#again i will delete if this is not ok!! i'll respect that... but until we know

[irvingcoded]

God sees you, Mr. Hickey. Here more than anywhere. Reform your behavior and you’ll have His forgiveness, as well as mine. Continue on this path and you will find more than eternal happiness closed to you.

[chronicsyd]

so I WAS going to post another long winded rant about Disney's Wish (I'll post that later) but Arcane decided to post another 30 second Teaser for us; and announcing the Trailer (yes, FULL Trailer AHHH! *ahem* sorry) is going to be releasing on September 5th! But let's get into what they showed us in this little teaser shall we? (go check out the teaser first it's only like 30 seconds and as usual, leaks will be blocked and deleted)

With this one frame they've already showed us several things. they've confirmed everything that was talked about Vi at the Annecy festival (some people were kinda skeptical if this was something that was legitimate for a while, myself included), and they've confirmed for me that Vi and Caitlyn are going their own ways at the beginning of the season (for a little while, at least). Vi tries to figure herself out in Zaun while Caitlyn's still an Enforcer up in Piltover. They also seem to be confirming the idea that there's some kind of time skip happening in s2 (not as large as s1 but there's something). And why I believe this is because Jinx is being painted in the same light as Vander, as someone that's respected in Zaun. People have already started rallying behind her at this point in the story.

Now, the bigger meat of the teaser:

I put Caitlyn and Jinx side by side for a couple reasons. Not only are these two taking on more of a leadership role this season, they're enforcing the idea that these two are the two sides of the same coin they hinted at in season 1 (they just both seem to be heading in the opposite direction the other was in season 1, if that makes sense), but they both have a figure explaining to them what they need to do for the better of Zaun/Piltover: Ambessa and Sevika. However, each of these characters are being told different things. Ambessa is a War general, she believes that in restoring peace Caitlyn needs to declare Martial Law aka military government and it seems that Caitlyn not only does this but she allies herself with Ambessa and Noxus in order to do this. On the other hand, Sevika's explaining to Jinx that she's the one that can rally Zaun together (and it seems that Ekko might actually be joining her on this). Because under both Vander and Silco there were still people opposed to how the Undercity was run (Under Vander, he was playing it safe with Piltover but Piltover was treating the Undercity badly but under Silco he was a kingpin and several people were still suffering under the effects of Shimmer and the only reason the Enforcers weren't as hostile because of Silco's allyship with Marcus, until Jinx steals the gemstone and Piltover retaliates). But with Zaun actually being at war with Piltover now, Jinx needs to be seen as a symbol for Zaun for people to rally behind, because to them Topside is the bigger enemy.

(I just had to add this pic of Sevika because like God Damn she looks so attractive here like step on me! *ahem* sorry, had a bit of gay panic there...moving on...)

Now, I'm going to hold off on giving my overall thoughts until the full trailer drops in a couple of days. just so that I can gather some more thoughts about where season 2 is going as a whole and when I'm given some more information to glean from, granted I'm SURE that the trailer won't give us any clear cut information because Arcane is great at that.

Oh one last thing:

Jinx's poster in for S2 has her being strangled by Vi's gauntlet, and Jinx is faced upsidown (with the caption "Time to turn things upsidedown") which i presume is just how different everyone/everything is going to be different compared to the last season. but i do wonder What Happens between Vi and Jinx that gets them like this? Because there Has to be a scene between the two that ends badly (probably before we see Vi with her black hair and leather, because in the earlier pic i showed Vi's already seeing Jinx pained alongside Vander)

ok NOW I'm done.

Anyways, I'll post again in the next couple of days when the trailer comes out. Bye!

[ratrrriot]

Dear anon: i fucked up and instead of saving this ask to my drafts, i accidentally posted it halfway through writing my answer and then impulsively deleted it. So now i'll have to answer to this screenshot and ask you to pretend its the real thing ,ok? Thank you for the ask and sorry!!! i'm really hoping you'll see this long ass answer🙏

I actually talked about this idea once on twitter but YES, I do think Shadow would certainly have a reaction when seeing Sonic act all brother-ly towards Tails. Especially because i like to think seeing them could trigger some real -not previously manipulated by Gerald- memories of him and Maria. However,rather than jealousy,i believe he would be emotionally confused and have mixed feelings about this.

Note: This is complete headcanon talk, so don't take this as an analysis of who Shadow,sonic,tails and Maria are in canon! Its fanon interpretation

Don't get me wrong. Do i think he was bitter at first,knowing they had what was taken from him? yes, absolutely,but do i think that could fuel his hostility towards Sonic? not really ,Because i don't think that Sonic & Tails reminded him of his own sibling when they first met, mainly because i don't think Shadow remembered Maria was a sister-figure to him until he started recovering his real memories (cuz i doubt Gerald knew they tought of eachother as siblings when he put the fake memories in him),Plus i don't think he noticed how truly brother-ly the bond between those two was until he got to meet them better,which i believe must have happened after a few games anyways. I believe that S & T's relationship reminds him of his and Maria's now.

I think that more than the angry, hurt person he used to be,he is now just a really broken one who's trying to somewhat fix his relationship with the world and his own existence. So while i agree he must have been bitter about this issue at the beggining,i don't think it was the most prevalent feeling this situation caused him.

I believe that in the present -emphasis on present time cuz we all know he hated him with a passion at the beggining- He's mean to Sonic because their egos clash and he doesn't like his attitude (they kinda make the worst side of eachother come out lol) ,but its clear he actually respects him when it comes to their shared values. Their competitivity seems to be a consequence of his superiority complex and more of a source of entertainment to him than anything else. So I think that when Shadow sees how good of a brother Sonic is to Tails,he can't really hate him for it or say that "he doesn't know what he has",cause he knows he is seeing someone who actually knows exactly how precious the bond they have is. Someone who wouldn't hesitate to give his life to protect his little brother, someone who feels inspired by the support and presence of their sibling. Someone like Maria. (At least the Maria from my headcanons;;). The reminder of Maria's absence is always painful and enfuriating ,sure,but more importantly, i think seeing Sonic like that would make him uncomfortable,because the fact that his rival,someone who he used to hate and has fought so many times, can suddenly have SO MUCH in common with the one person who mattered the most to him,is incredibly confusing. Even weirder is the fact that in this situation,the one who's taking his place is Tails. TAILS of all people!!

And that brings A LOT of questions!!! Especially because these could be clues to what kind of people Maria and Shadow used to be,something very important to him and that he has lots of trouble remembering. Like,when Shad was a younger brother too ,was he anything like Tails? and if Tails wasn't born by Sonic's side and instead was found by him...Could Shadow maybe find someone like Maria out there and form a familiar bond again? Did Maria treat him just as Sonic treats Tails? Could Maria have even more things in common with Sonic and Shadow just doesn't remember???

My guy is NOT ready to answer any of these questions (he might be recovering the missing pieces of his broken memory and healing a bit but he still has a long way to go before he can be anything close to emotionally stable) and i'm not sure if he'd like the answers anyways. Plus,at least in my headcanons,his real memories of Maria might bring him joy and nostalgia but also tons of frustration,not just because he can't remember her at will,but also cause he gets the impression that Maria was hiding a lot of sadness and he doesn't remember why.(I imagine she tried to not bother Shad with the weight of her emotions),nor if he could help her in any way.

At the end of the day,Shadow's backstory and the reasons for his creation are the source of his trauma ,And wether he likes it or not,Maria is one of the main parts of all of that. So sometimes he doesn't know if he wants to move on from her or keep dwelling on the past,which is why i believe being reminded of her always brings him comfort ,but also emotional exhaustion ...

And In this case,he is too exhausted to be jealous of Sonic and Tails for having what he has lost.

ANYWAYS. That's just my opinion on the matter,If you think seeing Sonic and Tail's brotherhood would fuel Shadow's hatred,i think that's valid, especially cause at the end of the day it depends on how you'd think Shadow deals with his baggage,and there can be many interpretations for that.

Again,Thanks for the ask!

[crehador]

do you have any fav icsm works, like fanart or fics ? -🪱 (lord the worm is so ugly when it isnt android)

oh so so so many lmao i could go on literally forever my doujin shelf is nearly at maximum capacity

i will try to limit myself to two or three things here (even though there are a bajillion talented lovely flawless smic/icsm artists out there who i love and respect equally)

dear lover by ann (tora link) will forever hold a special place in my heart, it's a simple little moment but very sweet and gets bonus bias from the fact that some of this artist's other work is what converted me to icsm in the first place

tanukitsu by chiho (tora link to book one) is like the icsm au that lives rent-free in my head forever, i genuinely love chiho's tanuro and samatokitsune nearly as much as their canon counterparts no joke

(links are just for reference/samples, these are older works so none are in stock)

i'll force myself to stop there or i would just keep going forever lol but that is just like the tiniest sliver of the pie

ACTUALLY I LIED ONE MORE RAMBLE UNDER THE CUT

ok so this is really shitty because i cannot for the life of me remember who the artist is so i can't even try to find this specific piece but i can describe this little fancomic perfectly because i love it so much

it was a short little like 4-panel (maybe more than 4 panels i'm not sure) gag comic where the premise was like ichiro and samatoki are together but still keeping their relationship a secret

but one day after hooking up they left and grabbed each other's mic by mistake? so ichiro unknowingly left with samatoki's mic and vice versa, and had no idea... until!

until ichiro (with his brothers) gets into a rap battle and summons his speakers and of course it's SAMATOKI'S SPEAKERS that appear behind him and jiro and saburo are just fucking staring at him and ichiro is like ".........do you see it" and saburo being the brutal little shit he is is immediately like "WE SEE IT IT'S A BIG FUCKING COFFIN OF COURSE WE SEE IT"

(i'm translating very loosely because my memory is not perfect but i distinctly remember the words クソでか棺 like never in my life will i forget that lmao)

anyway there was also a little follow up panel where ichiro's speakers slammed down behind samatoki and jyuto was like screaming something at him (i remember this part less vividly but it was also very funny)

I LIED AGAIN ONE MORE RAMBLE AFTER THIS

so after describing that one i just remembered another silly little comic that i love so so so much, alas i once again do not remember the artist and cannot find it but i swear it exists or at least existed at one point (many of these are ancient and some artists may have deleted/locked since then)

but there was this other comic that i think was for ichiro's birthday and the premise was basically like the year before samatoki had promised to throw him a proper birthday party (because it was still tdd era)

and samatoki made BIG PLANS for it, like a year in advanced he booked a fancy venue ordered an enormous custom cake (it was a huge fucking wedding cake looking thing i remember that very clearly) and so on and so forth

so then ichiro's next birthday rolls around but IT IS NOW BACHIBACHI ERA LMAO so when samatoki starts getting calls on the day of, to confirm his reservations and such, he's like "wtf" and then SUDDEN REALIZATION DAWNS and he spends the whole day scrambling to cancel everything because obviously he can't throw ichiro a party now

but he MISSES ONE THING and (i may be messing up some of the details here it's been a long time since i've seen it but) i remember the end being ichiro at his place being delivered a massive bouquet of red roses with a card that said something like "from your best friend samatoki" and ichiro just being like "....................."

yeah

good times

(eta: i could be wrong but i think i remember 'best friend' on the flower card being like literally 'best friend' in katakana which made it extra dorky and hilarious to me)

[lostonehero]

Ok let's try this again

This is a time travel au

Hopefully I won't accidentally delete it again.

"Checkmate." The man with purple eyes smiles.

The taller man sighs. "Alright, I'll give you this one, father."

"Why the sudden visit? You were just here, Micheal." William sighs, leaning back into the gray setting of purgatory. "Do you want another tragic tale of me being forced by your mother."

