#I also think this would make a cool double sided charm but alas I have no clue how to do that

[jellydrawsposts]

Was thinking about the old designs verses the new designs and blacked out only to wake up to this

In drawing this though I realized the reason Corvus fell was because he didn’t have proper gloves to use his chain weapon with so he couldn’t get a good grip

[ewritesfanfics]

Day 6: Bounty Hunters

@krexieweek

https://archiveofourown.org/works/36919867

A/N:  So, I hadn't meant it to at first, but somehow this ended up just being basically the same universe as my fic for Day 1: Battle of the Bands. Make of that what you will.

---

To say Douxie is panicking would be an understatement.

One might think that, after all these years, he might have a better handle on keeping cool, calm, and collected in tense situations, but alas, he does not. Especially not when it comes to his friends.

Especially not when it comes to Krel.

So, when he got a garbled and barely legible text message from the Akiridion, with the only readable words being ‘attack’ and ‘help’, he ran from his barely-an-apartment without a second thought, sprinting through the streets of Arcadia in basically his pajamas, lacking shoes, house keys, and Archie. He’s just thankful his barely-an-apartment isn’t that far from the location.

“I thought my running days were over!” he hears Toby cry out.

He cuts between two buildings just in time to come upon a large, glowing orange creature hurl a double-ended hammer at the group with a loud, “I will crush you!”

“Clipeatusa!”

Before Aja can even finish putting up her serrator-shield, Douxie’s ward surrounds the group, reflecting the hammer at a high, sharp angle, and sending it spinning far into the night. The extraterrestrial holds out its hand in an obvious gesture to resummon his weapon, but Douxie figures with the force it shot off with, he’s bought at least a little time.

“What was that!?” Eli cries out.

“Your backup!” Douxie responds, already thinking of all the possible spells he could use here.

“Douxie!” Krel calls out.

“Douxie!?” Eli calls out.

“We fighting or running? Because if it’s the latter, we should get a move on before that hammer comes back!”

“Fight!” Toby says at the same time the rest of them say, “Run!”

“You’ve been outvoted Toby, go!” Douxie says, the whooshing sound of air displacement by a large, spinning object drawing nearer, signaling the end of the time he bought.

“It’s hammer time!”

“Quick, behind Stuart Electronics!” Aja says, and the group files in quickly, Douxie bringing up the rear and locking in a shield charm.

On the other side, Douxie reflects the hammer once more, and the muscles in his arms strain and groan from the effort. The shield charm may deflect things, but there’s still momentum and mass. He could shield against those as well, but that would be two more spells on top of this or an incredibly draining and complex shield spell, and he doesn’t feel like passing out in an alley right now.

The creature goes after his hammer that was ricocheted in the opposite direction, which gives them enough time to put some distance between them.

They make a break for it through the forest and come upon the Tarron’s house – connected to a very large ship.

He knew the mothership was large, but actually seeing it from the outside is a whole different matter.

“There’s a spaceship growing out of your house? You have a space house?” Toby gasps.

“Shh,” Aja insists, “The bounty hunter could have followed us.”

“Also, our ‘spaceship’ prefers to be called Mother,” Krel adds.

“Let’s hope she knows how to stop whatever that lifeform was,” Aja says.

They sneak around to roughly where the front entrance is.

“How’re we going to get up there?” Eli asks, but he doesn’t get to finish his question before Aja parkours between the trees and flips through the open door, disappearing from sight.

“Go ahead Krel, I can help these guys,” Douxie says, and Krel nods, following the same path that Aja took.

“How’re you gonna help us?” Steve asks.

“Sina pondera facti,” Douxie says, pointing at them. They are briefly outlined in blue, a rune appearing above their heads, and then, they return to normal. “Now, everybody hold hands and pretend you like each other.”

“Wait, what did you do to us?” Steve asks.

“Hold hands?” Eli asks.

“Just do it.”

The three boys do so, and Douxie puts himself between Toby and Steve, and Steve has Eli on his other side.

“Now, don’t let go until I’ve let go.”

“What happens if we do let go?” Toby asks.

“You’ll get flung into the stratosphere.”

“What!?” Toby and Eli cry out in shock, and Steve says in confusion.

“Hold on tight! Salira altum sea!”

With that, Douxie jumps. The other teens scream, their grips almost bruising, as they are sent flying high through the air, rocketing far up past the house, and above the tree line, but only very briefly, before sharply plummeting.

“This is gonna hurt!” he calls out, and since he can’t exactly call up the spell on his bracelet, he just opts for shouting, “Tarda descensus!”

They hit the blue barrier that forms in front of them about 10 feet from the step of the house, and then Douxie lets it go, along with the spell he placed on the others. They each fall the rest of the way, landing painfully, but successfully.

“What the ever-loving flip was that?” Steve wheezes from where he lays.

“A weightlessness spell, a jumping spell, then an anti-gravity spell. Or a fall-slowing spell, depending on how you wish to look at it.”

“So … how would we have been sent into the stratosphere if we let go?” Toby asks.

“Well, as according to Newton’s First Law of Motion, an object in motion remains in motion at constant speed and in a straight line unless acted on by an unbalanced force. Now, think of the force equation, F = ma, force equals mass multiplied by acceleration. Via my spell, your mass aka variable ‘m’ was magically counteracted and reduced to as close to zero as I could get, and then I introduced a variable ‘a’, acceleration. The ‘a’ multiplied by my ‘m’ was enough force to take us up as high as we went. At the height of our arc, ‘a’ had decayed enough that the up-force became less than the down-force, or gravity. But see, your ‘m’ was much less than mine and we had the same ‘a’, meaning your total up-force was much greater than my own. It would have taken a lot longer for gravity to become the greater force acting upon you. You would eventually come down, but it would have taken a long time.

“And if I were to release the weightlessness spell after you let go, you would come down faster with the increased ‘m’, but you would still have the greater height and if you had gotten too far out, I might not have been able to judge your position well enough to keep you from becoming a splatter on the forest floor. In all reality, you probably wouldn’t have gotten too far before I noticed and would have been fine, but I like to minimize what could go wrong.”

“What in the actual fuck?” Toby says.

"Was that English?" Steve asks.

He turns to go inside and sees Krel standing at the door, a dreamy look on his face.

“Why does Krel look like that?” Eli asks as he helps Steve to his feet.

“That is a look born of a mix of appreciation and adoration,” Douxie says, and Krel blushes, a human aspect born from his transduction that has bled into his Akiridion form, and an aspect that Douxie quite likes has bled over.

“Huh?” Toby asks, and Eli gives him an equally confused look. Steve just goes to Aja.

“I know basic physics concepts and whatnot, but I can only rattle off things to that specificity because of Krel and some extra work on my own time. Me rattling all of that off is proof that I have been actively listening and working to understand even if I am not quite the savant that he is, and there’s nothing more attractive than a partner who actively listens and does their utmost to understand the topics nearest and dearest to your heart, or in his case, core. I’m still absolute shit at the more advanced stuff, and that's not even including all the Akiridion physics and whatnot, I predate Newtonian physics by centuries after all, but I’ve been working at improving and I've gotten pretty good with the fundamentals.”

"Guys, let's get down to Mother before the bounty hunter comes looking for us!" Aja calls out from inside.

When they get down to command central, Eli and Toby immediately go running in and start examining everything like kids in a candy shop, shouting about how cool everything is.

“Is it cool? I mean, I guess I’m just used to it. You know, been here a million times now,” Steve says nonchalantly.

“Really now, Steve?” Douxie says, quirking an eyebrow, and stifling a laugh as the teen almost falls off the platform, screeching and squawking. He magically grabs the back of Steve’s shirt and sets him back on his feet, to which Steve just gives a nervous laugh. Douxie and Krel exchange an exasperated look and Aja just huffs fondly.

“Steve, how could you not tell me?” Eli asks as Toby starts to mess with the console.

“Uh, Toby, I wouldn’t mess with that!” Douxie calls, jogging up to the console and pulling Toby’s hands away from almost pressing the self-destruct button.

“I just told you!” Steve says.

“But what about our Creepslayerz Oath?” Eli asks.

“What Creepslayerz Oath? What are you talking about?” Steve asks.

“Exactly! We were supposed to write one!” Eli says, jumping into one of the chairs.

Krel cuts into the Creepslayerz conversation, joining Douxie and Toby up by the console, shooing the latter away. “Can we return to this subject later? We have a bounty hunter to deal with.”

Toby retreats and takes the other chair. Aja and Steve come up from behind.

“I can manually access Mother’s database here,” Krel says, hands and fingers flying, “Just takes a couple sektons to unlock.”

“Log,” Mother’s robotic voice rings out, “Pulling up Commander Vex’s logs.”

“No, not ‘logs’!” Krel says, and Douxie can already tell how this is going to go.

“Delson one, Commander Vex reporting. Or should Varvatos say “Nanny Vex”?”

“Mother, get him off the screen!”

“Next screen.”

“No!”

“Delson 17. Varvatos met Nancy Domzalski –”

“My Nana?”

“She captured my rook, my queen, and my core. She is, how the            hoomans would say, ‘hot’.”

“Hot? Ew! No, no, no! She’s not hot, she’s Nana!” Toby cries out, scrabbling to change the video.

It changes to just a video of Varvatos practicing his fighting, going through forms and techniques.

“Oh man, he’s a really good fighter! Who is he?” Eli asks.

Douxie can practically feel the rage and the hurt radiating off of Krel. He places a hand on Krel’s shoulder, testing out whether or not the Akiridion will accept the physical comfort. Krel crosses both sets of arms, tensing up, but he leans into Douxie, and Douxie quickly slides the hand along his shoulder to bring Krel under his arm in a secure side-hug.

“Nobody,” Krel grumbles. It’s angry and stubborn, but Douxie can hear the slightest quiver in his voice, and Douxie’s heart breaks.

Something needs to be done about this.

“It’s a long story,” he hears Aja say from behind him, before following with, “Mother, any information on a bounty hunter with a giant hammer-thing?”

“Searching, searching, searching, searching …”

“She’s still rebooting,” Krel says, bringing up a hand to his forehead, exasperated.

“She did go through quite the ordeal two weeks ago, and from what I’ve seen, she’s a very complex computer. We just have to work with her as she reboots,” Douxie says, trying to assuage Krel’s frustration.

“Your order for red boots has been shipped and will arrive in two to five business delsons.”

“No!” Krel yells, and Douxie sighs.

“Bounty hunter identified. Magma-Tron hails from the planet Cindor. Cindorites are an almost indestructible, violent race of mechanized beings known for their wanton disregard for life. They are prone to quips, ruthless cruelty, and what humans refer to as “trash talking”.”

“Mother,” Aja says from beside Douxie, which he doesn’t flinch at at all, “Any information on how to defeat this guy?”

