#30ish years he was just SOMEWHERE

[thelaurenshippen]

so was anyone going to tell me that the mandolorian takes place over the course of THREE YEARS or did I have to figure that out myself by looking up star wars timeline articles!!?

[misctf]

Age Burner

“Getting older ain’t easy”. My dad would often say that when I was growing up, and like most things your parents tell you, I didn’t take it too seriously. But 30ish years later, I started to appreciate those words of wisdom. I was a college baseball player, the ladies were all over me, and I actually had hair on my head and not everywhere else. But now I can barely throw a baseball around with my son without an ache or pain. And with him about to go off to college and play baseball, it was like he was reliving my golden days.

So with father’s day and my birthday coming up, another great reminder of my age, I decided to get something for myself. I happened across an internet ad, big letters flashing “Age Burner!” Initially thought it’d be some type of scam supplement or something. But I ordered it and a few days later, a small package arrived with a single pill. I had half a mind to throw it out, but I already spent the money. I took the pill right before I went to bed as instructed, and had the best sleep of my life. When I woke up the next morning, I immediately noticed a difference. No aches or pains! My skin felt youthful and firm. No hair anywhere but my head! I ran to the mirror and was shocked- it was like time was turned back and I was my old 19-year old self. I could barely keep my hands off my firm pecs and my abs. I even flexed to show off my guns. It felt so good to be back.  

After some time, I rummaged through my closet and found my old baseball glove, a grin forming on my face. I knew what I wanted to do. I wanted to play ball with my son, show him what his old man was capable of back in his youth. I ran over to his room, excited to spend the day with him when my heart sunk. The man sitting in my son’s bed looked nothing like him: bald, hairy, a small flabby gut sitting between his legs. He looked up at me, a handful of his gut in his hand, too shocked to say anything.

After the initial shock subsided, and my son had two cups of coffee, we went and investigated. The pill does in fact burn away age, almost like a fat loss supplement. But that age had to go somewhere and in this case, it all went to my son. Reversal should be easy enough, he would just need to take the pill too. The problem was the pill was on back order for at least a few months- apparently it was very popular and the company was having a hard time keeping up their supply.

It’s been a few weeks without them taking any new orders, but my son seems to be adjusting well. He’s enjoyed keeping up with lawn care and found himself a construction job. And the other day, he offered to fire up the grill for me and my new buddies from the baseball team. I even came home and found him sipping a beer on the patio and laughing with a few of his new work buddies. I'm just happy he's happy. To tell you the truth, the longer things stay like this, the more I wonder if we’ll want to go back. I for damn sure know my answer.

[tossawary]

I'm fascinated by little overlaps of character experiences in a timeline. In "Final Fantasy 7" as I vaguely remember it, Sephiroth is born in Shinra Manor in Nibelheim. The house has a secret basement laboratory, but people can't really spend months locked inside a house without losing it, so there must have been SOME interaction between the scientists in the manor and the people of the local village.

Like, they would have needed to get food somehow? And Shinra could be delivering all of their food by helicopter or something once a week, among other supplies, sure, but it's also possible that they might have had their food delivered through the village. Over the months or years that they were there, someone must have gone out drinking at the local pub or gone out to buy cigarettes at least once. There are different levels of lockdown that all seem feasible. It's possible that the situation was chill enough that Shinra employees might have semi-regularly gone out to eat dinner in town and simply not talked about what they were working on while out and about (Project S / the Jenova Project).

According to the wiki, Cloud is 21 during FF7, which means he was 17ish during the Nibelheim mission, I think? Some additional materials somewhere suggest that Cloud's Mom was only THIRTY-THREE (33) when she died, so I'm putting him at 17 because that means she would have been 16 when he was born. Which, depending on how old Sephiroth is exactly (wiki puts him at 25-30ish during FF7, which means he's probably 21-26ish during the Nibelheim mission), means that Claudia Strife would have been 7-12 years old in Nibelheim when Sephiroth was born.

It's perfectly possible that Claudia Strife at some point met Vincent Valentine, Hojo, or even a heavily pregnant Lucretia. She was supposedly a precocious girl with big dreams (before apparently becoming a teen mom), so she might have tried to hang around Shinra Manor at some point, and, idk, Vincent on his smoke break might have casually told her to fuck off for her own good. If the Project S people stayed in Shinra Manor for several years, it's very possible that one of the security guards or someone else there might be Cloud's father, who slept with a 15yo local and eventually left when he got sick of rural life. In which case, Claudia Strife might even have had the motivation to belatedly try to record who was at Shinra Manor and when, as part of an effort to find and contact her baby's deadbeat dad again.

(It's also possible that Cloud's Mom paid zero attention to any of the Shinra people back then and knows nothing about them, of course. Small towns are small, but also, sometimes you do the smart thing and just don't go poking around the mysterious corporate compound on the edge of town. That's just none of her business.)

Anyway, I think it's funny that Sephiroth is trying to figure out the secrets of his past, and they (Sephiroth, Zack, Cloud) could have potentially easily learned both Lucretia Crescent and Vincent Valentine's names if Zack had had one (1) conversation with Cloud's Mom. Claudia Strife was around back then as an adventurous young girl! She might honestly know a little something! Cloud, go home and talk to your mother!

[zahri-melitor]

How old are the bats supposed to be?

During which period? There are variations depending on what time period you're reading.

Pre-Crisis? As at COIE, characters are roughly these ages:

Bruce is in his early 30s

Barbara is in her mid 20s

Dick is 19 or just 20 (depends which side of Crisis you put NTT18)

Jason is 13ish years old

Post-Crisis? (1986-2011) This is the clearest and most consistent period, with regular markers of the progress of time. As at Flashpoint, characters are about these ages:-

Bruce is probably 42

Barbara is in her mid-late 20s

Helena B. is in her mid-late 20s

Kate Kane is in her mid-late 20s (at MOST. Her timeline doesn't make sense otherwise)

If JPV was alive, he'd be 25ish

Dick is about 24-25

Cass is 20 years old

Jason is 19 years old

Steph is 18 years old

Tim is 17 years old and probably about to turn 18

Damian is 10 years old

(the middle kids' ages are all based on Tim being close to a birthday. Cass is 6 months older than Jason, Jason's birthday is a month after Tim's. If Tim's a long way from a birthday, Cass may still be 19)

Then we get the New 52 (2011-2016) and everyone's ages are indeterminate but young! This is my best approximation from not enough age markers and the entire period being about a year in-universe.

Bruce is somewhere between 28-32 (deep sigh)

Kate Kane is probably about 28 years old (it depends on how old Bruce is and how old he was when his parents died; she's younger than he is but not by much)

Julia Pennyworth is in her mid 20s

Barbara is 22-23 years old

Dick is 22 years old

Jason is 20-21 years old, and definitely 21 by the end of the period (SIGH)

Luke Fox is about 20 years old

Tim is 16 years old

Cass is an indeterminate teenage age, probably 16-17

Steph is 16 years old

Harper is 16-17 years old

Duke is, you guessed it, 16ish years old

Damian is 10-11 years old

This is why I don't like New 52 ages.

As of Rebirth (2016 to date), the timeline gets about 10-12 years reinserted in it and some sanity in terms of ages and age gaps starts to re-emerge (though it's clumpy and there's a lot of varying indications). At present characters are approximately these ages:-

Bruce is in his mid 40s

Kate Kane sure is An Age. She's probably about 28-30, unless she's in her late 30s/early 40s (look. Kate's age makes absolutely no sense. Do not look at it too closely. Her timeline is not coherent matched against anyone else's, given the requirement she was kicked out of West Point)

Barbara is probably around 30ish

Dick is about 28-30 years old

Jason is probably about 23-25 years old depending on timeline and writing.

Luke Fox? I haven't sussed out what they've done to all the Fox Kid Ages again in the wake of John Ridley's retcons. He appears to be in his 20s right now.

Cass is supposed to be 23-24 years old but may be written anywhere down to 16.

Steph is somewhere between 19-22, depending on if the writers remember she's not 16 today

Tim is probably anywhere between 18/19 (practical lower limit) and 21 years old

Duke is probably still around 17-19 years old

Damian is 14.

This whole section is messy as the only definite age we have at the moment is Damian being 14. It's mostly assumed that ages have returned to the Post-Crisis gaps, except where noted otherwise (Tim probably lost 1-2 years in his age gap to Damian as of Rebirth, as he is definitely 16 years old at the start of Rebirth. Jason seems to have kept a extra year or few in his gap to Tim, rather than it being 2 years)

[malt-rants-and-stuff]

MALT today I was maladaptively daydreaming (as one does) about kghr fantasy AUs and I was thinking... an assassin AU would be neat. But why would one of them be an assassin and how would they actually meet.

This thought process leads to -> what if hirano became Kagi's body guard but all along he's supposed to assassinate him in the end -> wait a minute.. betrayal... I've seen the name of a similar concept somewhere... -> Knight's betrayal??? -> WAIT A MINUTE WASN'T THERE A MALT AU CALLED KNIGHT'S BETRAYAL AU

WHAT IS THE KNIGHT'S BETRAYAL AU, MALT, I NEED TO KNOW MORE NOW THAT I REMEMBERED I'VE SEEN YOU TAG IT BEFORE

okay first of all, that sounds like such a fun au and the timeline between all of your thoughts is hilarious lol

second of all, don't think I've ever actually fully explained what's up with knights betrayal on here oops. that's on me haha I'm used to just letting people guess what my brainwaves mean. I'll try my best to explain!! continuing under the cut :)

okay so the basic break down of knight's betrayal is that kagiura, a child of a famous and well-respected family of knights, spends his days guarding the third prince of his empire (niibashi) after war has broken out on the eastern half of the continent. he was sent there by his family a year prior to keep him away from the harsh realities of battle and has stayed there until now.

hirano, on the other hand, is a different story. having grown up working for a lesser known noble's household and being drafted at an early age, hirano is a talented swordsman forced to retreat from the front lines after being mortally wounded and losing his left eye. he is given a choice by his captain afterwards: either retire early and be taken back to his old household, or work as an inside man to send information back and forth from the battlefield to the palace. stubborn and not willing to return to his old life, he chooses the latter.

this all leads up to their first ever meeting, when hirano walks into the palace where niibashi lives and delivers a message to his staff while kagiura is standing guard by the prince's side. there isn't much to say about this meeting, since afterwards kagi leaves with niibashi while hirano is taken to the medical wing to receive proper treatment for his eye and other wounds he gained while traveling. then they dont see each other for at least another month and a half ^.^

my main thing with KB is that i want it to be short but feel large, so the story takes place over a large span of time and is only about 20-30ish chapters give-or-take? lots of it is still drafts and things probably will change so i wouldn't get attached to that figure but yeah. it is just generally an excuse to write kagihira as two people who seem to be similar but are from such wildly different backgrounds and hold such different views of the world that it leads to them misunderstanding a lot about their relationships and conversations haha. also gay ass knights.

