#And I know that math doesn't math. So maybe people are wrong about the number of chapters?

[oveliagirlhaditright]

I wanted to ask this in an ask in case you wanted to post it for others, but how long is Slayers, roughly? (or exactly, if you know) I'm very bad with audio books, podcasts, etc and I can't find the actual length on the store page to judge whether or not I can sit through it.

It's eight hours. It may be a few more minutes than that, but not by very many.

IIRC, I think people have said it's eight chapters long? And at first, the chapters are about thirty minutes long, then you get to forty minute ones, and then the last few are an hour each (the last one being a few minutes longer than an hour).

Hope this helps!

[foone]

The way it works is it's a surgery to make you immune to a bullet.

Note, that's not the same as being immune to bullets. You're only immune to a single shot: if someone shoots you twice, you're dead.

You can take the surgery again, though. The only real limitation is that you gotta wait 2-3 weeks between each time. But if you've got the money and the time, you can be as bulletproof as you want.

It doesn't "refill", by the way. Often when the surgery is explained people think it's like "a bullet a day" or "you can get shot once a year" or whatever. Nope! Once you've been shot it's just like you never had that surgery to begin with. If you want to "refill" that immunity? You have the surgery again.

No, there's no upper limit to how many times you can go, that we know of at least. There's one guy in Florida who has made it "his thing" to get the surgery as often as he can. He's currently up to about 50. Obviously there's some people online who've said they're gonna shoot this guy and lower his "record", just to be countrary.

Anyway I'm sure there'd be people who have even higher numbers (anyone who has "getting shot" as a major occupational risk, ie, politicians, soldiers, cops, and anyone doing any kind of residental survey in rural areas), but they only invented the surgery like three years ago, it's just simple math: you can't do much better than that guy.

The invention of the surgery hasn't done much to decrease gun sales, though. I mean, there's been a slight increase in people buying guns with larger capacity, for what I'd consider obvious reasons.

I did see an article suggesting that in the long run it might end up increasing the sale of guns. See their analysis is that two factors are going to drive up gun ownership:

1. People will be more willing to shoot at trespassers and thieves and such, because it'll be more like a warning shot: if they have some immunity, it won't be murder. So far that hasn't really happened as not that many people have the surgery yet. Although it's spreading fast, only major cities have surgeons trained in it, and often waits for surgery can be months long.

2. Conversely, people are going to be more likely to break in and rob and trespass if they know they can't be shot dead for it, because they got the surgery. There'll be a minor uptick in home invasions and such and this'll cause a big predictable panic among middle class homeowners who are now terrified some hooligan is gonna break into their house to steal their iPads. Thus they go throw money at security systems and cameras and guns.

So who knows at this point. If the cost (in both time and money) comes down, maybe it becomes super common for people to be so effectively invulnerable to guns that there's really no point in owning one?

I do agree with the common consensus that this is going to drive a big increase in crimes committed with knives and such. Why take a risk that your target might be immune?

Which reminds me of another thing to clarify because sometimes people online get this very wrong: it's only for bullets! You are not immune to getting hit by a car or poisoned or set on fire. Don't walk into traffic or anything, jesus.

Oh one last thing: there is a blood test that can tell if you have immunity, but it can't tell how many times you've had the surgery. You gotta figure that out yourself: so ask your doctor, search your emails, something. Every day I'm hearing from healthcare workers saying someone came in to get the blood test and it had to be explained to them that we can't tell how much protection you have: only if it's there or not. And I feel like a fool for having to say this, but REMEMBER to subtract any times you've got shot! (if you have been) Obviously!

EDIT: In light of recent events, people are sharing this post and arguing about it a lot, but let me be clear: grazes and small cuts do not count! The exact dividing line is too complicated to explain here (look up "circulatory shock" on Wikipedia), but basically if you don't end up with a big hole in you, the shot doesn't trigger the immunity.

That's how it works: you could have an ear blown clean off, and you'd still not trigger an immunity. So please stop spreading that idiotic conspiracy theory that a former president didn't have any immunity. You can barely run a high-school without being required to have immunity to hold the position, because what if someone shoots you? Come on! Of course he has immunity.

For all we know he's got some prototype experimental shit they use on president's that got him up to 200 in a couple days. There's endless rumors of the DoD funding billions in black budget items to that sort of thing, because of course. Who wouldn't want a way to make bulletproof soldiers? You don't think the soviets are pouring even more into it?

[thebearmage]

One Mistake (is all it takes)

Five Hargreeves x GN!Reader

Summary: When Five's harsh words and temper causes Y/N to run head-first into danger, the man learns the hard way that words can sometimes be more deadly than actions.

Warnings: Angst, HEAVY angst, blood, violence, Five being sad

MASTERLIST

It had been a hard day.

You and Five were working hard, trying to think of any and everything that could stop the apocalypse.

Five was standing on his, scribbling numbers onto the walls messily. You sat at his desk chair, reading over a few papers.

You are smarter than most, which is something Five admired, so, even though he's only explained the math a few times, you mostly understood what he was trying to do.

"What about this equation?" you say, gesturing to a line on the page you were holding, "It doesn't look right,"

"No, that one's fine," Five says, scratching his neck.

You sigh, "Sorry, I'm still wrapping my mind around all this. I honestly think we're going about this in the wrong way,"

Five stops and slowly turns to you with an incredulous look, "Wrong way?" he hisses, "We're trying to save the world, Y/N! What don't you understand?"

"I understand your reasoning, Five, I really do. But I fail to see how killing this random ass person might stop the apocalypse!"

Five blinks, before scoffing, "I really thought you understood this! That you were smarter than this!"

You sigh, trying to ignore Five's heated tone, "I do understand, I'm just trying to help,"

"Well, you're doing a lousy job!" Five snaps, "I only ask one thing of you, Y/N! Did I ask you to battle a monster? No! Climb a mountain? No! I only ask one simple thing and you can't even do that!"

Your eyes widen and fill with tears. Five doesn't seem to notice, he turns away and throws his hands into the air, "Of course, what did I expect! Messing up is all you can do! I mean, honestly, how can you possibly be this useless!?"

You gasp softly, tears finally running down your face. Five doesn't turn to look at you, shaking his head and mumbling angrily.

You put the papers down and leave, not bothering to look behind you. You rush down the steps of the Academy, ignoring the way Allison calls out for you, or how Luther asks what's wrong. You flee the building, out into the cold pouring rain and you start to run home.

You fail to notice the two assassins following you.

Cha-Cha and Hazel had failed to kill Five, so they were given a new objective; Kill Y/N L/N. You were special, even if you didn't know it yet. You were a key factor in stopping doomsday.

Five spent the rest of the day rattling his brain for any ideas. Luther had convinced blackmailed him into not killing anyone, so he had to come up with a new plan.

He had seen you storm off. He knew his words were harsh and maybe unnecessary but his frustration was getting the better of him. He also knew he needed your help. None of his siblings seemed to understand, but you did. You always did.

Sighing, he blinks to your apartment building. Putting a hand into his pocket, he knocks on the door.

"Hey! Anyone there? It's Five! I need to speak with Y/N!"

Nothing. Five blinks, eyebrows furrowed. He clicks a few buttons to be buzzed in, "Hello!?"

Nothing again. Five runs a hand through his hair and curses under his breath, "Fuck it,"

He smashes the window and unlocks the door from the inside, "Hel--"

His greeting dies in his throat. All over the lobby was blood. On the floors and walls, everywhere. All he could see was blood.

Five gasps, horrified. There were clear signs of a struggle; dents in the wall, broken decorations, pictures scattered on the floor. There was even a body in the hallway.

"H-Hello?" Five slowly takes a step inside, body slightly shaking. He's felt fear before. He's lost people before. But this...this terror...this was pure raw panic, overwhelming his body and mind. He wanted...no needed you to be okay. His voice shakes, "Y-Y/N!? I'm here! Are you there!?"

Suddenly, there's a shadow behind Five and he whips around. It's Cha-Cha, with a knife.

"No!" Five thinks, panic turning into fury as he ready for the fight, "Not until I find them!!!!"

———————❖———————

Cha-Cha lies dead on the ground. Her own knife plunged deep into her chest. Five pants heavily, eyes wild as he slowly gets up off the body.

He turns and runs deeper into the building. There was no sign of Hazel or the team's briefcase.

"Coward must've taken it and run off," Five spits, before turning back to the task at hand.

Five climbs the steps to your floor, counting the bodies as he goes.

...9

...12

...17

Second floor, more bodies.

...23

...25

...32

He finally reaches your floor, feet pounding down the hallway to your door.

"32 people dead. They didn't want any witnesses, they wanted them all gone!"

He finally reaches your door, dread pooling into his already queasy gut when he sees it open...kicked open.

"Y/N? Answer me!" He calls, running to the doorway. He freezes when he sees your apartment. It's worse than the lobby.

"Y/N!! I chased them away!" Five calls desperately, "So please answer me!"

He rushes into the room, looking around wildly. When he finally rounded a corner to the hallway, his heart stops.

"N-no,"

You were lying on the floor, covered in blood, a pool of it under your prone body.

"Y/N!!!"

Five runs over to you, dropping to his knees next to you, "Hey! Hey! You're okay! It's me! It's Five, hey!"

You slowly blink open your heavy eyelids, "...Five?"

"Yes, it's me!" Five gasps as he pulls your body into his arms, blood soaking his clothes.

You were bleeding out, he needed to get you to a hospital, or the Academy.

"Hold on!" he tucks you into his arms and goes to blink.

Nothing happens.

Five's eyes widen in horror, "No..." he tries again, "No, no, no!"

The fight. It had drained him too much. He was already stressed and that messed with his powers too.

"Nonononononono!"

Five presses his hands to the wound, "Come on! Please!"

Someone from the upper level hears his cries and comes down, gasping in horror when they see you.

"Call 911!" Five screeches at them, "Call anyone! Please!"

The person rushes away, and Five turns back to you. You cough weakly and grab his arm.

"...Five..."

"Save your strength!" Five barks, "Stay with me!"

"...Five..." you try again, "...hey..."

Five turns to you, and you are shocked to see tears running down his face, "What?"

"...don't blame yourself..." you whisper, "...okay? For me?"

Five sobs, "No! Don't say that! You're going to live!"

You smile brokenly, "And here I thought you were smarter than that,"

Five turns his head as he hears sirens, and he smiles hopefully.

"They're coming!" he shouts, "They're coming! You're going to be okay! You're going to be-"

He cuts himself off when he looks down at you. Your eyes are closed and your hand has gone limp on his arm.

"Y/N?" He shakes you slightly, then harder when you don't respond, "Y/N!"

You don't move. Five's breathing becomes ragged as more tears spring to his eyes.

"...No..." he chokes out. A shaking hand slowly pushes some hair away from your face, "No, please,"

Five pulls you to him, tucking you under his chin as he rocks back and forth, "My...baby...my...my..." Five buries his face into your hair. His entire body shook with his sobs. His wails of agony could be heard floors both above and below.

"Don't leave!!!" He howls, "Don't leave me alone!!! Don't leave me alone!" he turns to the doorway, "Someone help!!!"

Five lets your body drop to the floor so he can bury his face in your chest, holding you close, "Don't leave me!! I can't lose you!! Please! Open your eyes! Stay with me!!!"

Five could hear footsteps. He looks at you, his face twisted, "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry!"

Hands grab onto Five and start to pull him away from you, he kicks and screams.

"NO! NO! LET ME GO!"

Paramedics rush over to you as the person drags Five further away,

"NO! I CAN'T LEAVE THEM! LET ME GO!"

"Shhhh," A voice gently shushes Five, it's Diego, "It's okay, it's okay! The paramedics are going to help Y/N, it's going to be okay,"

Five could hear the pain in Diego's voice, and Five can only watch as your limp form is carried away.

———————❖———————

Is everyone okay? Here! *Hands you all a box of tissues* There will be a part two, I promise! Also, requests are open! So if you have a request, you can send 'em to me!

[dearchloe]

little learning time: homophones

All characters are 18+

Today, let's talk about homophones!

That's a big scary word, isn't it? But it's nothing to worry about! A homophone is just a word that sounds the same as another word, even though it looks different and has a different meaning. Can you think of any examples?

Here's one! We and wee are homophones!

We is a word that's used to talk about yourself and other people together! For example:

"We need to talk about your potty habits," Mummy told Lily.

You see how here, Mummy is talking about herself and Lily?

Wee is different! It's what makes your nappies all warm and soggy sometimes! Or if you're super big and your mummy trusts you not to make a mess, maybe you do your wees in the potty. For example:

"I didn't wee on the floor!" Lily argued.

You see how here, Lily is talking about wee as an action she 'didn't' do? That means it's a verb, but we haven't learnt about those yet, so don't worry! Wee can also be a noun. We did learn about those. Do you remember what they are?

That's right! They're words that name a certain thing. For example:

"Did you do a wee in the potty, Lily?" Mummy asked.

Can you remember how to pick all the nouns out of this sentence?

It's important to know about some common homophones because if you don't, you might use the wrong word, and then your sentences won't make sense! Your mummy might even think it's just baby babble!

Look:

"Wee need to talk about your potty habits," Mummy told Lily.

That doesn't make much sense, does it now?

There are some super important homophones that are really easy to get wrong! Shall we learn them?

The first set of homophones come as a three! Can you count that high?

The words are to, too, and two. Let's take them one by one.

To is a word we use to show direction and movement. We could say that Mummy went to the nursery, or Mummy gave the bottle to Lily. Can you tell what's moving in each sentence?

Too is a word that means 'more than the right amount'. We could say that Lily was too little to use the potty, or Lily's nappy was too wet to last the night. You could remember this one by thinking that it has too many Os — more than both the other homophones in the set!

Two is a number! How are your maths classes going? We could say that Mummy has two little girls, or that Lily did a number two in her Pull-Up. Pee-yew! You could remember this one by thinking that the W in the middle is like two Vs stuck together. Or is that too complicated for little brains?

You should also know the difference between there, their, and they're!

There is a word we use to talk about places! It means 'in that place', or 'at that point'. It can also be used to say that something is present. We could say that the potty is over there, or that there were lots of nappies for Lily in Mummy's bag. You can remember this because the word there contains another word that we use to talk about places. Can you spy it? The word is 'here'! Why not write out the phrase here and there a few times? I'm sure that will help you remember!

Their is a word that we use to talk about things belonging to other people! Remember when we talked about nouns? Their is a word that describes who a noun belongs to, and that means it's a type of word called an adjective! But don't worry about that too much, we'll learn about adjectives another day. We could say that Lily and Katie loved their Mummy, or that when Lily tried to be big, Mummy and Katie rolled their eyes. How do you think we can remember this one? Would you like to come up with your own rule?

A rule that helps us remember something is called a mnemonic! Can you say that word? That's ok, it's a very tricky word for little mouths! Maybe it would help if you took your dummy out?

Remember, their is a word that you use to talk about things belonging to more than one other person! You can also use it to talk about things belonging to your nonbinary friends or caretakers, if they use they/them pronouns! It's super important to be respectful of other people's identities when you talk about them.

Now let's talk about they're! See how it has an apostrophe in the middle? An apostrophe is a special mark that does lots of different jobs, but in this word, it's telling us about something called a contraction. That means that this word should have extra letters in it! Can you guess what letters?

