what? We can’t just leave him here.”

“We can and we will.” She grabbed the ring of keys out of the boy’s pocket herself.

“If you really want to expose him to the others, we need to do it now. Before he wakes up.”

Clementine helped Brody up, dragging her along by the hand into the rain outside.

---

The two ran like mad. Pounding on each door in the dormitory as if the sky was caving in on them. Drowsy and panicked kids emerged from their rooms, clothes dishevelled and weapons in hand. Confused how Clementine and Brody were calling for an “Emergency Meeting” without their leader in attendance. The group gathered in the Admin Building lobby.

“Would someone please explain why you two just ran through here like the world was ending again?” Violet growled, annoyed from being woken up.

“And uh… Where’s Marlon?” Louis asked with a yawn. “Why does he get to sleep in?”

Clementine looked at Brody, who leaned against the stair railing.

“Well?” She asked the nervous girl.

“The time is now, Brody.”

Clem stood a bit in front of Brody as she recalled that grisly day’s events from the year prior. Confused faces turned to those of shocked horror and disbelief as one culprit’s lies were written over by the other culprit’s truth.

Clem noticed Violet’s breathing had become shaky and uneven. Her glassy eyes filled with renewed grief.

“N-no... This is all some kind of sick joke, right?” Louis begged.

“Marlon wouldn’t do something like that!”

“You.” Violet gasped.

“I knew it. I knew it was your fault.” Her words as sharp as her cleaver.

Tennessee hugged onto Violet’s arm. Whether it was to comfort her, comfort himself, or hold her back, it was probably a mix of all three.

“Marlon manipulated her into silence.” and silent Brody remained. One cloak of guilt no longer enwrapped her it was as if a new one was sneaking at her heels.

“But… But Marlon said they died!” Tenn cried out.

“How could he lie about something like that?”

Poor kid.

“Easy, because he’s a coward.” Clementine announced.

“I saw it myself. When Brody threatened to expose him, he tried to kill her.”

So many emotions crossing so many faces. The disbelief, grief, and anger fused into a cloud of dread and sorrow as they contemplated this betrayal. Louis wouldn’t meet her eye. Something in her chest reached out to him but she couldn’t find the words to say.

“Where is that fucker.” Mitch grunted, eyeing the stairway up to the headmaster’s office.

“He attacked me as well.” That made Louis look up. She rubbed the sore spot on her face.

“I knocked him out and left him in the basement.”

“Damn.” Aasim muttered.

“We should bring him in here. So that we can all talk to him.”

Several of the kids nodded. Mitch put an arm around Brody as he lead her somewhere deeper into the school. He eyed Violet as she was half dragged by Tenn outside.

---

The storm seemed to mirror the emotions of the group. Swirling and cracking and booming in the confusing darkness. The group halted their walk towards the basement doors as a flash of lightning illuminated a figure standing ahead of them.

“Marlon!” Louis yelled over the sound of the rain.

“Stay where you are, Marlon. Brody and Clem told us everything.” Aasim called out

“You bastard!” Violet screamed, still attached to Tennessee.

Her tears mingled with the raindrops as they slid down her cheeks.

“They trusted you! We trusted you!” the blonde lashed out in her rage.

“What about me, huh? What about me? It was supposed to be me instead of Brody.”

Her wave of anger seemed to pull back as her shoulders dropped and her voice became small.

“Would you have given me up too?”

“I was trying to protect all of you.” his voice was barely audible over the storm.

The fight in him was long gone. All that remained was an empty shell that used to be a person.

“That’s all I ever wanted. To keep every one of you safe.”

“By giving my sisters away to some strangers?” Tenn didn’t appear angry, just confused and sad as he refused to let go of Vi.

“I wanted to save them, Tenn. Stage… some sort of rescue… I just couldn't. I was too afraid.” Tears welled up in his eyes.

“Just let me leave.” He suggested.

“You’ll never see me again, I promise. Just let me become… a bad memory…” His knees sunk into the mud.

“No!” Louis ran halfway between the group and the boy.

“You’re my best friend, Marlon. Hell, you’re practically my brother.” He didn’t seem willing to let him go that easily.

“The things you did were fucked up, but you can’t just up and leave.”

“He’s right.” Aasim spoke up.

“We’re a family here. The only one any of us has left.”

Clementine was stunned as the others stepped forward in support as well.

How could they support someone who gave away two of his friends?

Their loyalty was almost disgusting to her.

“This isn’t good enough.” Another crash of thunder sounded as she spoke.

“We can’t just welcome him back with open arms as if nothing ever happened.”

“She has a point.” Ruby muttered.

“A vote.” Clementine suggested.

“We lock him up for the night and then vote on what we're going to do with him in the morning.”

If they voted to kick Marlon out, getting him to the rendezvous point would be simple enough, but if they did it now it would be impossible to track him in this storm.

“I guess I can get behind that.” Violet conceded.

The rest of them agreed to hold the vote tomorrow morning.

The group split up. Aasim and Omar locked Marlon in the basement, Willy and Ruby ran off to check on Mitch and Brody, while Tenn lead Violet back to her room.

All that left was her and Louis. The two took cover under the veranda of the dormitory. They stood close in silence for a while as the rain poured in front of them. Lightning illuminating the sky. Clem looked at him, his head drooped. She watched the rainwater drip from the soaked dreads that concealed his face.

“Are you alright? She asked.

“I…” He trailed off

“I don’t know how to answer that.”

“You know he’s dangerous.” She pointed out.

“He’s always had anger issues. Hell, that’s why he's at the damn school.” He turned to her, finger’s just grazing the bruise under her eye. She flinched away at the touch, a new chill running through her body.

“I just never thought he was capable of something like this.” He pulled his hand away at her reaction.

Clementine tugged at the soaked clothes as they clung to her body. Louis noticed this.

“If you want, you can borrow one of my shirts until your jackets dry.” Heat rushed to her cheeks at the thought of wearing his clothes.

“I-I mean or y’know one of… one of the girls might have something extra for you.” He jammed his hands into the pockets of his trench coat as he attempted to backtrack.

“I’ll find something.” Her face burned.

“Goodnight, Louis.”

“Goodnight.”

---

Clementine scratched her hands through her curls as she tried to think.

Why am I always like this around him?

She never understood her own feelings anymore. Wracking her brain, she tried to recall some kind of memory. A moment where these feelings occurred before.

Playfully splashing him with water…

That feeling…

Reminds me of the time I learned to play Euchre.

[isensmith]

AAAAAaaarrrrggGGGHHHhhh

i am so god damned awkward. 

buckle up, i just humiliated myself and i need to get it out of my system so i’m going to rant about it here for a bit.

I just bumped into a guy i haven’t seen for like a year and a half who i happen to have had, and apparently still have, a massive crush on.

I was in a photography class with him at the local community college and between the creepo too-rich dude bros, the even creepier hyperactive 19yo arts enthusiasts, and the middle aged community college stand-bys who seem to somehow be in every one of your classes, he and i seemed to be the only normal people. so we teamed up a lot on the group projects and just in class in general. 

I enjoyed this 1) because he’s funny and smart, 2) because he was great to work with, 3) because he’s super good looking, and 4) because i’m not, and it was a nice ego boost that he wanted to interact with me at all (note, i was about 30lbs heavier at the time so my self esteem was in the trash). 

We were growing a friendship that was nearing the point where we venture into maybe doing social stuff outside of school. and my birthday was coming up so i invited him to come out to the local barcade where i had invited a group of friends to join me for drinks to celebrate. to my surprise he showed! and he met my friends who, when he stepped away from the table briefly once, instantly descended on me about how i definitely liked this guy (note all my friends are guys so this was pretty uncharacteristic talk from them). this caught me off guard because i definitely did but i thought i’d been doing a really good job of not paying him attention favoritively over them. 

then they all split early and this guy said he’d like to stay longer and play some games. so we did, and it was great fun, and i got kind of drunk but not bad. he drove me home eventually and it was a great night. nothing happened because it wasn’t a date i honestly wanted it to just be an opportunity to maybe start a real-world friendship. however, after that i texted him a few times to invite him to this event or the other and he never took me up on it i took it as a sign and just let the contact drop off. 

Cut to a year and a half later, i just walked down to the local hippy grocery store to get a sandwich and a cute guy in glasses offered me a sample of some soup. when he turned back to go to the back kitchen it dawned on me who he was. i actually hadn't recognized him at first!

i started to practice in my head what to say to him when he came back out, how to catch his attention and talk without the whole store being an audience. he came back out from the kitchen but went to an area to talk to a coworker and wasn’t near enough to talk to, i started to rehearse “Hey! I can’t believe i almost didn’t recognize you!” etc, something casual and nice. then he went back into the kitchen and didn’t come out for a while. i waited.

and suddenly from my right i hear “Hey Ren!” and he’d come out from the other side to deliver my order to me! Which was terrific! but also caught me off guard! so i was awkward as fuck! because fuck! so he approaches to hug me in greeting but in the first instant i didn’t know this and i raised my hand to give him a friendly pat on the arm and happened to catch his hand in mine instead! BECAUSE FUCK! then recovered an gave him the friendly greeting hug (which i gotta say in hindsight, he’s tall and it was super nice). and he asked me “What’s new?”

now i freeze up. 

what the fuck is new? i dont know??? how long has it been? what was i doing when we were in class together? shit! uh, i think i was at the tail end of my relationship with my ex? I THINK? that;s like the biggest thing that has happened (or one of anyway) and might also be something he’ll remember me talking about back then, i’ll say that, yeah!

“Uh, well, i broke up with that guy i was with.”  silence.  “The one i’d been with for 6 years.”

“Yeah, that happened before, when we were in class.”

Now i want to die. like instantly. i got really red i’m sure. fucking fuck. FUCK. like WHY is that the first thing i thought he’d want to know??? now he thinks THAT’S the first thing i wanted him to know too!! shit. the rest of the conversation was brief and i can’t remember much of it, beyond me asking how long he’d worked at Kiva, and he said 4 years which means i probably knew that already and forgot. then his coworker said he was going to lunch so he had to go back behind the counter. i lingered long enough for him to get to the other side and we said it was nice to see each other before i walked away, red as a god damn fire engine!!!

i walked back to my office just making faces at myself. just really feeling incredibly crappy. i decide to roll the dice and text him. i figured “it can’t get any worse”. and this is the result. not terrible:

so ya. call me eddie fucking brock because i’m a loser. ugh. 

