#also.. in case u didn't know but the last post was the end of this arc and i'm technically on a break rn!

[rebouks]

Having read/reread Somnium this past week/two-ish... I have some theories about Wyatt.

Every character we create has a bit of us, our experiences, and our biases. On that same note, I think every persona Wyatt has projected contained a bit of truth, but also a fair bit of fabrication. Of all the characters in Somnium, I think he had the worst childhood. It's really a miracle he's alive and not completely batshit crazy. And it's understandable why he learned to shut down emotions from a tiny age.

But Wyatt is AND isn't who we've seen. That nerdy, awkward doofus Courtney got to know, there a bit of truth there. But he exaggerated it for her. The absolute psycho that everyone shied away from... There's a bit of truth there, but I think also a fair amount of embellishment. If you're gonna be surrounded by homicidal thugs, then by all means, be the craziest one in the room. The one person that everyone is wary of. When he had his years alone in Mt. Komo (aka his purgatory), it was the first time his survival didn't depend on acting FOR someone else. He could just BE.

Wyatt says he isn't wired right and that he's emotionally faulty. But is he really as bad off as he thinks or is that what he's always been told? Obviously empathy is not his strong suit, but we've seen him: jealous/envious (others' relationships), selfless (letting Darien & Brynn go), appreciative (Oscar's help), petrified (to the point of throwing up), kind (to Ichiro, Mayo, and Brynn), and managed to (while sweating) mumble an ILY. All of which are normal emotions. He tried to make amends where he could. He adopted a cat ffs. A street cat that now has the poshest looking cat bed I've seen lol And the last time he choked someone was out of passion and (somewhat righteous) anger, not emotionless calculation.

I think who Wyatt was (and thought he was) is fading away, however damaged his past left him. I don't think he'll ever be a soft guy/touch to the world at large. Only a select few will be privy to that side if him. But I think his true nature is finally being revealed. Or am I reading him wrong? Enlighten me, Becca!

Ohhh you've read him remarkably well indeed! I truly love Wyatt's character, he's so complex and he really did have a nasty childhood.. on the surface I'm sure it looked like he had everything he ever wanted, but that's faaar from the truth.

I think he's only just realised that he's not actually a psychopath at all, he just kinda learnt how to be one as a coping mechanism when he was very young, so young that it almost seemed like reality in the end, even to other people! (There's a reason it seemed so genuine ⚆_⚆) I suppose in a way he lied to himself for so long it became reality. Ask Bruno.. he's still convinced he's a psycho! 😅

I rlly think smth shifted the moment he became suspicious of Oscar tho, and whilst at first he was intent on protecting the "family" and doing the "right" thing, the more he thought about it, the more he realised how done he was. No one listened to him, no one respected him, but he knew he was right! It was like he realised he'd never progressed from being a small child, pushed out of the way and ignored, even when they're begging to tell you something important! Arturo wasn't interested, so instead.. he had to pay. Wyatt didn't want to be loyal to him anymore! At the time, he didn't help Oscar n' co. just to do the right thing, he wanted to fuck his father over more than anything, so.. still pretty self-serving in a way but he's had a loooot of time to think since then and it's been so intriguing watching the slow shift in his mindset.

He's everything he's ever been, pretended to be and everything he never was, all bundled up into a ball that he buried deep inside; only when he was free did it all start to unravel.

I adore the examples of humanity you've picked up on tho, all those tiny hints we got that maybe he's not completely devoid of emotion after all... He's still Wyatt, but he's also Kaito too.. he's intelligent, he CAN be kind - to the right people, tho he definitely struggles with empathy - he's jealous, possessive, ambitious, confident, not confident at all 😆 he doesn't know, actually.. maybe we should check back in on him in a little while lmao

Hurray for the truly grey man!

Also.. I kinda started putting together a lil timeline of posts/moments that I thought were pivotal to his slow lil journey but this is long af as is so I'll work on that and post it separately 👀

[seat-safety-switch]

One of humanity's greatest contributions to the art of creating chaos is the humble U-Haul rental van. All over this great country, people who have never driven anything larger than a minivan are now asked to operate a full-ton vehicle that's about as aerodynamic as an enormous cube on skinny tires is.

This wouldn't be a big problem, except U-Hauls, to a vehicle, are barely maintained. Here's why. When you are fleeing the depressing post-industrial city of your birth to move to a new, shiny town in order to get a job in theatre, you don't bring the U-Haul back to that cesspool. You just drop it off in the New Shiny Town U-Haul lot, and it stays there for awhile. The ownership of that U-Haul truck is sort of ambiguous, and so too is the responsibility for its maintenance.

Maybe it didn't belong to Trauma Town U-Haul, either, and nobody feels much like doing an oil change on it if it only benefits some asshole in another state that they've never met. After all, that truck could very well never make it back to its hometown before it is retired by way of a haggard father of two putting it into the ditch at 4am. They certainly aren't going to do something like replacing ball joints, or fixing that worn steering coupler, or replacing the cracked tires when the guy before you stole them for his Super Duty.

Learning how to drive an enormous, poorly-handling, badly-maintained vehicle in unfamiliar areas wouldn't be so bad if you weren't also stressed out at the time. Moving is hard, even when things are going great. Trying not to run over a Geo Metro when you're on your fourth run, haven't had a meal with vegetables in it since last week, and have exactly fifteen minutes to clear out before the landlord sets your coffee table on fire is significantly harder.

The next time you see someone in a U-Haul van, give them a bit of extra room. Let them know that you've got their back, and we're all aligned against the evil forces of capitalism that made this interaction as hellish as it needed to be. Maybe stay a little further back than that, in case they decide to pop a u-turn in the middle of the highway and end up firing an entire Ikea kitchen set through your windshield.

[acquelus-ussy]

hi everyone! Thank u guys for liking my posts I didn't know it would garner attention honestly but thank u so much guys im cryin 😭🙏🙏

Another younger yandere but ill say the same thing if you guys like older yanderes let your imagination run free!!

~~~

NSFW!!

Yandere!Lawyer x Judge!Reader

Yandere!Lawyer is very narcissistic people around him tend to feed his ego. So when you pointed out that his claims in court were wrong and that you expected better from him, he was taken aback.

You shaken him from the ground up in his mind he thinks "does this judge think im fucking stupid?? Im one if the best in the world" then... He started to form a hatred towards you well- more of an obsession

Whenever he has a case, he always checks if you're the judge. He makes sure to win the cases in front of you, and at the end of the court session, he looks at you with a smug face. But you, being Judge!Darling, you ignore his smug face you're only doing your job so you don't see why you should praise him.

A few days after the last case he won in front of you, you hear whispers in your office about a newcomer. Turns out, it was the Yandere!Lawyer. He quit his high-paying job just to work under you?? Isn't that so sweet~?

Didn't you know? You're all he talks about in his meeting's, cases, and everywhere he can talk about you "oh yea that judge i hate that judge she's a prick" "if you take a case avoid this judge"

He also says the same thing while hatefucking his pocket pussy

"f-fuck i hate y-you bitch~ ahh~! s-shit!"

He came so many times from the thought of hatefucking you to the point he had to call in sick the next day.

He definitely knows about your secret drawer where you keep your vibrators and dildos he may have stolen one of your vibrators to use...

But alas a few days has gone by You've tried calling your old assistant but you can't seem to reach him maybe hes out of town? Or maybe hes in the lawyers basement tied up and bloodied from being tortured ever since he started working for you

~~~

Thank you for reading til here pookies luv yall!! Hope yall enjoyed this one

[crushh-existz]

Streamer Ellie HCs

Warnings: lower case intended..., NOT proofread at all..., its actually so shit so shh

-loser!ellie who made it through freshman and sophmore year of being a complete loner other than Jesse and Dina keeping her company but even then, she had absolutely no classes with them after freshman year.

-loser!ellie mid sophmore year she got bored and streamed her playing filled fortnite squads (it took her 4 hours trying to set it up with the most grainy ass camera she could find from joel that he used when he worked in customer service. she also got 10 views MAX!!)

-loser!ellie she looked back at the footage after school one day and her ass went onto capcut and put the most stupidest clips she could find of herself and posted it on one of her many alt accounts on tiktok.

after rewatching that bitch at least 20 times and giggling her ass off, she went to bed swaddled in her dino sheets

she didn't even realize she had fallen asleep at around 2 am and woke up super late, forgetting her phone at home

-loser!ellie had to sit through all her classes bored as FUCKK without her brawl stars to get through her boring classes (dont ask it was the stupidest mobile game i could think of and idk anything abt it) and the only game that wasn't locked away by GoGuardian was slope.io (her highscore is 23)

-loser!ellie went about her day as jolly as one who is drowning in assignments could be. she hung out with jesse and dina at lunch and surviving her last two periods before walking home humming her favorite songs pretending she has her phone and wired headphones (that most definately need to be retired after 6 years of torture, half of which were from joel using them)

once she actually got home, kicking off her butchered converse onto her bedroom floor as she flopped onto her bed

-loser!ellie finally got to open her phone to browse through her notifications and streaks dina for some reason made her keep, she noticed a fat chunk of them being from tiktok

at first she thought it was just jesse getting home early and sending her posts but it was actually from her stupid capcut video (she didnt even remove the watermark at the end)

her video for some reason blew up.. she literally flew up to sit on her bed scrolling through all the comments.

"wait why r u actually funny"

"mind you this is my first impression of u"

"why is ur camera quality worse than my dead grandmas health.."

"in my mind we're actually bestfriends come out im in ur closet."

of course among that, theres also random hate comments like

"this pmo" and petty shit like that.

she giggled by replying to them with the most stupidest things

@/player222schesticals im js a natural arent i

@/user283678383257819 i hope it lasts

@/therealauthormorgan911 erm tell her dust i said hi

@/divaa283628 how'd u know i was a scissor sister dafauq

-streamer!ellie immediatly after she called dina "DUDE IM FLIPPING FAMOUS"

dina thought she was high off her ass and told her yeah right before hanging up on her ass.

ellie then proceeded to send a link to her alt and dina was actually blown away

"woah els.. you should pay me to be your manager."

-streamer!ellie laughed in her face (she asked dina to manage her shit a week later)

-loser!ellie's following grew and she branched her gaming to other things, mostly shorter story games that she finds off steam for 1 cent. every so often the game is actually really good with life changing plot (ellie's bawling by the end of it)

obviously she still plays stupid shooter games like fortnite and OW but she's too scared to touch COD (too many sweats she says)

-streamer!ellie absolutely LOVES to troll on GTA with Jesse it's literally her favorite thing to do EVERRR!!! the public js eats it up like candy, putting her in comps whenever she would accidently blow herself up or something (again dont know anything about this game at ALLL!!!)

-loser!ellie absolutely loves scowering tiktok for stupid little edits of herself and saving them all

she's quite cocky behind the screen and loves interacting w/ her community online but gets so awkward when she gets recognized in public or at school for the few audio clips of her going viral (it's okay cuz dina and jesse help her through it!!)

--

A/N: okay chat these were just heehees and haahaas bro. i randomly decided to do it and I thought it was funny and lowk sat there and actually wrote w/o stopping.. tbh there was more to this but like i cringed and deleted all that but i liked it up until this point. there were probably part 2 if i figure out what to write and probably x reader version too FHEIWF anyway its fr shit but this was js for funsies ୭ ˚. ᵎᵎ

[ganxiously]

Do you think they’ll continue exploring BuckTommy next season?

Okay, this is a bit complicated to answer right now so bear with me on this - I think I am about 95% on the fact that Tommy will return next season. Why? Mostly because of two reasons, well two and a half really -

1. There's a shift in how they have approached the relationship with the media. Before, Tommy was barely a discussion unless a journalist specifically asked about the relationship and even then we only got a vague response. And I don't think we need an expert to see that things seem to have taken a full u-turn this recent press tour. Oliver Stark, the master of making non-committal statements, has been literally gushing over Tommy and the BuckTommy relationship. He said something along the lines of I am looking forward to seeing what happens with that relationship next season and it would be very weird for him to drop that statement and then not have Tommy show up anymore. Especially since suddenly bringing up Tommy when he hasn't even been seen with Buck for 3 episodes could have no purpose other than to remind the audience that they need to look out for him next season.

2. The story was again deliberately left unfinished. They could have put a stop to it at any point. All it would take is probably 10 seconds of screen time. They could have had Tommy say it was just a one-night stand in 8.11 or say he was only there for Chimney in 8.15 or have a brief scene of them in 8.16 acknowledging they did not have the right timing and agreeing to just be friends (this would have the added benefit of freeing up Buck's romantic arc and setting up Tommy as an independent recurring to be pulled in when they need an oompf factor). But they did none of those things and instead have almost stubbornly kept these two characters tied together. That has to amount to something.

The half - What was the point of spending so much money on Lou and on helicopters if they weren't going to bring him back. Remember they didn't use Lou in the beenado episodes despite there being a perfect opportunity to do so and that was probably because of the pending breakup. The fact that they have done so now should logically indicate the opposite.

So, yes on Tommy coming back next season and also to it being related to Buck's romantic arc. Now, what I am not so sure about is how the relationship will pan out. Tim usually doesn't drag stories over but he did that last season so we can presume he might do it again this time around. But even then, all of that was end-of-season stuff that was resolved in the first 3 episodes. What's different in this case is that instead of a last arc story, the relationship drama has lasted all season and I don't know if that means we should expect a faster resolution or a slower one. Or even if we should expect one in the first place. I had said this in one earlier post - "This is probably the only romance arc that has given them so much engagement, on both sides of the front. Resolving it would take out one side so they might want to milk it for at least half a season more.". This still holds true but with how the finale panned out, I can't say for sure if they want to resolve it/resolve it soon and take away the engagement it is giving them.

So there you go. I don't know if I made any sense, I had a very straining day at work and English is taking a lot of energy right now but I hope I was at least able to answer your question.

There's one last thing I'd like to add though, which is that all of this is at best conjecture and I have been wrong a lot before so take it with a grain of salt. Whether Tommy will turn up next season or not is dependent on a lot of external factors like actor schedules, contracts, the overall plot and the creative whimsy of one Tim Minear so don't stress too much about it. I'd suggest focusing more on fanworks instead of holding out for canon like I am trying to do. The fans are doing a much better job anyways.

[king-dumbasz]

Hi🫶🏻🫶🏻 could u do a mammon oneshot that takes place after fizz quits.(pretending the twins don’t exist) Like the reader is like the new face of his brand. Ppl start shipping the reader and him online, so he goes along with it for clout and money. But they both eventually end up catching feelings. ( ik it’s rlly specific but I keep thinking about it) also I like ur writing 💜

The internet is a magical place💚

I immediately liked the request and had an idea in mind. It's not something too difficult so my mind was happy Lmao

TW:why do I even put it in if there's never anything to worry about except for swear words, but c'mon, it's Helluva Boss

Mammon x GN! Reader

The news were full of what happened at the last clown pageant. Everything was about Fizzarolli and his relationship with Asmodeus and how Mammon was ridiculed...

Mammon was FURIOUS

He needed a new face, a new someone to put everywhere and make money. He did everything until he finally found it... He found you.

You were perfect! You were funny, good looking and great for the audience! The perfect clown to replace Fizzarolli!

Mammon immediately made plushies, cereal, service bots (you choose what kind of service), hell, even a body pillow of ya!

Phone cases... Halloween costumes for kids... Lamps... Everything!

You became a star!

But like every star, you were a victim of the internet effect of the rule too

For some unknown reason, people shipped you and Mammon

No one knew why, but when you opened your phone, on Envybrl (Tumblr), on Sintter (Twitter or X), there were fanart of you and Mammon

All kind of Fanart! (I know I don't do NSFW, but when I say any kind, I mean any kind)

Mammon saw it too, a lot of it too

"What is that? Wh- why are we hugging in this one?"

He says, pointing at his phone, looking at a fanart of him and you cuddling

"i don't know, sir... The internet scares me"

"Ye..."

Mammon didn't understand why. When Fizzarolli was there no one made these things, but with you it was different

The more Mammon watched, the more he realized how beautiful you looked, and how he liked these fanarts

Mammon started to like every post and imagine these things were true...

Every day, you find a new gift at your door from an unknown person, even if it wasn't that unknown because the wrapping was green black and yellow

One day though, Mammon decides to Rizz you up, because obviously he won't do it normally

"Sir, you wanted me here?"

You said after being called in his office, only to find Mammon in his special valentine outfit (It's just the old one but pink and with hearts)

"Hey, Are you a Wi-Fi signal? Because I’m feeling a strong connection"

That was horrible, adorable, but horrible

"Sir... What?"

"oh, shit uh... Well, I'm out of lines"

"What is happening?"

"Well, I never thought that would've happened, since you're a lower class and shit- but, I found myself liking these fan arts mentally unstable people post of us.."

"Oh!"

You were stunned. Mammon. THE Mammon... Likes you?"

"Well... If I'm gonna be honest... I also found myself liking some of those posts..."

Mammon didn't realise at first and looks at you confused (Idiot)

"I like you too"

Just after you tell him he realises. Mammon smiles widely and hugs you with his four arms, so tightly you couldn't breath

"oh, you're a bloody legend, Y/N!"

"Eh... The internet is really a magical place..."

[qqueenofhades]

Hiya, sorry to bother you, but given your reblog that's going around about vetting prokopetz' medieval magic post, this seemed as good a place as any to ask.

A while ago, I came across a meme that sought to absolve the Catholic Church of its (according to this meme alleged) involvement in witch hunts. To do so, it made 4 claims: 1] the punishments for witchcraft issued by the Catholic Church were generally light (confession, repentance, charitable work), 2] the Papal Bull issued by Innocent III to support Heinrich Kramer's witch hunts lead to an uprising by the Catholic Clergy, 3] the Clergy later forced the Vatican to rescind their endorsement of the Malleus Maleficarum and issue a formal condemnation, and finally 4] the Catholic Church would later call the book "a worse crime than heresy in its notable animus against women".

I have looked up some information myself, but didn't go deeper than Wikipedia. In reverse order: 4] That quote isn't from the Catholic Church, but mangled slightly and pulled from Wikipedia. 3] I couldn't find anything about the Catholic Church condemning the book, but I did find that the Malleus contained a possibly partially fraudulent endorsement from the University of Cologne, who later condemned the book. 2] I could not find any source for this, and it may have been confused with the situation around the Malleus. I did find that the Papal Bull didn't do much to aid Kramer, as it was apparently largely ignored. 1] I did find where this came from, as it indeed seemed to be the consequence at some point in time, but I also saw that the Catholic Church sponsored witch hunts that very much ended in executions.

I was wondering if you happened to know more about this, as well as if there was any interesting historical context that I didn't find.

Once again, thank you for your time, and sorry to disturb you.

I.... what. What. Hoo boy. Hoo boy hoo boy hoo boy hoo boy hoo boy hoo boy hoo boy hoo boy. There is, as the ancient Tumblr proverb saith, A Lot To Unpack Here, as I pinch the bridge of my nose and sigh very, very deeply. Please note that my incredulity and judgment is not directed at you, but at... whoever.... wants to spend their time on the internet making memes that blithely propagate, not to put too fine a point on it, multiple levels of total nonsense.