They're is a contraction of they are! See how the a of are has been taken out, and the two words have been joined together? Because this is a phrase that gets used lots and lots, people have come up with this shorter form to make it quicker to say and write. We could say they're both getting their nappies changed, or they're going to bed early.

This one is super easy to remember! You just need to look at your sentence and decide if it would make sense to replace they're with the words they are.

Do you want to try it?

Let's take this sentence from earlier, Lily and Katie loved their Mummy. If you got a little bit confused and wrote Lily and Katie loved they're Mummy, you could use this trick! So the sentence would say Lily and Katie loved they are Mummy.

Does that make sense? No, I don't think so either! So now you know that they're isn't the homophone in this sentence!

They're is used to talk about what two or more people are, or what a nonbinary person using they/them pronouns is! If you're talking about a single person who uses he/him, she/her, or other pronouns, you have to use a different contraction. Some examples are he's and she's.

Do you know about homophones now? Are you sure? Let's find out!

Can you choose the right homophone in the following sentences?

Lily and Katie are to/too/two confident about there/their/they're potty training.

The to/too/two of them decide they don't need there/their/they're nappies any more.

They think they can make it to/too/two the potty every single time.

There/their/they're not right about that, are they?

They take there/their/they're nappies off when Mummy isn't there/their/they're.

Lily and Katie are really to/too/two little to do this, though!

There/their/they're are lots of puddles on the floor when Mummy gets home, and she's cross.

Her to/too/two little girls have pottied everywhere without there/their/they're nappies on!

She smacks there/their/they're bottoms and puts them to/too/two bed early.

It's lucky Mummy has to/too/two boobies to/too/two give her to/too/two babies there/their/they're nighttime feed faster.

How are you feeling? Do you think you picked all the right homophones? Let's see!

Q1

The first homophone here is too! Remember, it means 'more than the right amount'! How much confidence do you think is the right amount for Katie and Lily to have in their potty training?

The other homophone in this sentence is their, because it's the potty training belonging to Katie and Lily — it's theirs, even if there isn't very much of it!

Q2

The first homophone here is two. Why's that? Remember, two is a number! Can you count that high? One little girl and another little girl make two little girls! The next answer is their. The nappies definitely belong to Katie and Lily! They're not Mummy's, she's far too big! What kind of nappies do you have? Are they as adorable as you are?

Q3

There's only one answer here, and it's to! Remember, we use this one when we're talking about movement. Katie and Lily are moving to the potty — or at least, they should be. Do you go to the potty, or does the potty come to you? Or are you too little for that, and you still potty in your pants?

Q4

The answer in this sentence is they're. Look at the sentence! You could use they are instead, right?

Do you think you're right about how good your potty training is? Does your mummy agree with you? You should listen to her! Lots of little ones get overconfident if they sometimes manage to get their wees and poos in the potty, but good mummies know that potty training is a long process and little ones can't always be trusted!

Q5

This sentence is especially tricky, because it has two homophones in it that sound the same as each other! The first one is their. That's because the nappies still belong to Katie and Lily even after they take them off. When your mummy takes your soggy nappies off, they're still yours! And no one else wants them, do they? That would be yucky!

The second one is there. How do we remember this one? That's right! It has the word 'here' in it, so it talks about places! This sentence is about where Mummy is. What does your mummy do when she's not there? Does she leave you all by yourself, or do you get to play with a babysitter?

Q6

The answer here is too! That's a tricky one, because of course, Katie and Lily aren't too little — they're just the right amount of little! But they're too little for the specific situation we're talking about, aren't they? Only very big girls get to go without their nappies, and it's always up to their mummies to decide when that happens!

Q7

Did you get this answer? That's right, it's there! Remember, we can use this one to talk about things that are present. That's not like a Christmas present, though. It's a word that just means the thing exists in a certain place, like these puddles exist on Mummy's floor. But of course a present could be present! I'm not sure Mummy wants any soggy yellow presents, though — and it's not even Christmas!

Q8

There are two homophones to decide on here, but we've seen both of them before! Do you remember? The first one is two, the number of little troublemakers that Mummy has. Do you have a sister, brother, or sibling? If you do, you have to be super grown up and good at sharing your mummy!

The second one is their. We talked about how the nappies still belong to Lily and Katie even though they took them off, didn't we? That's a very naughty thing to do, remember!

Q9

This answer is their again! That's because the smacked bottoms belong to the little girls, even though they probably wish they didn't! Do you get your bottom smacked sometimes? That's ok! Learning to be good is super hard sometimes, but it's just as important as learning all about homophones, and a smacked bottom is a really good reminder, isn't it?

The second answer is to. It's a direction of travel, isn't it? Mummy is taking her little cuties upstairs and tucking them into their cot! When's your bedtime? Is it nice and early so you're wide awake for school?

Q10

This is the last question, and there are lots of homophones to find! Did you get them all? Let's see!

The first one is two again! It's another number! Mummy has one boobie for each of her two babies — isn't that lucky? Do you have to share your mummy's boobies, or do you get them all to yourself?

The second answer is to. This is a little bit different, isn't it? It's not about movement, but you can also use to to mean something like 'so that'. Do you see how that works? Here, it's lucky Mummy has two boobies, so that she can feed both her babies at once!

The third homophone is another two. Did you know that? It's easy to work out! This sentence is telling you that Mummy has the same number of boobies as babies, so it uses the same word to describe each of those things!

And finally, the last homophone is their! Did you get it? The nighttime feed is a special time that belongs to Lily and Katie, when they can cuddle up together and spend time with their Mummy as a family. Doesn't that sound nice?

Did Katie, Lily, and Mummy work together to help you learn all about homophones? Do you think you know them super well?

Why not write a little list of all the homophones you can think of, and then try writing some sentences using them? Make sure to get them the right way round!

[cormorant-red]

I played 999 recently at @xivu-arath's recommendation, and I had so much fun that (inspired by that one polygon video) I illustrated my liveblog about it!

If you haven't played 999 and you are even a little bit intrigued by a puzzle/mystery visual novel with multiple timelines that all guide you towards wild plot twists...probably don't read the text! 999 is the kind of story that is best experienced with no knowledge besides the basic premise.

Transcript below the cut:

Cormorant: characters in this game really just say shit like "have you heard the story about the crystallization of glycerin?"

as a matter of fact i haven't, june, please enlighten me

Storm: "I know we're stuck in a freezer but. let's talk about weird mythical science!"

Cormorant: it's also killing me that junpei is dressed like marty mcfly and isn't sharing any of his jackets

-----

Cormorant: this game is leading me to arrive at mathematical concepts on my own. what the heck

Storm: kshgushhsg

I take it you're having a good time then

Cormorant: trying to check lotus's work and it turns out that no matter what group i arrange to take through a door, the people left behind will always have the same digital root

so to get through door 7 with snake missing, i could either send a group with sum 16 (junpei, ace, clover, and june) or with sum 25 (clover, june, seven, and lotus), but it doesn't matter because the remainder always have root 9 and can't get through doors 3 or 8! wild!

Storm: yeah the numbers and which doors end up barred to you is so cleverly deliberate

-----

Cormorant: i'm glad i finally checked what novel mode meant, because this is way more fun

Santa cocked his head to one side, like an inquisitive bird, and looked at them.

After several long moments, during which it became apparent that Santa had no idea what the cards meant, June took pity on him.

i'll have to go back and redo the beginning after i get to the first ending

Storm: oh yeah! as I recall that was done differently when it was originally a dual screen game... but it's much better when in novel style. gimme all the descriptions

-----

Cormorant: I had a long day of sitting though presentations and so I entertained myself by calculating digital roots

I discovered that adding 9 or any multiple of 9 to a number has no effect on the digital root, which is awfully interesting bc I got to the part where snake gets killed. Assuming door 3 was opened with 12 and not 21, the options are 7+3 (motive?), 6+4 (they’d both have to be REALLY good actors), or 9+1. And if bracelets work without a body attached, and if ace picked it up in door 5…

That would be a really useful tool to get around the 3-person minimum without altering the digital root

I’m also very intrigued by the theory that zero is also in the game but I don’t know what to do with that yet

Storm: forlornly having to keep myself from saying literally anything

Cormorant: Understandable, please don’t give me any hints! I’m just calling shots for the joy of being wrong

-----

Cormorant: and how do you know that, my traitorous friend?

Santa: “The RED doesn’t need a person, you know.”

Santa: “All I need is the bracelet.”

-----

Cormorant: y’know what i think he’s bluffing. he does need June specifically and that’s why he refused to consider leaving her when they first found door 9. if all he needed was a hostage, he could have grabbed junpei and forced ace to come along, and then he would be dealing with two people under duress instead of three

i peeked at a guide and apparently i found the ending adjacent to the true ending(?) first, oh well. time to see the others!

santa: i said i don't want to leave seven alone

me: bud you can't do a heroic sacrifice too, it'll mess up all the math

reader, he was not doing a heroic sacrifice

-----

Storm: got any character opinions or theories to share so far?

Cormorant: hmm I’ve got soft spots for santa and lotus maybe just because they were in the first group I went with. I like that the game makes a point of showing that lotus is quick with the math/technical knowledge. I warmed up to clover and seven more than I expected to! I have no evidence to mistrust ace….but I don’t trust him

Snake died before I before I could say two words to him

Or…didn’t. Forgot clover said he didn’t

I got info about the previous experiments from clover and I wonder if we’re like…reenacting the past somehow? Experiencing morphogenetic resonance with the last voyage?

Again no evidence i just wonder where the pseudoscience is going

Storm: santa was so my type as soon as I started playing that I just picked all rooms with him on my first run skugrhsghu

Cormorant: AHAHA that makes me feel better about going “yeahhh door 4 I like the cut of this guy’s jib”

-----

Cormorant: “the bracelet comes off when your heart rate reaches zero” interesting then that we’ve brought up cryostasis

-----

Cormorant: i simply don't trust him not to have a spare bracelet in his pocket!!!

They climbed into the elevator and Junpei listened to it creak and rattle its way to the bottom deck. Only Junpei, Ace, and Lotus were left.

As the elevator rumbled out of sight, Ace spoke.

Ace: “Lotus, would you be so kind as to go with me?”

Cormorant: “bad end” YEAH I’LL SAY

Storm: lkksghr yeah there's a few of those!

Cormorant: santa was really quick to declare that he, june, and seven needed to go with clover. waht's his game

june and ace could have done it just as easily

Storm: they could have! good catch

maybe he just thinks seven is cooler than ace,

Cormorant: i'm imagining clover taking all her grisly trophies to the door only to find it already engaged, because lotus needed no persuading,

and regarding the true ending requirements, it's also funny that santa's like "i hate this bookmark! get it out of my sight!" and this is a huge help in junpei befriending the girl who's otherwise about to snap

Storm: load bearing bookmark

Cormorant: good thing you threw that tantrum bud or you would have been killed with an axe

-----

Cormorant: in my suspicions i forgot a critical detail, which is that he didn't actually go into the door with the body this time

of course seven has been propping doors open, so it really could have been anybody

-----

Cormorant: "where have these 16 boys and girls disappeared to?" eight for each game and then an experimenter? again with the idea that zero might be in the game...

-----

Cormorant: bad endings complete! on to the normal ending, which hopefully has less of junpei getting stabbed to death

puzzling over who could have done all those murders, especially in the sub ending...or did everyone get killed? clover thinks that snake's death was faked. or did snake do all the murders, since he was the only one unaccounted for?...and then i remember what kind of game i'm playing. can't discount the ice mummy as a suspect.

Storm: you truly cannot ignore the possibility of the ice mummy

-----

Cormorant: ah no, so santa's sister was the kid that died...

i can't figure out the connection between events! why did the last games have the veneer of a science experiment, while this one has no context given? why was it all kids last time, and a random mix of ages this time, with some repeat subjects?

-----

Cormorant: called it!!!!

Junpei: “Ace, Guy X, and the 9th Man’s bracelet.”

Junpei: “That was all you needed to open door [3].”

Cormorant: called it before i even got to an ending ehehe

what i’ve been saying!!

Ace: “(9) is a potent ally in the Nonary Game.”

Ace: “Adding (9) to any set of numbers won’t alter the digital root.”

Ace: “As you can see, (9) is a very useful number here.”

Ace: “With it, one can go anywhere, with anyone.”

Ace: “It is, I suppose you could say, a game changer.”

-----

Cormorant: okay, normal ending finished! junpei did not get stabbed but we also didn’t resolve much…I’m now thinking that ace with his pocket drugs could have easily played dead in the sub ending

glad to see that snake is okay and hopefully can stay okay in the true ending. where did clover get that riddle, and will she still have it?

0=6. how much do I read into this

still don’t understand how we get from here to santa hostage situation. he’s been so consistent about not even considering betraying or abandoning people, so either he’s a better actor than ace…or it’s staged. are he and june in cahoots

Storm: augh so close now!! soon I can actually say things

-----

Cormorant: O FUCK

Seven: “Santa’s always in the room with her. That’s what you’re saying, isn’t it?”

Snake: “Yes, that’s right.”

Clover: “What about it…?”

Snake: “That’s quite simple, really.”

Snake: “You told me that the first time you came to this room…”

Snake: “…Santa was the first to refuse to leave June behind.”

Snake: “Now, doesn’t that beg the question “why?” Why would Santa do such a thing?”

Snake: “The answer is easy.”

Storm: B)

Cormorant: i've been thinking of them as a pair because it makes the math easier! if you've got 3 + 6 + 8, just cross out the ones that make 9 and don't even bother with the addition, your root is 8

Storm: B) B) B)

Cormorant: but god!! they are a pair, do not separate (or the jig is up)

Storm: they hid it soooo well

-----

Cormorant: was wondering when we would see the last cradle guy and oh duh, he was guy X

i did think it was odd that santa phrased it as "i need to leave two of you behind" rather than "i need three of you to come with me," but if he was responsible for everything (most things?), he knew that snake was there, and he was setting up a group that could follow him. excited to see where this is going!

[dreamy sigh] this game is so elegant. what a little puzzle box

Storm: yeah it is, it's just so wonderfully crafted. so little is wasted!

-----

Cormorant: oh boy [akane vision label]

"through the morphic fieldset we were resonant, and we were as one" i don't think i've mentioned it before but i'm constantly pleasantly surprised by the narration in this game. it's not flashy but it's evocative in a way that's really working for me

Storm: this is where the port falls short a bit of the original version... the ds really worked well with this aspect

-----

Cormorant: the number of times i thought "this will be totally wrong but i'll say it to storm anyway"

hello??? [arrow pointing back to the message “I wonder if we’re like…reenacting the past somehow? Experiencing morphogenetic resonance with the last voyage?”]

Storm: Y E A H

Cormorant: laser-guided spitballing

-----

Cormorant: man i said that 4+6 would have to be really good actors if they were the ones that opened door 3...and while they didn't kill snake, i sure underestimated our queen of the stage akane kurashiki

the baseline was NOT where i thought it was

Storm: no one does it like her

[user2772636]

Douzième Fille

12th girl

××《☆》××

××《☆》××

You can't deny beauty, so don't do it at all. Some time is spent at the beach with a boy you're trying to quietly reject. Begging, though pitying, looks good on our one-eyed boy.

