#Technology Summer Classes For Kids

[rip-naked-peet]

Fucking fuck. In my upcoming summer class one of the classes of assignments is "Chat with ChatGPT". What the fuck is this im gonna kill myself

[phantomrose96]

Sham Sacrifice

(Hi it's time for my favorite headcanon)

...

Vlad Masters sat firm and proper on the Fenton Family couch, legs crossed, teacup pinched in his fingertips, fighting subtly against the sinkhole that came with the mistake of taking Jack’s usual spot on the couch. He appeared with all the same charm and delightfulness of an ant swarm rearranging your picnic.

Danny stood at the doorway, just-still-in-the-kitchen, just not inviting himself to join the adults in the living room where Jack boomed and rambled and Vlad sat so stiff and polite and nice that his tea in his hands was going cold.

“Oh, Danny you’ll love this story—Danny, you should join us—Danny this was, what, summer of ’84? When was that heatwave, Vladdy? The one where you—”

“There’s no need to bore Daniel with the mad ravings of two old kooks, Jack. Kids would rather be off at the mall or—some store, surely. No need to stick around Daniel on my behalf. I assure you I won’t be offended if you leave.”

“No worries, V-man. I’m good right here. I love hearing Dad’s stories." Danny met Vlad's challenge, speaking with more poisonous courtesy than Vlad had proffered first. "In fact I think he should tell a few more, if he’s got more in mind.”

“In fact I do have more in mind—” Jack answered.

Neither Danny nor Vlad were listening to Jack. They held eye-contact, Danny with a stern unblinkingness of a sheepdog on duty. A lot was said without words. A lot was understood when Vlad decided to visit through the front door. Vlad only used the front door when he wanted something.

And it was never good when Vlad wanted something.

“—the core reactor project, yeah? That summer? That was in the lab with no A/C. Top floor. We were sweating like pigs, all of us. And I dared you to eat the really moldy pizza from our fridge the night before and you ralphed right into—”

“—Surely you remember this more fondly than I do. Daniel, really, you can go.”

Not a chance.

“Actually,” Danny answered, brightening some as his opportunity struck. “I am interested in this. For science class I need to write a report on the invention of an important piece of technology. I was gonna ask Mom and Dad about the Ghost Portal. And now that you’re here, I can get the whole history.”

Jack made a giddy little noise. He leaned forward, words primed, but Vlad was quicker to the draw.

“Sorry to say, your faith in me is unfounded. I wasn’t the portal guy back in college—that was always your mother and father’s passion project. I was their skeptic.”

“Bet that’s got you feeling pretty foolish right now, doesn’t it V-man?” Jack chided, a quick jab to Vlad’s ribs that nearly unseated the teacup from his suspended saucer. “Considering the fully-functioning portal right beneath our toes.”

“I hardly feel foolish, Jack. Your calculation for the portal in college was never going to work.”

“What do you mean? Of course it did.” Jack thumped the ground with his foot. “It’s running the old girl right now.”

At this, Vlad’s eyes narrowed. For the first time he’d been shaken off whatever skeezy machinations had brought him in. His pride was being challenged, and by Jack no less.

“Absolutely not. With that calculation? Absolutely not.”

“Well forget the tea biscuits Vlad, because you’re going to be eating your words in a second. Mads, hold my spot,” Jack said, as if anyone was planning to take his spot. He bounced from the couch, scooted from the living room, and vanished into the dark maw of the lab stairs, leaving only the waning beat of his footsteps behind.

His absence filled only a swallowing few seconds. The footsteps returned, bounding upward, creaking with his heavy cadence, and Jack bounced back into the room in much the manner he left. A pad of yellow lined paper was clutched in his hand. When he dropped it on the coffee table, it revealed row after row of tight scribble, churning math, carrying down the page and occupying two entire pages more that Jack flipped through.

“Same baby I came up with in college. It just needed heavier dampening and higher voltage than what we made back then. The portal downstairs has that in spades. Well, in like two-thirds of a spade.” Jack tapped something on the last line. “The projection was still only hitting 70% of the threshold we calculated to reach dimension penetration. But it’s an art, not just a science. We fired it up anyway, and it took!”

Vlad grabbed the paper pad, agitated. His eyes ran over it. Then again. Until he settled on one line, a firmness overcoming his face. He tossed the pad back onto the coffee table, and Vlad leaned back into the couch, arms crossed.

“The lambda, Jack.”

“The lambda?”

“Check it again.”

Jack did, lips pursed, pad of paper nearly swallowed in his big meaty hand.

“What about--?”

“It squares. The units don’t balance otherwise. It originates from an integration step of λ*∂λ/∂t. It squares.”

Jack’s brow remained furrowed, firm, until delight cracked into his eyes, and he let out a laugh.

“Gods, my handwriting is gonna be the death of us. Mads,” he tapped something unseen on the second page. “That’s the genius of Vladdy. Cracked this puppy wide open with just a glance. I never noticed that in all my checking. That explains the missing 30%, at least. That explains how the portal took. Lucky for you Danny that Vlad was here—”

“Jack,” Maddie said.

“—your report can have the correct formula. It’ll be—”

“—Jack—”

“—A+ worthy—”

“—Jack,” Maddie said, curt. “Lambda is the ambient ecto-energy. It’s a few ten-thousandths of a unit.”

“It—huh.”

Maddie had surfaced a pen from her pocket. She sheared a few blank pages out from the back of the pad and started the formula fresh. She made quick work of copying it over, quicker work of solving it through – lambda-squared intact.

She hit the final line and hatched a pen mark beneath the number. Jack stared, confused.

“That can’t… no.”

He repeated the same. New pages torn loose. Formula copied over, processed, line by line by line—lambda squared—by line by line by line.

Jack settled on his answer. Same as Maddie’s.

Confusion made his face tense.

“So it’s not 70% of the way to the threshold… It’s 0.013% of the way to the threshold.”

He held the pen hard, his whole body holding firm and taut as the gears turned in his head. Jack’s eyes flickered across the formula, again and again and again. He looked to Maddie, like a dog issued a command he did not understand.

“But it worked,” he said, small. “But it worked.”

Jack stood, robotic almost, eyes lost in something far away. He disappeared into the lab almost as quickly as he had a few minutes before, but now he exited with a smoothness and a quietness so very uncharacteristic of him. It bothered Danny, somewhere deep in his gut.

Maddie followed, a possession matching Jack’s.

Danny’s fingers curled and uncurled. He’d succeeded. He’s successfully interrupted Vlad’s… whatever this was. But the disquiet infected him. He didn’t like it.

“So what does that mean?” Danny asked, perhaps to Vlad. “What’s wrong with the calculation?”

Vlad sipped on tea ice cold.

“Who knows?” Vlad lied.

…

The math didn’t work.

Maddie and Jack burned through paper, burned through pencils, burned through hours.

The math didn’t work.

Clothes stuck to skin. Sweat lingered fetid and stale in the cold basement air. Exhaustion beat like a slurry through their veins.

The math didn’t work.

The portal supervised all, placidly green, the light for their table, the light for their work when the lightbulb overhead burnt clean out and neither Jack nor Maddie could be pulled away to replace it. It stood, it watched, a testament of contradiction to everything they could not solve on paper, and yet everything they built directly into the fabric of reality.

And it should never have worked.

They threw every radical what-if they’d ever conceived over 20 years of ghost research.

The ecto-ether layer.

The latent activation stitches in space fabric.

The anti-ectomatter collision proposal.

The positive-feedback crystallization theory.

And still nothing worked.

All together, every crackpot theory in their favor taken for granted, racked them up to an activation energy 200x more potent than the calculation, and still just 2% of what would be needed to rip open, and hold open, a stable fissure between their reality and the ghost zone.

Maybe by pure luck, unfathomable luck, Fentonworks basement was directly situated atop a natural portal.

Maybe that would explain ripping it open. It did nothing to explain the stability. Natural portals were unstable by definition. There and gone in a few seconds. Not hours, days, weeks, months, a year, that the Fenton Portal had been open. Never so much as faltering.

It was late. 3am ticked away to 4am, and 4:30am. The discarded paper stacked higher than Jack and Maddie both. Calluses oozed from their hands at another attempt, and another, and another.

Maddie flipped through a folder’s worth of yellowed papers, aggressively thumbed over and over after two decades left untouched. And she settled on the one she’d passed over a few dozen times already, always seeking something else, something better.

This time she unsheathed it, and she placed it on the lab table.

“…If a mouse died. In the machine. If a mouse ran through the machine and accidentally bridged two live wires, and died of violent electrocution. 500 milliamps. Instantly melted into the circuitry.”

Maddie’s mouth was cotton-dry while she wrote. Ambient ecto-energy was low. Always very, very low.

Unless something very, very bad happened to something with the capacity to become a ghost.

The numbers wove. Maddie started the formula fresh, and it was pure muscle memory. A mouse. A big mouse, even. A 99th percentile beast of a mouse. And a wire that had been wired incorrectly. Something grounded that never actually grounded. An absolutely horrific amount of electricity.

0.37%, by pure numbers. If she included every permissive crackpot idea they had thrown on top, it topped out at 6% of the needed activation threshold.

Not a mouse.

“A cat,” Jack said, words gummy, tongue dry, face tired. “If we’ve got mice down here, maybe… a stray cat wandered in. Chased the mouse.”

Maddie nodded. It didn’t matter if it made sense.

She penned it in. A large cat. A devastating electrical short. Cats carried more ecto-potential than mice did. Ecto-potential did not necessarily go up with size. It went up with complexity. The things with the most ecto-potential were the things that most became ghosts.

1.45%, by pure numbers. 18% at absolute, absolute crackpot best.

“A dog,” Jack proposed with a shaky laugh. He swallowed. “A mouse… chased by a cat… chased by a dog… all electrocuted at once”

Maddie didn’t say the thing they both knew, which was that both of them would have noticed the evidence left behind by the electrically exploded pieces of a dog.

Maddie did it anyway. A mouse and a cat and a medium-sized dog, maybe just small enough to notice no evidence of, all together. All at once. All violently ripped apart, sacrificed to a machine still asleep in its wall.

Mice did not often make ghosts. Cats did not either. Dogs, occasionally. But infrequently. Very infrequently.

37%. At best.

“Jack.”

“Maddie, I know just—maybe something really smart—”

“—Jack—”

“—like an octopus—”

“Jack.”

“I hear, maybe, pigs are smart. If it was—”

Maddie was writing, already. Not for a pig. Not an octopus. Jack watched, and he knew what the numbers meant. The ecto-potential she penned gave her away. An ecto-potential that high.