First off, is this some coordinated social media effort to insist "the Catholic Church wasn't/isn't actually misogynist you guys!!!" or... what? Or is it that if you reveal a Shocking Truth Hidden From You By Evil Historians (TM), it's somehow more likely to be real? I am guessing possibly the latter, but given the immense alt-right influencer effort aimed at convincing young women to join reactionary conservative religious movements (i.e. the whole "tradwife" thing) the former motive can't be entirely ruled out. Either that or this idiot person put some god-knows-what question into ChatGPT and embraced the result, because that is the level of hallucinatory anti-historical thinking, illogical conclusions, terrible reading comprehension, and nonsensical source work we are dealing with here. Let us break this down. It will take a while.

(Sorry. A meme. A meme insisting Everything U Kno Of History Is Wrong, Catholic Church Good, Like Women, Very Like Women, Most Progressive, Wow. I just. Okay.)

First, as to point 1), per my last post, the clerical and ecclesiastical response to witchcraft, what it was conceived of being, who was seen as responsible for it, the necessary punishment, and how it integrated with other theological, popular, and religious beliefs varied WILDLY over the medieval and early modern periods. You simply cannot generalize about any of these cases without extensive details, such as the time and place, the institutions and individuals involved, the presumed or actual punishment that was enacted, any texts or traditions that were invoked to justify it, etc. Sometimes witchcraft punishments were comparatively light. Sometimes they were not. Once again, we are talking about a minimum of 1000 years (500-1500 CE is commonly accepted as the medieval era, and that's without the major witchcraft trials in the 16th and 17th centuries, which would be classified as early modern). You cannot just say The Catholic Church Always Did This In The Premodern World, The End.

Even without getting into any of the other weeds, the idea that "the Catholic Church only ever imposed light punishments for witchcraft and the accused just had to go to confession and then it was fine!" is a fundamental misunderstanding of how carefully we have to work with premodern sources and how any remotely good historian is careful to insist how NOT universal their examples are and how they have been repeatedly contextualized, reinterpreted, and reused in ways that might significantly change their original meaning. Likewise, The Medieval Catholic Church was not a monolith exclusively passing sentence on all witchcraft trials all the time and everywhere. There were countless individual courts and accusers who might or might not have been explicitly associated with the church, and it's nonsense to think that these all represented a coordinated and explicit effort to impose a centralized Witchcraft Response directly from Rome or other major centers of premodern Catholic power. The All Powerful Medieval Catholic Church Brainwashed Everyone, But Somehow It Was Actually Just Very Nice Too And Witchcraft Trials Didn't Really Exist? Is that what we're going for here, or... or what?

2) The papal bull issued by Innocent VIII (not the thirteenth-century Innocent III, although he was certainly very interested in militaristic-ecclesiastical responses to "heretic" beliefs given his efforts to organize the Fourth, Albigensian, and Fifth Crusades) was called Summis desiderantes affectibus; the Internet History Sourcebook helpfully has a free English translation! You will see that it is specifically concerned with reinforcing the authority of the inquisition to operate in specific regions in Germany against local clerical opposition, and names the Malleus co-authors Heinrich Kramer and Jacobus Sprenger as "beloved sons" and personal papal legates:

And, although our beloved sons Henricus Institoris and Jacobus Sprenger, of the order of Friars Preachers, professors of theology, have been and still are deputed by our apostolic letters as inquisitors of heretical pravity, the former in the aforesaid parts of upper Germany, including the provinces, cities, territories, dioceses, and other places as above, and the latter throughout certain parts of the course of the Rhine; nevertheless certain of the clergy [...] assert that these are not at all included in the said parts and that therefore it is illicit for the aforesaid inquisitors to exercise their office of inquisition in the provinces, cities, dioceses, territories, and other places aforesaid.

So is this our evidence for a "clerical revolt" against the Malleus and its authors because The Catholic Church Really Wanted to Protect Women? No, it's that certain German clergy did not want the papal inquisitors to operate in their territories (for many complex reasons) and the pope was specifically ordering them to do so. Also, the Malleus was proudly published with Summis desiderantes -- once again, a from-the-very-top papal bull -- included as the in-text prologue. This doesn't exactly make the case that the institutional Catholic church was refuting it in horror, and especially not that it was specifically doing so because of the Malleus' virulent misogyny. Not least because at this point... womp womp... the Malleus wasn't even actually published. The bull was issued in 1484. The Malleus didn't appear until around 1486 or 1487. There is literally no way to use Summis as evidence of some principled clerical backlash against the Malleus, for any reason at all, when yet again, it did not exist yet.

Papal policy in the late 15th century was both individualistic (i.e. the particular pope had a great deal of latitude in deciding it) and already set by over a thousand years of canon law, encyclicals, previous bulls, expected precedents, social relations, church tradition, and other complex factors. To extrapolate from the single text of the Summis, concerned with establishing papal authority for its inquisitors to operate in Germany, that "the entire clergy of the Catholic church launched a wide-scale revolt against the Malleus specifically to decry its misogyny and the Vatican was forced to revoke its endorsement" is straight-up hallucinatory AI nonsense. The Malleus was published after the bull failed to convince clergy to let the inquisitors operate in their areas (because once again, just because the pope decreed something did not make it happen). Kramer remained popular and favored within the Catholic Church until his death in 1505, and his appointment as a papal nuncio (messenger) continued under Innocent VIII's sucessor, Alexander VI (Rodrigo Borgia). There was backlash, but it was by no means detrimental to his career.

Likewise, we aren't even sure about how popular or on-the-ground influential the Malleus actually was. Some scholars claim it was massively influential. This is true insofar as it did have almost 30 editions and reprints between 1486-1669, and other witch-hunting handbooks took it as a model. However, others point out that there's simply no way to tell how much the basic printing of a book influenced its actual practical usage beyond certain circles of clerics who were already obsessed with the topic. The academic study of witchcraft in the 18th and 19th centuries also retroactively cast a lot of importance on the Malleus that may or may not have been there in its own day, and the historiography around it is confused, contradictory, and massively incomplete (article linked is in French but you can run it through Google Translate if you want to get the gist.) So we don't even actually know how it was received other than it was both popular and controversial, which is hardly contradictory. There was, again, no such thing as a widespread Vatican revolt to get the church to disavow it specifically because of its misogyny. Objections were raised on many fronts, but that has been the case with literally every single piece of church writing ever.

Next, in the prologue where it insisted that witches were only (evil) women, the Malleus explicitly drew on hundreds of years of ecclesiastical and clerical writings about the inferiority of women. This itself was not remotely controversial. What was controversial was the Malleus' insistence that a) witches were only women (even the Summis refers to "persons of both sexes" being suspected as witches) and b) women, the "weaker sex," were capable of being so massively powerful as to overcome even God. Or, as Hans Broedel puts it in chapter 7 of The "Malleus Maleficarum" and the Construction of Witchcraft":

That witches were women was a conclusion that Institoris and Sprenger’s contemporaries would not have found especially alarming – extreme, perhaps, but not so radical as to leave the pale of accepted clerical tradition. On the other hand, what the authors of the Malleus did with this observation, how they explained it, and how they made it integral to their understanding of witchcraft, was quite unusual indeed. To explain the phenomenon they assembled a formidable catalogue of authorities, ancient and modern, to testify to feminine weakness, sinfulness, and perfidy. [...] To Nider’s traditional explanation for women’s inclination to superstitious beliefs, Institoris and Sprenger graft a veritable summa of late-medieval misogynist commonplaces.

Yet again, however, this does not mean "all medieval people were raging misogynists at all times!" The Malleus drew together all the misogynist tropes that existed in medieval culture and were often promoted by clerical writers, but the misogyny wasn't the controversy; it was what they did with it and the theological conclusions they drew. As I also like to remind people, this also does not tell us very much about how misogynistic stereotypes directly impacted the daily lives of medieval women; they certainly did, but misogynistic stereotypes directly impact the lives of modern women too. Nonetheless, yet again, there's no way in which this can be read as "the Catholic church opposed misogyny on principled/moral grounds and condemned the Malleus for it." Misogyny was baked into the teachings, writings, and practice of the Catholic church, even if this was applied unevenly or in ways other than the obvious violently misogynistic rants of the Malleus. It still is!

On that note, let's take point 4, "the Catholic Church would later call the book "a worse crime than heresy in its notable animus against women," because this one is possibly the most egregious offender in terms of Just Plain Bad Source Work, That's Not How Any of This Works, You Are Bad And Should Feel Bad. First off, as you note, this quote is lifted from Wikipedia, as follows, in the article for Summis desiderantes (the aforementioned papal bull):

That last sentence, "it was sensational in the stigma it attached to witchcraft as a worse crime than heresy AND in its notable animus against women" is, for a start, two different clauses. Taken together, they are not exactly incorrect; the Malleus was in fact notable for the way it categorized witchcraft AND for its misogyny. You may notice, however, that nowhere does this say "the Catholic church described the Malleus as worse than heresy specifically because of its misogyny," which the doctored quote wants to suggest. Not least because this text is, in turn, directly copy-pasted from the "Witchcraft" entry in the 1913 edition of the Catholic Encyclopedia:

Why the 1913 edition of the Catholic Encyclopedia, you ask? Because that is a favored source for Wikipedia, since it is a) free and b) open-access, so it gets cited a lot. Using a 1913 encyclopedia entry that more or less factually describes the Malleus's theological perspective to claim that "the official/institutional Catholic church formally condemned the Malleus for being worse than heresy due to its misogyny!" is nonsense. It's complete gibberish. It's not remotely what anything says! It's not remotely representative of current or interesting perspectives on the subject because, stop me if this is confusing, a lot of scholarly work has been published since the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia! EVEN IF THAT IS WHAT THE ORIGINAL QUOTE DID SAY, WHICH IT DOESN'T! JESUS CHRIST!!!

...Anyway. This is far too long already, but hopefully it gives you the most basic tools for understanding why Learning "History" Via Wildly Incorrect Memes is in fact, wildly incorrect. Also how to understand why doing history, especially premodern history with difficult and inaccessible source material, is a specialist skill that takes extensive training and cannot just be Winged On The Vibes by some internet idiot who somehow wants to discover that the most famously misogynist institution in the history of the world actually isn't, somehow. I am going to go take aspirin and drink some coffee and mutter to myself. Thank you and the end.

[minustwofingers]

exoplanet part 7

pairing: ellie williams x fem!reader (she/her pronouns used)

series masterlist (read parts 1-6 here!)

summary: you’ve won the life lottery as one of the few people on earth with parents who gained admittance to the most prestigous safezone in the world after the outbreak. but after a lab accident sends you out to jackson, wyoming, real life hits you fast. it’s a good thing that a hot lesbian finds u. (lol). mean ellie at first, slowburn, enemies to friends to lovers, fem reader asf

warnings: stuck up awful rich people. mentions of: abortion (sowwy ** i can't write kids), homophobia, throwing up, general awful elitism, heavy drinking, implied minor character death, and we talk about stuff like unethical labor practices/basically slave labor. depictions of: violence, guns.

a/n: hey yall....sorry for taking literal months to write this. and sorry in advance for what you're about to read, since this is admittedly a little far removed from tlou. and i'm also sorry if this isn't what you guys are expecting—i know i made you wait a long time for this, so it was tough for me to finally get around to posting because i didn't want to disappoint anyone. also it was just sooo sad writing the last scene because i just didn't want it to end!! anywayyyy enjoy

wc: 14.6k (i know...i know...)

tags: @intrnetdoll @dazedshoon @lovecaraya @pctcr @sariyaflowr @loser-keiji @prettyplant0 @666findgod @sawaagyapong @rystarkov @buzzybuzzsposts @addisonnie @galacticstxrdust @elliesbabygirl​ @pinkazelma @ariianelle @lu002 @blairfox04 @sparkleswonderland @elliesflower @muthafuckingstargirl @elliewilliamsissubermommyoml @eviestevie-14 @quicksilversg1rl @guacala @crtcrp @overtrred28 @sugarqueencosmos @iriswalrus @chiao1209 @lovecaraya @thatgiraffefromtlou @alwayslongingforyou @thelastofshimmer

May 16th, 2029

Welcome to AskAI! Enter your questions below and I'll try my best to answer :) 

How does Cordyceps spread?

Ophiocordyceps unilateralis is mostly commonly spread between humans by the medium of bodily fluids, though this was not always the case. In the early stages of the outbreak, most carriers were infected by the presence of Ophiocordyceps unilateralis spores in flour from a Jakartan mill. It is still unclear how the contamination occurred. 

Is saliva included in bodily fluids that carry Cordyceps?

Yes, Ophiocordyceps unilateralis can be spread through human saliva. Other bodily fluids include blood, feces, mucus, and semen.

So if someone were to kiss someone infected with Cordyceps, would that person be infected too?

Yes, because Ophiocordyceps unilateralis can be spread through human saliva. 

How long would it take before seeing symptoms?

If Ophiocordyceps unilateralis spores were to be introduced to an individual via mouth-to-mouth transmission, the approximate incubation window has been recorded to be no longer than 8 hours.

How long would it take to be detected by a standard testing device?

Our testers would detect the presence of Ophiocordyceps unilateralis within an hour after exposure. Note that this only refers to the conditions outside of Terranova. There has never been a detected case of Ophiocordyceps unilateralis in Terranova’s history. 

Thank you.

You’re welcome! Please leave feedback on the AskAI Feedback Form if you have any ideas as to how I can improve <3

One year later

“And there’s no way we can skip?” 

“You know the rules.”

Dina rolled her eyes and sighed as you two stood at the door of your parents’ penthouse, waiting to knock. “Maybe if you went and I said that I was sick or something.”

“They’d know you were lying.”

“They’d probably be happy if I missed dinner.” 

“I don’t know if happy is something they can be,” you said. You tried to make it light and joking, but it came out with the heaviness of truth. “Plus, they’re not exactly thrilled with me either.”

“Not exactly thrilled” was the understatement of the century. Ever since you’d come home with a pregnant outsider toting a gun and covered in dirt, your parents had convinced themselves that you’d somehow become corrupted over your time living outside. 

But Dina had it way worse. Your parents were so scandalized by her rugged ways and the fact that she’d gotten pregnant out of wedlock that they’d nearly fainted upon realizing you were advocating for her Terranovan citizenship. 

You both had had the good fortune of avoiding any further tense interactions with them for the last few months, but that morning you’d awoken to an email that contained an invitation to their home for dinner. It was noted that Dina had to attend.

So here you two were. Dressed in uncomfortable, stiff clothes and nervously twiddling your thumbs. 

“You’re going to be fine,” you promised Dina. It sounded like a lie. “I’ll do most of the talking, okay?”

“If you say so.” 

You rang the doorbell.

It took just a few moments before the door swung open.

“Hi Chris!” you greeted, plastering a smile on your face. 

Your family housekeeper smiled back with a neutral warmth. She looked slightly thinner than you remembered when you saw her last just a few months ago. “Hello. Miss Dina, please remember to keep your shoes on this time.” 

Dina flushed bright red. The last time she’d come over for dinner, she’d taken her shoes off and had been given a very stern lecture by your mother about how improper stockinged feet were for dinner. “Of course not, ma’am.” 

You sent her an apologetic look and stepped inside.

“Your parents are in the sitting room,” Chris told you as she took your coats. 

You thanked her.

“Why don’t they ever come up to greet us themselves?” Dina whispered to you. 

You shrugged. “No clue. They just never have. They probably don’t want to have to take a break from whatever stimulating conversation they’re having about the country club happenings.”

She snorted. All of a sudden, you were overwhelmed by a sense of gratitude for Dina and her spirit. After your family had essentially decided you were hopeless, family get-togethers had become torture. Dina was your lifeline.

As Chris had said, your parents were found lounging in the sitting room, your mother fanning herself with one hand and holding what looked to be a gin and tonic in the other, your father sitting across from her in a tastefully worn armchair. 

“Girls,” your mother greeted. Her eyes looked flinty and flat. “How good of you to come. I was worried you’d lost your way.”

It was a classic Y/L/N insult for latecomers, but it was barely a minute past 6:30. 

“The elevator wasn’t working,” you offered. “We had to take the stairs.”

“Hm. Well, come and sit. Petra can get you a drink.” 

A tall girl who couldn’t have been much younger than you was standing at the other end of the room next to the bar. She had bright ginger hair that stood out starkly against the neutral beige of her uniform and a small, squatty nose. You’d never seen her before in your life. 

“Is she new?” you asked.

“Who, Petra? Oh, I think so. It must’ve been…oh, I’m not sure. This March, I believe? What do you think, darling?”

“Around then.” The solid ice globe slid against the glass with a clink as your father answered, taking a long pull of his bourbon after. 

“It’s nice to meet you,” said Dina politely.

Your mother let out a labored sigh. “Dear, I’m very glad to see you working on manners, but there’s no need to engage with the help.”

Dina didn’t answer, instead sending you a meaningful look. 

“Well, not usually,” she continued. “Though it is appropriate to interact with them in matters that are considered strictly business. Take, for example, the fact that neither of you have managed to order a drink yet. Petra, come.”

You stared at your hands, folded tightly in your lap. If there was anything you hated more than your parents, it was how they treated the help. And, though you’d never say it out loud, you didn’t understand how two middle aged adults needed more than one full-time housekeeper on hand. Chris made sense. Petra was entirely unnecessary. 

“We really don’t need anything,” you said to Petra when she was in front of you, looking rather pale. “But thank you.” 

The tension in the air refused to dissipate, not even when you were relocated to the dining room and had the crutch of picking away at the three courses served to you. 

Dina, having been thoroughly scolded by your mother the last time she dined with her, was clinical in choosing which utensil to use for each course. 

Your mother babbled on and on about the country club and the book club. Your father occasionally butted in with a few dull, lifeless comments. There was something especially dead in his appearance, like he was running on zero sleep.

“You may be curious as to why I asked you two here today,” your mother said after the main course plates had been cleared. “First of all, I wanted to extend my congratulations to my daughter for graduating in just a few days.” 

“Thank you,” you said stiffly. 

“And more importantly—” 

You resisted the urge to roll your eyes.

“—I wanted to announce that your father will finally be retiring,” she said. “He’s been working so hard for the last few years. Isn’t this wonderful?”

“That’s really great, Father,” you said, feigning a smile to hide your confusion. You hadn’t known that your father had even worked, much less hard enough to warrant a formal retirement. 

“Thanks, dove,” he said.

“When’s your last day?” you pried, wondering if you could manage any more information out of him. 

“This Friday.”

“Hm.” So much for that. You exchanged glances with Dina as Petra reappeared with a tray of small goblets filled with colorful globes of sorbet. 

“You’ll both be expected to be in attendance at his retirement party,” Mother added. She was frowning deeper now. 

“Even me?” said Dina.

“Yes.” She smiled tightly. “And please note that they’re unaware that we helped you through your…little problem. I can’t imagine why that would ever come up in conversation, but I would really prefer it didn’t.”