[darkspellmaster]

Thoughts on E3 2018 -EA

I’m going to start this out by saying right now that I’m basing my review of Nintendo on what they showed in the Treehouse as well as the main direct. So the score is going to be based on what we know by the end of day three of the treehouse, and the same for the other groups if they had additional presentations after their main show.

So let’s start with EA….Oh EA….

Starting out with the Host Andrea Rene, who I feel got stuck in a rock and a hard place with this weak presser, as she’s known for being a better host for her other appearances. Honestly, I somewhat had to honestly cringe on her segment with Respawn’s developer Vince Zampella due to the weird comment about getting to hold a light saber. Like I don’t know if she was trying to be funny, sarcastic, or sexy here? I was confused with it. Again, I don’t blame her for the conference, but I didn’t feel like she was a good fit for this given the response. Then again, I don’t think that anyone could have made that Conference work.

As for the games shown, I have a few thoughts.

Battlefield V looks nice, presentation wise, but given that it’s mostly a cinematic trailer, we didn’t really get to see a lot of in game footage. What we did learn though from Dice was that the environments are now destructive, and you can dive roll out windows (which might be interesting if you’re into that) as well as having movable artillery (which didn’t happen in the last game) which could be useful if you’re into that. Also they reiterated the lack of Loot Boxes and premium passes, yet didn’t mention anything about a deal with microtransactions. On top of this they’re bringing back a Battle Royal to the game.

There’s not much I can say on this other then what has been said already, although the fact that it’s pretty much what DICE has been doing in regard to the main series anyway. Given that leveling up has some ties to currency, I’m wondering if in lieu of loot boxes they’re just going to microtransaction this game. What has me a bit worried about the Single player aspect of the game is that there’s hints that it’s going to be tied into the live service which makes me think that it’s going to be limited play offline, and for someone that prefers playing mostly off line…

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order had no trailer at all. Just Respawn’s Vince Zampella explaining what it is. I’m not even sure if they were planning to have it be something to be presented (why even mention it if it’s not ready to be?) but it was a really odd vibe with that moment. The game itself doesn’t seem to have a lot going on. What we know was that it’s taking place between Episodes III and IV, and deals with a padawaan that escaped from Anakin’s moment of being nutty and you can use lightsabers. However, unless this is Kaan’s story we’re kind of running into the whole “Luke not being the last Jedi” story thus nullifying the line that Yoda said somewhat. Unless he or she never takes the Jedi oath.  I mean, sounds cool, but we don’t even know what sort of type of game it is. We do know it will be out during the Holiday season 2019. So that’s a plus, but I would think that we’d at least have gotten a quick moment of something to see.

Star Wars Battlefront II made me roll my eyes a bit, as it was repeated trailer footage over and over, which personally annoys me, but I guess was the only thing they had to show. So we saw the new Solo Content, Yay –I guess? And learned we’re getting an expansion for the Clone Wars with Obi Wan, Grievous, Dooku and Anakin showing up for that. No surprise that EA had the Director of the game saying that they made some mistakes over EA actually apologizing for their horrible practices. Yeah, no EA, you don’t get a pass for any of the BS you pulled this past year.

Unravel 2 by  Coldwood Interactive  came out the day of the conference, which was a nice change of pace. I will say this much the creative team was nervous, but showed a great deal of love for Yarny and his new companion. The fact that this is local co-op is a plus, and seems to be a fun game. Already I’m loving the blue Yarny and it looks like it’s going to be a strong story. The one thing that was rather sad about this game is that it’s not coming to the Switch and –apparently according to the development team via Twitter –they don’t have the resources to do that, even though this game and the previous one would have been a good choice for the Switch. The fact that the team said it wishes they could do it makes me wonder if EA is sending any money the way of the Originals teams that they have. If not, they should start considering porting games like this to the switch because I can tell you it will sell even more over on that console then the Xbox and PS4.

Sea of Solitude is yet another Indie that I would say saved the EA presser from falling into a F grade and leaves it at an E. The creative director from Jo –Mei games, the creators of this game from Germany, Cornelia Geppert, was extremely cute and excited to be on stage. Her infectious excitement made people applaud even more when they put the trailer on the screen. The thing that caught my attention about this game is that it covers the idea of depression and loneliness in a very strong and very direct way. The designs of the monsters and the story about a human becoming a bird like creature, which I think has ties to German folklore is really cool and again, I wish this was coming to the switch, although we don’t know at this point if it will or won’t. If EA was smart it would allow for it.

And then EA decided to screw up the love that was being given to them via the indies by pulling out…a mobile game of Command and Conquer.

Command and Conquer: Rivals…I have words about this. The original game series was a Real Time strategy game that had a lot of complexity to the creation of the game play and the set up to maintain and manage your resources while taking out the opposing team. The last game of this nature from the Command and conquer franchise came out in 2013, on PC, and then Victory was shuttered. Which leads us to the new game. Command and Conquer Rivals is mobile and while the team does boast some former members that worked on Command and Conquer a lot of the game play relies on the idea of tapping the smart phone screen. There’s no camera movement so you’re in a static place and can’t see what’s around you to figure out what you need to do. Given the reaction to Rivals so far, it seems like people are not too happy with the situation. This game, apparently, is trying to get in with the Clans like games. Which makes me wonder if we’re going to see a lot of money grabs from EA on it.

Something slightly worse was the whole shoutcast that was put up by EA, and that I wound up skipping because it seemed way too staged. The fact that it’s also a one vs. one deal makes me think that they’re going after the Pokemon go crowd as well.

The final piece from EA was the Bioware game that I’ve been dreading…

Anthem, is…in a word…Sad. I don’t mean it’s sad in the sense that it’s physically depressing to see as it has the same sleek Bioware style, that’s not the issue. I expected nothing less from Bioware and the team behind this game. My issue for the sad comes from the fact that it’s a Game as a Service, or GAAS. Which means it’s on line all the time, and that means if you have crappy internet connections you may as well skip this game. While they mentioned that the game will have no loot boxes, there was nothing about no microtransactions, and, given the nature of the game and the whole “We have content for years to come” it makes me think that this is going to end up catering only to people who like to play Destiny. The fact that normally fans of Bioware tend to like RPGs, and thus more single player affairs over multiplayer affairs makes me think that EA is trying to use Bioware to grab at the GAAS players. Now, on the one hand, it’s true that there are a lot of players that like GAAS games, and I’m not saying that they’re bad. The issue becomes, again, if you don’t have the net for it, and given the FCC crap that just went through it makes me wonder how badly this whole thing will work out. Also if you don’t like Always online games you may as well pass on this because that’s all this is going to be.  How do you manage to make Iron Man fighting Monsters seem dull. Great Job guys at doing that. 

We also saw notices about Fifa 19, and it’s practically become a monopoly given that Konami and another studio lost their license of the Championship and another tournament from Soccer. Not much changed  other than some sort of mini game, and then we had Madden and NBA, and I think that was it. I didn’t pay much mind to a lot of it because after seeing the indie presentation it felt like EA had lost touch with what makes for a good presentation….

So over all I would give EA an E, the indie area of their presser was nice and gave some bit of hope, but the over all presentation of mostly Online games and sports games, felt like EA has forgone making actual games and is now pretty much a version of Blizzard Activison.

[wordshappensometimes]

Here’s to a New Year with You

Summary: With all the uncertainty of the new year looming before you and the Avengers this New Year’s Eve, there’s one man whose got a plan or two up his sleeve.

Bucky Barnes x Reader

Words: 2,481

Warnings: nothing really, some drinking

A/N- Happy New Year everyone! This idea popped into my head earlier today and I just had to get it out before 2017 was officially over. It’s been a while since I’ve written a fic, so I hope you enjoy!

_______________________________________________________________________

You check out your appearance in the elevator mirror as you wait for it to carry you up to the top floor of the Avengers’ tower. You’ve got your favorite ankle boots, black skinny jeans, and an off-the-shoulder light grey sweater, not as dressed up as you usually would be for a Tony Stark party, especially when you considered what his last New Years Eve party was like (if drunken memory serves, you’re pretty sure you drank your weight in gold-laced champagne while wearing a dress that cost two months’ salary) but Tony had insisted on keeping things low-key this year. Just friends and family were invited to the Avengers’ tower to ring in the new year, and to be honest, you were grateful, this year had been a doozy for the Avengers to say the least.

You step off the elevator and take a look around the room. No crazy decorations or loud blaring music, though it seems that Wanda is trying to amend that first observation. You marvel as she uses her powers to hang some streamers on the wall. Steve waves you over towards the kitchen where him and Bucky are sitting on bar stools, watching Pepper prepare dinner. As you approach Steve sends Bucky a look, and Bucky elbows Steve in the ribs, not one to question their antics, you say hi and you hug them both.

You glance over at the kitchen where Pepper is working away and look back at the super soldiers sitting before you.“Way to be helpful guys...” you move around the island to give Pepper a hug and ask if she needs a hand. She gets you started on putting the salad together. “Hey Buck?” he looks up from the beer label he’s studying, and his blue eyes meet yours. “Do you mind being actually useful for a second and grabbing me a beer?” you flash him a cheeky smile as he throws you a look of mock insult. “Oohh, put the boy to work!” Steve jeers and slaps Bucky on the arm as he gets up to get you a drink. You shoot Steve a half-hearted scold. “What? Food’s almost ready any way.” You shake your head and roll your eyes as you start chopping tomatoes for the salad.

Moments later, Bucky appears at your side, two beers in hand.

“Wasn’t sure which one you’d want. There’s... “ he twists the bottles towards his face and squints as he reads, “Raging Bitch Belgian IPA” and “River Horse Roly Poly Pils...” you looks back to you, not fully sure that he’d read those right.

