#and I will MISS the potential earth shenanigans

[coldflashevents]

COLDFLASH WEEKEND IS HERE

Hello all, and welcome to the first Coldflash event of 2024!

Our first event of the year is a mini weekend event in which everyone can share fanworks based on a selection of prompts chosen by all of you!

Fan art, fanfiction, moodboards, playlists, gifsets, videos, edits... all contributions are welcome and we are so happy to have you :D

As a quick reminder, the prompts for this events are as follows:

Day 1:

I thought I lost you

Secret relationship

Day 2:

Time travel shenanigans

Accidental dating/didn’t know they were dating

Bonus Prompt (post on either day):

Alternate Earths

I'm also pleased to announce that the AO3 collection for the event is now open, and can be accessed here! Remember to share your works to the collection (if you'd like) so we can all see them and enjoy.

The tag for the event is #cfjune24, so remember to tag all your creations (and if you could tag us @coldflashevents that would also be super helpful—we want to make sure we don't miss any of your hard work!)

We also request that you use appropriate tags for any potentially sensitive/triggering content (things like nsfw, self harm, suicide, graphic depictions of violence, etc.)

Myself and the other mods will be here reblogging and sharing your creations all weekend, and we're very excited to get started!

So without further ado... happy coldflashing! :D

[ofthecaravel]

Everything I Didn't Say

Chapter 4 of ‘You Don’t Go To Parties’, which is clearly not a oneshot anymore, but this is the last chapter I swear it on my father's sardines

Part 1  Part 2 Part 3

Summary: It's time for a stake out.

Tags: Brotherly shenanigans, anxiety, miscommunication, coming out, resolutions, love and peace on planet earth