“Uh huh,” responded Dina, her eyes wide. 

When Dina had arrived, your family had given her two options—have her child and give it up for adoption, or terminate the pregnancy then and there in secret. Refusing to comply would lead to your parents being entirely unwilling to sponsor her citizenship as it was far too unseemly to be an unmarried mother. Though it was clear your parents thought she was devastated by the prospect, she’d confided in you later that she hadn’t realized that that had been an option for her. She’d taken the second option without a second thought, telling you that she didn’t feel ready to be a mother. 

The unfortunate part of it all was that your parents held this over her head on occasion, using it as leverage to make Dina feel like she owed them. Hence why she never felt entirely comfortable with telling them off. 

That your parents had kept the abortion a secret was hardly a surprise. Abortion was one of those issues that no one liked to talk about. Though it wasn’t the hardest procedure to get, it was never publicly discussed. You’d never personally known of anyone who had gotten one before, but the clinic had been so full when you’d attended with Dina nearly a year ago that you were beginning to second guess that fact. 

“Anyway,” said your mother lightly, “Darling, have you heard anything from the Thompsons recently?” 

“Oh, no. I haven’t seen Richard in quite some time.”

“It’s funny you say that. Melanie was supposed to host the Garden Club party last week, and you’ll never believe what happened.”

“What, honey?” Your father stared dully at the tablecloth, entirely unengaged. 

“When I stopped by, the rest of the girls were already there,” your mother said. “Just sitting out in front of her building looking very confused. I walked right up and asked what was going on—you know, now that I’m co-president, I need to keep things in order—”

“Yes, honey.”

“—And Angie tells me that they’ve been ringing her for ten minutes and she hasn't answered. I decided to give her a call, and straight to voicemail. So we all sat out there until it started raining. We never even got an apology text.” 

“Oh,” said your father, looking a little more engaged. “Is that really?”

“Yes,” your mother said. The attention made her sit up straighter. “It absolutely was. It was incredibly inappropriate. I couldn’t believe it. And to think that she stole that hosting spot from me…”

“Do you know if she’s alright?” your father asked,

She shrugged. “I should hope not. That’s the only excuse she could have for what happened.”

“Hm.” Your father moved the melting sorbet around without clinking his spoon to the crystal. “It seems that quite a few of us have been dropping off the face of the Earth.”

“It must be because of the long winter,” you said diplomatically. “Too much darkness makes us all a little loony.”

Your mother raised a brow and hummed in assent. “I suppose so.”

“Is that why groceries are so expensive now?” you asked. It had become a new development. About 6 months after you and Dina had returned, the prices on the shelves had rocketed upwards.

“Something like that,” your father said vaguely. 

“What does that mean?”

“Y/N,” your mother warned.

“It’s alright, dear,” your father said, waving his hand. “It’s really nothing interesting. Supplying this city has always had its challenges. This year just happens to be especially hard.”

“What kind of challenges?” pried Dina.

“Shipments are always difficult to orchestrate,” he said. “As is quality control. It’s nothing that we haven’t seen before. Prices will go back to usual within a few months. The pendulum always has to swing back.”

It was a saying he always used—the pendulum analogy.

Dessert wrapped up quickly. Your mother gave you the official date for your father’s retirement party and ironed out your graduation details, and before you knew it you and Dina were off into the night. 

“Thank fucking god that’s over,” said Dina as you two trotted down the street to the metro. 

“Tell me about it.” You zipped up your jacket to ward off the slight chill in the evening air. “I’m really sorry you had to deal with all of that. I appreciate you coming with me. I know they’re awful to you.”

“Well, they’ll be worse if I don’t go,” she responded, her eyes cloudy for a second. She was right. One misstep and they could have her citizenship and their financial sponsorship rescinded. 

“True,” you conceded. 

The metro was bustling with people as you and Dina hopped on to the yellow line that would take you to the university residences. It was modeled right after the Parisian metros, with its Art Nouveau signs and themed stops.  There was only standing room, so you two clutched onto the stainless steel poles in the middle. 

The doors made a groaning sound and a speaker crackled as the announcer came on.

“Doors closing. Please stand clear of the exits. This is an express train with service to University Park. Other stops include 25th Street and North Village. There will be no evening service to Rotingham.” 

You and Dina seemed to come to an unspoken agreement to remain silent and process the hell that had been dinner with your parents as the train lurched forward into motion. You closed your eyes and would’ve rested your head against the handrail had it not been so gross. 

The only fortunate thing about your parents was the fact that they were incredibly easy to get to, despite living on the other side of the city from the university. What would’ve normally taken 40 minutes with transfers was cut down to 15 with the use of an express train that ran right from the station outside of your apartment. 

You had resolved to just sit in silence when the train came to a screeching halt. 

Your eyes shot open, meeting Dina’s confused gaze. 

The lights above flickered, then sputtered out to leave you in darkness. 

There was a hushed silence amongst everyone in your train car. 

“What’s going on?” Dina whispered to you. 

“This happens sometimes,” you said quietly back, but it was sort of a lie. It wasn’t entirely uncommon for the lights to go out, but you’d never had it happen in tandem with a train stopping on the tracks before reaching a station. And especially not an express train…

The lights flickered on again, and there was a shared sense of relief as a few of the train’s occupants let out a shaky laugh. 

“Thought we were going to have to walk!” said a ruddy looking old man sitting across from you. The car responded with polite chuckles. 

“Apologies for the delay,” came a voice over the loudspeaker—a human voice, not an automated one. “There was a disturbance on the tracks that had to be dealt with. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. Service will continue as usual.”

The train lurched back into movement, the dark walls of the tunnel moving past in a blur.

“That was weird,” Dina remarked once you two had gotten to your stop and were walking up to ground level.

“Yeah,” you said, frowning. “I didn’t want to tell you then because I didn’t want to freak you out, but normally express trains never stop, especially not at this time of night with less trains in service.”

“What qualifies as a disturbance on the tracks?”

“I have no clue,” you confessed. The sun was hovering just barely over the horizon, its last rays of light reflecting aggressively off of the skyscrapers in the distance from which you came. “Someone probably dropped something big like a suitcase onto the tracks and blocked the way. It happens.” 

You were purposefully avoiding the elephant in the room—that it had probably been a person on the tracks. It wasn’t especially common—not nearly as common as you heard it was in places like New York before the outbreak—but it happened on occasion. Terranova wasn’t the best place for everyone.

“The Thompsons are Simon’s family, right?” Dina asked you. She had to raise her voice to be heard over the cheerful chatter of fellow university students socializing and drinking on the green next to the sidewalk.

“Yeah,” you said. You and Dina had occasionally hung out with Simon since returning. You noticed that Simon had really taken a liking to Dina, but neglected to mention it since his parents were actively attempting to arrange a marriage between him and some girl in the Art History program at your school. “Have you talked to him at all? I haven’t heard from him for a week or so.”

“Me neither.” Dina tightened the dark braid that fell over her shoulder as she walked, looking rather troubled. “I didn’t realize his parents were missing.”

“They’re probably fine,” you said. “I seriously wouldn’t worry about it. There’s nothing here that could hurt them.”

“You’re right,” she said. “I just forget that there’s no infected here sometimes. Like, tonight, I thought I was gonna have to start swinging on someone in the train when the power cut.” 

“God, same.” You shivered. “It’s weird to know that we don’t have to worry about that anymore. But I think it’ll get easier with time.”

“Yeah,” said Dina, but she didn’t sound convinced. “Well, I’m going to text Simon and see if he’s alright. Or maybe call him. I’m sure he’ll know what happened.” 

“Let me know what he says.” You’d ascended the steps up to your shared apartment and were slotting the key into the keyhole. “By the way, did I ever formally invite you to my graduation?”

“Not that I recall.” Dina followed you in and kicked her shoes off.

“Well, consider this your formal invitation,” you said, turning to grin at her. “It’s this Saturday. Be there or be square.”

“Will there be free food?”

“And anything you want to drink,” you told her, though you weren’t entirely sure of that fact. You’d only ever been to one graduation in your life, and that had been years before it was socially acceptable for you to drink anything beyond the odd glass of watered down wine—but you recalled a memory of particularly free-flowing champagne flutes being passed around. 

“Consider me sold.” 

~

You had to be going crazy. There was no way. 

You entered the numbers back into the graphing software again. Then again. Then one more time, just to be sure you were seeing what you were seeing. 

“Everything going alright over there?” asked old Professor Gunther, looking up from his grading and his steaming cup of tea. 

“Um—” You blinked, hard, then looked back down at your calculations. “Professor, can you look at these for me? I think I must’ve made a mistake.”

“Of course, my dear.” He graciously accepted the notepad full of barely legible numbers that you came up to hand to him and adjusted the glasses on his face so he could squint more efficiently. “And what is this exactly?”

“I’ve been parsing through the data on that star—that K star you’d been watching for a while—and, um, I’ve noticed something.” Your voice shook nearly as much as your hand as you pointed to the scribbled numbers. “Can you, uh, graph these? And put them into a different program than StarBlast? And look at the spectra? It’s giving me what I think is—actually, I don’t know. You do it and I’ll show you what I got.” 

“I’m confused about what you could have possibly done wrong,” he said, though he was already opening his own laptop and starting up a different program that you hadn’t used before because of how much you hated the GUI. “Did you try to parse it by hand to check?”

“Yes,” you said. “Horrible idea. Took me forever.” 

“And you got the same result?”

“Yeah.”

“Hm.” He took off his glasses to wipe them off, then began typing in the data you’d emailed to him earlier for bookkeeping purposes. “Let me see what I have.” 

The agonizing few minutes it took for him to enter him already had your mind spiraling with possibilities as the implications sunk in. If you were right—if this was right—everything was going to change in your field. 

The spectra graph roared to life.

“Jesus Christ,” you heard your professor say. “Is this—”

“I think so,” you said. “I think so.”

What you two were looking at held more than one piece of crucial information. The first was nothing but basic calculations of a Doppler Shift that detected that there was a planet. Your calculations estimated its size at roughly the same as the Earth, with a similar orbital period and distance from its star that placed it in the habitable zone.

That wasn’t anything earth-shattering. There were plenty of Earth-sized planets in the habitable zone, implying that if the conditions were right, there was an environment conducive to organic life. 

What was, however, were the spectra emissions that you were staring at, slack-jawed and skin prickling. 

“Methane,” you whispered. “And oxygen. And phosphine.” 

And not just a little—enough that it suggested biological processes that could only occur with the presence of life.

“I think you should finish writing this report,” Professor Gunther finally said. 

You froze. “What?” 

He turned to you, his glasses sliding down his bulbous nose and a kind smile on his face. “I’ve made enough discoveries in my life. This one is yours to claim.” 

You were overcome with so much gratitude that you launched yourself at him, throwing your arms around his neck and hugging him tightly.

Gunther good-naturedly patted your back with the enthusiasm of a grandfather being pestered by his grandchildren. “This is your moment. Take it.” 

“Thank you,” you said, pulling back with tears welling up in your eyes. “Thank you, thank you, thank you.” 

He smiled again. “It’s truly my pleasure. I feel lucky to have had a student like you.” 

“If you don’t stop, I’m going to start crying.”

“We can’t have that,” he said, standing up and handing you back your sheet of calculations. “You have work to do.”

You settled back into your work across from him, nearly buzzing with excitement as you finished typing up your findings. It would be a long process for the study to actually be published—long, painful, and undoubtedly draining—but it would be so worth it. You’d be the one who discovered a planet that (most likely) harbored life. For the first time in history. 

Though you wouldn’t be publishing a paper any time soon, you still had to log the planet into the “global” (not exactly global given that there was no other place on Earth with the same technology as Terranova) database. And with that meant giving it a name.

In that moment, it was like time froze as the cursor blinked in the box. There was nothing but the blood rushing in your head, the dull hum of the fluorescent lights above, and the slight stickiness of the leather desk chair beneath you. 

You gulped. It was standard in the department to name planets after the astronomer that discovered them. You’d never had a planet named after you before. You’d only ever crunched numbers that Gunther had given to you to analyze spectra emissions. This was the first time you’d ever actually discovered something that hadn’t already been logged before it had landed on your desk.

And yet…

You closed your eyes. Suddenly you were back in the meadow at Jackson, tracing the wisps of the Milky Way with your finger as you and Ellie talked about the constellations. You saw the childish excitement on her normally stern features when she held the moon rock for the first time. You saw the wonder in her eyes when you told her a new space fact that she’d never heard before. That she’d never had the opportunity to learn before. 

Your fingers moved before you could stop them, quickly tapping out the name “Ellie” into the box and hitting the enter button. 

For the rest of the day, you regretted it. You tried not to think of her anymore. It was something that you’d promised yourself you wouldn’t do after you spent the entirety of last summer miserable and doing nothing but turning over the memories in your mind until Dina made you do something with her. 

It was difficult. You wanted to put it in the past, because you couldn’t think about her without thinking about how she probably wasn’t even alive anymore. Which didn’t make any sense. Nothing ever made any sense about Ellie. Even before you predicted she’d been bitten, she’d already been behaving erratically—not packing her things, not saying a real goodbye to Joel, catching more food than their small group of three could possibly need near the end. It was like she knew that she wouldn’t be able to go.

Which didn’t make any sense, because why go all that way knowing that it was for nothing?

Which made you think about how bizarre she was before leaving. How sad she seemed when she told you that she was going, like even then she knew that it wouldn’t happen. 

And you hadn’t gotten sick from her, even though you should have. She’d kissed you long after she would’ve been bitten. And you knew from your frantic research upon arriving that you should have tested positive when Simon checked. 

So why hadn’t you? And why had she?

It was things like this that could keep you up for days if you weren’t careful. It was awful, but sometimes you liked to believe that she had really been sick and had died shortly after. You had a vision of her killing herself before fully turning, and even though it hurt to imagine it, it was the most humane end of them all. If she was dead, then maybe there was an afterlife, and maybe a piece of her was watching over you. Maybe she was still with you. Maybe she finally was able to rest. 

You hoped that little piece of her had seen her name the first planet with life after her.

A tiny smile crept across your face, but inside you felt devastated. You were going to mourn her again all day, like you always did when something reminded you of her. And you were probably going to dream of her, of her stupid grin and the way her hair felt when it tickled your face. 

Pull it together you thought glumly. You had to be normal for your father’s retirement party that night, and you had just under 4 hours to do so. 

~

“Ugh,” you said, staring at your phone as you stood with Dina near the door, both of you dolled up and ready to go to the party.

“That’s how I feel too,” said Dina. “I’m going to kill myself if anyone brings up anything about how hard my childhood must’ve been and how I’m doing such a good job adjusting one more time.”

“Ha,” you said. “Mom just texted me to tell me that we need to stop by theirs first.”

“Why? Aren’t they already at the venue?”

“Yeah,” you responded, wrinkling your nose. “But apparently she forgot her gift for him—some vintage Rolex she got restored for him.”

“A vintage what?”

“Stupidly overpriced wristwatch,” you explained. 

It took less time than usual to get to their building. Despite it being at peak busy hour, the platforms seemed eerily empty.

“Is there some holiday going on?” Dina asked, sitting across from you so that you both had your own row of seats. 

“Oh, I’m such an idiot,” you said, clapping your forehead with your hand. “Of course there is. That’s why my father held his retirement party today. It’s the first day of this festival that goes all week.”

“What’s it for?”

“I honestly don’t know the background,” you admitted. “Most people just use it as an excuse to get incredibly drunk. I think it has something to do with the founding. It’s, like, the only time that public intoxication is okay.” 

“Damn,” said Dina thoughtfully. 

“The trains will probably fill up on our way back,” you said, sighing. “Hopefully it won’t be too bad. Worst comes to worst we can walk.”

“It gets that bad?” 

“There’s hardly standing room,” you said, recalling the last festival you’d been around for—the summer before you’d been catapulted to Jackson. “And it just reeks of drunk people. And you have to be really careful, because I hear the custodial staff has to work overtime to clean up all the vomit.” 

“Gross,” said Dina. “And here I was thinking that it was just all being proper and mannerly.”

“Everyone has their limits,” you said lightly.

The penthouse felt just as oppressive as when you came for dinners, like you were walking into the lair of a dragon who was coming back at any moment. Chris was gone—likely participating in the festival herself—but you were surprised to see the figure of Petra bent in a corner as you entered, dusting the top shelf of their bookcase.

You and Dina politely greeted her before ascending the steps to your father’s office.

“Why did your Mom put it in here?” Dina asked as you began shuffling through papers to find the box that your mother had described over text.

“My father doesn’t work in here all too often,” you said, opening a few drawers and seeing no trace of the green and gold box. “He just uses it to file away things.” 

“What does he do?” 

“I actually have no clue,” you confessed. “He doesn’t talk about it, and I don’t ask.” 

“Do you want to see if we can find out?” Dina asked with a conspiratorial raise of her eyebrow as she motioned towards the filing cabinets. “Just a quick look. They’ll never know that we were here.”

You took a moment to consider. If Chris had answered the door to let you two in, you would’ve told her that you couldn’t, because she would definitely snitch if she knew. But she was nowhere to be seen, and Petra looked like she was busy enough downstairs. 

“Sure. Why not.” 

The first few cabinets held nothing interesting—just spending reports and copies of contracts that were written in legalese. 

“It looks like he works with whoever supplies this place,” remarked Dina as you two skimmed the papers and saw records of contacts all over the continent, from the old continental US and South America, each detailing something boring about shipping dates and inventory. 

But then came the third cabinet, with papers dated back before you were born with what looked like sketches of barren looking buildings and hand-scrawled notes. 

“What are these?” you breathed, laying them out on the ground. 

“I think…” Dina squinted. “I think that these might be manufacturing plants?” 

“Oh?” You dug further around in the cabinet to see if you could find any further illuminating evidence. 

“Yeah,” said Dina, staring as she began to flip through the pages already on the floor. “Holy shit, dude. This is…sort of messed up. Look at how small these living quarters are.”

You peered over her shoulder to see the architectural sketches of what looked to be more of what you imagined a prison to be. There were long bunks stacked on top of each other in what looked to be a never ending line, the mattresses barely even large enough to be considered twins. 

Someone cleared their throat behind you, and you nearly leapt.

“I hope I’m not interrupting,” said Petra. Her voice was low and raspy. You noted that it was the first time she’d ever spoken.

“Oh, uh—” You began to frantically gather the papers, hoping she hadn’t seen. Would she tell your parents? “Sorry if we disturbed your work. My parents, uh, they asked us to get something from—”

“It’s fine,” she interrupted, holding up a hand. “I won’t say anything.”

“Thank you.” You stared up at her steely green eyes, wondering what had compelled her to approach you and Dina. “Um, is there anything we can do to help you?”

“Don’t drink the bourbon,” she said, so quickly that it seemed to fluster her. 

“What? Why?”

“Just don’t do it,” she said again. “Better yet, don’t drink anything except for the water.”  

“I’m sorry,” you said, feeling genuinely apologetic. “I’m not sure if I understand.”