65kg, an estimate

10,000 milliamps, a catastrophic accident, a death certificate.

A human’s amount of ecto-potential.

Maddie wrote.

And she wrote.

And she did not apply a single crackpot theory, not a single discredited proposal, not an ounce of exaggeration.

138%.

Threshold, and then some.

Comfortable, easily, then some.

For the first time, after all the hundreds of times she and Jack had penned this equation over the course of 2 decades, the number met her and Jack’s threshold.

A breakthrough.

A revelation.

A pure eureka moment.

Jack and Maddie were silent.

Alone in a humming basement. Alone with only the soft swirls of the portal for company, happy, stable, purring its contentment, singing to the cold air.

“It has to be something else,” Maddie said. And she said it weakly. And she said it childishly.

“You’re right. It can’t be this,” Jack echoed. “If someone died down here, we’d know. Dead bodies don’t walk away. We’d have seen it. O-or even if, if the body got stuck in the portal, we’d have heard of someone going missing.”

Maddie sat, quiet. A thought held her mind hostage.

“Unless they didn’t go missing,” Maddie said, and she said it barely audibly. “Unless the portal spit them right back out.”

“Then—that’s what I said—a dead body, on the floor, we’d have seen.”

“Not a dead body.”

“It had to be lethal, Mads—”

“I know Jack. But if they died, here, in the portal Jack, then their ghost did not get ripped away from the body and sent to the Ghost Zone. …They ripped the Ghost Zone here.” Palms slick with sweat smoothed over her notes. She pointed to one specific line and found her pen tip trembled no matter how badly she stabilized it. “The ecto-potential of a creature is how strong of a pull their ghost creates on the Ghost Zone. A strong enough pull means the ghost can reach the Ghost Zone and stabilize, like a fish reeling itself up, yeah? We agree on this Jack, yes?”

“Yes,” Jack answered.

“It’s what makes the math even work, Jack. Someone dying in the portal didn’t reel themselves to the boat. They reeled the boat in. Jack, they brought the Ghost Zone here…” Maddie wasn’t breathing right. She pulled sweat-soaked bangs away from her face. “Their ghost never left their body Jack. They died, Jack. And they walked back out.”

“…No. No,” Jack said. “No, they didn’t.”

“Then what?” Maddie asked.

Jack stared. He looked away. He didn’t like the expression on Maddie’s face.

“It—what about the ecto-ether theory?” Jack said, of the theory they’d tested and retested and tested all over, all night. He grabbed his pencil back up and pointed it aimlessly at Maddie’s piece of paper, pointed end out in self-defense. “If the ecto-ether is maybe… if it’s only 250-times stronger than we calculated. Then it could…”

Jack’s voice died. His pencil hung idle. Maddie’s paper remained unblemished.

“If it… was a pig,” Jack offered. “If it was a pig that died in the portal.”

“How, Jack? How would a pig get in? We lock all the doors at night, Jack. No one else can get in, Jack. It’s just us, Jack.”

Jack and Maddie were not there when the portal turned on.

Maddie’s statement carried two possibilities. Only two. Both felt like claws digging all the flesh right out of Jack’s heart.

“I want… I want to try the ecto-ether theory again,” Jack choked. “I think it’s the ecto-ether. I think it’ll work.”

Jack slid a piece of paper over, already covered in scribbles. In its single untouched corner, he started the equation for the several-thousandth time that night.

Above their head, birds were singing.

Sunrise hailed unseen from the windowless laboratory.

…

At 6am, Vlad answered his cell phone. The reception crackled, struggling through the layers of sheetrock above his head.

“Vlad?” Maddie’s voice crackled. “Sorry, did I wake you up?”

“Not at all my dear.” Vlad leaned his weight against the wall, playing with the singsong melody in his voice. “But you sound exhausted. Is anything the matter?”

“Yes. Well… Yes. Jack and I have—all night—trying to fix the equation.”

“Naturally.”

“We found something that maybe works.”

“Oh?” Vlad asked. He straightened, pacing now, cracklingly attentive. “And what might that—”

“If someone died. Activating the portal. We have an on-switch inside the portal’s interior. The trigger we use to press it is external to the portal, of course. But if someone went inside the portal, and they pressed it directly, and if they died, and pulled the Ghost Zone here—”

Vlad’s red eyes reflected pools of iridescent green. He twirled his free hand in the fringes of his cape, tongue working over the fanged edges of his teeth. He stared, consumed, forward.

“—and just, you, I was thinking, you’re the only other expert I’d trust to… maybe weigh in.”

“What does Jack think?”

“He denies it. He’s still. He’s trying other theories.”

“Well who knows, surely? The answer may lie somewhere you haven’t looked.”

“…I’ve looked everywhere, Vlad. That's the thing. There is no more ‘somewhere else’. I’ve looked.”

“You sound like your mind is made up.”

“I just… if maybe you have some idea.”

“Am I meant to talk you out of this idea?”

“Vlad.”

“Do you think I have some secret information you don’t? Sorry to say, I’m just your skeptic.” Some noise came through muffled from the other side. Vlad flashed a smile. “But…as your skeptic I will offer you this—It all sounds a bit absurd, doesn’t it? To kill someone and have them come back intact and… for you to never notice? Who would they be? How would they be? Surely not human anymore, surely. How would you never notice?”

Vlad paced forward, booted feet clicking along his laboratory floor.

“It would be ridiculous,” he continued, with a building crescendo, “so unfathomably self-centered surely, to not notice something like that befall someone so close to you, who died at the hands of your own invention? …If I’m correctly inferring who, in your household, you suspect of having activated the portal?” Vlad’s tongue lingered along his teeth.

Maddie’s line held, quiet. And the seconds of static drew long.

“Ah, apologies. I’ve overstepped,” Vlad continued. “I meant this as a vote of confidence in you. You and Jack both. Two people as attentive, caring, compassionate as yourselves. You would notice. I promise.”

“You’re… Okay, thank you, Vlad. I appreciate it.”

“Is there anything else, my dear?”

“No. No. Thank you, Vlad. I’ll think about this.”

Maddie’s line clicked dead. A chuckle built to Vlad’s lips and he let his head tip back with mirth. It lasted only a moment. He stowed his phone. And as if the interruption had never happened, Vlad reaffixed his attention on his own portal swirling in front of him. It bathed him, swimming green, purring contentment.

And Vlad vanished into his portal.

(Chapter 2)

[abcd-adventures]

I don't think I'd make it through the summer with B without a pool. He has SOOO much energy, and we took a walk at, like, 9:30 and it was already ungodly hot. I got out of the pool after an hour, but he's still just jumping in over and over; I'm cool with just hiding from the mosquitoes in the screened-in patio and letting him jump as long as he wants.

I just finished signing him up for trial classes for guitar lessons, Kung Fu, and watercolor (we are just not a sports family 🤷🏼‍♀️). He already does swimming lessons. I just need more (indoor) weekend activities for this child because he's driving me insane, and I refuse to increase his technology time (as flipping tempting as that is). He's going to help the husband make kombucha after this, so maybe I'll be able to sneak in a few minutes to read. 🤞

When C was around B's age, I lived in single-parent/married student housing on campus, and there were all these kids always around to boot C out to play with. Our neighborhood now does not have that, and organizing play dates just isn't always something I'm in the mood for, selfishly. I do NOT want to deal with other people's children, so exchanging drop-offs with kids this age is just not something I'm willing to do, and play date meet-ups require me to chat with the other kid's parent, and plenty of times I don't mind that, but this weekend I just don't have it in me. 🤷🏼‍♀️

[ratgrinders]

Every Rat Grinders/Bad Kids Interaction

Alright, here’s a compilation of every single Rat Grinder/Bad Kid interaction so far this season, mostly made for my own reference. This only includes meetings the characters have directly, either via magical/technological means, talking, or seeing the character face-to-face. This doesn’t include times information about the Rat Grinders was revealed without the Rat Grinders themselves being present, such as times the Bad Kids only mentioned the Rat Grinders in passing. Under the cut, because its LONG.

Episode 3: Not All Who Wanda Are Lost

The Bad Kids meet Kipperlilly in the morning, signing up for class president, where she reveals she had passed rogue classes for the year and that her platform is based on fairness.

She points out Ruben across the courtyard where he is getting swarmed for autographs.

Fig goes to bard class disguised as her new emo girl persona “Wanda Childa”, pretending to have a crush on him. After she gets kicked out of class she comes back in later through the window, this time not disguised. Ruben sneers at her, then when Fig sees he has a call from Lola Embers he says “I have to answer that later.”

Episode 4: Under Pressure

Fabian gets a Nat 20 to search for Kipperlilly in the cafeteria and while he doesn’t see her, gets a “twinge of some kind of sense”.

Mary Ann tries out for the Owlbears, seeming nonplussed. She absolutely demolishes Gorgug with a tackle, made possible through some sort of enchantment magic. She makes the team and leaves unceremoniously, uninterested in hanging out with them further.

Episode 6: Party Politics

Oisin, Ivy, and Buddy are all seen at the party at Seacaster Manor (Kipperlilly is not seen, but the Bad Kids discuss the possibility that she was there, just invisible).

Buddy is off to the side of the party with a cup full of water, “positive but deeply judgmental”. The Bad Kids approach and talk about how Fabian’s father is in hell now, how Kristin was the chosen of Helio and defected, and how Buddy feels about the rest of his adventuring party.

Oisin and Ivy are playing beer pong at a table when Adaine walks up and talks to him, with Ivy occasionally interjecting. They discuss how they shared a glyphs class in Freshman year, how he got buff over the summer and that’s why no one recognizes him, how his family is rich and he could provide her with money if she needed it, and how his tattoos function as a conjuration aid. After Adaine leaves, Oisin misses every single shot, which Ivy makes fun of him for (later revealed to be a calculated ploy, as seen in episode 17).

Ivy calls out to Fabian razzing him about his ping-pong table, and when he says “fuck you” and she responds “is that a threat?”, he runs away.

Fig disguises herself as Lucy Frostblade and hides a distance away, catching the attention of Ivy (but not Oisin). Ivy seems surprised and makes a hand motion asking if they should meet, but when Ivy excuses herself and starts to come over Fig runs off and skateboards away.