Micheal frowns and shakes his head, resetting the board. "I need advice."

"From me?" William raised his brow. "I'm the he last person you should ask."

"Well as you know I'm a demon."

"Of your own making Micheal."

Micheal sighs. "As I am well aware." He smiles, moving a pawn forward. "I can not visit any spirit in the afterlife except purgatory."

"I am aware of that fact." William sighs. "And I will be here for a long while."

"Your sentence is half over." Micheal smiles. "However, that isn't why I'm here. Something is happening two spirits who have moved to their respective paradises have vanished. It's not Lucy's doing, nor any of the angels. Not even the reapers understand. Something keeps trying to summon me, and it's getting stronger. Nobody has my summoning circle to draw from. I'm a new demon. I shouldn't even have one. I'm Lucy's right hand."

"So what's the question, Micheal?" William sighs flicking over his king.

"What do I do when I'm summoned?" Micheal cleans up the board. "I don't want to take anyone's soul well, be stuck for eternity with said soul. I haven't been trained or taught how to accomplish that."

William leans back. "Would you be able to refuse the contract?"

"No, if they make the circle proper, I won't be able to do anything until I agree, or they send me away. I could just return the soul after the deal, but they would be doomed to hell without a choice unless it was a child who summoned me. Consenqueses is infamous for dealing with children to save them from abuse and setting them free after. This isn't a child."

"Stop fighting. I have a feeling something more is happening." William pauses, looking around. "Things have changed here."

"Purgatory doesn't change." Micheal sighs, waving away the board. "Even by the end, it's the same."

"Something is going to happen." William gets up and goes to give Micheal a hug, but he watches his son get dragged down into an abyss.

Demons can't be summoned when they are in purgatory, William knew this. Something was very wrong.

....

Micheal shuddered her and looked down he was in a summoning circle, and a child summoned him. He nearly breathed a sigh of relief before the child spoke.

Speaking in German but Micheal understood. "Micheal David Afton, I have summoned you to forever be bound to my own soul. For better or worse, you shall be by my side for eternity."

Micheal unable to refuse when his full name is used, shakes the boys hand, and they both have matching marks on their chest. He finally realizes he looks to be the same age as the child, but that was impossible even a deal like this wouldn't affect his age.

"Micheal." The blonde boy speaks up.

Micheal turned his attention to him. He recognized the clothing he was in as something Evan had and his mom hated because they... we his old hamydowns.

"Micheal!" The boy shouts.

Micheal finally looks up at the boy, who pulls him into a hug.

"I fucking knew it." It was hard to understand English in the thick accent.

"Knew what?" A German child of his age shouldn't know English nor curse words in English.

"Micheal, it's me, Jeremy. Do you have any idea how many hoops I had to jump through to figure out where you went? After the fire with Mr. Emily, we freed them and moved on. We both learned the truth of the past and about your father, and I'm so sorry."

"But how are you here, and a child? Why am I a child?" Micheal stops. "Why do you even want me after everything?"

Jeremy sighs. "Quiet, my father is in a drunken sleep. It's 1975... I don't know how I got here. I was happily dead trying to sneak into hell. I never loved anyone really like you after you died, even with my head injury I tried. Then I ran into Mr. Emily, and helped with his plan. I still love you even if you don't feel the same."

"Wait, what do you mean it's 1975?" Micheal pulls Jeremy closer, still not used to his small frame.

"Well, it's that, and we're in Germany." Jeremy pauses. "I forgot I don't meet you till I'm 13 when my mom finally escapes from my father abuse. You have a cute tail. Right, right off topic. Anyway... hey, wait, what's with that look?"

A mix of German and Yiddish from the adult blonde woman by them summons a redhead.

Micheal hissed.

Jeremy pauses. "Mom?"

....

Micheal's eyes glow along with the red head crouched in front of him until Micheal whips him with his tail. "Stop it."

The man stands up and looks back to the blonde woman. "I accept your contract. We are bound for eternity." He snaps his fingers, and the woman has a mark on the back of her shoulder. "You were freed of my contract, but this.... you will live in luxury in death."

Micheal growls, and then his expression changes. "Fuck Jeremy your mom is the little girl Consequences allowed her to keep in contact with him. That was suppose to be a myth."

"You come from the future, yet you are here." He pauses.

The woman scowls. "Explain everything now."

Consequences explains what he has done and what he has seen, Micheal fills in the rest.

........

It's a week when Micheal realizes he is missing. The news makes it to Germany in a magazine. He pulls on Jeremy's hand in the grocery store and realizes how fucked he is.

So they come up with a plan. Jeremy convinces his mom, and it works out. Consenqueses easily gets them a place on the same road as Micheal's father and Jeremy's mother Jackie a high position as a surgeon in the same town. For Micheal Consenqueses gives him a survivable scoop injury. He's found by a search party clinging to life, while conveniently Jackie just started at the hospital in trauma.

....

William is frantic, Clara refused to come claiming the baby was more important, saying this wasn't him, wasn't Micheal, but they had the same scar on his face, and his eyes matched. Henry was by his side through this hell of a week. He seemed closer to him more touchy, but he didn't care Micheal his son was ok.

Jackie stumbled forward. She hated operating on children even if he was a demon, and even if he was an adult in a child's body. The tall brunette with piercing green eyes approached her. "You must be Mr. Afton, your son suffered a massive trauma to his mouth and abdomen, as if they cut from his navel to his collar bone and ripped his mouth open at the lips. However, he will live. He's a lucky child to be found when he was. He's in intensive care and you won't be able to visit him until tomorrow."

William pulls her into a tight hug. "You saved him." He was crying. "You saved my little boy."

Jackie smiles, rubbing his back. "He has a very long recovery. I hope you can handle that."

"Of course anything, I'll do anything for his health." William, let's go. "Could I wait here?"

Jackie smiles. "The chairs are bad for your back, but if you so desire, yes."

William nods, rubbing his eyes and heading back to his seat next to Henry. "He's going to be ok. Henry, he's going to be ok."

Henry smiles and hugs William. "Yes I'm so happy for you.

.......

William had fallen asleep in the hospital chair, and Henry frowned. This didn't happen, Micheal never went missing, and he was never hurt like this. He knows what was supposed to happen was Micheal was left on the side of the road by Clara, and a good Samaritan brought him to the diner. Well, he didn't know Clara left him there until after the fact.

He woke up a week ago, alive, and next to his ex wife who he knew now was cheating on him from the start, but Charlie was his, well she would always be his, but biologically speaking. He sighs, crossing his arms. How did he end up in the past? He was going to stop this whole tragedy from unfolding, and he will finally confess to William, he never realized his feelings till after William was dead, but now he had a second chance and he was going to use it. He just had to figure out why the past was different.

Henry was deep in thought he didn't notice the blonde child sit next to him. "Mr. Emily."

Henry nearly jumps. "I'm sorry, are you lost, little one?" He noted the thick accent.

"No, but the plan worked." He smiles. "We figured out who else came back."

Henry pauses. "Who are you?"

"Ah, right, you don't recognize me." He pauses. "I'm not actually supposed to be here until I'm 13, in the original timeline. It's me, Jeremy Fitzgerald, I helped finally put a end to things, and I was the second bite victim."

Henry pauses. "Jeremy? What do you mean we?"

"Well, Micheal came back too, but it's my fault he was in Germany. We didn't realize he was actually missing until we saw something in an American magazine in a grocery store. So we came up with a plan to get him back without being suspicious. He said being scooped would be poetic. I said we should have faked a kidnapping. Micheal got his way." Jeremy sighs and yawns. "Mom fixed him up."

Henry nods. "That's all well and good, but how?"

"Consenqueses." Jeremy mumbles, nodding off he still had the body of a 5 year old even with the mind of an adult.

Henry sighs, letting the boy fall asleep on him. At least he had a piece to the puzzle on why things were different. He just needed more information.

A thick accent pulls Henry out of his thoughts, and the woman who was talking to William earlier was in front of him.

"I'm so sorry, my boy has a way of running off. He was supposed to be in the break room we just moved here and our home isn't set up and he begged to come here I didn't know about the surgery. I'm so sorry." She is still in scrubs with a mask around her neck.

Henry shakes his head. "I have a little girl around his age. it's fine. Granted, she gets into all sorts of trouble, so I understand." He can recall Jeremy telling him his mother was a surgeon.

She sighs in relief. "The move has been a nightmare, and then you're rushed into working, and I'm sorry."

"You can make it up to me." Henry smiles. "My little girl Charlotte is about his age. How about letting him come over. She has a habit of grossing other kids out, so it's been difficult to find her friends with kids her age. Uh, Micheal, the boy you operated on, is friends with her because his father and I are business partners. we run the diner down the road, the one with the animotronics. Your son would like it there."

She sighs and smiles. "We did just move, and it would be good for him. Thank you, you are very kind."

"It's Henry, and don't worry, your son is very kind."

"I'm Jackie, and that's great." She fumbles and writes down her address. "We just moved here."

Henry smiles. "Perfect right down the road from me and then William. I look forward to our children becoming friends."

"As do I." Jackie smiles and picks up her sleeping son. "Thank you for staying with him, and your friend is lucky to have support in this troubling time."

Henry nods. "His wife is home with the new baby, and I don't think I could trust him by himself with the weight of this."

"You are a good friend, Henry. I must be going now, but this was pleasant." Jackie smiles, Jeremy just had to go along, and they could seamlessly enter the neighborhood. She was free from abuse, and even if she was stuck with a demon who followed her every command, and, her son was technically an adult in a child's body. She felt happy like she could finally breathe. Even if she was in a whole new country across the ocean.

......

Henry tapped William's arm, waking him. "Hey, come on, wake up."

William opens his eyes and yawns. "What happened? Did you stay all night?"

Henry smiles. "I did go home for a bit." It was a lie, but William didn't have to know that. "You have to eat something." He had some prepackaged sandwich and a fresh coffee in his hands.

William sighs and takes them. "Thank you, Henry. Has Micheal woken up yet?"

"Not that I'm aware of. However, I did call Margaret, and she'll bring Charlie over in a few hours. Micheal needs something familiar when he wakes up, and" He pulls out the already worn plush fox. "You dropped this while you slept."

William grabs it and holds it close. "Thank you so much." He takes a bite of the sandwich. "I don't know what I would do without you."

Henry smiles and sits down next to him, sipping on his own coffee. "Micheal will be up soon. He made it here."

"You're right." William sighs. "I'm going to make him a bigger foxy, more based on the designs we had planned. Is he too old for plush things?"

Henry shook his head, remembering an incident when Micheal was 11 when he was trying to hide the face he still cared for his plush toys greatly. "He will love it."

William nods. "You're right. He's still my baby."

.....

Jackie comes out again, Consequences did a perfect job with their house. She really shouldn't expect less from a demon. She stifles a yawn. "Mr. Afton?"

William jolts up standing, holding the fox plush close to his chest.

Jackie smiles. "Relax, sir, your son is awake. He just finished talking to the police, and he wants to see you."

William nearly trips over his feet, rushing next to the doctor. "I can see him?" Henry was behind him, making sure he didn't fall on his face.

"You both can." Jackie smiles. "Don't excite him his stitches are new, and I don't need him popping the ones by his mouth." She explains a bit more before they reach the door and she opens it.

Micheal is covered in fresh white bandages, and they changed them first thing in the morning. He is alert, and he stares at the door. "Dad!"

William's heart melts, and his legs nearly give out from under him as he rushes to Micheal's side. "My little fox. Are you ok? How are you feeling?"