Words: 4.7k

A/N: Let's all gather around for one last rodeo. Thank you for all the love on this series, figured it was about time to wrap it up for everybody's sanity. You are all required by Caravel Nation law to tell me what you think <3

~~~

Danny gave himself the kindness of keeping his phone off and out of sight during work, but it was never much of a problem considering the majority of his messages came from his family and Sam. However, when he slid his phone out of his work locker at the end of his shift, he was surprised to see his entire lock screen was filled to the brim with legions of texts and missed calls from Josh.

His anxiety piqued when he read the urgent nature of his texts, but calmed quickly when he realized they all had something to do with the twins’ fervent demands to help them track down Sam’s mystery girlfriend. Not even bothering to text back, Danny called Josh, pinning the phone to his ear with his shoulder as he kicked off his grass stained golf shoes and slid on his sneakers. As expected, Josh picked up on the second ring.

“Danny, my boy, finally, where have you been?” Josh greeted loudly. 

“Work,” Danny deadpanned, tapping the heel of his shoe against the locker to secure it onto his foot. “The children yearn for the golf course. What’s the emergency this time around?”

“We have a breakthrough in the case,” Josh whispered conspiratorially and Danny felt a nervous tremor in his hand start to pulse. Their work on “the case” had been slim to none, mostly being carried out on a night when Danny slept over at Jake’s apartment and Josh had scrolled through Sam’s Instagram followers and pointed out “potential suspects” while they all passed his dab pen around. Needless to say, their sleuthing hadn’t reached any kind of important conclusions after the third pass around. 

“Do tell,” Danny asked as he strode out the back doors and lumbered across the parking lot to his bulky Kia. 

“Jacob managed to divine some very interesting information out of Sam,” Josh continued, clearly enjoying drawing out the suspense. “Apparently, he has some sort of ‘meeting’ tonight at Roscoe’s. A meeting? At night? At Roscoe’s? It’s gotta be a date.”

“Hm!” Danny squeaked, his keys falling through his fingers at Josh’s words. Danny was very aware of this dinnertime date, considering he was the one who was going to be in attendance. They’d only planned it a day or two before. How could Jake have gotten that information out of Sam so quickly? Danny pressed the speaker phone button and pulled up his text thread with Sam, smiling as he waded through an adorable stream of texts begging for Danny to come save him from lecture before zeroing in on a text that read ‘Just had Such a conversation with jake, ugh’. Uh oh.

“I mean, what else could it be?” Josh exclaimed, his voice filling the expanse of Danny’s car as Danny sat staring at his phone. “Sam’s smart but he’s not professional. Bullshit, it's a date.”

“Well, I could always ask him about it and report back,” Danny offered.

“Nope, I have something much better planned,” Josh announced, a smile dripping from his voice. “Pull out your fancy pants, Wagner, because the three of us have a reservation at Roscoe’s, 6pm tonight. This is a proper stakeout.”

“What?” Danny blurted, his panic returning swiftly. “No, no, Josh, I’m b-”

“Cancel whatever it was, this is top priority!” Josh insisted passionately. “Come on, it’ll be a blast. We have a table right outside the window so we can see every table inside. We’ll stay out of sight, sneak a peek at whoever shows up, and then we’ll know! It’s a foolproof plan!”

“Josh-”

“I won’t hear it,” Josh snapped. “We’ll pick you up at 5:45. Wear something nice. See you then!”

“No, Jo-”

“Yes, Josh, thank you for your kind offer,” Josh mocked in his best impression of Danny. “Oh, you’re so welcome, Daniel. And don’t try and tell Sam we’re coming, he texted Jake that his phone was dying half an hour ago and we all know he didn’t bring a charger to class. He’ll be out of commission until right around when we show up. It’s a perfect storm.”

“You watch too many movies,” Danny countered, his stomach sinking at Josh’s information. He glanced at his phone again and sure enough, his last text from Sam was an annoyed apology that his phone was dying and he’d text him if he had time to run home and grab a charger before he got to the restaurant. 

“You don’t watch enough,” Josh accused with a laugh. “5:45. Fancy pants. Maybe bring sunglasses. Be there or be square!”

“You’re evil for this,” Danny sighed. “Alright. I’ll dig out my sunglasses.”

“Perfect! Au revoir.”

And just like that, the call cut and Danny was left sitting blankly and anxiously fidgeting. He thought about texting Sam anyways, but it seemed like a fruitless task knowing he wouldn’t see it until it was too late. Could he call someone Sam was with to warn him? Who was he even with? He didn’t know anyone’s numbers by heart, anyways. The stars had aligned in favor of Josh’s ridiculous stakeout, and Danny couldn’t help but feel the walls closing in around him as he started up the car and drove uncharacteristically slow all the way home. He knew this wouldn’t mean the end by any means, but his stomach was aching all the same. 

~~

Danny spent his two hours of free time buzzing around his apartment and brainstorming ways out of the plan, but when he heard a horn blare outside of his window at the stroke of 5:45, he knew his fate was sealed. He ran down the stairs and walked out to Jake’s piece of crap Toyota, smoothing his semi formal button down with one hand and pushing his sunglasses up with the other. The backseat window rolled down and Josh’s cherubic face appeared, letting loose a loud wolf whistle. He was sporting a huge pair of bedazzled sunglasses of his own and a lavender fleece, and Danny chuckled as he climbed in the passenger seat and received a side hug from Jake, who was wearing his standard round sunglasses and a secret agent-esque turtleneck.

“You both look ridiculous,” Danny declared as Jake started to drive, turning around in his seat to properly face Josh. “I don’t know how you roped me into this.”

“I’m extremely charming,” Josh announced. Jake scoffed in reply.

“Is that what you call it?” Jake teased and it was Josh’s turn to scoff. 

“Why are you in the backseat?” Danny asked, his nerves melting in the presence of his friends despite them being the source of it. 

“He calls it ‘Driving Ms. Fernanda’,” Jake explained tiredly as Josh began to cackle. “He pretends I’m his chauffeur.” 

“Are you Ms. Fernanda?” Danny questioned Josh.

“Elle Fernanda to you,” Josh declared in a confident impression of some kind of wizened socialite. “You didn’t come up with an alias for this?”

“Amateur,” Jake accused in a gravelly British accent.

“Oh, and you are…?”

“Oliver fuckin’ Reed!” Jake crowed, his face splitting into a raucous smile. “I have a beard for our grand entrance in my pocket. Didn’t want any ladies driving next to us to get distracted by how devilishly handsome I am with it on.”

Danny didn’t answer, simply laughing as he relaxed into his seat. For a moment, he forgot the end goal of this trip, taking time to enjoy the portal the twins always seemed to conjure up to transport his state of mind to a new plane of reality.

 Before he got the time to fully indulge, Jake pulled into a parking spot around the corner from the restaurant and they all climbed out. As they walked, Josh quietly hummed the Mission Impossible theme and Jake chattered about the menu he’d looked up online, leaving Danny to try and get his panic under wraps.

“I’ve planned it all out,” Josh assured them. “Sam should already be inside, and we’ll just go right to our seats outside so he’ll never even see us. See, that table right there, by the bush? He’ll never see us from behind that.”

“Smart,” Danny answered absently. He checked his phone again, but there were still no texts from Sam. He fought cursing under his breath as they approached the hostess outside and she led them to the table Josh had described. As he took his seat, he peeked around the greenery and nearly jumped when he saw Sam sitting at a corner table, his chin resting on his hand as he looked around the restaurant. He’d been there for at least 15 minutes now, and Danny hoped he had kept up his streak of lateness so that he’d been sitting there for even less time, but from the frustrated crinkle on his forehead that Danny knew so well, he figured this may have been a rare occasion he’d actually showed up on time. Danny’s heart gave a pull as he stole another glance at Sam, recognizing the soft sweater he was wearing as one that he’d told Sam was his favorite. His mind was so overwhelmed with guilt it took him a minute to hear Josh in his ear.

“Dan!”

Danny jolted and turned to him.

“Can you see anything?” Jake asked, looking at him over the edge of his menu.

“Yeah, uh, straight shot actually,” Danny stammered. “Nobody’s with him, though.”

“Let me see,” Josh pestered, leaning over Danny to look into the main seating area. “Aw, there he is. Hi, little guy!”

“Imagine if he got stood up,” Jake joked, taking a sip of his water. “And we did all this for nothing.”

“That’s sad!” Josh lamented, but they both laughed. “We’d have to go in there and ambush him.”

“By the way, Dan, we picked an alter ego for you,” Jake said as Josh continued squinting through the glass at Sam, who had pulled out his phone and was trying to start it. Danny recognized this as a typical Sam maneuver for when his phone was dead, the explanation being that maybe he could “catch the phone by surprise” and trick it into starting up. 

“Oh, really?” Danny answered curiously, trying to distract himself from the guilt now nearly choking him. 

“You’re Chip Bunker, golf superstar,” Josh explained. “Just in case the waitress asks. If you need help beefing up your backstory, we’ll fill in for you. We need you to focus on keeping an eye on Sam.”

“Can do,” Danny answered honestly.

“Ugh, where would we be without you?” Josh gushed as the waitress started to approach. “Drinks are on me.”

An absolutely grueling 15 minutes passed, with Josh ordering a round of appetizers for them, Jake workshopping a list of discreet questions to ask Sam after, and Danny downing his entire cocktail while he watched Sam’s expression grow ever more frustrated. 