“I’ll take the pilsner, thanks.”

Bucky turns to Steve, “is it just me, or have beer names gotten a hell of a lot weirder?” Steve nods in agreement as Bucky passes the beer to his left hand and pops the cap off with his metal thumb “Definitely.”

“Show off” you mutter as you take the beer from him. Bucky pops the cap off the second beer and lifts his bottle up to toast you, as your bottles clank together you bump your hip into his “Thanks Barnes, Happy New Year” he shifts his weight uneasily “H-Happy New Year.”

Always one to announce himself, Tony steps out of the elevator doors with a cheerful holler, “Found it!” he holds a dusty glass bottle aloft, “Anyone interested in a 100 year old vintage? I knew I had a whiskey from 1918 in the cellar.” Tony makes his way over to the kitchen and gives Pepper a peck on the cheek, then turns to you. “You want to help me crack this open?” He gestures to the dusty bottle in his hands and you scoff out a laugh.

“Not right now, unless you want me to be dancing on the table before we’ve even eaten dinner”

Tony tilts his head, and elbows Bucky in the ribs “that could be arranged.” If you had been paying close enough attention, you would’ve noticed the red blush crawling up Bucky’s neck, but you were too focused on not chopping off one of your own fingers as you diced tomatoes for the salad.

“Yeah, maybe later Tony, not looking to get sloshed tonight.”

Tony shrugs and puts the 100 year old whiskey down on the bar. “What’s the ETA on dinner, babe?”

Pepper opens the oven to check the temperature of the ham she’s roasting, “We are just about ready... how’s that salad comin Y/N?” Tony shoots a playful look your way, “Yeah, Y/N, how’s that salad?” Steve and Bucky chuckle to themselves as you take in all of the 2 tomatoes you’ve sliced. “It’s... it’s coming...”

“Well make it come faster!”

“Tony!” Pepper lightly smacks him with the spatula she’s using and scowls at him. “How about rather than being a smart ass you actually help set the table.”

“Now there’s an idea.” Steve quips.

“You too, Steve. The more help I get, the faster we eat.”

You and Bucky watch as Steve and Tony trudge over to the dining room table and start to lay down dishes. You shake your head and sigh,

“And these are the guys we trust to lead our team?” you jokingly raise an eyebrow at Bucky, who, while you were talking, stole a chunk of tomato from your cutting board.

“Dude!”

Bucky’s eyes light up a mischievous blue as you smack him and tell him to go help the other useless idiots set the table.

______________________________________________________________________

After dinner, everyone’s gathered in the living room, there’s still a few hours until midnight, and normally this would be when everyone’s energy starts to drain, but the team seems pretty peppy.

Clint’s brought his kids and wife to the tower for Tony’s New Year’s Eve party, so him, Nat, and Wanda busy themselves with chasing them around the living room. Clint’s son squeals with joy and surprise as Nat tosses him into the couch cushions. Pepper, Vision, and Rhodey start up a game of Scrabble as Sam calls Steve over to the pool table.

Everyone is happy and lively, almost determinedly so, each one fighting to keep their worries about the future at bay so that they can enjoy the evening and move into the new year on a high note.

This year has been hard fought and barely won. The Avengers came close to losing everything this year, and it’s left everyone notably shaken.

You lean up against the massive window, trying to glimpse the famous ball in Times Square, and as you do you can’t help let your mind drift. All of the people packed into the cold streets below are there to celebrate the possibilities of the upcoming year; what goals are they going to achieve? What new opportunities will they encounter? What new loves await them? But for you and the rest of the Avengers, thinking about what the new year might hold brings on a wildly different list of possibilities. You’ve all seen the world nearly crumble in your hands, and now you’re all too aware of the tape and strings now barely managing to hold it all together. What if next time the string snaps forever? What if next time your team’s not strong enough to save the world? What if next time the Avengers fail? What would happen to all those people down below? Their hopes and dreams, and lives...

Each and every single Avenger grapples with these fears, and as you look around the room at each of your teammates you know that despite the happy faces and lively conversations on this New Year’s Eve, each Avenger is actively trying to think about literally anything other than the future.

A heavy arm suddenly draped around your shoulders pulls you from your thoughts. When you look up you’re surprised to find none other than Bucky Barnes looking out the window next to you. Bucky seemed to always be able to sense when something was bothering you. The two of you had gotten better at reading each other the more you worked together, and It almost feels like he can read your thoughts as he squeezes you gently into his side and quietly asks “You alright?”

You wrap your arm around his back and sigh “Yeah... just thinking.” He looks down at you and nods knowingly, then looks back out the window “Yeah..... lotta that goin around” Over the years, an unspoken understanding has developed between the two of you, if either of you wants to talk, then you will, otherwise it’s a no questions asked type of arrangement. The two of you look silently through the window, presumably both lost in thought. Though to your surprise, Bucky picks up where he had apparently left off “... Yeah it’s been a hell of a year... Though I hafta admit.... it hasn’t been all bad despite, well.... everything.” He looks down at you again, except this time there’s a light behind his eyes and a softness that you’ve never seen from him before; you clear your throat and lift your head from his shoulder slightly. As close as the two of you had grown over this past year, you weren’t really used to this much physical contact from Barnes, and you suddenly don’t know what to do with yourself as you look up into his soft blue eyes. Why were you suddenly so uncomfortable?

“Ey yo Barnes!” mercifully, Sam breaks up your moment with Bucky by shouting across the room from the pool table, “How about you come play some pool?” You lift Bucky’s beer from him and elbow him towards the pool table as you head to the bar for two refills, a much needed diversion.

Sam flicks the end of a pool cue up to Bucky, who in turn takes it and eyes Sam suspiciously. “What? You getting tired of getting your ass whooped by some geezer from Brooklyn? Cause callin me over ain’t gonna fix that problem for ya.”

Laughing, Steve lifts his beer to air, silently cheersing Bucky before taking a long drink.

“No.” Sam replied flatly, “I’m tired of getting my ass whooped by a dude with super powers. I’m lookin to even the playing field a little. Speaking of, where’s Y/N? We’re playing doubles.”

You step up to the pool table, two new frosty beers in hand. “You rang?” You pass one of the beers you’re holding to Bucky, and move around the pool table to grab yourself a cue.

“Yeah, about time, missy. Alright, you and Barnes versus me and Cap.”

“Who the hell you callin missy, Bird Boy?”

“Bird Boy? Oh, it is ON.”

Before you know it, you, Sam, Steve, and Bucky have been playing pool for the better part of two hours, and the new year is mere minutes away. Clint’s kids hurriedly shoo you all away from the pool table and everyone settles on the couches and chairs in front of the TV. Initially you’re sandwiched between Sam and Steve on the couch, but after a brief yet strangely tense exchange of glances between Bucky and Steve as Bucky hovered not far from the couch, Steve opts for a nearby armchair, leaving Bucky to settle in next to you.

Pepper passes out flutes of champagne and Wanda adorns everyone with various New Years decorations (somewhat forcibly in some cases). Once everyone is officially ready for the ball to drop, all that’s left to do is wait. It’s just a few short minutes, but in that time, an uneasy quiet settles over the room, everyone’s minds drifting off as the countdown clock marches on towards an unknowable future. Sensing the sudden shift in the room, Steve clears his throat and rises from his seat, motioning for Tony to do the same.

He raises his champagne glass slightly as he searches for the right words. “This year hasn’t been easy... and I know it’s tempting to dwell on that, and it’s impossible not to worry about what this new year will bring, but I just want to take this time to say I’m grateful to have every single one of you on my team. And I know that whatever 2018 brings, we’ll be able to face it together.... But, rather than worrying, let’s use this New Year to remember why we fight the battles we fight... and who we fight for...” you feel Bucky’s arm rest upon your shoulders as Steve continues his toast, “Here’s to friends and family....” Steve lifts his champagne glass high and looks to Tony to see if there’s anything he’d like to add...

“And may 2018 be less of a bitch than 2017!”

Several “here here”s sound from the group as Tony lifts his glass to toast in the new year. Everyone raises from their seats to join the toast just as the countdown on the TV moves into the last 10 seconds of 2017. Clint’s kids excitedly start yelling the numbers as they flash up on the screen, and everyone starts counting down with them.

“10!”

“9!”

“8!”

You feel a hand slip around your waist as you count along with the crowd.

“7!”

“6!”

Bucky pulls you even closer to his side and you wrap your arm around his back.

“5!”

“4!”

Bucky’s fingers drum lightly on your side, and you feel his breathing pick up its pace.

“3!”

“2!”

“1!”

“HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!”

Confetti drops on Time Square on the TV screen as the classic “Aud Lang Syne” blares through the speakers. The host on the TV pulls her husband into shot and plants a big wet kiss on him, prompting Clint to dramatically scoop his wife up into a passionate kiss. Nat joins his kids in a chorus of “boos” and puke noises as Clint makes a show of ringing in the new year with his wife. Tony and Pepper share a quiet moment of embrace by the sofa as Wanda and Vision share a kiss by the fireplace. You clink your champagne flute with Steve and Sam, and when you turn to cheers with Bucky you find him already looking down at you intently, with a look in his eyes that causes your heart to pound in your chest.

Bucky moves his face closer to yours, his eyes searching your face as he inches closer. Before you’ve even fully realized what’s happening, you’re overtaken by the feeling of Bucky’s lips on your own. They’re soft and supple and warm, and as Bucky’s hand on your back pulls you closer into him, you reach your hand up to his face. The whole world fades away in Bucky’s warm embrace, and you can scarcely believe what’s happening.

The two of you part, just slightly, and you both break into breathy laughs, and wide-eyed smiles. Bucky pushes a hair behind your ear and moves in close again, this time to whisper in your ear.

“Happy New Year.”

____________

Hope you enjoyed! Happy New Year to everyone! May 2018 be less of a bitch than 2017!