The little boy looks up. "Mouth is itchy, and the nurses won't let me itch." He motions to the stitches at the corners of his mouth. He reaches out his hands and grabs his fathers hand he forgot just how small he used to be. "Missed you."

Jackie smiles. "He's on very heavy pain killers, so if he says something odd, don't worry.

William smiles and places the fox plush on Micheal's chest. "I brought your friend with you."

"Foxy!" Michealgrabs the plush and holds them tightly. "Mmmh good friend."

William chuckles. "Yes they are you're best friend."

"Nuh uh." Micheal mumbles. "Charlie is. Foxy is my best bed friend."

William smiles, combing the hair out of his son's face. "Of course, my mistake. The doctors say you have to eat something."

"Not hungry." Micheal frowns. "My tummy hurts."

William sighs. "I know, but it's important."

Henry finally approaches. "Hey there, kid, how are you feeling?" He places a hand on William's shoulder.

"Can uh..." Micheal points at his uncle.

William smiles. "Yes, Micheal, your uncle is here with me. What do you want?"

Micheal frowns, pulling on the stitches on his mouth. "Food." He points at Henry again, getting frustrated. Yeah he was an adult acting as a child, but again he had the emotional capacity of a child combined with his well he wouldn't have a proper name until after he died, but autism spectrum disorder. He didn't want to talk, but he also knew he wanted something.

William smiles softly. "It's ok, Micheal." He turns his gaze to Henry, who looks confused. "Henry Micheal wants you to make him something to eat."

Henry pauses, realizing that. "Oh right, I'm so sorry. If the doctors let me, I'll bring you something from home."

Henry watches William go to the corner and shut the lights off, and he watches in amazement as Micheal seems to relax as the frustration bled out of his face. "To bright?"

Micheal yawns, he never did understand how his father always knew, but he always calmed him down. His eyes felt heavy, and his body started to hurt again. He gave in and shut his eyes, falling back asleep.

William smiles. "Come on, Henry. Micheal needs his rest."

Henry nods he never really got to see this side of William the first time around. It was either Clara or Margaret stopping him from visiting more. Margaret never wanted Charlie to be the Tom boy she was, and Clara, well, she hated him. Maybe he should slow down on his advances he knows Micheal cared for Evan, and he wasn't even conceived yet... actually , Clara was already pregnant. Elizabeth was already four months old.

"Henry?" William asked again as they made it to the lobby.

Henry shook his head. "I'm sorry. I got lost in my head. What did you say?"

"I said we should go home and clean up. I'm going to grab my sewing kit and check on Lizzie. Probably shower in between." William sighs.

"Oh, right." Henry rubs the back of his neck. "I'll see you back here with Charlie."

William nods heading back to his car.

.....

"Is Mikey ok?" Charlie poked her head up from the backseat as Henry parked.

"Micheal is very hurt, and he can't play with you." Henry sighs, looking over to his soon to be ex-wife, he heard a different man in the background when he called last night she said was the TV and he knew they didn't have a TV loud enough to sound that clear. How the hell did he not figure it out before?

Margaret held a bag of sandwiches. Henry stuffed with barbecue chicken for Micheal. "Charlotte Micheal got really hurt from a bad man. He just wants to see his friend."

Charlie frowns. "But can we still be friends?"

Henry's heart melted. "Of course, he just needs time to recover, and then you two can play all the time."

Margaret didn't say another word as she exited the car, and Henry got Charlie out of the back seat.

Henry spotted William with that wicked woman and a small redheaded baby on his shoulder waving behind him. "Ah William."

Charlie ran up to the two adults. "Hi, Uncle William and Aunt Clara. When Micheal gets get better? Can we play again?"

Clara looked like she wanted to snatch Elizabeth from William's arms and didn't even notice Charlie. "Do what you want." She ends up taking Elizabeth before William could speak.

William sighs and kneels down. "Of course you can."

Charlie giggles. "Yay." She runs back to Henry, who picks her up.

Henry sighs, he know how Clara thought of Elizabeth and eventually Evan as her perfect little dolls, and Micheal was the mistake. William did his best to care for the other two, but Clara blocked him at every step. "Alright, remember Charlie inside voice, and be gentle."

"Yes, Daddy." Charlie smiles, hugging Henry as they head inside.

......

Micheal was awake again, and the blonde kid Henry had to remember was Jeremy was in one of the guest chairs. Jackie sighs. "I'm so sorry my son tends to be my shadow if I don't pay attention."

William pauses, looking at his son, who was drawing, then crumpled the drawing and threw it at the blonde kid who did the same with his drawing, making his own son giggle. "No, it's fine." He smiles and approaches Micheal. "Hey, little fox, we're back. Who's your new friend?"

"His name is Jeremy. He has a funny accent." Micheal tosses another piece of paper at him.

Jeremy huffs. "You have a weird voice."

"Nu uh." Micheal sticks his tongue out.

Charlie jumps from Henry's arms and before he can stop her. "You both sound weird."

"Nein." Jeremy mumbles.

Charlie giggles. "You're weird. I like that."

Micheal tosses a piece of paper at her. "Now you have to join."

"Join what?" Charlie is on her tip toes to look over the bed.

Jeremy gets up. "We're drawing, and we throw them."

Charlie nods grabbing crayons and a piece of paper joining them two.

Margaret chuckles. "I don't think I've ever seen her so still."

Henry smiles. "We were worried for nothing."

William chuckles. "Your uncle brought you some food."

Micheal looks up. "Can I share?"

Henry nods, taking the bag from Margaret. "I've made more then enough, oh right. Is it alright, I give Jeremy one?"

Jackie pauses. "What is it?"

"Juat some chicken sandwiches." Henry smiles.

Jackie nods. "Go ahead. Jeremy, be nice."

Jeremy nods and responds in German.

"Sorry, he's still getting used to English." Jackie sighs.

William shakes his head as Micheal laughs. "Don't worry about that."

......

Soon, the three 5-year-olds have fallen asleep. Jackie had just returned to check on Micheal. "Ah, he has, oh, they all have fallen asleep." She smiles.

Clara has long left, which means William will have to go back with Henry. Margaret has wondered off to get the kids' drinks, but Henry knew she was flirting with the male nurses. He sighs. "They have all the energy, then they just crash."

"Ah, that's kids for ya." William smiles, working on the outside of the new plush.

Jackie nods. "I hope my son hasn't been too much trouble. I try not to have here often due to my long shifts, but it's hard to find someone to watch him."

"What about your husband?" William asks looking up realizing that was a bad question.

"That man is dead to me. He hit me once and nearly hurt our son. I'm here on my own with him." Jackie sighs.

William nods. "Good for you. I'm sure you'll be able to find someone, once Micheal's home I have to start working at the diner again."

"William, I told you I have that covered. Take the time you need." Henry sighs and smiles.

"I can't do that to you. It's too much for one person." William sighs leaning back. "I'm just glad Micheal's going to be ok, and that's enough."

The two other adults share a look.

.....

Henry sighs William was in the back with Charlie while Margaret was next to him, spotting a few new hickies. Charlie was out cold drooling on her seat belt. He really didn't know what he could say without tipping off Margaret. He needed to get William alone, which would be difficult. He recalled the growing pains of fazebear during this time. Maybe he could use his knowledge of the future to smooth past that with new. animotronics.

Henry sighs, stopping in front of William's home. "I'll see you later." He smiles as William nods, exiting the car.

Margaret sighs. "I'll put Charlie to bed when we get back I know you have to work on the diner."

"I do. I'll grab my toolbox from the house and head off." Henry smiles. He can't count the times Margaret told him he had to work at the diner, but in hindsight, it made sense. "I'll do my best to get home as soon as I'm done. Hopefully, it's not past midnight."

"Of course, sweetie." Margaret smiles back at him.

.....

Henry wipes his brow as he finishes on the puppet. Having knowledge of the future is making these animotronics go by way faster. He already completed three of the endoskeltons and the puppet entirely. He even updated the software that wouldn't be available for a few decades.

There were a few things he could have William work on, so he didn't get too suspicious. He'll tell him right after Clara is pregnant with Evan, then he can break the news, and Micheal will still have his two siblings he cares about. The clock on the wall told him he didn't make his promises of coming home before midnight.

Henry knew Margaret didn't care. After they divorced in the future, she told him all about her misadventures with other men. It didn't hurt as much as it should. He was mourning Charlie and realized he might have feelings for his best friend who vanished. Coming back to the past, living through it is something else.

He cleans himself off in the bathroom the best he could and drives himself home, but before he does, he notices Jackie, Jeremy's mother, just got home. He slams on his break as a tiny figure rushes in front of his car.

"Jeremy!" Jackie shouts

Henry curses as he gets out of his car. "Are you ok?"

Jeremy dusts off his shirt. "Knew it was your car."

Henry covers his face. "I could have killed you."

Jackie gasps. "I'm so sorry."

"Mom, it's fine he came back too." Jeremy tugs her scrubs.

"What?" Jackie stops staring at Henry.

Henry nods. "It is true, but still you're a child Jeremy, and that was an extremely stupid thing to do." He leans back on his car.

"That means your last name is Emily, correct?" Jackie pauses.

Henry nods. "Your son is quite formal and won't call me anything, but Mr. Emily even as an adult." He sighs, picking up the blonde boy. "You shouldn't even be awake."

Jeremy huffs, trying to hide a yawn. "Mmh, fine."

Jackie sighs. "Is that why you asked for your daughter to come by?"

Henry shakes his head. "No, Charlie needs more friends her age. Even if Jeremy is an adult in a child's body, it's a good cover, and I know Micheal will be here often, so it will be good to have the three in one place."

Jackie pauses, mulling it over. "That is a good idea. What about your wife?"

"In the future, we are divorced, but currently, I know she's having an affair, but that isn't why we divorced." Henry pauses. "It will be this time."

"I apologize." Jackie takes back her son, who has fallen asleep.

"Don't I've realized many things, and I'm ok with it." Henry smiles. "I shall see you later."

Jackie nods, watching Henry drive off. She has to talk to Consenqueses.

.....

After a few weeks, Micheal was well enough to be taken off bedrest. William wasn't exactly ready to let Micheal run around, but he didn't have a choice. The boy was 5, and to his knowledge, he was a hyperactive boy. "Micheal, please be careful." He allowed his first time out to be at Jackie's place because she was a doctor, and Micheal got along really well with Jeremy even if his English was poor.

Henry was there, too. His work on the diner blew William out of the water. Charlie liked Jeremy too, so it helped with his worries having a friend close by. Henry explained how he got there like a fanatic maniac, and William swooned. Henry was a natural, and William loved hearing him talk about the machines. He knew he would never be on his partner level, but he was just behind him and was happy there. He could do the other work he wasn't good at.

The three adults' attention was pulled to a new adult who seemed to come out of nowhere. William was immediately on guard along with Henry but for different reasons.

The man looked exactly like the man who claimed to be his father to Henry. William was worried that he wanted to harm the children.

Jackie freezes and thinks on her feet. "Ah, hello, Fritz." She gives a nervous smile and motions for him to come closer. "He helped me come to America with my son."

The red head tilts his head and comes over. "You have company."

"Ah yes, the children are playing together." Jackie smiles, grabbing his hand and pulling him close. She whispers to him. "I told you not to be around today."

"You gave me a name." He laughs quietly as if she told a great joke. His attention turns to William. "You keep raising my expectations, and I'm more impressed every time." He kisses her hand.

Jackie blushes. "I would appreciate it if you didn't speak in riddles." She sighs. "I apologize he was suppose to be working I guess he got off early to surprise me."

William smiles. "That's quite sweet. I'm William it's nice to meet you, Fritz."