“Oh!” Danny said, leaning in and patting the table to get their attention as he watched Sam shift in his seat. “He’s getting up!”

The twins awkwardly leaned around the bush obscuring their view as they all watched Sam get up and hail down a waitress, asking her something with her replying and hurrying away as Sam took his seat again.

“Is he leaving?” Jake asked in a hurried whisper. 

“I don’t know,” Josh answered unhelpfully. “Oh, oh, here she comes.”

“Shit,” Danny blurted as he watched the waitress return to his side, a white iPhone charger in her hand as she passed it off to him and gestured to something out of sight. He watched Sam thank her and then bend to plug it into an outlet. They all waited in silence until they saw Sam’s face glow in the light of the phone starting up.

With a shaking hand, Danny tried to subtly slide his phone out of his pocket and turn his ringer off, but before he got the chance, his phone started buzzing with the Hozier song he’d assigned for Sam’s ringtone. The twins’ head snapped towards him and he had no time to move before they both saw Sam’s contact photo on Danny’s screen. His heart dropped like a cold weight into the pit of his stomach. 

“Pick it up, pick it up!” Jake hissed, wiggling his fingers towards Danny’s phone as he and Josh slid down synchronously into their seats. 

“Uh,” Danny faltered, his mind racing and his fingers beginning to shake as he tried to figure out what to do. In an instant, Josh’s hand darted out and accepted the call for him, and worse yet, pressed the speakerphone button. Danny felt the facade crashing down around him as Sam’s voice cut through.

“Where are you?” Sam whispered urgently, a sincere note of upset lacing his words. Jake and Josh stayed silent and still, their eyes slowly moving to Danny as he sat stupidly, all words dying on his tongue.

“Hello? Daniel?” Sam went on. “We were getting dinner tonight, right? I’ve been waiting for, like, half an hour for you. Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, Sammy,” Danny finally answered, his voice stuttering as the twins gave him confused looks and seemed to have an entire silent conversation of their own.

“Where are you?” Sam asked again, his words poisonous as he said every word punctually. “I can’t believe you forgot.”

Josh let out an involuntary scoff of surprise, clapping his hands over his mouth as Danny shot him a glare. 

“What was that?” Sam asked. Danny could see him hunched over at his table, hurt beginning to taint his features as his free hand began to rip his napkin to shreds. “Are you with someone?”

“No, no, I mean, yes, but-”

“Okay, wow,” Sam spat, straightening in his chair again and scowling. “You made plans when we had plans? Aren’t you Mr. Calendar?”

“Sam, let me explain-”

“No, no, please, go on, I’d love to hear this,” Sam laughed tunelessly. 

“I…” Danny trailed off, looking back at the twins, who were now looking at him with an expectant look of amusement. “Can you do something for me quick?”

“I will do jack shit, thank you very much.”

“Trust me?”

Sam was quiet for a minute, and Danny watched his gaze soften ever so slightly.

“Trust you.”

“Can you look out the window for me?”

“What?”

“What?” Josh echoed, smacking Danny on the arm. “Come on!”

Sam’s brow crinkled again and he looked up from his glare fastened to the table and out the window, his eyes dancing over the scarce scenery until he finally made eye contact with Danny. Danny attempted a sheepish smile, but he was sure it came out as more of a guilty lip curl. Sam hung up the phone and got up from his table, stomping across the restaurant and towards the door.

“Traitor,” Jake declared. 

“I have so many questions,” Josh whined, removing his sunglasses and rubbing his eyes as the door burst open and Sam approached their table. He reeled slightly when he caught sight of his brothers, sending Danny a furious and panicked look.

“What the fuck?” Sam asked simply, throwing his hands up in the air and letting them fall noisily against his pants. “What is going on?”

“I have no idea,” Danny answered honestly, his seat scraping as he attempted to get up but ended up sitting defeatedly again. “But everything is fine.”

“This was your meeting?” Jake blurted in confusion. “Dinner with Danny?”

“Yes?” Sam answered in petulant exasperation. “What the hell do you care? And why are you wearing a fake beard?”

“Well, we thought you were…” Josh’s voice got very small. “On a date.”

“So you’re stalking me now?” Sam asked, putting his hands on his hips. “Why is Danny here?”

“Clearly we didn’t know he was the one you were meeting!” Jake snapped. “Why wouldn’t you tell me who you were getting dinner with? We got all excited for nothing.”

“Why do I owe you that information?”

“Why didn’t you say something, Dan?” Josh pointed out, all of them turning to Danny, who felt heat flushing his face as all three brothers glared at him. Danny caught Sam’s eye, giving him a silent look of pleading and questioning. They were completely and utterly cornered.

“For the record, you barely let me get a word in,” Danny attempted to explain. 

“What is happening?” Jake laughed, dragging a hand down his face. “Sam, we totally thought we were staking out your date. We know you have a girlfriend, okay, so we roped Danny into helping us figure out who it was, but-”

“I don’t have a girlfriend,” Sam cut him off. “We’re dating. There.”

He gestured towards Danny, who sat red faced and silent as Jake’s mouth gaped slightly in shock and Josh let out another shocked gasp. 

“Now you understand my hesitancy about the stakeout,” Danny muttered sheepishly, beginning a nervous ramble as the twins visibly absorbed the new information. “I wanted to say something but I didn’t want to before Sam said something to you guys, so I tried to play along, but then Sam’s phone was dead and I couldn’t text him about what was going on and Sam, I am so sorry, I didn’t want to stand you up, but I didn’t want them to get suspicious and-”

“Ah, ah, ah, okay, stop,” Josh interjected, waving his hands around as Danny and Sam kept a tense eye contact, Danny pleading for forgiveness with his eyes as Sam’s glare slowly began to soften. “Why didn’t you guys tell us sooner?”

“What, you thought we’d be mad?” Jake laughed, pointing at Josh. “Remember how little negative response Josh got? Mom was like okay, cool, that’s awesome, we don’t care.”

“I know, I know,” Sam said, sinking into the empty fourth chair at their table, blushing uncomfortably. “It’s just…I love you guys, but you always make such a big deal about whatever I’m doing, and I just didn’t want it to be a big thing.”

“We’re not going to be, like, all PDA and insufferable,” Danny added on. Sam laughed in agreement and half of Danny’s tension melted at the sound. 

Jake and Josh exchanged an extremely guilty look over the table.

“Sam, I’m so sorry,” Jake lamented, grasping Sam by the shoulder. “You know it’s because we love you and you’re our baby brother, but I’m sorry we made you so uncomfortable. You gotta tell us when we’re too much, man, you know we don’t know.”

“You can talk to me about stuff like this,” Josh offered, his voice gentle and genuine as he and Sam exchanged a knowing look. “About whatever you’re feeling that might, I don’t know, scare you. Even if it doesn’t scare you, talk to me anyway. I get it.”

“I know you get it,” Sam’s voice cracked, his face crumpling for a second before he scrubbed at his eyes with the sleeve of his sweater and let out a long contained breath. “I do. It’s just… it’s hard to introduce this whole new thing about myself without getting all anxious about what people might say. Even when I know it’s not a big deal, I know someone else might think it’s a big deal.”

“Fuck everybody else,” Josh exclaimed, grabbing Sam’s hand and squeezing it. “Seriously! Fuck ‘em. This is great news.”

“Sorry it came out like this,” Jake apologized again, grabbing Sam’s other hand and reaching across the table to grab one of Danny’s. “Let’s all pinky promise to keep each other totally in the loop from now on.”

With a quiet chorus of laughs, they all messily exchanged pinky promises. 

“Are we allowed to ask questions?” Josh prodded carefully, and Sam rolled his eyes.

“Yes,” Sam agreed.

“But you only get three questions a piece.” Danny added on.

“That is way too many questions!” Sam argued, shooting Danny a much more good natured glare. 

“No take backsies!” Josh insisted, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. “Hm. Who told who they liked each other first?”

“Also,” Jake interjected before either of them could answer. “When?”

“Well,” Danny started. “I technically did, at Sam’s birthday party. But Sam totally cornered me into doing it. You guys are good at doing that to me, so it seems.”

“I did not corner you!” Sam scoffed. 

“Yes, you did! You were mega drunk and hinting at it.”

“At the party?” Josh let out a sigh of disappointment. “And we missed it?”

“Bummer, man,” Jake complained. “I’d pay to see that.”

“I don’t think you would,” Danny mumbled into a sip of his water, and Sam shot him another look as the twins groaned. 

“Nevermind,” Josh gagged. “Okay, my second question is…how long did you each like the other person? Because I have guesses.”

“What do you mean, guesses?” Sam squeaked, his face flushing again.

“I want to hear this,” Danny laughed, suddenly self conscious of just how transparent he had been this whole time. 

“I’d guess you, Danny, probably liked Sam since…middle school?” Josh guessed, and he hooted in triumph when Danny sighed and nodded shyly. “Boom! Okay, two for two, I’m guessing Sam liked you since high school.”

“Oh, fuck off,” Sam replied exasperatedly, which Josh took as another confirmation and held his hand up for a high five from any of them, but received not a single one. 

“You guys weren’t all that subtle,” Jake powered on as Sam and Danny obscured their faces with embarrassed face palms. “I actually have no idea why we didn’t guess Danny as your potential beau sooner.”

“He didn’t even make Top 5,” Josh added. “We’re off our game, Jakey.”

“Indeed we are.”

“Well, this has been nice and all,” Sam began. “And by nice I mean emotionally tumultuous, but we did have something planned, so, Danny, do you…?”