“Searching my database. The only known weakness is … wa- … wa- … wa- … System rebooting.”

Both the siblings groan and Aja sighs, “This is going to take forever!”

“Not necessarily,” Douxie says as someone’s phone chimes.

“What do you mean by that?” Aja asks.

“One of the alien traps went off! It caught something in the sewers!” Eli exclaims, cutting off that line of questioning.

“It could be Magma-Tron!” Krel says as they turn to look at Eli, who’s showing them the location on his phone. “Wait, were you trying to trap us?”

Something inside Douxie growls lowly at that, which he carefully contains and chalks up to his familiar-ship with Archie.

“Yeah, but only because someone never told me you were cool.”

“You shouldn’t have needed someone to tell you. Why would you assume every extraterrestrial was bad when you had already seen there are good and bad trolls?” Douxie asks, “There are no species or societies that are 100% good or 100% bad. Caution can be good when approaching something or someone you know nothing about, but you can’t just go around assuming the worse of everyone and everything! That’s incredibly insulting for one, and also liable to get you on the wrong side of the wrong people very quickly.”

Eli looks properly chastised, and Krel grabs Douxie’s hand and gives it an appreciative squeeze.

Steve grabs the phone and tosses it to Aja.

“We must stop Magma-Tron before he hurts someone,” she says.

“Or us,” Krel adds.

“Still happy Vex is gone?” Aja snaps, and Krel flinches back at that.

“Aja, you know as well as I do that was uncalled for. Krel is having just as hard of a time with Varvatos being gone as you are,” Douxie cuts in.

“And what do you know about loss!?” she practically bites, and Douxie can’t keep himself from lashing out, Aja digging at just the wrong wound. But he does manage to school it in enough to keep his voice calm and demeanor cool.

“I am a 919-year-old wizard who has seen empires and countries rise and fall, has fought in some of the bloodiest wars in history, and has seen the very worst of humanity. I lost my pseudo-sister when she turned on myself and my master and our kingdom, and then she took from me my master, who was basically my father, and then I lost my home within 24 hours of losing my father figure, much like yourself mind you. I have made and lost more friends, acquaintances, and family than you could possibly imagine. Forgive me if I might think I know a thing or two about loss.”

Everyone in the room is dead silent, staring at Douxie in shock, and Krel has tightened his grip on Douxie’s hand.

“Well, then, “Douxie says, clearing his throat awkwardly, “We should go after Magma-Tron. Toby, go get your armor, I’ll go put on some actual clothes, everyone one meet back up in the town square. From there, Eli can lead the way.”

    Half an hour later, they find themselves navigating through the sewers, most of that time having been taken up by Archie lecturing Douxie.

Finally, Eli stops them.

“The trap is just around this corner,” he whispers.

“We’ll take it from here,” Aja says. She and Krel take out their serrator-blades, and Toby pulls out his hammer. Douxie readies a spell. Archie gets ready to hold back Steve and Eli, as Douxie doesn’t trust them not to get in the way.

They jump out and –

“Zadra?” Krel says, “What are you doing here?”

And Zadra it most certainly is. She’s tangled in a net, reaching for … a Nougat Nummy.

Douxie rolls his eyes.

“None of my battlefield training prepared me for the temptations of these delicious confections.”

“Yeah! The Nougat Nummies worked!” Eli cheers.

“I ordered you not to leave the ship for your own protection!” she says, sliding right into the scolding.

“And considering how much longer you have spent with Aja and Krel than me, you should have known there was no way you were keeping them contained to the ship,” Douxie says.

“He has a point,” Krel says, stifling a giggle.

“Is there some cheat sheet we could get? Like, how do we tell who’s a good alien or a bad alien?” Toby asks.

“How do you tell who’s a good troll or a bad troll? A good human or a bad human?” Douxie shoots back.

Then there’s a clank and a recognizable double-ended hammer comes spinning down the sewer line. They barely manage to duck before it returns to its owner, boomerang style.

“Give up your cores, Tarrons, before I rip them from your bodies!”

“A Cindorite?” Zadra gasps, “My Royals, run!”

“With Varvatos Vex off-planet, no one can save you now!”

“Off-planet?” Aja gasps, “You know where Varvatos is! Where is he?”

“Not here to protect you.”

“Well, it’s a good thing I am then, huh?” Douxie says, stepping forward in front of the armed siblings.

“Douxie, what are you doing?” Krel asks.

“And who are you?”

“Someone who likes Krel’s and Aja’s cores exactly where they are,” Douxie says, “And would prefer them to stay there.”

“Hahaha! Say goodbye to your teeth!”

Magma-Tron first goes to throw it, but Douxie says something before he can.

“Really, you’re just going to throw it? I would’ve thought you had more bravery than a feeble larvox! But you’re no better than a soolian.”

“Douxie!” Aja gasps.

“Douxie, don’t goad him!” Krel cries out.

But that’s exactly what he wanted to do.

He doesn’t know what ‘soolian’ means exactly, nor does he know exactly what a larvox is, but what he does know is that what he just said is insulting, and if he’s reading Magma-Tron right, then that ought to be enough.

“How dare you!”

Magma-Tron runs forward, hauling his hammer up as if to come down on Douxie’s head.

Perfect.

Because, really, Magma-Tron? From the planet Cindor? That’s just too easy. And with Mother confirming its weakness begins with ‘wa’, all Douxie needs is a good supply of it (conjuring it is a royal bitch).

“Causa crepitus!”

The bolts on the pipeline above him unscrew, and water comes gushing out straight onto its head.

Magma-Tron screeches in pain and starts to power down.

“Wait, don’t kill him! He knows where Varvatos is!” Aja calls out.

“Glacio!”

The stream of water freezes, holding the short-circuiting Magma-Tron in place.

“If you want your information, now’s the time to get it before he fully boots back up.”

Aja doesn’t need another word, running past Douxie and brandishing her blade. As she does this, Krel comes up and cuts Zadra down.

“Where is Varvatos!?”

“He’s on Earth’s moon, rotting away in some prison cell.”

“Varvatos was captured?” Aja asks.

“He didn’t leave us. He was taken,” Krel says, careful hope edging into his voice though Douxie can hear the effort to keep that at bay.

“By whom?” Aja asks.

“Zeron Alpha. Commander Vex is heading home to Akiridion 5 for his execution.”

“Execution?” Krel says as Aja gasps in horror.

“You’ll be reunited with Varvatos in death!”

At that moment, the ice cracks and shatters, and Magma-Tron breaks free.

Only for Douxie to immediately let go of the freezing spell, allowing the water to flow freely once more, the direct stream pouring onto his head, rendering him immobile and short-circuiting once again.

“So, do we just have to wait for the water to kill him?” Douxie asks.

“It should have weakened him enough for our attacks to kill him,” Zadra says.

Aja and Krel both spring forward at that, their serrator blades now cleanly slicing through Magma-Tron, creating an ‘X’ through him momentarily, before he starts to dissolve into lava.

“That was awesome sauce!” Toby cheers.

“Yep! That’s my girlfriend,” Steve gloats and then turns to Eli, “And you are my friend, Pepperjack.”

“Yes!”

“Creep-”

“Slayerz! Best friends? Bros?”

“Yeah, okay, Pepperjack. Bros. But you’re still a buttsnack.”

Douxie snorts.

“What?” Krel asks quietly, coming over to walk in pace with Douxie back to the main group.

“Just those two. How long do you think it’ll take them to realize?”

“Considering they haven’t already? I think it’ll take someone else telling them at this rate.”

“Aja?”

“It’d probably be best coming from Aja, but I am uncertain whether she’ll catch on or not. I might have to nudge her, which I do not want to do.”

“Because Steve’s her boyfriend?”

“No, it’s not that. Unlike here, it is not socially frowned upon on Akiridion 5 for romantic relationships to consist of more than two people, or for one person to have relationships with two or more people who are not in a mutual relationship, as long as everything is consensual and understood by all involved. It complicates things, though a lot of that complication has been removed since Aja is going by human dating customs rather than Akiridion dating customs. I just don’t want to nudge her because if I meddle in her dating life, she will meddle in mine.”

"Yeah, that sounds like Aja."

Once the group is fully gathered, Krel clears his throat and addresses Zadra, “Sorry we snuck out. And were nearly killed. Again. You were right.”

“You were right as well,” Zadra says, “If you hadn’t left the ship, I might have been killed. And I see now there aren’t just enemies out there. These humans can be our allies, our friends. And more.”

She then turns to Douxie and places a hand on his shoulder.

“I have not been kind to you over the past two wardons, despite the cordiality and respect you showed. Tonight, you have proven yourself a trustworthy and formidable ally. Though do not think this means I will not watch you closely. Just because I can trust you to fight with and for us does not mean I am not still wary of you as Krel's King-in-Waiting Consort-Apparent.”

“Zadra!” Krel hisses.

“Noted,” Douxie says.

“So does that mean you trust me?” Steve asks hopefully.

“You are just a suitor.”

“Zadra!” Aja says, offended.

“What’s the difference?” Steve asks.

“A Consort is the lower-ranking spouse of a monarch, and a suitor is a generic term for someone you are dating, someone you could potentially marry,” Eli says.

“On Akiridion 5, there is actually a greater difference in the terms. I am uncertain of how human royal hierarchical structures work, but on Akiridion 5 there is a very particular structure that has titles attached, including between royals and their life-partners. We have our Kings, Queens, and Monarchs, and the masculine, feminine, and neutral terms of the various positions below them in the royal hierarchy. If their life-partner is a royal, they are also a King/Queen/Monarch. If their life-partner is nonroyal, then they are titled King/Queen/Monarch Consort. Prior to the official ceremony binding them as life-partners, while they are still in the courting stage, the royal potential life-partner would be King/Queen/Monarch-Apparent. The nonroyal potential life-partner would be King/Queen/Monarch Consort-Apparent. These titles carry down the royal hierarchy, the only part that changes being the initial title which indicates rank and gender.

“Douxie here currently holds the position of King-in-Waiting Consort-Apparent as he is in the midst of courtship with the King-in-Waiting, though I am keeping my eye on him, as I just stated. Should he and Krel eventually become official life-partners, he would become King-in-Waiting Consort. His initial rank title would change to just King upon Krel's full ascension to the throne, whether that be before the ceremony, making him King Consort-Apparent, or after the ceremony, making him King Consort. Right now Douxie could also be considered Prince Consort-Apparent since 'King-in-Waiting' is technically a symbolic title. Krel still holds the official, legal position of Prince, he simply now has the official approval for ascension, whenever that may come to pass," Zadra explains.