"It's nice to meet you as well, and you are?" He turns to Henry with a knowing gleam in his eye.

"Henry." Henry frowns and looks away to the three kids now whispering to each other.

William lightly punches Henry's arm. "You're the nice one?"

Henry sighs. "Just reminds me of someone. It's fine."

William raises his brow but accepts the answer.

They fell into a nice conversation as the kids played.

.....

William sighs as he gets out of bed, Clara gets what she wants from him with a little motivation from her flat iron. He was in the bathroom looking for his gauze to cover these burns on his stomach and arms. He's grateful she didn't go for his hands again. He sighs, grabbing the gauze and disinfecting the wounds. As he shuts the door and he nearly screams, seeing his reflection.

Older, and his eyes glowed purple. He was guant, and he looked like he hadn't eaten in years. He stared through him and didn't follow his movements. A voice echoed in his head. "You shouldn't use that disinfectant it will make the scarring worse. Just use cold water and keep them clean."

William looked around, worried. "I'm finally losing it."

"No, but I am confused about why I am here." The other William stared at his younger self. "I can recall this night. However, Evan was conceived, and Clara got her two perfect dolls, a boy and a girl." He had an unreadable expression.

"What?" William stared at this twisted version of himself.

"I'll be proven right in two weeks when Clara finds out. Enjoy it, and you'll be able to spend time with Elizabeth."

"B-but Micheal's still healing." William stutters thinking he finally went crazy.

The older version of him now looked confused. "Micheals hurt? He shouldn't be hurt."

"He was nearly killed." Willaim frowns.

"No, that's not right. Clara left him on the side of the road. Someone brought him to the diner, and he is fine. That had to happen a few weeks ago."

"No?" William doesn't know what possessed him, but he took Clara's hand mirror and walked to Micheal's room. His twisted self was still in the mirror as he tilted it down to show Micheal sleeping with the stitches still by his mouth.

"T-that isn't supposed to happen. He's 22 when he gets scooped, not 5, and he was killed he didn't survive."

"Scooped? What does that mean?" William shakes his head. "Why am I even speaking to you, I'm just going crazy from the stress." He puts the mirror back into the bathroom and goes to the couch for a restless night. He could still hear the other him.

......

Micheal stared at his father, who was asleep on the couch. He always woke up before him, well before any of them, to hide the fact he slept on the couch after mom hurt him bad or raped him. He saw a reflection in the coffee table, but that couldn't be right. It was his father as he was more used to. He tugged on his father's hand as he woke up. "Dad, wake up."

William rubbed his eyes. "Sorry I'm up." He realizes his son woke him up. "Oh, Micheal, I apologize. I must have fallen asleep to the TV." The TV was clearly off and hasn't been touched.

"Dad, it's itchy." Micheal huffs, letting the lie pass. He can't act as if he knows.

William smiles and ruffles his hair. "Micheal, you won't get them out till Friday. You have to wait."

Micheal huffs. "Itchy."

"Will breakfast help?" William chuckles as Micheal nods. "Alright, head to the kitchen. I'll make your favorite."

Micheal runs to the kitchen, and he can hear him mumbling something as if he was talking to someone. He had to talk to Jeremy or Uncle Henry, maybe even Consenqueses. "Pancakes." He shouts as his father chuckles.

"Yes, Micheal pancakes with chocolate." William smiles.

.....

"Yes, Micheal, we can go see your uncle today." William smiles, Micheal had much more energy today. He probably wanted to play with Charlie or get Henry's cooking either way. He was fine visiting Henry they had to workshop some ideas on advertising on a budget. He did his best to ignore the new voice in his head. He was just stressed.

"I'm not just a voice. I'm you from the future." The twisted version of him sighs. "I don't know if this is because I passed the halfway point of purgatory, or I'm really stuck in the past in the mind of my younger self, but I honestly don't care. Don't ignore me. I've been through this."

"You didn't even know Micheal got hurt." He adjusts his tie and rolls down his sleeves to hide the bandages.

"Because that wasn't supposed to happen." The supposed older one responds.

"Just be quiet." William sighs. "Micheal, stop running around. I have to get you in the car, and I can't do that if you keep moving."

Micheal smiles and nods. "Uncle Henry's?"

"Yes, Micheal, we're heading to your uncle's." William sighs.

"Oh, what could have been." His twisted version sounded wistful. William chose to ignore that.

.....

William knocked on the door barely keeping Micheal contained in his infinite excitement of a child. "Micheal, please relax."

Margaret answered the door, and Micheal ran through her legs. "Oh, hello to you too, Micheal. Ah William, you're probably here for the diner, Henry is out back with Charlie. I will never understand how you can wear pants and long sleeves in the summer. Come on in."

"Cheater slut." His twisted self huffed.

William chose to ignore that comment and head inside. "I apologize. I don't know what has got Micheal so riled he just really wanted to visit."

Margaret chuckles. "He probably misses his friend. Kids will be kids."

William nods as he makes his way out back to see Henry watching Charlie jump in a mud puddle she made with the hose, and Micheal is quick to join her. That will be a fun bath later.

"Ah, William, I didn't know you were coming over. We're off today." Henry smiles, motioning to the chair next to him.

"Yeah, Micheal wanted to visit. I was also wondering if you wanted to talk about future advertisements to strum up business." William hums as he takes a seat.

"I suppose that is something we do have to work on." Henry pauses his eyes, catching on the reflection in the window. It wasn't William he saw now but older tired and with purple eyes like Micheal described him in purgatory, but he still had some hope in his eyes.

William frowns, looking behind him to follow his friends gaze and sees that older twisted version of himself, but Henry couldn't see that he was just in his head.

"Don't doubt his perception." His twisted self raised a brow. "He is staring right at me, or at the very least, my reflection."

William turned back, pretending he didn't hear or was looking in that direction.

"Are you alright?" Henry's voice is low.

"I'm fine. What do you mean?" William smiles poorly hiding that lie.

"How did I ever manage to lie to him in the first place?" He can hear the exasperated in his older twisted self.

"You are a terrible liar, William." Henry sighs and places his hand on his knee. "Tell me the truth, what's that in your reflection?"

William bits his lip. "You can see them?"

"At least you aren't calling me it." The twisted him sighs.

Henry nods and waves his hand. "Micheal, can you come here for a moment, and Charlie darling, how about you clean off a bit."

"But daddy..." Charlie whines.

"You can make a new mud puddle." Henry smiles, knowing this will distract Charlie long enough as Micheal runs over.

"Fine." Charlie huffs having fun playing with the hose.

William raises his brow as Micheal runs up.

Henry motions for him to look in the reflection. "What do you see?"

Micheal pauses, raising his brow, but Henry nods. "Father from purgatory, and from how he looks, he just realized I'm back as well."

"I keep forgetting how great of an actor you've become." The twisted older version sighs. He looks back to Henry. "You are from the future as well."

Wlism shut his eyes and took a breath. "Impossible."

"Mother was supposed to drop me off on the side of the road a good Samaritan found me and took me to the diner. I-"

"You weren't supposed to get hurt." William's eyes widen. "Just what is going on."

Micheal shrugs. "Dunno how I even got back to the past. Demon summoning doesn't work across time nor inside purgatory." He says this right before running back over to Charlie, acting like a kid again playing with the hose.

"I never did believe how perceptive he became as he got older." Henry sighs. "He got quite good at hiding." He sips on his glass of sweet tea and sighs. "Take your time."

"How..." William frowns. "How do I become like that?"

"I can tell you, but you won't be happy." His older self crosses his arms.

Henry sighs. "I blame Clara. She's such an awful thing, ain't she." He lets his accent slip. "You get a whole new perspective after you die. You get to see the past in a different light, different angles."

William, who has never heard Henry's accent, lights up, then frowns. "Clara isn't bad. We just have our spats like a normal couple."

His older self doesn't say anything. He knows that even now, he only just accepted it was abuse, and he was a victim. Purgatory forces you to face yourself to put you through trials to get through to your paradise. Even still, he can't understand how a man could be a victim. Micheal did tell him he had to accept that before he could move on, probably why his sentence was so long.

Henry smiles softly. "No, it's not normal, I know why you always cover up. It's a shame, too." He sighs. "It's abuse, William. If you were the woman in the situation, what would you consider it?"

Willaim frowns, hugging his chest.

His older self lets out a strangled laugh mixed with a cry. "H-he's right." He takes a breath. "Why the fuck did it take me this long?" Henry always knew what to say. He always knew what to tell him, how to break the news. He always knew him best, and that was probably how he fell in love with a man he could never have.

William shudders he could now feel the emotions from his older self, and they overwhelmed him. "S-stop." He held his head, and Henry got up quickly.

"William, I'm sorry. I know that this is a lot, and I didn't mean to overwhelm you." Henry pauses when William looks up at him, mismatched eyes stared up at him.

Tears spilled from his eyes as he held his head. "Get us-me." His eyes roll back, and Henry barely caught him.

William was asleep, Henry sighed in relief as he turned his attention to the children. He had to get them dry and clean before they both crashed. He could leave William to sleep for the moment.

.....

William shudders, looking around the gray area. His older self was there. "What happened?"

"What do you think?" The older him huffs. A chess board was in front of him. "A game while we talk?"

William hesitates but nods, taking a seat. "I think i..." He swallows as images flash across his mind.

"They are our memories it just hasn't happened for you yet." He frowns. "Do you want to change things?"

"Of course I do!" William knows he shouted this, but the older him merely smiled in response.

"So do I, and it looks like we'll be stuck together until... I don't know." He pauses. "I wouldn't mind vanishing if it meant the future is better. I don't think that will be the case."

William pauses, staring at the board. "It was abuse, we'll is." He bites his lip. "What do we do?"

"I don't know." His older self answers, honestly. "It's been a very long time since I've been alive. Henry is older, well his mind is, and so is Micheal. I can help you with Micheal. But with Henry, I ran away from Henry like a coward as Clara puppeted me."

William sighs, knocking his king over. "Help me through this."

"As I said before, I don't think I'm able to leave." His older self sighs. "Start small."

"How?"

"Get a chess board, Micheal likes our chess games." The older version of him sighs. "Wait till Evan is born, and then start breaking away. I don't want to take them away from Micheal he loves his siblings."

William pauses, shutting his eyes. "It's going to take me ages to go through these."

"You'll get a handle over the memories." His older self sighs.

"Eventually." William frowns. "How many times did Clara try to hurt Micheal?"

"Micheal won't tell me." His older self leans back. "He broke, and he's still picking up the pieces."

"What about this, Jeremy?" William pauses as the area shakes, and he wakes up with a start.

"Welcome back." Henry looks over William. His eyes have returned to normal, and his reflection is still his older self.

William takes a deep breath. "I'm ok."

"You're ok?" Henry pauses.

"Where did the children go?" William looks around.

"I cleaned them up, and they are both taking a nap. Micheal may have the mind of an adult, but he has the body and stamina of a child." Henry smiles. "Are you ok?"

"I'm alright. We talked, uh, me and my older self talked. I have his memories, I think I'm still processing them." William rubs his arm. "I think I need to wear something cooler."

Henry smiles. "I can handle that."

......

"Pick up pick up..." Margaret mumbles as the phone rings until someone picks up.

"Hello, this is Jen Emily. Who is calling?" A familiar voice picks up.

"Jen, it's Margaret." Margaret sighs in relief. "Do you still work at those shelters for women?"

"I do. Did something happen? Is Henry OK? Did he hurt you? I swear I'll beat his ass." Jen growls.

"No, never." Margaret sighs.

"Did something happen to Charlie? Is it the guy who took Micheal?" Jen pauses. "Margaret why are you calling?"