then, of course, there is the betrayal that comes along with knight's betrayal. Obviously. i will say that the politics are a huge part of the story, but kagiura "unreliable narrator who has been sheltered by his family and never been made to see real battle" akira isn't really focused on all of that. he is aiming for his strangers to lovers mysterious bad-boy with golden heart romance and is not about to let things like "lineage" and "suspicious behaviors" get in the way of that. unfortunately for him, hirano has not gotten the memo and will use every opportunity to sniff out strange faces and rumors that hold a little too much weight.

there's plenty of other things too, like sasamiya bakery romance and shirahama starting a great revolt. there's a side story i wrote ages ago that i have to resist spoiling centered around hanzawa the bookkeeper and tashiro the informant. kuresawa and his girlfriend are acting out romeo and juliet across the continent. poor bodyguard ogasawara is trying and failing to keep archivist eimi from lighting things on fire in the name of her sacred tomes. makimura gets arrested for slandering the emperor. everyone is having a bit of fun :>

the exciting thing about KB's story that has me frothing at the mouth though is that it is in the very end a Tragedy. not in a "everyone is going to die" way necessarily, but everything happens for a reason. everything has consequences. everything.

i'm so excited just getting to talk about it tbh! its been such a silly little thing in my mind for the longest time so its awesome to get to share a bit of it :)))

[maymeowmoo]

New episode of Smg4?!?!?!? Well I'm inna writing mood soooooo.... Imma review/analysis and share my thoughts on the new episode >:) ["SMG4:SMG3's BOMB CAFE"] If you're bored feel free to read this overly detailed analysis of a 12:01 minute video! (Actually ~10:30ish)

Analyzing time! ^w^/

Smg3 being so happy abt his lil cafe is very cute. I did not expect Smg4 to be so goddam sassy in this episode but I like that they didn't get rid of their rivalry completely since u know, after so many years it would be odd for it to just disappear even if they have recently been bonding so much u<u

Still I couldn't help but feel a bit odd? Like idk if Four just desperately wanted Three to ask him for help w the coffee or what but DANG was he super into making Smg3's life harder. At 4:49 Smg4 basically goes screw it lets make Three more miserable and invites everyone. Like let bro learn overtime we don't need a Kirby Lunch Rush but with Smg3! Also Four's expressions? Dude is being SILLY on purpose u_u He continues his nuisance charade with 6:22 ("How can you not even have the unicorn frappucino?"). Like dang bro how abt u calm ur sass down and stop provoking Three even more? He does get a clear indication of Smg3's annoyance (8:51-8:52 Smg3 says "Shut up." to Four also stopping him from making another sassy remark) yet still continues. At 9:14 (Smg4:"So you admit you can't run a shop yet?") Four gives his snarky comment and all I can think of is how he intentionally made it harder for Three to run the dang shop. [Note: Tbh even someone who owned a shop would have a hard time with Smg4's Crew lets be fr.] Just like I said at the beginning of this paragraph I am starting to really believe Four wanted to be involved with Three somehow and the only way he knew how is by forcing conflict.

Characterization wise what surprised me is how even after two instances of Three yelling for the others to stop fighting they still continue on. Idk I just feel like they would've listened tbh. They were very... hyperactive I guess? The characters do act kinda like they should but it still felt odd to me for some reason. Eggdog as always has the best characterization tho, man do I like that silly egg thing. Anywho this wasn't the only thing that felt odd continuity wise. I would've thought Smg3 learnt to make proper coffee before he started up a cafe? Especially since he literally lived in a STARBUCKS??? Like I just think he would've idk tried making coffee before opening a cafe even if he didn't make any during his time in the Internet Graveyard. I did make up two explanations for this tho! One is that the dead memes (Specifically the funny lil knuckles) made the coffee during his time in the Internet Graveyard and the other is that he was just too anxiety/adrenaline ridden to make proper coffee. At the end of the day these things aren't huge issues for me but as I said before it did make me feel odd.

Smg4 getting called out for his sass was necessary for me to like this video so imma glad it happened and he doesn't just get away with his behavior. At 9:23 the realization of his silly shenanigans finally catch up to him and that means..... THE SMG34 PART OF THE EPISODE STARTS YEEHAW! Even though Smg4's and 3's confrontation felt just the tiny bit forced to me (probably Four's fault) it was so nice to see them being softer. I also really like how Three doesn't agree to Four's proposal without making some convoluted reasoning as to why this isn't just two pals helping each other out and is actually TOTALLY just a transactional thing. It feels really in character! Oh yeah since I need to put this somewhere at 9:47 Four is like "I want to help" and like... you made it harder and now you want to help? Better now then never tbh ^w^/

Jokes -> The joke at 2:27-2:34 made me chuckle ._. and that makes me somewhat disappointed in myself (You want it? Issa urs my friend is so real). 3:00 is also a joke I liked, it felt very relatable (I struggle with basic human stuff like buttons on a coffee machine also u_u aww man). 3:28-3:32 Decent joke! 4:12 having a Gmod Three bang the coffee machine was good but the sudden Pomni/Smg4 reaction wasn't for me :v (It is good for Au art tho, I've seen the Smg4 as Pomni art hehe ;P ). 5:55-6:05 Nice joke ^v^/ (Smg3 writing '1 jar of poison for Mario' was the cherry on top tbh). 6:29-6:35 just like the joke at three minutes the whole 'operating a coffee machine being like dark magic' is still funny to me. 7:35-7:38 7:45-7:46 the music that plays when the rainbow (acid) coffee is shown is cool. 8:34-8:49 The whole Tari going coo coo joke is honestly pretty unfunny ._. I did not like it :v. 10:44-10:45 'Cleaned up everything!' is such a funny pop up to put here. Joke APPROVED!

Joke wise I think this episode is actually quite solid. The one joke I really didn't like kinda puts it down but ignoring that issa cool ig :D (6,8/10)

Closing statement -> Dude Four on roller skates working at a cafe for Three? THIS IS JUST A FANFIC AT THIS POINT... and I am all for it ;D

[Note: I have no idea why I wrote this but I felt like it sooooo... YEAH! >:3 If you have any thoughts abt this ep I'd love to hear em ;o]

[greghatecrimes]

how old do you consider each character of the show? i believe you mentioned that you don't consider a lot of them canon

A lot of the 'canon' ages seemed to follow the ages of the actors (like House in season one saying Chase was 26-- iirc Jesse Spencer was 26 at the time), but those definitely don't fit in with the timeline it takes to get through med school. From what I've read (and I'm not in the medical field, so this is just going off of what I've read and heard from people who are in med school), it's like this:

-At least in the United States, most people finish their undergraduate degree at 22 or 23. We'll assume that all of the fellows went straight into med school instead of taking a gap year

-Medical school takes four years. That puts the youngest graduates at 26-27.

-Post-graduation, new doctors usually do a one-year internship (putting us at 27-28 by the time that's complete).

-After that, doctors will go through residency (which is 2-7 years of specialized training). After residency comes fellowship. So, if we go with the shortest possible options, the absolute youngest any of the ducklings could be while applying for a fellowship with House is 29.

Anyways, these are my headcanon estimates for the fellows' ages, based on both how long basic med school takes (plus a hand wavy estimate for residency), and the appearance of the actors:

Out of Cameron, Chase, and Foreman, I hc Foreman as the oldest (getting hired in his mid-thirties), Cameron in the middle (hired in early thirties, and about a year older than Chase), and Chase as the youngest (hired at 29-30ish, because of that call from his dad-- and I subscribe to the call from Rowan being him telling House NOT to hire Chase, LOL)

The season four trio: I'd guess that Taub is somewhere in his early to mid forties. I'd put Kutner in his early thirties when he's hired (32-33). And for Thirteen, Olivia Wilde was 24 when she started filming House, so she really has a baby face. Because of that I hc that Thirteen's the baby of the group and that House's fellowship is the first one she applied for after her residency, putting her in my hc's at 29 when she's hired.

Amber, to me, is in her mid to late thirties. 36-37, maybe?

HOWEVER, if you go by how long each residency program takes in real life (which I do not when I write my headcanons and fics, because canon is whatever we want it to be + I love found family/parent-kid dynamics + also a lot of the actors were WAY younger than doctors would be in real life), my estimates would definitely not be 100% accurate.

[slimeknight899]

Chapter 4: Tour De Jubilife

“HAH! Who’s being fussy NOW? Who’s not having good ideas NOW?” In a strange display of childishness, Reno began rubbing the pokéball in Dawn’s face. This was the only win he’d managed to secure throughout the entire day and by god he was going to milk it as much as possible.

Even if he didn’t understand… well, anything, if he was being honest. But he was so willing to stoop down to a lower level if it meant rubbing his victory in the face of some random 15 year old girl he just met all of, like, 30ish minutes ago? He hadn’t been keeping track of time. Time meant nothing to him anymore at this point. He was just completely desensitized to the whole concept of it.

There was no true grasp of morning, day, and night to him. It was just: Breakfast. Work. Lunch. Work. Dinner. Work. Shower. Sleep. Repeat on infinitum. 

“I’d like to see YOU do that! HAH!”

“I did do that. I did that faster than you did. Both Cynthia and I did it faster than you did. You were the last person to catch your pokémon and I’m pretty sure you wasted the most amount of pokéballs too.” Dawn crossed her arms and stuck out her tongue at Reno. He may not have been her brother, but he was sure acting like him right now. It was comforting… in a weird kind of way.

“Ok you don’t have to take the wind out of my sails y’know.”

“I’m just sayin’... I’m just sayin’...” Dawn raised both her hands in the air now, in a type of “just making a point” style way. 

You know, maybe Reno could see some similarities between his older sister and Dawn right now, because his sister would do the same thing to him whenever he tried to show off any win or success he ever had. 

“Excellent job! Thank you! All three of you! Your skills in catching pokémon and your… er, overall determination is something to praise!” The sound of Laventon clapping his hands drew Reno and Dawn away from the spat they were just about to have with one another.

Dawn felt pretty good about the compliment. 

Reno, however, knew that the Professor's praise in regard to their catching skills was directed more toward Dawn and Cynthia, while the words regarding their determination were directed more toward him. Just what he needed right now to really round out the day: A healthy dose of self esteem damaging to really get him in the mood for the rest of the day.

If he wanted to question his own worth, skills, and intelligence, he would have kept his mouth shut with the final review and just stayed in his dorm to suffer in silence. Granted it wasn’t like he knew he was going to be whisked away from his home just because he didn’t want to study. But the hindsight was 20:20. 

Kind of? Getting carted off to another world had to be something that could fall under the “hindsight was 20:20” saying, right?

Man. He needed to get his priorities straight right now because with how often his brain was zipping around to different topics and moods regarding his situation he was starting to get sick. He made a mental note to try and find better stress coping mechanisms than just… pinballing his mind and demeanor around in a weird attempt to make himself comfortable with the cards he was dealt.

Because, newsflash, he wasn’t comfortable, nor did he want the cards he got.