Douxie had known all of this, Krel had explained it when they got together after the world didn't end to explain things – Krel had wanted to make things clear for Douxie when discussing their relationship since he did not have to hide his Akiridion identity – but it's still weird for him to think about. He's always basically been a peasant, middle-class at best, and the closest he ever got to royalty was when Merlin took him in and he technically became part of Arthur's court. But even then, he was just a lowly apprentice, not the kind of person true royalty would ever spare a glance to, he only got what he did because of Merlin. But now, since he's dating Krel, he actually holds the title Prince Consort-Apparent, and, should everything go as he hopes it will, eventually he'll be King Consort. Which is just plain weird. Him, Hisirdoux Casperan, King Consort? It's almost laughable, how ridiculous the thought is, but it's true, and he can't quite parse through the odd mix of emotions he's experiencing.

“The term I used for Steve, suiter, is a term used not just for royals but in the general public as well," Zadra continues, "A suiter is what someone is called during the courting phase when there is still question as to their seriousness and/or their worthiness."

Toby bursts out laughing, and Eli makes an offended sound on Steve’s behalf.

“What! I’m serious!” Steve says.

“And he’s worthy! Steve is my Prince Consort-Apparent!” Aja insists.

While they take care of … that, Douxie and Krel turn back to the mess, Archie swooping over the mess to inspect.

“Well, you guys certainly did a number on this thing,” Archie says.

“But his weapon remains,” Krel says, going over to it and looking it over. “It is pretty nice. Has a lightweight thruster on each end. If we separate the ends, then … I think I could put this to good use.”

He looks to Douxie, an idea sparkling in his eyes.

By using the thrusters, Stewart’s truck, and an illusion spell, they manage to get the house back into place by noon, not having to worry about prying eyes.

And two days later, after working his shift, he gets another text from Krel.

I really hope it’s not another bounty hunter.

Krel❤️:  Got Mother fully rebooted. Stuart retrieved his ship from 49-B. Going to the moon for a prisonbreak. See you in 2-3 delsons, hopefully with Varvatos. Don’t tell Zadra.

Um, what?

[darthrena]

(Your Kisses) Taste like Come what May

Excerpt:

“I promise you will love her.  She’s funny, smart, absolutely gorgeous–Just one date is all I am asking.”

“What has gotten into you all of a sudden.  Is this girl on the run from ICE or something?”

“Armie asked me to marry him.”

Ben felt his world collapsing.  His mild amusement long forgotten under the weight of a thousand unspoken words, missed opportunities, and imagined confessions.

Rose’s voice seemed to come from far away.  "Ben?  Aren’t you going to say anything?“

Ben swallowed, forced his throat to produce sounds other than screaming, or worse, a sob.  Oddly, when his mouth felt capable of speech, it was a faint rasp, no hint of the tempest which roiled within.  "Congratulations.  You deserve to be happy.”

o-o-o-o-o-o

Summary:

Ben, Rose and Hux grew up together.  Ben loves Rose, but Rose and Hux are together.  After Rose and Hux become engaged, Rose tries to set Ben up with her friend Rey.  He reluctantly agrees to go on a date.

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

A step over the threshold and the familiar creaking of wood, weakened by time and salt-air, and aroma of hearty chowder and ale engulfing his senses, Ben knew he made the right choice.

Nestled between a trendy Korean tapas place and a shoe repair shop with flaking blue paint Ben could recall from his childhood, Takodana was sedate even on a Saturday night. Eclectic knick knacks ranging from a Rico Petrocelli bobblehead, a 1984 Bruce Springsteen poster yellowing at the edges, a carved wooden mask allegedly depicting a warrior of Venezuelan origin, to vibrant weavings of alpaca wool, lined the walls and cluttered the entrance way. Questionable decor aside, the whiskey, unpretentious beef stew, fries and a decent chowder on the menu had long ago made it Ben's favorite bar.

The proprietress, Maz, eyed him from beneath thick rimmed glasses and a bevy of judgement as he slipped into his favorite booth across from the bar. "Ben Solo," she drawled, giving little reassurance in either tone or posture, hands on hips and brow arched.

"Hey Maz," he greeted warily, as Maz stepped from behind the counter.

At last the petite lady put him out of his misery. "I ran into your mother the other day. Said you haven't been home since Christmas."

Right. It wasn't like Ben was avoiding his mother, at least, anymore than usual.  After quitting his job, and getting away from Snoke's insidious manipulations, it had been cathartic almost, reconciling with his mother and Uncle.  your father would be proud, his mother's voice hoarse with tears of grief and pride.  As lovely and neat as the story would appear on the cover or told over dinner parties when his mother was three Merlots in and giving him meaningful, tearful glances--prodigal son returned home and joined his mother's firm--things were still a bit strained.  Their specialties of law differing as they did, weeks could go by without seeing his mother at the office.  Ben made a concerted effort to call his mother once a month, or at least have Kaydel order her flowers or a bottle of wine when he couldn't bring himself to.  "I've just been busy," he mumbled, unable to summon even a modicum of coolness in the face of such obvious disapproval.

Maz tutted at the flimsy excuse, but seemed to relent slightly, moving back toward the bar.  "It'll be the usual then?"

"Yeah."

Silence reigned but for the hub of other patrons chatting and the slight clink of glass as Maz's weathered hands deftly prepared his usual starting drink, an old fashioned.

Maz brought him his drink, laying it down on a lacy, crocheted coaster.  "You want the stew?  I also have a Saturday Chowder."

Ben twitched a smile.  "What makes it a Saturday Chowder again?"

"It's Saturday, isn't it?"

"So just the regular chowder then?"

The spry old lady made a swatting motion with a ladle nowhere near impacting him.  "Don't be fresh with me, Benjamin Organa Solo."

"Oh I wouldn't dare."  Ben took a savoring sip of his old-fashioned.  It was perfect as always.

Maz was shaking her head, a gleam in her eye that should have been a warning of the subject she had been warming up to.  "Just like your father, you are."

Ben forced himself to keep his shoulders from tensing.  It was easier now, breath in, breath out.  When he spoke, however, none of the grief and anger that had once roiled like an summer storm within him escaped.  "I guess so."

"You should go next week, Ben."  Maz's voice was so very gentle.  "Your mother needs you."

"I'll think about it."  Ben cleared his throat.  A burning feeling was crawling up his chest to gouge his eyes.  A judicious sip of his drink doused it slightly, but a distraction was welcome.  "I'll think about the Saturday chowder too.  Hux is joining me though, so I'll wait for him to order."

"Alright then."

After a brief pat against his shoulder, Maz went to attend to a middle aged couple across the bar, and Ben was left alone.

Three gnomes and a tarnished silvery ash tray shaped like a crab on the table beside him were his only company.  Ben spared them a slight smile touched with nostalgia.  The crab shaped ashtray had been a favorite as a child, tagging along with his Dad to Takodana on sweltering afternoons.  A whiff of tobacco, his father's gravely voice and lopsided smile, Don't tell your mother we came here instead of the zoo.

Ben had never minded.  Maz gave him coloring books and the best lemonade, sweating over lace doilies.  Uncle Chewie would drop by, ruffle his hair and tell stories about Mara, the Chieftain of Coquivacoa, who fought the Spanish Conquistadores, or of stomping through the rainforests of Java, weakened by Dengue fever and harangued by monkeys.

There was the sound of the bell ringing, a familiar red head ducking beneath a bright colored talisman.  Dark circles starkly shadowed Hux's steely green eyes, but he still lit up in a smile as his long strides brought him to the seat across Ben.

"Solo, sorry for running late.  Rose was piqued at the sudden boys night, and decided to distract me until I divulged the nature of our evening.  Alas, despite her efforts I kept mum."  Hux regarded him with raised eyebrows, a satisfied grin softening the highhanded tone.

Ben tried not to think too hard about the nature of the "distraction," while remarking dryly, "Easy enough when I haven't told you anything to divulge."

Hux remained unfazed.  "I had high expectations the lovely Rey would be featured."

Absurd though the impulse was, Ben felt a current of displeasure to hear his friend say her name so casually.  "You've met her?"

"Of course.  Rose has had her over several times.  As a fellow countryman, naturally I approve, but she's delightful company and holds her liquor well."

He thought back to the other night, of Rey, six drinks in straddling his face as he ate her out.  "That she does."

Old friends that they were, Hux allowed the topic to drop momentarily, waving over an only too happy Maz to place his order.

Food orders taken (Saturday chowder for Ben, the stew for Hux, with fries to share), Maz drew a IPA from the tap, while fixing her eager sights on Hux.  "'heard you finally made an honest woman of your girl.  Congratulations, dear.  Shame Rose couldn't come tonight."

Hux grinned back, the same beatific look he'd been sporting ever since Rose accepted his proposal lightening his naturally haughty features.  It was easier to focus on his glass and slowly diluting brown liquid as the ice melted, than Hux cheerfully accepting Maz's congratulations.  "--tonight's just us.  Rose sends her love."  Shooting Ben a wink he could do without, Hux continued slyly, "Perhaps next time we'll be back on a double date."

Fuck.

Maz swiveled with super human speed to bring the full throttle of her bespectacled gaze upon himself.  "Started seeing someone?" She cooed with feigned casualness than fooled no one.  Already Ben could sense the gears turning--Maz wasn't one for smartphones, but in the next 24 hours he imagined she would be calling on his mother for tea, or using Takodana's ancient rotary if she deemed the matter too pressing.

While glaring at an unrepentant Hux, Ben hurried to deescalate the conversation.  "It's nothing serious.  Hux is just giving me a hard time."

The man himself merely smiled innocently.  "Rose made it sound different.  Perhaps I misunderstood."

Maz seemed a little disappointed, if skeptical, but she left them to bring their orders to the kitchen.

Finally left alone, Hux dropped all pretense.  "Sorry, I had to tease you a little.  But you know Rey would love this place."

Rey would fit right in to Takodana.  It was easy to imagine Rey cozying across the booth, a tequila neat or a Belgian white ale in hand, cheeks flushed and hair loose as she gossiped with Maz and laughed too loud with Rose.  She would love hearing Uncle Chewie's tales that sounded half like fiction.  He could imagine her asking in that charming lilt about all the odd bops and bits in the shop, and telling her about the time he spilled a customer's beer over the velour bar seat or the time first he snuck a sip of alcohol and Dad had just laughed and Dad--

Dad would have loved her.

"Yeah, she would.""Ben..."  He glanced up at the rather serious tone, and solemn look Hux was sporting.  "Did you mean that?  About it being nothing serious."

Did he mean it?  He thought of Rose, smiling sadly as she told him, So do you, you know.  Of Rey's knowing hazel eyes.  You have feelings for Rose, don't you?

"I don't know," he admitted.

There was a sound of huffed laughter from his side.  "Dude, you have it bad."

Ben grimaced.  "Please, don't say Dude."

"Hombre."

"Please stop talking."

"Homie?"