Something crossed over Dina’s face, and suddenly something in her seemed to shift. Her features paled. She knew something you didn’t.

“I came from one of those places,” Petra said, motioning to the diagrams that you were staring at. “They’re not—they’re not somewhere you want to be. We all try our best to come here. That’s what they tell us, you know. Do well enough and you’ll get sent to where everyone gets to live a life of grandeur and luxury. But they barely send anyone, and when they do, they get shitty positions like this.” 

Your breath caught in your throat as your understanding slowly grew. Of course. How had you been so stupid to think that wealthy people were ever going to have any of their kind work any real job? 

“You two were the ones who came from outside, right?” Petra continued. When you two nodded, she crouched next to you. “And you were wondering what was going on with the prices?”

You nodded again, awestruck.

“Your Dad’s little spiel on it being about bad weather is bullshit,” she said, her words hard. “People are getting tired of this. They’re realizing they’re never getting out. You know what it’s like out there—it’s scary. It’s tiring. So many people get sick, so many die. So when people finally caught onto the fact that the work they’re doing is nothing but dressed up slavery and that their chances of getting out are basically zero, they start doing things to mess with the system.”

“Like contaminating the products?” Even as she said it, it seemed like Dina already knew the answer. 

Petra just gave you two a long look. 

“So that’s what he meant by quality control,” you said, the realization hitting you. 

“Among other things.” 

“How long do you think we have?” asked Dina.

“Not very long at all.” 

“You guys can’t be serious,” you said, nervous laughter catching in your chest. “Do you seriously mean that Terranova isn’t going to be around for much longer? Is that what you’re saying?”

Petra shrugged and stood up. “Believe whatever you want. But from where I stand, it looks like there’s only two possible ways out of this situation. That is, unless you guys all become farmers.”

“I don’t think I’m following,” you said.

“Two options,” Petra said, sighing heavily. “Either we starve or we don’t. And the latter means taking a really big fucking chance on what we bring in.”

“But the system has worked for so long,” you said, more to yourself than anyone else. 

“Too long,” she amended. “It was never sustainable. Maybe if you people had been okay with just eating native plants and wildlife. Maybe if you people were okay with changing your way of life. But no, you just had to have your fucking oranges from Florida and your coffee from South America.” 

“Don’t lump me into this,” said Dina. “I just got here.” 

Petra laughed, but it was a hard and sharp sound. “Well, chances are you won’t be here for long.”

“Hang on,” you said. “We’re still doing quality control inspections. The most likely scenario is that we’re going to have to cut down on imports—not that we’re about to go up in flames any minute.”

“I hope you’re right about that,” she said in that voice that told you that she thought that you definitely weren’t and didn’t see the point in arguing further. “Anyways, I’ve got to finish working so I can get home before dark. Be careful, okay?” 

“You too,” you said. “And thanks for…not saying anything.”

It was a bit presumptuous considering that Petra hadn’t really given you any good reason beyond her word that she wouldn’t mention you lurking in your father’s cabinets, so you and Dina were thorough in carefully placing each file back into the correct place, just in case. 

“Do you really think what she said is true?” you asked once you and Dina had located the watch and were on the metro once again.

Dina shrugged. “I mean, it makes sense.”

“Does it?”

“Look,” said Dina. “I know that this might be hard for you to hear, but I’m pretty sure this place lives off of what’s basically slave labor. If there’s any humanity left in the world, I would like to think that Terranova would eventually fall.” 

You swallowed hard, then blinked. For a moment you thought you were going to throw up. “I never knew. I didn’t realize.”

“Of course you didn’t.” Dina’s voice was surprisingly patient. “You were a kid. But you’re not anymore, so it’s time to grow up and face the music.”

“I don’t know what to do.”

“I don’t either.” 

The two of you fell into a silence as the train sped past empty platforms bathed in shadows and you thought and thought and thought. 

There was just too much happening today. First Gunther’s lab, then Ellie, now your entire worldview toppling. 

As the train windows continued to blur the background of the tunnels and empty stations, your mind spun with reflections of your childhood—of you enjoying simple luxuries that you didn’t realize came at the expense of others. That you didn’t even think to ask about. You’d mindlessly trudged along, eating your exotic fruits and drinking your expensive tea and wearing clothes built from indulgent fabrics just because you could. Even when Dina had asked where the oranges came from all the way back in Jackson, you hadn’t let yourself wonder. You hadn’t let yourself consider the possibility that it was anything less than the sanitized fairyland that you’d been brought up in—perhaps because you knew all along. 

And that made it even worse.

Dina seemed to understand, sending you a few glances without prodding. 

“Do you think we need to leave?” you asked, your voice just barely a whisper.

“Us leaving isn’t going to do anything,” Dina said, like she’d been expecting it. “And how would we even do that? It’s not like we can just charter a helicopter again to drop us off back in Jackson.” 

Something twisted inside of you. “Oh, God. You’re right. We couldn’t even leave if we tried.”

And you might have to try, a sinister voice inside you whispered. What if Petra was right about the contaminated products? What if they missed something when checking imports?

You’d never been taught how quickly the fungus spread in the original outbreak, and you knew little about the normal amount of time it would take any sort of disease to infect the entire population. But you did know how densely populated everything was. How reliant everything was on a few strictly maintained channels, like public transportation. 

It wouldn’t be hard for it to all come crashing down, really. It would just take the right place at the right time and—

“Don’t freak out, Y/N.” Dina laid a hand on your shoulder. “We’ll figure something out if it comes to that.” 

You smiled at her, grateful that you didn’t even have to put your words into thoughts. “But if we can’t leave, what do we do? It’s not like we can just sit by and do nothing.”

Dina pulled her bottom lip under her teeth, worrying it before answering. “I don’t really think that we have a choice. Right now, at least. I don’t know if there’s anything that just the two of us can do.”

“I’ll find more,” you said. “I’ll talk to my professors—my friends at university—Simon—”

“Do you think that we’re the only two that know about this?” asked Dina. “Because I really don’t. Maybe your friends don’t. But anyone in the military and anyone who was around when this was founded has got to know. They just don’t care enough.”

Something slowly iced over inside of you as the implications sunk in. 

Gunther had probably known. No, scratch that—he definitely did. He was an academic who had been in his 30s when the world fell apart. Any adult would have asked the same questions that Dina had upon arrival. 

“We’ll figure something out, I’m sure,” said Dina firmly. “Okay? Don’t worry.” 

“Speaking of Simon,” you said, narrowing your eyes, “Did you ever get in touch with him? Is his family okay?” 

“Oh, yeah.” said Dina. “He texted me back a bit ago. Said something about how he was just busy and that his family had been camping up in the mountains.” 

You two faded into silence. 

The retirement party came and went without much trouble. On the outside, at least. You were a mental wreck, barely able to keep it together as near strangers came up to you and expressed how much bigger you were since they’d seen you a decade and a half ago. 

You noted with muted suspicion that Simon’s parents were nowhere to be seen amongst the crowd, not even by the lavishly decorated bar. 

~

That night, you did dream of Ellie. It wasn’t the usual. Ellie wasn’t turning in front of you or bleeding or crying out in pain with a bite mark on her arm. She wasn’t yelling at you for failing her and letting her get bitten without even noticing. No; instead, she lay beside you in your meadow spot and talked to you.

And somehow that was so much worse.

“I named a planet after you,” you said, feeling hot tears pool at the seams of your eyes that you squeezed together to avoid sobbing. You knew you were dreaming. You always knew you were dreaming—seeing Ellie always seemed to prompt a degree of lucidity that was otherwise missing in your sleep. 

“That’s really fucking sappy of you.”

“I miss you.” It came out like a compulsion, like you couldn’t stop it. “Are you here? Are you with me?”

“Y/N,” Ellie said, turning to look at you. The darkness made it difficult to see her whole face, but you could see the look of pity on her features in the gray-blue of the moonlight. “Of course I’m not here. Don’t be stupid. I’m dead.”

“Sometimes I wonder if you’re not. Like, if something happened.”

“Something did happen. I died.” 

“Fuck you.”

She smiled sadly, and for a moment you thought her eyes looked more reflective than usual. “It’s not very helpful to think that way. And what can I tell you? I’m not even real.”

“I’d like you to try,” you whispered.

“Fine.” She sat up, pulling her legs into a lazy tangle as she looked at you. “What did you seriously expect, dude? You were never going to stay. I wasn’t going to go. If I hadn’t been bitten, I’m sure I would’ve orchestrated some way to get out of it. My family is back in Jackson. I liked you just fine, but you’re not my family. That shit’s deeper. Different.” 

You opened your mouth, then closed it, then opened it again. The sharp pain in your chest faded into a cold sense of familiarity. Then, because she wasn’t real and there was no reason to feel embarrassed about bearing your emotions: 

“You feel more like family than anyone here.” 

“Then that sounds like a you problem,” said Ellie, flatly. “I’m not gonna let you guilt trip me like this. Boo fucking hoo, you grew up richer than everyone else on Earth and had to deal with strict parents. Do you realize what actual, real problems are? What about the people who make your lifestyle possible, huh? What about them?”

“I didn’t know.”

“Then you’re fucking stupid.” 

The tears were streaming freely down your face now. “I would do anything to be back with you. I wanted to stay. I miss you so much. I don’t know what to do with myself without you.”

“And I’m sorry you have to deal with that.” 

“Will you just say that you miss me too? You don’t have to mean it. I just want—I just want to hear it.” 

“I can’t miss you. I’m not around anymore.” 

Ellie watched as you curled in on yourself and sobbed so hard you thought you were going to be sick. 

“You’re so weak,” she said after a few minutes. There was no venom in her tone. It was as if she was merely relaying something as inconsequential as the weather to you. “All you do is expect other people to care for you.” 

Not real. Not real. Not real you repeated to yourself in your mind with growing franticness. 

She wasn’t real. None of this was real. Ellie was never that affectionate with you, but this was another level. This was something personal. 

“You said that being weak isn’t bad.”

“And you said that you were going to make sure I was going to get to Terranova.”

 “And it’s not my fault that you decided to go gallivanting alone in the woods.”

“You could’ve tried harder.”

“I did as much as I could.”

“Sure you did.” 

You bolted awake. The hair at the nape of your neck was wet with the slick of sweat. For a moment, you let yourself catch your breath, reorient yourself in your surroundings. 

Your room. You were in your dorm room, with your space posters and your books. Ellie hadn’t been here. She hadn’t said that. You were okay.

A blaring noise jarred you as you realized that your alarm had made you wake up. Your alarm, because it was graduation day and you needed to be ready for a full day of festivities. 

“Fuck,” you muttered, scrubbing your face with you hands. The last thing you wanted to do after this was have to see your parents and pretend like you like them for appearances. 

She's gone. She's gone. She's gone you repeated in your head like a mantra. It was over. You shouldn’t have named that stupid planet after her, because she was gone and she always would be.

It would only be a matter of time until your parents would start asking you about your dating life, you realized as you brushed your teeth over the shiny white basin of your sink, the minty bubbles making your lips tingle. They’d been willing to entertain your reasoning of wanting to focus on your studies while you were at university, but you knew they’d been looking for prospective engagements behind your back.

It took you longer than usual to get ready, your mind wandering as you lingered in different corners of your apartment. You kept the lights off, opting to let the cool, gray daylight from the gloomy clouds wash the surfaces of your room. 

“Hey,” said Dina, appearing from her own room and leaning against the doorframe. 

“Good morning,” you greeted blandly, your attention on the necklace that just wouldn’t clasp around your neck.

“Looking spiffy,” she said. “By the way, did Simon say anything to you?” 

“No.” You paused and turned to her, a frown on her face. As far as you were concerned, you really had no reason to be in contact with Simon beyond the general pleasantries. 

“He just called me,” said Dina. “He seemed—I dunno. Like, weirdly frantic. He was saying that we need to stop by his.” 

“His” was inconveniently on the opposite side of the city, even further past your parents’ place. 

“Why? Pretty far for a short jaunt.” 

“He was really insistent,” pressed Dina. Her long black curls were unruly, her skin sallow in a way you hadn’t seen in a while. She hadn’t been sleeping as well recently, it seemed, just like you since you’d spoken to Petra. “Maybe we should just stop by.” 

“Did he say anything about why?”

“I tried to ask,” said Dina, frowning. “But the call dropped.”

“I hate how horrible service is in your room,” you said. 

“Me too. Anyway, are we gonna see him?” 

You shrugged. “I guess. We have some time. I’ll text him too just to see what’s going on.” 

Dina was ready in just a few minutes, pulling a light blue sweatshirt over her shirt and stepping into her shoes. 

“You look soooo cute,” she said, pinching your cheeks. “My little grad.”

You rolled your eyes, but the size of your smile ruined it. 

For once in your life, you noticed that the university green outside of your apartment was suspiciously empty. 

“Quiet,” Dina noted as you made your way to the metro. “It’s eerie.” 

“People were probably partying all night,” you said. “Celebrating graduation and whatnot. I imagine everyone’s sleeping off a hangover instead of having to get up at the crack of dawn to voyage across the city.”

Dina held up her hands. “Gee. Sorry.” 

The train was a little more populated. Some older Terranovans had newspapers cracked as they licked their fingers to turn the page. The silent hum of the train lulled you into another soliloquy as the tunnel plunged you into darkness.

You had to stop thinking about Ellie. You needed to move on, as awful as it was. You’d named a planet after her. She’d be forever remembered in the stars, and that should be enough. You didn’t need to keep dragging her memory behind you like a corpse, because she was dead and she was never coming back and she was—

On the platform?

Your mouth dropped as the doors of the train slowly rolled open to reveal a short girl with shoulder length auburn hair slowly ambling towards the platform. She was wearing a pale green short sleeve that had some sort of edgy spatter pattern on it—something that was very Ellie-esque. But something wasn’t…

It took you one breath to notice that neither of her bare arms had any tattoos. It took you another to see that what you had initially assumed to be a pattern was actually blood-soaked fabric formed from red rivelets that trickled from a wound on her neck.

“Holy fuck,” you whispered, grabbing Dina’s hand. “Do you see—”

“Everybody run!” Dina screamed, leaping up from the train seat and dragging you with her as she bolted off the train and to the opposite exit. 

The girl wailed and barrelled towards the train car, her eyes locking onto the nervous movement of the passengers. You froze. It was slowly becoming obvious that this wasn’t Ellie, from the slightly different set of her eyes to the unfamiliar button nose. But it was hard to not feel anything but sympathy for the monster before you. She was just a girl, probably younger than you. 

“Fucking go, Y/N,” Dina snapped, yanking you harder and onto the platform just as Not-Ellie leapt onto one of the newspaper readers. “It’s not her.” 

She didn’t need to tell you twice. In seconds you two had sprinted to the mouth of the stairs, feet pummeling against the pavement as the sounds of the carnage unfolding behind you followed. 

You ran. You didn’t stop running, not even when the screams faded and you and Dina were blocks and blocks away, hidden in an alley. Not even when your lungs were so empty and sore that they felt like they were breaths away from breaking, not even when you were sure there was nothing left inside you.

Dina kept your pace, blindly following your lead as you darted in between streets and side alleys until you reached your parents’ apartment. 

“Do you think there’s more?” you managed to whisper through heaving voices once you stood on the steps. 

You and Dina hadn’t ran into anyone after the metro, undead or alive. 

“Not here,” hissed Dina. “Inside first. Then we evaluate after we’re safer.” 

For a moment, the phantom dread from your normal life spilled over and you were afraid of facing your parents. It was almost laughable—there were deranged infected hosts looking to eat your flesh roaming the streets, and you were worried about seeing your parents. 

“I’d almost prefer out here, too,” said Dina, looking as if she’d read your mind. 

The apartment complex was also empty and eerily quiet as you two ascended the steps. Dina had insisted that you took the stairs, pointing out that the elevator was far too risky. 

“It might get stuck,” she’d whispered as she’d pulled you away from pressing the button. “Also—unnecessary noise.” 

You nodded wordlessly, following her up the steps until you reached the top floor.

Still no one to be seen.

The spare key was still hidden under the flower pot, and the penthouse door swung open easily. You and Dina locked it behind you before dragging a small bookcase in front of it, piling on books until no one could physically break through. 

“Sweep the apartment,” Dina said lowly, reaching over to grab the fireplace poker that was in the entryway. “Behind me until you get a weapon.” 

For a few tense moments, you cowered behind Dina as she navigated you both into the dark, empty kitchen. Every breath that left your lips was shaky and uneven. Your fingers trembled around the handle of the butcher’s knife that you’d retrieved from the block. 

Nothing was on the first floor. 

Nothing on the second floor, either. There was no sign of your parents anywhere. By all accounts, it seemed that they’d just up and left for coffee. Which is probably what they’d done, given that your father had just retired and had nothing better to do. 

“Fucking thank god,” you’d cried out once you’d swept the last room, collapsing onto the sitting room sofa. “Jesus Christ, Dina. What the fuck. I can’t believe I just—”

The words petered out as the adrenaline rush that had been keeping you at least someone composed dissipated, leaving you a shaking and inconsolable mess. 

“We’re so lucky that we got out in time,” said Dina, her eyes blurry and unfocused.

You took a break from your crying to look at her. “What?”

“The doors close automatically,” she said flatly. “No motion sensor. If that girl had shown up any later—if we hadn’t noticed her in time—”

“We would’ve been stuck on the train with her,” you said, cold realization trickling into you. “Oh my god. That probably happened to the people on the train who weren’t quick enough.”

“Or didn’t know any better,” Dina added. “Didn’t you say that no one here really understands what the infection is? That it makes people hosts?” 

Your heart dropped. “We’re so fucked. We need to get out.” 

“Have a plane anywhere?”

“Oh, god, Simon,” you wailed. “He was probably—he must’ve known—his parents must have—”

“Let’s not dwell,” said Dina firmly, brushing her hands off on her pants. “Okay. Let’s take inventory of the situation. That girl likely wasn’t patient zero. Wherever she came from was around…8th street?” 

You nodded.

“Right. 8th street, which is where the majority of non-student residential living spaces are. Chances are that if it wasn’t already, it’s all over that area. We came south, which is away from the most densely populated area and probably why we haven’t seen anyone else. We’re up high with what seems to be currently running water, no current activity in the building, and plenty of both perishable and nonperishable food. 

“But this isn’t permanent. The power grid is going to fail soon, and plumbing is likely going to go next. And if we somehow make it long enough, any infected in the building are going to turn into clickers, and they’ll stop at nothing to get in. Our window is limited. If we wait to get out, they’re going to get stronger and grow in numbers. We need to play this right.”

“So what you’re saying is that if there’s any possible chance of escape,” you said, feeling the blood drain from your face, “That we need to take it.”

Dina nodded, her face hard. 

“How long do you think we have until we have to make that choice?” 

She winced. “Probably 2 hours ago. There’s likely enough infected scattered around the city after the metro incident that it’s all over now.”

Your stomach dropped. 

“But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try,” said Dina. “It’s only going to get worse the longer we wait. So if that big fancy scientist brain of yours has any genius plans of how to get us out, please hurry it up and say so.” 