“All of you did a much better job than I could have done, so, for that, I thank you again! I could sing your praises until the Miltank came home! But, I imagine all of you want somewhere to sit down and eat! If you’d be so kind as to hand my pokémon back to me, we can get a move on!”

~~~

“Sing your praises until the Miltank came home!” Reno found the saying to be weird. Mostly due to the fact he had no idea what a Miltank was. Using what little context clues he managed to scrounge up for himself he assumed that creature was supposed to be the equivalent of a cow in wherever he was? The three pokémon he’d encountered undoubtedly shared some visual similarities with animals he knew back home.

Actually, scratch that, only Rowlet shared visual similarities with an animal back home. Oshawott and Cyndaquil were far from resembling normal animals back where he was from.

He blew some air through his teeth, arms folded across his chest as he walked, his mind continuing to swirl with too many questions and too little answers. He didn’t know why he bothered trying to keep up with everything at this point, but a part of him refused to rein control over to the part of his brain that just wanted to go with the flow until more information was presented to him.

He’d never felt so helpless yet so in control at the same time right now. 

A sudden feeling of weight in one of his pockets was the only thing that took him out of his little mental fortress of solitude right now. 

Reno didn’t remember having anything in his pockets prior to all of this. Granted there was a lot on his mind at this very moment so maybe he did leave something in there. Wouldn't be the first time he just shoved something into his pockets with the intent of emptying them back at the dorm, only to swiftly forget the second he walked through the door.

Pulling out whatever was in there, to say he was expecting to see his phone would be a lie. He could have sworn he left it on his bed charging while he continued to work through the review packet. Best to let the device get fully charged and out of the way so as to not distract him.

He also could have sworn that he had a less gaudy case for it too.

Reno was always the simple type of man. All he needed to protect his phone was a bulky, black case should he ever accidentally drop it on the floor throughout the day –an act that, admittedly, happened way more than he would have liked–. 

Now his phone case was on the complete opposite side of that spectrum. It wasn’t bulky, nor did it look like it could protect itself from damage should it ever drop from a height above five feet. No, now it was a lot sleeker, adorned in white and decorated with green jewels and rings of gold. Three protrusions on the top and bottom of the case gave the impression of horns and a tail.

Not his first choice for something like this, if he was being honest, but a tap of the home button and the input of his password later revealed that, indeed, what he was holding in his hands was his phone.

His screensaver was vaguely still the same as it was before: A picture of his older sister and parents all smiling and wearing shades, a beach in the background. The only changes that came to it now was the updated appearance he had currently, and the fact his family's faces were so out of focus and blurry it was hard to tell who they even were.

“Hrm…” He murmured to himself, slipping the device back in his pocket, too mentally exhausted to deal with that can of worms right now.

Maybe later.

Reno trailed far behind Cynthia, Laventon, and Dawn, his pace considerably slower than everyone else. He wanted to call out to them and let them know they needed to slow down, but as Cynthia and Laventon were wrapped up in what he could only assume was deep conversation, he held his tongue and trudged along for now.

Dawn continued to match his pace all the while. If he slowed down, she slowed down. If he sped up, she sped up. If he paused for whatever reason to remove a rock from underneath his foot or smooth out some wrinkles on his shirt? She just stopped and stood there with him. 

“Don’t you have anything better to do right now?” Reno finally found himself asking the girl. Despite the words that had been spoken, he didn’t mean for his tone to come out rude in any shape or form. But constantly being watched and followed was beginning to stress him out, and he didn’t know any other way to impress upon her that he was uncomfortable other than building walls between her and him. 

At this point he decided to just double down and own the stress.

“Are you SURE you’re not my brother?”

“Ugh… Not this again.”

“You walk like him, you talk like him, you look like him, you sound like him, you act like him, you even have that doughy middle section right here!” Dawn pressed her fingers against the side of Reno’s stomach, earning a quick slap on the wrist from him.

“Hands! To! Yourself! No touchy touchy!” Reno made chopping motions with his hands, trying to defer Dawn from getting into his personal space again. The similarities between Dawn and his own sister were becoming more and more glaring by the second. She always liked to invade his bubble too.

Come to think of it… He started to wonder what she was doing right now too. It’d been a few years since the two of them actually stopped to talk to one another in length. But with her being busy with her new job and him being busy with school, finding time to reconnect had been hard.

The feeling of an icy cold hand on his shoulder brought him out of his thoughts and back into reality, “I need the two of you to behave right now… Until we have a place to unwind behind closed doors, I don’t want any more instances out of the two of you… ok?”

Reno saw a frighteningly ghastly look on Cynthia’s face from the corner of his eyes, and he could only assume that Dawn was making the same horrified expression as he was.

“Yes ma’am.” Reno and Dawn said in unison.

~~~

The rest of the walk from the beach to the village was without incident. Reno and Dawn had been promptly behaving themselves just like Cynthia had wished, and Laventon continued to serenade the three of them –though most of the attention was put on Reno– about the history of pokémon and the impact they’ve had on human settlements over the past handful of generations.

Reno couldn’t say he’d been paying attention in full. Though he considered himself too mentally drained to think about his current and new phone situation, he was still finding himself slowly defaulting back to that line of thinking.

The only interesting thing of note he picked up on was that, until the creation of pokéballs, pokémon as a whole hadn’t gotten a proper classification yet. In fact the term pokémon was an abbreviated way of saying “pocket monsters” , because some pokéballs were designed and sized with being slipped into one's pockets in mind.

Given the size and shape of the pokéballs they had been using it was clear this convenience wasn’t taken into account with their design.

“Thank you for your tireless work keeping us safe, my good guardsmen!" Laventon addressed the two guards at the village entrance with a warm smile, which contrasted greatly with the scowls, sneers, and glares the guards gave in return.

So much for service with a smile, huh?

"This young man and two young ladies have nowhere to go, so I hope you'll forgive me for bringing them into the village for a bit!"

One of the guards mumbled something under his breath, while the other just shook his head and stood off to the side, signaling that all four of them were allowed passage into the village. When they crossed through the gate the two guards resumed their defensive positions. 

As Reno walked past them, he couldn’t help but stare back. Their manner of dress was unlike anything he’d ever seen before. Or, rather, anything he’d ever seen in person before. The red kimono-style clothing and the woven hats. He vaguely remembered seeing people dressed in similar forms of outfits in stuff like history books, video games, anime, you name it. 

He also could have sworn he saw this weasel/ferret-looking thing poke out from behind one of the guard's legs as well, watching them enter the village with much intrigue.

“This way, if you please! I’m sure the three of you are weary and looking for some rest!” 

Cynthia gently nudged Reno with her elbow, trying to avert his stares away from the guards and back to the path forward. “It’s rude to stare,” she mouthed to him, adjusting her pace so that the two of them were walking—more or less—side by side.

“Sorry.” Reno mouthed back. 

"Jubilife Village! It's come a long way, thanks to the fine people of the Galaxy Expedition Team! Fun fact! This road we're on now is known to the locals as Canala Avenue." Once the four of them got past the guards and into the village walls, Laventon began to, once again, serenade his new guests with any interesting tidbits of information he could scrounge up regarding their current whereabouts.

This was obviously another item he was passionate about, as he barely paused to breathe between his words. 

Reno didn’t get much of the hype, mostly because his brain had been jumping from completely processing everything that was going on like a normal human being to having absolutely no idea what was going on and internalizing all of his panic by screaming as loud as he could within the confines of his brain.

It was a miracle he hadn’t fully broken down and snapped at this point. 

He’d gotten close to it. 

Numerous times, in fact, but social norms had been beaten into his brain so many times the only thing he could continue to do was tough it out until he had a safe space to spill his feelings. The second he had access to a private space –preferably one that was soundproof– he was going to scream as loud as he could. 

The more stress he could get out of his system, the better.

Cynthia was, quite noticeably, having a blast. She looked like a kid in the candy store, with a sparkle in her eyes and a noticeable shift in her body language. Overall, she just seemed more excited. The sight of such rustic and homey buildings was definitely more impressive to her than to Reno.

Not that Reno couldn’t appreciate fine architecture when he saw it, mind you! He just didn’t see a lot of the hype in it. Mostly due to the constant back and forth with how he was handling everything right now. 

"The village was built scarcely two years ago... There's much to do yet and not many to do it. And since we know so little of the local pokémon, people hesitate to set foot outside the village. That, as you can imagine, makes my team and I’s work all the more difficult. Finding people willing to not only learn about pokémon but interact with them too is rare.” Laventon’s previous good mood slowly began to deflate. 

He quickly rebounded back to his old demeanor when he noticed the others had picked up on his mood drop, “Now, that impressive building up ahead of us is the Galaxy Hall—headquarters for this entire outfit!" The Professor stood slightly off-center from the main street, giving Reno, Cynthia, and Dawn a perfect view of the building he was talking about.

There was no doubt about it. The Galaxy Hall was the crown jewel of the village. It was the largest building in the entire settlement, hands down, evident by it being the only one with multiple floors. It boasted impressive decorations, too, which Cynthia and Dawn recognized as two Magikarp statues on both ends of the building and a pipe system resembling a Galarian Weezing embedded into the wall. Every few seconds, smoke would sputter out of the top of it, just like the real deal.

The one thing that was confusing, at least to Reno, was the symbol embedded in the center of the building, right above the door. The calligraphy was completely foreign to him, making the symbol look like a jumbled, yellow mess of different lines and shapes. He turned towards Cynthia, hoping to get some clarification, but as she looked to be in deep thought as she stared at the symbol, he decided to leave her be. 

Best not to interrupt her when she was thinking.

Dawn… he wasn’t sure how to talk to Dawn anymore, especially with Cynthia threatening them with some unknown punishment if they were to get into another argument together while they were out in public. 

“Some fun facts about this building, too! It was originally founded in…” Laventons words began to steadily drift off into faint echoes as Reno disassociated entirely. Some quiet time was becoming deathly needed right about now.

The copious amount of judgemental and confused stares that Reno noticed he, Dawn, and Cynthia were beginning to get from villagers while Laventon played tour guide only added to his snowballing stress. 

He hated being perceived. 

Sinking away into the deepest, darkest hole he could find sounded pretty good right about now.

“Why is he dressed like that?” He heard one of them say.

“Did Volo always have a sister?” A second person said, referring to Cynthia.

“Such odd clothes…” Said another, the focus back on him.

“Who is that little girl?” One more spoke out, their words fixated on Dawn.

“Were those the three that fell from the sky?”

“They look so odd…”

Reno frowned, grabbing the collar of his shirt and stretching it forward so he could look at it. He had been so focused on the changes to his face and body that thinking about the clothes he wore was put right on the back burner. 

At least one thing about him had remained the same: the outfit he had been wearing prior to his sudden warping to another world. A gray shirt with the letters “StMU” written in blue and yellow was engraved on the center. Following that was a simple pair of blue basketball shorts and the slides he wore around the dorm so as not to get the bottoms of his feet dirty.

Normal attire for a college student –normal if you ignored the sizable hole that the Rowlett made in his shirt–, but probably strangely foreign for people not in that age demographic. Well, maybe the term to use would be the time demographic. Era demographic? The nuances of being in a new environment still had yet to sit in, but he could tell a rustic, old-timey place when he saw it; and the streets of the village were definitely that.

However, he did find it frustrating –and equally embarrassing– that the villagers seemed to be chewing him out in particular. Here you had Cynthia wearing all black and Dawn wearing practically the same outfit as him –just in different colors–, yet he was the only one getting flack for it.