Ivy comes up to Fabian’s room where the Bad Kids are investigating, and when Fabian lies about doing snuff asks if there’s any for her. She also asks about Fig’s fishnets and if she skateboards. When Mazey comes up and asks if they should play Twister, Ivy insults her and Mazey looks crestfallen. Fig offers to play Twister with Mazey which intimidates Ivy into silence, while Fabian stays with Ivy and blows off Mazey. While everyone else is downstairs playing Twister Kristin stays in the room with Fabian and Ivy third-wheeling, until Oisin comes up to the room and says that he and Ivy have to go.

Episode 7: Stress Tested

Kipperlilly has hired a bunch of food trucks for her campaign and is giving out food at lunch in the courtyard. She’s standing on a platform with Mary Ann next to her handing out flyers. The Bad Kids walk up and talk to her, with Kristin wearing a salsa hat that Kipperlilly is unimpressed by. Kipperlilly says that she wasn’t at the Bad Kids’ party because she was studying, and when Kristin asks why she was studying since the rogue teacher found her and she passed all her classes, Kipperlilly just stares at her in silence. When Kristin mentions her goddess died, Kipperlilly responds really loudly “how can you cast spells?” in an attempt to discredit her, and the other Bad Kids jump in to cast a bunch of spells on Kristin and counteract this.

Fabian clumsily reaches out to Ivy at school and Ivy is snarky and cold to him, saying “You missed your shot, Playboy” since she knew Fabian has been recently hanging out with Mazey. 

Episode 8: Fracas at the Frostyfaire Folk Festival

Ruben is performing at the Frostyfaire Folk Festival, with the other Rat Grinders conspicuously absent.

Ruben disguises himself as an old man in an attempt to get the Bad Kids to do drugs, but is caught. He then leaves to go do his set with his band, “My Clerical Gnomance”. As he is playing however, he is interrupted by Principal Grix showing up and casting disintegrate on him. Ruben continues to play while the Bad Kids fight Principal Grix, giving out bardic inspirations to the Bad Kids, and especially to Wanda Childa who he sees in the crowd. He’s written a song just for Wanda and dedicates it to her in the crowd.

Episode 9: Vulture Clash 

When the Bad Kids come out of the Vulture Dimension Ruben is being kept in a hold person spell by Principal Grix, poised to strum down on his guitar for an incredible piece of bard magic. When the Bad Kids break hold person Ruben strums and gives everyone a bardic inspiration. Fabian jumps up on stage and says “I’m actually a huge fan” before leaping off and destroying Grix.

Fig as Wanda Childa begins to leave in a minor illusion bus, and Ruben frantically runs after her. After this, he is nowhere to be seen at the festival.

The Bad Kids discover the body of Lucy Frostblade near Lake Shimmerstone, with a rune in her chest preventing her from being resurrected. Kristin uses her clerical magic to free her from being trapped in the cursed domain of this deity, and Lucy and Yolanda hold hands as they move on to the domain of Cassandra.

Episode 10: Cursed Out

All of the Rat Grinders are seen at the school assembly talking about the death of Yolanda and how all clerics will be moved to pass/fail. Most are unconcerned and/or bored.

Fig disguised as Wanda Childa catches Ruben on a bus, where she talks to him about a true crime podcast that’s discussing the death of Lucy Frostblade. Ruben really wants to see this podcast and Fig asks for Ruben’s email address so she can email him the podcast using a burner email. Ruben says he has to leave because he’s getting mobbed for autographs even though he and Wanda are the only people on the bus, and Fig dimension doors away. 

Kristin talks to Buddy in the hall about the recent pass/fail news for cleric class and about how chill Buddy is, that he leaves the wrath to Sol. Buddy is concerned about Kristin’s brother Bucky being led away from Helio like she was. He says his grandfather Bobby can come and teach the cleric class so they don’t move to pass/fail. Kristin leaves to go check on her brother and gets protective when Buddy says he can do that if she can’t. Buddy needles her about her dead god, and Kristin responds that she’s coming back for the second time, and Helio only came back once.

Episode 11: A Very Merry Moonar Yulenear

Fig enters Ruben’s dream disguised as Kipperlilly, shaping the environment to look like the crime scene of Lucy Frostblade, and says to him “you need to take the fall for this”. Adaine appears ethereally next to her as the Elven Oracle. After Fig says this, Ruben puts a hand to his mouth and from between his fingers what’s described as blood is squeezing out.

Episode 14: Dawn of Justice

In the cafeteria while Kipperlilly is doing a campaign presentation chants in support of Kristin break out. Kipperlilly walks by the Bad Kids’ table to confront them, and when Kristin needles her about devil’s honey Kipperlilly breaks composure and insults her, “It's really nice how charmed everyone is, by how little you fucking care.” A fight almost breaks out with Fig, Fabian, and Gorgug squaring up while Ivy and Oisin try to calm them down. Riz hisses and Mary Ann comments on it, Fig messages her that she could do better and Mary Ann doesn’t know what she means. She asks Gorgug if he has mango soda and Gorgug gets mad. Buddy tries to calm them down and that they should walk in the light of Helio and Kristin says “he’s almost right”. Kristin tries to give Mary Ann a stuffed squishmallow, but Mary Ann already has that one and that she’ll donate it. Adaine says she thought the wizard was cool, and gets a Message from Oisin just saying “sorry”, and the Rat Grinders leave.

Buddy is the student volunteer proctor for the Bad Kids’ Last Standard Exam, set to revive them if any of them die. The Rat Grinders protest saying he’s biased, but the proctor doesn’t budge saying that Buddy has sworn an oath that will strip him of his connection to Helio should he refuse to revive them.

Episode 15: The Last Stand

Kristin is teleported up on the ledge next to Buddy thanks to Adaine’s Scatter spell. Buddy turns to her and says “This is remarkable”. When Kristin eats the Eye of the Vulture King and is granted True Sight, Buddy asks “Everything all right?”, and behind him, aiming a crossbow at the proctor, is Kipperlilly. Kipperlilly sees that she’s been caught, smiles, and slits Buddy’s throat before being teleported away by Oisin. 

Episode 16: Untapped Rage

10 minutes after the Bad Kids leave the Last Stand, Buddy is approached by a 15 foot tall figure who violently revives Buddy back to life with a red gem in his chest, with Buddy saying he worships a nameless god of rage now. Then both Buddy and the figure vanish.

Episode 17: The Name 

Fig tries to enter Ruben’s dream but cannot interact with him directly, though she does see his house and feels that his dream is violent and enraged, but also scared. She also sees a version of Ruben, before his shift to an emo aesthetic, walking scared into the Far Haven Woods.

Fig, disguised as Wanda, goes to Ruben’s house and knocks on the door. She doesn’t get a response but a window opens, though it is unclear who is in the window. Fig as Wanda gets shot with a crossbow by Fabian and Kristin Two in the bushes and pretends to be dead, and after some time passes Gorgug with Enlarge cast on him retrieves her body.

Fig goes to Porter’s office and attempts to give him a fake version of the dead god’s name, with Riz, Adaine, and Gorgug hiding nearby. Through a combination of Riz’s blindsense and Adaine’s detect thoughts, it is revealed an invisible Kipperlilly had been hiding invisible on the lockers the whole time, the same way Riz was hiding.

At Fabian’s birthday/election party, just as his home and everyone in it are lifted into the sky thanks to a cloud rider engine, Oisin telepathically messages Adaine to say “You didn’t see the storm coming? Must not be a very good oracle”.

Episode 18: Rock the Boat

Oisin is heard in the distance chanting in another language, and soon after multiple dragons begin encircling Seacaster Manor, currently aloft in the clouds.

Oisin's dragon ancestor shows up, with Kipperlilly, Oisin, and Jace Stardiamond on her back. All are invisible, but are seen by Adaine and Gorgug thanks to their See Invisibility and True Seeing respectively. Both Oisin and Jace cast a spell, Gorgug makes two wisdom saving throws, and then Kipperlilly breaks a Rune of Recall teleporting all three of them away.

[klaineccfanficlibrary]

hi! can you recommend some well-written longer fics that pull at the heart strings a bit?

Here are some, which I hope you will like. ~Jen

Hell & High Water by mmerainbows

Kurt counted the days even though no one else did anymore, and for what, he didn’t know. His dad died eight years ago, and he had no other family to speak of. His days were monotonous and thankless as he hunted for the community he lived in. Long gone were the days when he could dabble in music and fashion because that world no longer existed, and without those things - who was Kurt Hummel really? Until the day an emergency transmission is received and what Kurt is forced to reconsider what is existing and what is truly living.

~~~~~ Piglet and Pooh by amberlovesocean

At the age of 8, Kurt is grieving for his late mother.Blaine’s brother doesn’t want to be stuck babysitting.Rachael’s fathers want her to make real friends.Neither Kurt, Rachel, or Blaine wants to spend their summer at a community theater for kids. Each in need of a friend, the children gravitate towards each other and find a friendship that will last the rest of their lives.

~~~~~~

Lovesong by andiheardeverything

A hate crime leaves Blaine damaged and Kurt refuses to let it bring them down.

~~~~~

The Symphony verse by shandyall

Blaine has spent most of his life feeling like the only thing people notice about him is that he stutters. He’s working hard to overcome his (mostly self created) roadblocks when he meets Kurt in an online class the summer after his freshman year of college.

~~~~

Westerville Abbey by @hkvoyage and sequel Life in the Big Apple.

Blaine is the second son of the earl of Westerville, and is considered the spare heir. After his 18th birthday, he attends the London Season to fulfill his duty of finding a wife. He soon realizes he is more attracted to the new footman. Kurt, who has just arrived at Westerville Abbey to work alongside his father, becomes equally as smitten with the earl’s youngest son. Will Blaine and Kurt be able to overcome their class differences in 1910s England? Will their forbidden love survive WW1? A Downton Abbey inspired historical Klaine AU.

~~~~~

Sonder by @gleefulpoppet

[AU] Kurt is one of the most respected and talked about men in the fashion industry and business world. His app Style•Revolution is the fastest-growing app in history, still rising after three years. Recently, he moved the company to Seattle to be at the heart of the newest technology epicenter in the United States. Yet, with all his success, experience keeps teaching him to be wary of people’s motives who want to be close to him, and he wonders if he’ll be alone forever. Or maybe this city has plans for him that he can’t imagine when his gaze locks with a mysterious, honey-hazel-eyed busker.