[snowdice]

A Twist of Fate {Part 5} (Everything’s Fine Universe) [Dice Roll 13]

Fandom: Sanders Sides

Relationships: Remus & Janus & Patton, Remy & Patton

Characters: Janus, Patton, Remus, Remy

Summary: It wasn’t unheard of for people to gain soulmarks later in life, but it was quite rare. Usually fate was set in stone. Yet, when one’s fated death was prevented, fate had to make some adjustments.

As he fell, Patton may have felt a strange prickling feeling across his skin. He however, was not paying attention to that, far too distracted and confused. All he knew was that by the time he hit the ground, both of his hands were covered with marks. Later when he went home he’d notice even more in other places, but the ones he noticed when he hit the ground were the obvious ones on his hands.

Then, there was Janus. Janus had only one soulmark on his body. At least. He had only one soulmark that hadn’t been burnt off years ago. When he landed on top of Patton, he did not notice the marks that suddenly appeared on his arms and face. Patton did, however, notice two little designs appear on him: one along the side of his nose and the other right below the scaring on the left side of his face. The second was already colored in by the time they hit the ground.

Universe: Soulmate AU and Superhero AU

Genre: The Dice Roll said fluff and it is… but… it’s more fluff and angst, hurt/comfort-ish

Notes: Child abuse, homelessness, malnutrition, acid burns, platonic soulmates, car accidents mentioned, blood mentioned, death mentioned

My Master Post Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4

Janus woke in a bed and immediately panicked. A million terrified thoughts about why and how he was in a bed rushed through his mind before he even had a chance to peak open his eyes. Yet, then, through the darkness of his thoughts, he felt familiar little feet digging into his back. With a slow breath, he opened his eyes and craned his head around to find Remus smashed into the twin sized bed with him. He gave his head a few seconds to catch back up with his situation.

The bakery man, Patton. Remus had predicted Patton’s death, and Janus had saved him. That action had changed fate so much that Janus and Remus had both gotten new soulmarks. Janus wasn’t even sure how many each of them had gotten; he hadn’t bothered to check yet. However, he did know that one of the soulmarks belonged to Patton.

It was absolutely terrifying. A parental soulmate. If it had been any other type of soulmate, it would have been easier. The problem with a parental soulmate is that if Patton wanted to, he could basically legally keep them. They were both minors with no biological parents left. Very few people would argue the point even if Janus and Remus went in kicking and screaming. Plus, being forced to stay in one place with adults who refused to listen would be a death sentence, and even if it wasn’t, they’d still be trapped. The blue star on Janus’s face was for all intents and purposes a mark of ownership. As someone who had lived in a cage for a few years, it didn’t exactly sit well with him.

But.

But, no matter how dangerous Patton may end up being to them, Janus knew with the state of Remus’s visions, they didn’t have a chance on the outside.

Remus had explained exactly what had happened after they “went to sleep” last night. Janus knew already that large changes in fate could potentially muddy a psychic’s vision for a time, particularly when said change personally affected the one having the visions. They didn’t often have to deal with this fact, as Remus was currently one of the two most powerful psychics in the world, his birth having been prophesied as far as hundreds of years ago (bar some important details), and as such small changes didn’t mess with his powers as much as they did other psychics’. However, there had been two instances where his abilities had dampened to a noticeable degree.

The first time had been when he’d helped Janus escape Halo Mark, though he’d still gotten enough feedback to keep them from getting recaptured. That instance had also corresponded to Remus and Janus getting new soulmarks, though each of them had only gotten one that time: the sibling ones for each other.

The second time had been at a seemingly random time. He and Janus had been on the run together for around six months when his visions had suddenly dimmed considerably to both of their distress. Remus had no idea what had caused it but had noticed a change in the landscape of the future when his visions returned the next day. He theorized that it must have been a good change as he couldn’t see many new events, just the absences of some. Remus could only see bad future and past events, so him not getting an influx of new things, probably was a net positive for the world. His best guess was that whatever the change was, it must have caused the sudden and inexplicable erasure of the death of the superhero Moxie Man that had been fated to occur in over two decades.

However, this circumstance was not quite like those two other times, because this time Remus could see nothing at all. Fate was apparently still in flux after Patton’s life was saved. Until it settled, Remus would have no more idea what the future held than Janus. This was a problem considering that Janus and Remus as 12 and 9-year-olds living on the streets and at least one of whom was still being doggedly tracked by Halo Mark, routinely almost died every day. Remus’s visions were what guided them to food and shelter and away from murders and people who would put them back in cages.

Which meant Patton, with his willingness to provide food and shelter and not murder them on the spot for the time being was a known risk and better than the possible alternatives. They may very well still end up in cages or dead, but it was the only chance they had.

So, Janus had let Patton take them back to his house and feed them dinner. He’d accepted the clean clothes and the shower. The only protest that had left his lips had been when Patton suggested they sleep in the closed off basement citing the fact that there was a queen sized bed down there, and if Janus and Remus refused to be in different rooms for the night, it would be more comfortable. Instead, they’d ended up sleeping in what Patton said had been his childhood bedroom, full of posters and pastel colors.

Janus had not wanted to submit to sleep the night before, but his body had been exhausted, so he had ended up asleep after a few hours. At least nothing had happened during the night. He was still okay. Remus was with him, and he could see sunlight peaking through the curtains on the window. He was running on the hope that Patton would keep up the nice act at least long enough for Remus to get his visions back. Though, he was unsure what would happen if Janus and Remus tried to leave.

Janus’s thoughts were brought back to the present when Remus started doing his typical morning squirming. He’d be up in a few minutes. A hand flopped over Janus’s chest and he mumbled something before his feet climbed up Janus’s back. Janus winced as they kicked the back of his neck lightly. The boy’s upper half wiggled and then flopped part way over Janus as his feet continued to kick a pattern into the air. He let out a soft humming sound and eventually his body poured completely over Janus, so he landed in a heap on the other side. He then continued to wiggle.

Janus reached out to grab one of his flailing hands, and after a moment, he calmed down a bit. His eyes flickered open. “Janus?” he asked.

“Mmm.”

He reached out to pat Janus’s cheeks a couple of times. “I’m’wake.”

“I can see that.”

“Go’ ‘orning.”

 “Good morning, Remus.”

There were a couple more moments of sleepy calm. Then, Remus woke up the rest of the way.

He popped up onto his knees on the bed, jostling Janus a bit. His eyes widened when he noticed how bouncy his sleeping surface was, and he bounced a couple of times. “I smell food!” he declared, still bouncing as he said it. “Do you think it’s good food? It smells like bacon. Will Patton burn the house down? I can’t see if he will or not. He cooked good spaghetti last night. Is that easy to cook? Is he a good cook? Will it taste good? Will it just be bacon? That would just be protein and fat. Does he know that? Did you know you can get malnourished if you don’t eat enough carbs even if you’re eating enough calories? You can die from it! Should we go down for breakfast or wait until he comes and gets us? Will he be mad if we pick wrong? Will he never come up to see us if we don’t go down and then we’ll starve to death? Where are my clothes? This shirt’s too big, but it’s really soft. It smells like lavender. Is that his detergent? Did you know eating one of the laundry pods can make you die? I wonder if he uses the laundry pods or the liquid stuff. If I lick my shirt and there is detergent on it, will I die? He washed my usual clothes yesterday after I changed. Will they smell like lavender too? I should check!” With that, Remus bounced out of bed to go grab his clothes.

Janus followed him out of bed. Patton had washed the clothes they’d arrived in, and they were probably now cleaner than they’d been since they’d gotten them. Remus continued to chatter as they dressed about nothing in particular. He seemed rather content in this new environment even while Janus was in constant worry. Of course, he usually relied on his visions to tell him if something was bad and may just instinctually be assuming if he wasn’t seeing anything, everything was fine, so Janus wasn’t sure if he should completely trust the boy’s perspective.

Once they were both dressed, they headed downstairs hand in hand.

“Hi boys,” Patton said when they arrived at the bottom of the steps. He was in the kitchen, but had angled himself, so he had a view of the stairs. Janus wasn’t sure if that was to make sure they didn’t make a break for it or just him being eager to greet them when they woke. “Want something to eat?” He seemed to already understand the power of food, and Janus wondered if that would be used against them soon.

“Yeah!” Remus said with no hesitation, perking up. For someone who only ever saw the worst of humanity, he had been strangely trusting when it came to Patton. His eagerness made Janus bristle a bit.

“Why don’t you come wash your hands and sit. I’m almost done.”

“Do I gotta?” Remus whined.

“Wash your hands?” Patton asked.

“Yeah, I took a shower just last night! I’m clean!”

Janus almost rolled his eyes at that assumption but was too preoccupied with watching Patton’s expression. Patton was frowning slightly, and Janus found himself waiting for his reaction with bated breath. Clearly, he wanted to say yes, Remus had to wash his hands, but if they pushed him would he deny Remus food over it?

Patton dithered. “I would prefer that you did so,” he said slowly after a moment, “as it is a good habit to have. Not washing your hands before you eat can make you sick since you might be getting germs into your mouth. That being said, I can’t make you do anything.”

“Yay!” Remus cheered.

“Go wash your hands, Remus,” Janus instructed firmly before he ran away with the idea.

“Aw,” he pouted, but listened. He wandered off to do as Janus asked, and Janus and Patton briefly met eyes before Janus turned to follow him. Remus had tucked his tongue between his teeth as he stood on his tiptoes to turn the water on. He wouldn’t be able to reach the soap where it was, so Janus reached forward and handed it to him. Janus’s reward for his good dead was a face full of bubbles once Remus got it into a lather. Janus sighed.

Once Remus’s hands were clean, instead of going to the table, he padded off to stand next to Patton as the man finished cooking the eggs. They immediately struck up a conversation about bugs Remus had seen in the last month. Meanwhile, Janus quickly rinsed his face of bubbles before washing and drying his hands himself.

“And then if flew away!” Remus was saying when Janus turned back.

“Aw,” Patton said, “that’s sad, but I bet he had some stuff to do.”

“It got eaten by a bird two days later!”

“O-oh,” Patton said, but shook off his surprise a moment later. “I think my mom had some books about local bugs in the office. Maybe we can figure out what type he was.”

“Really?!” Remus said, bouncing on the balls of his feet.