===

Joseph Descamps x Reader

Warnings: boys being boys (ft. grown ass men), swearing, sl?!t shaming, bullying, smoking, angsty-er than normal

Also, another reference, now from the show Normal People and the movie (500) Days of Summer

===

Song: Salvatore by Lana Del Rey

(For some reason, I can't display it. Sorry about the technical difficulties.)

===

Chapter seven: Salvatore

===

I walk the unfamiliar streets of the town, only now headed this way. I was instructed by my mother to pick something up from a lady's house this morning, specifically a box of sweets.

It was delivered to the wrong address, and my mother got in contact with the company, which gave her the contact number of the address they gave it to, and the two women made arrangements.

I look up at the plain white door with embedding, knocking on it gently. I hear footsteps from inside, then the door opens with a creak.

"Good morning, ma'am. I was sent by my mother, Julliete Pardine." The woman smiles down at me, the elevation of her house making her taller.

"You must be Y/N. Come on in." She ushers me inside, opening the door wider. I take careful steps on the stairs, eyeing my feet to not fall and embarrass myself. Looking up was something I regret.

In all his glory, after being completely ignored for two weeks, Joseph Descamps stands in front of a drawer and mirror, eye wide open, mouth parted slightly, and looking as pretty as he always did.

I get snapped out of my trance when the woman, now I know as Mrs. Descamps, hands me the box of cookies.

"Now, Y/N, where do you study? I hope I'm not making you late this morning." I turn my focus to her, ignoring the butterflies wanting to escape my stomach through my throat.

"You're not. I study at Voltaire." Mrs. Descamps' eyes widen like her sons, and she smiles a bright smile.

"Oh, what a coincidence. My son goes there, too. Maybe you could walk each other. It's always good for a girl your age to have some company when walking the streets. Maybe you already know each other?" She glances at her son, nodding her head towards me. I look at Joseph, and something reminds me of a promise I made him before.

We're sitting on my bed, writing some notes for Maths. Joseph's voice comes alive.

"Hey, what do you think will happen to us in college?" I look up from my paper, eyeing Joseph steadily.

"What kind of question is that? You're thinking about college already?" I don't mention the fact that he's thinking about us two when talking about what'll happen.

"Well, you know, since schools are mixing boys and girls now, and it's going pretty well, so in college, it might be continued. I just wanna know if we'll still be... friends." I scoff slightly, letting go of my pencil to reach for his free hand.

"Joseph, let me assure you we'll still be friends. I promise." Joseph looks at me, squinting his eyes and pursing his lips. I tilt my head in worry.

"But... what if we don't end up in the same college? And when you're with your new friends, then you see me, you'll act like you never knew who I was?" I scan his face, his beautiful face, biting gently on my bottom lip. I caress his hand with my thumb.

"I would never act like I don't know you." I say in a whisper. He doesn't say anything after that, collecting my words somehow.

"Can you promise that, too?" I smile gently at him, lifting his hand up to my lips, kissing his rough knuckles.

"I promise."

I would've never thought what might happen in college happens so soon.

So when I look at him, all I can think about is his soul, and that even in a matter of weeks, it's filled me whole.

"Yes. We know each other." I look at Mrs. Descamps again, and her face lights up brighter than before.

Her son looks like her. The way both their eyes wrinkle a bit under when they smile, the way their cheeks shows lines, and the way their eyes light up. I barely see that in him anymore. And the last time I did, it was with me.

"Good. He shall walk you to school this morning." She walks to her son now, grabbing his arm to drag him closer to me. I don't look him in the eye, my heart still aching from the afternoon in the alley.

I can sense him tilting his head, brows etched in worry and body leaning towards me. He feels so warm even from far away. I want him closer.

"Anyways, I made you a sandwich for lunch. I know what food's like at school." Mrs. Descamps tells her son. I look at her now petite image, even more small when standing next to her child. Well, if he even is a child anymore.

"Thanks." He replies simply, head down. I try my best not to hold him like I used to. To ask him what's wrong.

"I saw the ophthalmologist. He thinks it's time." I furrow my eyebrows, not sure what type of doctor that is.

"Oh, yeah?" Fuck. Why'd he have to say it like that? Butterflies fill my stomach again. Not here. Not infront of his mom, for fucks sake.

"They've made great strides." She ruffles his hair. Damn, I used to do that. I miss it. "They can match your eye colour exactly now. You can't tell the difference."

"Have you ever seen someone with a glass eye? One eye moves, the other doesn't." Oh, so that's what this is about.

His mother cups his face. "My son is not a pirate. You'll be handsome again." I speak before I think.

"Your son is handsome." They turn their heads to me, and I flush in embarrassment. I finally look at Joseph, and there's a glimmer of hope in his eyes. His cheeks are flushed like mine, and he searches my face.

"Well, I'm glad you think so. But I think he should get it anyway. The mother knows best, like they say." Joseph doesn't even turn his head to his mother's direction. He doesn't even hear her. All he's looking at is me, and I can't find myself to look away.

"Well," I stutter out, looking to Mrs. Descamps. "It was nice to meet you. See you soon, ma'am." She smiles at me, rubbing my shoulder gently.

"Would you like to come to dinner tonight? I'm making a roast." Before I could answer, Joseph does it for me.

"Mama-" I cut him off. "Yes. Sure, ma'am. I'll come for dinner." I say, placing the box of cookies in my satchel. She laughs in glee.

"Alright! That's settled then. Now get going, or your teachers will have a field day with you two." She ushers us to the front door, closing the it once we're outside. I glance at him for a second, then start walking in a fast pace.

"Y/N!" He calls out.

"Oh, first name basis again? Didn't know we were that close." I say, Joseph catching up to my side.

"Please, I can explain. Let me." I scoff, disbelief in my face.

"No, thanks. Go have some fun with your girlfriend." I try to walk faster, but he catches up anyway.

"She's not my girlfriend, I swear. Y/N, please. You're killing me here." His voice cracks in desperation, and it takes all my strength not to stumble from my suddenly shaky legs.

"Good." He whimpers. Fucking whimpers. Holy shit, please give me strength.

"Y/N. Please. Just, please." I slow down a bit, pitying him.

"You have one minute." I face him, crossing my arms.

"She's not my girlfriend."

"Ex then?" He shakes his head profusely.

"No. I don't even know her. She just came up to me and started getting all over me."

"You expect me to believe that?"

"Please do. Because I swear on my life, Y/N, I would never do that to you."

"But you did. You did when you were talking shit about me to your friends. You did when you let her get all over you." He doesn't speak, and my throat goes dry.

"Exactly. So don't even fucking talk." I turn around and walk away, tears pooling my eyes. I can't believe him. I can't believe me.

××《☆》××

I stand next to Simone in front of the gate, tapping my foot against the gravel.

"What are we doing here again?" I ask, seeing Simone bite her lip in anxiety.

"We're waiting for-" Simone cuts herself off, shouting for Michèle. I walk towards the both of them.

"Michèle, it's been weeks. How long will you be mad?" I delay behind them, trying to give both girls privacy.

"How long have you been seeing my brother behind my back?" Oh. So they got together. I'm happy for Simone, though I already had an idea, but this was the moment she was dreading to come.

They get through the gate. "I wanted to tell you." Simone explains.

Michèle only glances at her. "You played me for a fool."

It's worrying to see both my closest friends argue because you don't know whether or not they'll recover and stay friends.

"It wasn't like that." Simone breaks my thoughts.

"Does he know about Alain?" Michèle says, seemingly angry if her brother did know.

"Of course not. I never told him anything you shared with me." Simone flushes. "If he knew anything, you'd have known about it." They stop walking. I keep my distance.

"I never said it was Jean Pierre, but the rest was true." Someone calls out for Michèle.

"I miss our talks." That was the last thing Simone said before Michèle got dragged away by some girls.

I walk up to Simone, smiling slightly.

"So..." I pause, looking up at her. "Jean Pierre?"

This gets her so smile a bit, red covering her cheeks.

"Yeah." She tucks her hair behind her ear, and I can't help but giggle at her antic.

"He was Eugène the whole time?" I question. She looks at me with even more red on her cheeks.

"I knew it." We both giggle in our girlish nature as we head inside the school.

××《☆》××

Two beeps are heard outside the gate of Voltaire, and I rush down the ramp. I accidentally bumped into someone, and I say a quick apology. I glance behind me, having to do a double take at the one-eyed boy. I look away quickly, walking to Callum's car.

"Pretty girl." Callum hands me a bouquet of pink tulips, and I smile at the sight of it, forgetting about Joseph for a second. Just a second.

"Where are we headed?" I ask, thanking Callum for opening the passenger's door for me.

"The beach. There's a car meet I was invited to take some photos of. Do you mind?" He opens up the roof, letting the wind outside and the heat hit us.

"No. Don't mind at all. Let's get going." He smiles at me simply, and I fail to notice some things he brought on the back of his car.

The drive to the beach was comfortably quiet, wind messing our hair up, the smell of salt and soil filling our senses.

From up the hill, I see the mounds of cars on the white sand below. I smile at the sight, ready for Callum's lovely rambling of all the different cars.

Callum once again opens my door for me, even rolling on the hood of the car for comedic action. It works, and I laugh at him. All he does is smile, offering his hand out for support.

The rest of the afternoon was spent taking photos of the cars, some of which he asked me to model for him again. I did so, adding some fun with the comfortable aura that surrounded both of us.

We moved the car to an area further from the meet, deciding to go out for a swim. I unfortunately wasn't ready for the trip, not bringing any swimwear, so Callum wastes no time to go to the shops behind us, telling me to get a new pair. He even paid for it, then waited for me to come out.

In Callum fashion, we took more pictures. We went for a swim, him wearing no top and just a pair of shorts. It didn't feel awkward around him. It felt so natural, like I'd known him longer than I do.

So when we finished playing in the salty water, and the sun was setting, we settled down on the mat to watch it.

"Y/N?" I turn my head to him, humming in response.

I see him fidget with his fingers. "I've known you for a while now, and in the time I've known you, it's been the best time of my life."

I get a sense of anxiety in him, so I grab his hand, and it feels familiar to a moment I shared with someone else. I push that thought down.

"Callum, talk to me. Is there something wrong?" He looks up at me, adoration in his brown doe eyes. I've seen that look before. Suddenly the smell of the ocean is suffocating me.

"Y/N, I love you. Nothing will ever change that." I breathe in a shaky breath. "I love that you care and that you're just effortlessly an amazing person." Tears pool under his eyes, and I cup his cheeks as they fall, wiping them away. He cups that hand with his.

"You're amazing, and I would never wanna lose you. I don't want to let you go." He pauses, and I await his next words. "But I have to."

I furrow my brows, wondering what he meant. I nod at him to go on.

"You love him. It's so clear that I'm surprised you don't even know it." My mind blanks.

"And it's completely fine. You don't have to worry about me, because if you'll let me, I'll stay, and I'll love you while you love him." He sniffles, and my heart breaks for him.

The sky is orange, with pinks and blues popping out through some clouds. The ocean waves crash against the white sand, foam popping as it loops back. I can hear our hearts beating, our breaths shaking, and our skin grasping at the other.

"Callum, please don't hate me." He chuckles, kissing the inside of my hand.

"I could never hate you, pretty girl." Tears seep out of my eyes as it did his, and he hushes me, pulling me in his bare chest, caressing my back as I sob apologies to him.

It goes on for a while, and we sit there, the sun gone, cars revving in the distance, waves crashing, seagulls squawking, the moon shining on our bodies, and tears as salty as the sea.

When we pull away, he cups my face and stares. He stares at me with a smile, his broken heart still beating. And I look at him like he's a saint. And he is.

We don't talk on the way home, still a comfortable silence between us. As we stop walking infront of my flat, he says something to break the long silence.

"Still up for tomorrow?" I nod. I had told him this morning that I had some errands to run. He agreed to take me around town. I'm glad he still wants to come through.

Before he walks away and disappears around the corner, I call out for him. He turns around, hand in his pockets.

"You know I love you too, right?" He smiles that sweet smile. I can't help but do the same. He walks back to me slowly, cupping my cheek like he did in the beach.

"I know." He whispers, leaning in to kiss my forehead, lingering. He pulls away, still smiling, and walks away for good.

I get in my flat, closing the door and looking at George.

"I don't wanna talk about it." He meows. I lift him up to go cuddle in my room.

××《☆》××

The next day goes through smoothly. Callum picks me up at the end of the day. We stopped by my flat first, and I picked George up, deciding to finally take him out of the house.

The first stop was the pharmacy, and the person I've been dreading to see was there. I asked Callum if he needed anything, and all he does is shake his head. I open the door with George in hand, standing eye to eye with the taller boy.

"Descamps." I say in greeting. He's heaving, eye scanning my frame like he always does. I purse my lips, greeting the pharmacist. The pharmacist greets George, seeing I've brought him around from time to time. George was basically a regular here.

"Pardine." He greets, but his voice shivers. I almost ask him what's wrong, 'till I remember.

George wriggles out of my arms and into his. He loses his balance a bit, regaining it as he holds George like a baby, like he did before. Fuck, I miss him.

"Hello, George." He smiles softly at the cat, and I can't help but melt internally. I take a deep breath, trying to regain my composure. He's holding him so gently, and my heart pound in my chest. Hard.

I grab my things from the pharmacist, thanking them quietly before trying to get George. He growls at me, and I stare at him in shock. Joseph looks up at me. When I look at him, I don't look away immediately.

"I can take him to your car." He says in an almost whisper, turning his head down. He's so shy, and I just want to hold him.

Before we could get out, Michèle goes through the door of the pharmacy. I smile at her gently, greeting her a hi. She greets me back. I wait for her, wlaking with her outside.

"Laubrac, what a surprise." She says, and I roll my eyes at her. She looks at me sheepishly, making a pointed look at Joseph. I understand the sign.

"Did you plan to meet here?" I wave at Laubrac, and he smiles, cigarette in between his fingers.

"What are you doing here?" Joseph asks Laubrac as he eyes the boy up and down, the shy demeanourhe had with me long gone. George is still in hand, but now he carries him with one arm.

"My parents' butcher shop isn't far." Michèle cuts in. "I have to go, or my mom will kill me. See you at school." She bids off to the three of us.

"Aren't you working with your chickens today?" Joseph asks Laubrac, and I glare at his rudeness. He doesn't notice.

"Even farmhands get time off." Laubrac answers simply. There's a pause.

"Okay, I'll see you tomorrow." Laubrac walks off now, leaving me and Joseph infront of the alley.

"Let's just go." I walk to Callum, seeing him smoking a cigarette in the car, window opened slightly. He spots the two of us and unlocks the door. Joseph's quick to open it for me, and I just look at him, flushing at the gesture.

"Thanks." I whisper, ducking my head to get seated. Joseph crouches down, kissing George's head, and placing him on my lap.

"Joseph. Long time no see." Callum raises a hand in greeting, throwing the dead cigarette out his open window.

"Callum. Saw you pick her up yesterday. Where were you guys headed?" Joseph raises a brow, some sort of annoyance in his voice.