The next couple hours passed in a blur of warm food and easy conversation.  Hux let Ben off the hook for the most part on the subject of Rey.  After Hux had drunkenly complained about the wedding planning for thirty minutes--"Why do we need to have a rehearsal dinner and a wedding?  Why must the party favors match the bridesmaid dresses?"-- Ben surprised himself by bringing it up.  Although, alcohol likely had somewhat to do with it.

"I don't know what to do about Rey."

"You should just call her, mate," Hux slurred with exasperation.

"And say what?" he snapped back.

Hux shrugged.  "I like you.  I want to date you?  Doesn't seem all that complicated."

"Easy for you to say," he muttered under his breath.  His head felt muddled under the weight of alcohol and confusion of his emotions.  "On our date, I told her that I'm not looking for a serious relationship."

"And?"

"And now I don't know what to do."  Hux was poised to argue again, so Ben cut him off hastily, "I don't know what I want to do."

After a moment's pause, Hux rubbed his face blearily.  "Look, Ben, I think you're overthinking this.  How do you know she's looking for a serious relationship?  She's what, 25 years old?  If you want to see her, tell her you want to see her.  If you want to date her, tell her that."

That seemed...reasonable.

Hux was right.  He didn't have to have everything figured out just yet.

If he wanted to see Rey again, then he should just ask her.

Which was how he found himself standing on the corner as he waited for his cab, dialing Rey's number.

It rang a few times, a length sufficient for Ben's anxiety to stir to life restlessly, before a sleepy voice answered at the last ring.

"Hello?"

"It's Ben."

"Ben!"  The voice sounded much more awake now.  There was a low chuckle that sent a warm, molten pulse through his veins.  She must have been sleeping.  Ben wondered idly if Rey slept bare as she had in his company, or if she wore a ratty t-shirt over panties, if her nipples pressed through the thin fabric.  His fantasies were interrupted by Rey continuing with obvious amusement, "I was following the advice of all those Just Seventeen magazines I read growing up, and planned to text you in the morning.  Seems like it paid off."

"Oh."  Ben considered this information for a moment.  "I read mostly read F&SF.  The fantasy and science fiction magazine.  They didn't offer much dating advice."

Now Rey laughed full out.  "No, I'd imagine not," she replied after catching her breath.

"I want to see you again."

Inebriated though he was, Ben could detect the smile in Rey's voice.  "We literally just saw each other this morning."

"Technically it was yesterday."

"That should tell you something of the appropriateness of your phone call."

Oops.  "Sorry."

There was another huff of laughter over the receiver that briefly whited the sound.  "Look Ben..."

That beginning was not promising.  Nerves bubbling up his gut, Ben was helpless against the flow of babble as he cut her off: "I can't stop thinking about you.  The way you taste.  Your cunt clenching on my tongue, the sounds you make when you come.  And the way you laugh.  Whether you like green tea tiramisu or hate IPAs."

"Fuck, Ben."  There was a weak laugh on the other end, overwhelmed and something else his alcohol impaired brain couldn’t translate.  "Are you always like this?"

"No," he breathed back.  "Not at all.  Never."

"Ben."  Her voice was a sweet sigh.  There had never been a more lovely sound than her lips around his name.  "I want you too.  It's just, well, what about Rose?"

"Rey."

His mind was in free fall.  The ground beneath his feet had slipped away.  What about Rose?  He loved her, didn't he?  He grasped at bits of thoughts, stray feelings, a warmth that was Rose's smile and nose scrunched in glee, and a smoldering burn that was Rey's lips parted in ecstasy--but those sum of parts defied revelation, no, he refused to summate them.  He was vaguely aware of his panicked breathing, but remained in paralyzed impasse.  When Rey spoke, her voice was tentative and gentle and far better than he deserved.

"Ben?  It's alright.  I understand."

"You understand?" he repeated dumbly.  How could she make sense of what he barely comprehended?

"Yes."  There was a pause, and a hitch in Rey's breathing.  "Well, you want something more casual.  I get it.  We had a lot of fun together.  But if you don't mind, I'd like to think it over.  Maybe you should too, when you aren't drunk."

No, that's not what he meant.  Tell her now.  Open your mouth.  "Oh," he said.

"Yeah."

"Oh."

There was a pause that stretched on and on.

Then.

"Goodnight, Ben."

His name spoken like a caress lingered in his mind long into sleep.

Also posted on AO3

[goron-king-darunia]

Coffee Soulmate Drabble

Based on this, but reworked to be more articulate and also to avoid piggybacking on a post. Also realized that the prompt was meant to be about what soulmates think when they see each other, not their first words to each other, so I tweaked the premise a bit to fit the reveal I wanted. *~*~*

Emil had waited what felt like eons to finally see his soul mark. Friends from school had mostly gotten theirs already. Marta and Alice got theirs during a schoolyard tussle in middle school. Other classmates had theirs appear during grocery store trips or vacations and spring break. Many more had theirs pop up while messaging someone online for the first time, or just before receiving a response to an online comment. Emil had no such luck. He was still young, of course. Some people didn’t have their soul marks show up until their forties. But he was dying to finally see his. He didn’t want to wait that long. Ever since he was a kid, he’d wanted to find his special someone. A Knight or warrior princess to sweep him off his feet and carry him far, far away from his abusive relatives. Preferably a knight or prince charming of course, but soulmates could be unexpected and Emil wasn’t picky. Alas, here he stood in the Lezareno Coffee Shop, brewing orders and making frappes and getting harangued by customers who “just wanted a plain cup of coffee” and couldn’t bother to even listen to the explanation that there are 30 different blends and they needed to pick one because the procedure is the procedure. His colleague Colette had just finished up ringing up a man with bright red hair and Emil was in awe. The guy looked to be a college student. He was dressed in a pressed white shirt with a bolo tie and some black slacks with a laptop and messenger bag and a perpetually-caffeine-deprived look on his features. Eye-bags, pursed lips, slouched shoulders, grumpy frown. Despite all this, he was a handsome man. His shiny polished loafers were the only thing that really threw Emil off. People his age usually wore tennis shoes, even in nice clothes. They were comfy and they were meant to get dirty so they didn’t require as much upkeep. Loafers were an old-people fashion in this generation. As preppy as the look was, though, his shuffle and slouch were unmistakeably characteristic of a man whose bank of “fucks I give” had basically run empty. Dude had maybe two fucks left at best. Guy clearly just wanted to be left alone to his business. Sadly, that meant that as cute as he was, Emil was going to have to refrain from asking him for his number on break.

While working on a caramel frappuccino for a lady that had just ordered, a wild-looking blond walked in, slapped a bill down on the counter and just said. “Coffee, hot, lots of it. Surprise me with the blend. Make it blonder than me and absolutely saturate that with sugar. Add two espressos shots to it. And can I get a straw?” Colette just nodded and totaled up the amount for their daily blend with a double espresso, extra cream, caramel syrup, and replaced the bill the blond had put on the counter with change and a wrapped plastic straw. “Thanks, you’re amazing.” He added the change to the tip jar and waited by the other end of the counter to pick up his drink. Emil was a bit baffled by this new guy. The boy had very similar features to himself. The exact shades of blond in both their hairs were different but without the side-by-side, you’d never tell. The customer’s eyes were more hazel than green, too, but one would have to look close to notice. Their body builds were a bit different, and this was probably the most prominent detail. Emil had a bit more muscle on him (he spent as much time running away from his home life as possible) and the customer was a bit wiry and lithe but if you really didn’t scrutinize their faces, they’d be able to switch places no problem. A heavy coat, jeans, sunglasses and they’d basically be indistinguishable. The customer’s face was sharper, a bit older looking, more masculine, while Emil’s features were a bit softer and rounder, but at a distance? Yeah. They could be twins. Except for the customer’s fashion sense. Emil, when he wore casualwear, usually wore a nice v-neck in a neutral color, a nice vest or scarf or jacket depending on the weather, and shorts or jeans in a nice cool tone. This customer was decked out in red and black, dark jeans and thigh high boots. He had a gold chain with an angel emblem on it but also a billowing white coat. Emil couldn’t tell if he was a nerd, a counterculture punk, or a dweeb attempting to be edgy. Then again, as he was also a college kid from the looks of things, he might have just thrown on whatever was clean and comfy. Emil couldn’t tell. Emil brewed up the order as Collette finished ringing up another customer. The blond barista placed the cup on the counter just as Collete tapped him on the shoulder. “Can you cover the registers for a quick minute?” Emil nodded, doing as he was told. luckily there was no one in line so he just had to keep an eye on things while he worked on other tasks and prioritize running the register if anyone did show up.

Aster, the aforementioned blond customer with weird fashion sense, was enjoying his hot cup of pure caffeine and sugar, just about to make his way out the door when he felt a faint tingle on the inside of his right wrist. He’d heard the stories. He was excited to know what the first words his soulmate would speak to him were going to be. He’d always dreamed of something like “Hey, hot stuff! Nice ass!” just so he could eternally shame his soulmate for catcalling him or something sweet like “Wow, you look really friendly! Can you help me study this week?” Some kind of college meet-cute that would lead to some wholesome stories for the kids someday. He eagerly rolled up his sleeves. Would it be funny? Heartwarming? Quirky? Flattering? He frowned when he read the small string of words, printed in a tiny serif font along his arm. “Who the hell drinks coffee with a straw?!”

Well that was simply unacceptable! Not only was his soulmate clearly a classless heathen who hated the finer things, but now he was stuck with this stupid soulmate mark! Aster turned around, leaning against the doorframe and eyeing the other patrons suspiciously, angrily sipping his coffee through his straw. As soon as his soulmate uttered those words, he was gonna kick their ass. He glared over the crowd, daring some chuckefuck to stand up and say it to his face. He was going to wreck them so hard he’d ruin the relationship eternally and blow that soulmate mark right off his arm.

Richter twitched, eyes narrowing at the blond beginning to exit and the words began forming in his mind. He didn’t even notice the blond turn to survey the rest of the patrons before he set his own coffee aside and found himself shooting up from his seat, massively offended on behalf of the rest of the sane people in this store. “WHO THE HELL DRINKS COFFEE WITH A STRAW?!” Aster’s head whipped around. You! He thought. I’ll rip you a new one right here! But before he could get the words out he softened immediately. Oh no. He’s hot.

“It’s not even iced coffee!” Richter continued, gesturing wildly at the blond’s absurd setup. “What are you even?! Wh– These cups come with lids with mouth holes you know!? So they don’t spill everywhere and so you can drink on the go!” Richter felt his own wrist tingle and paused.  He was filled with anticipation certain that the barista was going to call him out on that statement. In fact he was praying for it. Because the barista was kinda cute. But no. The words appeared on his wrist moments before they were uttered. 

“The straw cools the coffee off on its way to my mouth hole.” 

