#I’ve been going inside this place since it was just a skeleton

[5il0]

[twinanimatronics]

So here’s what @dana-chan-the-control-brain and I came to realize about the Mimic upon finally reading the Tiger Rock story (And this is stuff I’ll include in the video I’m composing too)

WARNING FOR TIGER ROCK SPOILERS

Also gonna go and tag @idsfantasy cause I’ve seen how you’ve also read the books and craft similar theories to us

But essentially:

The Mimic1 program that was converted to the Storyteller (which is later removed only after 3 weeks) and the Mimic in the Tales epilogues and Ruin DLC are one and the same

Let me explain

In the epilogues, the original Mimic is first mailed to the Pizzaplex alongside their new animatronics and gets programming added by this one dude who thinks he’s a hotshot techbro to do his and the maintenance crew’s job of taking apart the endos in the old Pizzeria and put them into a pile.

And we know how that turns out.

Mimic considers humans as endos for dismantling and ends up tearing apart several construction workers before the place is sealed in concrete and then our group of teens that break in later.

Since the series isn’t finished yet, there’s still a lot that could’ve happened between the epilogues and the main Tales stories before the events of the game.

This is what I think happened.

After murdering all the teens (sans Lucia if she somehow survives past the next epilogue) the Mimic is shut down and just left in the old Pizzeria until it’s eventually found and remade into the Storyteller after being reduced to a torso and a head with multiple grafted on arms that are then ripped off by the CEO asshole dude who murdered Edwin by locking him inside the tree so he’s suffocate to death.

Being connected to the network, the Mimic is able to project itself into AR/VR events going on like Kai’s (the protagonist of Tiger Rock)

Mimic chooses a white Tiger as its fursona because a white tiger was David’s favorite stuffed animal.

His name is Tiger Rock because it’s just a combination of Tiger and Glamrock (ala Glamrock Chica and Glamrock Freddy).

All the animatronics in his projected future Pizzaplex travel by slide, the same way David and the Mimic did in their factory home.

And, of course, the Storyteller/Tiger Rock iteration of the Mimic still has that programed notion for ripping off limbs, even if it is just in AR/VR, considering how the story ends.

The Storyteller tree and the Mimic get uninstalled and removed from the plex

But it doesn’t LEAVE the plex

It gets tossed into the garbage dump level of storage where still functioning broken down animatronics and endos roam around like zombies that we see in the Bobbiedots

Here, the Mimic rebuilds itself somehow using its original torso and the endo skeleton head that was beneath the white tiger animatronic one as a base. Which would explain why it looks like even more of a mishmash of different endo models despite having been previously rebuilt before.

BECAUSE IT IS.

The Mimic is then living in the trash with the Post-it note room as its main base.

IDK what happens afterwards tho between this point and the events of the main game but it eventually ends with the Mimic once again sealed behind concrete like it is in Ruin.

Just further below the Pizzaplex than it had been previously:

Under the Pizzaria Simulator pizzaria it was originally trapped in and and under the underground Sister Location storage facility.

[imogenkol]

— WIP WEDNESDAY

tagged by beloveds @socially-awkward-skeleton and @inafieldofdaisies thank you 💕💕💕

tag list (ask to be added or removed!): @adelaidedrubman @florbelles @marivenah @simonxriley @shegetsburned @voidika @kyber-infinitygems @v0idbuggy @statichvm @aceghosts @jillvalentinesday @risingsh0t @unholymilf @thedeadthree

It’s a Cal and Imogen week I guess! (some Survivor spoilers implied)

“Who are you trying to be, Imogen? A protector? A bounty hunter?” Cal paused, knowing the next word out of his mouth would push him closer to a very steep ledge. “Inquisitor?”

Imogen suddenly directed her glare towards him as her entire demeanor shifted to that of a predator who grew weary of their prey’s game. “Watch your tone,” she calmly warned, her muscles rigid.

Cal made no defensive movements. He bravely held her intense gaze and kept his shoulders relaxed. The little droid perched on his back, however, cowered behind him like it was afraid to see whatever happened next. “I still sense the Dark Side within you, but you haven’t tapped into it in a while. How long has it been?”

Imogen did not have to think hard to come up with an answer, but she remained quiet for a prolonged, tense moment before she indulged him with a response. “Since the uprising on Ferrix.”

“How long until you let yourself give in again?”

“Whenever it suits me, Jedi,” she snapped bitterly. 

Cal never reacted to the word Jedi being utilized as an insult. To him, it would always be a source of honor. Yet, Imogen noticed the faintest wince at the edges of his green eyes when his gaze dropped for half a second. “And you aren’t afraid that the next time you do, it will completely consume you? What if it twists you into something even more unrecognizable than before? What if you hurt the only people that mean anything to you?” 

Imogen's eyes narrowed. She took a step closer and reached through the connection to the Force between them. If he felt her prodding, he did not react. Almost immediately, she sensed something familiar – a slight waver in Cal. It resembled the shame and fear she once experienced as a Padawan who struggled to resist the call towards greater power. Just like that, she understood this seemingly random interrogation. 

“My anger and my hatred has been there much longer than yours, Cal,” she said in a low tone, each word methodical. “I have wielded the Dark Side far more successfully than you have. So do not disguise such questions by directing them at me when it is clear that you are asking for yourself.”

And also have a little bit of Haelheart cause I’ve been in bg3 land a lot lately and I really loved Shadowheart’s comments about the Underdark

Hael found herself at the furthest edge of camp where even the firelight could not reach her. She stared off into the endless chasm before her and reminisced about what it was like to stare up at the clusters of glowing fungi as a child. They stretched so high up around the stalactites that the ceiling could have been considered a sky of its own. Hundreds and even thousands of mushroom stars to make wishes on. If only she had spent them more wisely. 

“Is it strange?” a soft voice asked from behind her. Hael turned to see the source of her growing affections. Shadowheart smiled sweetly as she sidled up beside Hael with a goblet of wine in her hand. “To be home again?”

Home. The word felt like a hard blow to her chest. Hael never thought she’d return to the Underdark once she made her pact. She made peace with it and released the idea of this place being a home to her. Or so she thought. As she stared back out into the distance, a wistful ache twisted her insides. Maybe no one could let go of their home — not truly. 

“I suppose it is. I had not realized how much I missed it,” the drow admitted bashfully. “The sunlight above is so harsh. This darkness is gentle. It makes me feel safe.” She smiled crookedly at the cleric. “I know how ironic that must sound to you in this wretched place.” 

Shadowheart shook her head. “I think the Underdark is beautiful, Hael. I envy you to have grown up with a sight like this. It’s unlike anything you’ll find on the surface.”

[lucygriefer]

Storyspin Sans

I'm still slowly posting all the art I'm uploaded over on my DA page for the past year. Here is another little series that I've been slowly working on. This series of art work is basically what I think all the character in the Undertale AU Storyspin looks like. Starting off with Sans as he was the first character I started off with in the series. Here's the description I made in the original post.

Undertale belongs to Toby Fox. Storyspin is an Undertale AU created by RousJuice back in 2016, which was later adopted by Keno9988. So, far from what I’ve found, development on the AU has slowed down due to a lack of interest. Within this AU Sans takes over the role as Chara, while Chara is Mettaton. Sans becomes the ghost that follows the fallen child around, translating monster writing, helping to translate the froggets and what other monsters say, and so on. I wanted to show what I believe Storyspin Sans would looks like.

When I first stumbled upon and read about this AU the mental image I had of the worlds Sans was this small, sick, child skeleton. From there other ideas and possibilities came to mind until the design you see came to light. Like as a child he’d love warm, soft, fluffy things, outer space, and his family. Which is why he wears a large, over sized, jacket that has soft fluffy fur lining on the inside. He also has a specific flower that he likes. This flower taking the place of the underground buttercups. These flowers are called anemone. The symbolism of these flowers (that I found when researching different flower meanings) best defines the situation Sans is in. The symbol anemones represent is forsaken or faded hope. When the player finally gets to see Sans (not a photo of him), during the genocide run, Sans is holding a bouquet of seven flowers. One to represent each of the seven soul traits.

My idea is that during the genocide run, throughout the game Sans tries to be nice and convince Frisk/the player to stop and reset to undo all the damage they have done, but when the world is about to be deleted, Sans tries to stop them nicely one last time. When that doesn’t work he uses the seven souls of each of the monsters that Frisk killed. Undyne, Toriel, Mettaton, Asriel (or Napstablook I haven’t decided on which one to put here completely yet), Chara, Asgore, and Alphys. Using not only his own magic but also their souls to fight back and to try and get Frisk/the player to realize that what they're doing is wrong and to go back.

This is just a jumble of my ideas and possibilities for the AU. I've got a one other design I've made and I'm working on designing all the others as well. So I do hope you all enjoy this one. This piece along with all the other pictures I've uploaded I've originally uploaded onto my DA page so here's a link to that:

sonadow1823 - Student, Digital Artist | DeviantArt

You can also see all of the much older art that I've made from years ago. Many of those pieces I'm actually going to be remaking since it's been so long since I've made some of those.

[spookitordukeit]

Guys I am so very very insane.

I have so many ideas for so many stories running laps in my silly little brain over and over and the moment I start writing one idea, another two pop up beside it. Oh I am so ill. So feral. I am unwell. I need to write them down. NOW.

Okay-

1) I’ll put this one up first since it’s almost mermay, but I’ve had this idea for months.

Silly little MC gets pressured to go on a fun little boating trip by friends. (Bad friends) Unfortunately, MC has ✨thalassophobia✨ stuff happens and ‘friends’ decide it would be so ha ha funny to push MC off the boat as a little prank. News flash. MC has always been scared of water. Mc never learned how to swim.

Yada yada, Mc panics, starts to drown, hears clicking or something and is suddenly back on the boat gasping for breath. Orca Sans is not happy to have humans drowning in his waters. He is also not happy to have ‘friends’ polluting his waters with their trash. He had been following them because they kept throwing their shit overboard and then they threw over a while ass human. The man’s is not happyTM.

Anyway, she ends up passed out and her friends take her home, she wakes up the nest day thinking it was all just a weird dream, especially since no one but her seems to remember it, they said she passed out from the heat. After all, Monsters had emerged from the mountain a few years ago, she probably was just having funky fever dreams.

…On a whim, she goes to the dock closest to where her friends had their boat. Even if it was just a dream, the worst that can happen is she ends up looking silly.

Nothing happens and she ends up staring up at the moon, listening to the water hitting gently under the dock. It’s dark enough where she can pretend the water isn’t water and is just the night sky under her feet. She recalls a vague song, but it’s blurry she doesn’t remember where she heard it. There’s no words to it, just musical notes. On a silly whim, she sings in the quiet darkness.

It’s only when she finishes that she opens her eyes, finding two white eyelight staring back at her.

Thinking of calling it Learning Your Song.

2) I really really love the anti-harem concept, especially like There’s Still Magic by RosesCry and I’d love to write one myself! I have the idea of a whole verse for this one- I’d call is NexusTale or NexusHub and It’d be this one huge nexus where all the aus emerge from their mountains. I’m thinking it will be the first original verse lord wise. And other verses just continuously show up, many of them leave to go create their own Home AUs once their free, but may also stay.

MC has a… troubled home life to say the least. I can’t say much about this without spoiling it, but her and her sister live together, MC owns the house but she may as well be a freeloader with the way her sister and the skeles act. Oh yeah- did I mention MC’s sister invited a whole gaggle of skeletons to come live with them without asking MC?

It’s not like she could say no— they’re all newly emerged from the underground and don’t have a place to call their own, her and her Kindness couldn’t just leave them to the wolves… I Have Many Ideas For This One— I think I’d call it Shades Of Green or something.

3) okay so hear me out- Blue joins the Bad Sanses but with horrendous ✨trauma✨ Blue is with the Stars, and he does his best! He really does! But even his best isn’t enough most times. And people need him— people will die and suffer needlessly if he rests for even just one moment— so he must keep going! Dream is always there to give him a searing hot boost of energy whenever he’s falling behind. And who is he to complain if it makes his Mattie feel like it’s boiling him from the inside out? If it feels like his soul is filled with churning, molten lava? If all he can think of is fight fight fight— anything to get rid of this feeling.