"Took her to the beach to a car meet. Did some swimming, she learnt something about me, and I told her something about herself." Callum puts simply.

Joseph doesn't like his answer. "Told her something about herself, huh?"

Callum notices his tone and chuckles. "Yeah. Something she needed to set straight. You know, something she knows deep down, but she's not doing anything about it." Joseph's gripping hard on the door handle, his knuckles going white.

"And what would that be?" Callum smiles at him.

"Can't tell you. Only she can. Actually, you can probably help her out with it. I'm sure you're feeling the same way she does." That's when I whip my head to face the boy, face as red as a ferrari, heart beating faster than a race car. Sorry, Callum's rambling is affecting me.

"Yeah? What's she feeling? I doubt that it's anything bad, considering that's not how I feel about her." Joseph looks at me, leaning against his now crossed arms in the window shield. With both boys' attention on me, my breathing hollows.

"It's nothing. Bye, Descamps." Callum chuckles, getting the car to start, then beeping it at Joseph as a goodbye. Once we're far away enough, I hit Callum on the shoulder.

"What was that for?" I scream out, embarrassment flooding off of me. Callum won't stop laughing.

"Oh, come on. You two knuckleheads should just get together! You're so obviously in love." I groan, covering my face with my hands. George meows at me.

"I can't believe you, Callum."

"Plus, summer's in a few. You're gonna have to tell him before you leave." Shit. Summer. Paris. I haven't told him yet.

"Fuck. I hate that you're right." I think for a while. "But we're still on bad terms!"

"You just want to be on bad terms because you don't wanna confront him about it. I can see, very clearly, actually, how much you guys want to be together."

His response makes the gears in my head turn. He's right, I admit it. But how do I tell him? When? Where?

Then I remember the girl, and he'll probably forget about me before I even leave. He won't notice that I'm gone.

So, now that I think about it, it won't be so hard. So why can't I bring myself to be relieved? As if I want it to be hard. For him to beg for me not to leave. Not to go. Not to move.

Because if I do, I'll forget about him. But I could never forget him, no matter how hard I try. Because he's Joseph Descamps, the boy who I love too much for my own good. The boy with one eye. The boy I think about when looking at the future. The boy that will always stay in my mind, heart, and soul.

It'll be easy. If not for me, for him. He'll fall in love with some girl, marry her, live with her, have a family with her, grow old with her. Then I'll just be there, thinking about him day and night, counting the endless possibilities and what ifs.

And if I had just realised earlier, told him earlier, loved him earlier, then maybe, just maybe, I'd be happy.

That's not the case. Not now, not ever. And I'll have to live with that 'till the day I die, with him in mind.

××《☆》××

There was a test that morning. Laubrac came in late. We finished the test. The day ends. It was simple. Quiet. But, chaos came in an errand again.

Joseph walks into the butchers, and I internally gape at the sight of him. He's so, so beautiful. I think I might cry. I can't even describe how beautiful he looks right now. I wish I could kiss that patch again. Cup his face with my hands again. Brush his hair, hold his hand, and feel his lips on mine.

The store is quiet, and customers look at the walking image of beauty, including Michèle's mother. She calls out for her husband.

I just stare at Joseph. He doesn't notice I'm there, fully focused on the couple.

"I hear the Magnan's like to sleep with foreigners and thugs." I furrow my eyebrows, frustrated at the juncture.

"You're the only thug here." I keep my eyes on Joseph, trying to figure out his next move.

"The thug is that foster kid sleeping with your fifteen year old daughter." Joseph answers. I purse my lips disappointedly.

"You didn't know?" He says, acting all innocent. "I'm sorry, but it's true. Your son's too busy fooling around with a foreign girl to warn you."

What the actual fuck. What's gotten into him?

"Get out!" Mrs. Magnan says. "It's all lies. Lies!"

He chuckles, and why the fuck is it so attractive?

"Really? If it was, you wouldn't be so upset."

He has a point there, but it's still an asshole thing to do.

"You little shit." Mr. Magnan mumbles.

"Say hi to Jean Pierre for me."

"I'll teach you a lesson!" Mr. Magnan shouts as he walks to the exit, but I beat him to it.

I walk up hurriedly to Joseph, pulling at his shoulder to face me.

"What the fuck was that?" I shout, anger pounding jn my veins.

"It's true, and you know it. Why are you so angry?" He says as if it's simple.

"They're my friends, Joseph! Why the fuck wouldn't i be upset about it?" I push his chest.

"Back to first name basis, Y/N? Go back to your boyfriend and talk about those feelings of yours." This makes my hear shatter against my chest.

"For the last time, he isn't my boyfriend."

"Why does it seem that way, huh? Do you like leading people on? Should've known. Went through it anyway!" He starts to walk away.

"You go back to your girlfriend, asshole!" He turns around and flips me off.

I fight the urge not to just sob in the middle of the street. Unbeknownst to me, he feels the same, too.

××《☆》××

I received a call in the house as soon as I get home. I pick it up, wiping the tears on my cheeks.

"Hello?" I try to hide the shake in my voice.

"Y/N, darling? This is Mrs. Descamps." Shit. Worst timing.

"Oh, good afternoon, ma'am. Is there something wrong?" I ask, worry etching my voice.

"Well, I meant to ask if you were still coming tonight. But there's also something else I wanna talk about." I furrow my brows, sniffling a bit.

"Um, sure, I'll still go." I shut my eyes in regret. I should've said no. "What is it you want to talk about?"

"Well, Joseph came home a bit gloomy. He hasn't come out of his room, and whenever I ask him what's wrong, he just tells me off. I'm worried, you know, as a mother is, and I was wondering if anything happened at school." My heart aches for the woman.

"Well, to be honest, ma'am, I think it's better if you ask him. I don't want to say anything I'm not supposed to."

"Oh, well, that's alright." There's a lace of disappointment in her voice. "Well, I'll see you later, darling. Come by 7 or later." We bid each other goodbye and hang up.

I put my pearl necklace on, the item in contrast with my red dress. It's quite formal, but that's what you wear for dinner, right? There's a semi-big bow on the back, wrapped around my waist like a present.

Time passes as I get ready. The whole time, my heart pounded in my chest. I'd have to see him again. Talk to him. And after that argument.

So when I arrive and knock on the door, and Joseph answers, my heart stops its beating.

Thankfully, Mrs. Descamps ushers me in her home once again, and we're at the dinner table, eating silently. Well, just Mrs. Descamps really. Me and Joseph don't touch our food, keeping our head down.

"Something wrong with the food, children?" Mrs. Descamps says, and I'm quick to dismiss the idea, not wanting her to feel down about it.

"There's nothing wrong with the food, ma'am. I just... I ate a bit before coming here." I take a hold of her hand, reassuring her.

"Oh, that makes sense." She grabs her sons hand. "What about you, my angel? You haven't eaten anything when you got home."

I glance at him in worry, his eye catching me. We put our heads down at the same time.

"Just no appetite, Mama." He purses his lips at her.

"I hope you're not mad about earlier. I won't make you get the glass eye anymore." She looks at me again, a mischievous smile on her face. "At least Y/N here thinks you're beautiful." I flush at the mention of the incident, wanting the ground to swallow me whole.

"Good. That's the only opinion that matters." He whispers to himself, but I heard it clear.

"So," Mrs. Descamps drops both our hands and gets back to eating. I start on my plate, too. "Is there something you two want to tell me?"

I blush profusely. "What do you mean, Mrs. Descamps?"

"Well, there's obviously something between you two." Mrs. Descamps shrugs. Joseph calls his mother out, and I flush even more in my seat.

"Okay, just because I'm old doesn't mean I don't know what love looks like. Me and your father-"

"Mama, please stop." Joseph groans through his hands, Mrs. Descamps laughing at her son.

"Okay, fine. I'll talk to you later." Mrs. Descamps winks at her child, then suddenly, the air isn't so suffocating anymore.

When dinner ends, Mrs. Descamps makes Joseph walk me out. We're outside their house now.

"She doesn't know about your girlfriend?" I put simply, not letting him know my heart is in shambles. He rolls his eye at me, and I have a feeling it'll make his head ache soon.

"She's not my girlfriend." I hear feet pattering against the dark cobble stone street. I turn my head, and there she was. The girl we were just talking about.

"Well, she doesn't think that." I observe her nice puffy dress, jewellery shining from the moonlight, her hair done up. She even has a bit of makeup on. I smile at her, turning back to Joseph, but not looking in his eyes.

"I called her to meet here." Joseph states, and I chuckle. He seems to have gotten what it was I was chuckling about. Tears rim my eyes in frustration.

"It's not what it seems like-" I quickly cut him off, passing by the girl in a hurry.

I hear him call out my name, and I almost trip at the desperation of it. He's always giving off the idea that he wants me, but in the end, I realise I'm in a loophole and I'm finally aware I've been a fool.

I hate Joseph. I hate his toothy smile. I hate his messy ash hair. I hate his towering frame. I hate the dirt colour eyes he has. I hate the way he walks fast with his long legs.

Fuck. Why does it always end like this? I always say I hate him, then I don't, then, like a loop, I do. When will it end? When will I finally decide how I feel?

For now, it's all his fault. It's his fault for making me feel this way. His fault for being so pretty it hurts. His fault for being so... so... Fuck.

Just plain fuck.

××《☆》××

End- Chapter seven: Salvatore

Next- Chapter eight: Joseph, Joseph, Joseph

××《☆》××

DONE W THIS CHAPTER AND ONLY 3 MORE CHAPTERS TO GO!!! We've come so far and my heart hurts for the both of them but it's part of the process. To all the Callum haters, I told u guys u would regret hating on him. We love Callum and I don't accept the hate. So guys love him pls he needs it. Anwww happy reading (not so happy this chapter is pure angst)

[shadowmaat]

Jedi Service Corps

The Legends-fueled propaganda of "bad students get sent to the Agricorp/Services" has always bothered me. First of all, forcing kids into a career not of their choosing isn't the best way to encourage them to perform well.

The Services in general seem to get a bad rap, and TBH it's kind of bizarre to assume that every kid who winds up being taken in by the Jedi wants to grow up to be a cop. LOL!

There is so much untapped potential being ignored, and even within the four pseudo-canon branches there's a lot to explore.

Agriculture. Farmers Without Borders. LOL! It isn't just about growing plants, it's about analyzing trends, understanding ecosystems, geology, climatology, politics, etc. There's mechanical engineering so you know how to fix the machines that do the hardest labor (often illegally, given corporate software locks and so forth). Probably a lot of fiddly stuff with plant genetics, too, given similar issues with seed corporations.

Being Jedi, I'm sure they're also aware of the need to include "ornamental" plants to help with the emotional welfare of hurting/devastated populations.

Education. This field must be fucking wild. Sure, you have your future creche masters and archivists, but I imagine there are those who do public outreach, too, and go to schools to teach kids about what the Jedi do beyond waving laser swords. There's probably also a need for teachers in isolated/rural areas to help with basic things like reading, writing, and maths. Ditto areas devastated by wars and natural disasters, where kids need a safe distraction from trauma. I bet Educorp and Agricorp team up more often than people might think.

There's also the sheer variety of topics. Even something basic like history will have a wide net. Galactic history, region-specific, planetary, etc. And then there's the arts. Music, singing, dance, physical media, holo media, theatre, and so much more. There will be differences between species, understanding what they need to know, how they learn best, and what their aging process is like. Teachers to cover the full range of mortal maturity, from teaching toddlers to old-timers. And don't get me started on teaching "forbidden" topics in repressive communities.

Medical. LOL. Every. Single. Species. And often subtypes between them. So many specialists needed. And again, you probably have a number that specialize in helping in disaster areas. Hello, Educorp, let's help teach these people how to best care for themselves. Maybe Agricorp can help with showing folks how to purify their air and water. There must be SO many diseases, some of which have inoculations and so that don't. And again, figuring ways to smuggle medicine and supplies to those who need it despite the extortionist rates corporations charge. Repairing faulty equipment, finding work-arounds when the parts aren't there. Triage. Using the Force to help heal is all well and good, but sometimes they still have to get hands-on.

Even with non-emergency stuff, I imagine they're still kept busy. The idea of a Jedi "country doctor" settled in some remote area sounds delightful. Communities that get "lost" in the shuffle or otherwise overlooked. Veterinary medicine as a sub-specialty.

Jedi having a special "knack" for determining what's wrong with someone, finding early warning signs before it's too late, etc. Comforting the dying. Comforting the survivors. ALL the mental health stuff and neurodivergence.

Exploration. Jedi Starfleet. LOL! It isn't all about discovering new worlds, though. Sometimes it's rediscovering planets and cultures that have been forgotten. Charting new hyperlane routes and hoping the end doesn't pop you out in the middle of a star.

I betcha you could fold so many things into this one. Botany. Archaeology. Xenoanthropology. Medicine, of course, since new worlds/people means new poisons, venoms, and diseases. New or ancient languages? It'd help to have someone around who could work on translating. Diplomats to help you talk to people. Geologists. Zoologists. A bit of everything.

Sure, there'd be room for solo missions, but I imagine there'd be bigger ships that they'd launch from. A place to come back to so the brains can pore over everything you brought back and see what they can determine from it. And big ships (or any ships really) means pilots, engineers, general crew, logistics, and all those fun things.

Anyway, I can see plenty of room for additional corps, too, but of the ones that get mentioned in Legends there's still a huge playing field.

[gunsandspaceships]

OG6 Avengers’ The “Nice Guy” Contest: Results

It's time to sum up our results. Here are links to all the rounds:

Round 1: “Thank you”

Round 2: “Sorry”

Round 3: “I was wrong/It was my fault”

Note: I'll add more stuff in the future and the overall result may change.

Rules of the contest are here.

Now we will collect all the points and add them up for each character. This way we will get our Nice Guys or Not-So-Nice Guys of the OG6. Let's do the same as we did for each round and list the scores from lowest to highest.

#6 – Natasha

Her total “Nice Guy Score”: 34.1+56.8+22.7=114 points or 1 per 8.8 mins.

Maybe she’s in last place in the “Nice Guy” Contest because she is not a guy…

Nat often apologizes, but not so often thanks people.

#5 – Clint

His total “Nice Guy Score”: 39.6+19.8+59.4=119 points or 1 per 8.4 mins.

Not-so-Nice guy Clint is last by total number, but his 50.5 minutes of screen time gives him some advantage. He often admits his fault (it's always someone's death), but very rarely apologizes or says "Thank you."

#4 – Bruce

His total “Nice Guy Score”: 85+49.6+21.2=156 points or 1 per 6.42 mins.

Despite the popular belief that Bruce thanks, apologizes and admits to things more than others - none of this is true. He's pretty average, with 4th place in total number and the same place in frequency. He even came in last place in the "I Was Wrong" round. At least Hulk says “Sorry” sometimes.

#3 – Steve

His total “Nice Guy Score”: 82.2+53.4+24.7=160 points or 1 per 6.24 mins.

“A very polite person” Steve came in third place. He's second in total, but he's also second in screen time, which lowers his score. Average for all indicators, he never rose above third place. So seems like there are more polite persons on the team…

#2 – Thor

His total “Nice Guy Score”: 87.9+44+34.2=166 points or 1 per 6 mins.