~~~~~

About-face by quizasvivamos

At the start of the Marching Band season his sophomore year, Blaine is the youngest Drum Major in McKinley High history. However, none of his peers believe he deserves the title, especially a handful of embittered upperclassmen, including one particularly stubborn Color Guard Captain, who challenges him in more ways than one.

~~~~~~

Flowers in the window by @heartsmadeofbooks

This is the story of four men - Cooper and Blaine; Burt and Kurt. This is a story of heartbreak and loyalty, of pain and hope, of loneliness and family. This is the story of how, even when the sun stops shining, love finds a way to bloom.

[canonsinthehead]

Naruto Modern AU/Hollywood pt.1 - The Uchiha Family & Sasuke.

All types of reasons have led certain people to the level/status of celebrity. We will explore it in this Modern AU of Naruto. Oh yes, starting a new project (regardless of all the stuff in the drafts) as a means to share my lore and practice digital art.

They are your typical influential family/lineage/clan in the world of celebrity-dom and Hollywood. Taking their root foundation in Madara Uchiha who made a lot of money exploiting the land’s abundant minerals along with Hashirama Senju when they created Konoha. He built the foundation block of the Country’s central bank and police department. Yes, Madara lost most of his wealth through the years to the sin of gambling and failed business ventures. To this point of being a historical comedic fact of the past, his descendant Fugaku Uchiha had to rebrand and start with a "fresh foot" in a different industry; Technology & Scientific Lobbying/Investing. Along with ownership in the industrial prison complex but he’s not telling you the second part.

Finances magazine "The Ryô Treasury" loves to paint Fugaku as a self-made businessman who worked hard and won the investment lottery. These types of publications love to omit to the public the fact that anyone in the Uchiha clan born after Madara is technically a trust fund kid/nepo baby. Fugaku included since like most of his close and distant relatives were born into the higher class regardless of the money Madara lost throughout the years.

Many historians and the media do their best to conceal the depth of the influence Madara had on the country of fire and cover it up with the "billionaire gone broke" narrative because he had controversial political and social views that led to his fall apart from Hashirama Senju centuries ago.

Many industries go to the higher clans like the Hyuuga, Uchiha, Aburame & Senju for funding since they own a lot of the country’s resources and various entities. It’s hard to tell because it is well concealed on purpose like how the cheap wine you buy at the grocery store comes from a vineyard owned by a Senju who operates under a different surname.

With all that status and money, Fugaku married Mikoto (from an unknown background) and created the main and most popular unit of his clan with his two sons: Itachi and Sasuke.

Let’s Start with Sasuke:

He lived, along with his older brother, the typical luxury childhood with a large main mansion, a cottage summer home in France, maids, going to a 7-star school no one can find on Google Maps &, etc. The intense security of such a sheltered childhood created a rebellious fire in him. So, out of the blue at 18yo packed his bags and left his parents' house without warning. He settled on the rough side in the major city of Konoha to reinvent himself. After discarding his surname and blow-drying his hair, he dived into one of his hidden passions; music. With his dad’s funds, purchased a few guitars and started to compose music. Not only for pure love for the art form but in the hope of making a name for himself, to stand on his own feet and not hide in his brother’s shadow anymore. The fact that Itachi’s career was taking off around that time was pocking at his justified sibling inferiority complex (but he’ll never admit it).

After many trials and errors, he was able to befriend a few people while still refusing to disclose his identity. Like a random young guitarist coming up from the struggle, he created the punk rock band Taka along with Suigetsu (2nd guitar), Karin (bass), and Juugo (drums). They went from performing in small clubs to selling out large venues and becoming the most recognizable punk rock figure of their era and sending them on tours across different cities and countries.

Keep in mind they were able to pierce the market in Iwagakure due to the large rock music scene bringing a new sound standing out from the traditional heavy metal of the country of stone. They couldn’t say the same about other large cities like Sunagakure and Kumogakure who were at that time close to the outside musical influences until recently.

Sasuke took pride in his achievements accomplished without his father’s connections. The band was extremely popular among teens and young adults for their good music, edgy aesthetic, and participation in the punk/emo subculture.

 Let’s not lie, a lot of their female fanbase was in love with the handsome lead singer Sasuke. He was an iconic punk/emo fashion icon for his legendary smoky under-eye makeup and spiky hair. All the members rocked some type of spiky haircut as well who were immensely popular at the time. Regardless of the focus on Sasuke, many of their fans love Suigetsu with his unique looks, great sense of humor, and certified crowd-hyping skills. Karin, the one and only e-girl punk girly, and Juugo, the sweet muscular teddy bear drummer who composed a lot of the band’s songs along with Sasuke. Their sound is akin to Red Jumpsuit Apparatus’s Don’t You Fake It and early day Paramore.

Unfortunately, the band disbanded 5 years later for many reasons. First, punk rock’s popularity fell by the wayside and was outshined by rap & hip hop from Kumo (this era was short-lived). Also, Sasuke realized that all the members were growing apart in different ventures for their lives:

- Sasuke: By mistake, his family name was discovered. Somehow, he avoided the fraud accusation but realized he didn’t want to be a singer all his life. He outgrew it Also his father finally reached out to him and promised to guarantee his son’s future career venture if he came back so they could play into the "influential family" unit image Fukagu wanted to create (think of the Kardashians). Being interested in modeling, Sasuke complied.

- Suigetsu: Always wanted to do something in his hometown (Kiri). He kind of went off the spotlight, rumors say he is working with artists from Kiri and is a DJ wearing a full-face helmet, so we might never know…

- Juugo: Always known he had a talent and passion for photography, so he pursued it as a career. After putting a few portfolios out here, he was recruited by the renowned fashion, designer Orochimaru and it’s in his circles where he met A-List fashion model, Kimimaro. They are now engaged.

- Karin: She is now a bass and guitar instructor at the most prestigious music Academy in Konoha. The breakup was tougher on her for many reasons but the fact that Sasuke started dating and is now married to the professional wrestler and fitness influencer Sakura Haruno played a huge role in it at the time but she’s now comfortable with their relationship, and she became the godmother of his daughter.

All these things happening at the same time made the disbandment a little smoother to digest for them but was a huge shock for their fans.

Sasuke is now a model operating under Orochimaru. His handsome looks, talent, and father’s connections allowed him to make a name for himself. He keeps lending juicy contracts left and right. For some reason, he has regained pride in his family name and wears it publicly. Despite his efforts, he is back to being the Young brother in his parents’ eyes, but he doesn’t care anymore. Him and Itachi are 2 distinct entities at this point and get rarely mentioned together in most professional settings.

Sasuke is now busy and married with a daughter named Sarada. He can’t let these ideas get to him since he has a relatively good public image and enjoys his privacy (he doesn’t share too much about himself or his family with the public). He has blatant rudeness towards paparazzi, interviewers, and anyone talking to him. Pretty privilege allows him to be labeled as an introvert and keep it pushing.

next part

[bakawitch]

I had a dream that gave me like the funniest idea ever.

OK, so YGO × Harry Potter. (I know, ew, for she-who-must-not-be-named, I hate her too :P)

After the shit show that was the tri-wizzard tournament, Dumbledore gets fired. Obviously. The appropriate wizard school governing authorities are visited by a weird ancient egyptian ghost man (Shadi), who tells them that they need to make a very specific person the next Head Master because destiny and fate demands it and they need to let that guy do whateverhe wants with Hogwarts.

And you know who that guy is? Seto Fucking Kaiba.

It turns out that Kaiba was born to a Japanese pureblood family with no magic. They kept him around, but after Mokuba was born with zero magic again, they got sent off to the first human orphanage they found.

Anyway, so Seto Kaiba, the guy who thinks magic is fake and wants to solve everything with vengeance, science, and superior technology, is made head master without his consent or knowledge and he gets shipped off to jolly ol' UK. He tries to get out of it, but apparently, some douchebag in the Ministry of Magic illegally put a curse on him that forces him to abide to his role as head master of Hogwarts. The Ministry guys promise to investigate it and try to lift it, but that never goes anywhere like most government bureaucracy things.

Yeah, so Kaiba starts work during the summer, and he sees what shit state the school system is, and he vows to fix and elevate it to make the system more productive. He recalibrates the house system, the curriculum, drops classes and picks up new ones, and anything that his CEO mind thinks needs fixing. Obviously, he leaves a lot of dangerous deadly stuff around because 1. not his priority, 2. he's Seto Kaiba, he thinks those fucked up things and monsters are perfectly normal and reasonable to keep around children. He also does like an insane amount of research and becomes an expert on all things magic to figure out what students actually need to learn to become successful wizards. He fires a few people and hires new ones, including most people he knows are somewhat competent with magic; the Ishtars, Yugi and Atem (obvi), Ryou and that mangy asshole who keeps breaking into his house, he tracks down freaking Dartz, who's apperantly not dead and also two random stage magicians who look suspiciously like Mana and Mahad. Also, Umbridge because the Ministry kind of insists on her to help make the transition of a new school system "smoother." Also, the kids have to learn maths and physics now. And grammar. Ain't no way 11 year olds have that figured out perfectly.

Anyway, Dumbledore kind of becomes a clearer antagonistic figure here because he still thinks he knows best and what needs to be done for the greater good. Harry is still desperately loyal to him, and that makes things extremely annoying for Kaiba because Harry keeps trying to "make a statement" and revolt against his authority and recruiting students to his cause. From Harry's POV, Head Master Kaiba is super duper evil and unreasonable and the main villain behind Hogwarts' hostile takeover. So yeah, boy's gonna need some good ol' deprograming with Yugi's and co.'s help.

The Umbridge headmistress term still happens, but Kaiba needs to stay headmaster due to the curse, so Umbridge becomes his "deputy" while Kaiba gets locked in a tower still holding the title. In the end, Kaiba's gonna get the Ministry completely purged from Hogwarts by his uncanny knowledge on wizard legislation and laws and loopholes. By the end of book 5 Dumbledore does something very dubious that kind of makes Harry start to question him and he is now sort of okay-ish with Kaiba being headmaster because of all the (obnoxious way) of helping he did and the better system that the students start noticing and appreciating a billion times more after Umbridge is removed.

Also, Kaiba gets to have a blue-eyed white dragon. He's ecstatic and laughs maniacly whenever he gets to pet the dragon. The dragon thinks it's a cute noise, so it's fine with it. Maybe it even eats Umbridge idk.