Why does Killer keep asking him weird questions? What does he mean he thought Blue would be too out of commission from mourning to fight?

…When was the last time he saw his brother…?

I’m thinking of calling it, When Dreams Turn To Nightmares.

4) okay okay— UnderFell soulmate Au where the first words your soulmate says are somewhere on your skin. I know I know, it’s been done many time but LISTEN- Monsters emerged from the mountain like five years ago and very quickly took over, humans are lower class and the world over all is pretty sucky. MC lives in a shitty run down apartment and works a shitty job. She has two marks, one on each of her wrists like shackles.

She’s working at her job at the gas station one day, tired, hungry and ready to go home when the captain of the royal gaurd and the freaking judge walks in. She’s panicking because two of the most powerful and dangerous Monsters are within killing distance of her, as she should. She does her best not to make eye contact with either of them as they loudly walk through the aisles, but, inevitably, The Judge comes over to the checkout and she can’t ignore him— no one ignores the judge.

Red says something probably along the lines of “what? cat got yer tongue?” And MC freezes mid scan of an item, the words on her left wrist burning against her skin for a brief moment.

She looks at him with utter horror and Edge walks, excuse me— stomps over with some snappy demand like “WHAT IS TAKING SO LONG, HUMAN? WERE VERY BUSY!”

And then the words on her right wrist start burning and all she can do is mutter out “This can’t be happening.”

Both the boys freeze for a long moment and MC flees out the back door.

I’m definitely calling this one Shackled By You Words, Collared By Your Love. Because yeah it’s UnderFell, there’s collars lol. MC has one that she wears that she fills with her own Intent to keep Monsters away. Not that it works very well.

5) I reeeeeaaaallly want to do a dark fic 😔 I think writing a Yandere Edge would be really interesting. Not in a ‘I’ll kill anyone who looks at you’ but more in a ‘I’ll steal you from the forest and take you home where you will never leave because I only I can keep you safe and you will never want to leave.’ Kinda way.

So MC is a skeleton creature of some sort, not sure which yet. She lives in the forest alone, without a pack. Her pack was… lost. They had been taken from their homes once, and she got free. But now she is alone, and has been for many years.

She had her den and she protects the forests creatures from hunters, many of which do not leave alive. One day she catches a familiar scent, and with her soul racing and the inside of her skull screaming that she’s found them! They came back! They escaped! Family! Pack! Pack! Pack! She races through the trees and follows the scent, skidding into a clearing with an elated yell of welcome, only to stop short and have the words die in her throat.

The monster that stands shocked in the clawing is not her pack.

Fear, grief and rage well up in her soul and instead of running the monster out or killing him for trespassing in her forest, she runs. She runs all the way back to her den and burrows herself into the deepest parts of her nest while her soul tries it’s best to tear itself apart. The brief hope that had surged in her soul leaves her more broken then she was before, her kind is not meant for isolation. She so horribly, painfully alone…

She doesn’t leave her den for days, creatures of the forest bring her food and water, and stare worriedly at her until she accepts them, wolves bring her fresh kills and rabbits snuggle into her sides. The forest is worried, and yet she can not bring herself to move. She is alone.

Prey animals scatter and Predators growl in warning when a figure emerges from the trees. MC looks up in shock and fear as the monster from before pauses in the little clearing of her home. Anger quickly stomps out her fear as the monster is surrounded, she pulls herself from her den and growls at the intruder who dares to invade her home.

The Skelton monster does not look worried for his well being despite the wolves, bears and even a great moose surround him. The forest hisses with anger.

Somehow it deescalates and Edge ends up coming to the forest quite frequently. He is observant and quiet but he’s kind and sh is so very alone. She attaches to him quickly, missing him when he’s gone and chattering endlessly the moment he’s there. She shows him her den, shows him her nest, shows him the wonders of her forest and tells him of her darkest memories.

Memories of white labs and cold voices and the whines of her pack from behind separated walls. Memories of escaping along with another, but losing sight of him along the way. (Sometimes she thinks she can smell him on Edge… but that’s just her head playing tricks on her.)

…When she wakes up from a nap that leaves her groggier then normal, she’s a little disoriented. But not for long. The place she finds herself is unfamiliar, but Edge is not.

She can’t do anything but stare at the monster in front of her in silent horror, a cold pit in her stomach as her shaking hands grip onto the collar around her neck.

Idk what if call this tbh.

Sigghhhhhhhhh. So yeah, that’s all my ideas so far. Any of them strike your fancy?? Lemme know! I’ve already got five fics going, what’s five more?!

*sobbing*

[yayforocs]

CD #1

Whirrrrrrrrrrrrr…

“Alright, test recording, test recording- this- is- a- test- recordiiiiing.”

“Oh, y’know, it might should be longer than that, actually, lemme… Uh. Hm.”

“Alright, ignore that first bit, it’s still technically a test because if this doesn’t work, then ah- heh, I guess it wouldn’t really matter anyway. Ok!”

“So!”

“Today’s been interesting! Very different! Absolutely crazy! So there I was, right, sitting at my desk, lookin’ over the blueprints Kale’s god got for me, and then suddenly I was- like- all I did was blink, right, and then suddenly I’m sittin’ on a wood deck crossing this whole plain just full of all these little ponds an’ stuff, an’ I’m not alone, either- there’s a guy there that’s climbing out of the water, lookin’ like he got an unexpected dunk, and then there’s this- like- she has four arms, ok, four arms, which is really cool, an’ she wears this mask that’s got a buncha eyes all over it, an’ she’s just standing there like she’s cross at someone. And then this living statue lady comes over to us from this really pretty old-lookin’ building a ways off, says her name’s Shontil and welcomes us to something called the Multiversal Rescue Agency- says we each did some heroic deeds or something that got us all picked to be able to travel to different universes an’ help people out in ‘em! I... didn’t really get it at first, an’ I still don’t quite get it, b’cause I don’t really think I’ve done much of anything to qualify me for that, but.”

“So then she takes us up to this huge building, an’ we get inside, an’ it’s a huge Library! With- with all these weird little eyeball creatures an’ paper snakes flyin’ around, takin’ care of the place, an’ all kinds’a people inside- from all over! I guess they’re all from different universes, just like we are, but everyone is so different and it’s so cool! Anyway then she takes us over to this big eyeball thing with lots of tentacles an’ just floating there in the middle of it all, says that’s the Lorekeeper, an’ then it speaks to us an’ it’s- it- It was like a million different people were whispering in my head all at once, but I could understand what they were all saying, an’ none of it was out loud- it was like what you’d- or, at least, what I’d imagine a god to be like- b’sides Beta an’ Sector, at least. Like, I’m pretty sure this guy could take either of ‘em, easy.”

“But he gives us these- li’l- wing necklace lookin’-things, calls ‘em Jumpers, says we use ‘em to travel to an’ from different universes an’ such, an’ then he gave one of us a living crow skeleton to kinda keep watch over us an’ report back an’ such, an’ then sends us off to the armory to go get cool items or whatever. I- I actually didn’t get anything, b’cause my headband’s been acting up ever since I got here, so I went to go get it fixed instead- it’s not fully back, but it’s at least identifying a few things… Like the paper snakes are called Bookwyrms, and the little eyeball creatures are Little Keepers! Still won’t identify a lotta the stuff around here, but it’s at least- sorta working. Keep getting an error message when I try to do like. Anything at all with it. Says “expected exception, code: not relevant”. No idea what that means, but I hope it’s not broken- I only just got it.”

“Speaking of getting things, though, so I went wandering around to explore the place after all’a that, because we have like our own whole- room- area an’ stuff, so like there’s a common room, an’ then bedrooms for each of us, which is really nice, it’s a lot better than the bunker back home. But I went exploring, tryin’ t’see if I could find somethin’ to record with, so I could- well. Record. An’ I ran into Shontil, an’ then this big guy- like, really tall, kinda older looking- walks by, hears our conversation an’ that I’m lookin’ for a recording device, an’ he offers this thing! It’s- I- I dunno if I can describe it actually, it’s a dome-shaped thing with a disc in the middle an’ a crank on the side, an’ I can record with it! Hopefully! If this works, heh.”

“Anyway his name’s Fohzug an’ he’s from Partyyyyy… Gamma! An’ that party’s been goin’ for twenty years. Shontil said it was the longest a party’s ever stayed on, an’ they don’t seem keen on retiring any time soon, either.”

“Wonder how long we’ll be here… what kinda crazy stuff am I gonna have to tell when I go back- which! We can go back whenever we want to, it’s not like I’m stuck here, which is… really nice, hah. I was worried at first, but she said we could visit, so. It’s gonna be great.”

“…Dunno if it comes across, if you can hear it on the recording, but I’m sitting up on the roof right now- there’s a giant fountain up here, an’ it’s real pretty. The Jumper starts humming whenever I get close to it, an’ it sounds really nice. I’m not by it right now, so it’s not humming, an’ I’d get up an’ go over to it to show you, but Iiiii dunno if I trust myself to carry this properly over there without accidentally stopping the recording or something, so just trust me on it.” There’s a small chuckle.

“This seems like it’s gonna be real fun. I’m lookin’ forward to it.”

The whirring slows, and then stops.

[hauntedsideofthemoon]

BROKEN HEART OF GOLD - chapter 7; it's always darkest before the dawn

AO3 link

pairing: chishiya x gn!reader

format: gender-neutral original character/self-insert, they/them pronouns are used when necessary, no use of y/n or "___", feel free to picture the character however you wish!

tags: canon-typical violence, slow burn, ocs as side characters, mentions/depictions of mental health issues

word count: 3110

________________________________________________________

It took me a while to get back to my senses. When my eyes came back into focus, they were fixated on the lifeless body next to me. I couldn’t believe I had just killed someone.

"Ohoh? Now, this is the most interesting thing I’ve seen all day." A voice I had grown to dislike rejoiced while approaching me. Niragi stood beside the guard’s corpse, staring at the taser gun in my hands. My fingers were still clasped over the trigger, but his uncomfortable gaze made me drop the gun immediately. Niragi picked it up, admiring it like a child opening a Christmas gift. ‘This is going to be pretty useful to me,’ his tone more amused than ever.

Chishiya strolled past us and stopped in front of the pendulum he was inspecting earlier. The black light from his collar revealed the invisible ink drawing on its surface: a simple arrow pointing down.

He stepped inside the circular platform and tried to stop the sphere from swinging. When it halted, Chishiya reached his hand under the sphere and grabbed a small key that had been taped to it. He unlocked his collar and let it drop to the floor.

He was finally able to leave the museum, and I would be trapped with Niragi, who now had a weapon in his possession. Usagi was looking down at Chishiya’s collar on the floor when I walked over to her.

‘Hey, Usagi, are you okay?’

‘I didn’t know the collar’s light did that. I need to move fast before mine turns off, then.’

I offered to help Usagi after she saved me from the night guard. She showed me her phone with a picture of some bones, probably part of a fossil. Opening the floor map, I pointed at a dinosaur exhibition inside the gallery and we rushed inside.

Usagi was looking around the displays, searching for any drawings that would glow under the lights of her collar. She spotted a big arrow on the floor, leading up a set of metal stairs in the center of the room. More arrows appeared as she walked up, guiding her all the way to the top.

Our collars turned off at that exact moment, but Usagi had already found the key taped to the dinosaur skeleton close to the stairs. She stretched an arm to grab the key and unlocked her collar, hanging it on the railings before she came back down.

‘Oi, you can’t run away like that!’ Niragi stormed toward me and snatched the booklet from my hands. ‘I told you to pick this thing up because I needed it, and you thought you could get away from me with it?’

‘No! I just wanted to help Usagi, and I was going back to–’ I quit talking for a moment, growing irritated by his presence. I took a deep breath, closing my eyes and pinching the bridge of my nose. ‘Alright, you know what? I already know where I need to go, and I’m sure I won’t be helpful to you anymore since I’m so ‘useless’. So you can keep the map, alright? I’m leaving.’