That's impressive for a guy who started out as an arrogant prince of Asgard and, in the first half of Thor 1, was as polite as Odin to Jane in the Dark World. This is what Asgardian upbringing is like… But Midgard changed him for good in every sense.

And here we are. You already know who is the Nice Guy of OG6...

#1 – Tony

His total “Nice Guy Score”: 78.4+98+36.4=213 points or 1 per 4.7 mins.

With double the total number of any indicators compared to second place (Steve), and 213 points against 166 of the second place (Thor) by frequency, Tony is the absolute winner.

He didn't win any polls and I think few people would call him the nicest person on the team. But he is. Math doesn't lie. Maybe he will give this position to someone in the future, when I’ll count other indicators. We’ll see.

Yeah, as you can also see – Steve and Bruce are not the “nicest” of them. With Thor in the same group, they have an “average” score of 156 to 166 points.

The last group, Nat and Clint, are actually the rudest. It’s not that they are really rude, but compared to others – they don’t do very well.

Conclusion: All that glitters is not gold. And pure gold is not very glittery. You know what I mean.

These results surprisingly (or not) correlate with my “How to recognize your friends” posts (Part 2, Part 3, Part 4). You may have noticed that Tony cares about his friends and teammates. Thor is not present in the posts, because he didn’t act towards Tony in the way others did (he did mean things too though, but of different kind). And the others (3-6 places) are those who did something unpleasant, to put it mildly.

Some notes for fic writers:

Based on the results, if you find these somewhat useful…

Tony apologizes a lot. And much more than others. Not always verbally, but mostly. And when politeness demands it – always (if he bumped into someone, expressed his condolences or accidentally broke the children's crayon).

He often takes the blame for things he didn't do. And contrary to popular belief, he often says that he was wrong.

He's not the guy who says "thank you" the most, but he does it a lot. Sometimes without words.

Thor thanks-a-lot. He may also express his gratitude in other ways, such as kissing hands and the like.

He is also quite good at admitting his misdeeds and bad habits, but mostly of the past. His anger issues are still with him and there is no sign that he thinks anything is wrong.

Apologies are not Thor’s thing. Sometimes he says “sorry”, sometimes not. He is a man of emotions.

Steve is, again, average. He thanks. But sometimes he doesn't when he should. He has a habit of taking things without asking their owners or saying "thank you" or "sorry". He apologizes. But, again, sometimes he doesn't when he should. He admits his fault sometimes, sometimes he doesn’t. He says he was wrong, but often it’s something like “I was wrong to trust you”, meaning he wasn't really at fault.

Bruce seems more polite than he is. In fact he's a sassy guy. There's actually a big difference in Norton's and Ruffalo's portrayal of Bruce. Norton's Bruce was bad at apologizing and thanking. Ruffalo’s is nicer, kinda.

Clint kills people. He then feels regret and admits that the bodies are on him. However, I have never heard him say that he was wrong about anything.

He rarely thanks and almost never apologizes.

Nat does apologize. She doesn't always do it when she should though. She's not so good at verbally admitting when she's at fault or when she's wrong, but she takes the blame even though it's not really her. And of OG6 she's the one who thanks the least.

[astrronomemes]

LADY BIRD: STARTERS

a collection of quotes, phrases, and sayings from the 2017 film Lady Bird. change & alter as needed.

"I wish I could live through something."

"Okay, fine, yours is the worst life of all. You win."

"You should just go to city college, with your work ethic. City college, and then to jail, and then back to city college. Maybe you'd learn how to pull yourself up and not expect everyone to do everything for you."

"You have a performative streak, I think."

"Everyone who auditioned got in. The part I got was basically me not getting in."

"That's something rich people do. We are not rich people."

"Oh, yeah, I remember you! You were wearing that dress."

"I just don't get why I'm not good at math. My dad is really good at math."

"Have you ever been out of the country?"

"Why do you care what I do to my clothes?"

"My mom is always mad. It doesn't matter if I get home late. She'd be mad at me anyway."

"I think we're done with the learning portion of high school."

"I think [name] wants to make an entrance. She's mad we don't have a spiral staircase."

"What the hell is in that duffel bag?!"

"How do you know when it's working?"

"Your mom was really sad you weren't here tonight for Thanksgiving."

"Do you need money for the applications? Because I can help with that, too."

"I'm not paying you to flirt!"

"Yeah, sex is not a big deal. It's just that my mom called during it."

"Don't worry. I'm not gonna snitch on you."

"The government didn't have to put tracking devices on us. We bought them and put them on ourselves."

"You are actually fucking evil. What is wrong with you?"

"When do you think is a normal time to have sex?"

"Being successful doesn't mean anything in and of itself. It just means that you're successful."

"You can't do anything unless you're the center of attention, can you?"

"Yeah, well, you know your mom's tits? They're fake. Totally fake."

"Just because something looks ugly doesn't mean that it's morally wrong."

"You give me a number for how much it cost to raise me, and I'm going to get older and make a lot of money, and write you a check for what I owe you, so that I never have to speak to you again."

"I don't even sort of understand why somebody would lie about that."

"You're going to have so much un-special sex in your life."

"Don't you think maybe they're the same thing? Love and attention?"

"I just wish... I wish that you liked me."

"I want you to be the very best version of yourself you can be."

"You aren't going to get in the car with a guy who honks, are you?"

"I'm just crying. Some people aren't built happy, you know?"

"I'm going to miss the fuck out of you."

"Please, [name], please, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you. I appreciate everything you've done for me."

"I wanted to tell you, but we weren't really talking when it happened."

[skamiverse]

The thing that really gives me the ick is the feeling that watcher maybe doesn't care about losing the majority of their audience over this because as dumb as the idea sounds... I'm pretty sure they'll still make a decent amount of money even with just a fraction of their current audience. And I know people are saying "how could they ever think this idea will be successful" but I think they did sit down with a business planner or whatever who broke it down like this:

You have nearly 3mil subscribers

If you retain just 5% of that audience at a paid tier that's 150,000 subscribers

150,000 subscribers at $6 a month is $900,000 a month

$900,000 x 12mon = $10.8 mil a year

They don't care about keeping the majority of us as fans or even half us. They think they just need that tiny percent of die hard fans.

I don't think the business model will be sustainable long term because people will subscribe for a while and then leave and without a steady stream of content on YouTube they won't bring in a new audience, but I don't think it'll crash and burn as quickly as we all expect it to.

(I'm not a math person at all so there's a chance my numbers are wrong..... but I think I got it right 🫣)

[cboffshore]

with very little respect to that one feral Chima-purity-defender: here's that thing I was talking about the other day I now formally present THE SLOG THEORY.

obviously, this is STUPID rough. In order to make this way more accurate, I'd have to know how many normal days each season of Chima and Ninjago takes, which... not happening. I ain't doing that. This is very heavily rounded and largely for illustrative purposes.

(@ghostwalloper said I was cooking. It's dinnertime, pal.)

The original joke was that, since Chima is such a pain in the ass to watch and feels like it takes forever, obviously time in that realm must be WAY slower than in Ninjago, and only equalizes when The Merge happens and throws everything into a blender. Hence the name Slog Theory. I'm building on the time slowness thing here, because it's FUNNY. I could be entirely wrong - maybe everything in Chima happens in the span of five Ninjago minutes during the first season and they're just sitting around for the rest of the time.

Reading the chart: Blue side is Chima, with season chunks numbered. Red is Ninjago. Please note that the Ninjago season numbers are off to the side, ABOVE their related chunk, due to space. The purple V shape is when the Merge happens well after the end of N15. I drew this on my phone over breakfast, okay? Don't come at me for that. With that being said, I kept all of the time chunks on each side approximately the same just for ease of drawing, because - once again, for the people in the back - there is no way I am going back and doing the math to figure out exactly how many regular days each season takes. That's impossible. There are clues, sure, but WAY too many cuts. Just roll with it, please.

See those green zones on the blue Chima side? Those are our KEY POINTS. There are three, each correlating to some spot on the Ninjago side. They are:

The infamous Possession cameo. My brief research shows that this is an edited scene from EP 15 of C1, which leaves us two possibilities: either the cameo scene with Lloyd and Morro present is canon to BOTH sides, or history repeated itself on the Chima side after the original Eris/other bird iteration, and they all went to hang out on that hill again, hoping to see another fight. And boy did they deliver! Besides that scene EXPLICITLY being an edited version of one from C1, we also know that character lineup is consistent with C1.

The Beaver Portal thing from the second have of N11. It's trickier to place this in the Chima timeline because it doesn't have any of the main characters involved to indicate what season it happens in via armor or lineup, so I just let it fall where it may, which loosely suggests it happens somewhere off to the side between C2 and C3.

The final cliffhanger shot. Following with the time line I've already established with the other cameos, approximately 4-5 seasons have passed since the last one, which puts this after the end of N15 - right around where the Merge would kick off DR. Which would explain why we never see the Chima characters go have adventures down there - reality gets shredded first! Like, right after that shot!

Anyway! It's ultimately all pretty pointless - we're over here fighting over a toy commercial, after all - but I thought that drawing and writing it out a little more thoroughly helped me out, so I hope it helps you all, too.

[lefaystrent]

Me, Myself, and These Guys Who Kinda Look Like Me Ch. 7

Fandom: Sanders Sides

Pairings: Thomas/The Sides

Summary: It starts with dreams. Then Thomas starts seeing the dream people in the waking world.

Thomas doesn't know how to bring it up to anybody or if he even should at this point.

AKA, Thomas has to acknowledge the six colorful characters in the room, much to their long-awaited delight.

Ao3 Link: click here

Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6

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

"I believe you wanted a conversation? Let's talk."

And so they do.

Rules are established to assist with boundaries, and in the days that follow, they are adjusted as they adapt.

Rule number one: Thomas's bedroom is a sacred temple. When the door is shut, no one shall utilize incorporeal states of being to trespass. Anyone may knock as needed, but it's up to Thomas if he'd like company. Likewise, if the door is open, it is understood that company is welcome.

Seems simple enough, right?

Thomas wakes up to the sound of his bedroom door creaking open. He scrubs the sleep from his eyes, peering at the alarm clock to see he's been asleep all of three hours.

"Whass it?" Thomas mumbles and pushes up clumsily. He thinks something must be wrong, or that he must not have heard a knock. Maybe he's dreaming. Wouldn't be the first time that he thought he woke up in a dream.

The door practically slams closed.

"Eh?"

Is he...being spied on? What did they want? Who was it? Why did they have to wake him? Can he lay back down and go to sleep? Wow, that was loud. And rude. Or something's wrong. What's wrong? Was he having a nightmare? He thinks he was having a nightmare. There was a math test involved. Ew.

The door opens again, wider this time. Virgil hovers in the doorway, shoulders hiked up to his ears and shame-faced.

"I am so sorry," he blurts out. "I didn't mean to do that. Or wake you. I'll go."

"No, no, what's wrong?" Thomas calls back before the door can close. Sleep dust cakes his eyes, but he's got half a brain functioning. He can tell something's off.

"It's stupid," Virgil deflects, as if that is a compelling defense.

"S'not stupid. What's up, buttercup?"

Wow, Thomas really is only half awake. The only reason his head hasn't reacquainted itself with his pillow is because of his propped-up arm. His eyes don't get the memo. They droop down, closed.

Virgil doesn't answer.

Huh.

Thomas has a sneaking suspicion he'll have to open his eyes again.

"Virge?"

"I, uh, I was just checking on you. In case anyone was trying to break in. Or if you had fallen. Or if there was a gas leak. There could be a gas leak right now. You never know, ya know?"

"...eh?"

"Anyway, I'm dumb, go back to sleep dude. Sorry."

And the door shuts once more, more mindful this time.

If it had just been Virgil, Thomas thinks he could have puzzled through it. Clearly Virgil is the anxious sort. After the fire incident, Virgil has insisted on being present whenever cooking is involved. Even if he's not the one cooking, he wants to watch like a hawk. It's like his own personal lifeguard, but on land. In his house. This is a perfect analogy.

Thomas can hella relate to having anxiety. Most people, when they meet Thomas, mistake him for being an extrovert. And that can be an exhausting image to keep up, but Thomas is an actor after all. Regardless, he wants to cut Virgil some slack. With the installment of the new rules, he's having trouble adjusting, and that's okay. It's all part of the learning process.

Virgil confides that sometimes he would check on Thomas in the middle of the night (or day, curse Thomas's sleeping habits) to soothe his random bursts of paranoia. Thomas sympathizes, he does. If something happens to Thomas and he dies, what happens to the dream people? Where do they go?

It's not just Virgil though. Roman and Remus keep forgetting about the knocking rule.

Thomas dives headfirst back into work the first chance he gets. He sits at his desk in his bedroom, screen displaying a script. It's the final countdown so to speak, and Thomas is delaying the inevitable because the perfectionist in him tells him it's not good enough. There's something missing. It could be better. It can always be better.

"You should throw in a 'Mean Girls' reference there at the end."

Thomas glances towards the bottom of the script. He tilts his head. "Yeah, you're right, I could wear a pink shirt."

"Exactly."

It takes a moment, but Thomas frowns and looks to his right where Roman is reading the script happily over his shoulder.

"I thought I had my door closed..."

The faint smile on Roman's face freezes. His body tenses so hard Thomas can almost feel it vicariously. "Uh...yeaaah."

"Roman."

"...I may have forgotten you can see us."

"..."

"...how mad are you?"

Thomas isn't mad. He understands that it will take time. For years they've lived a certain way. He doesn't expect things to change overnight. However, this has to be corrected. In order to do that, Thomas has to be firm in the boundaries he's set.

Thomas takes one look at Roman's obvious dejection and caves hard.

"Do you want to help me edit the rest?" he asks.

Enforcing boundaries is difficult, okay?! Really, he has no one to blame but himself. He's a sucker. A big softie sucker.

When he discusses this with Logan, the man comforts him by parsing out the reasons behind why he struggles to say no.

"Give me an example," Logan instructs.

"Well, just last night I was laying in bed trying to go to sleep... okay I might have been scrolling on my phone. But anyway! I was in bed, and then the closet door opened."

"Remus?"

"Remus."

"He has a fascination with closets that baffles me beyond comprehension."

"I've noticed. It was kinda spooky at first, which I think was the point. But he ended up coming out and started talking to me."

"Was that all? Sorry, that sounded dismissive, let me rephrase. Is that the only actions he took?"

"Uh...pretty much? He sat beside my bed on the floor and just talked about random things. Like dolphins and Catholicism."

"He has a rather stream of consciousness mentality to the way he jumps from one topic to the other. I believe he only wished to engage you in conversation, albeit at an inopportune time."

"Yeah..."

"Based on the context of this conversation, I guess that you allowed that conversation to continue without interruption?"

Thomas did. He had put down his phone and it invigorated Remus to have Thomas's undivided attention. It's like he'd been saving up years' worth of ideas for this moment.

And Thomas... Thomas didn't want to take that away from him.

"Yeah, I did," Thomas admits meekly, as if he'd been in the wrong. Was it so wrong of him?

Janus sweeps by them on his way to peruse Thomas's book collection. Thomas would think it's an excuse to eavesdrop if Janus hadn't been spending the past few days with his nose in a book. At the very least, he may be taking his sweet time going about it, thumbing through the options.