“Yes, please, God,” Danny answered, getting to his feet and skirting around Josh to finally stand at Sam’s side. 

“Hey, you said we got three questions!” Josh protested.

“I only asked one, what the fuck!” Jake argued in agreement. 

“Text them to us, date crashers,” Sam stuck his tongue out childishly at them. “Or should I say ‘stalkers’? I’m including that detail when I call Mom, by the way.”

“Do not!”

“Boohoo.”

“Are you guys going to stick around?” Danny asked with an amused lift of his eyebrow. 

“Well, I mean, we ordered appetizers and all,” Jake explained sheepishly, raising his glass of wine and shrugging. “Might as well.”

“It gives us more time to plot our next stake out,” Josh grinned, flicking his sunglasses back down to cover his eyes. “Elle Fernanda and Oliver Reed are a fantastic investigatory team, you know.”

“I-you know what, I don’t care,” Sam dismissed them, looking up at Danny. “Let’s go, yes?”

“Yes,” Danny confirmed. “I’m guessing you’re not keen on sticking around for dinner here.”

“Not even a little bit.”

“Can I tempt you with a frozen pizza and Psych?”

“Absolutely you can,” Sam grinned, looping his arm through Danny’s and tugging him back from the table. The twins immediately burst into a chorus of awes and endearing coos, and Sam shot them their own round of complaints as Danny waved goodbye.

~~

Once they were out of shouting distance, Sam let out a huff of air and leaned his head against Danny’s shoulder, causing them to stumble slightly as they walked. It was rare for them to not talk while on the move, but a few minutes of quiet passed between them until Danny finally spoke up.

“I should’ve texted you anyways,” Danny said. “I’m sorry.”

“Well, I should’ve had the brains to bring a charger,” Sam countered with a feline smile. “I’m sorry, too. It’s my fault for not telling them in the first place. We should’ve known this would end the way it did.”

“Yeah, maybe,” Danny chuckled. “I mean, now that they know, we only have to face our parents, and we’ll be lucky if they don’t hound us even more than them.”

“Ugh, God, you’re so right. My mom is going to flip. She likes you more than me, you know.”

“She adores you, Sam, come on.”

“I’m just saying don’t be surprised if she asks you to start being in our Christmas cards.”

“Oh, right, and you’d hate that,” Danny countered sarcastically. 

“Totally,” Sam doubled down, his smile growing as he stared up into Danny’s eyes with the doe eyed look that made Danny nearly trip over his own feet as they approached Sam’s car. “Sorry my brothers are idiots.”

“They said it themselves, they just care,” Danny said, brushing a loose strand of hair out of Sam’s face as they stood in the warm dying light of the sunset. “Let’s cap the apologies for the night, okay? They’re idiots, we’re idiots, we know this.”

“Okay,” Sam replied quietly, looking nervous for a split second before speaking again. “Hey, uh, just, thank you.”

Danny frowned in confusion.

“For what?”

“Understanding,” Sam went on. “For not being, I don’t know, scared off by all the weirdness that follows me.”

“Sam, I’ve been there for every weird thing that’s ever happened to you,” Danny laughed. “If I was going to get scared off, that would’ve happened a long time ago.”

“I know, I know, it just means more to me now that we’re, you know…”

Sam smiled sheepishly and Danny felt like his heart was fit to burst in his chest from how much he loved him in that moment.

“I’m the lucky one, trust me,” Danny insisted, pinching Sam’s cheek endearingly.

“Ugh, gross,” Sam teased, batting his hand away and pulling out his keys, but Danny didn’t miss the smile Sam failed to squander as he fumbled with the lock button. 

“You’re gross,” Danny countered, mimicking the open mouthed stank face Sam sent him in reply as he circled to the driver’s seat and unlocked the car. Danny piled his long limbs into his seat and watched Sam start up the car and pull up his address on his GPS, his heart fluttering in further endearment at Sam’s complete lack of direction. Without thinking, Danny plucked Sam’s phone from his hand and set it on the dash.

“Hey! What-”

Danny cut him off by grabbing Sam by the jaw and pulling him into a long kiss, both of them drawing it out by huffing excitedly through their noses and cupping the other's face until Danny finally pulled away. Sam watched him with starry eyes, a dumbstruck smile on his face as Danny returned the look and cupped Sam’s face in his hands.

“I just missed you today,” Danny hummed. “And I’m thankful that didn’t end in complete disaster. I felt completely horrible watching you sit all alone. I seriously wanted to throw up seeing your little sad face.”

“Really?” Sam asked, preening in Danny’s attention. 

“I did!”

“I was only sad because I missed you, too,” Sam relinquished, putting his hand over Danny’s on his cheek. “I was surprised you were taking so long. You’re always early for me.”

“And I always will be,” Danny assured him. “I promise.”

“Even after I graduate?”

“Duh.”

“Even after I get some fancy science job and I have to move?”

“Sure.”

“Even after-”

“Whatever it is, yes, Sam, I’ll be there,” Danny laughed. “Seriously. I’ll follow you anywhere. And I’ll be right on time.”

Sam paused, drinking in the sincerity of the statement. Then, in typical Sam fashion, his face split into a cheeky smile.

“And if I ask you to go to a party with me?”

Danny swallowed, thinking hard as he relished in the warmth of Sam’s skin on his palm. Finally, he smiled in return and leaned in slightly.

“I’d go if you promise to never run again,” Danny whispered, and Sam shuddered slightly at the rasp in his voice. “And if you promise to always say the dumb shit you’re afraid of saying.”

“Yeah,” Sam agreed. “I promise.”

“One more pinky promise for the road?” Danny grinned, moving his hand from Sam’s face and holding out his pinky for Sam to grasp. Sam looked down at his digit and raised an eyebrow.

“I can do you one better,” Sam insisted. 

Danny didn’t get the time for a witty retort before Sam leaned in and gave him another kiss. It was a little clumsy, and lasted far longer than necessary for the situation, but after it was done, Danny spent the entire ride home reveling in the realization that he’d just been promised a lifetime's worth of them. And he intended to cash in each and every one.

~~

Taglist:  @s0livagant @holdingup-fallingsky @t00turnttrauma @the-starcatcher @streamsofstardust @spark-my-nature @joshkiszkashusband

[lemonprick]

lord forbid i have narnia thoughts at midnight when i’m supposed to be studying but here goes

so remember how at the end of prince caspian, all the telmarines chose to return to their homeland? which is Earth, since the telmarines were descended from some pirates that got into narnia through some rare gateway? let’s say they return to Earth’s modern times (modern for the books, at least.)

i raise you- telmarines somehow finding their way to england and getting enrolled in boarding school only to be roommates with the kings and queens of narnian old. cue narnia-telmar shenanigans

peter, at a biology lesson: weren’t you one of the guys who tried to kill caspian

telmarine child: in my defense, i was drafted at sixteen and didn’t know what was going on

peter: fair point, pass the pencil sharpener

---

telmarine child, snickering: queen susan! what a surprise to see you here among the peasants

susan, stil staring at her history paper: i may or may not have watched your father and uncles drown at the fords of beruna

---

edmund, dangling upside down from the top bunk: what do you mean you had a crush on my sister

telmarine child at the bottom bunk: there was this book of old narnian tales at the library before miraz had them confiscated, i thought she was fictional and the illustrations were really nice

edmund: still, it’s weird considering she’s a thousands years older than you

telmarine child: you're a thousand years older than me

edmund: which is why you should let me copy tomorrow’s essay

---

lucy, post-dawn treader: isn’t your dad lord restimar

telmarine child: yeah, but i haven’t seen him since he left for the lone islands when i was six

lucy: one of the seven lost lords, right

telmarine child: ..one of the seven what

(voyage of the dawn treader context: lord restimar was one of the lords who sailed to the east and went missing, lucy and co found him drowned in a pool on deathwater island and turned into gold)

anyways, a lot of comedic potential here

[transingthoseformers]

Angsty g1 wavewave idea: shockwave gets sparked up before the decepticons and autobots leave Cybertron, but doesn't find out until after they've crashed on earth.

Aka, shockwave is sparked up, alone (other then some dumbass seekers he doesn't even like), with there being a big chance his bondmate and cassettes are dead, and he is probably the last person people would put solely in charge of a sparklings emotional wellbeing.

I think it would be funny if there was a sort of truce between the autobots and the decepticons on Cybertron because of the sparkling, their obviously not going to attack shockwave when he's out trying to teach the sparkling more about the world, and obviously shockwave can't kill a bunch of bots in front of the bitlet, '13 habits of a highly intelligent sparkling' informed him that would be detrimental to the sparklings development.

The bots on earth wake up years later just to be informed they would be allowed back on Cybertron until they figure their shit out bc everyone on cybertron has been at peace for a while and do NOT want to go back to fighting each other

Omggggg yes

That would hurt so much but would turn out well in the end

Shockwave would be so distraught, and I feel like this would reflect in a lot of his decisions being rather harsh at first

You're right that it'd be funny if it lead to a truce on Cybertron and I see lots of hurt/comfort potential here regarding Shockwave, his sparkling, and the few mecha left on Cybertron after they lost contact.

MN. YES. CAN'T KILL THEM IN FRONT OF THE KID BECAUSE THE BOOK SAID IT WAS DETRIMENTAL ™️ Not because of any moral reasons or practical ones, but because the book says not to do it. sdfghj. Yes.