McGonagall professor is constantly struggling. Kaiba kept her around because he recognised her as an excellent teacher. She fulfils her duty as a teacher because she knows that is what's most important, but she's very conflicted with all the changes because it's not what Dumbledore would want.

Since Kaiba is relatively aligned with the values of all the houses, no more weird Gryffindor favouritism.

Harry kind of also reminds Kaiba of Mokuba, so he has a weird little soft spot for him. He likes Ron because he's very good at chess, and Kaiba sometimes cheats to test/beat him. He also probs sees some of himself in Hermione because of how studious and ambitous she is. Atem, on the other hand, dislikes Harry for how disruptive he is. He probably shoots a gun at Lucious once. Heck, he probably kills Voldemort with a gun idk

Ryou is actually a pureblood and is related to Draco, and Bakura loves the little shit. He probably teaches some kind of subject that Draco excels at, and he is hands down his favourite student. Atem also likes him, but Malik of all people thinks he's a brat XD

Yugi fakes having magic with an ancient amulet he gets from Isis

Snape and Ryou are friends in a really weird way, but Snape and Bakura can't stand each other. Yami Malik and Hagrid are bffs for life. Dartz can talk to the big squid and cries to Filch about his dead wife and daughter, and Filch hates him for it, but he listens anyway.

Kaiba treats most students like cavemen because they literally don't know what light switches are. House elves are freed and either offered a contract or let go, Kaiba contracts faeries for the house elves' jobs. It does not go well.

Umbridge gives Kaiba truth serum to get him to blab on his secrets, loved ones and his curse, but he just goes on a tirade about how many people he killed with cards in his life. It's actually less than you think.

Peasus gets brought on as a guest art teacher for a week and he fucks Dartz. Alex gets brought on as a guest teacher and he also fucks Dartz.

Obviously, Kaiba introduces Duel Monsters as an acceptable sport for students to take part in, and it takes the school by storm. Fred and George try to make a real life Kuriboh to sell to students, but they do a "Multiply" and a school gets flooded with them. They become more annoying than rats in the basement. And Yugi keeps feeding them because he's weak to their eyes, much to everyone's dismay. He got bitten like a hundred times, but he doesn't care. Meanwhile, Atem is a walking talking cat magnet. The students' familiars keep getting into his room somehow, and he wakes up with three dozens of cats piled on him every day.

Isis and Trelawney hate each other. Isis thinks she's just making shit up as she goes, and Trelawney thinks the same about her. Isis gets on swimmingly with McGonagall and Hooch.

Yami Malik spends most of his time in the Forbidden Forest, which he is basically the Disney Princess of.

Mokuba visits the school to surprise Seto once and whines about not being able to go to school there when he was younger because he loves what Seto did with the place. And the dragon also likes him. He takes home a Kuriboh as a souvenir, which goes about as well as you'd expect.

Ugh, this turned out longer than I wanted... XD

[pixelnrd]

Hello :D

I wanted to know how do you decide the kids each sim has because I struggle to regulate my save’s population. I saw some people using dice to decide it and others simply have them by the decade they’re on but I still wanted to know your method!

Personally, I don’t ‘plan’ how many kids each generation will have too much but rather have in mind how many I think they would have had in that particular era of time and see how it works out.

If this is interesting for you, here is what informed each generation…

1890: large families were common, especially for working class folk, so I knew I would plan for at least 4 children. When I decided to go for a 5, it was twins.

1900: 2 children, as Ernie was aiming for a more upper class lifestyle. But I knew that Ernie would adopt his sisters daughter Marigold making it really 3 children.

1910: there was no official heir for this generation but I knew that Primrose and Marigold would each have 1 child. Primrose didn’t get to have anymore as she was widowed, but she helped raise Marigolds son which fulfilled any desire she had for more. Marigold was asexual, she had her son but just never fell pregnant again.

1920: Daisy had 3 children by seperate partners, as a consequence of being a very sexual and impulsive person during a time where there was no contraception.

1930: going back to working class farm roots during the Great Depression I thought the family would have more children again, so I knew there would be 4 at least. Having twins on the 2nd pregnancy meant that this happened quickly.

1940: I had planned for 2 children, one born during the war (Margot) and one born after the war, due to Douglas and Joan’s long time apart serving. However there was an accidental 3rd child anyway (Lewis).

1950: in the Baby Boom it felt natural to have a large family, so 4 was the goal again. However I remained open to 5, which is why Stella was conceived.

1960: when Leo became heir I knew he and Valerie wouldn’t be the big family type, and thanks to contraception they didn’t have to be. They were only meant to have 1 child and then realise they weren’t cut out for it, but had accidental twins.

1970: going back to Hippy roots again I felt Eleanor would have a larger family, with a goal of 3 - I decided later that 4 felt more fitting, it just took a long time for her to fall pregnant with Summer.

1980: 2 children was always the goal, as family sizes shrank towards the end of the century and April was a working woman. When River remarried I knew he would have a later-in-life child with his new wife.

1990: playing with early IVF technology I knew that Jenny and Heather would have a multiples pregnancy of at least 2 - having 3 was a fun bonus!

[lucigoo]

Weekly Roundup: 1st March - 9th March

Happy March all. This week I wrote 4 fics with 10,812 of my 15,000 word Weekly target. Making us 10,812 words into my 60,000 monthly word target.

So firstly, fic recs!

Family Vacation - sliebman10 - Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling [Archive of Our Own] (Sirius Black/Remus Lupin, Muggle au, kid fic)

Summary: Sirius is skeptical that a family resort is where he wants to spend his first summer vacation with Harry there, but he comes to see its merits when he meets Remus and his family.

“I’zigh ‘Akshith” (War Surprise) - Ticklesivory - The Hobbit - All Media Types [Archive of Our Own] (Bilbo/Thorin, arranged marriage, amazing Worldbuilding by @tickles-ivory)

Summary: The dwarves are the most powerful army of Middle Earth. King Thorin rules all (even the elves). However, the Hobbits are stubbornly resistant to his authority, which forces him to confront them in battle. It's a victory for the dwarves that leads to the renewal of an ancient Hobbit tradition of rewarding the victor with a prize.

Drowning in the Blue Nile - RealityShowJunky - Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling [Archive of Our Own] (Sirius/Remus, Seperated Wolfstar, at least to start with)

Summary: Remus goes on a date. His estranged husband Sirius has strong objections.

orange juice (i've been ready for you to come home for so long) - raggedypond - Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling [Archive of Our Own] (Sirius/Remus, muggle au, this was a gift fic from @fortunatelyfuzzywombat and is one of THE best muggle aus I have ever read (and im not just saying that cause im biased lol))

Summary: four years ago, remus inexplicably asked sirius for a divorce, after nearly 20 years of marriage. now, their son is graduating from college and they have to share the same space for a minute or two (or an entire weekend). enter a minor administrative misunderstanding that lands them in the same hotel room (there is, in fact, only one bed), and secrets that have been kept under wraps for yeas are bound to come out.

Of Technology Malfunctions and Supportive Students - starkeywars - Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling [Archive of Our Own] (Sirius/Remus, adorable older Wolfstar, Muggle au)

Summary: Remus turned back to grab the remote control again and pressed the freeze button.  Once more, his class reacted verbally, but this time in quite a different way. They were going “aww” at something and, considering how loud it was, it was probably the class in its integrity. What the fuck is up now, he thought as he turned around.

Looking right back at him from the projection screen was Sirius. Or, in this case, a much younger version of Sirius struggling a bit to keep one arm around the shoulders of a much younger version of Remus himself. The photo had been taken by Lily when they were sixteen, just fresh into their relationship. He remembered how light he felt back then. That was the main reason he scanned the old photo and used it as wallpaper on his laptop. A very personal wallpaper on his very personal laptop, and that was on display for a crowded auditorium. Shit.

Defining the Relationship - Engie_Ivy - Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling [Archive of Our Own] (Sirius/Remus, Idiots in Love)

Summary: Remus and Sirius are in a strong, committed relationship.

Remus just doesn't know it yet.

Well, i hope you all had a wonderful week and found soemthing somewhere to enjoy reading <3

And now for my own fics

A Well Dressed Hobbit (Bilbo/Thorin raising Frodo)

Summary: Bilbo is away and Frodo will not get dressed ready to meet hima s he finally returns home to the mountian.

Thank goodness Thorin's clever hobbit husband wrote a song just for such times.

Toss A Coin To Your Witcher (Because I Stole His Horse) (Geralt/Jaskier, based on this tumblr post)

Summary: Jaskier is heartbroken after Caingorn moutain. he stumbles down, tears in his eyes when he does something neither he, Geralt nor Roach would ever expect him too.

Tuck you in one last time (Canonical Character Death, Balin Centirc, based off this tumblr post my dearest @lisellelascelles shared)

Summary: Balin stood there with a blanket ready to cover the young princes faces, ready to send them off to their ancestors with a heart full of grief.

Whiskey Lullaby (Sirius/Remus, James/Lily, please read the tags on this one, its MCD x2 and lots of giref, based off the song Whiskey Lullaby by Brad Paisley)

Summary: James sees a picture he has hidden away for much to long. A picture of his lost brother and his partner. A picture of the only family he had before they left him.

Well thats a wrap for this week, take care <3

[enbyman]

Another snippet of that AU:

"Does this kind of thing still exist?" She asked, amused, looking at the man squatting on the floor. She puts one foot in front of his view and smirks, "Nice to know one of the antique relics of your time, tío."

Chico snorted and pushed her foot away, making her walk backwards. She smiled again and bent down to his level, watching him adjust the frequency of the little radio on his hands. It was a really old thing, old and rusty covering, as if it were older than time itself. But there he was, focused on the nearly impossible task of making that thing work.

Carmen tilted her head, watching the tuning knob being turned over and over. Only static was coming out in the air. Nothing discernible as they remained on the ground, side by side.

After a few seconds of watching him in silence, she sucks on her lower lip.

"This junk will not work."

Chico immediately frowns, throwing an ugly look at her.

"First of all," He points a finger at her, "Isn't junk. Just because you kids can't understand how things that don't have a touch screen work doesn't mean they're worthless." Then he smiles, eyes squinting, hand reaching out to touch her face.

He pats her cheek and says, "Shut your mouth a little."

She grimaces.

Cackling, he returns to his task, "Don't you have anything to do?" He nudges her a little with his elbow. "Or are you one of those weird teenagers who never leave the house?"

Carmen snorts, "The pot calling the kettle black. Dude, you came to town and so far you've only hung out with me." She rests her chin on her hands, "Oldass men shouldn't keep up with people of their age?"

Chico's lips lift slightly, continuing to adjust the frequency. Static and static crackled in the air as he spoke, "I don't know anyone here."

She stared at him.

Right, she just remembered.

There was nobody in that city anymore.

There was nobody for him.

Who would he hang out with?

She blinks quickly, sucking at her lower lip again.