Janus does indeed reveal he's been listening by commenting, "You're not going to offend him if you tell him to go away, if that's what you're worried about."

"That's not..." Thomas rubs his knuckles together. He squints his eyes as if that will reveal his feelings better. "I don't want to tell anyone to go away."

Janus shrugs and doesn't say anything further. His silence rattles Thomas more than what he could say. It leaves him thinking on it more.

Logan taps at his chin and Thomas waits for him to make sense of this for him. "Perhaps not to go away then. If it is reframed more politely as you saying, 'I am interested in this topic, but as I am busy at the moment, could we discuss this at a later time?' Would that be preferential?"

Still no. Thomas shakes his head.

"What do you believe would happen if you did say something along those lines?"

Thomas imagines it. He imagines cutting off Remus. How it would kill the light in his eyes. He thinks of pushing Roman out of his room. How he'd feel betrayed after Thomas promised to entertain his dreams. He pictures Virgil at his door, Thomas snapping at him to leave him alone. How Virgil would think he doesn't appreciate him.

"I don't want to make them feel bad," Thomas says at length. "And I don't want them to hate me."

Logan places a hand on his shoulder. It's solid and grounding, and for a moment Logan is almost distracted by the contact but pushes through it.

"Remember what we discussed the other day? And how Virgil verbalized a similar fear? That he was afraid you would hate us? You are jumping to a false conclusion and imagining the worst-case scenario. This is known as catastrophizing."

"Besides that," Janus adds, comparing two books in his hands, "if voicing what makes you uncomfortable makes someone upset, then they obviously only care about their own self-interests."

Logan nods in agreement. "For relationships to succeed, communication must take place in some form. If you struggle to verbalize your needs, I would like to propose an alternative."

The proposal is Thomas's stuffed bear Benjamin.

It's wonderfully simple, if a little silly. Whenever one of them has forgotten themselves and phase through a door or wall they should not have, Thomas hands them the bear. It's a wordless gesture that says, "I see you, I'm not mad at you, this is just a reminder." Surprisingly, everyone is supportive of the idea.

Maybe a little too supportive. They are so eager to not overstep into Thomas's life that they frequently overcompensate. As Benjamin becomes an accepted part of Thomas expressing his need for space, Thomas picks up on how much the others are reluctant to voice their need for space. Or their wants in general.

"You guys can come to me if you need anything," Thomas had told them during their heart-to-heart the other day. "If there's anything I can do for you, just let me know."

They said sure.

They didn't lie. They're just afraid.

The most Thomas has gotten out of them is Logan and Roman expressing interest in aiding Thomas with meal prep. It's okay now and then, but Thomas makes it clear that it's not necessary and that he absolutely should still be responsible in making his own meals occasionally or order takeout. Logan sketches out a weekly schedule to assist in everyone's expectations, and Roman lists all of the recipes he would like to try.

It's not that fair though. It's for Thomas. The others can't exactly eat.

Or....can they?

"I know you guys don't need to, but have you tried eating?" Thomas asks them. They're sitting at the dining table, a notebook between them.

"Many a time," Roman says. "Every time you eat cookies, Patton tries to steal some. And don't get me started on when you bring donuts home. Logan-"

Logan butts in, "Ahem, Thomas doesn't need that many details, thank you Roman," He fidgets with the pen in his hands, tapping it against the wired spirals of the notebook.

Roman jerks his head in Logan's direction while giving Thomas a look that screams Logan would very much like to try a donut.

Thomas holds back a grin. "But what about lately? Since you guys can touch things better now."

Logan shares a glance with Roman. "There's no need. We don't feel hunger. However..."

"Is it possible?" Roman ties into his thoughts.

"To what end? Do we have a working digestive tract? Could the food be converted to energy? Or would it phase through us at a certain point?"

"There's only one way to find out."

Thomas gets up to scrounge around his kitchen. He thinks he should really go grocery shopping soon; he's running low on quick snacks. He settles for some pretzel sticks and returns to the table.

"Who wants to go first?" he asks.

Logan gestures to the bag for Roman, showing he would rather observe. Roman plucks the pretzel bag from Thomas's hands and stares at the packaging curiously. Cautiously, he removes the clamp sealing it closed and pulls out a stick.

"Can you smell it?" Logan asks.

Roman's face pinches in minor disgust. "Why would I smell it? I'm supposed to taste it, Sub-astute Teacher."

"Smell is entwined with the ability to taste. Without it, perception of flavors would be extremely limited."

"Oh, well," Roman says and gives the stick a whiff. Then he gives it a bigger whiff.

"Anything?"

"I guess? It's different. I don't think pretzel sticks have a strong smell anyway, do they?"

"Go ahead and try it."

Roman nibbles the stick. They observe his jaw movements and listen to the muffled crunching of his teeth. He chews mechanically, much longer than anyone would need to. His brows raise just about to his hairline as he swallows.

"It's salty!" he announces excitedly. "I hate it! I can taste it! And I hate it!"

Roman tosses the rest of the stick in his mouth and plunders into the bag for more. Thomas and Logan watch incredulously as he polishes off the whole bag. Roman never stops telling them about how horrible they taste. He finishes the bag and smacks his mouth.

"Ugh, it's so dry!"

Thomas wordlessly retrieves Roman a cup of juice. Roman gleefully downs the glass in one go.

"That's so much better! What is this? It's so sweet!"

"Apple juice?"

"I love apple juice! Logan! I love apple juice!"

"Yes, I have gathered."

"I must tell all of my friends about this!"

That evening, they gather round the kitchen with everyone to taste test everything in Thomas's fridge and cabinets. If Thomas needed to go grocery shopping before, he certainly needs to after this. They have no limits to their stomach capacities. Patton eats a giant stack of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and claims he feels no fuller for the effort. Virgil scarfs down an entire tub of rocky road ice cream with such feral intensity that he's left abashed after.

"It was okay, I guess," Virgil says too nonchalantly.

"Who let this raccoon in here?" Janus comments, to which Virgil hisses.

"If we can eat things now, does that mean we'll need to shit?" Remus questions. He's found the pickle jar and is sharing with Logan. They seem to enjoy salty/sour flavors more. "Because then Virgil's gonna have the shits later."

"That was an intolerable amount of lactose," Logan agrees.

Roman whines in protest through a mouth full of pizza, "Must you speak of such crass things while we're eating?"

"It's not like we're real humans," Virgil says, but looks doubtfully at the empty ice cream container while holding his tummy.

Janus has discovered the beauty of wine and has been sipping religiously at a glass. "Real enough to eat."

"Are you feeling the effects of the alcohol?" Logan pauses to wonder.

"I don't think so, but I'm nothing if not determined."

"Spitters are quitters," Remus says, finding some kind of relevance with that train of thought to the current context. When Virgil smirks and says something about professionals gargling, Roman screeches like a banshee. Thomas thinks that is the point of Virgil's interference. He shares a fist bump with Remus.

"Anyway, back to our shit talking," Remus says peppily. Roman's face turns an impressive shade of red.

Janus snickers into his glass, "Oh I am here for shit talking. Who are we shit talking about?"

"Your mom!"

"How very original, Remus."

"Is it okay if I eat the rest of this peanut butter?" Patton asks Thomas. There's not much left in the jar anyway.

Thomas smiles. "Go for it, buddy."

Patton does a happy little shuffle dance and goes to town. The others go back to questioning if they will need to start using the bathroom now. Thomas asks what Patton thinks, since they're standing by each other and he hasn't been talking much.

Patton nods slowly, sagely. "Everybody poops."

As much as Roman is hilariously uncomfortable with the topic, everyone does share a curiosity to the limits of their corporealness. For the rest of the evening, they keep checking in with each other. "Need to poop yet?" "No, you?" "Nah, need to pee?" "Nah, but how would we know?" "It'd be instinctive." "You're instinctive." "Remus, please desist."

Thomas can confidentially say that he's never been a part of a more bizarre conversational topic.

For those at home wondering, none of them ever felt the urge to go. They are left to surmise that the food and drinks they ingest are entirely utilized with no leftover waste. Furthermore, alcohol has no affect, much to Janus's dismay. It doesn't stop him from trying.

Beyond food, Thomas tries to encourage the others to ask him for things they want. Something as simple as watching a movie is a challenge. If they sit down together to pick a movie, it always comes back to what does Thomas want to watch. And even when Thomas isn't watching TV or doing anything with his electronics, they will jump up from them as if electrocuted and ask him if he'd like the TV or computer.

Patton's the worst about it. Thomas nearly felt bad about telling him, "No, I'm good, you can keep watching whatever." It's like he can't believe he isn't monopolizing Thomas's belongings. So they get into "nice-offs" where they're trying to be courteous to each other. "No, you can." "No, you, I insist!" That sort of thing. There's an edge of panic to Patton when he does this.

If only this were as easy as handing him a stuffed bear.

After a few times, Thomas can't stand to see him this way and finally grabs the offered tv remote out of his hands. The brief relief that washes over Patton is replaced by confusion when Thomas sets the remote on the coffee table. Then confusion transforms into astonishment as Thomas grabs one of his hands in both of his.

"Patton, you're okay," Thomas tells him. "You're allowed to enjoy yourself. I don't always need the tv, and whenever I do want it, I promise I'll let you know."

Patton stares so hard at their joined hands that Thomas wonders if he can hear him. They haven't held hands since that day Patton cried. Haven't touched either. Thomas suspects...no, he knows it's a sore subject. He knows with Patton, and most of the others, maybe all of them? They've lacked human touch for so long that they don't know what to do with themselves whenever they receive it. They must crave it. Hell, Janus was brought to tears because Thomas touched his face.

It's another process though, another adjustment. It's a lot of responsibility placed on Thomas for these people he's just starting to know. He likes them, he does. He's caught off guard sometimes by how much he enjoys their company, the sparks they bring to his life as he learns more about them. It's not a bad thing by any means.

Thomas holds Patton's hand and hopes this is a good step. He caresses the top of Patton's hand with a thumb, and Patton's eyes flick, watching the movement.

"You're the priority though," Patton says softly, at a loss.

Thomas's heart breaks for them.

He leads Patton by the hand back to the couch. They sit together and Thomas gently nudges the remote into Patton's hand that he isn't holding.

"Sometimes, maybe. But right now? It's your time. What do you want to watch?"

With a subdued joy that Thomas hopes one day will have all the strength of a hurricane, Patton clicks through the apps and turns on 'Steven Universe'. Thomas sticks with him to watch. He's already seen it, but he'll watch it again any day. Plus, he doesn't want to take his hand away when Patton clutches so tightly.

They progress in paces of patience. Soon, Thomas will need to jump fully back into work now that he's recovered from his sickness. He's texted his team and he'll be meeting with them tomorrow.

The big question is, will his new roommates be able to interact with them?

"We should engage in preliminary testing," Logan suggests.

Roman cheers, "I concur! Why wait for tomorrow what you could do today?"

"Famous last words," Virgil quips.

"Then what do you suggest, Negative Nancy?"

"Why even try? If you never try, then you can never fail. If you never fail, then you won't be disappointed."

"Technically, he's not wrong," Logan admits.

"You're agreeing with him?!"

"I didn't say that. I am no defeatist. I don't fear failure. Indeed, I feel no sense of fear whatsoever."

"God I wish that were me," Thomas bemoans his introverted existence.

"How about I streak naked down the street?" Remus suggests. "That'll get some looks!"

Logan is not the only one who doesn't possess a sense of fear, apparently.

There's enough interest amongst the group to go forward with the testing today. Patton thanks Remus for his contribution but tries to let him down gently and say maybe another time. Roman supplies fanciful ideas of vigilante fighting. Even if bad guys can't see them, they can pretend Thomas has telekinesis powers and make him look cool by floating things at the enemy. Patton also thanks Roman for his contributions but tries to let him down gently as well.

"How about shopping?" Janus says. "I'm always a hoe for a shopping spree. Especially when it's someone else's money that's being spent."

"Thomas isn't some cash cow," Virgil reminds him with narrowed eyes.

"No, don't be silly, he's a cash man."

Before they can get into it, Thomas chimes in, "Sure, I can spare a bit. Where would you guys like to go?"

Predictably, Remus says a sex shop. For the first time, Thomas can kinda see how long-term exposure might render the others a little dismissive towards him. But it is a valid option! Thomas is a grown man, with grown man needs. He's just...not gonna be going to an adult store with people he just became friends with. That's like, level fifty in terms of friendship.

"How about a grocery store?" Logan says. "It would be a practical way to spend your money."

"That's his way of saying he wants more Crofters jam," Virgil translates. Logan doesn't spare him a glance and simply mutters, "Falsehood."

Thomas feels in a teasing mood, so he asks Virgil, "And what about you?"

"Me?" Virgil lifts a singular eyebrow. It's a thinner brow than Thomas's, as if he shapes them. Thomas can imagine him easily with an eyebrow piercing. It'd go great with his aesthetic.

Why is he thinking so much about Virgil's eyebrows?

Thomas inwardly shakes himself and plasters a smirk on his face. "Yeah, you. Do you want some more ice cream?"

Virgil gives a mixture of a scoff and a cough. He shoves his hands in his pockets. "Spend your money however you want, Sanders."

"And that's Virgil's way of saying yes, he would love more ice cream," Janus translates.

Patton raises a hand. "Can we get more peanut butter?"

"And pickles?" Remus asks.

"Oh, how about pizza!" Roman says.

"Sure, anything you guys want," Thomas smiles, unable to hold himself back from wanting to indulge them.

Thomas hops in his car and drives to his local Walmart. Logan rides shotgun while Roman, Remus, and Patton squish together in the backseat. It's a twelve-minute ride that the three backseat passengers insist must be enjoyed with all the enthusiasm of an eight-hour road trip. They play car games to pass the time, and Thomas plays the radio for background noise. Logan points out a traffic light in disrepair before Thomas notices and reminds him to treat the intersection as a four-way stop.

They reach Walmart and it's not as dreadfully busy as it could be, but it's still Walmart. Thomas exits the car and trudges up to the store like a man going to war.

It takes him a bit to realize that the others have suddenly gone missing. Surrounded by strangers after spending over a week at home is a bit of a slap to the senses. Thomas is more troubled with securing a shopping cart and avoiding bumping into anyone. He surveys the store and debates where to start before heading towards the very back of the grocery section, intending to work his way up.

By the time he's grabbing a pack of butter, Thomas notices the immediate quiet. There's a chill that's not coming from the cooler beside him. He cranes his neck around to look over the buzzing masses. People pass this way and that. A lady with five kids getting milk. An old man perusing the discount baked goods rack. A couple heading towards the deli counter. More and more inconsequential bodies flit across his vision. And in the middle of the aisle, as if the rest of the world falls away and his eyes are drawn to him, there stands Virgil.

He stands alone, the brightness of his purple patches standing out amongst the crowd. Calmly, he watches people pass by him. No one looks his way, not even once. A teenager passes right through him on her way to catch up with her parents. Virgil's lips twitch up and he turns to meet Thomas's gaze.

Thomas is held captive in the moment. Virgil looks at him, and there's no guessing what's on his mind. Thomas knows. He knows it in his heart.