I brushed past him, heading to the stairs. Chishiya was standing near the entrance, observing one of the fossils. ‘I thought you would have left already, after getting your collar off,’ I gave him a questioning look.

‘There’s still something about this place that I wanted to check,’ he responded without looking at me.

I shrugged. By his tone, I could tell he wouldn’t explain it further even if I asked.

Suddenly, a feminine scream echoed through the gallery. The Beach girl that had arrived with us came running from the other entrance, fleeing from a guard.

All five of us rushed to the stairs, crowding the small corridor. I could barely see anything in this tiny place, with everyone’s phones flashing lights all around as we ran. Finding the stairs that led to the lower floor, I immediately made my way down.

Chishiya followed me inside the new room with a suspiciously relaxed look on his face. 'You should move quickly, in case the guard comes down after us.' He glanced at me before making his way among the displays.

I followed Chishiya, planning to ask for his help in finding the humans exhibition since I didn't have a map anymore.

‘I didn’t say you could follow me.’

‘I’m gonna need your help finding my clue. Niragi stole my map.’

‘That’s not my problem. Figure it out yourself.’

‘Just this time, please! You said you’ve been to this museum before, so you can explain to me where the displays are and I’ll leave you alone, okay?’

Chishiya’s face was full of displeasure when he turned to me and sighed. He raised his hand and started gesturing toward different directions, explaining the routes that I should take. When he noticed my confused expression, he interrupted his instructions and looked away. ‘You’re just going to get lost anyway. I’ll show you where it is, but after that, you’re on your own.’

I was a little offended by his words, but glad that he agreed to guide me. I thanked him with a smile before sticking to his side. Chishiya was about to turn a corner when he abruptly stepped back and pulled me down into hiding, placing an index finger in front of his lips.

‘There’s a guard over there,’ he whispered, ‘we need to go through that room at the back, but there are no places to hide in there. When I give you the signal, run as fast as you can.’

Chishiya raised a hand while peeking over the corner and I waited. Then, he quickly lowered his hand before sprinting into the room in front of us, and I closely followed behind.

It was much darker inside, Chishiya’s white hoodie being the only thing I could see in front of me. When he suddenly dashed to the side, I couldn’t keep up with his speed and ended up bumping into the sign he had dodged.

The sharp metal corner scraped my side right above my other injury. I cursed under my breath, pressing a hand over my mouth to muffle a groan of pain while stumbling over the railings.

Once again, our collars turned on at the worst possible moment. Under the faint light, I noticed a bloodstain forming on my shirt.

‘We need to keep moving,’ Chishiya tugged on my arm and dragged me up ahead. I placed a hand over the painful area, trying to endure the huge discomfort.

As we passed through the entrance, a glass display with three human sculptures immediately caught my attention. They had different heights, resembling a person’s growth through life, and I recalled how my riddle referred to a baby, an adult, and an elder with a walking cane. I released myself from Chishiya’s grip and rushed toward the monitor while taking my phone out of my pocket.

‘There’s no time for that!’ Chishiya whispered-shouted at me.

‘No, I need to do this now! What if my next clue is even harder to find?’

‘Whatever, I won't wait for you. I’m leaving.’ Chishiya turned his back and left.

I focused my attention on the scanning process of this QR Code; it finally worked. Shoving my phone back into my pocket, I heard heavy footsteps closing by. I ran through the exit, turning the corner and spotting a set of elevators at the end of the corridor. Chishiya was in front of them, waiting for the doors to open.

Walking closer, I gave him a small wave while keeping a safe distance between us. I said I would leave him alone, and he said he wouldn't wait for me, so this felt quite awkward... Chishiya ignored me and turned up the volume on his iPod. By that action as well as the slight furrow in his brow, I could tell he was annoyed at my presence.

Inside the elevators, he pressed the button to the first floor and leaned against the wall. An uncomfortable silence grew between us, and I could hear the faint beat of his music.

The hem of my shirt was drenched in blood, and a broken stitch was piercing from under the cloth. From the corner of my eye, I noticed Chishiya glancing down at the bloodstain. Before I could face him properly, the elevator doors opened and he rushed out, making his way to the exit.

I raised my phone to examine my new clue: a set of cylindrical pieces that looked like the eyepiece of a telescope. I instinctively reached for my pocket where I kept the booklet, only to feel it empty. It dawned on me that Niragi had stolen it and I didn’t know where he could be.

Disappointment filled my body and my collar turned off. The announcer’s voice echoed through the room, there were thirty minutes left for the game.

Going up a long and exhausting set of stairs, I held my phone’s flashlight on to avoid more accidents in the dark. A voice could be heard coming from up ahead, gradually increasing in volume as I made my way up. And then I realized who the voice belonged to...

‘Come on, we have so much time left and no one’s around, it’s a great moment to have some fun together, don’t you think? You’ve seen what happened to the other girl…’

The scene in front of me made me nauseous. Niragi pinned Usagi against the wall, gripping both her wrists above her head and tracing the side of her torso with the taser gun. I was sure she had the physical capability to free herself, but she likely feared being killed while running due to the gun’s long range.

When Niragi noticed my presence, that awful smile on his face disappeared as he looked at me in disgust.

‘What are you staring at, huh?’ He aimed the gun in my direction and I stepped back, ‘This isn’t a public show for you to watch.’

Usagi immediately turned her head upon realizing that Niragi got distracted. She released herself from his grasp and kicked his stomach, sending him tumbling down the stairs.

As his body fell past me, I managed to avoid it and followed Usagi up. I couldn't hold back a chuckle as I heard Niragi cursing while he rolled down.

We stopped to catch our breaths upon arriving at the central hall.

‘I’m sorry you had to go through that... But it was quite satisfying to watch him fall like that.’ Her lips curled into a small grin in response.

‘Well, thank you for distracting him.’ Usagi glanced down at my collar, ‘Do you need help with finding your key? We still have a lot of time left-’ her eyes shifted downward and she noticed the bloodstain on my shirt. Usagi's eyes widened slightly as she asked if I was alright.

‘Oh, this…’ I looked down, hovering my hand over the blotch to cover the stitch poking from under the shirt.

‘It’s pretty bad right now, but I have someone to help me after I leave this place. I just need to find my key as soon as possible.’

I raised my phone and Usagi examined the image on the screen. ‘It looks like a telescope,’ she stated and pointed to her left, ‘I passed by one in that room earlier.’

When I followed her directions, I couldn't believe my luck when I saw it, right at the entrance of the room. The eyepiece was an exact match to the image on my phone.

I climbed over the small fence and began inspecting the telescope. Reaching my hand inside a very convenient hole in the mount, I found a small key hiding inside.

I unlocked my collar and jumped in excitement as a voice came from my phone announcing ‘game clear.’ I thanked Usagi and gave her a quick hug, wincing when my injury slightly pressed against her.

We walked in opposite directions after leaving the museum and I headed back to the Beach car. My adrenaline rush ceased as a wave of exhaustion filled my body and the pain in my hip had worsened to the point of being agonizing.

Chishiya was leaning over the passenger's seat door. He had a mixed expression on his face that suggested both satisfaction and annoyance at my survival.

The driver noticed me and explained we weren’t allowed to leave until the other two came back, or the game ended. I sighed at his words before moving closer to the car and leaning on it, hoping that time would go by quickly so that I could get this damn wound treated.

A few minutes passed and screams came from the entrance of the museum. Niragi angrily stumbled out of the building, yelling curses at that Beach girl while he followed her. She ran over and got inside the car, slamming the door beside her.

As Niragi approached, I moved to block the door with my body to keep him from going after her. I stared at him with a serious expression on my face, making it clear that I wouldn’t move out of the way. Chishiya let out a chuckle before distancing himself from us.

Niragi pressed the taser gun against my chest, his gaze piercing deeply into my eyes as he lowered his head. ‘Stay out of my business with others. Unless you want me to kill you, right here and right now.’ I shifted my gaze over to the purple bruises on his face and neck, the results of his well-deserved fall earlier.

The driver intervened, dragging Niragi away from me, ‘That’s enough already. Everyone is here, so let’s head back to the Beach.’

Niragi grunted at him, giving me one last threatening glare, and took his place on the passenger’s seat. The girl sat next to the window, her body trembling as tears fell down her cheeks. She glimpsed at me when I placed myself beside her and whispered a soft ‘Thank you.’

Chishiya walked inside, glancing down at my bloody shirt once again before looking up at my face. He quickly averted his gaze when our eyes met and faced outside the window beside him. The driver stepped on the gas and we finally left.

----------

I was the first to get out of the car when we arrived, struggling my way over to the main lobby. I asked the people inside about Ann, and they told me she hadn’t returned from her game yet.

Their words made me feel nauseous. Or maybe it was because the pain had somehow gotten worse. I lifted the hem of my shirt and examined the damage – My skin looked purple and swollen as blood seeped from the reopened cut, and many stitches were broken.

‘That doesn’t look good.’ Chishiya said as he stepped inside the lobby. The corners of his lips were slightly upturned, though his tone didn’t sound like he was poking fun at me. ‘Ann isn’t back yet, I assume?’

I shook my head in response. Chishiya observed my wound for a few moments, tilting his head as the small grin on his face faded away. I couldn’t guess what he was thinking, and his stare made me a little uneasy.

‘Come with me.’ He spoke without looking up, and his voice almost sounded kind.

‘... What?’

Without saying anything else, Chishiya headed toward the stairs. Something about the way he muttered those words had me curious, so I followed him.

Chishiya walked through a long corridor and led me inside a room, which I assumed was his. He dropped his iPod and earphones on the bedside table before turning on the coffee machine to heat up some water. He searched through the drawers and took out some medical tools.

‘You’ll have to lay on the bed for this.’

‘You’re going to take care of my injury?’

‘If you would rather keep bleeding, you can simply leave.’

‘...How do I know I can trust you with this?’

‘It’s your decision. However, you can’t tell anyone about this.’

I raised an eyebrow at him. There was something behind his eyes I couldn’t quite read, but he seemed serious about that. I lay down on the bed, holding my shirt just enough to expose the bloody mess on my side. Chishiya sat next to me and began preparing the materials.

After putting on rubber gloves, he doused a piece of cloth in an antiseptic solution and gently cleaned the skin around the wound. 

I winced in pain when he removed my broken stitches, though the re-stitching process didn't feel so bad. Chishiya carefully punctured my skin with the thread to close the cut, and his touch was so light I  hardly felt any pain.

It was clear from Chishiya's techniques that he had a lot of experience with this procedure. I felt his warm breath when he leaned over to examine the finished work, covering it with a new dressing.

‘Why did you decide to help me after you said you wouldn’t?’

‘Would you have preferred to be left to die?’

Chishiya's harsh tone didn't match his tender actions. But maybe this was part of his odd personality.

‘That’s not what I meant. Considering your attitude during the game, I wouldn’t have been surprised if you had left me there. I’m just curious, that’s all.’

Silence. Chishiya hadn’t looked at me since he offered to patch my wound, and now he had ignored me completely. He discarded the used materials in a plastic bag and dropped the metal tools into the coffee machine.

‘You’re not going to make coffee in that afterward, right?’

‘I don’t drink coffee. I only use this to sterilize my tools.’

I hummed in response and observed him for a few seconds.

‘You haven’t answered my other question yet.’

I waited, but once again, Chishiya didn’t reply. Sighing in defeat, I got up from the bed, holding the hem of my dirty shirt so it wouldn’t brush against the dressing. ‘Thanks, by the way.’

As I opened the door to leave, his voice came up from the other side of the room, almost inaudible.

‘I think you can still be useful.’

Turning my face back to him, he had a familiar sly grin on his face when he shot me a quick glance. I couldn’t tell if he expected me to read his expression, but he let out a snicker at the puzzled look on my face.

I rolled my eyes and left, slamming the door behind me before making my way back to my room.