That would be such an interesting situation for the autobots and decepticons to wake up to though because they're learning that the war pretty much ended without them, and they're not to drag it back to Cybertron. I like to think peace efforts on earth will at least be tried. Soundwave's fucking hauling aft to try and Win At The Peace Thing so he can get back to his lover and his child he didn't know existed, but also because from what he's hearing peace might be a good thing for once. This doesn't mean he's gotta be nice though.

Especially with Optimus and Megatron still throwing childish insults at each other. And the constant energon shortages leading to utilizing more inconvenient ways of creating it. And hostilities still burning regardless of what's going on on Cybertron. And Starscream shenanigans. And new bots appearing. And humans getting involved in thing.

He misses Shockwave so much.

[slic3d--br3ad]

Arcane Order Eli has been on my mind for a few years. Eli is one of my favorite characters and has been since I joined the fandom sometime after season 2 aired; he's baby, yk? Bellroc and Skrael are sexy so full of potential that got crushed with the movie's release, which fuels my love for them. It's only natural I'd want to pair them up, which is challenging when Eli hasn't interacted with any of them in canon.

When it comes to Eli actually joining them, I've been stuck on what makes this twist of fate liable. The Arcane Order hates humanity, why would they accept this rando kid as one of them? Eli has probably the most sunny disposition of the cast, how on this green Earth would he get along with Bellroc and Skrael?

Now I'm at the point where I can post a concept that I agree with, though it surely needs some tweaks.

Eli's Side

• As we've seen at the ending of RotT, Toby isn't nearly as assertive against Steve's bullying and this continues for quite a bit even after becoming the Trollhunter. As a consequence, Steve doubles down on his bullying because no one has the nerve to humble him. Eli and Steve never become close enough to become the Creepslayerz and their relationship rots after they're paired together by Jim, who, missing the finer details of their friendship, assumes that they will become close eventually.

• Because they aren't friends, Eli doesn't bond with the Royals; he instead sees them as his bully's girlfriend/the girlfriend's brother, prompting him to keep them at arm's length for his own safety. Krel becomes the one to bond with Steve the most, though he vetos being called a Creepslayer lol.

• After being brought into the Guardians, his friendships don't seem to extend beyond talking at school. He obviously doesn't vibe with Steve, but Eli doesn't have a chance with the tight-knit Toby Trio. Douxie, Zoe, and Claire are the resident Wizards, and Eli obviously doesn't have magic(yet). Krel, being a tech genius, provides all the technological knowledge the group needs which makes his computer skills lackluster in comparison.

• Key events that previously led to Eli's discovery of the supernatural are disrupted; Jim already knows about Bular and the changelings using the museum, so there's no need to stake out Eli's house when he shows everyone the picture of the dead goblin. Toby can't keep a secret as cool as being able to form a suit of armor with a magical amulet (despite Jim's best effort lol) and manages to humble Steve sometime after Bular's defeat. Toby becomes Steve's go-to for reporting supernatural incidents, like the wild goblin in his garage. With no one believing him, Eli ultimately gives up on his conspiracy theories, instead opting for small self-improvement, like indulging in his love for scriptwriting or jogging at night.

• The supernatural worlds are gradually revealed to the public by Toby and Co., which leaves a bitter taste in Eli's mouth when he receives no credit for making his discoveries before them.

• All in all, Eli is left feeling unappreciated and isolated; Toby still entrusted a Troll Market key to him but Eli doesn't utilize it much and keeps his distance from their missions.

Arcane Order's Side

• Merlin, the only one aware of Jim's status as a time traveler, utilizes Jim's memories of the alternate universe to convince Morgana that she's on the wrong side of history so she deflects from the Order and kills her mind-broken brother to put him out of his misery. Whether time-travel shenanigans take place or not is in the air right now.

• Douxie levels up and KO's Bellroc and Skrael, the Guardians win, Merlin lives, the city remains under their protection, and the Arcane Order scurry away to plot for another 900 years...supposedly.

• Bellroc feels an odd connection to the town(actually the Heartstone below the town that they managed to briefly connect with in the movie) and risks their discovery to relocate their damaged ship behind the mountain and fix it up.

• Bellroc has generally been preoccupied with chasing Camelot around and has little time to indulge in hobbies; Skrael has slightly more freedom to chillax. As they hadn't quite written out the kinks in a wonky fixer-upper spell, Bellroc is drained after repairing the castle and comically tucks in for a week-long nap.

• Skrael takes it upon himself to explore their surroundings and perhaps find Nari in the town. Speaking of Nari, her magic signature is dulled with a device that Krel creates for her safety. Not even Merlin can track her while she wears the collar device so he decides that there's no need for her to flee while Douxie is around to keep his eye on her in the safety of Arcadia. Nari feels owned grateful for Merlin's wisdom and generosity and, while she has to keep a low profile and Merlin advises her against using her magic, she enjoys her time with the kiddos.

• The Arcane Order is now without a Champion and an Enforcer, while Nari shows no interest in returning to them; things 're tough for them at the moment.

• In hindsight, a mind-broken, undead king and a witch who worked for them on emotional impulse weren't the most ideal candidates to employ.

• What they really need is someone who's ready and willing to learn from them and fight for their cause with their own free will, but fat chance of that happening anytime soon lol.

Meeting

Their story starts after the battle between the Arcane Order and the Guardians of Arcadia, which happened around the same time as it happened in Wizards. Obviously, Eli doesn't become the ambassador of Akiridian-5 and only has surface-level knowledge of the events.

Eli finds Skrael entirely by accident while running in the forest, still habitually accustomed to staying up late working on his conspiracy board; when Skrael tries to leave, he grabs onto them and is teleported to the castle. This wakes Bellroc, who's a little peeved at being disturbed two days into their nap and is like "!!????"

Eli is not aware that they are the ones who caused a bunch of damage to the town recently. Seeing the majesty of their newly repaired castle is the tipping point Eli needs to finally geek out over something supernatural after restraining himself for months.

He fawns over the castle, strokes their egos a bit (which saves his life, because it's a smidge harder to kill someone who's being nice to them), and asks them if someone like him has any chance at learning magic.

Bellroc and Skrael are baffled at this twist of fate and while they certainly debate killing him, they drop it after Eli innocently tells them that he's a part-timer for the Guardians(and if they are lost wizards needing advice from the Great and All-Powerful Merlin then he can work something out blahblahblah).

Offing the guy would risk Merlin's suspicion and him striking them in a weakened state would be a major blow, like kicking a wasp's nest.

Sleepy Bellroc isn't really in their right mind but nonetheless has an idea and decides the best way to get rid of this human without homicide is by accepting his request to learn magic.

No, really.

Sleepy Bellroc plays along with his delusion of magical expertise and, after giving him a few dozen sheets that make up a single beginner's spell, makes him an offer: if he learns that spell within the week, less than five days at this point, entirely by himself, Bellroc will accept him as their apprentice. If he fails, however, he has to consent to a memory wipe of the past week and get lost. Eli accepts.

Skrael, in shock at Bellroc's supposed generosity, looks over this "beginner's spell" they gave to the boy. He quickly picks up on Bellroc's trickery and wishes Eli the best of luck before taking him back to the forest.

What Eli doesn't know is that the papers (translated to English for his convenience) are actually the directions for performing a combat spell that even young master wizards can have trouble with; about as far from the basics as a wizard can get. In other words, Eli will fail no matter how hard he tries and get his memory wiped and probably chucked off a small cliff to pass off his memory loss as an accident. Skrael can't wait to bear witness to the greatest prank ever.

Unfortunately, they severely underestimate Eli's reawakened enthusiasm for the supernatural and intense desire to belong in a group. Fueled on nothing but coffee, dreams, and that happy feeling of having passion for something new, he manages to awaken the magic inside him. Accident, or perhaps fate?

With a rough estimate from Douxie (who takes his secrecy at face value and innocently wants him to succeed) that a new spell on a beginner's level takes a few hours to around 3 days to learn, Eli manages to pull it off within 4 days, just hours before his deadline. All in all, Bellroc is pissed at his success but doesn't want to pull back on a promise. Skrael just thinks it's hysterical that Bellroc's trick completely backfired on them and is engaged in the progress of his companion's bizarre new apprentice.

Bellroc's method of "teaching", while unorthodox and not at all providing their desired result, has some basis in reality: not specifying to someone that a task is supposed to be "hard" can increase the likelihood that they can complete that task with little struggle. (Get Anyone To Do Anything! David J. Lieberman!) This doesn't work on everyone but it worked on Eli lol.

[makeste]

[39 weeks later]