"It's William. I caught Henry and him in the spare bedroom. I figured out why he always dresses so formal. He's covered in burn marks like the ones I see on children from mothers who have a straightening iron or a curling iron. In places I know that man can't reach. Have you've ever seen a man try to enter one of those shelters?" Margaret pauses. "He's really skinny too like he doesn't eat enough, I know the man works for his life, but Henry isn't even that bad."

Jen is quiet for a moment. "Are they new?"

"I only caught a couple of glimpses. But he's littered in scars old new and fresh red burns. Not even just burn marks he has every type of scar I could think of, and I work with children who seek to make it their life goal to surprise me with injuries." Margaret sighs. "I think Clara might be harming him. I think he might be using himself to protect Micheal."

"Fuck...." Jen takes a deep breath. "It's not uncommon for mothers to protect their children from abusive partners, so a man doing the same isn't impossible. I'll look into this, now I've got a new fear for my own boy. Margaret, keep an eye out for him. I never liked the man, but nobody deserves that."

"Of course, Micheal is back on his feet and seems to want to spend more time with Charlie, I'll use that when I'm not working to get close. Tell me what you find out and what I can do." Margaret can hear footsteps. "I have to go, but thanks for believing me."

"Wait -" Margaret has hung up the phone.

Henry pauses. "Oh, who was that? I didn't hear the phone ring."

"Oh, I just called work. Just to double-check my schedule, you know how Martha is with the last-minute changes." Margaret smiles.

Henry sighs. He remembers how scattered the receptionist was mixing appointments and nearly getting Margaret fired a few times. He didn't blame her for calling to double-check. "Did she mix up your schedule again?"

"She double booked two patients, and now I'm going to have to deal with some angry parents." Margaret pauses and looks at William. "What's with the bandages?"

"Just an accident at the diner. Machines don't tend to stop when something doesn't go right." William gives a nervous smile.

"The wiring got overheated." Henry sighs. "I told him to be careful."

"I'm fine, just a few burns." William chuckles nervously. "I'm going to check on Micheal. He's in Charlie's room, right?"

Margaret nods. "Don't wake him. He's a growing boy he needs his rest. He's also getting his stitches out soon. Don't wake Charlie either it's hard enough getting her to sit still."

William nods, and he goes down the hall.

Henry sighs. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, Henry. Do you think I could chaperone the next play date with the new neighbor? I want to get to know the other mom and see if we could do a girls' night."

Henry pauses he really didn't want to cause suspicion. "Of course, I'm sure Jackie would love a new friend. It can be at the diner so the kids can't run off."

"That's perfect." Margaret smiles. Good, she can keep an eye on William and confirm that it wasn't workplace accidents.

......

The diner was quiet. It was a slow day in the middle of the week. A day for maintenance and small repairs of wear and tear. Clara had pulled William to the side while Elizabeth was in her baby carrier. Micheal, Charlie, and Jeremy were around here. Margaret watched Clara stab something into William's shoulder, and he just accepted it, looking defeated.

"Um, excuse me." Jackie was polite. "Margaret, was it?"

Margaret nods. "Sorry, I guess I lost focused. Yes, I am her. You must be Jackie, Henry told me you just moved in, and my daughter has taken a liking to your son."

"Ah yes, Jeremy, he's a good boy." Jackie smiles.

.....

Micheal rocked Elizabeth in her carrier. He knew she was getting too big for it and should be crawling around by now. He also knew Mother didn't let her until she found out she was pregnant with Evan.

"She's tiny." Charlie frowns. "She can't play yet."

Jeremy mumbles something in German holding onto her hand.

Micheal smiles. "We can play soon, right?"

"Mommy says we have to be careful." Charlie pokes Elizabeth, who giggles kicking her feet. "But she wants to play now."

"Mom won't let her." Micheal huffs. "Lizzie should play with us. We can carry her around on a wagon."

"We could put flowers around her and use her to distract adults." Charlie smiles.

Jeremy giggles. "Our ace."

"Ace?" Charlie looks over at Jeremy. "Weird, but I like it."

Clara returns, waving the three kids away from Elizabeth. "Babies are fragile and should not be..." She covers her mouths and swallows. "Don't touch her." Elizabeth starts to cry as the three kids are pushed away.

William goes up to her. "Are you alright? You look a bit pale."

Clara glares, but she knows if she is getting sick, she could hurt her precious doll. "Keep an eye on her tomorrow. I shall head to the doctor on my own."

William nods.

"And change your shirt. I don't need people asking why you have that stain." Clara picks up Elizabeth to soothe her, but she won't stop crying.

William touched his shoulder with the growing blood stain. He nods. "I can get a spare shirt from the back."

Margaret tapped Jackie's shoulder. "I apologize, but I'm a doctor myself for children, but still. Does William shirt seem to be staining with something? I'm used to children coming with mud and various other stains."

Jackie turns her attention to the man who head walking fast to the back office. She mutters something in German and stares back at Margaret. "Help me corner him."

Margaret nods.

.....

William is now in his back office with two women staring at him. He had long lost his button-up and shirt. His older self had no idea what was going on either. He hugged his chest as both women cleaned his sluggish bleeding. "I'm fine. It was just a mishap with the machines, I'm clusmy."

Jackie gave a knowing look to Margaret as she examined just his chest. She remembers her first excuses, and she has never experienced a man in her position before, but this was awful. He was probably too ashamed to even tell anyone. "You have fabric in the wound. Do you know how easily that can get infected?"

William looked down, wringing his hands.

"When did you last change these bandages?" Margaret frowns. "I always have gauze in my bag first Charlie, she plays rougher than a boy does. Let me fix that up."

William is unable to argue as both women take care of him, even giving him new stitches.

The three don't even notice the door open before a male voice interrupts. "William?" Henry shut the door behind him. "Margaret, and Jackie?"

Jackie stands between Henry and William. "Your partner is hurt, and i would rather not have you..." She stops as William speaks up.

"He he helped with the bandages the first time." William's voice is small like he was lost and afraid. He has never been this exposed before, and they were treating him like he was made of glass. He can't remember anyone being gentle with him besides Henry.

Jackie relaxes. "How long has this been happening?" She pauses. "These accidents."

Henry whispers something to her that William can't catch. He, however, notices the shaking and pale features on Jackie.

Jackie mumbles something in German. She takes a breath and smiles. "You have a clean shirt here, yes?"

William nods and points to the cabinet. "We always have spare clothes here. Kids are messy, and uniforms get ruined easily."

Henry grabs the shirt and puts it on William. He knew it was his, and so did his friend. Neither said anything about it. "Margaret, why do you have so much gauze?"

"You know how our little girl is. I swear one day she's going to come home with a broken bone and not notice." Margaret jokes, and Henry can't help but nod, knowing she will when she's 8.

"You're right. William, are you alright." Henry places his hand on the injured shoulder. Both women give a glare he doesn't notice. "Did..."

William smiles at Henry's touch. "It's just an accident. I'm fine."

Henry nods, knowing William isn't comfortable telling the truth of the situation to himself, let alone others. "Come on, I'm sure Micheal is already looking for you."

William chuckles, getting up and fixing the large shirt. "I just hope he hasn't conspired with the others to take Lizzie."

"They're 5 William." Henry sighs.

"Children are crafty, Henry." The two chatter as they leave the office.

The two women glance at each other.

Margaret sighs. "If it happens, I will protect them. Charlie needs her father."

Jackie raises her brow, not really understanding what she was talking about. She takes a breath. "My husband used to hurt me. I escaped to America with my son. He is acting as I did."

Margaret freezes. "He really is getting hurt by his wife."

"The shame he must feel. No wonder he hides." Jackie sighs. "Help me advert suspicion on him. If she figures out, we helped him, let alone know she might go after Micheal."

Margaret nods. "Of course, anything. That poor boy has been hurt enough."

.....

Turns out, none of them had to worry. Clara was in the bathroom, throwing her guts up. She had no idea. Micheal was rocking Elizabeth as the other two kept making up stories of the craziest things they could think of.

William sighs. "Micheal, where did your mother go?"

"Mom went to the bathroom she told me to rock Lizzie." Micheal looks up at his father with his bright blue eyes.

William nods. "I'll go check on her." He can't help but smile as Lizzie just giggles interacting with the other two kids.

Henry watches William head over to the woman's restroom. "Are you three behaving?"

"Yes, Daddy, Lizzie likes me the best." Charlie smiles as Elizabeth rattles her toy.

"Nein...." Jeremy argues in German.

Micheal smiles, looking down at her. "I'm the best because I'm her big brother."

"No fair." Elizabeth huffs. "I'm the best because we're both girls."

Henry chuckles. "I think she likes all three of you."

......

The new broke Clara was expecting, not even a day later, she made sure everyone knew. Elizabeth was handed off to William, and she finally started walking around, given the freedom to not be carried everywhere.

William was next to Margaret, and Jackie Henry was to his other side. This has become a weekly event, and as much as he wants to talk to Henry and his older self, Margaret seems to have a different agenda with Jackie. Thankfully, this combined with the diner meant he didn't have to deal with Clara as often, the new burned stab from a hot knife made his leg ache, but his older self told him that hot knife event took longer and was way worse then it was this time, well last time or what was suppose to happen was he got a paralyzed scare, but this time she only did his legs not his back.

Micheal watched the two women watch over his father as Charlie was busy running around with Lizzie, who had discovered the joys of walking in grass. "Jeremy, why's your mom acting weird?"

Jeremy pauses, standing next to Micheal. "Consenqueses is really nice, and mom isn't used to that in a man... wait, you aren't referring to that. Uh, I think that day at the diner, I think Margaret convinced her to follow your father into his office."

Micheal sighs, covering his face. "That means they both know about my mother and what she is doing."

"Why's that an issue?" Jeremy walks closer.

"We have to reveal ourselves, or else we won't be able to talk to my father or even my uncle." Micheal sighs. "Margaret might be a cheater, but she is overly protective over those who can't defend themselves, and your mom...."

Jeremy gasps. "Oh fuck you're right." He sighs. "How do you want to do this?"

"Honesty, I wish I could include Charlie." Micheal sighs. "She never made it pass 13, though."

Jeremy frowns. "Ugh, me too she's great. Oh, we're going to be a great chaos trio. Just wait."

Micheal chuckles. "Alright, alright, we have to think of something."

Charlie was holding Lizzie up, who was squealing in joy. "Hey, say what I taught you." She ran in front of the adults with the baby.

Lizzie squeals again. "Cha cha!"

"Yeah, Charlie." Charlie looks so proud.

William had a look of shock on his face.

Henry pauses and stares at the two women.

Charlie looks so proud of herself. "Look, I taught Lizzie to say my name."

"Cha!" Lizzie giggles walking to William. "Da! Da!" She clings to his leg, holding her hands up.

William looked close to crying, scooping her up. "Yeah, I'm your dad."

Lizzie giggles.

"Aren't you proud of me, Uncle William?" Charlie smiles.

William nods. "You did a great job, Charlie. You got Lizzie to say her first words."

Jackie covers her mouth. "Her first words, that's amazing."

Margaret chuckles. "She's right on track, unlike Micheal, who took until he was 4 to speak."

William nods, bouncing her on his knee, ignoring the massive amount of pain from the stab wounds. "You both did so good."

Henry motions for Charlie to come over. "You did such a good job, darling."

"I am the best." Charlie hugs Her father, then jumps off the porch to rejoin Micheal and Jeremy.

Lizzie huffs, reaching out for her.

"I think you've had enough excitement." William brushed her hair back. "It's time for a nap."