Working to occupy his mind with something else, Reno decided to join the conversation himself.

“Hey, uh, Professor?” Reno cleared his throat, trying to make his presence known to Laventon. 

“This tour has been great. Seriously. 10 out of 10. I would leave you five stars if I could. But, and not that I’m complaining or anything, is there any chance you could take us somewhere a little… uh… I dunno… nuanced? ” He put some extra emphasis on the word nuanced, hoping that his intent behind the emphasis would reach the Professor's ears. All Reno wanted right now was to find somewhere comfortable, enclosed, quiet, and away from prying eyes so he could start working on calming himself down for real this time. Being able to do that wouldn’t be possible when he had an entire community judging him for his choice of weekend wear.

“Oh! Of course! My apologies! Let’s make a stop at the Wallflower, our village's resident restaurant! It’s the perfect place to rest your legs! I imagine all of this walking got the three of you all worn out! Not to mention catching my pokémon for me, too!” Laventon clapped his hands together excitedly. His brisk, relaxed walking speed turned into a power walk before finally hitting what looked like a full-on sprint as he made his way down the village's main road, taking a hard left-right before reaching the Galaxy Hall. He waved to the three of them, prompting Cynthia and Dawn to sprint after him in kind.

Reno, a true contrarian, did not. Simply, he decided to stand in place for a few seconds, baffled by the burst of energy all three of them had presented. Then, he was even more baffled by the fact the three of them started waving at him once they all convened at the end of the road there. Were they expecting him to run all the way over there? 

Yeah. No. That wasn’t happening. 

Maybe those three had enough confidence in their systems to where feeling public shame just wasn’t a thing, but Reno had shame to spare. He practically oozed shame. If you looked up shame in the dictionary, a picture of him would be there; more specifically, a picture of him from his third-grade picture day.

Not to mention, of course, the glaring fact that Reno never considered himself the athletic type. Sure, he considered himself a fit and healthy individual –or as healthy and fit as a young man his age could be on a steady diet of coffee and melatonin gummies–, but he never had the energy to just spontaneously break out into a sprint. 

A crazed lunatic could be rushing at him with a knife, and he still wouldn’t muster up the gas to full sprint away. At that point, being slashed to death would be a favor.

Still, the other three were expecting his presence. So, bottling up as much of his shame as he could, he briskly powerwalked down the main street, his pace turning into a slight jog just so he could get there faster.

“Jolly good pace my dear boy! If the three of you want to grab a seat and wait for me here, I’ll need to report to the Captain that my three runaway pokémon were collected!”

“There’s no way you just made me run all the way over here just to tell me you have to leave.”

[acourtofthought]

Hi! I’m the Gwyn/Eris anon. I was wondering who you think Gwyn’s grandfather might be? Personally, I’m hoping for Eris. I think she might bond with him because she probably doesn’t know him or anything about him right now, so there won’t be any grudges to overcome. And SJM is setting him up to be a misunderstood anti-hero.

Though if Beron is her grandfather, she’s still related to Eris (niece), but I really want her to be related to LoA.

I did see a theory that Eris might be her dad and that Gwyn’s grandfather may not be related to the Vanserras but still lives/lived in the forest house (maybe a lord or one of Beron’s loyal lackeys) and that her mom might have lied about not knowing who their father is because she knows Beron might hurt or even kill them.

Thank you so much for writing me again! And my getting ready to write this response triggered a memory of me already starting a response at which point I just realized I had saved it into my drafts. 😂 It's been that kind of day! I would be alright if Eris were her grandfather (that makes more sense to me than Lucien or Tamlin) and I do think there is a clue that this could be the case (Eris saying he'd be unwilling to give up his firstborn which could simply mean he's just not willing to give that up in the future OR it could mean that he already has a firstborn). The only thing that keeps me from fully being on board is the issue of maturity. I realize these Fae are hundreds of years old but for some reason, I keep relating the males to human age ranges based on where they're at in their lives. Because Rhys just had his first child, I imagine he's the maturity of a 30ish year old. Lucien is younger than Rhys and still doesn't have a real home so I imagine him somewhere in his 20s. Because we're unaware of the LOA having grandchildren, I imagine we'd see her having her first grandchild before Eris. Because Eris reminds me of having the mental maturity of someone Rhys's age and for some reason I can't wrap my mind around him being a grandfather. But honestly, I don't feel all that confident either way. We've been given so few clues and those clues have too many possible. So I feel like anything you've mentioned is still on the table! Thank you again for resending your ask! ❤️

[mistresstaru]

A post about chronic pain

I don’t usually write here, and I know no one will see this, but I need to post everywhere I can about this.

I’m 33 and have been dealing with chronic neck and back pain for almost two years. I’ve tried everything except surgery and drugs. Nothing. Has. Helped.

I’m autistic, and idk if this is an autistic trait, not I’m an all-or-nothing person. I need the pain to be cured. To go away. To be completely 100% healed. Having the pain go from a 7 to a 4 is not a win. Stupid physical therapists think it is, but it’s not.

I’ve been to the hospital 7 times in the past 1.5 years. I have been misdiagnosed with a UTI because doctors don’t know a fucking thing about interstitial cystitis, my other condition that refuses to heal. I have been denied care from neurologists, rheumatologists, orthopedists, chiropractors, and urgent cares. I have been gaslit, lied to, shamed, and bullied by the medical industry.

I cannot wrap my head around the fact that we carry more technology in our phones than a goddamn rocket ship, but they can’t cure pain? They can’t cure literally anything. Pills make you sick, fat, depressed, etc. Surgery is hit and miss. I don’t understand any of that.

I’m convinced that there ARE cures for things, but they have them in a vault somewhere and won’t let us have them. They make more money off of placebo treatments. They’d never actually cure us; there’s no money in it.

Doctors. Are. Shit. I’ve only had one doctor in my life that has been good. All of the rest can go fuck themselves. They do not care about your time. They do not care about your pain. All they want is your money, and since I have none, they don’t care about me. We don’t take your insurance, so we don’t care about you.

My insurance is absolute garbage. Their directory is outdated by 10 years. The phone numbers are wrong, and most of the doctors listed don’t take my insurance anymore or never took it. When I try to call the insurance, I have to go through twenty minutes of a robot voice before I can speak to a real person, which takes 30 minutes more. And guess what? They don’t know what they’re talking about. My insurance also doesn’t let me self-pay for appointments.

It takes too long to see doctors nowadays. There are too many people in the world and they’re all sick. Thanos was right. We need population control so that those who are alive can get care. You have pain? Can’t see a doctor for three months. Need an MRI? Well, it needs to be pre-certed, then certed, then wait a month to actually get it, then see a doctor about it, which is another month. That should NOT be how you do things!

I went to the hospital yesterday because my neck spasmed out AGAIN. The doc gave me a speech about exercise, diet, mind-body connection, etc. He said he’s been where I am and had surgery and it took him three years to recover from that surgery. He said opioids and weed aren’t the answer, either. So what the fuck am I supposed to do then? I can’t do the exercises I used to do and my antidepressants give me carb-cravings. I’ve done PT twice, saw an osteopath, tried reiki, crystals, exercise, TENS, patches, creams, pills. NOTHING WORKS. Oh, I get it, you want me to ACCEPT my pain? Well guess what, that’s NOT going to happen! I’ve accepted SO MANY OTHER AILMENTS in my fucking life: tinnitus, IC, acne, bad vision, being 30ish pounds overweight, and being short. Now, you want me to accept a herniated disc that not only hurts my neck, but my back, arms and legs as well? I can’t accept that. With IC, I’ve already had to cut out so many things that I love to eat, HEALTHY foods like pineapples, tomatoes, vinegar, soy, and chocolate. Now you want me to just eat lean meats and vegetables for the rest of my life? Not. Happening.

And I can’t stand up for myself. All I can do is cry and hide in my room like a baby. I can only stand up for myself in writing like this, so I write scathing reviews online. That’s all I can do. The US medical system needs to change. Why aren’t we doing anything about it? WHY? I’m in so much pain, and I know you are too! So how do we fix it? How do we make it right?

[litt1efreak-520]

"Once upon a time we used to be friends." (Pt. 4)

You (Y/N) and Harry used to be friends during the first few years of high school. Then the reality of it hit. Now it’s your senior year and at a party you both finally reconnect.

You can read Pt. 1 here!

Catch up with Pt. 2 here!

Pt. 3 out now!

Warnings

- just the usual swearing!

A/N: This one is going to be a bit of a short one! Sorry, this is kind of rushed and I’m currently half asleep writing this so hopefully I will fix it and make it a little bit more interesting soon! Enjoy! :)

~*🌸*~

"Thank you, Harry.”

It was a silent ride home between you and Harry. Niall, of course, was really the only one talking. Even Louis had decided to tag along for the ride home, sitting in the back with you. You didn’t know him as well as you knew Niall, but after today you decided that he was fairly nice as you guys talked about soccer for 5 minutes straight. Harry, however, kept his eyes on the road. He had been quite silent for the whole ride, and even Niall and Louis seemed to pick up on it, though they tried not to let it show.

“Yep,” was all Harry said. “And what time would you like to be picked up tomorrow, Y/N?”

You roll your eyes at the amount of subtle distaste and sarcasm in his voice. It was a very hard distinction to make, but you knew him well enough to know.

“6:30ish is fine,” you chirp, playing along.

You pull out your phone and set a reminder before switching to your contacts app, ready to call your dad.

“Alright. Bye.”

Before you and the boys have a chance to dismiss each other, Harry begins to drive off. Asshole, you think to yourself, even though you knew it wasn’t true. If anything, you were the asshole. With a sigh, you decide to just put your phone in your back pocket until you get into your house. You make your way up the cobblestone path leading up to your house and fumble with your keys.

“Hello?” a muffled voice suddenly says. “Y/N?”

You look around, confused. Why was the voice muffled? Where was it even coming from?

“Hel-lo?” the voice repeats. You feel a vibration coming from your back pocket. As you retrieve your phone, a wave of embarrassment floods over you: you accidentally called Harry.

“Harry?” you croak.

“Y/N?”

“I called you by accident. Sorry.”

You can hear Louis and Niall chuckle in the background, which makes you smile a bit.

“S’Alright. Just hang up.”

Your smile soon fades.

“Why can’t you?”

“Because Y/N, I’m driving—”

Right. You forgot.

“—so will you please hang up?”

“Fine.”

“Thank you,” he mutters.

You hear the clatter of a phone and come to the conclusion that he must’ve either dropped his phone or placed it down somewhere. Just as you are about to hit the big red ‘hang up’ button, Niall takes in a sharp breath.

“Well,” is all he says. “That’s tough lad.”

“Yeah, you’re telling me,” Harry chuckles deadpanly.

You should hang up. You really should.

“Jesus, the tension was so fucking thick you could cut it!” you can hear Louis exclaim.

You mute your mic. You know it’s wrong, but was it really eavesdropping? They just don’t happen to notice that they’re still in a call and there’s nothing you can do about it…

“Tommo,” Niall laughs. “I hate to break it to you, but it’s been like that for a while now. Ever since Y/N got those friends of theirs.”