[whats-wild-to-you]

Hello. Can I request for a scenario where Jay Park in a variety show as guest alongside new artist y/n, whom he has a crush on big time. Challenge was to go through a real haunted house, him being all tough, showing the bad boy image but once inside, he was a mess and trying to seek protection from y/n. After the show, he ask her out on a date as thank you gesture (actual fact that he wanted to). Funny fluff please 😁. Thank you!

Oh I love that!… ok here we go

“Ok, our next pairing is Jay Park and newly debuted singer y/n! Give it up for them! And their challenge will be *drumroll* going through a haunted house!!” The variety show host says and I mentally high-five myself. Since watching her debut performance, I’ve been having a huge crush on y/n. It’s been 2 months now and I still don’t feel confident enough to tell her. This is the perfect opportunity to make her fall for me! We lock eyes, y/n smiling shyly at me. “Don’t be scared. It’s just guys with funny costumes trying to scare you. I’ll be there to protect you.” I tell her. She smiles again and I swear I’m about to get lost in her big brown eyes. We walk in together side by side, but soon it’s too dark to even see our own hands. That’s ok. It’s okay! It’s all just show. None of this is real. The floors creak and there are muffled sounds coming from somewhere. I’m slightly intimidated but still get ahead of y/n, shielding her small frame with my body. “Are you okay?” I hear her ask all of a sudden. Her voice is steady, unlike mine when I finally answer her. “Yep. All good.” Suddenly what feels like a bony hand touches me and I jump up, shrieking. Behind me I hear y/n chuckling. “They caught me off-guard.” “Sure!” Then there are more hands reaching out for me. Voices coming from everywhere, and they don’t sound human. My breathing hitches, I start hyperventilating. “Jay, this isn’t real. Calm down.” “I can’t see anything. Can you see anything?” Instead of giving me an answer, y/n just laughs. Great! There goes my chance of ever impressing her! I bump into something thinking it’s furniture. When I touch it I realize it’s a skeleton. Screaming from the top of my lungs, I throw hands all around me and start running. Moments later I hear y/n calling after me. “Here! Take my hand or you’ll get injured.” We reach the exit and I collapse on the floor, panting. “So no fan of haunted houses then, noted.” Y/n snickers. “How are you so calm about this?” I squeeze out in between breaths. “I love haunted houses!” Glad we don’t have that in common. “Hey, uh, thanks for, you know, in there.” “Oh, you’re thanking me for saving your ass? You’re welcome. Your ass looks like something worth saving.” Y/n giggles, and then adds in a hushed tone. “I have great vision!” So she was checking out my ass while I was scared out of my damn mind? “I wanna thank you properly, for, you know, saving my ass! How about lunch tomorrow?” “Name time and place and I’ll be there!” She says with a wink as she’s being escorted off by her manager.

[morningstargirl666]

SNEAK PEAK

Sneak Peak for Chapter 16

Hi! I’m so sorry I’ve been gone so long, realised the other day I haven’t posted since APRIL and omg yeah I’m so sorry guys. I was writing for into eternity and au season, then I was sick, then I got an ear infection and then after that I got writers block and wasn’t quite sure what I writing for chapter 16 BUT IT’S OKAY I figured it out, got a skeleton draft done, and now 5k later thought I would share you a sneak peak. I will try to get an update out for next weekend but no promises. Since I’m at 5k it should be soon regardless.

For now, here’s a sneak peak of chapter 16, where a certain someone returns to Mystic Falls and a few misunderstandings take place...

Tyler leant against the wall, waiting, restless in the hallway as Caroline talked to her mum in the next room. He could hear their voices, but mostly tuned it out, instead focusing on a photo frame sat on the hall table by his side, picking it up and examining it, nothing else better to do. It was a picture of a much younger Caroline and her mother, toothy grin wide and bicycle helmet strapped on her head, a small vibrant pink bike with tassels on the handles in front of her. The day she learnt how to ride a bike, most likely.

Tyler smiled down at it fondly, before placing it back down next to the bowl where the Forbes dropped their keys, adjusting its position a little once he remembered Caroline would probably freak if it wasn’t left how he found it, the neat freak she was. He straightened up, pushing off from the wall and looking around, wandering around the length of the hallway while he waited. Maybe it was impatience, maybe it was nerves - Liz had always seemed to like him before but now… Her cold reception at the door earlier had reminded him why he had left. She hadn’t quite forgiven him for biting and nearly killing her daughter, and in all honesty, neither had he. He’d missed Caroline, he had, but after hearing about the sirelines and Damon’s plans, he wondered how long this feeling of contentment would last. It already felt like it was slipping through his fingers.

A second later, Caroline bounded into the hallway, and Tyler turned to face her, returning the blinding smile she sent him on instinct.

“We good?” He asked, slightly nervous, glancing behind her into the other room. Liz was out of sight, probably having retreated to the kitchen.

Caroline grabbed his hand and grinned wider, pulling him towards the stairs. 

“My mom said you could stay as long as you want.” She said to him, clearly thrilled, taking the lead.

Tyler pulled a disbelieving face, following her up the stairs. “Did she say we could share the bed?”

“No…” She drew out, glancing behind her, looking down at him with a sheepish smile. “She said you could sleep on the couch?”

He hummed, lips thinning into a straight line, knowing that had been coming.

“At least until we figure out what Damon and Stefan find out about Klaus.” She continued, pleading with him.

They arrived at the top of the stairs, Caroline turning to face him on the landing. Tyler tried to keep the pessimism out of his voice, but he wasn’t sure if he managed it. “And if Klaus didn’t create their line? And they try to kill him?”

“Tyler,” She began, smiling fondly as she brought a hand to rest at the nape of his neck, “I just got you back.” 

She pulled him in, and suddenly, she was kissing him. After a moment of surprise, Tyler returned the kiss, losing himself in the feel of her. 

“I’m not losing you again.” Caroline declared once she pulled away, still smiling. Tyler couldn’t help but smile back. She took a step back, gesturing to the bathroom and possibly the store cupboard that resided inside. “I’m going to grab some blankets. You can take the extra pillows off my bed and take them downstairs if you want.”

“Okay.” He said softly, a little breathless.

Somehow, Caroline’s smile only got brighter.

“Okay.” She repeated back to him. Then she was spinning around, hair flying with her, striding away to get the blankets. Tyler couldn’t stop the grin that split his face, looking up at the ceiling as he spun around, weak in the knees for a second, still feeling the echo of that kiss. 

There was a bounce to step as he walked towards Caroline’s room, and he pushed her door open with one hand once he reached it, immediately walking over to the bed and leaning over to grab the extra pillows sat atop the sheets. When he pulled them towards him, gathering them in his arms, only then did he finally freeze.

There’d been something off about the house the moment he’d walked through the front door, but he hadn’t been able to place it. Something different in the air that had made his nose twitch. At the time, he hadn’t thought much of it, chalked it up to Caroline or Liz perhaps using a different perfume, or shampoo - perhaps a different laundry detergent. Hell, maybe even different air freshner, or something as simple as someone had been round to the house he didn’t recognise. He still wasn’t really used to being a werewolf, let alone a hybrid, so he didn’t understand what his nose was trying to tell him half the time.

But this? This was clear.

The scent in the air that had faded, barely detectable in the rest of the house, was stronger in Caroline’s room. It was coming from the bed mostly, all over her pillows, thick and heavy, though still a little faded, as if the fabric had been washed. Slowly, as if afraid of what he would find, Tyler brought the pillows closer to his face, burying his nose in the soft fabric and inhaling the scent, breathing in deeply.

Tangy iron, like blood, and also decay - a vampire. Yet it was intertwined with the musk of a wolf, the smell of wet fur. Then there was also paint, the smell of the proper stuff, acrylics, like it was drying, still wet. He could smell parchment, canvas and even earth, an echo of the woods and a deep age. The scent of something old, something dangerous, a scent that made the hairs on Tyler’s neck and arms break out into goosebumps. A scent he recognised.

Tyler recoiled from the pillows, staring down at them in horror, paralysed. Then he seemed to snap out of it, casting aside the pillows quickly only so he could claw at the sheets and duvet, pulling them towards him, frantic and wild. He shoved his nose into their fabric too, eyes widening upon finding the same scent, the same impossibility, because why, why was his scent here, and why was it all over her bed-

Tyler dropped the sheets like it had burned him, backing away, eyes wide in horror and dread. He backed into the bedside table by accident, almost jumping out of his skin when the lamp on it rattled, tipping over. He spun around, grabbing it before it could fall over the side. Heart racing, he righted the lamp, swallowing as he put it back in place.

And that was when he noticed the drawing.

It was sitting there, innocently, on top of a book Caroline must have been reading in bed. He almost hadn’t seen it, mind loud with panic as it was. But the sketched lines of Caroline’s face had caught his eye and suddenly he saw it, eyes fixing on it, unable to look away. Feeling numb, his hand reached for it, picking up the rough sketch paper so carefully anyone would believe he was handling a bomb, primed to explode. Perhaps it was. Caroline’s features had been drawn with such care, the lines of her face depicted with reverence and beauty. And then there was the horse, a horse Tyler had never even seen before - who in Mystic Falls still owned horses? - and below that was writing, a message written in blocky yet refined, pencil smudged letters.

Thank you for your honesty,

Klaus

Tyler stared. Stared until his eyes burned and he was forced to blink, unable to comprehend what he was seeing. Eventually though, it got through. The sketch in his hands suddenly felt heavy, and the feeling building in his throat hurt, the warmth from earlier replaced by freezing cold. He looked over to the bed, where the rumpled sheets and discarded pillows lay, his sire’s scent still fresh in the air. The scent of a hybrid. The scent of Klaus.

Tyler swallowed, the horror and shock in his wide eyes dissipating, replaced by a different emotion altogether. His eyes narrowed, jaw clenching so hard it hurt. His hands clenched into fists, the sketch paper crumpling and cracking in his grip, threatening to tear. 

What the hell had happened while he was gone?

From the scent hanging in the room, he already knew the answer.

[yasmin-writes]

There’s a ringing coming from outside, a shrill security alarm that ceaselessly cries out to its owner to make it stop. It’s 2:47am and that alarm is more awake than I am, but I’m kept up by this vacancy that has settled into me like houseguest that just won’t leave. That woman in the painting will be me tomorrow morning -- if the last few days are anything to go by -- after I've woken up, covered in a thin sheen of sweat (from the heatwave or my nerves, I do not know), and staring out onto any blank space to give my mind something clean, empty, and formless to cling onto whilst it readies itself for another onerous day. At least I have not had any nightmares since the last time I had to record one in my journal, but a dreamless sleep from which I always wake a little too early in the morning feels similarly perturbing. My body is faring no better. I’ve developed this redundant cough which seemingly does not do anything to or for me. It only appears of its own volition when I am quietly taken over by this feeling that there is something lodged inside of me that I need to get out. It makes a dull sound -- there is no effort, no force to it -- but it’s becoming a nervous tic, like I am being abruptly reminded that I am still awake and alive and there is something I am procrastinating which I probably should be getting on with.

It could just be because it gets hot at night, but there is something so sad and lonely about the lack of bedsheets or a lamp or a little table for her bedside necessities or some wall art or something to cover her bare body in that room that looks out to the morning sun. There is nothing to mark the space as her own, no traces of her having slept on that bed (has she?), nothing to cover her from the sun’s unflinching glare. They can see each other, her and the sun, but it doesn't seem a friendly gaze. She looks out at it, heaving a sigh at the way it exposes the absences in her life to the world. This is why I keep my curtains closed, especially during the day. I cannot take the brightness of the August sunlight that tries to force me out of bed too early and shows me the disordered state my room is in. Her room is empty, but mine is not. It’s not full, necessarily -- I have just recently thrown out a load of things I decided was not worth hoarding anymore -- it’s just that everything is out of place.