“Sure,” Patton agreed.

“Ooo, do you have any books on octopuses?!” he asked. “I love octopuses!”

“I’m not sure,” Patton replied, “but we can look, or I can get you one from the library.”

“Oh, and Jaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaapanese beetles… are also pretty cool. Anyway, can we get a book about snakes for Evan.”

“Of course,” Patton said kindly as Janus resisted slamming his head against the counter. “Would one of you mind getting the grape juice out of the refrigerator, please.”

“Okay!” Remus agreed, skipping over to the fridge. Patton watched him go with a slight smile on his face that made Janus want to squirm with something. He couldn’t tell if it was a bad something or not, but it was definitely a something. Patton turned a bit to glance at Janus and quirked his lips up a bit more when he saw him watching. He returned his attention to the stove after a moment and poured the eggs into a prepared bowl. Then, he brought that along with a plate of bacon and toast to the table. He’d already cut up an orange for each of them and set it at every plate.

“He knows about scurvy,” Remus said, nodding in approval upon seeing it.

Patton let out a surprised laugh. “I do,” he said. “Do you like oranges?”

“Fruits are yucky, but it’s better than your body slow breaking down and swallowing a bunch of blood because your gums won’t stop bleeding,” Remus said, grabbing a piece of orange and stuffing it in his mouth.

“I… guess that’s right,” Patton said. “Maybe we can find a source of vitamin C that tastes better to you.”

“I don’t like broccoli!” he proclaimed.

“I’ll make a note of that,” Patton replied, amused. “Would you like me to get you some eggs?”

“Uh huh!”

Patton scooped out some eggs for him and hesitated with Janus before Janus held out his hand to take the bowl from him. He then offered the plate of bacon and toast around the table. “How did you two sleep?” Patton asked.

“Really good!” Remus answered. “I like beds!” Patton grimaced a bit, but Remus didn’t notice, too busy happily making himself an egg and bacon sandwich.

“And you, Evan?”

“Fine,” Janus replied, taking a bite of eggs. He blinked down at the eggs. Janus had made eggs on occasion while on the run, but there was something different about the eggs Patton made. They were a lot fluffier, and they tasted a lot better. In fact, the bacon and even the toast tasted better, though that may have just been that it was fresh bread instead of the day-old stuff they usually got. Plus, there was a lot of food, in fact, he was pretty sure Patton had no idea how much three people could eat in one go, because it seemed like he’d made enough for six. Janus stopped eating when he was full, and it was an odd experience to have two consecutive full meals. He felt a bit tired even though he’d only just woken up.

He felt himself mentally drift a bit as Remus and Patton continued eating. They were much slower since Remus kept rambling, and Patton kept trying to politely pay attention to what he was talking about. This was nice, he supposed. It was almost scary how easily he could feel himself settle around Patton. He couldn’t get attached or used to this. They’d have to leave eventually, he reminded himself harshly.

His attention was brought back to the conversation when Remus just about flipped his plate off the table with the way he threw his arms around. “Chocolate!” he exclaimed.

Janus looked over to see if that display of recklessness would make Patton mad, but it seemed to be the opposite. He seemed to enjoy Remus’s enthusiasm. “Chocolate chip or chocolate cookies?” he asked.

“Both!” Remus demanded.

“Double chocolate cookies then,” Patton said.

“Yay!”

Patton turned to Janus. “Would you like to help us make them?”

Janus nodded. “Sure,” he agreed, surmising they were talking about baking cookies.

“Great!” Patton said. “Can you help me clear the table?”

“If it means faster to cookies, yes!” Remus said, getting up and grabbing his plate and glass.

Janus grabbed his own plate with less enthusiasm and took it over towards the sink. Patton washed the dishes while he directed them around the room to gather different supplies for the cookie making.

Patton had just put the last dish on the drying rack and was drying his hands when the doorbell rang.

Janus immediately panicked because Patton could 100% have called the cops on them before they’d woken up. Patton seemed to sense his panic. “It’s just Remy!” Patton said. “Who… you don’t know. He’s a friend. A soul-friend. I totally forgot he was coming over today after his exam. I’ll ask him to leave.” He darted towards his front door.

Janus leaned over towards Remus. “Be ready to run just in case.”

Remus nodded solemnly even if he looked a bit sad, probably because he wouldn’t be able to make cookies if they had to bolt. Then, Janus followed after Patton on silent feet.

Want to read more? Click below!

Part 6 Part 7

[a-mad-scientist-approaches]

Multiverse is a Curse Word (2)

Again, no idea how to describe this AU, other than as some sort of Frankenstein-y mash of @the-subpar-ghost‘s Adrift AU, and @hntrgurl13‘s Dimension Jumper AU and Drifting Dimensions AU. Adeline Marks is also the latter’s lovely OC. Although the Addiford ship has not yet sailed, I’m still going to credit it to @scipunk63. 

@deadpool-demon-diva and @thejesterlyfictionista I refuse to NOT inform you when I post an update. 

AO3  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11

Chapter 2: Hand Signals to Befuddle Your Enemies

The scenery whipped past silently, and sunlight streamed through the transparent walls of what Mabel had dubbed The Trainbulance. It had docked over the market place shortly after Ford had passed out. Apparently, fights were fairly common in that place, and medical help was permanently stationed nearby to pick up the pieces.

Her uncle jolted awake right next to her, shooting from horizontal to sitting upright almost instantly. His right hand automatically reached for the gun that Mabel had, with wise forethought, temporarily removed from its holster.

“Whoa! Grunkle Ford! It’s okay!”

Eyes wide and breathing hard through his nose, Ford focused on her after a moment of taking in his surroundings.

“Are you alright?”

“Me?” Mabel laughed worriedly. “What about you?”

“I’m-” Ford looked down at the recovery bed he was lying in, and then at his newly re-located shoulder. “Fine, actually.” He sounded surprised. “Where are we?”

Grinning so wide she thought every one of her braces must be showing, Mabel joyously exclaimed, “The Trainbulance! It can fly! And we don’t even have to pay for it or anything, Addi’s settled it all with the driver. I think she’s magic,” she added in a conspiratorial whisper.

“Addi?” Ford inquired.

“Right here.” Adeline said, stepping into the compartment. “Adeline Marks, your saving grace.” She introduced herself with a playful smile.

⃝

Adeline wore tattered clothes in brown and grey, and her wrists and hands were wrapped like a boxer’s. Ford knew immediately that he should not get on the wrong side of the sword strapped to her back; he had seen how fast it could be drawn. Her choppy blonde hair had a few grey streaks, and her right cheekbone wielded a couple of horizontal scars. Ford estimated that she was perhaps a few years younger than himself and had seen at least as much action, if not more, judging by the confident way she held herself – like she knew she was more than a match for anyone she crossed.

“I think she can hypnotise people with sign language, too,” Mabel supplied. Ford was suddenly aware that he had done nothing but stare at Adeline since she had walked into the room, and cleared his throat.

“Thank you for your help,” he said sincerely.

“Anytime,” she replied easily, “but Mabel’s the real hero here. She came and got me.” Adeline directed another warm smile towards his niece.

Mabel hesitated. Frowning slightly, she eventually took a breath and said to Ford again, “I’m really sorry. I shouldn’t have cheated.”

Ford swung his legs off the recovery bed and took her hands, making sure to look into her eyes. “Don’t blame yourself.” He said firmly. “Nobody’s hurt, that’s the important thing-”

“But you were hurt-”

“And you saved me,”

Mabel sighed and leaned her head against his shoulder, still upset.

“Mabel, you and Stanford did not deserve to be attacked over a dice game, regardless of whether you cheated. If anyone’s to blame, it’s that jerk of a gambler. I mean, who goes after a kid like that?” Adeline put in. “Next time, only cheat if the other guy isn’t going to notice.” She winked.

Mabel nodded slowly, mollified.

“Where are heading?” Ford wondered.

“This, um, trainbulance is going to drop us off at a place I know, run by some … colleagues, I guess, of mine. At the very least it’s a place to shelter for the night.” Adeline prompted, seeing his obvious reluctance.

“Adeline, it’s not that I don’t appreciate all that you’ve done,” he began, “I would just prefer not to take any more risks than absolutely necessary.”

“It wouldn’t be a risk.” Adeline said quickly and eagerly. “I mean, not by our standards, right?”

Ford ran a hand through his hair, glancing at Mabel, who erupted into a coughing fit.

“I’m good,” she choked out. He really hoped she had not caught something from that alley. He should have tried harder to find a more sanitary, not to mention safer, sleeping place. It was hard to remember how much more careful he had to be now, especially with a child as uncomplaining and resilient as Mabel. That being said, no matter how guilty he felt it was impossible to find suitable living conditions all the time.

It would be best to take it where he could get it then.

“Okay,” he agreed, nodding to Adeline.

⃝

Trying hard to contain her delight and not freak out the others, Addi was suddenly reminded of something.

“Oh! A thing you may find useful …” She rotated her wrist around and flicked her fingers out.

“I think she’s trying to hypnotise us,” Mabel stage whispered, looking strangely keen.

“No, this is a hand signal.” Addi laughed. “It, well, it sort of means ‘I don’t want to hurt you, I’m on your side.’” She rolled her eyes at Stanford’s raised eyebrow. “At the very least it’ll confuse your enemies into stopping attacking, y’know, if you decide to just stand there and wave at them. But they’ll probably recognise it. It works in many of the dimensions I’ve been to.”

“You said ‘side’ as in side of a war?” Stanford picked up, perceptive as ever.

“No. Not yet anyway,”

“So, a resistance effort? Against what? Are you a part of this?”

Addi shifted uncomfortably. She’d want Wesley around to explain this. “I help out where I’m needed. I’m not officially a part of anything. If they need assistance they call me in, like with-”

“Recruiting?” Ford’s voice was suddenly as hard as steel.

“No, well yes, but not you, not Mabel. I don’t involve kids.” Addi became aware that the conversation had made a sharp turn off road.