“That’s one word for them,” Harry mutters. “Interesting word choice, Niall.”

You hear Louis sigh. “I don’t know. Y/N seems pretty nice. Proper lad. Not like those fucking plastics.”

“Give it time, Louis,” he replies softly. You can sense the pain in his voice, no matter how soft it is as you close the door to your room. “That’s what I thought too.”

With a sigh, phone in hand, you reach behind your vanity mirror with your free hand and pull out a photo from your junior prom. Goofy Photo-booth photos of you and Harry. When you guys were best friends. Inseparable.

“Yeah, Tommo,” Niall says. “Ever since Y/N said—”

You finally hang up, clutching the photos in your hand tighter. You don’t want to think about it. You don’t want to think about the real reason why Harry has been so hostile towards you. You place your phone down on your vanity, grab the photo of you with your friends sticking out from the mirror, and place it next to the Photo-booth photos in your hand to compare the two. In comparison, you looked… miserable with your friends in the photo. The three of them were grouped together and you were just kind of there. As if you were invading their group. You looked alienated being in front of them with a smile as the 3 of them sexily posed in the background. Then you looked at the Photo-booth photos. Silly, fun, genuine smiles from both you and Harry. No sexy poses. No alienation. Nothing. You were just best friends taking photos together because you wanted to, not because you had to as a way to stay popular or relevant. Tears start to form in your eyes. You open your Instagram and scroll through your few posts, trying to look for the other PhotoBooth photos. Then, you find it:

liked by harrystyles, __diana.m__, niallhoran and 134 others

yourusername junior prom <3

@ harrystyles @ fionaa @ madelynxoxo @ ellie_1434

View all 30 comments

fionaa miss this!

harrystyles who’s that handsome devil

↳ yourusername 🤷🏻‍♀️

kaylee_p u look so good!

brandon_13 r u guys dating

ashley8906 ur so hot y/n

↳ yourusername all you <3

You laugh to yourself about how short Harry’s hair was. What’s even worse is that you realize how much you both have changed. The only thing that’s changed about him is his hair. His kindness has stayed the same, his humor, everything. As for you… well, you finally realize at this moment that everyone is right: you did become a plastic (though you don’t want to get into it; it’s a long story, you think to yourself). Somehow, some way, you lost yourself. And your best friend. You didn’t want to think about the past; maybe you would confront it another day, or even tomorrow. As you wipe a tear from your eye, you decide you want to focus on the future. Focus on bettering yourself and fixing your relationships. You sigh as a teardrop falls onto the photo in your hand. You hate to say it, but after interacting with him these past few days, you miss Harry. You miss your best friend, and seeing him look at you in that dull way was like a punch in the gut to you. You want to fix things, and you want to fix them soon. Before college. Before life puts you on your separate courses. You want to fix things before you screw up so bad you lose Harry for good, but part of you wonders if you already did.

[stellarwaffles]

Plot Twist I finished s3 of TMNT 2003 today and man do I have a lot to say.

warning: this post is going to be long. I watched 14 episodes today somehow

- ok so I didn’t watch the cristmas ep today but I just wanna say real quick. If they were waiting on Mikey for hours why didn’t they call him? He has a phone

- anyways the first ep I watched to day was The Lesson

- *flashback montage of Master Splinter telling the turtles not to go to the surface*

April: so what did you guys do?

Leo: oh we went to the surface immediately

- how did young Casey not notice the turtles had green skin + 2 fingers? How does no one ever notice that?

- Angel :)

- it’s nice to see her again

- Bejing is still floating in the sky?? I had thought it was lowered back down to earth when New York was

- Karai :)

- oh Professor Honeycutt isn’t dead

- wait the turtles didn’t know the underground ancient civilization was Atlantis?? I thought they knew?? I thought they already outright said that

- ok so I watched these episodes today. But I watched 14 of them. So I don’t remember which episode some things happened in :/

- how old is Renet? I feel like she’s about the turtles’ ages given how she looks + acts

- ^ she just kinda gives off the general vibe of being a teen

- so the Draco-Ultimate Ninja fusion thing was. Uh. Well, I didn’t expect that

- hmm I can’t think of anything to say about Hun on the Run, but it was a neat episode

- ok so now for episodes Reality Check - The Real World pt 2

- um. What the hell

- I.

- skshskshsjshsk

- first off Ultimate Draco or whatever they’re called is not pleasing to look at, but I think that was the point. So good job to whoever designed them, they’re really ugly

- aight so Mikey was just saying how he loves comics + superheroes and then he gets sent to a dimention where he + his brothers are superheroes

So Mikey is having an awsome time! Good for him! When Ultimate Draco sent them to different dimentions I was worried they were all going to have horrible times

- Raph had been working on his motercycle and he gets sent to a dimention w a planets-wide motercycle race

And he gets to ride one of the motercycles! And wins 2 races! So Raph is also having a good time, good for him :)

- w hat the f u c k.. .

- so Donnie seems to have been sent to a dystopian future where everything sucks instead of a different dimention

- what did Donnie do to deserve this :(

- I. Ok but like genuinely. Is he traumatized now?? I feel like that would be a traumatizing experience.

- one second he’s at home w his family + the next second he’s in the ruins of his home + Mikey lost an arm? + it’s been over 30 years?? + the Shredder has taken over the world?! + Master Splinter, his dad, is dead. + Leo and Raph got into a worse fight than usual and both decided to go solo or something. + Raph is missing an eye?? + Leo has tons of scars + the world is just in general a disaster. + so he wants to try and make things better. So he reunites his brothers and makes a plan to take down the Shredder. And so they attack the Shredder. + then Mikey dies. + then Leo dies. + then Raph dies. + the plan succeeds, the Shredder is defeated, but all his family is dead. They won but he’s the only one left. His brothers lie on the battlefield, dead. And then suddenly he’s standing next to his brothers, the same age as him again, alive and just how he last saw them

- like?????????? I thought this was a kid’s show what the f u c k?????????????????

- also he had no way of knowing he’d be brought back to his time. As far as he knew he had to live in that miserable future forever with all his family dead and himself 30+ years behind

- like. Excuse me????????? Someone please get him some therapy :(

- I just. Like. You can’t just go through that and then be fine afterwards

- ok moving on to my thoughts other than Donnie Needs Therapy Now

- Karai had fully grey hair which makes me think she’s somewhere around 60 in this episode, does that mean she’s 30ish in the normal episodes??

- the wiki won’t tell me how old anyone is so I have to guess for everyone :( the only ones I kinda know how old they are is the turtles bc they’re teenage mutant ninja turtles, it’s literally in the title they’re teens

- please get Donnie some therapy

- I don’t think I will ever recover from this episode

- also apologies for the swears, I just cannot comprehend this episode

- this episode was really dark.

- moving on because I do have thoughts on the rest of the episodes

- Leo gets to go to Usagi’s dimension + visit his friend :)

- absolutely wonderful for Leo! He gets to hang out with his bestie and fight bad guys! All in all a good experience :)

- Usagi’s dimension is kinda saturated. This might just be compared to the battle nexus one, but I thought it was interesting

- Leo is why his brothers were glitchy in their episodes! I had not thought that was why

- so can Ultimate Draco shapeshift then? And what happened to the real Gyuji (I think that was his name)? He had fallen into the portal, too

- what happened to the Daimyo?

- ok I think that’s it for those episodes. So now the last 3 of the season

- I think it’s safe to say I hate Bishop

- literally what the shell my dude

- is he human? That’s a genuine question, he doesn’t seem to be human.

- ok so. Could they have theoretically had Donnie + Professor Honeycutt secretly mess w the spaceship so that it’d like. Explode or stop working or something once it reached space so that the Shredder wasn’t on earth but also wasn’t a danger to every other planet. Or would that be too risky + likely to fail?

Just wondering ‘cause I kinda thought they were gonna do that at first

- the Shredder literally told Karai about his Very Evil plans to take over the galaxies and murder innocents. Karai, bestie, please tell me you can tell he’s evil

- it looked like she stabbed Leo in the gut, how was that his shoulder??

- so.. remember how just the other episode Donnie saw all his brothers die? Well, Leo just got stabbed and then proceeded to lie unconscious on the ground for several minutes. I feel like that’d be kinda terrifying

- just saying. Please give Donnie some therapy

- so. If the Shredder directly caused millions of innocents to die. Wouldn’t he get the death sentence?? Like. I don’t know what crimes get what punishments but I was pretty sure that if you on purpose got millions killed then you got the death sentence. Is it so that the Shredder can come back again later?

- Karai, bestie, I get he raised you. But did you miss the part where he causes millions of people to die? Also he’s not even dead.

[bonesandthebees]

There’s more cool worldbuilding in the conversation too. Phil is proud of his city, his empire. He built it. There’s foreshadowing too through the entire chapter because they keep staring out the windows. So upon realsing that Wikbur has never really seen his planet and how beautiful it is, Phil decides to take Wikbur on a little field trip.

The guard is surprised to see them and to hear the destination. So I’m going to assume that there’s always at least one train waiting and it’s not on Phil called. Unless she’s surprised that Wilbur is there, but she’s also surprised at the cave 4. So I’d say it’s not a place Phil goes a lot.

Anyway, they go to a small cave 2 tunnels away. It’s one of the first caves they dug out (probably the fourth cuz cave 4) and they dug for minerals using bioluminescence. That’s so cool. Also, they dug by hand? Or like manual? And they way Phil says a long time ago makes me feel that all the other miners are dead? Of like, everyone expect Phil and Puffy. Was Techno there? How long does Puffy’s species live? Also, it was one of the first, so I’m assuming a long time ago is like 34 years ago when the empire was formed. Or is that classified as later? Like 34 years ago is when it became and empire. I have a lot of questions but it is very cool.

Anyway, onto the last ask of the Phil and Wilbur conversations.

-🌲

yup the train car stays there at all times. it's just kind of there in case phil or techno ever need to go anywhere. there's usually a lot of trains going in and out of station during the day, but at night they have one hang around just in case. that's why the guard was surprised. and cave 4 isn't somewhere anyone really visits a lot. it's an empty mining cave, so people haven't been there in a while because there's no reason to go to it

they had a mix of machines and hand digging! mostly automated mining machines that were controlled by miners, but then when they reached the recesses of the ice, they would dig parts out manually to ensure they didn't damage unnecessary swaths of ice.

and by a long time ago, that really doesn't mean that long. it's like you said, he means before the empire was formed which really wasn't a long time ago (30ish years like you said). also puffy's species tend to live longer than humans but not as long as elytrians! you'll get more details about the miners later :) also, I'll answer one thing and that is no, techno wasn't there

[my-never-ending-nightmare]

08/09/2022

At this point I’m pretty used to having bad days at work but yesterday tested my commitment to this job (as well as my patience) unlike any other has before. My employer is this government subsidized/operated non-profit that is responsible for getting disadvantaged people to & from their medical appointments – people who would otherwise lack the means to get there themselves. So I’m basically somewhere between an overpaid taxi driver and a chauffeur. And I spend a lot of my time with people suffering from various physical & mental disabilities/illnesses so my overly sensitive & emotional ass find’s it to be rather overwhelming at times; although nothing has been as challenging as what I was subjected to yesterday.