Richter cringed. Oh no. Why him? He’s cute, too but WHY HIM?! Why not that cute barista boy?! And why did it have to be these words?! Emil’s head shot up. “Oh dear.” Suddenly both his wrists were tingling. It happened sometimes when someone had two simultaneous soulmates. Some people ended up picking one and letting the other mark fade. Some picked both if they could manage it. Emil had heard stories of as many as four simultaneous soulmates and there were legends of people who’d had even more. Emil glanced around, wondering who they could be. It hit him just as the words faded in on his arms and he locked eyes with the blond customer. Aster called out. “Yo! Barista boy! You can back me up on that, right? Drinking coffee with a straw isn’t weird, yeah?” “Oh, please! For real, you can settle this right now, my friend. Drinking coffee with a straw is barbaric right? Leaving the cup open like that while walking around in public, ready to spill on everyone! The correct way to drink a hot beverage is obviously from a travel mug or ceramic!” Aster and Richter both felt their other wrists tingle and they paused their argument, smiling faintly at the words that appear. “You’re both idiots and you need to stop yelling or my boss is gonna kick you out before I get your numbers.” “Seems like you’re going to be settling more than just this argument, huh?” Richter smiled. “You haven’t even asked him out and you’re expecting him to mediate all our arguments?” Aster sassed the redhead, elbowing him in the chest. “We don’t even know each other’s names!” The three convened at the counter as Colette came back to work the register. “I’m Richter.” The redhead offered his right hand to Emil. “Emil.” The blond flashed his nametag on his apron before shaking Richter’s hand with a smile. “Aster Laker.” The other blond reached out to Emil’s still extended hand for another handshake before reluctantly taking Richters.  Richter entered their names into his phone and they exchanged contacts. “Alright, thanks for that. I’ll text you our numbers, Emil.” His phone pinged as the text was sent. “Anyway, I don’t want to take up too much of your time. You’re working after all. But before I go harass this guy about his habits, can we get your professional barista opinion?” Richter grinned. Emil chuckled. “You’re both wrong. Iced coffee is the only good coffee so drinking a hot coffee any way you want to is wrong.” Aster cackled, nearly spilling his coffee as he doubled over laughing. “I can’t tell if you’re a contrarian or just want to dodge the question. This will be an interesting relationship for sure.” Richter smiled, sipping from the mouthpiece of his cup. “What if I drink my coffee through 25 swizzle sticks glued together?” Aster cackled. “Am I valid?” Emil and Richter just stared at him. “You’re insane.” Richter murmured, though his face was glowing with amusement. “Absolutely bonkers.” Emil laughed. “I’ll let you two know when I’m off. Don’t murder each other before I’m done with my shift, okay?” “No promises.” Richter smiled, walking Aster back to his table

[kazlifeadventures]

Trinidad & Tobago - Carribean dreams...

I am so ‘vex’ that I won't be ‘liming’ in this beautiful place any more. I have been one lucky person to have been able to come here and hang with a local for almost a week. Jasmine has shown me her Trinidad and for that I am truly grateful. I have eaten so many local foods and they have all been fantastic. I have impressed the locals no end with my love of pepper sauce. The food here is tasty, spicy, and pretty much specific to this island. ‘Nah boy’, I am so very much enamoured with this country! One of my friends asked me if I had posted photos of the food. Truth be told, I don’t have a lot of pics, its not the most photogenic, and I seriously just wanted to eat it! I have partaken in the local speciality of doubles, with ‘plenty’ I might add - for those unaware that is with extra hot sauce and/or the mango bone that is infused with more pepper. Doubles is made with 2 baras filled with a curry channa (chick peas), it originally started as a breakfast food, progressing to be an anytime of the day food. It’s nutritious, tasty, and sold at street side vendors everywhere. Apparently even pizza and KFC taste better over here. This I can now say I agree with. Not sure if the food tastes better, or if its adding the ketchup, mustard, and pepper sauce that assists with the taste upgrade.....

Jas took me to the home of street food a little town called St James, and made sure I got to have saheena, (seriously amazing spicy little deep fried spinachy deliciousness ) as well as alloo pie...amongst other things. The locals only really eat out at restaurants on special occasions so that meant Jas cooked for me a lot of the time, and wow, just wow. I loved the chicken curry (brown), smoked herring, baigan choka, salt fish, home made roti, the fabulous goat curry.... I could rave on, but google Trinidadian food and you’ll understand. Jas lives out in the ‘country’ to the South of Port of Spain, the capital. We spent one evening heading around to some of the local rum bars. Rum bars are everywhere here. Beer is cold and cheap (and made here - love the Stag and the Carib!). I got to meet a few of the locals. Over here they will buy you a drink even for something as simple as the fact that they had to order over you slightly. At the bar. They loved to meet the ‘white girl from Austalia’, as out here they dont see a lot like me... The good thing is none of it was them just trying it on with the foreigner. These are genuinely lovely, polite, caring people. I had a dance off with some girls from Venezuela, and ended up drinking way more drinks then I paid for, eating (they sell bar snacks and’cutters’ only at the rum shops) some tasty wontons at one place, and some really tasty fried chicken at another. We then got some free food from another lovely local who bought us a drink, and also then brought us across some Souse and Corn soup from his food stall (across the road from the rum shop). Anyway I can now say I have tried Souse, not sure I’d eat it again, it was flavourful, but pigs trotters in broth with onion and cucumber is not on my list of things to eat again! I think I have decided that I need to come back to Aus and start my own Trini food store, I think it’d be a huge hit. Love the local beers. Love the rum here. Jas made sure I tasted the Puncheon rum - 75 % and you never get a hangover or upset stomach... I wanted to bring some home, but alas no room in the suitcase! One of the biggest things, I was not aware that this is the home where Angostura bitters is bottled. It was first created in the town called Angostura in Venezuela by a German surgeon stationed in Venezuela, originally produced there between 1824 - 1830. In 1875, the plant was moved to Trinidad and that’s where it’s secret recipe is still produced today.

One of the main religions here is Hindu, they have a giant (85 feet - 26m) statue of Lord Hanuman Murti located in the grounds of Dattatreya Yoga. The statue is the second tallest in the world, and the tallest one in the western hemisphere. When we pulled up onsite there was one man looking after the bookstore who allowed us to enter the grounds and take photos. We weren't allowed to enter the temple/yoga centre as we weren't appropriately dressed. The gentleman then showed us the book explaining how the statue had been built and answered all my gazillion questions. It was like having our own private tour! Jas then took me down the road a little further to show me the temple in the sea. This temple was originally constructed by hand 1947 -52 by Sewdass Sadhu an immigrant from India. It has since been added to, and tidied up, but it's an amazing place, and a site of pilgrimage for Hindus. It's also one of the designated locations for Hindus to perform the funeral pyre. Hindu religion requires that the dead are burned near water and a holy place.

Brian Lara is still HUGE here. He is a home town Trini boy so I completely understand. Cricket is massive, and the new Brian Lara stadium is a huge landmark. They had a cricket game on when I was here (Trinidad vs Jamaica) but they had sold out the tickets otherwise we would have gone.

I spent a day at the beautiful Maracas beach, located on the northern part of Trini. On the way there we stopped at the lookout and had a quick look at the food stalls. I got to try some ‘Chow’, a garlicky spicy way of preserving such things as Pineapple, apple, mango, cucumber... its yummy and not too spicy and I really appreciated the stall holder giving me a taste ( and Jas’s friend Isabelle for buying some of the pineapple one). Maracas beach is a favourite with the locals and its a thing to do to have a ‘bake and shark’ when you go to the beach. Betcha cant guess what I had... Can I say amazing (again!!) You not only get your bake (which is a deep fried Roti) You get beautiful fresh deep fried shark fillet inside it, then you go to a buffet like area and add as many of the additions as you want . Yep, of course I added a bit of EVERYTHING . I had to taste it all. Seriously that thing was amazing. BTW I do taste everything first before adding pepper sauce... pepper sauce heightens the flavours. Jas’s friend Isabelle got her son in law to give us a shout out on the radio station he worked at ( they had it playing at the beach), so ‘Karen from Australia’ is now Trini Famous... love it!!

Jasmine took me out to the Pitch lake, in La Brea, and I’ll admit, I had no idea what it was ( I thought it was a lake!!) Anyway, some how we ended up with a colourful local as our personal guide, he was You tube famous and has apparently featured on David Attenboroughs visit to the lake. I have to sit and edit my ‘documentary’ when I’m back in Australia, it’ll be awesome.. I promise. Suffice to say the lake is the most amazing tar pit. Seriously amazing tar pit. The roads leading into the area are all like travelling over mini crazy hills due to the impact of the tar movements in the area. You have to use an authorised guide on the site, which is fair enough as a wrong step could see you disappear forever into the tar... literally... Trinidads pitch lake is the largest natural deposit of asphalt in the world (estimated to hold about 10 million tonnes) Its covers about 100 acres and is about 250 feet deep. There is a cool legend involving the origin of the lake the involves a hummingbird (I like the story), Historically Walter Raleigh re-discovered the lake on his expedition there in 1595. It has that charming rotten egg smell, and the mud and sulphur water apparently have healing properties. Locals were there immersing themselves in some of the pools while we were there. As we didnt have swim suits we had to settle with getting coated in the mud on our legs, and for me, also my face...lol!!! I didnt get a chance to put it on myself, out guide was very keen to smear it all over my face... (and shirt and hair.. etc...). Rinsing it, after it had set, was a whole other process involving splashing what looked Iike green water all over my face (and legs), all I wanted to do was rinse my face with some fresh water afterwards - and it took over an hour or so until I finally got somewhere to do it. Let’s not talk about how much scrubbing it required later that night to get the last bits of our skin! A great fun day though, made all the better for our colourful guide! I have had a crash course in some of the Trinidadian slang/words and between that and their accents I am sometimes lost in a conversation... (definitely accents particularly when you are trying to enter the country and the border control guy is talking to you and you have to continually say, sorry what??? ) I’m a lot better now!!

Jas couldn’t make it over to Tobago as she had work scheduled at her house that she needed to be around for. So I decided to head over for a night, hire a car, and see what I could see. Its literally a 20 min flight over (only costs about 50 US return) FYI 24 hrs isn’t really enough to see everything. I didnt get to the water fall or national park. I had headed down to Store bay beach when I first arrived with instructions to try the curry crab, conch and dumplings in Tobago (its their local specialty, amongst a few other things). Have to say I liked the conch, crab was over cooked and dry, and dumplings were kind of chewy. The ‘provisions’ that I got with it were really nice though - Plantain, Potato, green banana, avocado ..I would have liked to have tried another outlet to give a second opinion, but didnt have the time. I did get to the beautiful Pigeon Park, a natural reserve area, filled with some shops, water sports hire, beautiful beaches and glorious spot to watch the sunset. I also got out to the Fort of King George in Scarborough hiking up the giant hill to take in the glorious views. Hilariously there was a traffic hold up on my way there due to some goats being herded along the road. Island time boy. I would have to say, as much as its a part of the one country, Tobago island is completely different to Trinidad. Its a lot more touristy for a start, it has more servicible beaches. The roads are not as pot holed as Trinidad. The people are still lovely, but you get the tourist scouters who are looking to sell you on anything they can. Its a beautiful place and I’m so glad I got to go across and visit. As always, I can always go back!