well all right then. I owe some explanations and some updates, so let's just get straight to that.

1. "what the hell, makeste. you can't just disappear for nine months and leave a sign on your blog that says "gone leavin'.'"

yeah I know. sorry guys.

so there are a lot of reasons for my long absence, but when you boil it all down, the essence is basically as follows: at its absolute max capacity, my ADHD brain is capable of keeping up with any two of the following: (1) work; (2) school; (3) tumblr. that's it. only two. no more and no less.

and for years this has not mattered at all because school was no longer in the picture! but as mentioned in my last two update posts, as of this past January, I had to start taking classes again for career advancement reasons, meaning my brain was quickly overloaded and something had to give. so yeah. I can assure you the past nine months have absolutely sucked and I am not AT ALL sure that it was worth it, but it is what it is.

I also want to add that I never intended to basically fall off the face of the earth anywhere near to this extent, let alone for this long. but in retrospect I probably should have seen it coming, seeing as this is not the first time it's happened, sob. and also in hindsight, towards the end of last year (during which I was already struggling to keep up with the weekly BnHA reactions) someone mentioned that it sounded like I was showing signs of being potentially close to burnout. turns out that observation was spot on lol.

so yeah. tl;dr, burnout + an obnoxiously busy real life schedule + a sprinkling of good old-fashioned ADHD "somehow I always underestimate how hard it is to restart something after taking a long break from it, and the longer I go without returning the worse it gets" brain shenanigans (more on that last part further down).

2. "MAKESTE. WHILE YOU WERE GONE, IN THE MANGA, THERE WAS A THING -- "

yes I have unfortunately been spoiled about The Thing.

3. "so wait, exactly how spoiled are you?? CAN WE TALK ABOUT THE THING"

I will make a separate post to talk about The Thing! I expect that many people will want to talk about this, and tbh I've really been wanting to talk about it too! I'm telling you, when I say the past nine months have sucked, I mean they have truly SUCKED, you guys. school is so fucking boring and I miss rambling about fandom stuff so fucking much.

anyway but with that said, ~*~PLEASE DO NOT TALK ABOUT ANY SPOILERS IN THIS POST~*~. I don't want to delete anybody's comments! but I will if necessary because I am a spoiler narc and I don't want to risk accidentally ruining stuff on the off chance that a non-spoiled person comes across this post. so yeah. however please do feel free to message me or comment in my other post (which I will link once it’s up; eta: here it is) if you do want to talk about The Thing.

4. "so aside from The Thing, are you otherwise caught up with the BnHA manga currently?"

so here's the hilarious part: no, I am not caught up. not even remotely. literally the last chapter of BnHA I read was chapter 339, which is the most recent chapter that I liveblogged, all the way back on December 31, 2021. I literally have not read a single new BnHA chapter in the year of our lord 2022 lol. :') basically for the same reasons I mentioned in my previous update post. tl;dr, reading/liveblogging a single new BnHA chapter is a minimum 4+ hour commitment for me, and by this point I have accrued a backlog of... oh sweet lord. 35 total chapters lol. so yeah. that's approximately 140 hours of catch-up that I need to do, which is paralyzing just to think about.

I do still plan on catching up, obviously! I'm just not sure how, lol. I may have some time to spare this weekend, so I might try to binge a few chapters and see how it goes. then I'll have to come up with some sort of sustainable posting schedule. I've been thinking about this for a while and I might try to do a Mon/Wed/Fri thing if I can swing it, but I don't want to commit to anything for sure yet until I see how those first few chapters go. fingers crossed, though.

anyway so I guess that's it. post is getting long. anything more will just be rambling.

sorry again, guys. how is everyone? what did I miss. aside from twitter dying and tumblr welcoming the refugees into our culture by inviting them to participate in the newly created fandom of a nonexistent 1970s mafia film.

[rockybloo]

Thinking of writing a fanfic crossover where Jack and Nana end up in Decking city after a magical accident (Still fleshing out the details of how said accident worked).

If comfortable answering:

I'm curious about how you think Nana and Jack would react to such a such a big change in a new place like that, in a general sense. Especially if there's a bigger issue bringing them here and they realize they have to solve it to go home.

Thank you, and lovely day either way ପ(๑•ᴗ•๑)ଓ ♡

A fanfic of Jack and Nana would make me screech because they are the most ship ever for me and I'd be overjoyed. 😭💚❤️ The concept of anyone considering taking time out of their day and writing a fic about my OCs in general makes me happy.

and WOW my brain waves are powerful because I was literally thinking of an old Beanstalked plot point that basically dealt with the idea of how the main team get yeeted from Lore to Earth and have to figure out how to get back and how to tie it to Glitter and Guilt for a funny little crossover arc.

I won't go into detail about the ACTUAL events that cause it to potentially happen (bc I dunno if I'll do it...I mean I probably will but as a separate oneshot from the main storylines of both stories) BUT I can def answer how Jack and Nana would respond to a similar situation.

This will be a long one so buckle in

First thing to know is that Lore and Earth are two separate planets in the same solar system. Both are waaay closer than either think.

Lore occupants know about Earth, specifically they know it as "The World without Magic/Happy Endings/Fairy Tales/etc." It's kinda of mythicized.

Earth has no idea Lore is a thing because Lore has magic rings (kinda like Saturn's but cooler I dare say) that spin around it and make it invisible.

Bloopers are a glitch in reality in Lore where things from Earth often pop up there. Often old or lost objects.

Jack works part time for Baba, who tends to have a whole bunch of bloopers in his shop, which means he has very mild knowledge of Earth. Not a whole lot but if he winded up there-he would know "Oh! This is Earth!" and he'd be able to point out some stuff and name it. So he would know a car when he sees one-it's just a matter of actually being aware of how one works.

Hazel and Kettle have a TON of bloopers they hoard in their bedroom which serves as the attic for the inn Miss Castor is the keeper of. Specifically, they have the super fun bloopers like retro game consoles and comic books. Chances are, they even have some Sweetheart merch but are under the belief that she is merely fictional character.

So Jack is vaguely aware of Sweetheart. SPECIFICALLY as "The pink hero my little siblings thinks is cool".

Merch of villains is a whole lot more locked down with most being illegal save for what is made for the Decking City Park of Heroes AKA the Disney World/Universal Studios of Decking City entirely focusing on it's homegrown hero culture.

So Bitterbat is def not someone Jack is aware of.

When it comes to Nana, she doesn't really dabble much in bloopers or even learning about Earth. Unless it's from Jack's ramblings or mini adventures, she tends to limit herself to Lore and its shenanigans. She spent most her life living in a forest and is just now branching out to learn more about Briar Patch and Lore as a whole thanks to Jack making her realize "Oh hey the outside world is kinda fun".

She's taking baby steps and Earth is a very big jump she ain't trynna make yet.

So when it comes to them getting yeeted to Earth, SPECIFICALLY Decking City, Nana is def more reliant on Jack when it comes to knowledge. Where ever he is going, she is gonna be right there, hugging onto one of his arms for dear life because neither wants to lose the other.

Decking City is very interesting with how it's the least mundane setting for Jack and Nana to wind up in, which works perfectly because they come from a fantasy world. They will ironically feel a lot more comfortable when they see a giant monster attacking or some hero versus villain battle going on than dealing with crossing the street with a buncha traffic or even walking through a grocery store aka over stimulant central.

The biggest problem would be adapting to their temporary stay. Decking City is loud and busy and both would be overwhelmed quite easily from just the sights and sounds alone. A city is vastly more imposing than a kingdom when it comes to its buildings and even then, Jack and Nana spend most their time in Briar Patch which is a small humble town.

Nana would have the worse time because her keen Lupine hearing means every car honk, screech of tires, Kaiju alert siren, civilian yelling at another civilian, would lead to the biggest headache.

Protecting the other and making sure they're safe is their main priority. They care deeply about each other and seeing the constant look of discomfort on Nana's face and how nervous she is is enough to break Jack's heart. And the second anyone so much as breathes in the slightest bit of irritation at Jack seeming to not know where or what he's doing, under the belief he's a tourist, would lead to Nana snarling with her full set of chompers on display.

That's enough to cause anyone in the proximity to steer clear of them...or at least treat Jack very nicely because it's very obvious the two are traveling together.

ULTIMATELY, both would want some safe place so they can gather their thoughts, which are currently being scrambled by the city sights and sounds, calm down and figure out what they need to do to get back home.

Whatever they need to do, they are def willing to accomplish because they are used to being in some slice of hell situations. They've always figured their way out of them. Back on Lore, the gang adventures a bunch and have encountered a lot. Some of which I cannot share for spoilers but just know they are no strangers to dealing with the unknown.