I only had one drive scheduled for yesterday. One that should have been completed by 5pm - meaning I I’d be able to get home sometime around 5:30ish. So I had made plans to game with a friend of mine at 6pm, which is just about the only thing that I have to look forward to these days. But once I arrived at the scheduled time to pick up this client that timeline began to get derailed entirely. It was supposed to be this youngish single mother and her 6 year old son that I was picking up from social housing in one town and then taking to a doctor’s office in the city – but once I got there this woman asked me if we could take her teen daughter as well because she also had an appointment. I’m not supposed to take anyone that isn’t on the itinerary (insurance reasons) but I decided to make an exception because I didn’t feel like being an asshole… which turned out to be a mistake in the end because as soon as the 4 of us were on the road this woman said to me “oh, and by the way we’re going to have to be there for an extra 30 minutes to an hour for my daughters appointment.”

Oof.

It was at this point that I started getting agitated. I was already having a bad enough day because it was a miserable, overcast & dreary sorta day – and summer days like that always give me flashbacks to last summer when I accompanied my best friend to the vet when she had to put her poor dog down. I just wanted to be at home so that I could shoot the shit with my friend and more or less just turn my mind off for the evening… but that wasn’t going to happen now since he had told me that if I wasn’t online by 6 then he was making other plans. So all of this was going thru my mind as we were driving along but, simultaneously, I also was getting barraged by the voices of 4 different people all at once. The young boy was more or less talking to himself while his mother was in the seat next to me talking to her friend on the phone (which she had on speaker) while her daughter was behind her trying to talk to me. It was a long drive.

I got them there to the doctor’s office with only about 5 minutes to kill before their appointment – but instead of heading straight in this woman decided they had time to take a walk down the street to Starbucks. This only annoyed me further because if they were late for their appointment then that would mean I’d be even later getting off work. It felt like my time meant absolutely nothing to this woman. And I was getting annoyed because it felt like she was acting like she was the one paying me and that I worked for her. So I left and went to get something to eat because it’s less easy to be angry when you’re not hungry lol. I returned to the office at the scheduled pick up time even though she had told me that it would take longer because I hoped that maybe, just maybe, they’d finish up earlier than expected – and I wanted to be there ready to go if they did.

That was my second mistake.

Because right on time this woman and her son came out and hopped in the car – without her daughter in tow. “She’s going to be awhile,” I was told – “and sorry about him, I got him a coffee so he’s really hyper.” So now I had this 6 year old boy practically bouncing off the walls behind me (she hadn’t strapped him into his booster seat) with her seemingly oblivious as she was once again on speaker phone with her friend while sitting next to me upfront – and all I could think was you bought him a coffee!? I was doing my absolute best to just tune it all out and go to my happy place but it was hard because they both kept jolting me back to reality when she’d say things to her friend like “I just need a drink/I just need to drink more” or when her son would start going ballistic behind me – kicking my seat and smacking the back of my head with his hands. It got so bad that I just got out of the car and stood next to instead. But by now it was pouring rain – and I didn’t have a rain jacket on so I was absolutely soaked & freezing by the time this woman’s daughter had finally come out.

It was the daughter who finally strapped her brother into the booster seat while her mom continued to be oblivious to anything other than the conversation she was having with her friend – and once she had done so we were finally back on the road. As soon as we hit the highway though this woman finished her call and instead started directing all of her attention towards me – and I kid you not for the next 40 minutes she tried her utmost to get me to make plans to go over to her house this weekend while I did my best to politely refuse. And keep in in mind this kids still kicking the back of my seat the whole way. Eventually we were back at their house but by now I was soaking wet, freezing cold, highly agitated & working way later than I was supposed to be. And I was in a really bad mood because of it all. It turned out to be nothing that a 3 hour drive in my personal car couldn’t clear from my head… but still, it got me questioning whether or not this job is for me. And I started to think that I’m not even really sure why I’m doing it anymore.

Like, I know why I took it – it’s the only job that I could think of that would have made it possible for me to make a relationship work with someone that I love. But long story short now the person I love is thoroughly committed to a relationship with someone that they don’t love. And I’m thoroughly committed to a job that I don’t love, either. Everything about it has just been frustrating the hell out of me lately – from the reasons I took it right down the amount of hours that I’m working. When I started I was getting a lot of 8 – 12 hour shifts that always had me up at the crack of dawn but lately I’ve been lucky to get a 5 hour one. It’s all driven by demand for the service, and right now demand has been pretty low - which means my spirts have been rather low, too. It’s not even a money issue because I get paid for being on call just the same as actually being on the road – it’s a time issue. I’ve had way to much free time lately. And depression plus free time doesn’t equal anything good lol. It feels like no matter how hard I try to pull myself out of the pit of despair that I’ve put myself in it’s just not enough and that life finds a way to shove me right back into it. It’s incredibly frustrating. And it can make me bitter if I’m not careful.

But I haven’t given up.

And I’m not going to give up, either. Because as miserable as my life is at the moment I know it can get better – but it’s only going to get better if I keep trying to make it better instead of rolling over and accepting defeat… as tempting as it may seem. Like, sure I took this job for all the wrong reasons and there’s other things I’d rather be doing – but at the same time it’s all I’ve got right now. But it doesn’t have to be all I have forever. Although I can think of worse things to get paid to do than sit at home shitposting on tumblr lol. Idk. I just keep telling myself something that a client said to me last Friday in one of those moments where it felt like the universe was trying to communicate to me exactly what I needed to hear, exactly when I needed to hear it.

He was the only client I had scheduled for that day. When I had arrived to pick him up he came out looking all agitated, saying “I don’t know why they sent you so early so just wait 10 minutes” before going back inside. He was an older guy, probably in his 50s. And when he was finally ready to go I quickly realized that it was going to be an excruciating drive. He just would not stop talking – literally. It was nonstop, and he had the energy of a child rather than that of a 50 year old man. But the worst part is when he decided to start picking my brain by pulling up trivia questions on his phone and barking them out to me one after the other for a good 30 minutes before he decided he was satisfied with my knowledge of the world – but then for the rest of the ride he was asking me his own questions in order to figure out how I knew so much lol. It was exhausting. But after his appointment the drive home was much better. He had calmed down a lot (I kinda suspected that he had needed that 10 minutes when I had arrived to rail lines of coke) and instead of him barking questions at me we were actually having a conversation about things instead. Nothing about our personal lives or anything, but rather just common interests. And I was genuinely enjoying his company at that point. So I was kinda sad when we got back to his house knowing that I was now done work and would once again be alone – but then out of nowhere, right before he got out of the car, he did/said something I’ll never forget.

He handed me a $20 dollar bill as a tip – one that I tried to decline but he kept insisting, saying that I’m smarter than any of the other drivers he’s had and a better driver than any of them, too. So eventually I took it and thanked him profusely for it – but all he said in response was “keep your head screwed on the way it is and remember: don’t let anger get a hold of you - if it feels like life is being unfair to you then you’re probably doing something wrong.”

I’ll never forget those words. It was like he had been able to read my mind and know exactly what sort of thoughts I’ve been struggling without me ever having expressed them – but he also knew the antidote to those thoughts as well. And last night it was that antidote that saved me from myself as soon as I recalled what he had told me: don’t let anger get a hold of you - if it feels like life is being unfair to you then you’re probably doing something wrong. Well, I know what I did wrong yesterday. I said yes to something that I really should have said no to. And I started to let anger get a hold of me.

Now if only I could figure out everything that I’m doing wrong lol

At least I know everything that I’m doing right, though. And for the time being working this job (despite how much it sucks) is part of it. Focusing on the things that make me happy is another. Things like the fact that I'm getting paid to write this - and pretty soon I'll be getting paid to pay Microsoft Flight Simulator as well lol

I've been so helpless when it it comes to my depression. But I can take ownership over my thoughts. I can make my head a good place to live. And I can accept the fact that everything that happens, for better or worse, is what I deserve. If I want the sort of life that will make me happy then I have to earn it.

Like I said, I haven't given up. and I'm not going to, either. Even on the bad days.

My heart simply refuses to.

[nerdwaifuu-stories]

The Proposal

Happy (belated) Ninjago Oc Day! Ik I haven’t posted much on this account, but I figured it would be the perfect time to post something about my OCs.

Ig some basic info:

Word count: 4,966

Oc basics: the main two are Hisashi and Emon. Hisashi was a samurai/soldier who I have made Ronin’s (dead) uncle. Emon was a criminal who worked for Chen (although Hisashi doesn’t know about that. He just knows that Emon has previously done crime in his youth), but started to lose interest over time due to several factors. Another oc that’s mentioned is Lex. They are a friend of Hisashi and Emon’s, and they are actually an Oni.

Summary: Taking place roughly 25-30ish years before the Ninjago series, Hisashi is coming home from a mission. Since he and Emon have been together for some time, he figures it’s time to take it to the next step. He is one ring purchase and a ship and train ride away from trying to reach that next step.

If you want to know more about these characters, there’s some stuff on my art account @nerdwaifuu-art.

Hope you enjoy!

Cheers rang through the village as they saw the group in green armor entering the village. The soldiers marched through the middle, many with a look of victory on their faces contrasting the scuff, dirt, wounds, and exhaustion their bodies presented: all a worthy cost for a village's safety. Eventually their march and the cheering stopped as the chief approached the group.

"Oh great heroes, thank you! Thank you for saving us from those fiends! We will never forget what you have done for us! May the Creator bring you prosperity!" The chief cheered. Once he spoke his last word, the crowd of villagers' cheer erupted again, echoing the chief's message. From there, the chief and the captain went off to chat and the rest dispersed throughout the village. Some made their way back to the ship either to rest or prepare for the journey back to the city. Others remained in the village to chat or to explore. Amongst those exploring were two young men: a stout, short dark brown haired chatterbox and a long dark copper haired, silent listener. The two strolled through the village as one chatted away and the other listened while glancing at everything they passed.

"I wonder if the captain saw our hard work out there."

"Mhm."

"I mean we were kicking butt out there."

"Mhm."

"We should probably go to the medics to get our backs checked from how much carrying we were doing..."

"Mhm."

The stout man slowed his walk as he placed his hand on his friend's shoulder, "Hisashi, you good? You're quieter than usual, and it’s hard for you to be quieter than you already are..." He paused before he threw himself on track to a ramble, "Anyways, you just seem out of it."

"Yeah... Uh, yes, yes I'm fine, Shiro," Hisashi stumbled, "My mind's just on, uh, other things."

"Oh? Other things? What kind of other things?" Shiro questioned.

"You know... other things..." Hisashi kept scanning the surrounding stands and buildings.

"No, I don't know other things. How about you introduce me to them?" Shiro coaxed.

With a sigh, Hisashi stopped his mini search and said, "I'm just looking for some gifts..."

"Forrrr?"