Lizzie huffs again, but yawns. "Come on, let's clean you up and set you off to bed."

William smiles, heading inside with his daughter.

......

"In my timeline of events, her first words were Mike. Clara was so mad." The older him watched over Elizabeth as William changed her diaper and got her ready for a nap.

"Really?" William smiles, tucking her in.

"Micheal always watched over her while I worked, or when Clara would neglect him caring for Evan. She always made sure Lizzie was cared for, and so was Evan. I believe there were many times when Micheal missed meals because I was stuck at the diner. I should have paid better attention." He sounds quite remorseful.

"Does Micheal blame us?" William shuts the lights off.

"No, he never did." The older sighs. "Micheal actually thinks we did the best we could given what we were going through, but we're his father we should have known."

Wliam frowns. "We'll do better this time. For all of them."

"We have to." The older nods along.

They both curse, feeling the wounds on his legs reopen. "Bloody hell, I just did the stitching."

........

Micheal frowns he can see the three adults swarm his father, and he makes a split decision. "Charlie, how would you like to be friends forever?"

Jeremy gives him a look, but it doesn't stop him.

Micheal knew this was a long shot, but they were already in impossible times. Time travel doesn't exist. There was always something stopping anyone who tried like fate itself refused to be unwound. This was different, like he had something nagging in his ear to try an old rumor. The rumor has it that if you give a child a demons blood, normally nothing happens, but there is a very small chance that, like time travel, something would happen. Lucy always complained about these rumors because she knew of every demon activity, whether she wanted to or not, and nothing came from that rumor.

"Yeah, of course, Micheal." Charlie gets close to him.

Micheal gets closer. "I heard the big kids at the diner say if we exchange blood, we will forever be friends."

Charlie's eyes light up. "I know what that is. Daddy said blood pacts last a lifetime. He says he made one with Aunt Jen to always be family."

Micheal keeps forgetting Henry is from the deep south, especially from a superstitious area in Texas. Of course, he would start Charlie, young.

Charlie grabs a rock off the ground. "We both cut our hands, I think, and shake like the grown-ups do."

"Is that how it works?" Micheal looks to Charlie, who nods and grabs his hand, and damn she is good at picking rocks. He could feel tears prick his eyes as he gets overwhelmed with emotions, and he curses his young body.

Charlie does the same, and they shake hands.

Jeremy watches the exchange, and at first, nothing happens, and he realizes that a lot if Aids reports probably went unreported with children doing stupid shit like this. He goes to defuse the situation before the adults return their attention to them when he saw a flash in Charlie's eyes.

Micheal can feel Charlie's grip get tighter and pull him closer. "Charlie?"

Charlie sighs and pulls Micheal into a hug. "Act natural they are watching."

Micheal pauses and pushes her away. "Nu uh thats not right."

Charlie nods. "Yes, it is."

The three kids run off to the corner following Charlie's lead, and the adults laugh.

Micheal stops holding his arm up. "You became a reaper."

"Not quite, I took the chance to grow up after I was killed through.... dubious means. However what the fuck?" Charlie looks around. "How are we in the past? I was tasked to track down the missing souls from their collective paradises, and then suddenly a soul from purgatory vanishes, and that's no man lands when it comes to the afterlife. Then.... you're the fucking demon that got summoned from purgatory. How?"

"My fault." Jeremy rubs the back of his neck. "To be fair I also don't know how I ended up in the past either I was digging my way out of paradise because I learned Micheal forced himself to be a demon even though he was allowed a paradise."

Charlie laughs. "We all didn't like our placements, did we? Alright, so what do we know, I want to catch up with both of you. Oh and my dad, oh my fuck I can be his daughter again." She shakes her head. "No focus. Micheal, and Jeremy you two are so tragic."

"If I hear a tale of tragic lovers again, I'm going to punch you and scream the truth in German alerting my mother." Jeremy crosses his arms as Micheal covers his mouth, unable to hold back his laugh.

Charlie chuckles. "Nah I was going to say if either of you fucking talked you would of stopped further tragedy, like if you kissed at 13 Evan wouldn't of died."

Micheal pauses and nods. "Fair point."

"Alright, I accept that answer." Jeremy smiles. "Man, we are going to be the best chaos trio."

"Hell yeah. Also, did either you notice that my dad is the product of a demon deal?" Charlie pauses, totally losing track of her focus. The three having adult minds with child focus and energy was going to make this hard to get through.

"Wait, sorry, what did you make a deal with to grow up?" Micheal switches focus, staring at Charlie as they run to the other corner of the yard.

"Well, it turns out the stories about things in the cornfields hold a lot of weight. Also, I didn't want to lose my memories. Becoming a reaper means giving up any and all humanity, so I would start from a blank slate, unable to well ever find any family again. So let's just say I'm basically a mix of a demon a reaper and a secret third thing." Charlie smiles.

"Eh, I still would have probably picked a demon from guilt." Micheal chuckles. "Fuck Jeremy's right were going to be the best trio." He can't help but feel giddy. Childlike excitement overwhelmed him he forgot what he was originally planning to do.

Charlie pulled the two next to her. "Rumor had it you were stronger than old Lucifer, and Jeremy you made a lot of connections."

"Damn right. How did you think I found out what happened to Micheal and how to do the same as him from escaping my paradise into hell?" Jeremy smirks. "Now I'm on track to become a demon attached to Micheal, already improvement on my original plan."

Micheal snickers. "I'm not that strong."

"You still have seals on you, I mean, I do too. Wait, how did you do this?" Charlie stares at her hands.

"You know that weird rumor Lucy hates about giving children demon blood."

"Ohhhhhh ok, huh thought that was fake."

"So did I." Micheal shrugs. "So, new plan."

"New plan?" Charlie raised her brow.

Jeremy ends up explaining what has happened as they pretend to play in the grass.

.....

Finally, Henry had a chance to be alone with William. Well, the three kids were with them as well, but it was a start. Clara took Lizzie with her to her prenatal appointment and refused to let William go. Jackie had a shift and had to work dropping Jeremy off. Charlie was acting off lately she was a little less destructive, but he counted that as a blessing.

The three well, two 5 years old and one 6 year old. Jeremy's birthday just passed. Sat on the couch together as William sat on one love seat and Henry on the other.

Charlie was the first to speak up. "Is now good?"

Jeremy shrugs. "I dunno, what do you think.... oh Micheal fell asleep."

"Mmh, not sleeping." Micheal huffs. "Just tired."

Henry gave a look to William, who sighed. "Micheals been trying to stay up late."

"No, Micheal's been trying to figure out how to get back to his adult body." Charlie crosses her arms. "It looks to be going as poorly as I thought it would."

"Oh hush, you haven't gotten far either." Micheal yawns.

"He won't let me help." Jeremy hums letting Micheal lean on him.

Henry stops. "What?"

Charlie pauses. "Oh yeah, I forgot. So you remember the stories you would tell me about the stuff out at night? Yeah, so I'm that because I wanted to grow up after I died. I think Reaper mixed with demon and other stuff. Eventually, I would have run into Micheal in the future, but the impossible happened instead." She huffs. "Being stuck as a child sucks, I lose focus constantly, and I get so tired easily." She crosses her arms.

Henry's eyes widen as he gets up and scoops his daughter up. "You're back? You grew up?"

Charlie giggles. "I did, not as a reaper I would have to give up all the things that made me human memories included, so I picked a dubious option."

Micheal yawns again. "I can still use my powers, for example." He snaps, and his father blinks.

William turns and rubs his back. "You healed me?"

"Yeah, why do you think you haven't had any nerve damage? I care about you, and Mother is awful." Micheal slides off the couch and crawls onto his father's lap. "I know I'm an adult."

William smiles, his eyes full of happy tears. "Yes, you're my big brave boy." He hugs Micheal, who melts into his father's touch.

"It's rare, but when Micheal wants touch, he will wrap around you." Jeremy giggles. "He's also very tired."

William smiles. "Alright, how about a nap before we talk again. I know we have to discuss things, but you three are children."

"Don't remind me." Charlie huffs, crossing her arms. "I wouldn't mind a nap, I also don't want to get up."

Henry chuckles. "How about I move you after you fall asleep?"

"Yes." Charlie smiles.

Jeremy has already curled up on the couch. "Mmh, you two adults talk... wait three..."

Micheal has already drifted off.

"They are all trying so hard." His older self sighs. "Well, you have your privacy talk to him."

William pauses. "I uh...." He sighs. "Henry, what do we do?"

"Let them sleep, but now for the future." Henry sighs as Charlie curls up.

"Just fucking kiss." Charlie huffs.

Henry gets a red face that matches William. "Charlotte?!"

"We all know." Charlie yawns. "Uncle William can't hide, and you wesr your heart on your sleeve."

"I know Micheal knew, but Charlie just turned 13 when I well.... " his older self covers his face.

William matches the red face. "I uh well, I mean i...."

Henry hefts Charlie over his shoulder and bends down, kissing William. "We'll plan later."

"Y-yes." William hugs Micheal tighter.

[cinnamonest]

I got these and more asks regarding the post from last night so I wanted to elaborate and explain some things, and also make another point about the anniversary thing and clarify for anyone confused. After this I promise I'll shut up about this lol sorry

1) yeah please do NOT come after the VAs for any of this, not even the actual developer side either is at fault. This is largely an issue with the PR and marketing and higher up people. It's really awful that some people are harassing people who have no responsibility here. And thanks to the original asker's reply, I feel like I'm really bad at conveying my thoughts so I tend to overexplain lol, but thanks that means a lot.

2) I have seen people confused on this so if you didn't already, you should know that this isn't just about the anniversary so much as the anniversary was a final straw. While Honkai has similar rewards/exchange for irl money as genshin, mihoyo itself has some of the worst in comparison to other gachas from other developers. Games like Arknights, Granblue, Azur Lane, Dragalia Lost, hell even a cutesy casual gacha app like LoveNikki have much better real money to game currency ratios, huge anniversaries where they give out tons of free shit, and much more generous systems (such as Arknights giving free 10 pulls with a lot of events/new characters/etc). All despite being smaller, less profitable games. There's major glaring issues with the game that have gone unresolved for a long time despite people asking over and over to change it. It's a combination of the rewards, general stuff, and mihoyo's refusal to solve certain issues for a long time that has people upset.

In any industry, any company is going to be held to the standards set by the mainstream industry, which is what is happening here. It is natural to hold a company to it's competitors for comparison and expect them to match standards, especially when the company that is lacking is the richer one and could easily meet the standards if they were willing to.

This is especially true for people who put money into the game. Due to the nature of gachas/online games, companies that produce these games are usually very adamant on rewarding players because whales/P2Ws, people who buy welkin and similar stuff, etc keep the game alive. When they do not match the standard of the industry, those people will feel unappreciated and go elsewhere eventually, which means they will not be able to afford much progress, then even F2Ps won't have content, and the game will burn out.

3) I probably should have clarified this last post but, I know review-bombing does seem like a kinda shitty tactic at first and I get that, but the reason people are doing that now is because mihoyo has completely ignored people complaining for months normally, and even now has started to censor and ban people, deleted critical posts, etc. Basically it's clear that mihoyo will just ban and censor criticism until people do something that actually forces them to listen, hence review bombing. Banning/censoring criticism is a really, really bad move for any company, historically speaking, it's insulting to players who keep the company afloat and results in losses. The review bombing + a lot of people uninstalled the app apparently + people who usually pay refusing to do so anymore, all of that hits them to where they can't afford to ignore it when people do it en masse. Because it will cost them money/players.