“You don’t. However, in my experience resistances are often just as brutal and cruel as the institutions they overthrow,”

“I’m not trying to get either of you involved.” Addi raised her hands in a placating gesture. “I just think we could help you out.”

“We don’t need help,” Stanford said coldly.

Mabel doubled over coughing again. As Addi steadied her with a hand, the medical transport shuttle, which had been slowing imperceptibly, rocked to a halt. The cease in motion caused all three of them to sway, and Addi distinctly heard Stanford’s breath catch in his throat when he looked back at her. He froze up, and Addi knew, she just knew that her necklace was showing. In the following moment of silence and stillness, Mabel’s mouth dropped open as she saw it too.

“It’s not-” Addi tried desperately to say, but then her two, well she couldn’t call them friends anymore, heard footsteps thundering towards them from the door behind her.

Things happened very quickly after that.

Mabel tore herself out of Addi’s hand and ran to the exit hatch in one of the viewing walls. Stanford kicked the chair she had vacated into Addi’s knees, making her hiss in pain. With a blast from the man’s gun, Mabel shot the emergency hatch off, and then they were gone.

“Damn it!” Adeline shouted in mingled anger and despair. The two resistance members she had notified to escort them to their base in this dimension hurried into the room.

“Why were you running? There was no rush!”

“The driver was getting impatient,” the blue, three-eyed, spiny one said uncertainly.

Taking a deep breath to try and calm down, Addi reached up and removed her necklace.

“Shit,” she whispered, gazing down at the little golden triangle.

“They freaked, huh?” asked Kot, a green, tentacled, octopus-like person. Their words were filled with sympathy.

“Yeah,” Addi tried to keep her voice from cracking.

⃝

Three days and two dimensions later, Mabel’s cough was only getting worse. She felt unsteady on her feet, and her temperature was stubbornly increasing. She’d also noticed Ford starting to cough.

They could not afford to be sick.

They were both interdimensional outlaws – Mabel by association, Ford by intent – and any wrong move could draw attention to themselves. A one-eyed, yellow, demonic kind of attention. Their encounter with Addi had given them no choice but to keep moving.

“How far away’s the next portal?” she murmured. On the other side of the fire pit in the desert floor, Ford looked up from his calculations.

“Not far.” He said. “It will open in a few hours.”

Mabel nodded and shivered. She was too tired to speak. She was cold, even though she was wrapped in all the blankets they had. Even though she was next to a fire. Even though they were in a desert.

This sucks, she thought miserably. Hey, never had an alien virus though! This didn’t cheer her up as much as it had two days ago.

Ford’s smothered cough almost escaped her notice as the crackling of the fire. A pang of guilt went through her and she sniffled. Worry painted all over his face, her uncle came and sat next to her, rubbing her back.

“S’ry,” Mabel said.

“No, I shouldn’t have let us stay in that alley,”

“Meant for bein’ a hassle,”

“You’re not. You never are,”

Mabel was pretty sure that was a lie. Ford was always counting their rations to make sure there was enough for two. He was more focused on earning money so they could stay in actual dwelling places whenever possible. He always kept a secure grip on her hand when they walked into civilisation, and had gone out of his way to get her proper travelling clothes. Most regularly though, he took the time to teach her about the calculations he used, the most common social customs he’d found, and how to operate what technology they had. To her, it was obvious how much of his attention she took up. It was nice of him to lie though.

Mustering up some last dregs of energy, Mabel asked what had been weighing on her mind.

“Do you really think Addi was working for Bill? I mean, the necklace didn’t have an eye. It was just a triangle,”

“I don’t know,” Ford said tiredly. It must have been the millionth time she had asked that question.

“I really liked her,” Mabel said sadly.

“I know. I’m sorry,”

After a moment Ford drew the blankets around her tighter. “Get some sleep. You’ll feel better in the morning.”

He’d said that every night since she’d gotten a fever. She never did, but thankfully it was always easy to fall asleep. Waking up was the difficult part.

⃝

Ford woke up to the click of a weapon two sand dunes over. Quietly and quickly, he shook Mabel awake and checked that the smouldering coals of the fire were not bright enough to give away their position. Then he stuffed all their possessions into their bag, leaving one blanket around the girl. They were ready to move in under a minute.

When he took Mabel’s hand she was shaking. Not only her fingers, but her legs were trembling as if they were unused to the strain of lifting her, and her shoulders were heaving with the effort of suppressing violent coughs. Feeling his mouth go dry, he looked into her eyes. Their brown usually full of life, it was shocking to see how exhausted they were now. She seemed only half aware of what was going on.

Enough was enough. Once they were through the portal he was getting her to a hospital.

They made it across three sand dunes before their pursuers caught sight of them. Breaking into a run, Mabel was forced to stumble forwards with him as best she could. Unable to hold it in anymore, she dissolved into a full-blown coughing fit.

When the blue disc of the portal burst into brilliance ahead of them, the pursuers started shouting. A variety of languages met Ford’s ears, those that he understood phrasing questions.

“Stop! Who are you?”

“What are you doing here? Who sent you?”

“This is a warning shot!”

The sand next to them exploded, red lasers leaving afterimages across the dark sky. Ford instinctively threw himself in the opposite direction, cannoning into Mabel. Then he was on his feet and drawing his own gun, only to have it magnetically ripped out of his hands.

“Do not move,”

Ford reached out to push Mabel behind him, but the only resistance his hand met came from air. Ready to dive at the nearest assailant if they had so much as singed his niece, his head snapped around to see her on her hands and knees coughing so hard into the sand it sounded painful. He started towards her but another warning shot flew between them. He froze.

For a few seconds, all Ford could hear was the pulse pounding in his head and the agonised gasps for breath coming from his niece. Then the two pursuers began their interrogation.

“Tell us why you are here!”

“You were armed. That does not suggest a benign intention,”

“Are you affiliated with Wikert Expansion Enterprises?”

Mabel tried to say something, but all that came out was a croak, quickly overtaken by more coughs.

“We’re just travellers, we’re only passing through-” Ford tried.

“Travellers do not live like criminals,”

“What is wrong with the child?”

“I don’t know,” Ford said, trying to keep his voice steady.

Mabel was trying to get their attention. She waved an arm out ahead of her in lieu of words, or so Ford initially thought. Her coughs were coming harder and faster than ever, leaving her with barely enough time to breathe. Her condition was rapidly worsening. Could she be hallucinating? Was that why she was waving like that? Various thoughts presented themselves to him with lightning speed, but no solutions were among them.

With a huge rattling breath, Mabel gave one last cough. There was a muted splat as something dribbled out of her mouth and hit the sand. Ford’s heart seemed to stop as the portal gave one last flare before it disappeared, showing him clearly the red blood his little girl had choked out.

She shakily wiped her mouth and stood up, swaying. Then she made the hand signal she had been previously struggling to: a wrist rotation, followed by splayed fingers. After a very still moment, the two others echoed it.

Right then, the words “Come with us. We can help,” were the only ones necessary to convince Ford to trust them.

⃝

The structure was a monumental block in the middle of the desert. It was as big as a town, and twenty stories tall. Ford was not sure how they had missed it when they had arrived.

Another cough brought his attention back to Mabel. The following sob caused his throat to close up. More on edge than he had been in years, he hurried them both through one of the entrances, their two guides signalling the guards to let them in.

There were only a few people in this section, all wearing a black symbol on their clothes identifying them as medics. A small wave of relief flowed over him, and he looked down at Mabel as –

- as her eyes rolled back into her head and her legs finally buckled. Catching her before she hit the ground, Ford barely registered the panicked shout that left him, inducing the medical personnel to all hurry towards the commotion.

Ford swiftly checked Mabel’s breathing and heart-rate, neither of which were good. Her skin was clammy when he had been sure it was feverish only earlier that day. She was twitching slightly, but not seizing, which was indicative of –

A green, tentacled being started to pull his niece out of his arms. Instinctively, he jerked back, attempting to tighten his hold on her, but the stranger was already rushing away with the girl. Another swell of panic caused him to lash out, to try to stop them from moving out of his sight, even though he was dimly aware that it’s okay, they’re a doctor, they know what they’re doing. The hands of the guides closed around him for restraint, which only made him struggle harder. There was shouting, a call for help, an unintelligible reply, and a sharp prick in his right arm.

Fuck, was his last thought before he slipped into unconsciousness. Again.  

[rosenwrites]

Casino by the Falls

Character(s): Linh, Jaime

Suggested Music: Rose Hip

               Jaime’s dark blue car pulled into the casino parking lot. As it was a busy Saturday night in Niagara Falls, it only was only natural that the parking lot was near-full. It took him awhile to find a parking spot, but he lucked out when someone pulled out of their spot to leave. He swiped the spot and shut off the car.

               “We’re here. It’s time to put your knowledge and luck to the test.” Jaime said as he stepped out of the car. Linh stepped out from the passenger side, shutting the door and checking the window to inspect herself.

               “How do I look?” Linh asked.

               “I’ve told you four times already: Like a million bucks. Come on, relax a bit, or security’s gonna catch you at the door.”

               “You’re right; I’m just not used to dressing like this.” Linh took a deep breath and exhaled loud. “I’m ready, let’s go.” Jaime offered his arm and Linh took it before they both strolled up to the entrance together.

               “You remember all the rules?” Jaime asked.

               “Yeah, two dice, thirty-six combinations, I got it.” Linh answered.

               “That’s good, but don’t be afraid to play up your inexperience with the game. Apparently, the superstitious players love a female craps virgin. It’s where the term ‘Lady Luck’ comes from.”

               “Ugh, I can already tell this is gonna be a long night.”

               “Don’t worry, I’ll stand in between you and the other gamblers and act as your personal bodyguard for the night.”

               The two reached the entrance as their conversation wrapped up. A modest line of people stood in front of them with two security guards at the front checking people’s I.D.s. The line moved along at a comfortable pace and the pair found themselves at the front of the line.

               “Good evening, sir and ma’am. May I see some I.D., please?” One of the security guards asked. Linh reached for her purse and Jaime reached for his wallet in his pocket and pulled out the forged I.D.s that Linh worked on for the past few weeks. The guard inspected them while the pair did their best to conceal any signs of nervousness. The inspection took five seconds, but to the pair it felt like five minutes. “Okay, here you go. Enjoy your night!” The guard handed back their I.D.s and waved as the pair entered the casino.