Virgil shrugs helplessly. They gave it a shot. This changes nothing. He'll tell himself he doesn't want to be perceived anyway while ignoring that little piece inside that pleads otherwise. That piece that's been waiting for so long for someone to just look and notice and not act like he isn't there, like he doesn't exist.

It's a lonely thing to watch the world go by and be told that you can't partake.

As much as it hurts, it's okay, because Thomas at least sees him for who he is. It's enough.

Yet again, Thomas thinks they deserve so much more.

***

The ride back to his apartment is significantly less noisy. Thomas catches glimpses of Virgil and Janus in the rearview mirror sitting in the backseat, neither talking, both looking out their respective windows. They disappear once Thomas parks the car, and Patton and Logan join him while he empties the trunk of its groceries. They're also far too quiet for comfort as they help carry bags inside.

The next day rolls by, Thomas meets with his team, and Roman lingers in the background, an unseen guest. Thomas can see his wistful smile as he watches Thomas interact with his friends. There's longing there to be included. When no one's looking, Thomas offers him a wave. It's enough of an acknowledgement that Roman perks up and swings his feet a bit where he sits on a table.

The meeting goes well. They've brainstormed some future video ideas and have a shooting schedule mapped out. Best of all, no one looks at Thomas like he's a walking hazard. They seem to be relieved that he's recovered and well rested and more responsive than he's been in a long time. Thomas returns home afterwards, and life goes on.

There's not much in the way of testing discussed after that, for a while at least. The previous lack of success is disheartening, and really though, what else is there to test? They are real people to Thomas only.

And Thomas would be a liar if he doesn't admit that he occasionally speculates if this makes him clinically insane. As real as they are to him, no one else can see or interact with them. Doesn't that check the boxes on a lot of psych evaluation tests?

If it's a form of insanity, it's a relatively mild one in terms of negative impact. It could be a lot worse. He's sure Logan could grant him some neat facts to put it all in perspective. That would involve telling Logan about his concerns revolving whether they are real or not. He doesn't want him to think he's invalidating his existence.

Isn't he though? By just questioning this, isn't there a part of his mind that still can't wrap around this? What more can he do to prove to himself that they truly exist?

Without conversing to the others about it, Thomas discreetly slips out his phone and snaps a picture of Remus. He's just sitting on the living room floor, swaying back and forth absent-mindedly. You can see the corner of the entertainment center in the picture. It's not a remarkable picture by any means and doesn't have the best lighting, but Remus brings a sense of peculiarity with his dark prince outfit.

The picture is taken with none the wiser. Thomas purses his lips and stares at his phone screen. He taps his fingers on the back of the case.

Remus's figure never fades. It's definitely a picture of him. Now what does he do with it?

He can send it to someone. Just to see if they can see an image of the others. If not in person, maybe they can be viewed through technological means? But who should he send it to? Not his brothers. Or his parents. Hmm, he can't think of a friend he can send it to without garnering a series of questions for an explanation. Well, he can possibly play it off. But what if he can't?

He scrolls through his contact list before spying his godson's name. Gavin sends him random stuff all the time. Thomas can just tell him it's a meme trend or something.

Trying not to overthink it, Thomas sends the pic along with a question, What do you see in this picture?

A few very nail-biting minutes later, Gavin responds. Is that ur house?

That isn't...the worst response.

Yeah lol

Ur tv cord? Idk is something I'm missing?

Yeah, the invisible man. You can't see him?

Nah, he invisible.

Darn, I told him to turn off that setting before I took the pic. Maybe next time.

Gavin sends back a laughing emoji.

That settles that. If Gavin could see Remus, he would have said something about his outfit or ask who he is or why he's at Thomas's apartment. The kid asks a lot of questions, and to be fair, Remus is very questionable in general.

Thomas doesn't let the others know of his discovery. What they don't know can't hurt them, right?

It turns out to be truer than Thomas can imagine. Curiosity killed the cat. Ignorance is bliss. Be careful what you wish for.

While no one has spoken of the discoveries from the Walmart outing, it doesn't mean it hasn't been on their minds. In fact, Logan in particular has taken notes to record the aspects of their existence. He approaches Thomas and shows him some of his theories and hypothesis.

"I would like to attempt a new test, if you would be so inclined," Logan says, and while he holds his posture well, Thomas senses an underlying nervousness to him.

Thomas doesn't want to deny him this, not when they've struggled with learning how to reach out to him.

"What do you have in mind?" Thomas asks.

They relocate to the backyard. Everyone else joins them. They probably would have anyway, but Logan specifically requests that everyone convene together.

"Are we finally running into oncoming traffic?" Remus asks excitedly, bouncing on his heels.

"Not today, Remus. I have devised an experiment to test the boundaries of our physical attachment to Thomas. Prior to Thomas's illness, we could not stray beyond roughly eighty feet from Thomas. When arriving to this distance, we experience a tethering sensation, as if we cannot walk any further. With the increase to our corporeal prowess, I suggest we ascertain whether this distance remains or if it has increased."

"So you just want us to go for a walk?" Patton asks.

"Oh, why didn't you just say that, Isaac Nerdton?" Roman scoffs.

Logan adjusts his glasses. "Because I wanted all parties to know precisely what– okay, fine. We are going for a walk. But!" He claps his hands to accentuate his point. "This will be regulated so that we can account for all variables. I suggest we test one subject at a time to calculate if there are any differences between distance amongst us."

Thomas raises his hand and waits for Logan to call on him. "So what do I do?"

"You just stand there."

"Cool, I can do that. I'm good at standing."

"Who's gonna go first?" Virgil asks. He shifts his gaze between everyone to see if someone will volunteer.

Patton shrugs. "I could, I guess?"

"What would this prove anyway?" Janus comments, snide in the way he checks his nails through his glove. It would be a funny image if he didn't sound genuinely dismissive of the whole affair. "This won't change anything. Even if we miraculously can wander off to new horizons, Thomas is still the only person who can see us."

"We could break into people's houses and steal their stuff," Remus says.

"Let's not take other people's things," Patton says. "We wouldn't want people to come steal from Thomas, would we? It's not right."

"Morality only matters to those who have a place in society. Last I checked, we don't."

Patton deflates and looks at Janus with a pained expression. "I think it still matters how you treat people..."

"Good for you," Janus says, sickly sweet.

Virgil steps between the two of them. "Okay, what crawled in your ass and died?"

"Cynicism? Disillusionment? A reality check? Take your pick."

Virgil growls and looks at Logan. "You know what? I'll go."

"Wait, wait, let's not start things off angry," Thomas urges. Virgil has begun walking, so Thomas skitters up behind him, grasping on to his jacket. Virgil halts but doesn't turn around.

"This is merely for educational purposes. I did not expect this to warrant a strong emotional reaction."

Roman claps a hand on Logan's shoulder. "Not your fault, Specs. Someone must have pissed in Janus's cheerios this morning."

Janus crosses his arms and puts on an unaffected tone, "Do whatever you wish. Don't let me stop you."

Thomas shares a look with Logan. "I'd like to go through with the test because it's important to Logan. Whether what we discover is any different than what you guys are used to, it doesn't matter. What matters is that it's important to Logan to find out."

There's a brief softening of the eyes behind Logan's glasses. He shuffles quickly with his notebook and pen and then unceremoniously dumps them into Roman's arms.

Roman sputters, "What–?"

"I'll do it," Logan announces. "After all, this is my hypothesis. I will take the initiative and be the first to go."

Logan gestures for Thomas to step aside to the "starting point". Thomas lets go of Virgil hesitantly, but Virgil doesn't protest or turn to look. Thomas shuffles over to the side in the grass and holds still while Logan stands beside him.

"I will count my steps as I go along to measure the distance. Once I reach a point I can no longer move forward, I'll return."

"Okay, easy peasy," Thomas says with false cheer.

Janus doesn't debate any more. Patton offers no assurances. Remus doesn't interrupt. Roman holds the notebook stiffly. And Virgil's head only moves as Logan walks by him. He watches as Logan treks across the grass behind the apartment complex.

Logan keeps his head bowed, watching his steps with careful attentiveness. He crosses the road and carries on through more grass. He rapidly approaches the tree line that begins there on the other side.

"Anyone wanna make bets?" Remus asks. The suggestion falls on deaf ears, but Patton does come over to stand beside him and hold his hand. It must not be a frequent occurrence because Remus glances down at him in surprise but doesn't discourage it.

For Thomas's part, his eyes are glued to Logan's back. His form is getting smaller, more distant.

"That's more than eighty feet," Virgil murmurs, loud in the quiet. His hand scratches at his neck, and when that doesn't seem to do anything for him, he shakes out his hands. Then he shakes out his hands again.

Roman turns to gauge Virgil. He frowns at what he sees, though Thomas can't see Virgil's face from this angle. "You good, Virge?"

"I don't like this," Virgil admits. His foot begins tapping a mad dance into the ground.

"I don't either," Patton drones, morose. Perhaps he's sensitive from Janus's remarks.

Logan treads into the woods. They can see his black polo and blue jeans through the spindly tree trunks. At first, he's there, but quickly he's swallowed into the vegetation.

Virgil runs his fingers through his hair and blows out a stream of air. "What if he gets lost?"

Roman laughs, "Get lost? He's going in a straight line, Virge."

"What if something happens to him? What if– what if– I don't like this."

"I thought you were on board with this."

Virgil doesn't answer. He starts pacing back and forth, and Thomas can see his expression now in his peripheral. His brows are knotted, eyes too wide. His pacing becomes erratic.

"Hey, hey, don't do that. You're just gonna work yourself up," Roman calls to him, coming over to stop him. Virgil tries to walk around him, but Roman blocks his path.

"Why didn't one of us go with him? We should have gone with him!"

"Virgil, please, it'll be alright. Pat, may I have an emergency dose of positivity over here?"

"I don't like this," Patton repeats, and his tone is even more dejected. He holds onto Remus's arm with both hands. He leans into him, shaking at the arm insistently. "I don't like this."

"...Patton?" Remus hums in confusion. He looks around to the others to see if they're witnessing how close to crying Patton seems, but Thomas's eyes can't leave the tree line where Logan vanished.

"We have to go get him. Please, we have to–"

"Stormcloud, please," Roman soothes, and Virgil clings to the front of his tunic like a drowning man. His breaths are coming shorter and shorter, his words jumbling amongst the gasps. Roman stands there, dumbfounded. "Uh, Remus?"

"Kinda busy with Pat," Remus says, watching as Patton unravels. Tears cascade down his face and the first whimper of a sob comes out. "Okay, what the fuck is going on?"

"He's gonna die, he's gonna die-" Virgil rants over and over and he launches into a full-blown panic attack. "Janus, Janus, help!"

"Please!" Patton wails and falls to his knees. Remus barely manages to catch him and guide him down safely.

Thomas's feet move without intention. He takes one heavy step, then another, movements sluggish and wooden.

Janus is there suddenly, hand at his elbow to stop his forward momentum. Thomas is barely conscious of the peering eyes, one human and one snake. Janus glances between a hysterical Virgil and a sobbing Patton and turns to Thomas.

"Thomas, can you hear me?" he asks.

Thomas can, but it's like he's under water. He tries to step forward again, but Janus won't let him. Thomas feels the resistance as if steel cables are latching onto him with grappling hooks. Serrated edges sink into his flesh. No, no, it's not from outside. It's inside. There's a pull inside him, and it tugs.

"Janus!" Virgil begs.

"Please!" Patton cries.

"What the hell is wrong with them?!"

"I don't know! It's not like this has ever happened before!"

"Janus, what is Thomas doing?"

The words drift over Thomas, like seafoam floating by in a vast sea. There are more important matters to attend, like how he can't see Logan. If Logan is gone, then that means–

"Thomas, listen to me," someone says, and there are hands cupping his face. Thomas can't feel them, yet he knows they're there. "You have to shut this down. You have to stop this. Now."

But Logan is gone. He's gone, and Thomas is left bereft without him. The earth beneath his feet tremors, and the sky splits open in a downpour. The sun will fall and set the world ablaze. And Thomas feels the ache building up in his chest with mind-numbing certainty.

"Thomas!" the voice yells at him, hands shaking him. Thomas looks up into a face that he knows. He knows that face. He knows, he knows, he knows. How could he not? That's why it's so familiar. Why couldn't he see it before?

"I'm sorry," Thomas whispers.

His chest splinters in agony. Fear bleeds out abundant. Grief ravages his heart.

Thomas falls to the ground screaming.

[literallyjusttoa]

So, I'm rereading THO again for a thing, and I just noticed this. On page 94, Apollo says -

"We gods are not hung up about such things. I myself have had . . . let's see, thirty-three mortal girlfriends and eleven mortal boyfriends? I've lost count."

Ok sir, I'm calling bs. Let's do the math under the cut

According to Apollo, he's dated 44 mortals. He does say he's lost count, but i'd assume the number he gives us would at least be close to the actual correct number. Like, I don't think he'd come up with such specific answers if they weren't at least somewhat accurate. Let's see what kind of number we can come up with. First, we can count the children we know he's had in modern times and assume he made them with another person we can assume he was dating. That means:

Austin

Georgie

Gracie

Halcyon

Jerry

Kayla

Lee

Michael

Will

Yan

So ten people. Cool, that leaves us 34 more lovers which seems accurate. Except no, wait, the lowest number of mortal lovers Apollo could have had (referenced from Theoi) is 24 (19 women and 5 men if you were curious). Plus we have to add Commodus so that's 25. So you're telling me, Apollo, our lovely manwhore Apollo, dated 25 people during antiquity, dated ONLY 9 people throughout all of the time between the end of Commodus' reign (192) to somewhere in the 1990's, and then dated 10 people in very quick succession. That's almost 2000 YEARS in which Apollo dated 9 PEOPLE.

That is so obviously wrong, so lets use math to figure out what the actual amount may be. Now, I'm making the assumption that Apollo dates at around the same rate all the time, which I know isn't accurate, but this is just for fun. With that in mind -

There's no set time period for antiquity, so I'm using the starting date of 776 B.C.E. (Date of the first Olympics) and the end of Commodus' reign 192 C.E., since he's the last lover we know Apollo had in ancient times. That's 25 lovers in 968 years.

Which means Apollo has really been getting around in recent years bc he's had 9 lovers in about 12 years. Idk what happened in the 90's/early 2000's but have fun I guess. We also have Halcyon, who was maybe born in the 1940/50's? He's a bit of an outlier.

So from antiquity, we have a rate of one lover every 39 years, and from recent times we have a lover every year with a break once every 4 years. Maybe Apollo doesn't date people on leap years idk.

So now let's calculate how many lovers Apollo might've had in the middle bit we know nothing about. The Apollo Dark Ages, if you will. Counting Halcyon, we'll make the time period for this time 192-1950. That's 1,758 years.

Using the Antiquity rate: 45 lovers

Using the Modern rate: 1,319 lovers

And Apollo, in THO, says that OVERALL he's only had 44 lovers.

Apollo, buddy, when you said you lost count I didn't think you meant you lost count this much jesus christ.

[reflections-in-a-critical-eye]

A storm is brewing and since I'm stuck indoors, I thought I could have some fun. Big emphasis on fun, for my sake and everyone else's. Please. So, without prolonging this too much, I'm down for some theories and speculations today and when I do it, either call me Columbo or a clown, but what's important is that I do it in style.