What people are kinda really upset about, even more than rewards itself, is just the silence and censorship on their end, which is more frustrating than the lack of rewards itself. I did have some sympathy for them up until they started censoring and deleting criticism on their site. At that point they're doing this to themselves by doing that.

4) Also, notably, this has worked with plenty of other game devs. You may remember the disaster that was Fallout 76. Bethesda also responded poorly at first, but spamming bad reviews and horrible coverage for Fallout 76 got Bethesda's attention, and they went the whole nine yards formally acknowledging the complaints and more or less apologizing to the whole world of players at E3 and even gave refunds, which is a very surprisingly humble thing for a company of their level of fame to do. The situation calmed down because people felt listened to, and while Fallout 76 was kinda a lost cause and didn't get fixed, the idea is that the refunds/open and honest communication restored the consumer base's relationship to Bethesda. That was a big blow, but Bethesda was willing to take that hit to maintain the sense of communication and mutual respect/value between players and devs.

In contrast, with mihoyo, what most people have been trying to beg/bargain for for an anniversary rewards is a free permanent banner 5 star, which would cost mihoyo essentially literally nothing.

So far they have responded by banning people for literal years on hoyolab, deleting posts, banning people from various social platforms etc, for criticism. Even putting whether or not that's ok aside, it's very unusual and not how game companies usually handle these things, and can only end badly for them.

Also mihoyo has had time to fix this -- it's not like Fallout 76 where they released the game and then the backlash came very suddenly and they had to scramble to prepare a response/plan and needed time. People have been complaining about these rewards for well over a week, so they could have easily fixed it by now if they had any intention of listening to people's complaints, especially considering the proposed fix of a single free permanent 5 star would be very simple and quick to implement.

5) also? it's extra unfortunate and really a marketing team issue bc they could have *profited* from giving more, if they opened rewards to new players as most gachas do. Genshin is incredibly popular right now, to the extent that a lot of people in the gaming/weeb sphere who don't play it, but still know of it, and even know a bit about it.

If you were someone who had never played genshin but had been considering downloading it for a long time, but just kept putting it off or forgetting, and heard "hey join now and you get free Diluc/Keqing," that would have convinced a lot of people to go ahead and join, and they would inevitably get sucked into the game and bring mhy profit. So it's a little strange imo that they chose not to do that, it would have been beneficial to them.

6) also, be aware that the glider we're now getting was supposed to be paid originally. Releasing it free now is damage control. It's also, well, a glider. Again, while it is pretty, it's paltry in comparison to the industry norm and does not have much use to most people.

Finally, criticizing all of this/the game/mihoyo does not mean people hate the game. I do see some people lashing out in defense of mihoyo and I get that bc they produce something we all really like. I really really do not want to see genshin become "that one game that was super popular for a year or so and then died" -- that's why people want improvements, because if improvements aren't made, that's where it's headed. What people are asking for right now is stuff that is very easily in mihoyo's capability and would not cost them much of anything. It would be one thing to ask them for something that would cut their profits or take time to develop, but that's not what's happening. People are asking for very little in the scope of their capabilities/the norm.

[lizzie-wendigo]

IMPORTANT: New rule on my blog (Explanation)

Okay, a lot of you know that on my blog, I have rules to keep the peace between users and artist (I mean me). And many of these rules need to be updated for certain questionable users behavior.

Therefore, I'll update my rules again to add this new one and it is:

"Don't comment on your favorite ship/character/theme if I haven't asked for it"

Well, many will find this rule confusing, so let me explain:

Since my beginnings on Deviantart and Tumblr I have had many users making comments to me like "Very nice drawing, although I prefer -Ship random-" or "Nice ship, but I ship -Random character x random character-". But I preferred to ignore them and let them pass, until they ended up getting me fed up.

I want to clarify that I respect everyone's ships, if I see a ship that I don't like, I just don't consume it and that's it. But I find it fatidious and disrespectful that people camouflage their hate for your ship with these comments (because believe it or not, yes it's hate)

Ok, let's take an easy example:

Suppose you bought a console that you like a lot, let's say... the Nintendo Switch, and you're talking about it with your friends... suddenly someone random comes along and says: "Yes, nice console, but I have a PS5 and I like more".

I don't know about you, but my reaction to that would be "WHO TF ASKED YOU!?" since this person boasts of "being better than you" because of their tastes. And I don't go through life in other people's art commenting on that stupidity.

You know, in my country we have a saying, which translated into English would be something like: "Opinion is like your ass, if they didn't ask for it, don't show it".

It's something that few realize, and I personally am sick of these comments. So I'm going to add this rule to my blog, as silly as it sounds.

Finally I'll just give you a warning, if I see comments like this again I'll just delete them, but if you insist I'll give you a free ban.

Any objection, comment on it and I'll see if I make it valid.

[erin-epica]

Woop-de-doo, it's Lord Scarlet stuff part 2

This was a post I planned on making WAY sooner, but I accidentally lost the original draft so I didn't even bother to try doing it gain until recently. And just now something happened that changed everything; and I mean what both DID and DIDN'T automatically give me the right to post this. I almost deleted my first post at that, and here's why:

In the first post, I mentioned that when I initially found out Vic was lying to me, I was quiet about it and just stopped talking to her out of fear, and then when I asked for help on what to do I was told to leave without a word. I don't think that was entirely the right thing to do in the long run, because it may have been the easiest way out but I'm better off with proper closure.

And the thoughts she left me scarred with never left my head. Time and time again, I'd find myself crying myself to sleep again at the thought of Brock forced to hide romantic feelings for Master Frown and not know who he was anymore while Frown was left unaware and in love with someone else, even if it wasn't Lord Scarlet.

And the pain sometimes came with a want to confront Vic one last time and open up to her about how I wasn't blind anymore, and how much she really hurt me. But I, again, wass scared she wouldn't care and would cut me off.

So when the pain got worse, I did what any coward would do: tell everyone else about my pain.

Now I DID tell friends of mine other than the Unikitty Amino staff about what happened, and they were all sympathetic and understanding about it. But then I told almost everyone, and then made my vent post on here (as well as Wattpad). As much as I wouldn't want to call them call out posts, they might as well have been. I didn't want people to harass Vic and make her mad...but at the same time I kinda did. I was too scared to face her that I was hoping that someone would do it for me. I even tagged accounts of Vic's. Not cool of me at all.

Now the Tumblr and Wattpad posts got me pretty much more of the same: sympathy, and acceptance that I had moved on. No one came after Vic but we could still agree that none of her actions were justified (I even got @careeningle's attention...sorry about the aneurysm)

Now comes the next important thing that happened, because I mentioned @friffinx kinda being responsible for me getting back to the Lord Scarlet Amino to write the message that I did. In it, I said that after I sent the message I did I would leave the Amino again & for good.

Well...I lied. I still checked in every day for the same reason I started venting: I kinda wanted Vic to see my message. Even if she'd ban me, I wanted to see if she'd ever notice my message. And that would've been the end of it if it wasn't for Brook.

I briefly mentioned Brook in the last post. She was another OC of Vic's, and was exactly to Brock what Lord Scarlet was to Master Frown; a carbon copy love interest. Except Lord Scarlet was far more developed and drawn & written about more. Brook didn't even really have a distinct personality, she was a girl Brock and that was it. But with reptilian overlord eyes. (To be fair, Vic drew Brock like that sometimes too)

(I didn't include Vic's art unless it was in chat bgs or whatever in the last post, but for the sake of referencing/proving a point, this is what Brook looks like)

No one really paid attention to her for the longest time. She was there in the fanfics because according to Vic, "Scarlet needed a friend." And like I said in the first post, Brook wasn't said to be canon so I never found a reason to really care for her. Plus I can only recall someone giving Vic fanart with her, and it was with Scarlet (@plastic-papercuts made it, go follow her she's gr8).

But then one day, for some reason, something in me clicked. I actually thought of a story idea for her. Somehow this bland cutout of a character had potential in my eyes, and I weirdly started liking her because of it. She suddenly felt...more real. I got pretty invested in my idea and newfound interpretation of Brook, and describing it would make this post way longer than it is so if anyone asks about it, I'll probably make a whole other post about it.

Anyway, I came up with a little plan: draw out this idea in the form of a comic and post it to the Lord Scarlet Amino. And see if Vic gets suspicious and checks out my profile and then maybe bans me. It felt a bit better than total silence and she'd probably see that someone gave a crap about Brook after all.

So I started a new chat called "It's Brook" to share my progress with the other members of the Amino, which there weren't too many of but we had fun in it. It was basically me, @friffinx , @soapycocacola, @plastic-papercuts, and a few others who aren't on Tumblr (or at least don't think are) chatting about how awful Vic was and calling out her lazy art tactics like tracing and using assets/clips right from the show. And of course me sharing the comic progress I was making. Again, this doesn't make anything we did right but it felt good getting everything off our chests. We were like a secret rebellion against an absentee dictator. One time Vic came online as we were chatting and even viewed my profile, but nothing happened. And it stayed that way until I opened Amino up one morning. For those of you who don't have it, the menu shows all the communities you're in when you open the app, and all of mine were there except for the Lord Scarlet Amino. I assumed I must've been banned overnight. But I wasn't banned from Vic's other Amino so I commented on her wall on that one. For Vic's sake, I won't show how the conversation went (and I'll explain why at the end) but here's how it went:

Me: Did you ban me from the LS Amino?

Her: There was drama in one of the chat rooms and I'm not having it. I didn't want to do it and it's not a big deal It's just an amino and you're still on this one AM I RIGHT?

Me: Yes, but I assume you read my updated bio. As I hoped you would.

Her: Nope.

Me: Oh. But you know what? Ban me from here too for all I care, I feel like you deserve to know why I left and came back: *insert me finally telling her how I know she lied, that she hurt me, and what I did was wrong here*

Her: Lol ok be that person but keep in mind that I'm one of those people that doesn't gibe a fuck lol

And then she banned me from that Amino too before I could type and submit a fitting farewell reply.

At least I finally got all the built-up emotional pain out of me, but it did help me realize something important: we never really were friends. I wanted more of her content despite all her red flags as a person so I tried enduring them, thinking it'd be worth it, and she only kinda cared about me when I was being a yes man. She never kept any promises and didn't respect me the same way I did her. So I could at least feel confident knowing she most likely didn't care at all when I first left.

@friffinx and the others didn't get banned, though, and Friff even started another chat on the LS Amino called "It's Brook 2" where they talked more about Vic being a terrible person. And it didn't take long for her to shut that chat down too and ban everyone from it that time. Friff sent me screenshots of what happened next (which again, I'm not gonna show), where Vic basically had a meltdown. She changed her username to "Little Miss Guillotine", and made a post about her being "finished with the bushit". In it, she announced that she didn't even like Unikitty! anymore but was still gonna keep/use Lord Scarlet because she wanted to. The part that made my blood almost boil wasn't her views on the show, she's free to have her opinion and I couldn't care less about it. What DID was that she acknowledged that she lied the whole time because "she didn't care anymore" and said that it was "our faults for believing it in the first place" and that "we needed to grow up"/"stop brining it up"

Ooooh boy, victim blaming, my favortie...

Since then she changed the Lord Scarlet Amino's theme to make it about The Penguins of Madagacar (again, fine with me). Either way she was still a narcissist and I thought she'd, sadly, likely never change. And my friends and I all thought that was the end of it.

Until a few hours ago...

I was browsing the Unikitty Amino and saw a new member named BlueCat. Didn't think anything else of it until the user PMed me. And this is what happened:

I didn't know what to think other than "I thought this day would never come", I was that shaken. This was so left field-ish that what else could I do but believe her? It didn't even seem suspicious or like she was trying to be a suck up, that wasn't Vic at all.