As soon as they hit the floor, flashing signs and loud ringing and dinging bombarded them. Loud music blared through the overhead speakers. Rows of slot machines as far as the eyes could see. As Jaime and Linh pressed forward, they found themselves in the table games section of the casino. Many of the tables had all their seats filled and some even had crowds gathered around them.

“Dealer has 10, 13, 16, 23, too many!” One dealer called out from a blackjack table. All the players at her table cheered.

“14, red, even!” Another dealer called out from the roulette table. All but one of the players groaned as he scooped away their chips. The one remaining player was hollering with joy as he had stacked a tower of chips on 14.

“Alright, let’s find the craps table.” Jaime instructed. “It’s an ovular table, with three dealers manning it instead of just one, and a supervisor sitting at the middle overseeing everything. There’s usually a crowd—”

“Found it!” Linh interrupted Jaime and pointed to a well-lit section of the casino floor. What she pointed at fit Jaime’s description of a craps table. She also found a nearby information stand containing pamphlets on how to play the various tables games. She grabbed one called “How to play craps” and reunited with Jaime.

“I thought you said you knew how to play.” Jaime said, looking confused.

“I do. But you said to play up my inexperience.” Linh replied while glancing through the pamphlet.

“Good idea, let’s head on over.” With their arms still linked, the pair made their way to the craps table. They caught the glances at some of the dealers at the blackjack tables, and Linh especially was attracting the attention of other customers passing by. To everyone on the casino floor, the pair looked like a high society couple. Linh, not accustomed to this amount of attention, leaned in closer to Jaime for protection.

“Six, winner six, front line winner! Don’ts and field away, line to pay! Down behind, in behind, comes go to six! Six came easy!” The dealer working the stick, wearing a name tag that read “Dominic” called out the result as the players cheered and high-fived each other. The other two dealers took the losing bets and paid the winning bets, the grabbed the “ON” pucks on the “six” and flipped them to “OFF”.

“Just wait and watch until the shooter changes.” Jaime whispered. Linh nodded and the pair approached the craps table. Just like everywhere else, Linh had heads turning at the table. The pamphlet still in her hand gave her away immediately as a “craps virgin” and the players took a liking to her right away. Jaime stepped in between her and other gamblers, which earned him a lot of dirty looks.

“Dice out, hands high!” Dominic called out as he shipped the dicer to the shooter, who just happened to be standing next to Jaime. He picked up the dice in one hand and tossed them down to the end of the table. They hit the back wall of the table and showed a four and six.

“Ten, easy ten, field roll ten, mark the ten, down behind the ten!” Dominic retrieved the dice as the other two dealers marked the “10” with their pucks flipped to “ON”. It was then that the craps players started tossing chips and shouting orders.

“162 across!”

“All the hardways!”

“Twenty dollar horn!”

Dominic and the dealers, their name tags reading “Jennifer” and “Amber”, shuffled and slid all the oncoming chips to their correct betting positions, with the supervisor even helping here and there. Once the commotion died down, Dominic shipped the dice to the shooter. “Dice out, hands high!” The shooter once again grabbed the dice and tossed them down the table. This time, they showed a one and six.

“Seven out seven. DC, line, and field away. Don’ts to pay. Last come, get some, pay behind.” The players at the table grumbled as Dominic made his call. The dealers collected all the losing betters and switched the pucks “OFF”.

“Alright, we can buy in now.” Jaime pulled out his wallet and Linh reached for her purse. Both of them pulled out five one hundred dollar bills each and set them down in the “COME” area. “Four hundred in greens and the rest in reds, please.”

“Me too, please.” Linh chimed in.

Jennifer smiled and nodded. “Money coming in!” She shouted before laying out Jaime’s money first in a diagonal line, making it easy for her supervisor and the cameras to see it. With both hands, she brought out a stack of green chips and a full stack of red chips and broke them down into smaller stacks. “Money change five hundred for the gentleman in the pinstripe suit.” The supervisor verified the amount and nodded her head. Jennifer shipped the chips and repeated the process with Linh’s money. “Money coming in!” Another stack of green and red broken down. “Money change five hundred for the lady in the green evening gown.” Another approval by the supervisor before sending the chips to Linh. The other players already had their bets set. Jaime and Linh each placed 2 red chips on “Don’t Pass” with Linh still reading through the pamphlet. This single action made the other players mutter under their breath.

“Great, a couple of dark side players.”

“That’s the last thing we need.”

“I’m taking down my bets.”

Jaime ignored the comments and waited for Dominic to ship five dice to him. Once he did, Jaime picked two up and tossed them down the table as Dominic pulled back and locked up the other three. The two dice landed showing one and two.

“Three craps three! Line away, don’ts and field to pay!” The dirty glares intensified from the other players as Jennifer and Amber took their losing wagers and paid Jaime and Linh their winning wagers. The pair picked up their winnings and waited for the others to place their bets. Once preparations finished, Dominic shipped the dice to Jaime again. Jaime threw them again. Both dice landed and showed five and five. Linh kept reading and ignoring the action.

“Ten, hard ten, field roll ten! Mark the ten, down behind the ten!” Dominic retrieved the dice and brought them to the center while Jennifer and Amber marked the “10”. Again, the other craps players began setting up their place bets and hardway bets. Jaime and Linh just placed odds beside their “Don’t Pass” bets and each placed another 2 red chips in the “Don’t Come” box.

“Dice out, hands high!” Dominic shipped the dice to Jaime once again. The dice flew. Two and Two.

“Four, hard four, field roll four! Down behind, in behind, comes go to four!” Some of the players cheered as their hardway four bet just won. They parlayed their bets without a second thought while Jaime and Linh each put down four green chips quietly.

“Odds on our ‘Don’t Come’ bets, please.” Linh whispered. Jennifer nodded and swiped their chips to lay them behind their DC bet behind the “4”. It was time to throw the dice again. Dominic shipped them to Jaime. Through the air they flew. Three and four.

“Seven out seven. DC, line, and field away. Don’ts to pay. Last come, get some, pay behind.” A collective groan came from the craps players as, once again, they lost all their parlayed bets. Only Jaime and Linh came out the winners on this roll.

“Fifty odds and ten flat, two in a row.” Jennifer announced as she paid the pair’s “Don’t Pass” bets. She then moved on to their “Don’t Come” bets behind the “4”. She set them up fast and turned to the supervisor. “DC check!”

The supervisor glanced over for a second and nodded. “Send it.” Jennifer shipped the winning “Don’t Come” bets to Jaime and Linh who thanked her kindly before snatching up their winnings. Jaime’s roll was over and now it was Linh’s turn to roll. She was about to put another bet on “Don’t Pass” when the other players interrupted her.

“Come on, miss, you don’t want to play against the rest of the table, do you?”

“We can tell it’s your first time playing craps. Put down the pamphlet and we’ll show you how to play the right way.”

“You don’t need to copy what the guy beside you; He doesn’t know what he’s doing.”

Linh had to fight the urge to punch these fools right there. Instead, she put on her best smile and said “I’m not going to team up with guys who get one hard and blow their load after a single out.” Had the dealers and supervisor not covered their mouths in that instant, they would have erupted in laughter. The craps players went red with both embarrassment and anger. Linh set her “Don’t Pass” bet and Dominic shipped five dice to her while still snickering. She picked two and waited for Dominic to pull back the remaining three before tossing the dice. One and four.

“Five fever five, no field five! Mark the five, down behind the five!” The dealers repeated the motions of retrieving the dice to the center and marking the “5” with the “ON” pucks. The players tossed their chips and set their bets. Jaime and Linh were about to do the same when a waitress walked by the craps table.

“Anything to drink?” She asked.

“A glass of champagne for me and the lady shooter here.” Jaime answered.

“You got it, sir!” As the waitress left, the players told the dealers to turn their bets off. It was just one of the many superstitions they held that a seven out was coming. Jaime and Linh laid their odds and set up their “Don’t Come” bets as before. Dominic shipped the dice to Linh once more. She picked them up and tossed them. Three and three.

“Six, hard six, no field six! Down behind, in behind, comes go to six!” The craps players cursed out loud since they turned off their hardway six bets and therefore won nothing. Jaime and Linh gave each other a high five under the table. Just as players were about to turn their bets back on, another dealer walked up behind Dominic and tapped him on the shoulder.

“Hey Brad, the shooter is the lady in the green dress over there.” Dominic said before leaving his position and heading toward Jennifer’s spot.

“Ah, so Lady Luck has finally shown up on this table.” Brad replied as he flashed a welcoming smile.

“Brad, no flirting with the patrons.” The supervisor admonished Brad. Brad gave a quick bow as an apology. Dominic tapped off Jennifer and Jennifer tapped off Amber for her to go on break. Since the dealers just changed, the players changed their minds about turning their bets back on. Jaime and Linh passed off their chips to Dominic to lay odds on their “Don’t Come” bets as usual. Brad shipped the dice when he saw everyone was ready. Linh picked them up and let them fly. Two and two.

“Four, hard four, field roll four! Down behind, in behind, comes go to four!” Another hardway, another missed opportunity for the rest of the players. Once again, they were about to turn their bets back on when the waitress arrived again, this time with the champagne glasses that Jaime ordered. Jaime paid the waitress with a green chip as she passed their drinks to him and Linh.

Linh leaned back and chugged the champagne in one go, then stood back straight before placing her glass back on the tray and smiling at the waitress. “Another one, please.” The waitress nodded and left. The other players kept their bets off. The pair again laid their odds and Linh was ready to shoot again. Brad shipped the dice and Linh threw them just as fast. Four and four.

“Eight, hard eight, no field eight! Down behind, in behind, comes go to eight!” Linh had just managed to roll three hardways in a row and nobody on the table won money off of it because of their superstitions. They got fed up and turned all their bets back on. Jaime and Linh shook their heads as they laid odds on their third “Don’t Come” bets. Were they expecting that Linh would roll the fourth and final hardway? Total nonsense.  Brad shipped the dice to Linh and she whipped them across the table, knocking over some of the other players’ bets before the dice landed five and two.