“Well,” you said, your mouth dry as you brainstormed aloud, “We are at the southern tip of the city. We’re probably not all that far from the border. The problem would be getting across—and, of course, getting there in the first place. It’s designed to be deceptive so that raiders can’t find it.” 

“We’re not going to cross the border,” said Dina. “We’re never getting across on foot unless it’s been destroyed. Simon told me about how it works. There’s quite literally zero chance unless we start tunneling underground.” 

“So no crossing on foot,” you said weakly. “Noted. Well. Uh. Can you fly a plane?”

“Depends. Do you have one?” 

You buried your face in your hands. 

“Come on, Y/N. Think. There has to be another option.” 

Another option. Another option. Think, think, think…

Scientist brain. Science. 

Like your degree. Like the lab you’d been working in last year. Like the ill-fated experiment that you’d scrapped after the university cut funding for it after your accident.

Like the time that you’d actually succeeded in inventing teleportation, even if it was accidental.

Like the contraption that was likely gathering dust in an unlocked lab room just a few blocks away. 

“Dina,” you said, “I’ve got it. But I need you to get me to Gunther’s lab.” 

The only good thing about today was the fact that Gunther’s lab, which was normally an inconvenient train ride away from your apartment, was in fact within perfectly reasonable walking distance from your parents’. 

There were many bad things, though. Namely the infected now roaming the streets. And the plumes of smoke rising in the distance, suggesting that the Terranovan authorities were attempting to quell the issue the old-fashioned way. 

With two knives and a pistol in your hand (you’d never been more happy to see something actually useful in your father’s antique collection), you were at least feeling more prepared to slowly creep back down the staircase of the building and out onto the streets. 

For the first two blocks, everything remained uneventful. You and Dina stuck close to the shadows, being careful not to speak, make any noise, or bump into anything noisy. 

Then a girl that looked somewhat familiar to you came stumbling around the corner, cloudy orange saliva dripping from her ashen lips. She locked onto you and began to excitedly chitter, her jerky movements becoming more pointed as she started approaching. 

“Knife,” Dina whispered, flicking your arm once she saw you raise your pistol. “Too loud.” 

It was your first kill without the help of a bullet. As the blade slid across the throat of the girl, you realized where you recognized her from—she’d been one of the students you’d tutored back in high school. You’d always liked her. Her name had been Liesel, and she was one of your best pupils. She’d been so bright. You thought she’d end up skipping senior year and just coming with you to college. 

Not anymore. You tried not to think too hard about the look you’d seen in her eyes right as you severed her carotid artery—something human, something cognisant. You couldn’t cope with what that implied. 

Did Ellie look like that? No, surely not. It’d been over a year. She was likely a clicker by now, her freckled face entirely swallowed by the spore shards. But was she still in there, like Liesel had been?

The next ones were easier—random men whose eyes remained flat and flinty even as you sent them to their ends. By the time you and Dina had broken into Gunther’s lab, you were splattered in blood and assorted mystery fluids. 

The sterile building was empty and deathly silent. Each step on the tiled floor echoed, the fluorescent lighting painfully bright. 

“Are there any workers in here usually?” Dina asked, her voice low. 

“Rarely,” you whispered back. “It’s normally totally empty beside me or Gunther.”

“I hope you’re right.” 

A long screeching that sounded like it came from a few doors down made you freeze.

“Let’s move,” Dina said under her breath. “I don’t want to find out who that is.” 

Gunther’s lab was nearly just as you remembered it. The only difference was the missing files on his desk, which suggested that he’d taken his work home with him. 

As you’d hoped, the prototype you’d developed in your third year was under a white sheet, almost entirely untouched. 

“This is what sent you to Jackson?” Dina whispered in wonder, her fingers hovering over the wires but not daring to touch.

In actuality, it was a very small contraption, just transistors and gates and wires that crossed over each other like veins. It had been intended for use on laboratory rats. It’d never been sized to people. But if this was your only shot…

“I can’t remember exactly what Gunther and I did to—”

Scratchhhhhh.

Your blood ran cold. Something was outside the door. 

“I’ll cover it,” said Dina, her voice firm. Don’t worry.”

And you wouldn’t—not when there was one zombie against you and Dina, armed to the teeth.

“Uh, anyway—” You blinked as you stared down at the mess of wires. “Technically what happened was it short-circuit—”

Scratch scratch scratch

You gulped. “Um, like I was saying, it short—”

Scratchscratchscratchscratch

To punctuate the point, the door creaked and shifted. 

Dina pressed her finger to her lips as she slowly crept over to the door, standing on her toes to look through the thin strip of plexiglass that ran across the top of the door. 

For a moment, you thought that she’d frozen. Then she quietly stepped over to the desk, snatched the pen Gunther had lying around, and scribbled something onto it. She handed it to you, her finger still posed over her lips. 

7. All big. Think they followed us from the street.

Just as you finished reading it, the doorknob began to turn, back and forth and back and forth against the lock. 

Dina pulled the note from your fingers to scribble something else out. 

Quiet. Noise bad. Door won't hold long. Just get us out.

You nodded, your heart crawling in your throat. If you couldn’t figure out how to fix this in time…Gunther’s lab was on the 6th floor. 

There were only 3 bullets in the pistol—you’d checked. And a kitchen knife was fine when you were out on the street facing one infected at a time, but 7 in an enclosed space was different.

You probably weren’t going to get out of here alive. 

Not unless you pulled it together right now. 

You pinched the bridge of your nose as you tried to run through all possible ways to recreate the conditions that had sent you to Jackson. You needed that special iridescent wire, which you could see shoved into the corner. You needed a power source. You needed a working circuit board. 

You had all of it. You could do this. 

SIlently, you retrieved the spool of wire and began reattaching it to the board in the pattern you vaguely recalled from your work. 

The lights flickered above, and it was all you could do to keep yourself from swearing out loud. 

The power needed to hold. It needed to hold for just one more minute, just for a moment while you finished configuring the—

Your hand knocked the spool to the floor.

Bang. Bang. Bang.

The thudding started slower but crescendoed into the sound of groaning wood as the infected outside began to pound at the door. 

Your hands were shaking so hard that it was a miracle you were even able to feed the end of the wire through the pliers to snap off the end. You dug your nails into the protective sleeve at the end to expose the tip of the wire.

The door held just until you plugged the wire into the input. 

As it hummed to life, sputtering and sparking and shimmering in the air, the lights flickered once, then plunged you into darkness as the sound of wood splintering came from the door. 

There was a shriek as a crowd came barrelling through the door, all hunched shoulders and gaping maws. 

Then you grabbed the hand of Dina and felt yourself tumble into nothingness. 

~

The sky was clear and bluebell blue above you when you came to, your back pressed uncomfortably against the sun-warmed earth. Every part of you ached like you’d just been run over, just like it had that day one year ago that started it all.

You didn’t need to look around to confirm—you were certain of where you were. You just knew it. 

A groaning sound made you shoot up, clutching at the pistol in your hand. 

Dina was sprawled on the ground next to you, rubbing her forehead with her hands. 

“We did it,” you said, astonished. “We actually did it. We got out.” 

“And you launched us out to Jackson.” Dina was sitting up now, looking around with wide eyes. “Jesus Christ. Are those things coming with us?”

“I don’t think so,” you said blandly. Your hands were still shaking, just as they had in the lab moments before. 

The backpack you’d packed with supplies lay strewn on the ground, covered in the dust of the clearing. 

“Are we—”

“I think so,” you said. “Funny how it sent us to the same place it sent me. I guess we’ll never figure out how, though.”

“Yeah.”

A comfortable silence fell over the two of you as you acclimated to the bright Wyoming sun, the warmth of the air against your skin.

Your heart lurched as the implications sunk in. Now that you couldn’t pretend like Jackson had been some sort of distant memory, you were going to mourn Ellie all over again whether you liked it or not. 

“It’s going to be weird without her.” Dina was apparently on the same page. 

You choked back the sob that came up, rubbing your eyes angrily. You would not cry right now, not when you had more important things to attend to. 

“She really did love you, you know,” Dina continued, also apparently oblivious to the fact that you were just barely holding it together. “Even if she never said it. I’ve never seen her like that around anyone. I hope you haven’t been beating yourself up over what happened.”

You sent her a tight smile. It was odd, talking about Ellie like this with her. You’d never had before. It was one of those topics that you both knew to just avoid. “I just hope Joel is alright. I can’t imagine how difficult that would be—losing two daughters just like tha—”

A twig snapping in the woods sent you into silence, your hand drifting back down to your pistol as you spun around.

For a moment, all you could hear was the breath that hitched in both your and Dina’s throat. Then a girl with short brown hair burst through the tree line, her gun set on you. 

“Ellie?” you gasped. 

She fell still, mouth agape and eyebrows nearly touching her hairline.

“Ellie, what the fuck?” said Dina, recovering much quicker than you. “What are you doing here?”

“What am I—” Ellie dropped her pistol so it pointed to the ground, staring at Dina incredulously. “What are you doing here?” Then she rounded on you. “What did you do? You promised to stay in Terranova.” 

You couldn’t answer. You were just so starstruck that all you could was stare, taking in everything about her. She was certainly Ellie—with her stupid little flashlight on her backpack strap and her fern tattoo and the perpetual grumpiness etched on her face. It was strange to think that you could have mistaken anyone else for her.

“Well?” she pressed, stepping closer, her mouth in a hard line. 

“Terranova fell. It’s gone. I did what I had to do to get us out.” The words came out quietly. Then, without thinking: “You’re alive.” 

“Long story,” said Ellie. “I think the scanner was defective.” 

“That sounds like a pretty short story.”

She stared at you with an expression of such odd devastation that you felt your heart drop.

Dina jumped to her feet and launched herself at Ellie, throwing her arms around her neck and laughing hysterically. “I can’t believe it. I just—I just—you’re alive. I’m so glad you’re alive.” 

Ellie, for her part, stood mostly still, awkwardly patting Dina on the back until she was released. “I’m glad you are, too.”

You tried not to feel jealous, but it was hard not to. Dina could jump into Ellie’s arms and tell her nice things like that without having to think twice because they’d always been friends. You did, because you weren’t sure if Ellie would want that anymore. 

You didn’t try to touch her as she walked you and Dina back. She followed suit, not even trying to speak to you. 

By the time you were walking through the walls of Jackson and waving to the gaping passerbys who were shocked at your return, you felt like you were going to be sick. 

Ellie was alive. She’d never been dead, and you’d left her out here while you and Dina got to eat fancy Brazilian chocolates and Floridian oranges and artisanal bread. You’d been actively trying to forget her instead of trying to find her.

And now she was here, next to you. And she didn’t seem even remotely interested in you. But could you blame her? It had been a year. You’d left her to come back to Jackson all by herself. She didn’t have any reason to wait around for you. She’d probably found someone else. Or gotten back together with Cat.

And who were you to think that she’d even be interested in you if there wasn’t the guaranteed casualness from a definite end date? 

“Well, I’ll be damned.” Joel appeared on the front porch as you and Dina approached with Ellie flanking you, his eyes wide. 

“Joel!” you cried out, your angst briefly forgotten. 

His eyes darted between the three of you, his face awash with shock. “Did ya just get sick of living there or something?”

You looked down and surveyed your outfit. You were clearly wearing something that was intended to be formal—a flowing graduation dress—but you were splattered with blood and viscous mystery substances and covered in a healthy layer of dirt. You’d clearly gone through some shit. 

You were struggling to come up with a response other than “hey” when you were reminded of something you’d shoved into your bag while you’d been preparing to leave your parents’ penthouse. 

Feeling smug that you’d managed to remember, you reached into your pack and fished around until you found what you were looking for.

“We just figured you’d be almost out of this by now,” you said dryly. The value-sized bag of coffee beans dangled from your fingers, its maroon packaging catching in the sun. 

His face split into a wide grin as he shook his head in disbelief. “Well, butter my butt and call me a biscuit. I guess I’ve got to tell Tommy that we don’t have to ration anymore. C’mon, let’s get you settled.”

~

Joel insisted that you move back into your old room instead of the vacant cottage down the street, which was equal parts touching and equal parts terrifying. Ellie lingered by the doorway as you unpacked, disappearing down the hall when you finally lifted your head from your few belongings to say something to her. 

You let out a long, labored exhale, dropping onto your bed and curling your knees up to your chest. You’d since changed and showered the dirt and blood off, shed your tattered graduation dress and left it gathered in the corner like a snake’s molt. The setting sun filtered through the curtains, turning the walls golden. 

You didn’t know what to do. That you could even come back to Jackson had been a thought you hadn’t dared to consider until this morning, when there were no other options. That Ellie was still alive—well, you hadn’t had any time to strategize or plan for that one. You were still reeling from seeing her for the first time in a year, all summer freckles and flyaway hairs escaping from a loose hairband.

She’d looked even better than you’d remembered. There were certain parts of her that you realized you’d forgotten—like the scar on her eyebrow, the way her voice sounded. It made you feel nauseous, knowing that despite your best efforts, you hadn’t been able to keep the real Ellie alive in your head. 

You’d already eaten something with Tommy and Maria, who had been insistent on hearing from you and Dina about the events in Terranova. Joel had left you to your own devices with instructions to see him tomorrow to figure out work after you’d had a decent rest, so there was really no reason to go roaming around hoping to run into Ellie. 

But you really wanted to. You checked the clock again, seeing that it was already past 9. Dusk had already fallen upon Jackson, the setting sun now just a suggestion of a golden line on the horizon.

You had a feeling you knew where she was. 

The meadow was just as lush and green as you remembered as your feet carried you across the grass. It seemed that really nothing had changed—except for the horses in the distance, where you could see a small foal beside a chestnut mare that you were pretty sure was Shimmer. 

“Hi,” you said, settling down next to Ellie’s spot under the tree. 

If she was surprised to see you, she didn’t show it. She just sighed and fiddled with the sleeve of her shirt. 

“Hi.” 

“I’m sorry for bothering you,” you said, keeping your eyes locked on the darkening sky. “I just wanted to come find you to tell you that I understand if you don’t—want me like that anymore. I’ll leave you alone if you want me to.” 

Even when she took her time responding, you didn’t dare look her way. 

“Is that what you want?” You couldn’t quite decipher the tone she’d used. 

“Obviously not,” you said mildly. “I would never want that.” 

“I wouldn’t either.” 

Your breath caught in your throat, your gaze dropping to meet hers. You were just about to speak when—

“The scanner wasn’t defective,” said Ellie. Her voice was soft, her own eyes falling to look at her tattooed arm. 

“Of course it was,” you said, feeling very confused as to why she was suddenly detouring into something so unrelated. “If it wasn’t, you’d be dead already.” 

“I’ve been bitten twice.”

You blinked, sure you’d heard her incorrectly. “Sorry?” 

“I’ve been bitten twice,” said Ellie again, this time with more conviction. “That’s why the scanner came back red. There was nothing wrong with it.” 

“Then how…” Your words trailed off. 

She didn’t let you ponder long. “I’m immune.” 

Immune. 

You closed your mouth—it’d been hanging open unceremoniously for a moment—and tried to fit this very startling fact in with everything else you knew about her. What did being immune mean? And why was she telling you now?

“You knew from the start that you couldn’t come with me to Terranova,” you realized aloud. 

Ellie was gnawing at her bottom look as she looked back at you. You noted that she didn’t offer up any corrections. 

“Why didn’t you just tell me?” You couldn’t hide the hurt in your voice. “Why did you lie to me like that?” 

“I found out that I was immune when I was back in Boston,” Ellie said, the words spilling out of her. “I was in this abandoned mall with my best friend—Riley. She told me she was leaving to be a Firefly, and I begged her to stay and kissed her and for a moment I was so sure that something was going to change between us—something for the better. But then…” She waved her tattooed arm in front of her. “We both got bit. I survived. She, obviously, did not.”

Something deep inside you twisted as you tried to imagine how traumatizing that must’ve been for someone that couldn’t have been older than 14. 

“And so I thought that maybe, you were my chance to right what I’ve done wrong,” continued Ellie. Even though she wasn’t looking at you anymore, you could see the reflective sheen of tears in her eyes. “I’ve gotten to live while so many other people have died. I just can’t handle another. It’s not fair of me to keep someone here when there’s somewhere safer for them. It’s selfish, and I’ve been that enough.”

It was as if you’d found the last puzzle piece for the jigsaw of Ellie Williams. All this time, you’d been struggling in your attempts to understand why she was pushing you away—and why she changed her mind so suddenly. 

Now you got it. Ellie had come into this knowing that she’d likely never see you again. She’d been betting on it, even. It was all some convoluted way for her to set things right in her head, for her to forgive herself for Riley and whoever else she’d lost. 

“You could have told me,” you said, your voice barely above a whisper. “I would have understood.” 

Ellie sent you a sad smile, shaking her head. “I’m not supposed to tell anyone that I’m immune. It’s one of those things that only Joel and Maria and Tommy know about. No one else. They’d fucking kill me if they found out you knew.” 

“I’m really sorry.” The fabric of her t-shirt was soft under your fingers as you rested a hand on her shoulder. 

“I’m really sorry for how much of an asshole I was to you,” said Ellie. You didn’t miss the way her eyes had widened when you’d reached out to touch her. “I didn’t want to be that way. I always wanted more. I just couldn’t handle having that, knowing that you were going to leave anyway. I thought it’d be easier for the both of us if you thought I was awful.”

“Didn’t work very well.”

“Clearly.”

“I forgive you,” you said, moving your hand so you could thread your fingers into the loose strands that she hadn’t pulled into that baby bun she always wore. 

Instead of kissing you like you thought she might, she threw her arms around you and crushed herself against you, burying her face into your neck.

You held her there, feeling the way her frame trembled under the weight of a sob and tracing patterns across her back. 

“I missed you,” you whispered, your chin rested atop her shoulder. “I thought about you every day.”

Ellie clung to you harder as you shifted.

“I’m really sorry,” she said again, muffled against your neck. “I’m sorry for everything.” 

“I’m not.” You finally pulled away so that she had to look you in the eyes. Under the soft bath of moonlight, her green eyes glowed. “Terranova shouldn’t have existed in the first place. I’m glad that I got out. And I’m even more glad that it brought me back to you.” 

Her hand found yours, your fingers tangling.

“I used to spend all my free time wondering what you were doing up North,” said Ellie. You felt her thumb brush across the top of your hand. “I thought that maybe if I imagined you happy, it’d be easier.”

“What did you think I was doing?” 

The corner of her mouth quirked up. “Lots of studying, I assumed. And going to fancy events for rich people, eating all that expensive shit that the rest of the world can’t have.” 

“Not far off,” you admitted. “But you missed how much time I’d spend wondering about you. I dreamt about you all the time. Sometimes I’d see people who looked similar to you and it’d ruin my whole day. I couldn’t believe that you were gone. I think that deep down I knew that you weren’t.” 

She squeezed your hand. When you looked down at where you were touching, you noted how there wasn’t such a stark difference between you and her anymore. The doll fresh-out-of-the-box skin had disappeared in favor of scars and marks collected from your time in the real world. 