Hisashi paused for a second, then said, "For my nephew-"

"Ah, why didn't you say so? No need to be so secretive with me," Shiro smirked, "C'mon, let's go find him something. One of these shops should have something he'll like" Shiro kept his hand on Hisashi's shoulder as he started to lead him. Hisashi resisted the push and said, "Actually, I know what shop I want to go to... I just need to find it again..." He looked around once more and then there it was: a small wooden stand run by a middle aged woman. The stand was covered with an assortment of items: jewelry, weapons, metal decorations, toys, metal sculptures, etc. He saw it the first time he arrived at the village and knew he had to stop by it.

"There it is," Hisashi took the lead and pulled Shiro with him as he approached the stand.

"Ah, hello boys~ Do you see anything you like?" The woman greeted them.

"My friend here is just looking, but I do see something I like," Shiro said, shooting a smoldering look towards the woman. The woman giggled and the two continued to chat (or Shiro commanded the conversation and continually bragged about himself). Meanwhile, Hisashi looked at the items. His eyes kept being pulled towards the actual reason that he wanted to come to the stand in the first place—a set of two matching rings sitting in a wooden ring box. Both were made up of a thick metal band that had a space cut in the middle where the gem was, making it appear as if the gem was floating. On the band, on either side of the gem, was a dragon carving colored gold. One ring had a black tinted band with a white gem while the other had a polished, silver finish and a black gem.

The woman noticed his interest in the rings and, once Shiro had taken a short pause, she shifted her focus, "I see that you've found something you like." She picked up the ring box and placed it in the middle of the table. Shiro shot a confused look at the woman and then at Hisashi.

"Oh, sorry, I was just looking at them. They're very beautiful," Hisashi admitted.

"Haha, no need to apologize for looking at what I'm selling, but thank you. My husband's... well, my late husband's father made them," the woman sighed, "Honestly the story is quite sweet. He came to this village and set up a blacksmith shop. A woman came into the shop one day and he fell deeply in love with her. He expanded his skills from weapon making to making small metal trinkets to give to her—" the woman glanced down at some of the other items at her stand before continuing, "She loved every single one and returned his love. Eventually, he decided it was time. He went into his workshop and began on his favorite project. The next time anyone saw him leave his shop, he went directly to the woman, took her somewhere nice, and proposed with these rings. She wore one and he wore the other..." A small smile formed on her face as she looked back at the rings, "Then they passed it down to my husband to use with me, and now here I am trying to sell them," she sighed, "I have no use for them now, and, even though I'm probably making some people roll in their graves, I need the money..."

"Awww, yeah that is really sweet. It's a shame you don't have a lady friend back at home, unless you and that Lexi girl have something~" Shiro teased Hisashi. Hisashi rolled his eyes. 'That Lexi girl' he referred to was Lex, but Hisashi only saw them as a friend. Instead, he had his eyes on someone else; someone else that he deeply cared about; someone else that he actually had something with.

"Plus we're here for your nephew. I don't think he'll have any use for these rings," Shiro reminded him.

"Um, right, of course..." Hisashi watched as the woman placed the rings back to their original spot.

"Oh, a nephew? Is he into metal work? Or I'm assuming he'll like the toys if he's young or the weapons perhaps?" The woman asked.

"Ah yes, a 5 year old who's into metal work-" Shiro quietly snickered. Hisashi shot a quick glare at him.

"Oh, he's quite young, scratch the weapons then," she chuckled.

Hisashi looked around the table some more and decided on one of the small metal figures and an old pocket watch.

"Ah, I'm sure he'll enjoy that," Shiro muttered sarcastically when he noticed the pocket watch was no longer ticking.

"He likes taking things apart and making new things, so yes, he'll probably enjoy this," Hisashi defended his choice.

"Is he trying to be an inventor?" the woman asked.

"I believe he does have an interest in becoming one. He's been fascinated with all the technological changes going on in the city. I don't understand it, but at least he's getting prepared for the future," Hisashi answered, starting to take out his money for his purchase.

"I forgot Ninjago City was going through all that. All the beautiful wood and clay buildings being replaced with tall metal buildings... It's insane."

"Yeah..." Hisashi and Shiro nodded along. While Hisashi searched for the right amount of money, he noticed that the remaining soldiers started to make their way back to the ship. He glanced back at the rings and turned to Shiro, "How about you head back to the ship while I finish up here?"

Shiro nodded, said his goodbye to the shop owner and left. As soon as he was out of earshot, Hisashi turned back to the stand and asked, "How much are the rings?"

The woman stated the price and said, "So you are interested in them after all?" Hisashi nodded as he took out the right amount of money for the rings, the figure, and the pocket watch.

"So is this for someone or just keeping it for yourself?" The woman wondered.

"I have someone at home waiting for me—"

The woman leaned forward, her eyes sparkling with interest. Before she could ask any questions, with a soft smile, Hisashi whispered, "I met h- uh, this person a while back and now we've been together for 5-6 years now... I figured I should do something special..."

"And decided it was time?" The woman asked at the same volume as him, with a large grin on her face. He nodded.

"Well, I hope the Creator blesses you both," she said, exchanging the items for Hisashi's money. He said his thanks and started to head off to the ship.

"Goodbye, may the Creator bring you prosperity and may the Great Serpent protect you on your journey!" The woman called out.

Hisashi turned around and asked "Great Serpent?"

"Oh, do people in the city not know this story?" Hisashi shook his head, so she explained, "According to some stories I've heard, there's a serpent that sleeps deep in the sea. She apparently used to rule the sea and was the reason for the waves and the storms, so people used to pray to her and give her offerings to keep her happy. Unfortunately that's all I know from the top of my head, and it's all probably just a story."

"Huh, sounds interesting. Thank you," Hisashi said before departing.

Laying his bed, Hisashi could feel the ship rock back and forth and hear his roommates chatting instead of sleeping, excited to be one step closer to home in the morning. But none of it blocked his focus on reading. His brain refused to let him sleep as the nerves have finally got to him. He had a ring in his possession, and he was hopefully going to give it away once he got to the city. To try to calm himself down in the safety of his bed, he took out some letters he got in the past few weeks. Each one started with "My Dearest Sai," and ended with "I can't wait to see you again. Love, Emon Sharma."

It was odd to think that these letters used to be closed off with a "Sincerely" or a simple "From," and "Love" was never a closing he had seen until 5 years ago. Even though it's been years, Hisashi's heart still flutters when he sees the word in Emon's handwriting. It still feels like such a new feeling, especially when he never acknowledged that such feelings could exist in him when he was growing up. Even when his brother tried to describe them when referring to himself and his now wife during high school, Hisashi never understood. Now he did.

After rereading each of the letters, he held the paper close to his chest. He tried picturing everything that Emon described. He tried remembering each random ramble that he sent him that Emon responded to. He silently laughed at the idea of him trying to make sense of everything Hisashi tried telling him. If he tried sending similar letters to anyone else he knows, they would just skim through everything and ask about how he is and how's work, avoiding to say "please tell me more about this random thing you learned ." Emon would be one of the only people who would say that.

The chatter in the room quieted down and the remaining lights started to disappear. With a sigh, Hisashi caught one more glimpse of the contents of the letters before it went completely dark.

"I can't wait to see you again. Love, Emon Sharma."

He softly smiled, folded the letters, and placed them under his pillow.

"I can't wait either..."

"Ah finally, land!" Shiro exclaimed once he and Hisashi got off the ship. Carrying their stuff (armor, weapons, supplies, letters, etc.), the two swerved their way through the crowds of people. Fellow soldiers were pouring out of the boat, being welcomed by their loved ones, going to a nearby inn or bar, or already beginning their ways home. Hisashi looked around at who was there, but he knew that his loved ones were in the city, which was a train ride away. He smiled at the thought of coming off the train to them, and clutched the ring box that hid in his pocket.

"Are you sure you don't want to stop for a drink? Or even for a snack?" Shiro asked, following his 6 foot friend to avoid getting lost.

"Yeah, I'm sure. Gotta make sure I catch the train," he said, glancing back to make sure Shiro wasn't too far behind.

"But the train's not going to leave for a bit," Shiro said, puzzled.

"I know, I just..." Hisashi trailed off and stopped in his tracks, leading to Shiro bumping into him.

"Oof- what's going on?" He asked, but got no answer. Shiro looked past Hisashi to see what was ahead, but it didn't click due to so many people being around. It wasn't until he saw two people: a short, medium tanned, black haired man with a scruffy beard and a towering, brown-skinned, short brown haired (hidden under a hat), female presenting person. The man noticed them and started to wave, then stopped and started approaching quickly while dragging his companion with him. Hisashi gripped the hidden ring box tighter as he started walking to lessen the distance. Once he was within a foot of the man, the man threw his arms around Hisashi and nearly lifted him off his feet within the first few seconds of the hug while saying, "It's so good to see you, Sai!"

"Woah, easy Emon. No need to break me," Hisashi chuckled, wiggling a bit to loosen Emon's grip and free his arms. Once they were free, Hisashi returned the hug and pulled Emon close while Emon buried his face into Hisashi's shoulder. Hisashi wished he could stay in this hug forever. He also wished he could just give Emon a big kiss, but he had to wait until they were in private; until they were in the city...

"Wait a minute—" Hisashi pushed Emon out in front of him, keeping his hands on Emon's shoulders—"What are you guys doing here?"

"Lex and I just figured that you deserved a welcome party as soon as you arrived," Emon confessed.

"And Emon really missed you and wanted to see you as soon as possible," Lex added.

"Yeah, that too," Emon chuckled, nervously rubbing the back of his neck. A smile stretched across Hisashi's face as he tried to hold in a laugh. His hand left Emon's shoulder and almost caressed his cheek, but he then remembered Shiro was watching from behind and they were surrounded by other people. He slowly pulled his hand back and hid it back in his pocket, trying to ignore the longing look in Emon's eyes. He then said, "Thank you, I missed you so much too. I couldn't wait to see you again..." Emon responded with a soft smile.

"Well, I missed you guys too," Shiro barged in, now standing next to Hisashi.

"Yes, it's good to see you, Shiro," Lex mumbled.

"I thought you would be much happier, Lexi," Shiro snickered. Lex's eyes were shooting daggers, but they tried to hide their gaze behind the brim of their hat as they said, "We best be going now. Don't want to miss the train." Before anyone could say anything, Lex had already turned around and started towards the train station.

"Ah what a shame. I wanted to talk with y'all more," Shiro sighed, "Well, see y'all back in the city tomorrow!" After an exchange of goodbyes, Shiro disappeared into the crowd.

"Well then, let's go," Emon said, linking his arm with Hisashi's. The two then followed behind Lex, trying to keep up.

"What was all the hurry about Lex?" Emon asked them.

Lex turned their head away from the train window and said, "Just didn't want to get stuck in one of his rambles. You get him talking and you'll probably end up hearing too much about what happened during the mission. I'm just not in the mood to hear how he 'sliced one man's head off' or whatever."

"That's fair," Hisashi said, also looking at the passing land outside the window. He was there when all of it happened, and he didn't need to hear about it again. He only wanted his mind on one thing and one thing only.

"Speaking of which, how was the mission?" Emon asked.