My time in the Caribbean has come to a close. (9-16 Oct). What an adventure. I have had a fabulous time, and recommend to anyone to come here and see this place, taste the food and meet the people for themselves. The country has their own issues with government corruption which impacts the improvement of infrastructure like roads etc. And there are warnings around safety as there are elements involved in crime that impact locals and tourists alike. This just makes Trinidad Tobago, not unlike a lot of other countries that I have visited on my adventures. It just means the more prepared you are to be open to new things, different ways of doing things, different cultures. The more you are aware of your own safety, and that of your belongings , the more you can avoid crime. Crime can impact you anywhere in the world, countries like this dont have it any more or less than others, it just seems to be in the media more....

[nomanicsdak]

New Post has been published on https://manicdak.com/unfinished-business/

Unfinished Business

We are back! Not months and months later for once! Right now, I am questless, so it’s time to search out some more exclamation points and question marks! I find a temple of Posiden which is right next to some dudes practicing thier long jump, which is more like a hop. Are they training for the Olympics perhaps?  I also find the wreck of the Argo in this area. You know, the ship Jason piloted. I do not find any golden fleeces here, just the guard that is chasing me around. After I collect all the treasure from Posiden’s temple, I run directly into the neighboring bandit camp.

Don’t Bite Me!!!

Pause. Why are bandit’s setting up camp mere feet from a guard filled temple??? Well, these bold bandit’s team up with the guard’s chasing me, and it’s all a recipe for desyncronization. It doesn’t help that I keep hitting the button for calling Ikaros instead of the one for my sword. On the second go round, I’m succeeding, but trying not to kill any precious attack doggos. Luckily I don’t have to, because a wolf shows up to dispatch half the bandit camp and thier little dogs too. Thank you, wild doggo.

Just as I reach Korinth and some person in a camp with a timed quest—I open the quest screen to discover that I am not done with the brother’s post-quest meetups. Tim also wants to meet me apparently. Well, he should have said so with words instead of sidelong glances. I guess we can do a quick backtrack and “spar” with him. Hopefully that is not some sort of double entendre, but I also learn that thier questline is called A Brother’s Seduction, so— 

Shark Hunter Was Here

Before I have to fight anybody, even if it ends up being romantic fighting, the game beseeches me to please! please! replace my gear with better stuff from my inventory, so let’s do that. Then, I have to steal a fishing boat with a bunch of sharks strapped to it, Old Man and the Sea style, because Tim is on some rocks in the middle of the water.

Okay, well, I can do hearts dialogue with this guy too, but I do not choose that, since I already did with Lykinos and it just doesn’t feel right. We’re just going to fight instead! The backstory here is that he used to spar with his dad on this rock out in the ocean, and he still comes there to be sad. He doesn’t seem to actually want to spar, so we’ll see how this goes.

Update!: So he has PTSD for sure. After Alexios beats him in the sparring match, he is clearly having flashbacks to some sort of trauma. He thinks he is going to lose control and murder me, and — Oh, god — timed choices. Crapness. Does it even matter, or am I going to truly cock thins up if I pick the wrong ones? I end up talking him down from the ledge in any case.

 We get to also have a heart to heart. Turns out he did once lose control and murder a fellow during battle. Yikes, dude. That was why he was discharged from the army. He hid this from his dad, so he could make him proud. I comfort him until he feels better and then we stare stoically into the sunset, thinkin’ about all the murder we’ve perpetrated I presume.

It is Assassin’s Creed after all.

After this, the game informs me that I should check up on the bros back at their house, so I guess we’ll do that. I get back on the sharkboat and paddle my way back to shore. When I get there , the place is trashed and Lykinos is crying in a corner. Dammit. The bandits abducted Tim. I have to go rescue him now! 

Seriously, eff these bandits. They’re all going down! You want money, so leave all the money on the table and steal Tim?? 

Off I go to a new area of the map and the bandits are holed up in some giant fortress. I run around getting them all first, because I learned the hard way that they’ll just kill the prisoners that you free if you let them out before all the bandits are gone. 

When I let Tim out, he doesn’t want to go because there are still bandits??? Some of the dudes I let out of cages are running around and they kill the last one that I didn’t find right as I arrive, and finally we get a cut scene of Alexios calming Tim down.

Top Bad Guy

Hey, remember when I was wondering if there was a bigger loan shark? I found him. The actual bandit leader, not all the guys I just assassinated shows up. As it turns out, dear old dad was not only hitting up the loan sharks, but he was working for them as a smuggler too. One time he took money from them for gambling and they killed him for it. They never got the money back, so that’s why they’re hassling my boys. I should probably just stab these shady ne’er do wells , but instead I pay for the debts myself!

Lykinos makes his case

Tim makes his case

Once that is done, the boys thank Alexios and then start fighting over him. Tim never thought he would see happiness again like when he is with Alexios, and Lykinos thinks we’re soulmates. Oh, boy. Lol, I get options to choose one or the other, or neither. I choose neither, because—and I repeat, my heart belongs to the cute country doctor and/or the man-ho of Greece, Alkibiades.  The bros are both super disappointed and walk away. Sorry, bros! I must keep moving on!

I head back to Korinthia, stopping to defeat a huntress camp and to see what quests I have in the queue already, I find one about helping a captain on a beach, so I head off in that direction. Along the way I learn that Alexios thinks carrying boats over land is a dumb idea. Clearly he and Fitzcarraldo have wildly different opinions on this.  I arrive at the handsome pirate’s shore. Let’s see what he has going on.

Hello, Captain!

Here’s the story… Soldiers have been taking out pirates. Obviously, I am on the side of the pirates in thi situation somehow. Cool. Well, anyway, this dude’s brother went out to take on the military and didn’t come back. I choose the cagey option when I reveal I know he got eaten by sharks. I don’t tell him that I visited his bro’s grave. (This is one of the graves I went to when that lady asked me her obtuse riddle last time.) This guy’s new plan is to build an unsinkable ship that surely the army won’t be able to defeat and thus his village will be saved.

Is his villiage the boat? Like—I’m pretty sure if the military wanted to exact revenge or something, they could just burn the village to the ground? But I probably shouldn’t give them any ideas. I’m here to gather supplies though! I have to collect only Olive wood, which I already have because I walk or swim everywhere and pick up everything along the way. (Sorry, Phobos! I love you, good horse-o, but I always forget you exist!)

Next I have to go get a protective eye from a shipwreck—If the eye is protective, then how come it’s in a shipwreck? Oh, well. Who am I to question lucky charms. Off we swim!

Okay, the eye was on pirate guy’s old ship. He’s sad about how the pirate ways led to such death, and Alexios advises him that maybe he could use Titanic II for other things besides piracy. He agrees and pays me the last of the pirate treasure for good measure. Alright!

Titanic II

Now, I learn that this dude was part of that old lady’s riddle quest. Why do these quest lines keep making me think I’m finished when I’m not? I supposed I’ll return to her and help the guy who’s brother got eaten by a lion? Let’s find out! Who is this woman??? IS she a goddess? She’s sending me to a volcano island now, and is curious to know about what my gathering wood and advising the dude to quit piracy says about my character. I mean, I’ll do it, because she’s behaving suspiciously witch/godlike. I mean, the prince got turned into a beast because he didn’t help the old lady in disguise, right? Volcano island it is!

But first, I have to retrieve a key from a graveyard hermit, because this quest has something to do with this lady’s locked vault. I return to the graveyard to meet the hermit, and he is also a weird duck. A weird duck who doesn’t have the key. He left it on a guarded island somewhere. Gee, thanks. I guess it’s time for a swim. Or not. It’s far enough away that I have to find a dock and call Barny. 

As it turns out, this thing is guarded by lions. Is this the test? and not volcano island? Well, it is a location that requires me to kill the alpha lion so— I shoot them all accidentally with knockout arrows because I forgot I used up all the pointy ones. As it turns out, taming the alpha animal will also clear the location, so now I have a lion friend for as long as it takes me to get back to my boat I guess. 

Lion friend tearin’ up the town

OMG. He came with me! Lol, I return to the old lady and lion friend materializes out of nowhere. Surprise, lady! I brought one with me! He’s off to go fight the guards that were chasing me, so I’m afraid he wont be long for this world after all. Alas.

I return the key and learn that I am going to Haephestus’s foundry to find a helmet and not a volcano…thought I guess it could also be a volcano. I am ready as I’ll ever be, lady! Let’s do it! 

Update: The guard’s did not kill Lion!

[reveriesforyou]