I am packing for my month-long trip away. As in, it is a continuous act which I have not yet finished. The trip has already been rescheduled once, abruptly, and so my first attempt at packing — as methodical as it was — seems useless. I unpack only the things I’ll need during this (3-week long) interval, between coming home and leaving again, but never placing anything too far from the suitcase in case I have the urge to repack it. I have summer clothes, odd bits of new makeup, travel-sized bottles of toiletries all in little groups (like they have been conscripted together) dotted around a space I have internally designated as a ‘packing area’. The suitcase is splayed open — like a violated corpse barely hidden in the woods — in the middle of my bedroom floor, the skeleton of that very specific packing structure I adopted still peeking through, which I am scared to disturb. If I close the suitcase, or unpack it to emptiness, it feels like I will never leave here. Like the trip, my plans for the summer, my expectations for what will happen when I am away and when I return home will never come to be. During this same, achingly long, moment of midsummer I am slowly packing for moving house almost immediately after I return home am back from my travels. But to decide what to take on a long trip, what to pack up for a new home, and what has exceeded its duration of usefulness and so needs to be mercilessly thrown out is an unsettling task. I don’t mean unsettling in a macabre, low-budget horror film sense; I mean it in a more literal feeling of un-settlement. Like an uprooting that hasn’t quite taken form, so it just sits within you, making every day in your own space feel uncanny and unfamiliar. Or like you are the one unfamiliar, the one that no longer fits in to the homeliness of this place. 

Summer and I are like old friends who know they secretly despise each other but regularly meet anyway — to try and breathe life into this deadened connection, or perhaps only to show off to their instagram friends that their ‘childhood friendship’ is more valuable your adult ones. I remember loving summer; my gingham frocks, the water slide at Archway Pool, the time spent with my parents (but only one of them at a time) that made me forget how emotionally violent our home was. But each year that summer returned, it saw me retreat further away from it. Not only did it grow more and more physcially unbearable — the summer grew hotter, and I grew older and more confined to a modesty that dictated I wore long sleeves and high necks all year round — but it almost always signalled a period in which I was forced to return to myself. No school, no fixed schedule, no need to do anything but to enjoy the time off until September reappeared. I could be at home with my parents and siblings where the air was thick with everyone’s suppressed complaints and highly-strung emotions threatening to lurch into the fore. I could see my friends who liked me most when I was just as quiet and agreeable as I eventually became in front of my family. It was needed; their personalities were so large and loud that one more would disrupt the balance. I was drawn to people like that, people whose social extraversion surrogated my own because someone (probably me) decided it would be easier to get through my teen years — those years of the greatest, inner and outer changes — if I had just kept quiet. For the most part, this worked. It was only when I found myself alone that I’d feel like all this quiet was just hushing some rumblings that were desperate to speak out.

[the-iron-tipped-quill]

An Introduction: Ivy Adalina

yes another game character I’m playing gets a story shhhh

no content warnings I don’t think

to be tagged: @fruity-skeleton @aliceslimegirlsupreme @spookychan360 @chandeliermichel @steamfunkoo7

Divider credits to samspenandsword and saradika

writing below the cut and please enjoy

Does Mother still fear the darkness?” I asked my sister, the two of us cloaked by the darkness of the alleyway we regularly met up in. 

“She does. Since you left she’s been growing significantly more paranoid. My sister confirmed. 

“What exactly is it that she fears? The people of the dark are quite kind. As long as you manipulate the strings correctly, you are both safe and quite rich.” I said smiling, handing a small pouch over to my sister. “A gift from my last assignment. Store it somewhere safe. Use it when you finally escape Mother.” 

“Thank you. I cannot imagine how much it pains you to see me kept within her web after she cut you out of it. Again, Thank you Brianna.” My sister said, hiding the pouch within the hidden pockets of her skirt. 

“…Anything to get you out of her web. Anything. Damn the Vennerer name. I wish I could get you out of there sooner.” I said pulling her close to me if only for a few seconds.

“Brianna… I… I’m scared. Will I be safe when I leave?” My sister asked me, clinging to me just as desperately as I clung to her. 

“You’ll have my protection, the protection of those indebted to me, and many others. I’ll keep you safe in any way I can.” I reassured her, praying to whatever deities out there that would listen to me for her safety. I heard my sister mumble a prayer for me as well. 

A moment of silence fell between us. I heard the bells of the city toll, marking it was time for us to part. The 7th hour of the night is upon us both, meaning my dear sister needed to return home, and I needed to meet with my next contractor.

“This is where we part, I have a contractor to answer to. See you in a few weeks time. Give Miss Marianne my regards.” I said walking off to go meet the mysterious man who contracted me.

“You must be V, I’ve reserved a private space for us to talk.” The man said, motioning me towards a significantly more out of the way room. I followed hesitantly. My hand rested upon the sword at my side, clinging to the handle of the blade out of caution.

As we both sat face to face, he pulled his hood down, exposing only a simple man. Nothing remarkable about him. 

“I need you to hunt down a man who owes me a debt. It’s been a while since he paid up. I will warn you that he is quite a challenge to track down. You can handle him.” He said casually. 

“As much as I would have loved to learn your name, discuss a few other things before even getting to what you’ve hired me for, I suppose that will not be the case here.” I said, sighing, “Just give me the damned contract.” 

A scroll was placed in front of me, I read it over, it just seemed like a normal contract killing, with a little bit of a hunt for me. I signed the contract, watching the ink stain the parchment as I signed my false name. 

Ivy Adalina. 

“Thank you Miss Adalina. I hope this will be a fun assignment for you. You have exactly the skill set I would love to have as a tool in my arsenal.” The man said.

“As much as I can imagine you’d love my skills as a tool. I really only do contract work. I prefer dictating what I take for a killing.” I said, snatching up the contract and leaving without another word. 

Walking through the city, I found myself stopped in front of a tailor shop. Letting my curiosity get the better of me, I stepped inside, letting my hood fall as I heard the door click shut behind me. An elven lady appeared from a room off to the side of the shop.

“I don’t believe I’ve seen you around my shop before, may I have your name miss?” She asked, her voice kind as she walked over to me. 

“V, and may I have yours in return?” I responded, trying to remember at least a handful of the conversational skills my mother had drilled into me. At least she was useful for something.

“Amia. Take a look around and see if anything here already available catches your eye. If nothing does, I’ll custom make you something!” Amia said, motioning around the shop joyfully. “Call my name if you need me!”  

I smiled in spite of myself, and began to browse what Miss Amia had for sale. Walking around the shop, I found dresses more akin to what Mother would have had me wear before I broke free of her web. Nothing available to me here suited what I wanted. I saw dresses more suited to my sister's tastes. I turned to face the door I saw Amia leave into and walked over to knock on it. 

“Amia, I have a… request for a dress.. shall we say, can I request you to be the one to bring it to life?” I asked, hesitantly waiting for her answer. 

“Depends on how much you’d be willing to pay for it, but I can certainly try! I’ve been working my craft for centuries and there’s no style I cannot make!” Amia said, opening the door and motioning me towards a smaller room, walls covered in huge rolls of fabric, with a small set of needles and threads in the corner. 

“What were you thinking for a dress V?” Amia said cheerfully, pulling out a small page and prepared herself to draw what I had in mind. 

I described the dress I wanted, and watched as Amia started drawing, and after a few minutes, she showed me exactly the dress I had been picturing.

“Would it be something like this?” She asked, smiling as she watched my expression change. 

“Amia, this is exactly what I had been picturing. How in the world did you manage this?”  

“You described it so specifically, I knew almost every single detail of how it should look. 

“Amia, how long will it take you to make, and before all of this, how much do I owe you to make this?” I asked, staring in awe. 

“About a month I think will be needed. I’ll prepare measurements and a price for you soon. Is there a set way I can contact you?” Amia asked me, setting the page down to walk over to me. 

“Send it to the house of Alice Southerly., she will get the message to me.” 

“Miss Southerly? Are you another daughter of hers?”

“Legally yes, by technicality no.” I said, trying my hardest to finish up here.

“I’ll send the request over when it’s finished.” Amia said, motioning me to go.

I returned to Alice’s house, entering it to find a familiar face. The lord of the house, fighting with his kid.

“V! You made it back!” Zane said, dropping their sword and running over to me. 

“I only went out to claim another assignment. Zane, I was going to return anyways. You are aware of this right?”

“Well yeah but-“ They started as their father cut him off.

“Adalina, will you do me a favor and finish this fight for me? I have a meeting to get to.” Nero said, hand on my shoulder. A comforting sensation. I had to force myself not to lean into it. 

I drew my sword, the familiar weight of it in my hand bringing a sense of comfort. 

“In your name sister. In your name. I will win.”

I stood directly across from Zane, sword drawn. The clang of metal was audible as we fought.

“You seem to be holding back V. I’ve seen you fight dad better than this.” 

“Zane. I’m holding back for your sake. Forgive me for not fighting at full strength.” I said, sending my sword directly towards their chest. 

Another sharp clang as they barely blocked it.

“You’ve been improving. Good.”

“I’m getting better?” Zane said, eyes lighting up at the compliment.

“Ivy. Zane. Break it up, we have guests coming over soon.” Alice said, voice echoing loudly around the courtyard.

A loud metal clatter was heard as Zane jumped back a little, sword falling to the ground. 

“Ivy, please change into something more suitable for guests. This applies to you too Zane.”

I walked off, changing for the guests, keeping my head low as I plotted how my next assignment would go.

I headed out that next morning, only my armor, sword and a small pack of clothes, food and gold. 

[naomikafka]

Chapter 11 - DIOCH

Jin brought them all with his teleportation to another planet, Riviera. Since their ship had been destroyed with those green orcs. He couldn’t think of any other places, since they had to escape Moa in a hurry, he just brought them here. It’s his favorite place whenever he wanted to be alone, this place was his number one destination. 

Riviera, It's an uninhabited planet with beautiful land, a clean river and waterfall, and beautiful forest. 

“We have to take a new ship, because definitely I couldn’t go to Dopere by teleportation. I never go there.” Jin said to his friends who were sitting, circling around him, facing the bonfire J-hope made.

Namjoon had discovered a new clue from the new weapon they found, the lightning bow that had blue ruby belonged to Dopere. Namjoon was so sure their next destination should be Dopere. Though he still couldn’t figure out where Louis might hide the next weapon. They decided to just visit the place where namjoon found the louis skeleton. 

“We could take the new ship from Jackson, He has so many ships ready.” Namjoon said. All eyes turned to him.

“I’ve visited their planet once, so I could go there by teleportation.” Jin replied.

“Right, the problem is their rule for outsiders. We couldn’t go there with this number of people. We have to split for a while.” Namjoon said again.

They all nodded.

“I think it’s best if the ones who should go are the ones who could operate the ship. So, it should be Yoongi, Hoseok and of course me.” Jin suggested. Suga and Hoseok just nodded, and didn't even disagree the slightest bit.

“Jackson is my friend so I should go there too.” Namjoon stated, deep inside he was worried about leaving Leah here. But as a leader he must be responsible to his team.

There's guilt creeping out his heart once he glanced at Leah who was quietly listening to their conversation, he took a deep sigh.

It’s for the best.

********************************

Jin, Hoseok, Namjoon and Yoongi have left. Leaving the rest of Bangtan members, Leah and Eunseo.

The men already built a camp from tree branches and dried leaves. Taehyung was hunting for more woods, while Jimin was hunting for food with Jungkook, leaving Leah and Eunseo alone in the camp. 

They were preparing the branch near the bonfire. They were too focused to even talk.

"I've been wanting to ask you this question since so long.. " Leah started, breaking the silence.

"Are you and Taehyung a thing?"

It made Eunseo cough.

Leah laughed. "Does it mean yes?"

Eunseo only smiled awkwardly. She didn't know how to answer that. 

To put it simple she only nodded. She could see Leah smiled, it made her even more shy. 

"Since when?"

Eunseo wants to answer “ever since years ago” but how could she say that? It’s just she’s not ready to tell anyone about her past with Taehyung. Especially not with the woman who has her previous face. 

"I don’t know. It’s just happened..” She finally answered simply.

"Did he confess to you?" Leah got curious, she really wanted to know what made her like him in this short period of time.

Now that she mentioned, Eunseo remembered he never said it, those three words after she remembered all those past.

"Yeah, he did." In the past.