“I really thought you’d be safe there,” said Ellie. 

“You don’t need to worry about me like that anymore,” you told her, cupping her face with your free hand. Her eyelids fluttered half-closed as she leaned into the contact. “You’ve done enough. You can care about me without taking responsibility for everything bad that ever happens to me. You deserve to have something good without suffering because of it. I promise I’m not going anywhere.” 

“Not anymore,” she agreed. 

When you kissed her, it felt like coming home. There was something so achingly familiar in the slope of her neck, the slight chapped-ness of her lips, the almost silent click of her jaw as her mouth parted with a gasp as your hands twisted in her hair. 

You weren’t quite sure how you managed a year without it. 

The skin of her neck was just as soft as you remembered against your lips, her response just as reactive. 

“What’s this?” you asked, pulling away to point at what looked like a small tattoo on the side of her neck. You hadn’t noticed it before—her hair had been covering it. 

“Oh.” Ellie looked sheepish. “My free birthday tattoo from Cat. It’s a thumbprint.” 

“I see that,” you murmured, brushing her hair back more intentionally to get a better look at it. “Why?” 

“It’s yours. The one that was on the fliers that Terra-no-whatever dropped on us,” said Ellie. She was bright red now. “Don’t fucking laugh. I know that it’s stupid. Shut up. Stop! I thought I was never going to see you again!” 

You desperately tried to stop your giggles, schooling your face into something straight and no-nonsense. 

“I spent so long wondering if you even liked me,” you told her. “And now you’ve gone and gotten a tattoo dedicated to me. I feel so validated.” 

Ellie rolled her eyes. 

“I have you beat, though,” you said, quieter now. 

She looked back at you, her brows furrowed. “Huh?” 

“When it comes to grand, stupid gestures,” you explained, your finger pointing up to the sky in the general area that you’d collected your data from. “There’s a planet named Ellie up there now.” 

Her jaw dropped for just a moment. “You’re kidding.” 

“No.” Now you were feeling slightly self-conscious. 

“You would do something like that,” Ellie muttered, more to herself than anything. “A whole fucking planet.” 

You let her drape an arm around you, pulling you into her until your head fit into the space between her shoulder and her chin. 

“So,” Ellie said, and you could feel the words vibrate in her diaphragm, “What now?” 

“What do you mean, what now?” 

“I mean, what are you gonna do now that you’re stuck here with me for the foreseeable future?” 

“Enjoy being stuck with you,” you said. “Maybe get a matching tattoo. Give you the piece of the meteorite I nabbed from the display case in my lab. But mostly spend my time bothering you.”

When she didn’t answer, you shifted so you could look up at her. She was already looking back, her eyes soft and the corners of her lips pulling into two dimples. 

“Is that alright with you?’ you ventured.

Her arm tightened around you, fingers gently pressing into the flesh of your forearm like she still couldn’t quite believe you were there. 

“You can be so fucking stupid sometimes,” she said. “I get a tattoo for you and you’re still asking if I want you around.” 

“It’s been known for you to make rash decisions,” you offered dryly. “I didn’t want to jump to any assumptions.”

 She rolled her eyes, still smiling down at you, eyes awash with the reflections of the stars above. 

Slowly, you reached up and touched her face again, letting your fingers relearn her features, tracing the paths created by freckles—just like you had in her bed all those months ago. 

But unlike last time, she didn’t stop you. She didn’t do anything except let you. There was something in her demeanor, something that was fragile and vulnerable and everything that you wanted her to be with you.

“Is this going to be enough for you?” she asked suddenly, her voice raw. 

“What do you mean?” Your fingers paused and rested at her cheekbones.

“It’s just—” She blinked hard and cast her gaze up to the sky. “You grew up so differently than me. I’m not going to be able to give you that fancy Terranova life. Are you sure this is going to make you happy?” 

“Yes.” 

She looked at you, an eyebrow raised skeptically. Your hands moved to cup her face, fingers threading back into her hair. 

“Don’t make that face,” you chided.

“I just find it really hard to believe.” 

You took in a breath. Perhaps more elaboration was in order.

“I’ll put it like this,” you said. “I spent most of my life thinking I needed to be something extraordinary to be happy. I put so much time into trying to be special and nothing I did ever felt like it was enough. But then I met you, and one day I realized while I was here that I didn’t need that anymore. Just being around you makes me more content than I’ve ever been. I don’t want to be like what I was before. I would consider it my greatest success if I got to lead an ordinary life with you.”

You took her brief silence as an opportunity to press your lips to the corner of her mouth.

“Believe me now?” you asked. 

Ellie nodded, leaning in to drop an affectionate kiss at the top of your nose. 

And as you sat there, nestled into the warmth of her side and craning your head up to the sky, you’d never been more sure of yourself. 

This would be more than enough. 

final a/n: ok so some apologies are in order for this one! first of all, sorry for aborting jj lmao. i just couldn't envision doing light speed travel with a baby strapped to dina. big apologies for not including a final smut scene. i actually had one semi-drafted out because i wanted to write one where ellie bottomed bc i feel like it would really hammer in that she was finally choosing to be vulnerable, but the shift in the scene tone just didn't sit right with me. sometimes i write bonus scenes for big fics like this, so if there's enough interest i might write a short one shot of the scene i scrapped/other scenes that i also scrapped. also, speaking of things i scrapped: i had an alternate ending in mind where joel actually did die and ellie went on her seattle rampage + y/n realizes she's alive and tries to sneak out with dina to find her. i might end up writing that one too, depending on interest! anyway, thank you all for coming along on this journey with me so far! it's not totally over yet...the epilogue is still in the works! i appreciate hearing what you guys think of this and hope you all enjoyed !!!

also idk if this is important to bring up but i will say that i didn't realize the kind of message i'd be sending when i wrote a protagonist who's from a place like terranova—exoplanet isn't meant to be some sort of piece that makes you empathize with ignorant beneficiaries of slave labor...it's just the way it shook out and for that i'm sorry 😭

[sophistopheles]

hey!! ty for posting about the article talking about continuation of aa. I don’t know as much about the production of aa5 and 6 but you mentioned a person names Eshiro being responsible for the “no spoilers” rule being replaced. what/who is that? just in general giving u the floor to rant about aa5 and 6 beyond what u were able to say in that post and ur hopes for the future 💙✨ ok bye! :)

hiya!! (post here)

So, the story of why aa5 and aa6 are so different to aa4 basically boils down to a change in the team making it (and Eshiro was part of this).

Most people know Shu Takumi wrote and directed the original trilogy of Phoenix Wright games and then worked on Apollo Justice (although the director was technically Mitsuru Endo, people tend to think of AJ as the last "Takumi" mainline game). After that, he left the Ace Attorney team to complete and release Ghost Trick in 2010, and then he became involved in the development of Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright, which released in 2012.

While he was doing all of this, a "secondary" Ace Attorney team had arisen to keep working on the franchise - they had almost all worked on previous AA games and in 2009 and 2011 they were able to release the two Ace Attorney Investigations games.

The two most well-known members of this "team" are the producer Motohide Eshiro and the director Takeshi Yamazaki, and the fact that AAI2 is so beloved shows that they are by no means unable to make really, really good Ace Attorney games. But, with Takumi still busy with his other projects, and a good few years having passed since AA4, this team was asked to create a fifth Ace Attorney game in his absence.

This was, obviously, a challenge, and Capcom were likely in quite a rush to get a new mainline game out soon. Additionally, initial fan reception of AA4 was really not that good - many people hated the decision to disbar Phoenix in particular - and the game itself had many loose ends.

Eshiro, as the producer, decided that for AA5 it was better for the writers to not be held back by previous games, which manifested in what people think of now as the "no spoilers rule". This is why AA5 does not follow up on AA4, and likewise for AA6. Nowadays this decision is widely regarded as a very bad move, but on some level I empathise with it - AA has always been kind of reluctant to spoil past games, and you were always operating with the presumption that the player might be new to the series and wanted to go back to the previous games. Writing a follow-up that addressed AA4, while being acceptable to newcomers and not spoiling almost all of AA4's biggest twists, without the guy who originally came up with the story, would prove really difficult.

So they wrote Dual Destinies as a new story which followed AA4 but didn't really address it, and indulged in fanservice to try and restore the series status quo. It seems like the scenario changed a lot during development and they were pretty crunched for time, too - the final villain's models are apparently called FINALBOSS in the game files and completely broken if you look at them from any other angle.

After working on AA5, Yamazaki was apparently exhausted and didn't really want to make another Ace Attorney. Unfortunately for him, Shu Takumi was still off on his Sherlock & Souseki Victorian-Meiji Adventure, writing the Great Ace Attorney duology, and he wouldn't get done until 2017 when DGS2 came out.

Eshiro managed to persuade Yamazaki to work on AA6 by bringing him to conventions, and having seen the passion and overjoyed reactions from fans after AA5 came out, Yamazaki agreed to direct the sixth game, with Takuro Fuse (AA5 and 6's main artist) acting as co-director to ease the load. Some of AA6's cases were also created by guest writers; the SOJ artbook mentions a struggle for ideas, which explains the outlandish setting of Khura'in.

To the best of my knowledge (and I'm not sure this account is 100% accurate so anyone please feel free to correct me) this is why AA5 and AA6 are the way they are. Nobody is particularly to blame for how things turned out; there were just a couple of bad decisions along the way which has resulted in the games being looked back on by a lot of people with some contempt. Given the circumstances, I'm actually pretty impressed with how enjoyable Dual Destinies and Spirit of Justice are, even if they don't reach the heights of the trilogy.

Yamazaki left Capcom in 2019. Eshiro went on to produce Dai Gyakuten Saiban 2, and I'm pretty sure he's still at Capcom.

What all of this means for the next Ace Attorney title is completely speculation, but the short version of the story is that Shu Takumi has finally come back from getting milk Herlock Sholmes Jail writing other games, and seems to be getting hyped up by capcom as the "Director of the Ace Attorney Series". This makes it very likely he will direct and write the next Ace Attorney game. At present we have no idea what this means - he could follow up on AA4's story as well as he's able, he could write another Phoenix game, he might go rogue and write an Athena game, he might do something completely different. But the next AA game will likely be around the quality of AA1-2-3-4 and DGS, not another AA5/6 situation.

As for the producer, this comes from the November 2020 leaks (which was very real - it's where we first got the TGAA localisation confirmed), but the only thing we heard about their projected AA7 was that it would be produced by a guy called Yasayuki Makino. He also produced The Great Ace Attorney collection, and if you read his dev blogs from that release, he credits AA4 for getting him into the series initially, and generally seems to be a huge Ace Attorney fan himself, pushing hard for TGAA to get a worldwide re-release after its unimpressive initial sales (and look how well that's worked out...!)

That's basically the story. I think AA7 will be great, actually, but at this point I will literally take anything, Capcom please my family is starving

[armpirate]

Hiii just wanted to ask "The only one jjk"

Can u tell us about Jk's past relastionships? I really wanna know let Jk talk about them when YN asks , pls make it into jealouse part

Also write a part where at some party JK ex gf or fling show up and try to flirt him, how will he react when this is more acttravtice and while YN seeing them both far away, how will she react? Add some smut , they all hella hot couple 😂💗

I know I said I'd post it on Wednesday, but I felt in the mood to write it today, so here it is. I'm not sure if this is what you were expecting, but I hope it is!

MASTERLIST

Full story

pairing: TheOnlyOne!JK x fem!reader || Mafia

w.c.: 4.8k

Warnings: smut, dirty talk, rough sex, voyeurism, male masturbation, oral sex (female and male receiving), choking, mention of infertility

Aprox. time of reading: 21 minutes

It was your first appearance as a married couple in a public event. After spending three weeks in the beautiful island of Capri in your honeymoon, you both have remained secluded in your new house in Busan. It was something you two ended up discussing a few times while you were enjoying your holidays together, and it was a conclusion Jungkook was closer to reach as he kept thinking deeply at how he wanted to feel closer to home. He also insisted on changing homes because he wanted to recreate new memories in a house that would be of the both of you.

And you agreed.

You didn't care much about where to live, because at the end of the day, the only thing that mattered for you was being next to Jungkook. And you thought that you'd also benefit from him being happier and more comfortable. There genuinely was nothing negative about it. It was also a good thing for Bam. Jungkook's house in Seoul was big, but your new house in Busan had a wider garden where he'd be able to run and play freely.

Except for the moments you had to move to Seoul. Your businesses were there, most of the conversations with the other families were there, and all of the events were held there -which meant you two had to make a long trip back to Seoul whenever you both were required there.

And that was the case that night.

Everyone turned their heads at the entrance of the leaders of the Bangtan family, curiously looking at you two as you made your way to your table -which was the last place you two would be at, but you guessed it was a way to keep some order in the room. Some rumors got to your ears a few weeks back. The way you two disappeared, and only showed up whenever you two needed to, made some people wonder whether you two broke up, or whether one of you died tragically -or both. So it just made sense for you to hear some whispers, mentioning how it was surprising you two were together and alive.

His hand was secured on your thigh over the green falter dress, letting the tip of his fingers wander a bit through the slit that exposed until the middle of your thigh whenever you walked. His fingers pressed tighter on your flesh whenever he spotted a pair of eyes falling on you for a bit too long for his liking. And since some people weren't able to take the hint by taking a quick look at his initials peeking over your cleavage, he himself made an act of presence with some dirty looks.

"They all are making me sick" he huffed, rolling his eyes.

It was a quite frequent situation between you two. His possessive nature was nothing new. You two met because of it, so how could you be slightest surprised at your husband getting jealous of men watching you. He put a tattoo on you, marking you with his name, so those same men would fear landing a finger on you for the consequences.

"Well, " you whispered, bending over him to get closer to his ear, "they could only dream of having what you have". Reaching for his hand, you intertwined your fingers together, leaving your hands on your lap "Let's just enjoy the night until we get back home".

It took him a while to finally agree to your words, but he finally nodded, playing with his lip ring before you kissed him.

At some point into the night, both of you went your separate ways, when some of the people slowly pulled you away from each other as you engaged in the different conversations. You went back to sitting at your table, joining a bored Namjoon, who smiled slightly when he was aware of your presence back on the table. "I think you've drunk a little bit too much" you mentioned, looking at the third half empty glass of white wine.

He simply shrugged, raising the cup "Either you drink, or you don't talk with anyone. There's no other way to keep up with most of the people here".

Chuckling at his comment, your eyes wandered around the crowded room, looking for your husband somewhere among them. Until you finally fell on him. He was quite easy to recognize. There was something on his wide back, and the particular shape of his neck, that made you smile when you spotted him.

Although that smile lasted no longer than three seconds.

He was talking to a young woman that was almost the same height as him -even if she was wearing heels. You barely could see her well due to the distance, but you could tell she was in good shape by the way the black dress glued to her body. Just as glued as she tried to be to your husband.

Her hands kept trying to reach constantly to him. A few touches on his upper arm, an excuse to move his blazer so it'd be back to its original place, a soft stroke on his shoulder... and your blood was boiling with every move. She waved her long black hair a few times, tilting her head while dedicating him a flirty smile. That you recognized, because that was your signature technique when you tried to flirt with boys back in high school.

She was radiating the feminine energy that maybe you had lost on the way to that point in life you were at, after everything you had to go through. And it was that same feminine energy that annoyed you, and made you wonder why your husband was still there. Or why he wasn't stepping back.

"It's Minjee" you heard on your left.

Confused, you furrowed your eyebrows at Namjoon "The woman Jungkook is talking to, she's Minjee" he cleared, giving another sip to his cup. "No one knows what their relationship was. I'm his closest friend and, to this day, I don't know".

You frowned, drawing your eyes back at them. You wouldn't be surprised at them hooking up, or even dating. Two hot people that moved in the same circle... It was kind of obvious.

Your jaw clenched tight when they hugged each other, and you looked away fast as you saw Jungkook attempting to turn back to where you were. You'd have tried to keep how upset you were, but the honest truth was that you didn't care enough about anything to pretend you weren't bothered.

Your leg constantly shook under the table as he dragged his chair back, joining you after being hooked in a conversation with that woman for, at least, twenty minutes.

It wasn't like you were genuinely mad at Jungkook, because you thought he'd ever do something to hurt you. Deep inside you knew he'd be able to cut his own hands before daring to lay his hands on another woman that wasn't you. But it was weird. After more than a year into your relationship, there had never been any mentions of exes -although you knew there probably were flings or hook ups that weren't important enough for him to mention-, you knew you were the first one he dared to claim publicly in front of everyone, you knew you were special for him even before you started having feelings for each other. But you couldn't help but feel threatened.

Your own insecurities were the biggest burden for you. Leaving Minjee aside, you wondered if there was any possibility of him seeing through your relationship and thinking he could do better than that.

The hairs on your back raised in fear at the thought of him leaving you for someone else. There had been several times, in your wedding even, that you heard comments like everyone expected him to end up with someone that would hug his culture without a problem. But you just shrugged it off because it was your happy day. Nothing else mattered, just you two and the union you just had promised.

But you've also been questioned a few times on the topic regarding kids and your offspring. You knew it was important for the family -especially Jungkook's position-, but you didn't think it was a big deal to the point of making you feel pressured. And guilty. Because you knew there was no possibility for you two to have those kids that would succeed him.

"What were you two talking about?" his hand attempted to reach for your leg, although you moved it faster, dodging his touch.

Namjoon shrugged "Nothing".

After nodding, Jungkook tried a second time to reach for you, bending his head slightly to be able to kiss you. But you also dodged his lips, moving your head back before you looked away.

There was nothing he hated the most than having you react that way to his touch. Mainly, because it reminded him of the first period of time you spent together. And because, after growing so close to one another the past few months, he didn't know what it was like to see you upset. At least not the same way you were in that moment.

"Okay, what's wrong?" he stopped, moving his arm over the backrest of your chair.

"There's nothing wrong" you shook your head, crossing your arms over your chest. "Just that if that had been me with any male in here, you'd have made the biggest fuss".

His lips twisted, throwing his head back when he finally understood what your attitude was due about.

"Okay, time to leave" Namjoon announced, standing up from his chair to disappear among the crows.

He looked at you, trying to think about the next thing to say not to make things worse between you. It was obvious it was something you two would be able to solve after a few minutes.

"Minjee" You muttered, feeling your right leg shaking nervously.

Hearing her name out of his wife's lips just made him throw his head back, because it meant you probably knew of the type of relationship they both had before he called it quits after seeing you for the first time.

"We hooked up a few times, that's it".

"You hooked up?" you looked at him, eyes opening wider.

"Namjoon didn't tell you?" Jungkook lowered his voice.

"I should thank god Namjoon even remembered her name" you clicked your tongue, tilting your head quickly. "No wonder she was all over you".

"Are you jealous? Seriously?" your lips puckered at his question, and the way he subtly moved his thumb off your back to touch her.

"Hmm no, I'm not" but your act broke before you were able to continue with it. "But you're fucking air tonight" you pushed his arm away from your chair ", because if you dare to land a finger on me, I'll break it".