Picturesque

Hey guys! I went to the museum and had a buncha cute thoughts about Tom there, so I thought I’d do my best to eloquently sum them up for you guys! I hope y’all like the imagine, and feel free to message me if you ever want me to write anything specific! Picturesque She was drenched within the white walls of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Different colors seemed to drip from the ceiling and she eagerly soaked them up, ambling through the varying exhibits. Biting down on her lip, she pulled the map out of her bag and tried to pinpoint her exact location. The whole reason she came today was to see the German expressionism art exhibit. From the articles she read, she learned that the LACMA had secured assorted paintings from the 1920s, and she was desperate to see them. Nobody had wanted to come with her, so she decided to go alone. Thinking back to her decision, she realized that it probably wasn’t the best, seeing as she was as directionally challenged as the fates from Greek mythology, who only had one eye to share between the three of them. Glancing up at the sculptures, she wished that they’d come to life and help her with directions like the characters from Night at the Museum would. Alas, she thought, and stuffed the map back into her purse and carried on walking. Tom wasn’t too jazzed to be spending his Sunday afternoon at a museum. Him, Harrison, and Harry had only come because Harry wanted to take photos outside. Harry then decided that they should all explore the museum because they happened to be there, and some of the exhibits sounded neat. It wasn’t that Tom disliked art, because he didn’t, he liked art just as much as the next guy, but he had too much energy to be quiet while they walked through the massive museum. All the walls were clean and white, bare except for paintings, and it reminded him of being locked away in an insane asylum. He wanted out, but decided to wait it out for Harry’s sake. “Hmmm,” Harry muttered, leafing through the museum’s vast map, “we should try to find the German art, it says here that they’re being moved around in a few days.” Tom groaned into his hands, “Why? You don’t even like history, let's go outside! It’s 85 degrees, we could be at the beach.” Elbowing him, Harrison said, “We’ve gone to the beach everyday this week, you can handle some,” he glanced at the page to confirm the exhibit’s title, “German expressionism.” Tom pouted as he followed Harrison and Harry up the stairs to the German exhibit. She smiled victoriously. She’d made it to her exhibit, all without asking for help. She had traipsed around long enough, wandering up the stairs, down the stairs, through long hallways, all while taking in all the art the museum had to offer it’s visitors. Softly, under her breath, she muttered, “Finally,” and walked into 1920s Germany. When the boys had gotten to their destination, the room where all the art was hung-up was essentially empty, except for the small frame of a girl loitering around the pictures. The first photo Tom stopped in front of was horrendous. The colors were all dark, and cool-toned and seemed to blend together in a very unfavorable fashion. The people depicted looked afraid, dazed, and as if they were being chased down some great monster. It was also a somewhat abstract painting, and Tom couldn’t really tell what anything in the painting really was. Shaking his head and crossing his arms, Tom moved onto the next painting while Harry and Harrison discussed the information on the plaque beneath the artwork. She came to a stop in front of a vivid, richly red painting. The woman portrayed was naked, lying on her back, looking as if she was floating above the earth. Her eyes were startled and her mouth curled back, as if she had a scream caught in her throat, and her hands grasped at something invisible and unattainable. Her eyes drifted from the plaque and back up to the painting again as she attempted to decipher and put back together the conceptual work of art. She heard the shuffling of a body behind her, but didn’t turn her head. Tom reached the painting the girl stood in front of. Focusing more on the back of her head than the disturbing painting, his gaze trailed down the length of her spine, covered in the soft blanket of her black sweater, and then back up to the halo of light emitted from her shiny hair. He wanted her to turn around so he could see if her face was as pretty as her hair, but he couldn’t think of anything to say. Thankfully, he didn’t have to spend anytime thinking of something to say. Harrison backed into Harry, and Harry let out a shout of surprise, and she whirled around and collided with his chest, clearly surprised by the sudden breach of silence. She made a move to side-step around Tom, so she wouldn’t fall into him, but her ankle slipped up and she let out a shriek of shock and began to fall backwards. Quickly regaining his bearings, Tom slipped a soft hand around her waist to pull her back up, but tripped over someone’s feet, at this point, he couldn’t tell who’s, and ended up tangled around her as they fell to the ground. Thankfully, due to his Spider-man training, he knew how to fall with someone in his arms without either of them getting bruised up too badly. Tom shifted, pulling her to his chest and placed a hand behind her cranium, and fell with his back onto the wood floors, cradling the girl to his chest. When they finally settled onto the ground and he opened his mouth to ask if she was alright, he was stricken by her eyes. Her eyes were like flower petals, Tom thought, as they glassily peered up at him. They unfurled like fresh, spring florets and her eyelashes curled the same way leaves did. Soft roses smeared across her cheeks as she began to utter apologies a mile a minute at him. Removing herself from his grip, she sat back on her knees and pressed her hands to her lips. Tom could hear hysterical laughter and Harrison shouted, “Smooth mate, smooth!” In his general direction. Leaning up onto his elbows, he tried to think of something smooth to say. “Shit, fuck, fuck, I’m really sorry! Are you okay? Should I get someone? Oh geez, don’t move, I can try to find you an ice pack. Oh my gosh, I’ve literally killed Spider-man before his film is even out to the cinemas. I’m really so sorry, like, anything you’re thinking, double it, triple it, shit, sorry, sorry, sorry!” At this point, she sounded like she was becoming frantic. Swiftly, Tom was sitting up and trying to comfort her. “No, no, don’t worry! It’s fine, I’m fine! Are you fine?” “I cannot believe, of all things, I bump into you! I literally crushed you and you’re asking if I’m alright?” Her hands flitted around rapidly, not sure where they should settle down. Tom sat up straighter, she seemed to know who he was. “Are you, uh, do you like Spider-man?” “Youre-fuck- he’s my favorite. I’m really sorry, I just can’t believe-.” Tom noticed that her hands were shaking. “Darling, it’s fine! Don’t worry about the fall, I’m just glad that I was there to catch you! Made me feel like I’m actually your friendly, neighborhood Spider-man.” He moved to help her up off the floor as he stood up. A giggle left her lips as she accepted his hand. “I’m sorry for being a creep and for almost mangling you to death.” “Don’t be silly,” Tom tilted his body closer to hers, “Wouldn’t be doing Peter justice if I just let you fall.” She smiled up at him shyly. She could barely believe that this was happening to her. She knew Tom, she loved Tom, she even had an embarrassing blog dedicated to Tom, and now, here Tom was. He was even cuter, more polite and charming than his interviews did him justice, and she had almost flattened him against the hardwood floor of the museum. “Are you here with anyone, because if you’re not,” Tom’s arm curled up behind his head, “we could look at all this disturbing artwork together? And, maybe I could buy you a coffee afterword?” Her entire face lit up, and she felt so giddy that she had to physically stop herself from jumping up and down. She automatically launched into a nervous chatter about the artwork surrounding them. “The artwork is historical! All these were right before Hitler came into power, so Germany was struggling economically after the war and was looked down upon by basically everyone, so that’s the only reason they’re not light and fluffy, if that's the disturbing aspect you’re speaking of.” Quirking an eyebrow, Tom smiled at her, “is that a yes? Or-?” Her eyes widened and she impulsively grasped his hand, and upon realizing what she’d done, she recoiled, blushing furiously. “Yes, I’d love that.” Taking her hand within his own, and making a blatant point of flipping off Harrison and Harry as they hooted in the background, “Now, tell me more about,” He turned around to examine the time period stamped onto the painting, “1920s Germany.” Leading him to the next painting, she did just that.

[survivorkochang]

Rites of Passage

Here are Anna Janes and Tobis’ Rites of Passages!

Anna: Cullan! Aka Mercury! Man you were a trip, ok I just opened our messages because a lot has happened this game and I’m having a hard time remembering everything. AH, so I really liked Goodman and you wanted him out over Jayden and I hadn’t talked to Jayden a lot so I wasn’t down for it. Then I think you went for Mitch who was my ride or die and I wasn’t gonna have that. Then there was controversy of “who said Goodmans name!” but regardless, I think if you got further you would have been sooooo entertaining! I wish you nothing but the best and hope you continue to play orgs!

Tobi: Different tribes and we never talked but sorry for your early boot

Anna: Hi! I didn’t get to meet you this game :( 

Tobi: Hihi so actually louise and I both knew you were leaving no matter what and we just voted with you so that our relationship in BAR wasn’t affected and it didn’t really matter in the end bc I flipped anyway LOL

Anna: Hi! I didn’t get to meet you this game :( JK but wow were you inactive lol, i mean you were in like 5 games and I’m sure Seamus forced you to play/wouldn’t let you withdraw your app so thats probably why LMAO uhh yeah i’m glad you were inactive because you scare me and i think we totally would have butt heads. Your vote out was pretty simple because tobi had got screwed over by his OG tribe and was looking to come over to my side, and you weren’t there so it was really easy. You’re an icon and i’m sure if you were active you would have easily made merge

Tobi: Hey sistur yes I did throw you under the bus and I apologize because it was either you or me and I didn’t want to leave so ya hope ur doing okay tho <3 icon

Anna: oh goodman, how i adored you. It was so obvious this was your first game and i really wanted to just tuck you under my wing and bring you to the end with me LOL but i think you had a hard time keeping secrets…. Like you told Frankie about the plan to blindside him and leave him out of the 2 tribal fiasco and i was like GOODMAN WTPPP but you were so sweet and genuine with me. I think once you get a hand on these orgs you’ll totally be able to rock them out! 

Tobi: Different tribes and we never talked but sorry for your early boot

Anna: a LEGENDARY MESS wow, so like i don't know where to start, it was so funny because we hadn’t even had a conversation yet and you created an alliance with me nicole and mitch. I would like to THANK YOU for starting that alliance because with that, came the me/mitch and nicole alliance that lasted LITERALLY all the way to like f7. But the way you talked to me in the alliances was just very demanding and made me feel icky. I don't rly love being told what to do and in these games i will pretend like i’m following the orders of the people who are doing the demanding just to like boost their ego but in reality im just gonna do my own thing and do whats best for me. The minute u were like really demanding towards me was when i was like ok yeah this isnt gonna work. I like alliances to be a team effort and everyone can speak their mind and do what they want and idkkk it just wasn’t that in ours which is why i flipped on you. You’re truly an icon though!!

Tobi: Okay like noah fence but like you didn’t save me during that f14 tribal I saved myself by my own efforts and u kinda just tried to use that as leverage LMAO but I appreciate ur somewhat help <3

Anna:  Jayden! So you were an easy vote out at this point because it was 3-3 i believe, so it was me u and nicole. Zach was very controlling and i was doing the thing where i like pretend to listen to demands. I knew you were an easy vote out and you leaving wouldn’t impact my game later on so i allowed zach to pick you off. I knew that voting with zach would give me some trust with him so i figured why not, IM SORRY LOL but ya that's why i let you go. You’re a super cool guy and i had a lot of fun during the endurance challenge

Tobi: We didn’t get to talk much but you seemed really sweet and like I hope you’re doing good!!

Anna: oh BOY. first of all you were ROBBED of jury and that is terrible, the hosts should be shunned for that because that was gross. But zach, i enjoyed every conversation we had and you are SO charming. Unfortunately i could see right through it all because i've played too many of these games. I’ve also played with ppl like you so i know how you function LOL omg that sounds mean but like, you were playing like someone who needed control and needed people in his pockets and the way you did that was charming them and being very on top of it all. Does that make sense? The minute we had one world and i could talk to agus he said “zach is controlling my tribe, he has dylan/bo and jones in his pocket” i was like okay i understand. I had to allow myself to seem like someone who was less than you so that you didn’t see me as like a bigger threat than you. So i did that, i voted jayden out. I pretended to give you idol guesses etc. i couldn’t give you all of my trust because i knew that we could NEVER work out together. You were the leader of your tribe and i could be seen as the leader of mine. So if we had gotten any further together, it would have been an all out WAR like could you imagine??? AND i had an idol and SO DID YOU like we were going to go head to head at some point. So when the move presented itself i knew i had to take it so that i could gain the trust of the people that were in your pocket and remove a huge threat to my game. You leaving was so beneficial to me omg, i got jones as an ally from it! But anyway, my gosh are you a great player and i don't think i got to ask about your org history but there is NO way you havent won a game before. You are strong and well spoken and again SO CHARMING like well done, i’m sorry i had to blindside u lol but jones told me about your idol and she told me that you were catching on to me and like wanting nicole out so i was like it is time!! I hope ur doing well and i wish 1 day i could be as cool as u tbh

Tobi: Oh Zach, sorry for playing you as hard as I did but I was planning it ever since you and dylan lied to me at the double tribal thing and I reveled in getting revenge hehe…  I flipped wayyyy back at f14 and started to plan to take you and dylan out ever since then and it worked hehe but you’re definitely a cool guy and we had some awesome convos it was just a shame that the double tribal went the way it did but alas it was fun!