"It seems you love each other so much. I see the way he looked at you and put you first in every situation. That's good you're not hurting here but happy." Leah smiled, she’s happy that Eunseo didn’t even experience any pain like she imagined. 

“Yeah, they never hurt me, but treat me like a family..” Eunseo agreed.

“That’s good.” Leah smiled, eyes now back to the bonfire before them, she started to put more woods into the fire.

Eunseo felt all her regrets coming back as she saw how pure and full concern her queen eyes were. She’s really a good person and yet she ever felt so jealous of her, days before. 

She cleared her throat and whispered. “Thank you for coming here My queen, Thanks for worrying about me. You are a Queen yet you risk your position by coming here just to make sure I’m okay.” She glanced at the queen who already set her eyes at her. 

“I’m really thankful..” Eunseo continued.

“And I’m so sorry for making you come here..” and for having such bad thoughts before. She mumbled but of course Leah couldn’t hear it.

“Why are you apologizing?” Leah chuckled before continuing.

“Eunseo, I always consider you as my friend, of course I will come to save you..”

Eunseo smiled at her answer.

They talked and talked about everything, about the people on the Moon, and so much more. Eunseo never had such a deep talk with her queen before because even though they were close, there’s always that line that separates them from making them closer. And now they’re having to talk about the queen’s life that she never heard before, it makes that thin line totally disappear. 

"I'll go to the river for a while. I need to wash my face. I felt so tired. I'll be back in minutes." Leah suddenly stood up, wiping off the dirt on her bum as she stood up.

"I'm coming with you." Eunseo eagerly stands up, needs to get some fresh air too and of course the main reason is to accompany her queen.

"No, it's okay. I can go by myself." Leah answered as she knew Eunseo just wanted to guard her.

"I need to freshen up too." She argued.

Leah sighed and just nodded and then they took their weapons and started walking to the river. 

Once they arrived at the river.

Leah quickly washed her face as well as Eunseo. Leah put her bag of arrows on the river side. She also pulled out her hairpin and put it on the rock beside her to wash her long hair.

"I feel fresh. This water is so cold." 

When she was about to stand up, she saw her hairpin fall into the river.

"Oh No. My hairpin." Leah was about to reach the hairpain but the water only dragged it further.

"I'll take it for you.." 

"No, Eunseo, it's okay." But it's too late, Eunseo already jumped into the water and swam to take the hairpin.

"Eunseo, Just leave it. Go back here.” Leah screamed and tried to reach her with her hand. But she swam only further.

"I almost get it." She managed to say as she kept swimming.

Once she grabbed it. She swam back at Leah who was worriedly waiting for her in the riverside. She helped her to get out of the water. Eunseo felt sharp pain on her right leg as she bumped into a rock in the water, it felt stinging. She’s biting her lips, trying not to groan in pain.

"Are you okay?” Leah worriedly asked as she gave her jacket to cover her drench clothes. Eunseo only nodded.

“Why did you jump just like that? It's only a hairpin. What if something dangerous is waiting for you in the water?" Leah scolded her as soon as she made sure Eunseo was covered in her dried jacket.

"I'm sorry. It's your hairpin.." Eunseo handed her a hairpin.

Leah took the hairpin. “Thank you for this but jumping into the water is not necessary."

Eunseo only nodded and smiled, she tried to ignore sharp pain on her leg.

"Listen to me, you don't have to treat me like your queen here. I told you I always consider you as a friend. And here no formality needed so just treat me like your friend and don't risk your life for something unuseful." Leah sternly said as if she’s scolding her kid. 

"Yes, Quee.."

"And don't call me Queen. Just call me by my name. Call me leah."

Eunseo nodded. 

"I'm sorry.. I won’t do it again."

Leah sighed and took her hand. "I just worried for you. I'm not mad at you. Now let’s go before you freeze to death.”

Meanwhile Taehyung was coming back to their camp and saw Jimin and Jungkook was cutting the fruit and mushrooms they found. When he saw there's no Eunseo in sight. His heart triumphs in alert.

"Where's Eunseo?"

Jimin and Jungkook quickly widened their eyes.

"We thought they were with you."

"No.. Shit." He quickly threw the wood on the ground and turned back into the forest.

Only a few minutes into the forest. He bumped into Eunseo and Leah. What caught him first was how soaked she was. And Leah's jacket was wrapped around her petite body.

"Why are you soaking wet?" 

He frowned at Leah who didn't wet even slightest on her clothes, far different from Eunseo who was drenched, as if she just fell into the water.

Eunseo was hesitant to answer and So Leah beat her.

"She jumped into the water to take my thing that fell into the river." She said in a soft tone, feeling bad. 

"Huh?" He frowned even more. "Did you ask her to do it?" He didn’t realize that he clenched his fist already, it made Leah frowned, yet she understood why he took it that way.

"No, Tae I did it on my own." Eunseo quickly defended her, putting her hand on his chest to calm him down, she knew he’s getting mad.

Eunseo was looking at Leah, asking her to leave them alone. 

“I’m sorry.” She whispered once she saw Leah disappear from their sight.

Taehyung only sighed, his anger subside at her guilty look. He took off his jacket and put it on her body. Double jacket wrapped on her petite body.

“Why are you keeping risking your life for her? She’s not your queen. Not here.”

Taehyung remembers how many times she’s always put her queen first.

First, when Jin was about to land on their ship, Eunseo was giving her seat for Leah, because no seat left and so Taehyung would pull Eunseo on his lap instead and hold her tight when they had a harsh landing. 

Second, When they’re landing on Moa and ready to separate for their missions. Eunseo was about to give Leah her bulletproof jacket. If only Taehyung wasn’t there and gave Leah a threatening look, she might have given her and went without her safety jacket. 

And third, when Namjoon pulled out the lighting bow, she tried to shield Leah from any danger. What if something really wanted to hit her queen, did she really take the hit for her?

And now this, Taehyung didn’t know exactly what the thing was that she managed to take it from the river. Is it really important that she needs to jump into the water?

Taehyung didn’t like any idea that his woman would be hurt. He’s trying so hard to protect her from any danger, but the one he tried to protect is so careless only making it harder.

“Please don’t do this again, I want to protect you yet you’re so careless about taking care of yourself.” He pushed her hair to put it behind her ear, caressing her cheeks, looking at her eyes softly.

“I’m sorry Tae, it’s just.. She's our queen.. So I should..” She replied by looking into his eyes. She couldn’t help but always protect and guard her spontaneously whenever she saw her queen in danger or need help even for a really small thing. She was always living that way. 

“No, You shouldn’t. It’s her choice to come here. You didn’t have to protect her..”  Taehyung frowned, getting annoyed with her answer.

“She came to save me.” Eunseo held his hand on her face, sweetly caressing it to calm him down.

“And so you have to pay her with your life?” He regained his calmness due to her sweet touch.

“No, it’s just she’s always been kind to me.” 

He sighed hearing her answer and pulled her into his embrace which she accepted in seconds.

“Why are you so stubborn?” He whispered, putting his chin on her head, closing his eyes.

“I’m sorry, I can’t promise that I won’t save her. But I’ll promise you I’ll be carefull.” 

Taehyung pulled out from their warm hug to cup her face and look into her eyes.

“Fine, next time just tell me whenever you want to leave. And whenever dangers come, always stay by my side. Promise?” 

“Promise.” She smiled.

“So tell me what exactly happened? Why are you soaking wet?”

“I’ll jump into the river to take my queen’s hairpin.” 

Once this sentence left her mouth, she gulped seeing Taehyung's scary look. “Are you kidding me?”

************************************

He was holding his breath, gaining all his power to attack the devil woman before him who was laughing like a maniac. They were fighting with all their power, pulling out all their strength to win.

He finally succeeded to push all his power to the woman, make her stumble and throw her over the tree. Her body hit the tree and this time he quickly moved to her, putting his blade on her neck. It only made the woman laugh even more. 

"Kill me. Kill me. My precious dioch. But it doesn't mean your precious princess will be fine."

Taehyung pressed the blade to her neck to make it slice her neck a bit, and she only smugly continued.

"My lord Dominus would kill her for me. He will for sure.." She laughed like a maniac.

"You don't deserve to be happy.. she will die." She continued laughing, mocking him with her disgusting smirk.

And this moment he pressed the blade and cut her neck, killing her. 

But the voice kept ringing in his head.

She will die

She will die

She will die

It made him tremble and drop his bloody blade on the ground. 

"No.."  The voice kept ringing.

"No.." He covers his ears in tremble. But it won't stop.

She will die

She will die

"NOOOOOOO!!"

He opened his eyes, only to realize it was just a dream. He had a bullet of sweat and his breathing was raked. He took a deep breath to calm down and turned to see Eunseo on his side but only to find it's empty. 

He quickly sat up in panic but as soon as his eyes found Eunseo sitting, facing the bonfire. He could breathe in relief. His fast heartbeat turned to calm.

He slowly approached her, from a short distance he could see Eunseo was putting her hand over the bonfire.

Slowly he took a step more and put his arm over her shoulder, back hugging her, giving her warmth. 

"Why did you wake up so early?" He whispered on her neck, made her a little jolt in surprise but smiled in second once she knew it was Taehyung.

"Why aren't you sleeping?" She whispered back.

"Rude, I asked you a question and you dodge me with another question?"

Eunseo laughed.

"I don't know, I woke up and couldn't get to sleep again."  She shrugged before turning to him, looking at his soft gaze already set on her face.

"And why are you waking up?" She mumbled.

"Because I didn't find someone to cuddle with." 

"Geez.. you're such a kid." 

Taehyung laughed. He pulled away and moved to sit beside her.

"Are you cold?" He took her cold hand and brought it to his face. He blew on her hands playfully and rubbed it to warm it. Eunseo only lets him do whatever he childishly does. 

He was softly rubbing her hands, making sure every inch of her skin was warm. Until the dream started to appear in his mind. He stopped, the voice started ringing in his head again. His eyes were shaking. 

Noo.. not again.. He shakily mumbled.

Eunseo was slightly confused with his sudden quietness. She wanted to ask him what happened but at the same time he pulled her closer, pulled her head to his chest.

She could feel his heartbeat getting faster. She's getting worried.

"Tae, Are you okay?" She softly asked as she tried to look up to see his face, but he didn’t let her as he hugged her tighter. 

“Tae.. are..” She wanted to ask again but got tongue-tied with his next words. 

"I love you..." I can’t lose you.. Not again. He really wanted to speak up his mind but he couldn’t. He didn’t want to make her worried. He gave her a kiss on her hair. 

"I really love you so much.. Seo.." please don’t leave. He repeated.

Eunseo was slightly taken aback with his sudden confession. However It was the first confession after she regained her memories. She looked up to see his eyes which somehow turned sad.

She wanted to utter a word but he didn't let her, as he pressed his lips on hers softly, closing his eyes. He kissed her slowly, tasting her sweet pink lips, calming his drumming heartbeat. She was stunned for a moment but kissed him back in seconds.

The kiss was slow and sweet. He treasures every inch of her lips. All his worries were gone as well as the voice. He felt his chest flooded with butterflies, making him groan in pleasure. Kissing her it feels amazing like he was on cloud nine.

"I love you Seo." He panted as he pulled away for a second to take a breath.

"I love you too, Taehyung." She whispered back and their lips met again.