It started as something funny for him, because he had never had the chance to see you like that. And you barely gave him any reason to feel like that either. Both of you had way more important problems going on than worrying about an innocent exchange of looks with someone from the opposite sex. And while he thought it was cute and exciting to see you like that, it kept building up to some frustration when he realized the wall you settled between you.

But he wasn't going to force you to talk.

If you were angry, he was going to give you space. That was the best he could do after you sat in one of the empty seats, away from him, in the jet.

Although he didn't carry out what he was planning to do when he saw you picking up your pillow, and closing yourself inside one of the rooms that were only used whenever the members paid you a visit. He had tried to sleep by himself, convinced that you two would make things out in the morning, but he was unable to sleep if you weren't by his side.

He needed to feel your heartbeat against his palm to sleep peacefully.

Jungkook sat on the floor, resting his back against the wall next to the door, hoping you'd listen to him "Babe, let's talk". You stopped by the door, hearing his voice, soft and caring, as if he was trying to build a bridge between you. "She just congratulated me for our wedding. What we had was too long ago, and it ended as soon as I saw you".

"As soon as you saw me?" Jungkook smiled at your question.

"The night we met... I knew I'd only be able to have eyes for you only, for the rest of my life" Jungkook assured her. "She tried to reach out to me when I came back to Seoul, but we didn't do anything because I only wanted you".

There was no lie in his words. He remembered the night after he went back to Seoul, and how Minjee tried to find some type of engagement from him in the weird relationship they had going on for a few months. Yet you were the only thing he could think about, and the only person he wanted to be next to.

"You were going to hook up with someone else after making me sign an exclusivity contract?" you opened the door suddenly, making him look up to you surprised.

"No, of course not. I..." Jungkook sighed, throwing his head back.

"You literally showed up at my job, made a scene, and then made me fly from Spain to Korea because I violated our deal, yet you had other girls in your dms?" your eyes were filled with rage.

If at some point you thought you were being too harsh on a random situation like Jungkook meeting an ex, you were enraged by what you found out thanks to that encounter.

"Don't touch me" you warned him, stepping back when he tried to hold your hand to calm you down. "So what? You chose to end up with me because the other girls didn't want to deal with you?" you pushed his chest, trying to get him to speak "Or was it because I seemed easier?" you gave him another push, not knowing how your words made you walk through the tight rope that was his patience.

Something about the heavy words that were building your argument were waking up a side of him. It wasn't that much about the accusations you were throwing at him, but how you were downgrading yourself to "something he had to settle for". Because you had always been way more than that.

Before you could push him another time, his fingers were holding your wrist about your head against the wall, while he looked down at you with a darker shade of brown you had never seen on him before -or, at least, you didn't remember.

"Shut up, and let me talk when I'm speaking to you"

He was lucky you closed Bam inside his room before the argument started, because he knew that dog would've jumped at him at the slightest attempt of holding you, even if you weren't completely opposed to what was happening.

"I was the one who rejected Minjee after meeting you. You were always my first choice, and my main priority. And if I ever hear you speaking of yourself as just someone I settled for... You don't really want to know the consequences, Y/n. Is that clear?". You nodded, looking into his eyes while your lips formed a thin line "Speak when I ask. Is it clear?".

"Yes" you finally answered.

"This is what we're going to do, since you seem to have forgotten some basics: I want you back in our room, naked" he finally let go of your hand, allowing you to finally move it back to your side. "Y/n, I want you there. Now" he slowly commanded, finally making you blink.

You walked to your shared room, feeling his heavy steps following calmly behind you. Your dress was completely gone when you stepped inside the bigger room, feeling your chest beating its way to your mouth. Your sex life with Jungkook was a rollercoaster, especially after you got married, but there was something different in him that night that made you ecstatic for him. That darker look in his eyes, with that deep and authoritative tone he hadn't used on you in a long time, had you throbbing and leaking for him.

His heavy presence filled the room as he walked in, undoing the buttons of the sleeves of his shirt, before he went for the ones that kept it tied on his torso. Jungkook tilted his head, looking at you. Despite doing what he demanded, there was no evidence of pride in his face, not even the hint of a satisfied smile.

You had seen him naked plenty of times, but it always felt like the first time, feeling your guts shrinking in excitement by the way his muscles contracted with his moves. Your eyes moved from his shoulders, to his chest, falling over the tattoo he got for you. It was the exact same one you had on your chest, except for the fact that he had your initials on his skin.

That man was completely yours. Yet you filled your head with negative thoughts that night, thinking of the possibility of being kicked away for no reason.

"What should I do?" his hands were placed on his hips as he looked at you. "Should I make you cum until you aren't able to think straight?" he started undoing his belt, while thinking out loud. "Or maybe I should fuck you senseless until those dumb thoughts leave your brain and you're only able to think about my cock?" his pierced eyebrow raised.

Your nipples painfully hardened with every idea that came out of his lips, making you crave whatever that he wanted to do to you. His eyes flew from you to your surroundings, until they fell over the pale blue armchair that was placed next to the door to your shared dressing room.

"Sit there" he motioned, looking back at you. "Legs over the armrests, and don't move unless I told you so".

You silently walked to where he pointed at, unaware of what he was planning to do, but too turned on to even question it. After you spread yourself for him, he started walking, but he didn't make his way to where you were. He stopped right when you thought he was going to join you, sitting over the edge of your bed instead, with his eyes fixed on you.

You were a treasure he always thanked to have found, and he confirmed that at the breathtaking sight of you like that. It made him furious to think you'd belittle yourself for no reason, when you were a walking goddess he was lucky to sleep next to at night.

Your hands rested on your knees as you waited for his next move, slightly squeezing your skin when he lowered his pants enough to set his semi hard dick free. He didn't say a word, he didn't even make a noise, before he spitted on his tip, spreading his natural lube over his shaft. Jungkook only moved to find a more comfortable position, supporting half of his weight on the hand that was resting on the mattress, while the other rocked his hard cock.

You didn't know what the aim of it was, but you didn't care. It was so filthy, and it felt so forbidden, that it only turned you on even more. Jungkook was finding the inspiration to his pleasure in you, in the way your breasts raised and lowered arrhythmically with your breathing, or the way your pussy clenched around nothing at the sight of him, making a trail of your own arousal go from your entrance to the fabric of the armchair, turning that spot a darker blue than the rest of the furniture.

"Don't dare to touch yourself" he warned you with a husky voice, catching you before you were able to give in to your own needs.

The sight of his eyebrows frowned, how contracted his abs were, as the veins of his arms were perfectly marked with every move he made was too much for you. Your head moved back, changing your sight back to the ceiling for a brief second, before you were forced back.

"Look at me" he hissed through his teeth.

You didn't know how long you two had been like that, but it for sure felt like hours. If you didn't touch yourself, you were sure you'd end up reaching your high at the mere sight of his reaching his.

His hand wasn't flat over the messed blankets anymore, he was having a tight grip on them, accompanied by his heavy breaths that were the beginning to the explosion of his climax. You could perfectly see the way it throbbed through his fingers as his load spilled over his chest and abs first, and then down to his fingers and balls.

"Clean it up" he commanded, still with his breath running wild.

Your legs shook when you closed them, feeling weak at the slightest pressure on your clit, and being sure you'd probably manage to cum in a matter of four steps.

Sinking to your kneels in front of him, he offered you his tattooed fingers first. You wrapped your lips around him, recognizing that salty flavor as soon as you moved your tongue up his ring finger. Under his gaze, you moved your tongue lower to each one of his fingers and his palms, silently moving to his abs when you were done with his hand, and paying caring attention to the tattoo he bad of you as you slipped your tongue over it.

You weren't done though.

You moved down again, licking every drop on his dick carefully. Moving your tongue in circles over the tip, and flicking it a few times, before you started taking the turning soft member in your mouth.

"See how much power you have over me?" he asked, moving his right hand over your arm to your shoulder "Making me cum by just looking at you. That's how much control you have over me, babe" a deep sigh left his lips as you sucked him off, feeling his fingers moving over your back until they reached the sensitive spot of your nape under your hair. "Hmm are you making it hard again?" he asked, looking down at you. "Go fot it, babe" he squeezed your nape, encouraging you to go on.

You felt it grow in your mouth, slowly reaching parts it didn't in a matter of seconds, feeling your lips slightly stretching out with his thickness. Jungkook started rocking his hips against your mouth, making you gag on it before he suddenly pulled you up. "Get up and lie on the bed".

As you were told, you rested on your back, seeing him get rid of his wrinkled pants by his ankles with a kick. His tough hands spread your legs apart, keeping a tight grip on your knees as he bent over. He hummed when his tongue dipped in your needy core, making your whole body squirm at the so awaited contact. His wet kisses were loud on your core, moving his lips and tongue through your slit, sinking half of his face in it. He combined the movements of his tongue, teasing your entrance, with his nose rubbing against your clit.

You swore you only needed one more flick and you'd be completely gone.

But your husband knew that, and that was why he stopped before you were able to be close to reach your high.

Jungkook made your body roll over the mattress as if it was nothing, grabbing your through before you could get too comfortable in that position to rest your back against his chest. He rammed into you without a previous warning, almost making your whole body collapse. And probably it would have if he hadn't kept you held by the neck as you were.

Unlike other times, Jungkook didn't take his time with you. His thrusts were harsh and fast since the very beginning, having you whimpering and beginning every time his balls slightly slapped your clit.

Encouraged by those high-pitched moans, Jungkook angled his hips, making his tip rub against that spongy spot roughly, at the same time his digits squeezed the skin of your throat.

"You think I'd fuck you like this if I wanted someone else?" he groaned, moving his free hand down to rub your clit. "You're the only one I want, Y/n. Get it inside your fucking brain".

The loud skin clapping, your moans combined, and the lack of air were certainly doing things to your brain, because you felt like you were floating with every thrust of his hips. "You have no idea how much I love you, Y/n" he moaned, before his moans were muffled against the skin of your shoulder.

"I fucking love you, too" you moaned back, rising your right hand until your fingers were tangling on the locks on the back of his hair, while your other hand tried to feel some stability by holding his waist, feeling his muscles tensing and relaxing with every fast move he made. "I love you so much" you whined, barely feeling like your body belonged to you anymore.

"Then cum for me and show me" he bit your shoulder, circling your clit at the right pace to make your whole body shake and your vision turn blurry as you welcomed your high.

Jungkook looked at you while he cleaned you up, sighing when he finally threw the paper over the nightstand to be able to focus on you only.

"I'm sorry" you muttered, feeling guilty under his big doe eyes.

"I'm the one who's sorry. You were right. If it had been me in your position, I'd have made a scene" he admitted. "I didn't think that way back at the party, because for me they're just... there. The only person I genuinely see it's you".

"Still, I think I reacted that way because I had never heard of you being with someone else" you tilted your head. "And when I saw her tonight, it shocked me" you added in a thin voice, "I guess I could only think about how you had the chance to choose her over me at some point. And I wonder if things would've been easier for you. Or if there will be a point you regret your decision".

"She never stood a chance against you. She wasn't even a choice, to be honest. Since the very beginning, you were the only person I could see, and I mean it" he caressed your ankle. "And I don't know why you think I would ever regret choosing you over anything else, but I would never".

"What if you want to have kids at some point?"

You dared to ask, knowing damn well the possibilities of you not being able to get pregnant were quite high.

Jungkook's shoulders sank at your question, finally seeing the problem of everything that happened that night. Your eyes started to water after you dropped the question, and he couldn't do anything other than dragging you to his body, hugging you tight before little sobs escaped your lips.

"I married you knowing that" he reminded you. "I married you because I love you and I was looking forward to living my future with you. And it'll be happy and full whether there are kids or not" his fingers played with your hair gently. "We can try, there are also several therapies to work on it, in case we both choose to have kids at some point. If there are kids, fine. And if there aren't, it'll be fine, too. I married you expecting nothing in return except for your love and loyalty, you don't owe me a kid. You don't owe me a successor to my position. And I would never leave you just because you aren't able to give it to me. Kill me if I ever do something like that" grabbing your chin, he forced your eyes onto his, wiping your tears away with his thumb.

His fingers moved from your upper arm down your wrist, playing with the ring he chose to put on you. "Also, once I retire, they can fuck themselves. If you think one of my worries would be whether Bangtan is still alive or not, you're wrong. Because all my attention will be on you only" squeezing you tight in his arms, he made you giggle for the first time that night "Is it everything clear now?".

You nodded, rubbing your thumb over his chin while you looked at him with all the appreciation you were carrying in your eyes "I love you, Jungkook".

"I love you so much, doll" he whispered.

Your love was a lifetime promise, that no one and nothing would ever break. And he wouldn't find a problem in reminding you every day of your life.

[madara-fate]

That last post you made abt when Sasuke fell in love w/ Sakura rlly got me thinking,,, like actually what did Sasuke think about her in and around the blank period? A tiny little fangirl part of me wants to say that they've both been in love since the academy or whatever but that's just not realistic. Everything sort of points to Sasuke holding nothing but a platonic love for Sakura that faded or got buried during shippiden. But that scene where Sasuke pokes her forehead the same way Itachi did seems like an anomaly to me. It could be theorised that he just thought of her like a little sister which could make some sense but then after two years of being alone he comes back for a visit, takes Sakura with him and they make a baby at the most 3 months into their journey. So if that really was a little sister type love then MAN has he got some issues.

The only real thing I could think up was that maybe at some point when he was imprisoned Sakura visited him and they got along there which made him see Sakura differently <- v unlikely, I also tried to think of a situation where he sort of fell in love with her (The idea of her?) When he was on his journey. In Sakura's story: Love riding the spring breeze, it's lightly implied that Sasuke felt something towards Sakura based on the fact that Sasuke only returned momentarily near Konoha because he heard Sakura was in danger (TLDR of the book in the case you don't know: Guy tried to make a drug to give other people the sharingan temporarily, kidnapped Sakura, sent Sasuke a threatening letter, Sakura escaped on her own, after a few battles Sakura+friends go to the other bases to destroy them only to find Sasukes already burned them all down) but this could also be seen as him just being a friend?? I?? guess?? I have no idea honestly at no point in the timeline can I think of when he fell bc he wouldn't just take someone he didn't care so deeply about on a secluded journey w/ him and if he would he certainly would not knock them up.

Fuck ranted a bit mbb just wanted to know what u thought ab the timeline of his feelings or whatever

I think that between the end of Naruto and Sasuke's final fight, and Sasuke's departure for his redemption journey, he and Sakura got a little closer, to the point where Sasuke may have not consciously realised it, but he considered her more than just a comrade. Like a "more than friends, less than lovers" situation, because I agree with you about that forehead poke. I certainly don't think that Sasuke had any romantic intentions with that gesture, but he held it too close to his heart for it to have held no deeper meaning.

I am indeed familiar with the what happens in the novels, and I would say that the events of Sakura Hiden were what made Sasuke realize the nature of the feelings he had began developing during his time in the village following his and Naruto's fight, because his actions in that novel indicated that he placed Sakura's welfare on a pedestal above the village's problems, which is highly significant.

[rat-rosemary]

Hiiiii

I truly do not understand dreams end goal here.

You could say its to finally speak his truth. witch is valid, however the way hes doing it makes little sense.

He knows the court of public opinon likes tommy now, Tumblr, twt, tiktok everywhere has been majorirty taking tommys side, even youtube witch dream gets more views on is fucking with tommys video alot more, hell tubbo got more viewers then dream last night that never happens.

you could say its like the the debunk video, however nobody knew amanda, nobody truly cared about amanda they cared about dream being a pedo, dream could easily debunk hes not a pedo, thats a claim with a yes or no answer.

This is youtuber vs youtuber, both make claims but none are legal in nature, its strickly who people like more, and dream loses all of these.

He used to win them, john swan and that speedrunner dude he demolished, but ever since gumball people side against him in every case if they vaguely know who the other person is. Hell dream have evidence and mfs still dont care. still say gumball won easily.

instead of going back and worth and LOSING. (Cause thats what hes doing, i know that zendaya tweet but zendaya has a career off internet in movies and popculture, so her twt audience is little while dreams audience is all online)

Why dosent he post his experinec with tommy on reddit? Where all his diehard fans are? one big long video airing it out. Hell post in on youtube and TURN YOUR PHONE OFF. Back and forths allow u more oppurtunities to lose and ignores your goal of telling your side. He wont sway people who hate him. Three hours of stream and everyone just thinks hes cringe. He needs to focus on what matters and who matters. If he truly feels like youtubers are being manipukated by tommy he needs to dm them personally. (I dont think tubbos being manipulates i think thats twin. U dont turn on twin)

Hi! This is a more of an opinion thing then a "Hey what did Dream say" thing, but let's go

Okay so let's start with this. As a veteran Dream Stan who has been here since 2020, people did not accept a yes or no answer. Because he said no immediately

Even after the truth dropped, even after all the people involved publicly admitted to lying, people will still constantly call Dream a pedophile. If you want an example, you can go on Twitter, find the picture Dream posted of a minecraft world with a huge render distance, and look at the qrts.

For your sake I would actually tell you to not do that. But yeah it's the same joke over and over and over again.

As a side note, it is super fucked up if no one care about Amanda. First of all, she is a terrible person and you should support her victims. Second. What the fuck does it mean if no one cared about the person who would be the victim? That they didn't care for the person being groomed, just the person they could call a pedophile?

That's a smear campaign. Literally.

The rules for Dream have been that he is assumed guilty and must create evidence for every single moment of his life to prove himself innocent.

Like sit with me here. Cantu assaulted Dream and screamed slurs at him and the Uber driver. Cantu could have gone to jail for that. Dream could have sued him for assault and defamation or even a hate crime. There is something wrong here with the way Dream is treated

*cough* also as a veteran Dream stan, reddit is not where the die hard fans are. My god, dwt2 feels like a dranti space painted with bright green. *cough*

Tommy is to Dream, and I'm being dramatic and overly simplificatig this to explain a point, an emotionally abusive ex basically.

Dream is not doing this to try and make himself be the good guy, he could never do that. He survived his smear campaign as well as he could, considering the plan for it from it's starts at Kiwi Farms was to make him kill himself.

He's doing this because this is a pattern of behavior he saw when he was Tommy's friend, and that he doesn't want turned to other people. Because he knows it sucks.

The point was never to be a hero, it is that no one ever fucking stepped up when it was Dream, and he is not going to let the same thing happen to someone else

Augh. Oh that was bad. I think they're gonna kill me with hammers for this

On a side note. First, I don't think Tommy's and Tubbo's and the British group friendship is abusive, but as an outsiders I don't think it, or their relationship to their audiences and views, is healthy.

Manipulation is hard to explain or pin down, because manipulation is basically communication, and that's what humans do all the time. So I don't think that is the most useful thing ever for this conversation /nm

[flossylove]

I wasn't actually expecting to do this post right now, as it's literally 2am, I have work tomorrow and I'm yet to sleep but omggg!! I just keep rewatching and rewatching the clip we got tonight. It really is so beautiful!