"Oh, just a typical mission. The thugs were playing hard to get for some time. Fortunately, we stopped them before anything too bad happened, and we didn't have many major injuries this time around. Just some scratches here and there," Hisashi answered quickly. He took one last look out of the window before sitting up and facing Lex and Emon on the other side of the table, saying, "But, despite the mission, the place we were at was very lovely." Emon leaned closer, interested to hear more.

"It was a small village by the ocean. Whenever we had a break, it was so calming to be on the white beach and just listen to the calm waves. And the village was really lovely too. It was filled with small shops and stands, and the people there seemed nice. They were very welcoming and always closed the conversations with something about 'the Creator' blessing you." Hisashi said. Lex perked up to full attention towards the end.

"The Creator? Like the creator of the town?" Emon asked.

"Or the Realm..." Lex muttered quietly, but, when they got confused looks from the two men, they said, "World. I mean world."

"Oh right, that makes more sense," Emon chuckled.

"Yeah, they often referenced them, but I guess they have plenty of other stories too. Before I was leaving, a nice woman at a shop said something about a Great Serpent—" Hisashi then recited what the woman had told him. Both Emon and Lex were leaning in close to hear every word. When Hisashi finished, Emon, with excitement in his eyes, and Lex, looking like they wanted to say something but decided against it, looked at each other, then back at Hisashi.

"Woah, that's so cool! Bet that was fun to hear about right before getting on a ship," Emon snickered.

"Yeah, but it's merely just a story," Lex uttered, leaning back against the seat, "Nothing to worry about."

"Have you ever heard of it?" Hisashi asked them. Lex hesitantly nodded, "All I know about it is the same as what the woman told you..." Hisashi could tell that they knew more, but he didn't want to force anything out of them. He could probably try finding a scroll or a book with more information.

"Anyways, overall the place was really nice. If we didn't have work and other stuff to deal with, I would say we should go there sometime," Hisashi said, mainly glancing over to Emon when talking. The idea of just leaving the city, getting on a ship, and sailing somewhere to explore sounded so pleasant, especially if it was with Emon and even Lex. He would even want to take his nephew once in a while. Just the 3 and sometimes 4 of them on a ship, seeing what the world offered. But their lives didn't allow for that. Hisashi had soldier duties to take care of while Emon and Lex had their own responsibilities, and there was just too much they would be leaving behind. Maybe one day in the future it could become a reality.

"Yeah, that would be nice," Emon said, smiling. Then the table went silent. Lex went back to looking out the window while the other two sat silently. Hisashi started to fidget with the ring box in his pocket, only bringing back the nerves. He looked up at Emon and could see he was shifting in his seat, shooting glances at both him and Lex. He wondered what Emon could be so nervous about.

Lex turned their head and sensed the nervousness sitting next to them and across from them. They shot a "say something and get it over with" look at both Hisashi and Emon.

"Sai—"

"Emon—"

They both paused and tried continuing, only further interrupting each other, "Sorry, go ahead—no you go ahead—no I didn't have anything to say—no please, I interrupted you—"

With a sigh, Lex barged in, "So, do you guys have any plans for today?" The two paused and looked at each other, waiting for the other to say something.

"I heard the weather is going to be super nice today. Maybe you guys can go to the park," Lex suggested.

"You are such a mind reader. That was what I was going to suggest," Emon said.

"I was actually going to recommend the same thing," Hisashi nervously laughed. He's so glad that he wrote Lex about what his plans were, or he would've just chickened out and waited to do it.

"Hah, perfect. Maybe we can get some lunch too. You're probably starving. I know I am," Emon said with a grin.

"Sounds good," Hisashi replied with a soft smile. He turned to Lex and mouthed the words "Thank you."

They smirked and mouthed back the words "You're welcome."

"Man, no matter how many times I come here, I always forget how good the food is," Emon exclaimed as he finished paying for the food. In defeat, Hisashi watched the check and the money leave. Him and Emon literally went back and forth about who would pay the bill only to find out that Hisashi had left his wallet at home due to him rushing to get ready and look nice for the day, so Emon came out victorious.

"I claim to pay the next check," Hisashi uttered while they got up and left the café.

"Haha, we'll see if you remember your wallet next time," Emon snickered, "Although it's not like you to forget it at all. Are you feeling well?"

"Yes yes, I'm fine," Hisashi chuckled, "Just adjusting to being home that's all..."

And just being a big ball of nerves, he thought to himself. At least he had the ring with him, or his whole plan would have gone down the drain because of one silly mistake.

"How about you though? You seemed nervous on the train," he asked Emon.

"Oh, uh, yeah. Um, yeah I'm good now. It was just being on a train. Y'know I don't really go on them," Emon said. Hisashi raised an eyebrow, but decided not to  further question him.

The two continued to chat as they walked towards and into the park. Circled by the new skyscrapers, the park sat at the center of the entire city. Full of green hills and growing trees, it was one of the few areas of nature in the city. It was still a work in progress as workers were busy with putting in new buildings, benches, and pathways, but it was still a nice place for a stroll and a proposal.

The two walked through the park, chatting and enjoying the scenery. While listening to Emon, Hisashi scanned the area, trying to find the best area. It needed to be a private area with no one around, but also needed to be a beautiful area.

All of a sudden, Emon grasped Hisashi's hand and said, "Come with me, I know a good place you need to see." He then started leading him up one of the hills, looked around, and then continued pulling him along. Down the hill, across some of the grass, and up a slightly taller hill. Once they reached the top, Emon stopped and tightened his hand around Hisashi's, looking out at the view of the entire park.

"Wow," Hisashi marveled at the view. It was beautiful... and there wasn't anyone else around... it was perfect.

"I know right. I came here all the time when I was younger. When I had no where else to go, I would just come here..." Emon's grip loosened, so Hisashi gently pulled his hand away and backed up slightly. He pulled the ring box out of his pocket and took a deep breath as he went down on a knee. This was it. It was time.

"It's crazy to think that I've come all this way," Emon continued, still looking at the view, "I used to come here as a young thief just trying to survive. That's all I thought my life would be until the day I died. But you've changed that..." Hisashi watched Emon go grab something from inside his jacket, but he couldn't see what. "...You've shown me that there's more to my life. Life is not just about trying to get by. It's about learning and experiencing new things. It's about love. It's about so much more than I know, So, I took you here in hopes that I can leave the lonely, barely living thief behind and enter a new chapter of our lives. Hisashi Arima, will y—" Emon turned around, about to kneel down, but he stopped halfway. In his hands was a long, wooden box with a black finish, kept shut with a golden latch. He quickly stood up and hid the box back in his jacket, his eyes not leaving Hisashi. He ran one of his hands through his hair as his face started to flush red. "Sai, I— oh my god..." was all he could say.

Hisashi sat there frozen, unsure what to do. He had planned this for weeks, but now everything just jumped out of his brain.

"Were you about to propose..."

Emon lips formed an embarrassed smile as he quickly nodded. Hisashi's mouth hung open and he looked down at the ring box, unsure what to say. Should he just try to stick to his plan or let Emon continue?

"Forget about me, go ahead," Emon whispered, gently pulling Hisashi's chin back up.

"Um, well," Hisashi cleared his throat and took a deep breath in, looking into Emon's eyes. They had a sort of calming aura about them now. Hisashi's lip curled up slightly as he gathered his words.

"I guess to play off what you've said, you have changed my life as well. Before I really got to know you, I probably seemed like a stone cold guy whose only purpose was to work until he no longer could. You have added more purpose to my life... so much more purpose. And, despite trying to understand everything, love was never one I could get a grasp of. Now I feel like I know at least a tiny bit about it from the past few years, and I'm willing to learn more with you. Emon, I love you so much. I will love you until the day I die. Even beyond death, I will always love you..." Hisashi took a pause, trying to catch his breath from speeding up towards the end without taking a moment to breathe. During the pause, he decided to open the ring box, resulting in a quiet gasp from Emon. He glanced up at him to see the reaction. His smile was bigger, but was being slightly hidden behind one of his hands. His calming eyes started to tear up as he looked up from the ring to Hisashi.

"Will you... would you... uh..." Hisashi started, but his mind was back to blanking out. Improvising clearly took all his brain power. It was his turn to blush red.

Emon chuckled, took Hisashi's one hand that wasn't holding the box, and asked "Will you marry me?" Hisashi couldn't help but laugh along as he quickly nodded. Emon then took the polished silver ring and slipped it onto one of Hisashi's fingers, and Hisashi put the other one on Emon.

"By the way, that was my line," Hisashi joked as he gave Emon his ring.

"Technically it was supposed to be mine," Emon said before pulling Hisashi up and into a kiss with his arms around his neck. Once they both pulled away, Emon held Hisashi close and rested his head against his shoulder.

"I love you so much Sai, and thank you for the ring. It's absolutely as beautiful as you are..." Emon said, then remembered his proposal gift. He let go of Hisashi, grabbed the box, went down on his knees, and held the box up.

"This is what I was going to give you... I hope you don't mind it not being a ring..."

Hisashi took the box from him and unlocked the latch. He lifted the lid to find a ornate dagger inside. It had a pale green jade hilt with silver sheath decorated with floral motifs and pale green and red gemstones. He gently picked up the dagger and unsheathed it to reveal a silver, double edged blade.

"This is beautiful," he said in awe, sheathing the blade and placing it carefully back into the box.

"I'm glad you think so. As soon as I saw it, I figured it would be a perfect gift," Emon said, smiling.

"It definitely is. Thank you," Hisashi said, giving Emon a quick peck on the lips.

"Well, should we get out of here and start the next chapter of our lives?" Hisashi asked.

Emon took a hold of Hisashi's hand and said, "I'm ready whenever you are."

They took one more look at the view, and Hisashi started to lead Emon.

"Let's go."

[dravania]

After some 20-30ish trust runs, the boy is finally mine! I did almost nothing else today but run the 87 dungeon, my eyes... burn... (Spoilery silly self-indulgent headcanons beneath cut.)

In my timeline, there’s about a month after the Scions return from Ultima Thule before everyone heads out and leaves the Rising Stones. I’m saying roughly, a month after THAT, Ahru is camping out under the stars somewhere when she awakes abruptly, sensing something, acting on fight or flight instinct and grabbing the approaching, slithering thing. And that’s how she met... this guy.

There’s definitely something... strange about him. Reminds her a bit of that shoebill that’s always peeking up in the weirdest places. My self-indulgent headcanon is that while Emet sometimes peeks in on WoL as the shoebill, and Hyth pokes around as the axolotl, Hermes has ended up here, but is much more... stuck.

(Honestly, Arshadaya is going to have a field day teasing him when he sees him and figures it out. Ahru has suspicions, sort of a ‘instinct’, but it’s not like she can see souls or anything. But oh god Arsh is gonna be living it up. To think the Convocation banished him into a lesser form all those years ago and now he gets to see Hermes like this- anyway.)

He’s become a permanent fixture, wrapped around her shoulders like a scarf (or hiding under her scarf, when she’s wearing one). Also, the bandana he’s wearing is imbued with an enchantment that helps regulate his temperature in all sorts of climates. I do imagine him a touch smaller too, I think, just a bit more similar to Baizhu and Changsheng.