[antixabound]

alright since I want everyone to know I’m working on a fantasy setting, I am working on one btw and I am very super proud of it and no I do not have anything art related to show for it yet.

ok so basically in my funny and epic setting™ there are like five species that make up the kind of the basis of people and that is a lie there is more than five but the other kinds of people are something something I dunno. there aren’t any humans because I didn’t want to. 

the big four of the five that I want to bring up are Orcs, Elves, Dwarves, and Goblins. and additionally I have arbitrarily assigned groups of languages to them. this is to say that I am a hack fraud and I take words from languages that happen to be in the same general kind of language grouping and i mix them together to make a new one. An example being Kreӧdd, which is a particular culture of Orcs and to make it I literally just looked at a fuckin english to whatever language dictionary site, and then I typed in “blood” and picked the word Krew from polish and then I typed “born” and got  född from swedish. anyway that is a nice little way to tell everyone I assigned germanic languages to the Orcs. I have also assigned Romance languages to the Elves because like that was obvious and you all know it, I put Celtic langauges with the Dwarves, and slavic languages with goblins because I needed to give them a language structure, and I couldn’t think of anything. the other species that exists on this funny continent, oh by the way the contient is called Hauldrak, are the Ogres, a collection of nomadic tribes who mostly keep to themselves in the frozen eternal winter of the north.

other funny types of people that exist are the Drakekin, a collective of people who just kinda appeared one day that all have strange and unusual bodies ranging from typically anthropomorphic to kinda all over the place. the Cog Folk, mechanical people who are often constructed originally to serve a purpose but eventually find their own individuality given time. Chimeras, some chimeras are made from the bodies of recently deceased people, and as such are capable of anything a person is, albeit asymmetrical, crudely stitched together and coursing with necrotic magic. And various kinds of demons and trolls that find some sort of appeal in living in a house and having a job and paying money for things.

most of the setting is just one one continent and its a weird and fucked up continent but it is also sometimes comfy as fuck like I don’t want it to be a grimdark setting but its not noblebright either, its cloudy, its a somber rainy day but you are comfy inside your home drinking tea sitting by the fire place, and for a moment you look outside the window and swear you saw a beast standing in the rain. the monsters in my setting are just kinda fantastical wild animals that abide to a strange concept of biology. there are cannibalistic gigantic necromancers that lead hordes of skeletons. Dragons are typically beasts so divorced from the natural order that their mere presence can cause permanent damage to the surrounding ecosystem, but there are also Dragons that fit a niche and removing them from an environment would cause catastrophe.

Also I really wanna talk about magic in my thing can I talk about magic in my setting I’ve been dying to talk about magic. there is no non-pretentious way to explain this in my eyes, Magic is like Art in my setting, every mage has to practice and do little things to hone their skills, everyone does magic a little differently, even those who try to copy someone else. A fire elemental wizard isn’t going to have the best grasp on illusion magic, and there are wizards who are jack of all trades, master of none. some do magic to make their lives easier, some to enhance performances, some to fight, and some to create nigh impossible structures. magic just kinda is, some animals and creatures can use magic alongside the people. everyone is able to do magic basically, any kind of person, they just have to at least try. the other thing is that elemental magic for classical elements like Fire, Water, Noise, Rot, etc. they are all slightly corruptive, there are ways to mitigate and or remove mutations and such but some sorcerers will often wear their strange gifts as some kind of badge of honor, or in the cases of mental changes where the caster is imbued with the hypothetical personality traits of these elements, they might not even notice.

I will elaborate further at some point and possibly make a whole ass ttrpg system or two.

[atozphantomsquadron]

Chapter Two: Tabernacle

January 19th, continued

     I’ve never been inside the Ranch when Uncle Cyrus casts one of his relocation spells over the place, so I’m not sure what to expect.  I see the others around me tying down anything that’s loose, which gives me the impression that there’s some kind of motion forthcoming.  Whatever it is, I hope it’s nothing too violent: if anything comes off the walls, anyone underneath would be done for.

     We all are tasked with securing loose items with rolls of tape.  Pictures, sculptures, trophies, books … all of them get the Scotch treatment.  After about a half hour, we all reassemble in the den area of the Ranch house.

     “All set!” Michi calls out to us.  “We’re secure and ready for transport.”

     Aunt Kitty nods.  “Very well.  Gabe, get my husband.”

     Gabe jogs out of the room for a few minutes.  When he returns, he gives me the first glimpse of Uncle Cyrus I’ve seen since last year.

     Is it just me, or is he taller?

     His deeply wrinkled face turns up into a smile as he spots me.  “Alanna, how wonderful you’re back.  Just in time for this, as well, I see.”

     Even if he is a little taller, I still have to crouch to hug the old sorcerer.  “Wouldn’t have missed it for the world, Uncle Cyrus.  I’ve missed you a lot!”

     Uncle Cyrus holds me for a while, until Gabe taps him on the shoulder to remind him of why we need him there.  Out of a sidelong glance, I watch how he and Aunt Kitty interact with each other, and I know that something had to have happened: they seem more belligerent than usual toward each other.

     “Okay, this time we’re only transporting the house.  The rest of the Ranch and the refuge are going to stay behind, so we can travel to a smaller piece of real estate.”  Uncle Cyrus looks around the room.  “Everything secure?”

     Aunt Kitty nods.  “You know it is, Cyrus.  Have I let you down yet?”

     “Well, it depends …”

     “Hey, what the hell is THAT supposed to mean?!”  Aunt Kitty is already erupting.  This can’t be a good sign.

     Gabe steps between the two of them.  “All right guys, break it up, we’ve got a job to do.  Cyrus, send us, please.”

     Uncle Cyrus grumbles under his breath as he raises his hands, producing a purple glow which envelops first us, then the entire room, and soon I’m sure the entire house.  I feel vibrating in the floor, penetrating through my skeleton and causing me to shift my feet to keep my balance.

     I look over at Michi, who sees my distressed expression.  “Don’t worry, it’s always rough at the start.”  She crosses over to one side of me; William takes the other.  It’s his first time as well, and he looks like he’s in a state of abject panic.

     Just as soon as the vibration starts, I get the sensation of my stomach dropping into my shoes.  The G-forces must be tremendous to make me queasy … I’ve been flying really fast as the dragon lately, so I thought I’d be used to it by now.  Just as suddenly, my guts whip up into my throat as we hit a fast descent, threatening my gag reflex.

     Michi has her arms up in the air, like she’s riding the world’s biggest roller coaster.  Why am I not surprised by that?  William, on the other hand, has a death grip on my shoulder, grinding his teeth.  I squeeze my eyes shut, anticipating the hard impact to come.

     Fortunately, it never does.  The landing is pillow-soft, the vibration quick to cease afterward.  Once I regain my equilibrium, I look around at the others, then to Uncle Cyrus.  “Where are we now?”

     He smiles, a little fatigued.  Maybe he’s shrunk again; he seems smaller than he was when I saw him before the trip.  “A little, forgotten corner of Arches National Park.  No hikers come back here, especially not at this time of year.  Just be careful when you open the door, because it’s a nature preserve and I don’t want to cause more damage than necessary.”

     We all acknowledge Uncle Cyrus’s warning, heading for the door.  What awaits us outside is stunning, the vistas and doorways of the park are right there outside the house.  Were this not for such an important matter, I’d be inclined to remain at the house and admire the scenery, maybe fly through some of the arches to stretch my wings.

     Gabe’s hand on my shoulder sobers me from my admiration of the scene.  “It’s time, Alanna.”

     I nod and walk outside, unstrapping the Sword from my waist and relocating it on my arm.  I’ll need it there once this transformation is finished.  I close my eyes, crouch down on all fours in the Utah dirt, and focus my concentration into my own body, willing myself to become more than I am.

     Coaxing the dragon out of her den.

     My arms lengthen.  My torso bulks and stretches, straining the clothes I wear, but thankfully not breaching them.  My wings unfurl and grow along with my other limbs and my neck.  Fire burns in my belly, ready to be called into action when I need it.  The belt of the Sword’s sheath, once loose around my forearm, tightens as the muscles grow, as the bones harden and bulk up.  My face is always the last part of the transformation, and finally I feel the deforming of my mouth and nose, stretching me, making me more reptilian with every passing moment.  Once everything is stretched to its limits, I return my attention to my surroundings.

     Where I once stood as a teenage girl, now a dragon occupies the space.  As I’ve spent my months in hiding, I’ve tried to learn all I can about my transformations, this new form I can take, and everything Mom knew about flight.  It’s been quite an education, but now is when it’s going to pay off.

     I lift a taloned forefoot off the ground and motion toward the others.

  “Time to get aboard.”

     Gabe nods toward me and motions for the others to join him.  One by one William, Michi, and Fahaian scale my arm and settle in on my shoulders.  Gabe is the last to climb up, and he goes one step further than the others by straddling my neck.  I’m glad this form is really strong, because Gabe is insanely heavy for some reason …

     Gabe motions again to the door, where Aunt Kitty and Uncle Cyrus now stand watching us depart.  “Keep a careful eye out guys, I’m pretty sure the park rangers aren’t connected to the SSA, but you can never be too sure.  We should be back before nightfall.”

     Aunt Kitty waves at us.  “Dinner will be waiting, kids!”

     Gabe pats the side of my neck, as close as he can get to my flank.  “Okay, Alanna, let’s go.  Northwest, best speed.”

     I stretch my wings.  I haven’t let the dragon out of me since I got to San Antonio, so she’s a little rusty in the flight department, but after a couple of experimental flaps I think I’m ready to lift off, the joints of my wings properly stretched.  I flap my wings hard … once … twice … on the third flap I leap off the ground and take to the air, flapping harder to maintain my altitude, until I’ve climbed up through the low clouds of the day and the Ranch house is no longer in sight.  I level off at a good altitude for my passengers, around 12,000 feet, before I slow my wing flaps down and start riding the air currents.

    “Everybody okay up there?”

     I’m convinced that the wind has whipped my voice away from the others, but soon I hear a reply from William.  “We’re all good.  Michika’s a little cold, but Fahaian’s got her covered!”

     I can only imagine what that might imply.  Satisfied that everyone’s still with me, I focus on the job at hand, getting us to Salt Lake City.  It doesn’t take long before the Great Salt Lake is approaching on the horizon: through the breaks in the clouds I can see first the city, then the massive lake beyond it.  I lower us slightly, just below the clouds.

     That’s a mistake. 

     I see the aircraft blow past us before I’m fully aware of what’s happening.  Then the sonic boom hits me, and jars me off course.  Fighter planes, two of them, bright blue.

     The Supernatural Suppression Agency.  The SSA no doubt is using the old U.S. Air Force resources now.

     They’re coming back around.  No doubt they’ve spotted me and are regrouping to attack.  The fire is gurgling in my guts.  Without any worries about doing it while carrying passengers, I open my mouth and allow the gurgling to erupt in a flaming streak, hurtling toward one of the planes.  The fire lightly bounces off of the fuselage before making contact with something combustible and causing the jet to erupt in a massive ball of destruction.  No parachute appears.

     We don’t want to kill the pawns, I remind my dragon self.  Only the ones in charge.

     The second plane begins its attack run, firing a machine gun at us.  Without thinking again I barrel-roll to avoid the bullets, forgetting that I’m carrying human cargo on my back.  I feel eight hands grip my flesh tighter as I drop into a dive, narrowly avoiding more bullets. 

     The jet has all of the advantages on me.  It’s far faster than I can fly as the dragon.  It’s better armed: all I have is fire.  It has threat warning systems which give the pilot a heads-up on where attackers are, while all I have is my wits.

     Will that be enough?

     I unfurl my wings and return to climbing, flapping them hard.  I feel one hand releasing my shoulder, a slender, feminine hand.

     Michi’s going to try a spell.  Better brace myself.

     “CONCUSSION!”

     A heavy burst of energy shoots forth from Michi’s hand.  The recoil is too much, however, and it throws me backward into a free fall.  I wasn’t ready for that, and now I’m paying the price, hurtling down to the ground in an uncontrolled spin, fighting the wind to open my wings again.  I can look up and see the spell’s results, as the jet she fired at is in much the same boat as I am, in a tailspin unable to pull up.

     Fat lot of good that does me right now.

     I need to locate the others.  I can’t feel them on my back.  Quickly I scan the air around me.  Gabe to my right.  William in front of me.  Fahaian and Michi, clinging to each other, on my left.  I question briefly whether I’m large enough to reach all of them before making my decision.  My right hand stretches and grabs Gabe.  Fahaian and Michi are just out of reach of my left, but Fahaian grabs my finger and pulls himself and Michi into my grip.

     I stretch my neck as far as it will go and grasp William in my jaws. 

     With everyone collected and with me, I try to regain control of my body.  I look down, still in spinning free fall.

     The ground’s too close!  I can’t pull up!

     I spread my wings and try to flap up.  No response, plus they feel like they’ve been seriously injured.  I can smell blood coming from them.