Anna:  :( i don’t know what to say. I was very transparent and honest about your vote out because you are such an awesome person and i value you very much. I do think if you weren’t taken out at this point, it would have been bad for me. I think u had allies in places i didn’t even know about and you are very strategic and just a smart person. Im gonna be honest though and say the main like nail in your coffin was the way jones was pushing me off of you, so in these games its important to separate relationships and like not be obvious about who you DON’T want out. Which is why i dont think many people knew mitch was my ride or die. Maybe because no one really wanted him out so i didnt have the opportunity to campaign for him? But the way jones was campaigning for you to stay was very very intense and made it very obvious that if you had stayed, i would be second in jones’ mind. So voting you out allowed me to become super close to jones and allow her to rely on me more than she would have if you had stayed. I guess you could credit jones for your vote out LMAO because like at first i was fine with going for bo over you because we are friends and i adored you but then jones was like crying and freaking out over you leaving so i was like yaaaaaaaaa sorry friend

Tobi: Ok hi so like we had like one conversation the entire season and you didn’t bother to message me back so that’s on you…  Anyway like if you read zach’s rop you’d know the reason that I flipped was because both of you lied and expected me to be okay with it (which i obviously wasn’t then yall got merge boots lmao) and on TOP of that you throw me under the bus to louise who was the only person i could have a sense of trust with at the f14 tribal… like you reap what you sow sis idk what else to say bc that combination of actions really set me on a mission to take you and zach out xo

Anna: BO!!!!!!!!!!!! WOW you were honestly one of my favorite people in this game because you were so entertaining holy shit like the definition of a messy player, if they have a messy player season than wow are you ON IT. so your vote out was really funny because i was moving into my apartment so i was NOT online. I actually thought there was a chance that i could get voted out at that point. So the whole time i was like yes we can go for david its fine lets do it no problem. I had the votes and it was going to work out but THAN YOU OPENED YOUR MOUTH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You literally went and told david that i was gonna vote him YOU SENT A QUOTE! So then ofc i flipped the switch back onto you and it was no problem but oh my gosh if you had just not gone and told david the plan you wouldn’t have gone home! That move 100% was the reason you received my vote, i hope u play more games because you’re such a character and i had a lot of fun playing with you even though you made me want to rip my hair out at some points

Tobi: You’re a sweet kid and you did good for your first org but you also shot yourself in the foot at your vote out… like literally you weren’t the one who was supposed to go… david was but you HAD to tell david about it which made zero sense considering that vote was between you and david lol… but i dont really hold it against you since im sure you were trying your best hehe!! Hope you’re doing good and you play in more orgs!

Anna: i would like to thank u for ruining my potential perfect game (im writing this before FIC so hence potential) r u d e. BUT my love for you extends so far it could reach where you live and come back to where i live and go back and forth 20834324320842 times. You have been a close friend of mine since JPORG but unfortunately this game we just weren’t on the same side of the tracks. And unfortunately, my side had more people lol but yeah your vote out was simple. We went into that challenge knowing that if you lost, you would go home. If you had won, david would go home. I was lowkey really nervous when you started to like pitch against me lol but i really knew that 1 of the people on my side would tell me so i could idol so i wasn’t like waste my idol nervous if you know what i mean. But i adore you, you’re a scary player and the minute i saw your name on the cast reveal i thought “oh no” because you play like i do, you aren’t afraid to be the big dog and you aren’t afraid to make the moves you need to make when you need to make them. I could sing your praises for days Agustin and you know that.

Tobi: Yoo like i liked talking to you and all and we were on the same page for a lot of the season BUT in my plans to get revenge on zach and dylan i aligned with a group that sadly didn’t include you in it but yeah it was really fun playing with you and omg i LOVED when you called me out in tribal like that was so fun and i really enjoyed it!!

Anna: david, david, david. Your vote out was the craziest and most intense tribal of the game for me. It opened my eyes to so much and allowed me to really dig deep and see what i had to do to get further. So we connected since the beginning and i made sure to watch out for you BUT i saw you as a threat. I saw you as someone who could beat me at challenges and i knew from the beginning of merge that i had to pick off the people that could stop me from winning mandatory immunities. So with that in my head AND the thought that you would be the first to flip on me in the u/me/mitch/tobi/nicole alliance, i knew that you had to go sooner than later. So you found out about nicoles idol and jones and tobi both told me. And then you WOULDN’T tell me who told you about the idol so i went to mitch and was like “hey david told me you told him about my and nicoles idol” even though you didn’t just so i could bait him. It worked, he admitted it. THAT MOMENT WAS CRUCIAL TO EVERYTHING OH MY GOD but yeah i knew that tobi and jones were with me and tobi did NOT benefit at all by voting out nicole. Thats what i dont think a lot of people understood, ya’ll kept trying to pick nicole off to get at me but tobi’s only win con was sitting next to nicole……. So thats how i knew he wasn’t going to do that all the times ya’ll tried it. But yeah, i told you i was voting you out and you know i adore you as a person. I think you’re a bomb ass player and you def gave me a run for my money lol

Tobi: Hey bud so like i know i played you and mitch pretty hard at your vote out and like it was absolutely nothing personal but it was kinda obvious that you and mitch were closer to together than you were to me so like working with you two wasnt super optimal for me and like taking you out helped me achieve a few things like taking out a challenge threat and it threw mitch under the bus which let me last another 2 rounds so like ya that was my thought process behind it and I hope you’re doing well 

Anna: mitch. My GOD did you play me good. You were in my DMs saying how you want me to win and you are so dyingly loyal and blah blah AND THEN YOU FLIPPED ON ME BUT NOT ONLY DID YOU FLIP ON ME BUT YOU FLIPPED ON MY TOOOOOO EARLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ugh, 

i think of all the ppl that were like GET ANNA OUT GET ANNA OUT u were the person who i think could do it. But regardless, you were my person in this game. Like yes nicole was too but nicole wasn’t online enough to rly RLY be my person that i strategize with and talk to all the time. Like i told you all of my plans and we made moves together. I would NEVER say you were in my pocket and i can honestly say sitting at f3 that i don’t think you were. We were a team and we made moves together. We made plans together, we got the idols together. You and me did this together and i will never take that for granted. I had SO MUCH FUN playing with you mitch and becoming FRIENDS with you and really getting to know you. Our friendship is something i will take away from this game and i am so happy about that. You’re a bad ass mitch, thank you for playing this game by my side

Tobi: Lord like honestly our relationship is so rocky KJHLKJ like im gonna be real and say like I lied maybe a lil too much BUT it was for strategic reasons and letting david go and letting you take the hit for it really let me get through a few rounds with one move and like I also apologize about your own vote out like okay honestly i was already pretty leaning towards voting you out already but then when aj told me you wanted to vote me out (a plan which neither you or jones told me about) really sealed the deal and like i also was in a peculiar situation because nicole is the only person I have a real chance of beating in that f5 so it would've been really dumb for me to vote her out so yeah okay like i always feel like i wanna work with you but our plans never seem to work with each other KJHLKJ but i definitely hope we can work together if we meet each other again!!

Anna: jones, im getting exhausted writing all these but i really want to like be genuine and honest in all of them so here we go, I adore u wow, u are such an honest genuine soul that i know is seriously going to do amazing things in orgs and just life in general. Like i told you, you remind me of myself when i first started playing (which is a good and a bad thing LOL) but you are intense, you are confident in your game, and you are powerful. You should be proud of the way you played and excited for the games you play in the future. Your vote out was actually wild because at no point at all was i ever considering voting tobi out. So you were FLOODING me with messages, emotional intense messages that made me want to rip my hair out. Because you were telling me you weren’t gonna vote tobi, and then you were, and then you weren’t again and i was so confused because your ONLY argument with me was voting tobi out because i told you i was never ever going to vote nicole. NO ONE SHOULD EVER HAVE WANTED TO VOTE OUT NICOLE FOR SO MANY REASONS. But thats neither here nor there lol but yeah you were very aggressive and i was sooo taken back by it. It pretty much solidified my vote for you because tobi wasn’t begging for his life lol which like shows me that YOU were going to fuckin woop my ass at FIC and give the same amount of effort that im about to give to it, like girl you did the logic puzzle for 3 HOURS!!! you just dont give up. You would have fought tooth and nail to wipe the floor with me at that FIC and you cant deny that! But yeah, the begging and the emotional messages def helped ensure me voting for you. AND THEN FUCKIN NICOLE WASNT ONLINE. So this is actually wild what i did here and im sorry in advance but she wasn’t on and i knew me and tobi were voting you so i went to you and was like yo…. Tobi doesn’t have any votes against him you should make him join the votes club OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT AND YOU SAID YES SO MY LITTLE DEVIL BRAIN WAS LIKE YES BITCH 2-1-1, if you voted nicole it would have been fire making and nicole would have possibly lost. It was genius, it was cruel and i am sorry but i had to do it……… tobi knew too!!!! Ok im tired this was dumb i hate ROP, i adore you, you’re gonna kill muxloe but my one little snippet of advice is to NOT invest yourself into these games in an unhealthy way. I know this from experience because when i first got 4th my first game i SOBBED, the second time i got 4th I SOBBED the first time i got 2nd I SOBBED the second time i got 2nd I SOBBED and like when i say sobbed i mean it tore me up and i was mad and sad and just hurt emotionally so i GET IT. i get it, but its not good for your health!!!! Like once i learned to stop playing like that it helped me soooo much (it took me literally until this game sooooooooooooooooooooo im trash but still) I LOVE U JONESY GUACEY POOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Tobi: Ahhh jones you were honestly a joy to talk to and like I really enjoyed working with you!! Especially on that vote where we successfully flushed nicole’s idol which was honestly like 200iq stuff KLJHKJ and I feel like I came into f5/f4 being like the second least likely person to win with you and AJ being the most likely to win so at f4 the pressure was really on me because it was a choice of definitely making final tribal council but probably losing or having to work so much harder to make final tribal council but also having a real chance to win… and in the end i did what was best for my  game and i’m glad you understood that… but highkey i felt so bad that you voted for me bc if you voted for nicole you legit would’ve put firemaking into play KJHSDF but anyways it was really nice getting to meet you and know you hehe

Anna: I love u with my whole heart and I hope ur okay, I had to write this very fast so I can’t write it how I want to but just know I’m so appreciative of you and am glad I got to know you through this game

Tobi: hihi so like i really do appreciate everything we've done here together and like i really enjoyed our talks and stuff but you just went inactive (for personal reasons which i understand) but like you getting removed at f3 completely fucked over my game LKJHDSLFKJHA but like all that's really important is that you take care of your own stuff okay hehe luv u beecole <#