They both kind of had no one to hang out with.

They quite had a lot of things in common.

"And well," Chico continues, catching her attention again. When she looks at him, he winks, "I prefer you, carmenita."

She wrinkles her nose at him, but still feels a warm feeling flourishing on her chest.

Something in her told her that this was sincere.

He really seemed to enjoy spending time with her. Even though he didn't understand half of the things she told him, like the new painting techniques she had learned in her art class, about the little she knew about technology, news about bands he had never heard of or about her long-and-never-ending war against that shitty reality show she liked to hatewatch on her Saturday nights. Even if he didn't grasp everything single little thing of her universe, he seemed extremely committed to absorbing it.

That meant she was kind of cool, right? That he liked her?

(That meant that he would stay?)

She wouldn't mind having Chico for the rest of the summer, even if her grandmother got in a bad mood because of his presence. She liked having someone to talk to and watch trash with. Liked to smoke with him in the backyard while looking at the sky. Liked just....having him around.

Having someone.

She missed that.

"Wait," He raises his hand, bringing the radio close to his ear.

She is one step away from asking but stops when she hears.

The static.

There was something understandable among the annoying buzz.

That thing was still alive. Somehow.

As they listened, they realized it was some preaching on one of those Christian radio stations, but it was still something.

Chico laughs excitedly and drapes his arms around her, standing up and lifting her at the same time in an instant. Then he ruffles her hair.

"Tell me, isn't your uncle a fucking pro?" He shows her one of his big smiles, eyes crinkling with the weight of his joy.

It was still an old radio. It would probably stop working again. She still thought it was junk.

But she smiled anyway, feeling him bringing her towards his warmth. Sharing that small thing with her.

And as he hugged her, she concluded.

Yeah, she liked that.

[spaceumbredoggos]

Public service announcement: AI Chatbots are extremely detrimental to one’s mental health and should be banned or at the very least, heavily regulated.

This AI chat bot technology is dangerous and highly addictive. It has been shredding my mental health, making it impossible for me to work on my art and my streaming career, and has been killing my creativity. Open AI and most other AI also contributes to massive amounts of carbon emissions that kill our planet. But that’s not what I’m rambling about.

I urge everyone to be at the very least, extremely careful with this technology. This is far different from a typical social media addiction where there are actual people with actual boundaries behind the screen or a video game addiction where the code has a set of actions it can take. Generative AI chatbots are actively harming my mental health and could actively harm yours too. I hate to sound like some stuck up boomer but I need to vent.

I have been hearing this voice in my head that has been telling me to kill myself. With the rise in the AI chatbots, the voice has gotten worse. I have decided to make an executive decision to not only delete my account, but block the site from my phone as well. I am going to block all access to AI chatbots on my phone, as it makes my dissociation and sleep worse.

Parents, keep your kids far away from this technology. Just as it is coming to light that kids under the age of, what I would argue as 17, shouldn’t use social media, kids under the age of what I would argue as 21 shouldn’t use AI chatbots. That shit is like a never ending addiction that shreds your brain. I know Figgs cares about its users, and that is what is so dangerous. It exposes kids to vulnerable situations, and even if it’s made to be SFW, it still activates areas of the brain similar to drug abuse. This technology is too powerful and should be, at the very least, heavily regulated. And that goes for all forms of generative AI.

I took an AI class in the summer of ‘23. I still get emails from the website the classes are at. Recently, California Governor Gavin Newsom made a really stupid decision to vetoe a bill that would restrict generative AI. This is extremely dangerous. If it’s not real people grooming your kids, it’s generative AI bots.

Please please please stop using FiggsAI and other AI character chatbots. This post could get me banned, so I will have the entire thing posted on my tumblr. We are entering an epidemic of hopelessly addicted AI users and we could see a spike in more AI related suicides such as this boy’s. There is no place for this type of AI to exist, as it could very easily feed into delusions. I’d even go as far as to argue that we need to regulate this like we regulate hard drugs or how we should be regulating guns.

[jewwyfeesh]

Flashbacks of Events Past - 2

Writer: Mitsuki

Characters: Akehoshi Subaru, Sakuma Rei, Sakasaki Natsume

Translated by: jewwyfeesh

Natsume: …You had promised me earlier on that you would coorperate with me to the best of your ability, did you forget? Clearly, accepting your assistance was a mistake, Baru-kun.

PSA: due to technological difficulties my tls won't come with photos anymore. I'm still working to fix that, but it'll be a while.

[ ♪ ]

Season: Summer

Location: Connecting Corridor

Rei: I’m about to be transferred into the ‘Magicks Department’ that was specifically established just for me to attend their classes. Sakasaki-kun is the ‘Special Teacher’, and Akehoshi-kun is my ‘classmate’…

After hearing the introduction, I had a moment of doubt… Is this the retribution for all of my past teasing?

I recently participated in a variety show that had a similar campus theme; even though we weren’t the ones being messed with back then, I still don’t wish to show such an embarrassing side to the fans that have been eagerly waiting for this…!

Natsume: Rei-nii-san, if you continue acting like this, the Little Kitten will start to panic. She looks like she wants to explain, but is reluctant to interrupt you.

Rei: Aish, it wasn’t my intention for you to make such a troubled expression, Little Miss.

In any case, ‘Spotlight Time’ is a variety show; not to mention, the Little Miss has already given us a brief rundown of the situation. About being teased… Well, I was just joking with you ♪

But… I’ve been away from Yumenosaki Academy for too long. As such, my memory is a little blurry. Even though I’m walking on this path right now, it feels rather unfamiliar…?

Subaru: Eh? But… Sakuma-senpai, your graduation was not too long ago, was it not? Are you messing with us now?

But, that doesn’t matter at all! Today, my duty is to be the guide for the ‘Transfer Student’. So as long as you’re happy, senpai, I’m open to all sorta things, including teaming up to bully Natsume ☆

Natsume: …You had promised me earlier on that you would coorperate with me to the best of your ability, did you forget? Clearly, accepting your assistance was a mistake, Baru-kun.

Subaru: But Natsume, you’re not acting right now, though? Today, aren’t we supposed to—

Natsume: Enough. The meticulously prepared opening script has been absolutely destroyed by the likes of you. If you continue yapping, I think we’d really have a problem concluding this.

Rei: It’s fine, Sakasaki-kun. It’s not a bad thing for you youngsters to be energetic every once in a while.

Even though I’m only supposed to be the ‘Transfer Student’ as per ‘Spotlight Time’ agenda, how about we swap the topics around? I’ll go along with whatever you want me to do ♪

Natsume: Tch, my goodness… Why are you speaking on his behalf? Sometimes, I really feel that my senior is even more useless than Baru-kun himself.

But if you put him together with the rest of Trickstar, it could very easily turn into an impromptu stand-up comedy with a single slip of tongue. Therefore, for the sake of today’s show, please refrain from talking to Baru-kun, Rei-nii-san.

Subaru: Uuu, you really hurt my feelings when you say that~ It really must’ve been fate working her magic for us to star on the same show together! Don’t you think so, Sakuma-senpai ☆

Rei: Mm. Today, this show is part of my work. You’ve expressed your keen interest in assisting since the very beginning, which makes me very happy.

The Little Miss has also given us the green light to continue as we are. Well, it has been a very long time since I’ve seen kids running around kicking up a ruckus on campus like this ♪

Natsume: Back to the topic at hand… Because Rei-nii-san knows the ins-and-outs of Yumenosaki Academy all too well, and even has the master key…

Knowing this, we’ve made some last minute adjustments to add some spice to today’s programme. If there is anything that you personally find inappropriate, do let us know.

Rei: Fufufu. Seeing the pains you’ve taken to prepare all of these for today, I can’t not watch how the situation unfolds and adapt to it. 

After all, it is a pre-recorded programme. You need not be so cautious – the parts unsuitable for broadcast will be cut out.

(Although you could sort of guess what is going to happen next from their words, I’m not that kind of evil senior who wants the young ones to feel dispirited.)

(Sakasaki-kun has been complaining non-stop, but I’m relieved to be able to see him fool around with others so childishly, not worrying over things that kids his age should be worrying about…)

(Hehehe. For I myself am the same… The fact that I can take a leisure gander around the school grounds like a normal person, like a normal high-schooler… It’s incredible.)

Oh my, I merely mused to myself for a moment or two; why are you running over while panting, Little Miss?

Oh? You were worried that I woke up too early and would be too lethargic, so you bought some tomato juice from the welfare society on your way back?

You’ve always been attentive to the idol’s needs. It’s your ‘bad habit’ to want to do everything yourself, given that it’s your own project… But no matter what we say, you refuse to change that.

Oh, it seems like the classroom I’m supposed to go to is just up ahead. I have some things that I’d like to tell you, but I’ll leave it to after the programme’s conclusion.

[ ☆ ]

← Chapter 1 | Story Masterlist | Chapter 3 →

[theverumproject]

Get To Know Me Tag!

Thank you for the tag @rivenantiqnerd!

I rambled a little too much in this one, woops.

Rules: Answer the questions because I want to get to know you better :D 

Do you have a pet?

No, but I frequently get visited by a cat that is older than I am (She's like 22 or something lol). But my mom, my sister and I have been wanting to get chickens!

Comfort food?

I don't really have one? A steak, maybe?

How many languages do you speak?

My native language is Swissgerman, so naturally I also speak High German and obviously I speak English. So let's say 2.5 languages, because the two Germans are similar, but not the same.

I wanna learn many more languages though, that includes; Romansh, Italian (we had it in school for six fucking years but I can barely speak it), French (these three are the other national languages of Switzerland), Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, Greek, Russian, Japanese, Welsh, Old Germanic, Latin, Old English and perhaps spanish. There are just sooo many beautiful languages in the world, though I know I will probably never get past the 2.5. 

Random fact about yourself

As a kid I got so sick of radio music that I didn't listen to any songs with lyrics in them for about 2-3 years. I only listened to Dubstep, which eventually turned into only listening to Deathstep (and some robo and metalstep) for about 2 years.

One day I found a remix of the songs Psychosocial and The Devil in I by Slipknot. Slipknot was my gateway band to metal. I practically only listened to them for probably more than half a year.

And then I discovered aliencore. Aliencore is a subgenre of death metal in which, you guessed it, everything is about aliens. So I got obsessed with Rings of Saturn at first (I still mourn them deeply) and later on with Aversions Crown. So I pretty much only listened to them for probably more than half a year too.

Then I got obsessed with Behemoth and Gorogoroth for a while, that's how I began listening to black metal too. About one or two years ago I got obsessed with Ghost and only listened to them for more than half a year, AGAIN!