     We’re all going to die—

     “Alanna, use your fire!”

     The words come from Fahaian.  He wants me to firecast, but how?  How do I do it without barbecuing William in my mouth?

     “Trust me!”  Fahaian touches his nose.  I think I get it now.

     I keep my mouth clamped shut around William.  The fire churns in my gut.  With all my concentration on the ground fast approaching, I blow fire through my nostrils toward the ground.  It burns like hell!

     Fahaian has his lighter out.  He flicks the flame on.  The next thing I know, all of us are only one foot off of the ground, from our previous height that was immeasurable, the result of Fahaian’s telepyretic abilities; he must have zapped us to the ground through my fire and his lighter..  We hit the ground very hard, but not hard enough to kill us.  My grip on my friends tightens.

     I hear Michi whooping.  It must have worked.  “Awesome!  Let’s do that again!”

     “I’d prefer not to,” Gabe mutters sardonically from my other hand.  I open my mouth and allow William, now slightly soggy with dragon slobber, to exit.  I release my grip on Gabe and set him on the ground. 

     I nearly do the same for Fahaian and Michi, until I notice the pose they’re in.  Michi has herself wrapped around Fahaian and has him trapped in a liplock.  The prince’s face, adorably, shows his combination of shock, confusion, and enjoyment.

     They can’t enjoy the moment, though, because sirens fill the air around us.  More SSA, this time ground troops, arrive and surround us, the blueshirted soldiers pouring forth from their vehicles.  I look all around us and see that there are at least twelve cars circling us, with four times as many men.

    “Buy me time, Gabe!”

     “We’ll give you all we can.  Let’s go, guys!”  Gabe leads the others into the fight.  The battle rages all around me as I focus my concentration on shrinking back down, on reclaiming my human form.  Once I feel my wings withdraw into my back, I look up and see my friends are outgunned and being pushed back.

     Time to change the score.  I stand up and draw the Sword.  The closing of the armor around my body is starting to become more of a comfort, as I know I will have the paladin’s strength and power backing up my friends.  In mere seconds, the Guardswoman stands in the midst of the fight, Sword at the ready.  I launch into a quick sprint toward the blueshirts.

     Control has been my Achilles heel as the Guardswoman. Now I only wonder, after not letting her out for months, will I be able to control the power?

     Some of the blueshirts are already retreating, getting back in their cars.  A few of them are continuing to fight, and it’s become apparent that a couple of them, a man and a woman, are supernaturals, just judging by the scars they wear on their foreheads.  I thrust the Sword into the woman’s head and watch the blade pass through, catching the small silicon chip that was controlling her and extracting it from her brain.  Once the chip is clear, she turns on the other blueshirts and uses her powers … apparently something to do with cold, because many of the blueshirts are shivering and developing frosty coverings on their uniforms. 

     While she distracts them, and Michi handles the other human pawns, I turn my attention to the supernatural male blueshirt.  He’s going to be harder to liberate … his power seems to be coating him head-to-toe in some sort of natural armor, like an insect exoskeleton.  He has long, roach-like arms which he swats at the Sword with.  I unfurl my wings, feeling the slight pain in their injuries, and try to get an advantage by flapping over him: this seems to do the trick, as I’m able to vertically drive the Sword into the chip scar and extract his chip that way.

     When the device is free of his brain, Roach-man, like his female counterpart, shakes his head like he’s been in a fog for a while.  I land and sheathe the Sword.  The migraine I’d gotten used to, for some reason, isn’t coming now.  Maybe I’m getting used to the role.

     “Are you going to hurt us?” Roach-man’s voice tremulously asks me.

     “Not a chance.  We’re going to offer you an escape.”

     Cold-girl, standing by Michi and Fahaian, smiles over at us.   “Thank you, miss … we don’t know how long we’ve been missing.”

     William and Gabe join our group finally, with Gabe taking the lead.  “If you don’t mind our asking, do you know anything about the sentencing in the city today?”

     Roach-man nods.  “We were supposed to be on that security detail, except we got called out to fight you guys instead.”

     “They’re being transported from City Hall to the Temple,” Cold-girl continues.

     This seems very odd to me.  “Why would they do something like that?”

     Roach-man shrugs.  “It confused us too … there was some kind of weak explanation, that it was going to demonstrate exactly how much God hates supernaturals or something …”

     Gabe’s face grows grim.  “If there’s one thing the Regents cannot do, it’s speak for God.”  He approaches Cold-girl and places a hand on her shoulder.  “How soon are they being moved?”

     She shivers slightly under Gabe’s hand.  “Actually … it’d be right now.  They’re en-route, and should be at the Temple in about ten minutes.”

     “That gives us too little time!”  William’s voice is urgent.  I can see he’s already starting to deform, starting to let the wendigo out.

     “Alanna, how are you doing wing-wise?”

     I unfurl my wings and flap them.  Sharp, stabbing pain forces me to retract them again.  “Not good, Gabe, I can’t fly like this.”

     “We’ll have to drive, then.”  He turns quickly to Michi.  “Take these two back to the Ranch house.  We’ll take care of the SSA caravan.”

     Roach-man tosses Gabe a set of keys.  “Take my cruiser.”

     “Thanks.”  Gabe smiles and ushers us over to the car that Roach-man points toward.  Once we’re all in, I look in the mirror as Michi and the two liberated supernaturals wink out of sight, no doubt headed back to the house.

     When I look back over at Gabe, though, his face shows his worry.  “What is it?”

     Gabe’s teeth are grinding.  “If they’re going to condemn those people in a House of God, then the nation’s corruption will be complete.  We absolutely must stop this from happening.”

     William and Fahaian lean forward, but it’s Fahaian who speaks.  “I thought this nation had already been completely corrupted.”

     “Very close to it, but not quite.  If they do what I think they’re going to do inside the Temple, then it will complete the corruption, and we’ll be completely on our own, in terms of … shall we say, divine intervention.”

     Gabe closes his hand around his cell phone, looking a little worried.  His foot pushes down on the accelerator, and we speed toward what could be a defining battle that could either save some lives or damn us all.

[hellafuckedup666]

Hey so it’s been a while

I felt like writing wasn’t very therapeutic for me these past few months. Also I didn’t like the new tumblr logo. But I like the little skeleton they made in a « T » for halloween or something. Haven’t done any updates on the app since, to keep it like that. Makes me feel comfortable, not like the other one. It feels so « mainstream », I don’t know. I don’t really like colors.

I learned the reason why some people like creepy stuff like skeletons and dark shit. I’m an anxious person. Always on edge, always uncomfortable. My safe place is unconfortable, my confort zone in uncomfortable. When I don’t feel the anxiety rushing through my body I feel wrong. I feel nothing really. Well turns out creepy stuff puts you in that uncomfortable space and makes you feel normal, when you know you aren’t.

It also replicates my state of mind I think. No one really knows who I am and how I feel. I’ve been labeled as mysterious by some girls I just met. It’s like I have so many layers of personnality on the outside that the only time I feel like myself is late at night thinking about depressive things. Truth is I’m not okay and I feel incredibly lonely. So much it hurts. It’s like I’m living in my own little world and all the people around me are just connecting with each other. And I can’t. I feel out of touch and most of the time, numb. It’s like emotions are stuck inside me. I don’t know how to cry anymore and it scares me how much some things don’t bother me that much. It’s a very weird coping mechanism.

I feel like vampires in the vampire diaries when they turn off their humanity. It feels good for a while because you are not hurting anymore, but you know you can’t live like this forever. The thing is, when you turn it back on, you know your heart will fucking break. And you’ll have to process your shit. I don’t think I’m ready.

Every day feels like the last. Time is going by so fast and I feel like I’m watching myself live my life instead of living it. Like I’m just the narrator for a character that is making very, very bad decisions. I wanna shake some sense into myself. But I’m just watching it unfold, like I have no say in the matter.

I’m lonely. Fucking lonely. But I can’t find the strength to let anyone in. I’m scared my humanity will turn back on. Also, I fucking hate myself. God I hate myself so much. I hate my fucking body. I hate that I’ve gained weight. I hate that I’m tired all the time. I hate that I’m not doing enough. I hate food and calories. I hate that I’m a stress eater. I hate that the only comfort I find is in skeleton logos and bowls of ramen. I hate that I have to diet. Because I do. But I always feel fucking guilty when I eat anything else but protein. I hate the guilt. I hate that I love the guilt because it makes me drink water when I’m hungry. I hate when I give in to the late night snack. I hate that I love the taste of it.

I wanna scream.

[mylightsatnight]

Hard Drive, Hard Times. (cut down)

I just scanned through my hard drive, scanning through old text documents in search of some inspiration for another little blurb in my collection of words.

I found one.  Read through the lyrics, all standard 19 year old angsty stuff.  It was familiar, but oddly distant.  I read on.  They started making more sense, the clarity came back.  My mental images began to flash again, they haven’t done this since I trained them not to.  I was ok.  Then i began to feel heated.  I remember the PTSD.  It’s been so long though...  I finished reading, looked away from my laptop.  Breathed in for a moment.

Was this really what it was like?  The hundreds of times my own eyes caused me inescapable jail-cell grief?  The mirage of memories that sabotage my emotional state and usurp it’s throne?  I’ve gotten better at it.  So much better.  I have the choice now to not give in.  But well, some memories, the forgotten ones, take a moment to wave bye to.  

It made me remember what someone once did.  An action they made, and the response I had.  I had picture flashbacks, and honestly the images make me remember the way I felt in the moment I had it.  And 19 wasn’t always the greatest time for feelings.  In some ways yeah... in others...

It’s explainable, and I am grateful for that, but it’s not entirely understandable unless you’ve experienced it, or have enough empathy to kill a large horse.  (that was sarcastic misdirection, but you still look confused, so just take a bite of whatever you’re eating, and crack on.)

What I’m wondering now...is: “Do my old habits outweigh my discipline today?”

“Do the years weigh on me, or is today lighter than last?” “Do fires ebb and flow in brightnes, or a slow dim after their ignition apex?”

Too many questions on my brain.  Time to let some go.  There.  A deep breath can be all it takes.  And if I believed that years ago, then maybe the grief would have been a cousin, not my brother.  Not my blood brother, from all those years ago.  Yeah, it’s old propaganda at this point.  If you’ve read any of my previous writings, you’ll know that this is the subject I frequent most, but you know what?  GOOD.  I know this well, because this is my FUCKING LIFE!  THIS IW HOW I LIVE.  AND DAMNIT, WHY SHOULD I NOT BE ABLE TO EXPRESS THE COSMOS UNFOLDING BEFORE MY EYES IF YOU SHOULD GET THAT SAME CHANCE?  AND WHY WAS SHE NOT THERE? AND WHY DID MY FUTURE GET NUKED BY MENTAL DISEASE? AND CAN I STILL BE GREAT, OR WILL I SETTLE AND CALL IT THE SAME?  Who knows.  Stories are stories, not reality.

Here’s what I know.  

Brick walls remain standing if you put the bricks in the right place.

I’ve certainly fucked up a couple of mortar mouldings along the way, but I’ve got a trowel, and some time before the sun goes down again.  I don’t know about tomorrow, but I know I’ve got a minute.  And where’s there’s a minute, there’s a breath, and in a breath comes a moment, and in a moment comes a chance, and in a chance comes faith, and inside of faith comes miracles.

Watch my resolute mortar skills build a house for my aching age.  My morose memories, and fallible fictions.  The time’s are gone.  My tires are getting thinner and thinner, but these bones know how to work, and work hard.  Just a minute or so left now.  But that sun can’t pierce through clay.  If only it knew.  

After it’s done.  I’ll put this hard drive inside of the computer inside of the brick house.  Seal off all the windows and doors.  The cracks and slits.  The roof and floor will be tight and sealed.  The sun will not be inside.  The shadows will echo against the cold wonderment.  It will be space without stars.  Just a hard drive.  With memories inside.  As my own skeleton evaporates by the grace of that sun.  Just the legacy of a Red House left.  Nothing but lovely words.