“Seven out seven. DC, line, and field away. Don’ts to pay. Last come, get some, pay behind.” The craps players lost their minds as all their bets were scooped up. Jaime took a drink of his champagne as Linh gave him a loud high-five for everyone to see. Their “Don’t Pass” and “Don’t Come” bets paid out in spades. Linh’s roll was over but she and Jaime came out on top. Brad and the other dealers could not help but smirk at the free entertainment they were witnessing now. They were used to being blamed for any and all bad outcomes so it was nice for someone else to take the heat for a change. The fact that Jaime and Linh were doing it on purpose made it even better.

“We got the whole table on tilt. Ready to up our bets?” Jaime whispered to Linh.

Without even hesitating, Linh doubled her “Don’t Pass” bet. “Let’s keep tilting them.”

[stone-man-warrior]

September 28, 2018: 2:17 pm (October 21, 2018: 3:45 pm)

(Authors Note: 4-6-2019: This entry is mislabeled in the archive from Google. The significance is apparent as there is a photo of Lorena Chapman, “The Priestess” included. Ms. Chapman is a very powerful and well known terror commander, possibly a national level SDA General. The October date is how the entry is filed in the archive from Google.)

September 28, 2018, 2:17 pm:<br><br>(Edited for accuracy October 21, 2018. Th... StoneMan .Warrior - 2018-09-28T18:26:48-0400 - Updated: 2018-10-21T18:45:44-0400

September 28, 2018, 2:17 pm: (Edited for accuracy October 21, 2018. The edit is that throughout this entry, I mistakenly used the words "Desert View", when the correct name of the Hospital is "Desert Springs Hospital". Please excuse the mistake and insert the correct words "Desert Springs Hospital when reading this entry, I am choosing to leave it as originally written. Thank you.) In three days time, this coming Monday, all over the North American Continent, and beyond, there will be a massive celebration. One year ago, on October 1st, 2017 in Las Vegas Nevada, USA, there was a terrorist event that was purported to have resulted in the shooting deaths of some 59 American Citizens and injuring more than 800 more American Citizens who were said to be attending a music concert. This report has been accepted and is supported by everyone in the media and Law Enforcement, worldwide, who has been outspoken regarding any statement made about the terrorist event. Key words here are "Terrorist Event". There was no shooting. There was no real concert. There were no victims seen on any of the many first hand accounts of so called concert goers who filmed and photographed the event as it happened. There were no victims at the concert venue because the 59 people who died were all wearing the kind of shoes that Hospital Employees are required to wear. The reason that all of the people who were killed were wearing the kind of shoes Hospital Employees are required to wear, is because all of the victims were American Citizens who were worked and were on duty at the Desert View Hospital when a large number of terrorists disguised as injured concert goers all showed up to the Desert Springs Hospital at the same time. These fake concert goers, with fake injuries, planned, staged, practiced, rehearsed and then carried out an ambush style attack on the Desert View Hospital. The people who were killed were targeted ahead of time. There are actually a large number of victims who are not being counted in the official reports. The entire staff of doctors, surgeons, nurses, and all of the patients that were in the hospital at the time of the attack are not accounted for. The Entire hospital staff, including the doctors, surgeons, nurses and support people who use the hospital, work at the hospital, or do services for the hospital were all either killed or taken into captivity, then replaced with impostors. The doctors, surgeons, nurses and other support personnel associated with the Desert View Hospital in Las Vegas who were NOT on duty at the time, were also either killed and replaced, or are being held in captivity and forced to serve the needs of the terrorists who took the hospital on October 1st, 2017 in a planned and staged ambush associated with a fake, staged music concert. The people who are responsible for executing this terrorist ambush attack are the people of the Screen Actor Guild, specifically those SAG members who are employed by Universal Studios, many of them are employed at Universal Studios Tour Theme park in Universal City California. The people responsible for planning, and carrying out the attack came to Josephine County Oregon in very large numbers in the city of Grants Pass Oregon in the days and weeks prior to the event in Las Vegas. I personally witnessed activity in Grants Pass Oregon at the Fred Meyer Department Store, and at a new construction of a Hotel at the Interstate 5, Southbound side, at Exit 58 across the street from L'il Pantry Market and gas station. The Fred Meyer department store was made to resemble the activities that happen inside a large casino. People at the Fred Meyer were dressed in the kind of outfits that Casino employee's wear. There were women wearing casino style cocktail waitress outfits, complete with tray, and items on the tray's, sounding their vocal lines and honing the skills necessary to complete their specific roles in the attack. There were men and women dressed as casino gaming dealers. There were people arranged in a mock game of craps in the grocery store, near the bakery, across from where the hamburger is, at a floor mounted, open top freezer/cooler that measures approximately the same size as a craps table. The cooler is normally used for the display of the meat items that are offered in the advertised sale items of the week. On the day I was there at Fred Meyer, three days prior to the event in Las Vegas, one year ago today, that cooler was used as a mock craps game practice where actors were practicing game play, and were portraying roles of cocktail waitress, casino gaming customers, casino gaming craps dealers, and casino floor security personnel, and they were doing at all as a dress rehearsal in the meat department of a grocery store in Grants Pass Oregon. On  mock roll of real dice at the meat cooler turned craps game, the dice went high and over the side of the cooler, I was there, picked up the dice and shouted "too, tall in the corner, new dice?" and handed the dice to the person playing the roll of dealer. I watched as the next mock roll of dice was made and shouted "Five! Fever! Fever Five!" Someone at the table/cooler, said, in response "we need to write that down". I went by the fake craps game again and shouted "Ten! Ten! The big one on the end!" ... Notes were taken of what I was saying as I passed by. The people at the AM/PM convenience store were also involved, and as far as I could tell, were mostly used as a check-in point. They seemed to be practicing the roles of hotel check-in clerks at the purchase counter of the AM/PM on September 28, 2017, while also directing persons from out of town where to go to report in for a particular event. Also, the AM/PM was more busy than I have seen before with people going in and simply saying who they were, then being advised where to report to. I heard a number of people who had come in to the store and then were directed to that new construction at the Freeway off-ramp. The new construction at exit 58 I-5 South was used as a mock hotel where very, very loud imitation gunfire was being played over an extremely powerful sound amplification and speaker set-up such that the sound of recorded, mock gunfire was coming from the unfinished and ongoing hotel construction parking area. The sound could be heard by those traveling on I-5, as far away as the AM/PM market and gas station. There is more to say. Personal interview would be appreciated, not only by me, but to all who want desperately to regain some freedom. This entry was began as a way to explain that on the 1st of October this coming Monday, the news media are going to be going wild with their celebratory reports of the successful takeover of Desert Springs Hospital in Las Vegas the previous year, and they will be celebrating by reporting the false music concert tragedy that was used to disguise the attack. These upcoming reports will be no less than a party for persons associated with the Screen Actors Guild and especially those SAG members who are also employed by Universal Studios. News media celebrating the acquisition of turf within the Continental USA that is being used to kill and replace the population of the citizens of the USA, and to world travelers alike, who choose Las Vegas USA as a vacation destination. I would like to draw some attention to the way that travelers incoming to the Las Vegas International Airport are funneled by bus, or private car to a central, very large and elaborate place where the rental vehicles of airline passengers can be obtained for use. The car rental facility associated nearby the Las Vegas Airport was designed for slaughter. Be advised, agents who travel by commercial airline will be killed and replaced by actors just the same way the the rest of the USA population is being replaced. Please, pay special attention to the entire way the the LV international Airport is designed, and especially pay attention to who was responsible for the planning, engineering, and construction of the entire way that people are moved from the airport, to the car rental facility. The slaughter was planned long ago. The evidence lies in the planning and engineering, and construction of the car rental a long, long time ago. Please sent help to Josephine County Oregon.

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StoneMan .Warrior - 2018-09-28T18:50:06-0400

September 28, 2018: 3:44 pm: "The Priestess" Lorena Chapman attempting to run me over as I check my mail at my USPS mailbox in front of my home and committing a felony for menacing a citizen while at a USPS postal facility, My Mailbox is a USPS Postal installation and is protected under federal law, as is the USPS Postal customer who owns the box. Zoom In on this one to see what a monster religious terrorist truly looks like.

StoneMan .Warrior - 2018-09-28T20:20:13-0400September 28. 2018: 5:01 pm: I've been thinking about that day at the Fred Meyer and the mock craps game at the meat cooler. The dice had gone over the edge and rolled right to feet... both dice right there on the ground. When I looked around and realized what was going on... Fred Meyer customers gathered around a meat cooler, and a set of dice came out and rolled right there on the ground... It was second nature for me to just shout out "Too tall in the corner...New Dice?" I did not realize at that instant that the people there were actually pretending to play a game of craps, it was just some dice at that instant. It was when I picked them up and then was looking for where they came from... from who, and to whom should I give them too? The notion of the fake game was clear quickly, the one that was there to play the dealer held out his or her hand, I don't remember the individual people, just the large group arranged around that cooler. So, While watching, and shopping, and then watching some more, there came a time when there was a seven. Some one said "Seven Out!", but it was weak, the statement was done like they were embarrassed. Of course, I love to play craps, so after a seven... "New Shooter comin' out!" I shouted. The entire group of people turned around and looked directly at me as if they were all going to jump me. I decided it was all too weird and went on my way to continue shopping. It's too bad that with video surveillance technology being developed and installed everywhere, that the technology is not actually used for security surveillance. If the vast number of cameras installed in the ceiling at the Fred Meyer were actually being used for surveillance, then there would be at least some chance that videos of daily activities in the store would be stored for reference and training purposes later on. I'll bet dollars to doughnuts that whatever videos are kept by the Fred Meyer security cameras, those videos are mocked up depictions of completely uninteresting footage of people happily going about the business of shopping in such a way that it would be obviously fake acting of shopping, and not even close to reality of a busy shopping experience in a grocery store.