I've observed that these days, some idols have been a bit careless with their watches. Are they using them simply as expensive accesories? Do they need to know the time or they have their managers to do that for them? Oh, to live an idol lifestyle....nothing but idleness, right?

Or is it? The suspects today are Park Jimin, Choi Minho and Lee Taemin. My assistant to this case @peppertaemint and her reliable sources brought to my attention something we've briefly talked about a few weeks ago. Actually, we made some jokes. The situation was as follows.

Was the Rolex broken and the guy didn't know? It seems a bit silly given that the watch is not cheap at all. And usually, with an item like that, you do cherish and take care of it. It's a status symbol (I'll expand on that below). Also, Minho is known for posting on Bubble at specific times. His birthday or SHINee anniversary. It's not part of the fandom's collective imagination. They don't need to invent their own math in order to come up with the number they want. It's pretty straightforward.

Now, what does 11:55 mean? Nothing for now, but it's close to 12:09 which is Minho time (thank you pptm again). Anyway, the jury is still out on this one. It might just be that Minho needs to fix his watch.

But well, well, well, what do we have here? Taemin himself showing the same negligence as his boyfriend Hyung.

In Taemin's case, I wouldn't be surprised he just didn't care that his time was wrong, but then what is going on? Do 2Min need to buy new watches? Did the Rolexes skip quality control and somehow these 2 idols are victims, scammed of thousands of dollars? Is it a trend? A secret code between them? I'll say that all of the above should be taken into consideration.

Finally, the third victim (?) of faulty watches, Park Jimin-ssi. In his case, we're dealing with a Patek Philippe. It's the type of watch that a media mogul like Logan Roy would appreciate, or at least that's what Tom Wambsgans thought.

Logan did not care at all about the watch and it ended up as the equivalent of hush money for a kid that they all made fun of when they offered him a million bucks if he scores at a game. Oh, I miss Succession so much.....

Back to Patek Philippe. As Tom said in his rehearsed funny line, everytime you look at it, it tells you how rich you are, aka a status symbol. Or in Jimin's case, it tells you Jungkook's birth hour?

Like Minho, we also know that Jimin has his Jimin hour, he knows his way around the date calculator and so on. And given all the investigative work already done by other people (like the thread I linked), would it be so outrageous, so hard to believe that it was intentional? I don't think so. It's a sweet gesture and it shows Jimin's attention to details. He did talk about Jungkook's birthday and was among the reasons why he was livestreaming.

Pre-recorded or not (or whatever excuses/conspiracies weirdos like to engage with) Jimin wore the watch in his home and it somehow it was Jungkook's birth hour. Could it all be just a massive coincidence? Maybe. Could the Patek Philippe be faulty? Maybe, but damn, these idols should stop buying expensive watches then.

Is it such a harmful and delusional theory that needs to be buried because some fans are either pussies or plain stupid? No. This fandom loves numbers so much when it involves 20 other pairings within BTS. I think it's fine to talk about an additional one. I'm not the biggest fan/follower of the number theories, especially when it comes to I-jikookers (they work those numbers like they're trying to fix the books), but it doesn't mean that everything is absurd or completely ridiculous.

I'm not ready to close the case, my work as a detective is not done yet. I'll put it on hold, who knows what other evidence I might find myself in posession of in the future?

[peachjagiya]

My Taekook timeline thoughts

Idea from @blue703.

I'mma try this. Let me preface by saying I'm baby Army, coming up to a year. I pick stuff up fast and I have ADHD so I hyperfixate and deep dive but there's definitely stuff I don't know/am still trying to figure out. I ALSO got exposed to a lot of rumour and speculation without much foundation early on so I'm trying to remove that from my thinking.

2013-2014

Tae is instrumental in bringing Jungkook out of himself. They're CLEARLY close. Initial puppy love vibes.

2014-2015

This always feels to me that the attraction is strongest/most obvious on Jungkook's side. I don't think it's one-sided but Jungkook wears his heart in his EYES and Taehyung finds it easier to centre himself, perhaps. 2015-2017

Jungkook is what, 18-20 at this point, Taehyung 20-22? (my maths is appalling. I think that's right) and they seem to have exactly the kind of relationship that two young guys figuring themselves out have ie; DRAMATIC.

Sweet and clingy and lots of eyes and touching. Doesn't seem beyond the realms of possibility that kissing/whatever might have occurred. They're young and besotted. But it also seems to be a time of some pretty intense down moments like whatever the heck happened around Tokyo.

If you think about the Inkigayo video where JK seems a little bit stroppy with Tae for not being there sooner - well, devolve his emotional maturity by 6 or 7 years. I know people say JK doesn't like when he's not getting attention and it's supported by some clips, I feel. Like the slight drama with Bogum. I can imagine this combined with scary queer feelings combined with *SPECULATION INCOMING* being seperated on camera*, against their natural instinct to be close, would create a pressure cooker of Feels which would only ever come out in drama.

Also: Stigma is released in this time, Namjoon says Tae has his own story about it. I have wondered if Stigma might have been related to HYYH but I don't think the storyline bled into the songs, did they? Please correct me if I'm wrong there.

*side note: Dispatch threat to reveal a same sex couple then Dispatch suddenly getting BTS exclusives is an intriguing theory but I think even if it's nonsense or about a different group, I imagine it would create nervous ripples throughout various agencies? Maybe seperating Taekook was precaution? I don't know. Just a thought.

2018

It's well known JK and Tae were having some of their worst times during 2018 and disbandment talks. What intrigues me is that Jin says JK isolated himself and didn't talk to the members.

But Yoongi sends Tae and JK the supportive text message and Tae says he and JK read the messages together and cried. JK is isolated and not talking to other members but he's with Tae at this point? Interesting.

(I don't know if anyone else gets this but there seems to be a kind of implied "Well except V" in a lot of these stories. JK in his 2023 Sirius interview "I didn't really get a chance to see the members this year." and yet he's with Tae on a number of confirmed occasions and maybe other unconfirmed? Almost like Tae is aside from the collective members when it comes to JK.)

I feel like intentions might have been set here and some kind of commitment made, though I'm not sure it's a "together" commitment. Just an undetermined milestone of things getting much heavier than they were. An admission, a mutual understanding, a commitment to stop the drama... I don't know.

2019-2021

Golden Disk Awards 2020. Grammys 2020. Atomix. That's all. :)

Oh I suppose we have BTS: ITS1 filmed in 2020 and as we all know, Tae and JK have been awkward for a while and the only way Jungkook wants to be near Tae is if Jimin tricks him into going. 🙄

They just seem real sweet and close these years. No particular dramas between the two of them are cropping up for me, correct me if I'm wrong. JK has his tattooist nonsense which just feels like a silly storm in a dumb teacup. Still being seperated and forced to pretend they barely like each other in lives but that's just Bighit Streisand Effecting themselves. 😇

If not 2018 then something in here feels like it might have been the actual commitment.

2022 onwards

Demonstrable time spent together. Confirmed private time where JK hangs out with Tae's friends. Unconfirmed time too. WHATEVER WAS IN THE WATER FOR DREAM PREMIERE. Obviously Jennie weirdness in late '22, early '23 but that feels so much like a press stunt that I just J-Hope side eye it.

I once looked up if there was any telltale signs of fanservice when I was newborn army and so confused. A lot of the response was just "if it looks gay, it's fanservice." LOL but one person replied, paraphrased, "Disregard stages, photoshoots, some of the promotional lives, anything under direct agency management. Consider whether they actually interact privately where nobody is." and I feel like that kind of sums up Taekook since 2022 when BTS are on hiatus and they're still in each other's orbit.

2023

If they're not a couple, they're in love and don't know it. That's a joke. Don't come for me.

Lets see what 2024 onwards brings!

[dr-futbol-blog]

Hot Zone, Pt. 5

From McKay telling everyone he's "working on it", we cut directly to Sheppard in McKay's lab working on it. While likely there are a bunch of people listening in on the conversation, this is the first actual private moment between them that we see in the episode:

Sheppard: Alright, McKay, I'm here. McKay: D'you see it? Sheppard: Is it the big thing in the middle of the room? McKay: Yeah, that's the one. Sheppard: Should I pay attention to all these warnings? McKay: Not today, no.

Note again that they just seem to pick up the conversation as though it's continuing from before. And also that there's clearly bits of it missing, part of the conversation that the audience never got to hear where McKay explained to Sheppard what to do once he gets to the lab (we hear him explain it again to Weir and Ford, the first of whom told Rodney earlier to "pretend like" she didn't know what a nanovirus was i.e., to dumb it down for her; meaning that either McKay and Sheppard had a rather long conversation about this, for which there doesn't seem to have been any time for, or McKay managed to explain everything Sheppard needed to know about it exceedingly quickly). These little indications of missing time, of private time between them, are interesting.

Sheppard asks him whether he should pay attention to the warnings on the device. Because the last time he came across warnings pertaining to McKay's devices, he clearly wanted to ask about whether he could ignore the warnings or not, and he couldn't.

Sheppard is also concerned about the radiation and its possible effects on him. This too hearkens back to their discussion in Underground (S01E08) where Sheppard asks whether they're in danger from the radiation and McKay tells him that they're fine, as long as he hadn't been planning on having any children:

McKay: You do realise that long term exposure to these levels of radiation is extremely dangerous? Cowen: Our scientists tell me otherwise. McKay: Well, they're wrong. Sheppard: Are we in danger now? McKay: Oh, it would take days or weeks at these levels of radiation -- but I assume the Genii spend days or weeks down here? Cowen: Many of our people have spent their entire lives here. McKay: Their entire short lives. We'll be fine -- just as long as you weren't planning on having children.

So, once more we return to the topic of children. McKay was thinking about family and children earlier and here, Sheppard seems to be doing the same:

McKay: Wait til it comes on, give it a good ten count, and then discharge. Sheppard: A ten count?! McKay: Don't worry -- I've probably been around more EMPs than anyone. Sheppard: This is gonna be, uh -- I'm gonna be fine, right? McKay: Yes. That's a yes -- you'll be fine.

The difference is, McKay isn't joking about the children anymore. He is actually soothing Sheppard's genuine concern. And Sheppard continues displaying perfect trust in McKay's abilities. Not only to his ideas being good but also to McKay keeping him from harm's way.

Returning to the topic of mental math and the game McKay et al were playing at the start of the episode, we see Sheppard mouth out the numbers. A man that is capable of doing complex equations in his mind is mouthing out a ten-count. He's not making any more mistakes today, especially not with something that Rodney needs to get done.

Again, there are people listening in on their conversation. But it's as though they very quickly forget about everyone else. It's just the two of them, McKay guiding him through the process like he was standing there right next to Sheppard. And Sheppard is ignoring everything that isn't McKay.

The EMP in McKay's lab turns out not to be strong enough to kill the nanovirus. Note again we return to the middle of a conversation Sheppard and McKay were having that we as the audience never got to hear:

Sheppard: I've already tried that -- it's blown. McKay: That is before we re-set the sub-switch. Sheppard: Well, maybe we shouldn't have overloaded it so much. McKay: Look, it's fixable, it's fixable -- we just need to use a little trial and error. Sheppard: Look, even if we get this thing working, who's to say the pulse is gonna get any bigger? Ford and Zelenka have twenty minutes before their arteries rupture. Are you sure an EMP will kill this thing? McKay: Yes. Sheppard: Alright. I have an idea.

Notice how neither is not just not laying blame on the other but how they are going out of their way not to do that. They make it clear that they're in this together: "...we reset..."; "...we shouldn't have overloaded..."; "...we just need to use..."; "...even if we get this thing..." This is also an example of how they work so well together: McKay comes up with an idea and Sheppard figures out a way to implement it. McKay tells him what's possible and Sheppard makes it happen.

I also want to highlight this: Sheppard mentions Ford and Zelenka to McKay before suggesting his rather drastic plan, to get McKay to go along with it. Ford is a team member, Zelenka is a scientist. They are both harbouring a lot of guilt related to people under these headings as of that moment. If not for Dr. Peterson, perhaps Sheppard wouldn't have even thought of suggesting blowing up a nuke in the atmosphere to create a bigger version of what he believed McKay was certain would fix the problem. And if he hadn't been for Brendan Gaul, perhaps McKay wouldn't have let him attempt it. But as it is, they both have a reason to want to go through it it. And the best Rodney can do is to assure Sheppard that he is absolutely sure it is going to work, clearly already having figured out what Sheppard was going to suggest. The only thing he can give to help Sheppard is his certainty, so he does.

They had that discussion amongst themselves even if other people were listening to it but once they start discussing it with Weir, they're both again of one mind. McKay is backing Sheppard up. Just a moment ago he was of the mind that they'd be able to fix the EMP generator but when they are presenting the plan to Weir, he's 100% behind Sheppard's plan. He's able to convince her that Sheppard is right, and he's even able to convince himself that it will be safe: "I know it sounds severe but if the major was able to overload a naquadah generator twenty miles above the city, it would be perfectly safe from a radiological standpoint."

And, you know. Make sure that the kids are alright.

Zelenka gives McKay an interesting look when he very emphatically tells Weir "The Major is right!" like using the EMP hadn't been his idea originally. McKay, voluntarily giving credit to someone else for an idea? Now he has seen everything, clearly.

And that, my friends, is when Zelenka figured it out.

Sheppard gets the go-ahead (and apparently needs no help working the generator, he's watched McKay do that enough times before), and the final words exchanged as he takes off are between Sheppard and McKay. Again, there are people listening in on this conversation but it still manages to seem private, again in this world of their own amidst other people.

It doesn't really need saying, and he knows that it doesn't need saying, but McKay gives Sheppard final advice anyway:

McKay: You're only gonna have thirty seconds once you release it before it explodes. You need to get as far away as you can. Sheppard: Get as far away from the nuclear explosion as possible -- that's good advice, Rodney, thanks! McKay: You're welcome.

It's his way of showing that he cares. It's the most loving thing Rodney McKay knows how to do. This is a man that not just never bothers to say the obvious thing, it really doesn't even occur to him. Like when his sister tells him she loves him (Miller's Crossing, S04E09), while he obviously loves her back, it doesn't occur to him to actually say it, because of course she knows it already. Why does it need saying when it's so obvious everyone knows it anyway? Well, sometimes it is nice just to let someone know that you care about them. So he does.

And I mentioned previously that Sheppard often says things in a tone of voice that makes people interpret his words differently from how he intends them. It was spelled out in one of the novelizations: everything he says sounds sarcastic. Like his response to McKay here, it has that "Thanks, mom" energy. But McKay doesn't get to see the look on his face just before he says it:

McKay interprets what he says as sarcasm (or that which he later calls "the kidding"). Sheppard may even have intended it as a sarcastic reply because heavy emotional moments are not easy for him. He knows he's not good with, what do you call them, feelings. But he still acknowledges what Rodney was trying to do. He still makes sure that if these are the final words he gets to say to him, that they communicate his appreciation. Not just or even predominately (or even at all) for the advice McKay just gave him that didn't need to be given. But for all of it. Up to and including Rodney's voice being the last thing he might ever hear. Thanks, Rodney.

Continued in Pt. 6