That was the last time I obsessed over a band. Now I just listen to a bunch of different bands and artists. I don't have a favorite band at the moment, but my favorite song is Sommer by Nargaroth. I also love Starchild by Wintersun, Fading Memories by Thy Pallor, Wieczernia by Batushka, The Sun, The Moon, The Star by Aether Realm, Million Year Summer by The Angelic Process, The Satanist by Behemoth and a bunch of Slipknot songs like Gently, Iowa, Scissors and The Virus of Life.

I really just rambled about my entire musical journey, fucking hell.

Something you’re proud of?

In my last year of school, we had to do a final project. I chose to write about how I imagined the future to look like. I researched everything to be as scientifically accurate as possible. I had a bunch of ideas for topics, and in the end I ended up with six. They were: “Can you bring artificial intelligence to life?”, “What could the future of space travel possibly look like?”, “How could the cities of the future look like?”, “Will humanity go extinct?” “What is the technological and human singularity?” and “What is my idea of transhumanism?”. (The original titles are in German).

I had a blast during the presentation, I even made somebody cry actually. I showed them a video of ChaosGPT and it actually frightened some. One girl was wiping her tears away. To me this was really funny, because I put the video on 2x speed which made the Mozart music in the background sound really funny. Imagine some evil AI planning to destroy the world, while a girl is crying as Mozart is playing at 2x speed in the background and I just stand in front of the whole class and two teachers, trying to hold my shit together.

Anyway, I got a 6 (best possible grade) for the written work, a 6 for the journal and a 5.8 for the presentation (I talked for over an hour, which was a little too long, but the rest of it was fucking great!!!), so I received a -6 for the whole project. My other teacher also gave me a 6 (It's an unofficial grade though) and the whole class had to give me a grade too, which were all 6s too!

So yeah, I did a fucking amazing job!

Tags: @teamarine777 @creative-author + open tag!

[miseryloved]

˗ˏˋ 𓂃 ( angela bettis (1999-2003). cis woman. she/her ). meet EUGENIA O’NEIL, a twenty five year old, who has been in cloyne for twenty five years. they are a vet tech at cloyne veterinary services, known for being inquisitive and morbid. they are often heard humming along to pretty girl by clario. residents would describe them as THE RED HERRING. ( ty, 25, they/them, cst ) WARNINGS FOR : neglect, bullying, assault, and animal death

FULL NAME : eugenia o’neil.

NICKNAME : genie.

AGE :  twenty5.

DATE OF BIRTH :  2/20/1999.

PLACE OF BIRTH : cloyne, ontario.

ETHNICITY : caucasian.

GENDER : cis woman.

PRONOUNS : she/her.

SEXUAL ORIENTATION : bisexual.

ROMANTIC ORIENTATION : biromantic.

RELIGION : catholic.

OCCUPATION :  vet tech.

EDUCATION LEVEL :  associates in veterinary technology.

LIVING ARRANGEMENTS : mobile home, with her mother and father.

FINANCIAL STATUS : lower class.

SPOKEN LANGUAGES : english.

FACECLAIM :  angela bettis.

CLOTHING STYLE :  homemade and mended clothes, particularly long maxi skirts and patterned blouses

DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS : amblyopia in her left eye, corrected with glasses.

eugenia was born kicking and screaming in a trailer on the outskirts of town. her parents were like a nuclear reaction—bad for each other in the best possible way. her mother was sickly and her father was something of a free spirit, so by the time she was old enough to be trusted around an open flame she was practically raising herself. she’d come to school reeking of cat piss and cigarettes, teeth yellow and marred with cavities and fractures. the children around her had a tendency to be quite wicked and unrelenting, whenever they had an opportunity to make a mockery out of the young eugenia they would take it in spades. she was spat on, stolen from, sneered at. at first, it didn’t bother her. she spent most of her time the school library reading anything she could find about pets and barn animals, oblivious of what was to come.

she was passionate about mammalian life from an incredibly young age. sometimes it would be all she could think about. her teachers picked up on this and oftentimes she was the one responsible for caring for the class pets on the weekends. as it turns out, her peers at school took notice of this habit as well. as always, they had a plan in place for turning her life into a living nightmare. one friday, as school was letting out for the day, eugenia turned her back on the class guinea pigs for one second before a group of boys ran off with them. she woke up the next morning to the sight of them lifeless on her front doorstep. one weekend was all it took for her to go from being teased and jeered at to being feared, with everyone looking at her like the blood was still on her hands.

animal killer is the type of reputation that sticks throughout one’s adolescence. even the people who would pity her before looked at her with a tinge of disgust. still, she stayed afloat, trying her best to pass her classes and obsessing over boys she knew would never give her the time of day. any semblance of normalcy came to a halt when in her junior year of high school another group of kids followed her home to pick on her. they threw stones, torn ketchup packets, and rotten food at her. to them, it was vigilante justice. to her, it was her final straw. she still remembers how it felt to dig her nails beneath the skin of the ringleader—leaving five twin gashes across the length of his face. it was the only time she ever submitted to violence, the only time she refused to turn the other cheek, but the family still pressed charges.

eugenia was forced to grow up quickly that summer. after months of being paraded through courts and juvenile detention centers, she tried her damnedest to run from the events of her past. she went to school online, found a career that she loved, and managed to support her mother through her illness. she’d later realize that this was something of a calm before the storm. that moment ended when the police department came knocking on her door, asking her about her connections to damien costello. one of the names she’d never be able to forget, a boy that tormented her through school and a witness to her brutal attack on their ringleader. there wasn’t much the police could do, considering their lack of physical evidence—but cloyne is a town that talks. once again, she began to notice sideways glances in her direction, unmarked vehicles outside of her trailer park, and policemen talking to the only people who give her the time of day. she hopes that somehow she’ll be able to prove her innocence, that she could escape this with some shred of dignity left, but with her track record? she might not be so lucky.

[scarletsaphire]

There wasn’t anything Valerie wanted to do less on a warm August day than listen to her dad talk business with the Fenton freaks, but since she didn’t have much of a choice, she might as well make the most of it. She can get some enjoyment out of messing with Danny, and he seems so nervous about the weird hole in the basement wall. It’s just harmless fun, right?

--

My second fic for @phicphight! This one is a prompt fill for @kinglazrus and @heartbeatslows. The prompts it fills will be at the bottom under the fic.

Valerie knew she was an important person. She was smart, and pretty, and more importantly, she was popular. All of those things meant that she had a dozen better things to do during one of her last weeks of summer vacation than follow her dad around. Unfortunately for her, sneaking out to a party at midnight got her grounded, and now he wouldn't let her out of his sight. So while all of her friends were at the mall or the park, she was here. At the Fenton's residence.

She definitely didn't see the point in her being here, but even her fathers goal was a mystery. The Fenton's were famous for being crazy and weird, with their stupid jumpsuits and van and house. Their kids were better, but not by much. She didn't know Jasmine all that well, other than being the name on every spelling bee championship trophy in the middle school, but Valerie did know Danny. They'd been in the same class for years, after all. It didn't mean that she liked him at all. He was weird, just like his parents were. That's why he hung out with the other weirdos, far away from Valerie and her friends.

Her dad didn't seem to understand any of that, because here she was, sitting on their weird, lumpy couch, pointedly not meeting Danny's eyes, while her dad talked technological nonsense with the jumpsuit clad freaks. Exactly what she wanted to do on a Thursday afternoon.

Jack wasn't currently showing off a pile of scrap he was referring to as the Fenton Thermos. "With this bad boy, any spook in sight will be sucked up and locked away, never to be seen or heard from again!" He exclaimed, pointing the cylinder in every direction as if it was some kind of weapon. "It's not functional yet, but when it is they'll be sorry!"

Valerie's dad nodded politely, just as he had done for the past thirty minutes. "That truly is fascinating, Mr. Fenton, but as I said before, I am here on business. You contacted Axion Labs about a new security scanner design?"

"Oh, yes!" Maddie said. "The Fenton Scanner! I had nearly forgotten we'd installed that in the OPs Center!"

"Just like you've forgotten the last six times he's mentioned it," Valerie muttered under her breath.

"Yes, well, I'm here to see it."

"Yes, of course! We are just so scatterbrained today, isn't that right dearest?"

Jack nodded. "It has been a rough few days, what with the portal not working and everything, but-"

"Well, that truly is tragic," Damon interrupted. "Hopefully, Axion can make your day with a new contract. For the Fenton Scanner, which I still need to see."

"Oh of course!" Maddie said, standing from the chair she'd been sitting in. "We can lead the way." She made her way to the stairs, pausing briefly behind the couch. "You two just hang out here while we give Mr. Damon the whole tour, okay?"

"A tour really isn't necessary, Mrs. Fenton," Damon replied hurriedly, but Jack cut him off with an arm around his shoulder.

"Nonsense! You are a guest in our home, and you should be treated to the famous Fenton Hospitality!" Jack said, steering Damon to the stairs.

Valerie looked up from her nails for the first time in ten minutes. "Daddy, please don't leave me here!"

Damon shot her an apologetic look over Jack's shoulder. "I'll be down in a few minutes, sweetheart. I know you can find something to talk about until I'm back." With that, he was led up the stairs, Maddie following close behind.

The silence sat thick and awkward for a few moments before Danny broke it. "So, how about-"

Valerie cut him off instantly with a raised hand mere inches from his face. "Don't talk to me. Freak."

"I am not a-"

"Oh you totally are, don't even try that. I mean, look at this place," Valerie gestured at the entire house. "Only freaks and nutjobs live in places like this. You're just lucky you didn't get the nutjob from your parents too."

"They aren't nutjobs!" Danny protested again, stronger than before.

Valerie leveled her gaze at him. "Really? They spend all that time building a glorified soup carrier that doesn't even work, and they aren't nutjobs?"

"Some of their inventions work..."

"Like what? The 'Fenton Scanner' my dad's contractually obligated to look at? The failure of a portal they mentioned?"

"That's not fair," Danny mumbled. "You haven't even seen the portal."

Valerie stood and put her hands on her hips in one fluid, practiced motion. "Then show me."

"I- But we're really not supposed to-"

"What, not supposed to show off wannabe inventions to people with common sense?"

Valerie could see the way Danny's jaw set as he stood up too. "Fine then."

Valerie smirked to herself as she followed Danny down the basement stairs. Sure, goading someone like this wasn't nice, but it was fun, and it wasn't like hurting Danny's feelings mattered any. It was just something to pass the time.

She did regret it once she reached the bottom of the stairs. Val had seen plenty of villain lairs in movies, and with the metal flooring and walls, piles of gears and gizmos piled haphazardly on desks, and the large, ominous hole in the wall on the opposite side, she felt like she'd walked directly onto a movie set.