I was at work when it dropped, and let me tell you - knowing that Nora and Roko were having their moment at that time, and were having their first kiss AND I HAD TO WAIT UNTIL I FINISHED WORK?!!? Guys, I really don't know how I survived it :((

Anyways, like I've said, I just keep rewatching it, even more so than the long clip we got last weekend. There's just something so cinematic, especially in those last few minutes of the clip, but still so raw and real. Like, the lead up to the end was perfect. I was really curious how they were gonna go about the whole night - from Eva talking to Jakov, introducing herself to his new girl, Eva and Tina and Nix?? And then of course Nora and Roko and their scene. I was really looking forward to it, and SRAM just smashed it. Like, I don't even think I could imagine up the clip to have worked out any other way.

Having the segment of Nora imagining her and the girls dancing along through the night to roko's djing, I really liked, because it shows that this Nora is a bit more of a 'partier' than other remakes, and you know, she does actually enjoy being there with her girls. I've definitely felt with some remakes that they sort of over do her annoyance and reluctance to be at any of the parties. Which I understand works with the script, but as always, I am just loving SRAM and all the subtle changes they're making. Even with her just imagining the scenario of them all together. The beauty of the universes!

The way they kept looking at each other, especially Roko looking over at Nora while djing!

And the moment when the lyrics are literally "You'd get in my car, but you didn't want me back then" REFERENCING THEIR DATE while Roko looks at her?? Perfection. I don't care if they didn't mean it that way, I'm taking it hahaha

Now Nora's words in that whole conversation - they weren't even directed at me and I felt them deep!! Only joking, but still, I liked how she was so blunt and she was so negative with getting out what she wanted to say to him, but you could still see that she was kind of convincing herself at the same time. AND HE CALLED HER OUT FOR IT!!

Which I loved loved loved. Like, yes Roko, you are correct! You aren't the only one with a crush!

A moment of silence for the "You think you're so great?" "No, I think you're great."

Also, as much as it hurt to watch, I really liked how we could tell that what she was saying was actually getting to him! It wasn't him getting angry and going defensive. Or in some remakes cases, being stone cold and having no reaction at all. He just took what she was saying to him, and you could physically see his face change to hurt. I'm never gonna take a bullet for a William character, but boy is Roko getting close (just like Senne) for me. Like, I know some people have been complaining about the supposed 'lack of emotion' on these actors' faces and with their acting, but I really do feel like they are all doing an amazing job and bringing yet another incredible remake to life!

Once again, we are left alone with Nora, while she realises what she said, and it all starts to set in. I really love how SRAM gives us these solo moments with the characters where we get to see them work out for themselves how they are feeling in that moment. Obviously, she then follows him and AHHHHHHI

The music transition was so beautiful, I really love the song they chose to use. I didn't realise it until someone on twitter pointed it out, but the song used (mama, zaljubio sam se u njene ožiljke - Baks) was actually one of the songs they played together last weekend - when Nora asked for a romantic song to play, she then played that one on the piano. I've since been listening to the song on repeat hahah because I really do think it's just a pretty sounding song. I'm yet to translate all the lyrics (imagine it's really cheesy and cringe haha), but even the instrumental is beautiful. It really fitted well with this scene, and once again, the call back to their weekend prior - chef's kiss!

With Nora running after him, I know it's in the OG already, but I could really feel in this remake just how much Nora was fighting herself whether to follow him or not. I could really see in her body language just how much she was building up the courage to chase after what she wants, and follow after him. This even continues up to when they kiss for the first time. You can see her rocking back and forth slightly, leaning in every now and then while apologising to him, almost as if she's building up her courage each time to kiss him. It was such a real show of nervousness and vulnerability from Nora in that moment.

And then, the scene of all scenes (in my opinion) happened! The beauty of that scene. Wow. I've always loved media and photography, especially videography, and SRAM really pays attention to the details and really pushes to create a constant environment in their media, which I feel has really added to my own watching experience. But yeah, the lighting, the warm tones, the pull-up to Eva and Tina, the eventual pull-down to see Nora and Roko walking off at the end, with Tina and Eva still above...yeah I loved it a lot!

That's something to talk about! Tina! I'm still yet to figure out if she didn't see them but maybe she heard them? Or she didn't see nor hear anything? IDK, the positioning makes it seem like she would've seen Nora running after him, but the way the scene ended, with little focus actually on Tina and her reaction, I feel like maybe she's oblivious. Which is definitely gonna be interesting for these next few weeks!

I am so excited to see the new clips coming, as Nora + Roko's secret relationship arc has begun! And, it's apparent that Tina is none the wiser...

One thing I was thinking about for a little, was whether or not Roko would tell Nix about him and Nora finally getting together. Because, as we've already established in SRAM, they've really made a point to build on Roko + Nix's friendship which I really appreciate because I did always feel it was semi lacking in the OG. And as we've seen, Nix definitely knows about Nora and Roko's crush on her, seeing as several times Nix has done his dirty work for him (planning the party so Nora would go, sending out the text and arranging for the charity donations). Even when he picked her up at last weekends party, saying how she should've been there earlier, just shows that Roko does actually talk about Nora with Nix. So yeah, long tangent, but I do wonder if we will see anything that points to Nix knowing about their relationship? I don't even know what they would include, or even how they'd do it, I just think it'd be a fun little thing to see that we didn't get in the OG.

I'm sure I'll find more to say tomorrow, or really later today hahaha but for now I think I'm done, and I'm gonna get some rest!

~ floss <3

[justsimpingforawhile]

(Warning : bad english)

Hi, how are u? Hope u're doin' fine. So I have a request about Valen x Fem!Merlin. They're finally going to a small walk to spend time together because Merlin returned from her adventure. And also, I'd want a moment where Fem!Merlin shapeshifted into a fox (or any other small animal) to relax on Valen's shoulders. And as u know, I want it to be platonic :)

Helloooo! I'm being a little careless when it comes to Valen, I'm sorry about that, but I hope I don't stray from his personality this time.

I want to make it clear that this one shot takes place before the Chains of Eternity season and after Waves of Intrigue. There is a space of one week between one event and another.

────┈┈┈┄┄╌╌╌╌┄┄┈┈┈────

Finally home, you could hardly believe it when you walked through the gates of Holistone. After your adventures in the Desert and Rustport, all you wanted was a little rest before traveling again. Walking towards the statue of the goddess Dura in the city center, you notice Valen's presence in front of the palace. He sees you too, and waves from afar.

It had been a long time since you had seen each other, months in fact, the last time you were actually together was when you were investigating the Adamantine Syndicate's cursed grapes. To be honest, you guys never had any fun time together outside of a mission.

— Hey, Valen! What's up? — You wave to him as you approach.

— Merlin! What a surprise you haven't been on any of your adventures so far, haha.

— Good thing, I don't want to venture out too soon. What are you doing away from your post?

— Hogan finally had mercy and gave me a break, now I have the whole weekend to rest. Want to go to a restaurant for lunch? On Hogan's tab, of course.

— You don't have to use his account for everything, I can pay for both of us.

— Don't spoil the fun Merlin, I can resolve this after.

— You'll just end up getting into more trouble.

Valen just laughs, rolling his eyes, he was already used to it (Hogan too), so having any problems was his last concern. The restaurant wasn't that far away, it was just a short walk to get there, anyway it wouldn't take them long. The streets were a little empty today, there was a bit of movement here and there, but nothing like what it was a few months ago. Of course, there were cases of hypodemons and hypogeans on the loose, not to mention the festival in a neighboring kingdom that attracts people from all corners of Esperia, they were probably traveling to the festival which starts in a few weeks.

— I heard you're going to the festival in Cedartown, I would like to go too, but my time off doesn't cover the whole festival.

— Are there no Heroic Order infiltrators in Cedartown?

— Hogan sent one or two, but they didn't infiltrate. I think he'll send more, but I certainly won't be the lucky one.

— It would be fun with you there.

— Do I make your adventures fun? Haha.

— Hey! Go ahead and misunderstand me.

With a sigh, a weight fell onto Valen's left shoulder. It was a small yellow bird, like the many in Esperia, but this one in particular was just Merlin disguised as a bird.

— Did you turn into a bird?

— Yes, you made me feel ashamed. — Merlin's voice came out like an echo from the bird.

— Ooh, okay, okay, sorry about that, I won't do it again.

Valen raises his hands as if he was surrendering to something, he had his provocative way deep down, he wouldn't stop doing that under any circumstances. Merlin knew this, she knew him well enough to know he was a bastard.

— I'm serious! Don't believe me? Argh, what is this?

The weight on Valen's shoulder went from being subtle to becoming a bit more uncomfortable. The weight of the paws dug into his back and heat radiated down one side of his cheek, with soft, downy fur.

— Have you turned into a fox now?

— Yes, I'm serious now. Actually, I'm just lazy, I want to rest.

— On my shoulder?!

— Why not? Are you going to use your shoulders now?

— Gosh, Hogan told me you were silly, but he didn't tell me you were that silly.

— Haha, sorry for acting like this, it's been a long time since I interacted like a friend spending time with a friend. Ever since I woke up from the coma... It's all been so strange. — Merlin, in his fox form, lowers her ears and whimpers.

— I can't even imagine what it's like, but well, I'll be here if you need help or a good meal. — Valen chuckles and pats the fox's head on his shoulder, feeling a small wag of its tail against his back.

— Haha, thanks. Are we there yet?.

— Yes, it's around the corner. If I were you, I'd turn back into a human, I think the restaurant owner doesn't allow foxes.

— Too bad, foxes are cute.

The weight then disappears from Valen's shoulder and Merlin appears in front of him. She turns to him with a playful smile and pats his shoulder to clear the fur that have stuck to it.

— Let's go? I don't want to wait in line. — She asked.

— Come on, I want to show you an amazing drink they have at the restaurant.

The pair went on their way, entered the restaurant and stayed there for the rest of the day. It was just what Merlin needed after such hectic months.

────┈┈┈┄┄╌╌╌╌┄┄┈┈┈────

A/N: I loved the idea, it was a great way to try to improve my dialogues, since I have some difficulty with that. I also liked that there was a mention of foxes and I find them very interesting!!!!! I will restrain myself because this is not a blog about biology lol.

Btw, I hope you like it, sorry for the delay. It's a bit complicated to keep writing with such a busy routine.

[amoebo-id]

responding to @trianongardens' tag (thank u tbh!!), posting some books i'm intending to read - but with the loosest possible interpretation of "intending to"... i've just basically finished(ish) what ended up being a ~5-year reading project in "ethnomusicology" which answered some specific questions i had. so but now i'm trying very hard (i promise) not to take on another task quite as broad as "understand the global history of musical aesthetics", and instead just "pick and choose" or "read what interests me". but i struggle to know quite what that means. i was supposed to be reading more fiction, for one thing, but i didn't have nearly as much fun with sam delany's sword and sorcery series as i wanted to, they were like a low-res version of christopher chitty who i read after...

A Course in Miracles, Jesus (ed. Helen Shucman): technically i'm already reading this but i keep putting it down for months at a time. i found out (apologies if this is not news) that helen shucman was involved in mkultra (as a researcher) until shortly before (question mark) she started to receive the dictation that later became this book, and that she was really into the guy she was dictating to but he was gay slash not into her. i'm not going to say "reading it through the lens of frustrated desire / trying to convince someone to have sex w you" is what makes it interesting because that was all there before i knew any of the background and in any case that's not even the main thing interesting about this. it's like, personal self-actualization psychology (bourgeois liberal subjectivity or whatever) delivered via king james bible imperative language/framework(/typography and design).

Thumri in Historical and Stylistic Perspectives, Peter Manuel. couldn't find this anywhere last time i tried to look for it, now seeing it's up on researchgate. thank you mr. manuel. thumri formerly or in some contexts the hindustani classical genre par excellence and also strongly associated with sex workers and particularly with sex workers in cities defined by colonial money and colonial landownership laws. nostalgia for a bygone efflorescence of freewheeling rococo decadence (degeneracy?). what thumri is and means and how is at the Center of "capitalist modernity" in colonized south asia and i trust peter manuel more than most in this field to be clear-eyed about it rather than making me read between the lines.

Chevengur, Andrei Platonov; Black Sunlight, Dambudzo Marechera: grouping these together under "jackie @baeddel recs" but also both sort of "anti-real" politically-motivated (is that tautological?) "experiments" written by people in their late 20s who would go on to write not much else. and for no particular reason other than jackie herself i expect a certain very specific type of attention to form and syntax but - i'll report back...

The Creation of Inequality, Kent Flannery & Joyce Marcus; Europe and the People Without History, Eric Wolf: well i read Dawn of Everything and i really got a lot out of it during all the parts where i was able to ignore the arguments it was trying to make. and then i read some criticism from academics in various fields and noted down their recs (most of their criticisms kind of added up to "why didnt you spend more time on my field" tbh). so this "leftist anthropology" (hmm...) rabbithole is now sort of waiting for me to dive into.

not tagging anybody because who am i kidding. if you see this then do the thing!! <3

[yourultraarchive]

i love love love your blog!! you have a few posts about japanese names, like how to make them and where they fit in but,,, i was wondering how an american name would fit in (like class number, alphabetically, etc.) or how to translate one, if at all. and do you think its a good idea to have an american oc actually attending UA at all? i know you've said you're not an authority, so its totally fine if you dont know. thank youuuu! your templates are amazing btw

Hi, sorry for the late reply! (I actually haven't been on tumblr in like... months. Life and all.)

Foreign/non-Japanese OCs attending UA wouldn't be weird at all--there are canonically at least 3 foreign exchange/transfer/descent/immigrant students (or something of the sort)! Aoyama from 1-A and Pony and Rin from 1-B are all foreigners in some capacity.

As for how they'd fit alphabetically--well, it'd be just like any alphabetical order you'd think of, it's just that it'd be based on the Japanese alphabet instead of English. Here is a good reference for the general rules of that order, including voiced consonants:

In Romaji, these kana are phonetically ordered as: a, i, u, v, e, o, ka, ga, ki, gi, ku, gu, ke, ge, ko, go, sa, za, shi, ji, su, zu, se, ze, so, zo, ta, da, chi, di/ji, tsu, du/dzu, te, de, to, do, na, ni, nu, ne, no, ha, ba, pa, hi, bi, pi, fu/hu, bu, pu, he, be, pe, ho, bo, po, ma, mi, mu, me, mo, ya, yu, yo, ra, ri, ru, re, ro, wa, wo, n (This is ignoring "little/small" variants since those are never going to be at the start of a word, but it does determine the order of words that do have them in the middle somewhere.) (Also a note: "v" is not a natural phoneme in Japanese at all, so they've transcribed it as a voiced "u" sound, which is why it's listed as coming right after "u".)

It may look weird to people used to the English alphabet (you may think it's strange that "pa" comes before "bi" right?) but do keep in mind that Japanese is... well. Not English. This is normal to them!

For a name that doesn't easily fit the Japanese phonetic structure, you'd have to sound it out with kana (and write it out with katakana, since it's a foreign name). Some examples:

Pony, written as ポニー, is read "po-ni-i" (since long vowel sounds are translated in katakana as a long dash), and since it's a name starting with a voiced consonant (po), it would go after names starting with "he" (and its voiced versions) and before names starting with "ma". (If we were sorting characters by first name anyway.)

Peter Parker, written as ピーター・パーカー, is read "pi-i-ta-a / pa-a-ka-a" (again with long dashes translating as long vowels), and would alphabetically go before Pony (in either case of first or last name, since "pi" and "pa" both come before "po"). Also, in case you didn't catch the pattern, the "er" ending in English is most often translated as a long "a" sound!

Richard Grayson, written as リチャード・グレイソン, is read "ri-cha-a-do / gu-re-i-so-n". This is an example of sounds like "gr" that don't translate well in Japanese, so you kind of have to squish two syllables together to get it, with the vowel in the middle being somewhat "silent". The most common "silent" character in Japanese is "u", but I've seen "o" a few times too (see next example). This name also has an example of a "little y" sound, where when one of the "y" kanas are combined with "chi" or "ji", it changes it to be one compound sound, which in this case is "chi+ya" becoming "cha".

Mytho or Mute, written as みゅうと or ミュート, is read as "myu-u-to", and can be translated as either of the aforementioned "English" names (because translations aren't a 1-to-1 thing after all). In the example of the "Mute" translation, the silent "o" just kind of sounds better at the end than a "u" does in cases like this. Also, there's another example of the compound "y" sound, though unlike "chi" or "ja", the "y" isn't dropped in the romanization, thus "mi+yu" becomes "myu" phonetically, even though the English name is translated as starting with just "Mu" in the case of "Mute".

Thanatos, written as タナトス, is read "ta-na-to-su", and is an example of a name with that silent "u" at the end.

Valerie Gray, written as ヴァレリー・グレイ, is read as "va-re-ri-i / gu-re-i", and is an example of the voiced "u" sound, which as mentioned above is the usual way to write "v" sounds in Japanese. Alphabetically, Valerie comes before Eijiro, so if 1-A were sorted by first name, her class number would be before Kirishima's.

Anthony Stark, written as アンソニー・スターク, is read as "a-n-so-ni-i / su-ta-a-ku", and is another example of translating sounds that don't exist in Japanese ("th" in English becomes "s" or "z" in Japanese, and "st[x]" becomes "sut[x]") and the silent "u".

Jason Stryker, written as ジェイソン・ストライカー, is read as "je-i-so-n / su-to-ra-i-ka-a", and is another example of translating sounds that don't exist in Japanese, with "Stryker" showcasing that it uses the "st[x] -> sut[x]" rule AS WELL AS a silent "o" rather than the usual silent "u". Also, note the "little e" in there--since "je" isn't a natural Japanese phoneme, it's made using the combination of "ji" and "e", with the "little e" denoting that the "jie" be read as a singular sound "je". In the order of things though, this means Jason comes before Jack (see next bullet point), even though Jason alphabetically comes after Jack in English.

Jack Frost, written as ジャック・フロスト, is read as "ja-k-ku / fu-ro-su-to", and it translates another non-existent Japanese sound ("fur[x] -> fr[x]") and uses a compound "y" sound "ja (jya)". It also has the "small tsu" kana, which is the symbol for a "double consonant" sound (so it's romanized as "jakku" and not "jaku", which audibly sounds different in Japanese). This double consonant sound means that "Jack" alphabetically comes after, for example, "Janet" (ジャネット, read as "ja-ne-t-to"), because even though they both start with "ja", the "small tsu" comes before "ne".

Class number is just based on where they are in the alphabetical order (ie. Aoyama is No.1 because he has the earliest alphabetical character in his surname, "a". Ashido is No.2 because, while she also has an "a" surname, "shi" comes after "o" in the Japanese alphabet).

So for instance, if Richard Grayson was added to 1-A, he would have a seat between Kirishima and Koda since his surname starts with "gu" (in the Japanese writing system!), and his class number would be No.9! Koda and everyone else after him would have their number pushed accordingly. If Peter Parker were added to this same class, he would be between Bakugou and Midoriya!

I hope this helped, and will help others too. Thanks for the ask! (Also thanks for saying so, I feel like no one actually uses the templates at all...)

Anyway, plus ultra and all that!