It's just a big matter of figuring out exactly what unknown they are dealing with this time.

[hyperfixation-hopper]

WHY I HATE JANE CROCKER IN HS^2

Jane is a sad character. This is quite redundant considering all the other plights of the Harleyberts and Strilondes but she is truly tragic from a storytelling sense as she is truly missed potential, however to effectively address this we must talk about the Harleyberts as a whole compared to the Strilondes

The Strilondes are troubled, duh, these issues however are very Surface level compared to the Harleyberts (not to diminish the nuance in the way they overcome and deal with them). Rose has issues with meeting people she respects- resorting to alcoholism as a coping method- she also has a tenuous relationship with death, attempting suicide three times before sburb and once trying to reach the green sun. She also thinks that she is a burden to her mother, preventing her from reaching greatness.

Dave has a harsh relationship with his brother, the rest of the beta kids at heart love their guardians just show a resentment towards them in strife- Dave, however doesn’t and loathes the fact that he ended up with the awful abusive one, he also has been influenced by his brother’s irony roughly, leaving him unsure how to reach the topic of sexuality from a non ironic perspective. Dirk is super interesting as he treats every version of himself and just another splinter, holding himself accountable for all of them. He is a compleetttlyyyyy different can of worms for another day. Roxy is the best of all, to paraphrase dirk “she knew she had a problem and fixed it”, She was rather overbearing with her love life, either hitting on Jake or Dirk or talking about said hitting on to Jane but she changed herself for the better and was the true leader of the alpha team.

Finally! Our main girl! What makes her so special? Her direct ties to the villain, but before that just understand her situation: she has been promised all of her life that she will own a flourishing baking enterprise, she desired it so severely that she uses technology that actively damaged her (bettybother, tiaratop) in order to be Betty’s golden girl. Seriously this company becoming hers is literally her livelihood other than detectives and her friends - speaking of which! She only ever converses with 6 people, 1 is her dad, 2 are aliens, another 2 are from the future and the last one is living on an island in the deadass middle of nowhere. She has sacrificed pretty much all opportunities to make and maintain relationships (outside of these few) all for the sake of Betty Crocker™️. She Trust all of these people (except for Caliborn) and appreciates all of them greatly but still chooses crocker corp if given the chance, for example, Roxy does want to play sburb but desperately tries to stop Jane from doing it just for the chance that the batterwitch wouldn’t win, Roxy is willing to miss the chance to meet all her closest friends just so that she won’t win. Yet they all eventually end up on their planets.

So why is this important? Because Jane is presented as a character that could easily become a capitalist drone for CrockerCorp™️ or a hero for the alpha kids. At this point in time. That is crucial. Eventually she goes through her ‘ wtf even was trickster mode’ arc, blowing up at Jake, wooo trickster shenanigans, regret and then venting and lamenting to everyone but the person she hurt most ( I get her mindset in that situation but she only ever apologised to Roxy afterward and that really sucks, thats Hussie’s fault not hers). After that everyone Godtiers, great right? Take a guess at this point. )(IC transforms her into Crockertier Jane (Wow what a sick design) someone who is completely willing to do her bidding at any chance she gets. Crockertier Jane is essentially ‘the bad ending’ for where she could’ve gone in life on earth. So when she is reflecting with Callie and Jade, she recognises all of her problems, all of )(IC’s issues, how everything she’s ever wanted has been created by the same hands of the one who took so much away from everyone. And after she recovers from it in the finale, she just kinda takes a backseat, just healing everyone and helping out where she can, I truly truly wish there was a scene where she just apologises to everyone for her stuck up trust in BettyCrocker or where she confronts the batterwitch herself and cries out about all of the harm she has caused, the most loyal, most patient servant finally finds the value in the one thing that hasn’t and won’t be corrupted by her influence, her friends and their strengths, how impactful would that be? Well still I’m content with the Jane we got but she could’ve been so, so much more.

So why, after all of this hardship, after seeing her friends and family be hurt time after time by )(IC. Why would she END UP BECOMING THE EXACT SAME KIND OF PERSON THAT SHE IS???????? This already happened in a sense with Crockertier, BUT TO TURN HER INTO A RACIST DICTATOR WHEN SHE HAD LITERALLY 0 HATRED TOWARDS TROLLS??? This could’ve worked had she still have small, minimal conflict between crockercorp or her friends then maybe, just maybe it could have worked but that just isn’t there at all. Jane in Homestuck^2 is too righteous, always thinking that her family is the victim, Tavros could never do anything wrong! He must be brainwashed!

Honestly, I am not entirely against the idea of her rebuilding CrockerCorp but based upon integrity, using her knowladge and finally giving her the thing she had to wait so patiently for, but at that point in her life, seeing the consequences of ruthless megalomania and prejudice, it doesn’t seem plausible for her to fall into the same hole that she does in HS^2. Idk man I just really like this character and I hate to see people disregard her just because of how she is in HS^2 when she never acts like this in Homestuck in the first place.

[sylibane]

ocverse meme 2,6, 19, and 20 for as many or as few verses seem interesting to a given question

Posted this morning because tumblr would not load last night:

2) if you gave an in depth description of your story to someone who was not all the way paying attention, what would their takeaway be?

The Engine of the Ocean – people go on a magical sea adventure to stop a cursed diving suit.

The Thief of Memories – thief and detective fall in love.

The Garden of Curses – Sherlock Holmes but they’re girls and they break curses.

Another Forest, Another Door – basically Narnia happened forty years ago and it’s still messing with everyone’s lives.

Hover – was a normal fantasy world until the sun disappeared. Somehow, everyone is not dead.

6) speaking of tv adaptations, why would yours get cancelled? (other than capitalism)

The Engine of the Ocean – gets complaints about being “un-American” because one of the villain factions is the descendants of time-space-displaced English Puritan colonists. 

Another Forest, Another Door – teen show downplays juicy potential teen drama in favor of hanging out with dragons, ratings are not high enough.

Hover – catgirl main character unfortunately reminds too many people of Cats 2019, nobody watches.

19) describe the sillies you think about but that dont go in the story.

The Engine of the Ocean – there are a couple of minor villains who are more or less Jessie and James and are thus presumably getting into even more wacky shenanigans than what are seen on-page (especially once they get their cat back). Also Jenny’s younger siblings only appear in a couple chapters and thus I don’t think I fully convey how much of little snots they are.

Hover – I don’t know if this quite counts but this setting/story has been around since I was 11 and so many things have been dropped or changed. At one point whether a species was considered people or not was determined by if they had an amulet associated with an element, and the humans’ element was ‘power’ (as in like political power) and their amulet was offhandedly given to a ten-year-old on his birthday. A major city had all its residents’ homes built into the singular wall surrounding it and got most of its food from a singular field of vines sustained by broken crystal shards, also on said wall. One character had a history teacher who was secretly the god of time and therefore looked like the Tenth Doctor. There was a flying city of semi-transparent blue rabbit people. (Actually I might bring that one back.) 

20) your ocverse just got a movie trilogy a la hunger games style. how have they horribly mangled your message/theme so that the movies are now a showcase of what the original was condemning?

The Engine of the Ocean – downplays the historical worldbuilding elements and wraps everything up at the end with no concern about what happens to the setting next, thus missing the theme of “historical events can have effects in the present”.

Another Forest, Another Door – drops the ensemble and focuses on a few characters from Earth while the nonhuman characters are all stuck in supporting roles, missing the “hero of another story” aspects and the idea that the other world is a place in its own right and not just somewhere for humans to go for character-building adventures.

[picory]

hey @angelofmoosics i hope you don't mind me posting your comments like this, but my reply to you has gotten... extremely lengthy by accident... lol

i don't mind you rambling at all! and i couldn't agree more. the highlight in BOTW for me personally were the champions and their tragic story. they were doomed from the start. they were never getting out of this alive. their death, along with the deaths of many people in all of hyrule, that grief was the key to the awakening of zelda's holy power. so the more you remember them, the stronger the desire to free their souls from entrapment, to avenge them, to have some closure, and to mouth your last goodbyes. it's very bittersweet and tugs at your heartstrings.

and zelda, who's been in the heart of the calamity for 100 years, her powers weakening, her strength waning, her body and mind exhausted, you can't NOT free her of that burden. the time is ticking and the more you dawdle, the closer the end of the world as we know it is. the impending doom feels near and real. you have to do something quickly, lest everyone's efforts go for naught.