But the one thing I knew I had to do was ban her because even if she meant well and did it for the right(?) reasons, but I still asked if I should in the staff chat. @girly-glorious (also amazing so pls check her out :D) told me that yes, it was ban evasion so since I'm a leader too now I could to it on my own. But I knew I had to message Vic first and Girly told me to be careful, so this is what I sent:

And then I banned her, the end (not really)

Now I don't understand how or why this sudden behavior change happened but I don't know if I should question it in case it's personal. But again, I at least want to believe that she's really being genuine and had a change of heart because never in a million years could I imagine her being this mature. Again, she didn't demand that I forgive me or probably even expect me to. But the message still does leave me feeling sorry for her.

Now I thought that was the real end of it until I see the Penguins of Madagascar/old Lord Scarlet Amino on my sideboard.

She unbanned me.

Now I don't know where we'll go from here, if anywhere. I'm not too sure if I can really let my guard down around someone who hurt me so badly just in case she does it again. So I may not talk to her again, but if she really asks something from me, I might try and build up courage to ask her more about how she came to apologizing to me. Plus she followed me on Wattpad too.

But this is why I didn't show our conversation right before my ban or her "f.u." posts. Because I don't want people seeing more of Vic's past behavior and possibly embarrassing her about it if she ever sees this. But that's kinda why I felt like it was 100% necessary to finally make a sequel post in the end; I'm hoping people at least acknowledge Vic has changed and don't keep thinking about based on what I shared out of attempts to gain sympathy like a crybaby.

So before I go: PLEASE, DON'T GO AFTER OR HARASS VIC. I KNOW YOU PROBABLY WON'T, BUT THIS IS SERIOUS. ALL THE PROBLEMATIC LORD SCARLET DRAMA IS STUFF OF THE PAST AND NEITHER OF US WANT TO KEEP LOOKING BACK ON IT.

I hope this helps whoever's reading as much as it did me.

[ladyaceofspades]

The recent drama:

So I dropped one of my good friends. We had dated when I was 18 for a few weeks and I dumped him because he wouldn't get on the phone to talk to me, so I dipped. In the years that followed, he would come back every so often, try to woo me away from Matt, then eventually get angry and leave. He left and came back like 3 times. We've gone through spells where we would be super buddy buddy, or we wouldn't talk for months. He was my game buddy, although he would drive me insane because he would just do every mission and just drag me along for the fun of it.

While I was with Matt, T was very helpful. He would let me vent to him and he would validate my feelings, and when I was happy, he would remind me of all the awful things Matt did so I would stay strong against him. His line was "you're unhappy" and it worked because I was at the time. Even then, though, I knew he had feelings for me and he would tell me how much he loved me. When Matt and I broke up, I got into a relationship with my husband, Benjas, and T got into a relationship with Amber.

T came around again, spouting the same thing. He loves me, will always love me, wants to be with me, but will respect my relationship...even though his fiancé, Amber had started living with him then. Our friendship did the cycle again, until he overstepped on a FB post of mine, and I put him in his place. I blocked him on FB, he confronted me about it, and I told him why it had to happen: that what he said was totally inappropriate, it made Benjas angry and me angry, and his or my family could've seen it and it caused problems for us. T's comeback was "in all the years I've known you, you've never let a man tell you what to do". I did not stand for that and had to explain 3 times why what he said was bad and why it wasn't acceptable. He finally understood and asked that I text every so often so he knows I'm ok.

I didn't text for a few months. Recently, he tried to reach out through text, and email (forgot he had my email so that was a surprise). When that didn't work, he had his friend Gabe message me, and Amber friended me on FB (she had had me blocked on and off for years). By then, I was hella creeped out. Apparently, T had "a bad feeling" that something bad had happened to me and he had a dream something happened to me, and broke down to Amber and told her he missed me so, according to him, she added me out of jealousy and to see what he and I said to each other on FB (we weren't friends on there so she would've see nothing). Anyway, his actions and him getting his people to reach out to me made me rethink some things, and it also made me listen to my intuition harder, which said that he was full of it and lying. I started to wonder if what he was telling me was true, so I chatted with Amber about it and it was like we were getting two different stories. For example, Amber was moving out because she needed assisted living help and T was telling me that if she moved out, they would probably break up (it went from probably to definitely break up) and he would cut the ties completely, whereas Amber was under the impression that T would still be there for her and that they might break up but it was a low chance. Other things like he was blaming my husband for why I wasn't talking to him, and when I told Amber about it, she got angry about it (understandably).

When I talked to him and told him that I can't trust him when my intuition is telling me that he's lying and it's been proven so we should takea break from being friends, he told me that he wouldn't be coming back or be there for me anymore. I said that that was fine, as if the person going back to someone wasn't him coming back to me every time.

Anyway, I creeped his FB page one more time and he posted

Which essentially is him taking some of the accountability for everything but he's putting a lot of it on me, when I wanted nothing to do with him at all for awhile and I TRIED with the super quick responses or no responses at all. He says he's been used, but he wouldn't respect my marriage even though I told him he needed to and he said he would. I kept saying "I love you like a friend" but he wouldn't listen. How is that my fault? I'm really angry that I'm being blamed for shit I didn't do because he can't face that part of himself.

Not to mention, he has GREATLY overestimated his place in my life (or as my friend Leighann says, his market value). He was needed at some point, but after the FB thing, it became incredibly apparent that he never respected me as a person or as anything else other than a possible future lover, that he put me on a pedestal, and he never considered that I moved on in my emotions. I mean, I got MARRIED to the love of my life and this POS was still trying to chase me, and recently had gone back to telling me how unhappy I was, when I'm not. It was surreal to be told "you're unhappy" multiple times in a short period of time and my brain went "what? No we're not". Whatever mind game he tried to run on me again didn't work this time.

Anyway, here's the shit Amber texted me when I asked her why she friended me again:

Versus what he texted me about everything:

So....why the gap in stories? I confronted him about what his friends said to her too, and he complained that you can't control your friends so I couldn't hold that against him. Well, in reality, you set the standard for how your friends act around you, and you set the boundaries about your SO, so his friends shouldn't have been telling her that she looked like me or anything. He also told me not to trust her, but I felt like she didn't have an agenda with me, until the end. Now I find that they're staying together, or else why would he be apologizing to her publicly in multiple posts? Guess she bought his bullshit, and he doesn't want to be alone again. Lol whatever, let them be toxic together. Unfortunately, if he's done this once, he'll do it again (he did with another woman too apparently - an ex of a friend of his, he asked for pics of her and according to him he said "no nudes" but according to Amber, the woman said "no nudes"), so it'll only be a matter of time until he either tries to come after me again, or he finds someone else in his town to go after. I've blocked him on almost everything, blocked her as well, so neither of them can come back in my life. I'm just a little worried about those old nudes of mine he still has...I don't think he'd do anything but I almost told Amber about them so she would get him to delete them. I guess, worst case is I could always sue if he puts them on a p0rn site...

Sorry I needed to get this shit off my chest. I know people's opinions shouldn't matter to me, but they do, especially when I'm being blamed for everything and the person who ACTUALLY set everything in motion is refusing to take responsibility for it.

I'll do a cord cutting spell or a binding or something after we move to the new apartment so they don't come back.

[mic-and-cheese]

Ok this is enough. I'm done being vauge and quiet. I have been hurting and in fear for so long and it's not ok that I've been made to believe that I shouldn't talk about it.

I've ignored nasty anons to pretend like it doesn't bother me because I knew that people from the fandom were watching my blog for a response. I was scared to show any sign of weakness because I wanted them to give up and for a while I was happy because nothing happened.

Then I learned that they have been lurking on my blog for who knows how long despite multiple warnings and posts and dnis saying I didn't want them here.

And that's honestly my final straw. I'm a person who wants to forgive no matter what awful things someone has done to me. I still have it in my heart to say I'm sorry to a disgusting person for something they did to me 3 years ago, and I don't even want to associate with them because they turned out to be a fucking p*do (which, in case anyone was worried, my particular conflict with them is unrelated to that) but my point is that even when I hate someone's guts I still can't hate them enough to not want to reconcile. I don't know why that is but the same is true here.

I was so, so willing to put this all behind me, to apologize and accept an apology and finally be fucking friends again even after I already tried and failed to do it once. But after learning that they can't even respect the fact that I'm gone and want nothing to do with them, I've become so conflicted again. I hate them and I'm not afraid to say it. I hate them and it takes me every ounce of self control I have not to call them out by name. I'm done giving them chances. And yet I still feel the need to forgive and now it's not useful for keeping myself calm in pursuit of someday ending the conflict. Now it's just fucking annoying because they've gone past what I can forgive. I don't care about being the bigger person anymore, they hurt me and they need to fucking know it.

I'm sorry I ever believed anything they said or looked down upon certain characters and ships because I thought they were right at the time.

And if any of you assholes are listening right now, you're sick fucking creeps for lurking on this blog despite me telling you not to. How dare you use my space that you were never allowed in to laugh at me. How dare you pretend like you never talked behind my back and made fun of my art.

You act exactly like middle school bullies and I want everyone to know everything you've done to everyone in the Incredibles fandom and how you transformed it into a toxic cesspool and THEN have the audacity to ask why there's so much drama like you're the victims.

You have hurt so many people and made them scared to leave your toxic clique. I want everyone to know how you've harassed creators with anon hate. You guys breathe exclusionist like it's nothing, and then want to pretend that you respected the fact that I'm asexual. You claim to support autistic people, but you talk behind people's backs if they talk "weird" or have a special interest you don't like when so many of you are also autistic or otherwise neurodivergent and know what it feels like to be hated for it. You're progressive up until it comes to someone you don't agree with. You cast out your own friends if they don't agree with you and talk behind their backs when they leave or get kicked out, and then lie about why you kicked them. You have at least three different channels for stalking, harassing, and talking shit. You hate anyone who dares to be in more than just your server. You are trying to isolate people so that you have them under your control and don't feel like they can leave or have anyone to turn to when they realize how toxic you are. And that's only what you've done before I left.

Update: Listen I'm too tired to be eloquent about this but in case anyone wants to say I'm lying:

Anyway, here's what I'm proposing. Stop checking my blog for a month. From now until the end of september, and in turn I'll stop talking about y'all. I will not make another single post about you until October and if I don't get a single check, I will not mention you again so long as you stay off this blog.

I was never mad that we didn't have the same character preference. Annoyed, sure, but it wasn't a big deal. It became a big deal when I realized I didn't feel comfortable around all of the salt in the fandom and realized that I was mearly being tolerated. I don't even support some of the people you've harrassed, but I do not want to be associated with people like you, so I left, and frankly, its my damn right to be able to talk about how I felt. I never published a single name, and I will never, but it's not right of you guys expect me not to talk about how I felt regardless of if your actions were intentional or not. I do not care that I was not your worst target and I never have or will claim to be. But the environment that you have created is toxic, and talking about my experiences with it was never supposed to be a personal attack on you until you got involved.

Also, because I wrote this while I was angry, I will fully admit that I exaggerated some of my claims and they have been changed accordingly. I apologize for my immaturity and should not have said that, however I will not change anything I know to be true.

Another edit: I have deleted the portion about a particular artist and their work. That was an oversight by me as I did not remember that they are suspected of being legitimately predatory and I would not have included that if I had remembered it at the time of writing. That being said, my stance on the issue is that the type of harrassment that took place against that artist isn't right and that it is better to deplatform predatory people by warning others about them and refusing to interact with them, rather than giving the any sort of attention, negative, positive, or otherwise. I do not support that artist, but I also do not support their harassment and anyone saying otherwise is spreading lies about me.