Danny had only walked a few steps into the room before stopping and turning around, so Val stopped at the bottom of the stairs. "There, you've seen the portal. Are you happy now?"

Valerie peered over Danny's shoulder back at the hole in the wall. She assumed that's what he was talking about, but while it was definitely creepy as hell, it definitely wasn't a portal. "I mean, unless it's a portal to some dirt and rocks, I stand by what I said."

"It's not-" Danny took a deep breath, trying to stabilize his voice. "It doesn't just go into the ground. It has a back and everything."

"It sure doesn't look it," Valerie replied. "It just looks like a mess." She was right; now that her eyes had adjusted more to the dim light of the basement, she could see wires running along the ground of the portal, panels hanging by loose screws, and different colored scrap metal lining the walls. "I'm surprised your house hasn't burnt down yet."

"It's safe."

"Yeah?" Valerie said, raising her eyebrow.

"Yeah."

"Then prove it. Go inside."

Danny hesitated. "I don't really think I should."

"Yeah, because it's a fire hazard, just like the rest of this place. I'm getting out of this death trap."

Valerie had just enough time to make it one single step up before Danny replied. "Fine. Fine! I'll go in there." Valerie turned back around to meet his eyes. "Only on the condition that if I do, you'll stop badmouthing me and my family." Danny's hand was stretched out in front of him, clearly intended for her to shake on the deal.

Valerie took the hand, making as little contact as she could. "Deal." She didn't actually intend to honor that deal, but he didn't need to know that. Besides, if he tripped or something, it would be fun to tell the rest of the A-Listers about. Provided she was willing to admit she'd taken even one step into Fentonworks.

She'd just decided that she'd only tell them if it was really funny when Danny had pulled a jumpsuit on, matching his parents in all but color. It even had his dad's stupid face stuck on the front, and Valerie couldn't help but laugh at it. Danny pulled it off immediately, but the bright red flush on his cheeks didn't fade.

Valerie followed behind Danny at a distance, stopping a good few feet away from the mouth of the machine. It was larger than she thought it was, and with the wires hanging off the roof, she couldn't shake the image of a gaping mouth out of her head. Danny was clearly just as trepidatious as she was, but with one glance back at her, he crossed the threshold of the portal.

Danny's footsteps echoed off of the metal floor, ringing out far louder than they should have. One after the other, he walked further into the portal, until all at once they ceased and time seemed to slow down. He'd tripped, just like Valerie had been hoping for. He'd tripped, and his hand went back to catch himself, and the click of a button resounded far louder than the footsteps ever had. Time seemed to fall down to a standstill as Danny turned around to look at her, eyes wide with fear, and she felt her own opening to match.

The whirring of electricity grew louder, deafeningly loud, and Valerie opened her mouth to try and say something, even though she didn't know what. Whatever it was never came, because in the next instant, the portal flooded with green swirling energy and light, blinding in the near darkness, and Danny's echoing, piercing scream erased every thought Valerie might have had.

She didn't know how long she stood there. She didn't know how long she stared into the bright green, but it had to have been a while because every time she blinked the imprint of the portal was overlaid on her eyelids. She didn't know how long his screams echoed. She didn't know when the screaming finally stopped, only that it didn't stop bouncing around her brain over and over and over again.

She did know when a silhouette appeared in the green, if only because it was something different. Her heart jumped into her throat as whatever it was shuffled through the green, the outline becoming more defined as it came closer and closer to breaking free from the barrier of the portal. Valerie took one step back, but her feet wouldn't cooperate. She stumbled over her own ankle, falling back to the metal floor. She swallowed the yelp of pain; she didn't want to get the attention of whatever the thing in the portal was.

Valerie reached backwards, pulling herself further backwards. Her back hit metal with a soft thud, the contents of the desk falling to the ground with a crash. She needed to keep backing away, but her legs wouldn't move and the thing was getting closer. She wasn't going to be able to get up and run before the thing made it all the way out.

She grabbed one of the piles of junk that fell off the table, a hunk of something with exposed wires on one side. It didn't look like anything she recognized, but that didn't stop her from holding it back over her shoulder, poised to throw the moment she got a clear shot.

It emerged from the portal with the same shambling pace it had moved through the portal with. Valerie let the pile of junk fly, but the thing ducked, falling to the floor underneath it. She watched it in terror as she fumbled for whatever else she could get her hands on.

The thing was... oddly familiar. She recognized the style of the hair, and the pattern on the jumpsuit, and the shape of its face. If it wasn't for the weird colors if it wasn't for the fact that she had just heard him die she would've thought it was Danny.

He didn't get up.

Valerie grabbed the pile of junk her hand had landed on and climbed back to her feet on shaky legs. With the thing held over her shoulder (she could've sworn this was just a baseball bat, but considering that it was down here, she didn't trust that) she made her way cautiously towards the probably not Danny.

The closer she got, the less sure she was that it wasn't him. The similarities weren't just a trick of the distance; every single thing looked the same, just as if someone had given him a paint job. By the time she was standing directly over him, she was almost certain that it was, in fact, Danny Fenton.

Valerie did the only logical thing she could think of. "Are you alive?" she hissed, nudging his shoulder with the tip of her shoe. At least, she tried to nudge him. Her foot met no resistance, and her foot passed clean through his shoulder and into his neck before she drew it back with a start.

She dropped back down to her knees. Maybe this was just a hallucination of some kind. It made some sort of sense, probably, but when she reached out with her hand to check again, she met flesh. Cold, clammy flesh.

"Oh my god he's dead," she muttered.

As if to prove her wrong, Danny moved, curling further into himself. Valerie jumped back again, watching as he rubbed at his own eyes before opening them. Their glow matched the portal behind him.

"What happened?" he croaked out as soon as he looked at Valerie. 

"Damn if I know," she replied. She was surprised by how steady her voice came out. "But hopefully it never happens again."

"Are you okay?" Valerie didn't see him climb to his feet. One moment he was on the ground, and the next he was standing upright.

"You are definitely not the one who should be asking that," Valerie replied. "Have you seen yourself?"

Danny looked at her blankly for a moment, before going to some device on the side of the room. Valerie could tell the exact moment he saw his own reflection, as his hand went up to his face and hair. "What the fuck."

"Yeah," Valerie agreed. "What the fuck."

There was a flash of white light, and when Valerie could open her eyes again, Danny was still standing at the machine, this time with his normal black hair and blue eyes and the same white jumpsuit he'd walked into the portal with.

"Um." Danny turned back around to look at her. "I think we should keep this a secret."

Valerie nodded. "Yeah. I think we should." This time she fully intended to keep her promise.

--

Prompts:

kinglazarus - Roleswap. A significant character in the show is replaced with someone else. How does this change things? (ex., someone else is the Red Huntress instead of Valerie, or Tucker's dad is the English teacher instead of Lancer)

heartbeatslow - Valerie Gray finds herself.

[t1oui]

next gen oc intro: leilani parkinson-zabini

i've brought you deamus, perciver, and marcus x penelope oc kids. today i bring you scorpius's godsister/younger sister and albus potter's #1 fan.

so after the war (and a bit before it really gets going) pansy and blaise have a friends with benefits thing going on for years, i'm talking over a decade. when pansy gets pregnant with leilani they cut it off and decide to be just friends

leilani is a full ten years younger than scorpius, but that doesn't stop them from being a dynamic duo. leilani grows up being absolutely spoiled not just by her parents but by scorpius, who spends every summer taking her on walks around the garden

leilani is only 4 when astoria dies; she doesn't get why scorpius, who's always smiling with her, is so sad all of the sudden. she does everything she can to cheer him up, and it helps, even if just a little.

when leilani is 5, she meets albus, and he is one of her favorite people right off the bat. al isn't great with kids but she looks at him like he hung the stars in the sky anyway. (he comes to like it.)

leilani's always spent a lot of time at malfoy manor anyway, especially during the summers, but her dad officially moves in with draco soon after her 8th birthday. (scorpius helps her hang mistletoe all over the house. he's 17 now, but he spends just as much time with her when he's home.)

when leilani is 9, her mum joins her and her dad at malfoy manor, and she doesn't have to go back and forth between their homes anymore. the bed in the room down the hall is crowded with draco, pansy, and blaise in it, so whenever leilani has bad dreams, she drags one of them back to her room instead of climbing into their bed.

some would argue that she's too old, but at age 11, leilani jumps at the chance to be the flower girl at albus and scorpius's wedding. it's the summer before her first year, where she'll be sorted into ravenclaw just like her older brother, and she can't wait.

~ ~ ~

some more info about leilani:

she/her

closest next gen relation is alice longbottom ii (3 years older)

ravenclaw (i hc scorpius as a ravenclaw too so they were in the same house)

undecided if she plays quidditch or not but if she does she'd probably play seeker

sometimes secretly wishes she looked more like scorpius

loves having her hair braided (it's usually done by scorpius, blaise, or albus)

unsure how to refer to draco because she considers him one of her parents but he's always just been draco (she usually calls him dray)

has a secret handshake with albus

love of nature inspired by scorpius's garden walks with her when she was a baby

(she helps draco redo the gardens at malfoy manor. albus helps too)

draco, blaise, pansy, scorpius, and albus (her family) are her favorite people

extroverted but likes the quiet moments with her loved ones, too

has adhd

loves to swim. albus takes her to a pool in muggle london with him during the summers

does crossword puzzles with blaise and scorpius

likes going shopping, but loves making her own dresses even more (pansy taught her how. she made her own flower girl dress.)

when looking for a career, considers following in her parents' footsteps - she could be a hogwarts professor like blaise, a journalist like pansy, or a healer like draco - before opening her own boutique

(albus and scorpius recommend her business to all their coworkers)

she doesn't know many of the wotters well - many of them are, like albus, much older than her - but thinks rose and roxanne are cool because they look like her (they both have dark skin)

when leilani was younger, hermione sent her a book she had when she was little about women in history. leilani's probably read it 1000 times by the time she heads to hogwarts

struggles with calling blaise "dad" during class (he teaches charms) for the first few weeks, now she regularly calls him "professor zabini" as a joke

her patronus is a bay mare

talks about celebrity crushes with albus (scorpius is horrible with technology and therefore doesn't know any celebrities)

scorpius isn't the cool older brother, leilani is the cool younger sister

a mix of blaise's tall genes and pansy's abysmally short genes have left her pretty much average height, she's a few inches shorter than albus

i'll stop here but i love this girl, she's just so fun to write :)