as for TOTK, i'll be frank and say that i haven't been properly following the plot just yet. having a bit of difficulty comprehending these time travel shenanigans and bodily transformations and everything. need to cook that all better in my head, plus i haven't finished the game yet, so maybe it will all fall into place at the end.

but for now, you're right, you don't have the same urgency as you did in the previous game. sure there's danger all around. the chasms that reach the bottom of the earth filled to the brim with miasma (calling it that instead of "gloom" cuz it sounds more dangerous); a resurgence of monsters who have gotten stronger and more intelligent, working together to terrorize innocent people; the sky islands and their pieces that keep falling down, barely missing crushing people; and as you mentioned the regional phenomena that've been causing trouble for the people living in those areas.

regarding the regional phenomena... what is more dangerous: a giant beast potentially stomping you with its heavy hoof, or a never-ending sandstorm and some zombie looking creatures roaming the streets of your beloved town? both scenarios suck, but one is more tolerable than the other. the gerudo had a bunker that the gibdos had no way of reaching, and even if they could, the gerudo were already close to figuring out the best strategy against them. the sandstorm is still a problem, but it's not a "they're gonna die any minute" kind of problem. unless you count them running out of supplies if link doesn't hurry up and help them out, but even then i'm sure they could've figured something out.

that is to say, obviously the sooner link saves these people the better, but even if he takes his time, i believe they would very well manage on their own.

(i've only helped out the rito and the gerudo, so idk about the extent of trouble the other two races are having)

i was also going to say that like, "oh these people don't even need link at all. tulin and riju could've gone to those temples by themselves". but then i remembered that both of the temples required authorization from link's stupid little zonai hand. something i wish was done differently, is to have the new sages do that instead of link, the "pressing palm against the translucent green screen" thing. since they're such important people, being descendants and all. it would make so much more sense, and would give them an even bigger role. like hey, you need THEM to complete the temple, and not just their powers that surely you could replicate. only they could open access to the temples or whatever.

phew. well that's all i have to say for now

[turnaboutimagines]

its been 2 years, how are you doing ?

It... It's actually HAS been over two years, hasn't it? That feels wrong, but I know it's not. I'm okay, though, mostly! Things aren't great, but they could be so much worse so... I'll take it.

I will say that I still have notifications for this blog, my side blogs, and my AO3 in these two years away. I have seen every single comment, message, like, reblog, and kudos. I'm so glad people have continued to read my silly little AA fanfic pieces, it means so much to me. Writing for this blog was (is?) such a joy that it still brought a smile to my face to see someone engage with my tumblr and AO3. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, thank you.

... Anyways, I'm playing the AA games again for the first time in a while so I may get back into writing? A very tentative maybe. Things will be different around here if I do! I'll be making new posts soon and revamping the blog. So keep an eye out! :> But for those of you who see this and are curious about where I've been or life updates, it's under the cut!

The most important thing though: I am very sorry for vanishing off the face of the earth. I didn't really want to come back here until I felt like I could stick around for more than just one post, which in my head meant potentially returning in some capacity or deciding to shut this blog down for good. And so, two years of silence has passed as a result. I am what I've always been: an anxious, awkward, and indecisive disaster.

But to those of you who read my stuff years ago and totally forgot you followed an AA imagines blog or just have no interest in AA content now, I see you and there's no shame in unfollowing as I dust things off. I just appreciate that you were here at all, pal!

Okay, now onto the personal shenanigans. Since I was last on here, I started playing with my beloved weekly D&D group (we've been playing for over 2 years now and are on our second campaign! <3), got REALLY into Critical Role and Dimension 20, graduated with my master's, landed a job right out of my practicum, read SO many wonderful books, and I'm 26 now! ...Which means that I've got way too many games and hobbies I'm interested in and not enough time/energy for any of them. :"D

I'm still just as in love with stories as ever, but I've barely written anything outside of D&D fic in 2 years.

Of course, it hasn't all been good, I've had my fair share of grieving, family drama, mental health issues, work as my personal hell, and grappling with my sense of failure and hopelessness. I've barely left my house in two years and I honestly don't remember how to socialize or be a person among other people anymore -- I barely knew to begin with. But I'm just going one day at a time and taking my time to catch back up.

But I miss writing. I'm apprehensive to post again because it's gonna be bad for a while. I am rusty. But I wanna pick it back up again. And I LOVE Ace Attorney. I love these characters. I love this setting. And I've dearly missed the whimsy and heart of this series.

My inbox is open for messages, I'll do my best to respond to things? I'll probably leave old asks in my inbox to rest, but I'll respond to any new things! For those of you who sent in anons checking on me, consider this an open letter to you, too! I got quite a few of kind anons in the past two years and I appreciate y'all taking the time to check in on me.

Thanks for reading all of this. Keep an eye out for future posts and some blog modifications but I'm signing off for now!

[noivoom]

 Okay, after several days of brainstorming and debating with myself, I have finally decided to emerge from The Lurking Pit and share this little (“little”) thing! This AU came about from my love of dysfunctional family tropes as well as my desire for everyone to live (honestly I mostly just wanted to daydream fanfic ideas without having to navigate canon’s minefield of problems, began wondering what an “ideal” situation would look like, and this spawned out of it)

The point of this was to, again, create an “ideal” situation for the gang, with potential for all kinds of Shenanigans™ and Drama™ alike while still keeping everyone as close to their canon selves as possible, as a bit of relief from all the angst :’) (I say “ideal situation,” but that doesn’t mean they haven’t still got issues galore. *cough*SUNNEEDSTHERAPY*cough*) (If, on the off chance anyone is inspired by this and/or wants to make something with this setting, please let me know! I’d LOVE to see it! :D)

I call it- One big UnHappy Family!

TL;DR Sun, Moon, Lunar, Earth, KC, Bloodmoon, and Solar Flare are all alive and well and somehow ended up as the world’s most Complicated™ family. Chaos ensues.

As for how they wound up that way? WELL. I’m gonna start rambling now, please bear with me

It starts with Sun shooting Bloodmoon. Sun didn’t fully know if he really wanted to kill Bloodmoon, was fighting internally to come to a decision one way or another and therefor wasn’t actually aiming when a moment of reflex kicked in, and the barrel went off. And he misses. Well... mostly. Bloodmoon takes a decent amount of the shot, and though it doesn’t kill them, they’re left severely damaged. It’s quite a confronting sight for Sun- while in canon there was nothing left of BM for Sun to really understand the weight of what he just did (at first, anyway), here he’s immediately confronted with another animatronic panicking and in pain as their nanomachines desperately try to rebuild them :’) Nothing like a bit of visual trauma to hit home that your actions have consequences, amirite? Moon investigates the barrel shot and sudden screaming (from both BM and Sun) to find... this. He’d probably have several things in mind to say to Sun about shooting BM, but he’d hold off for now. And thus begins one hell of a domino effect.

While fixing Bloodmoon, it becomes apparent the barrel shot corrupted some of their code. Nothing particularly bad, but oddly enough, it seems to have somehow also curbed their bloodlust. The lack of cravings leave the twins disoriented and kinda lost, but it’s also... almost a relief. Lunar takes advantage of this, introducing them to new things to occupy their time, and wow, who knew they could find entertainment in something other than homicide and appalling crimes against humanity? They’re still Bloodmoon, of course, they still have to be held back from killing people, but that’s not all they wanna do anymore. And food! Now that their bloodlust is out of the way food tastes so much better, there’s so many different flavours and textures and they gotta try everything and whoops, they’ve accidentally found themselves on the world’s weirdest redemption arc. (So, uh, thanks for shooting them after all, Sun...? I guess?)

Meanwhile KC, concerned over Bloodmoon’s wellbeing, convinces Moon to let him watch over them during their recovery. As the twins begin discovering new things that satisfy themselves, KC, trying to be Dad™, joins them. He’s never actually participated in anything that doesn’t involve murder, and much of these activities are uninteresting to him, but something about doing it with his sons... it actually... satisfies something in him, too. (None of them are particularly good at finding non-violent hobbies, mind you, but Lunar, Sun and Moon help out. Mostly to keep them occupied. They have no idea what’s going on, but they much prefer whatever the hell this is to evil plotting.) Eventually Moon relaxes a little when he realises KC intends to stay true to their deal, and occasionally switches off while KC’s out rather than watching him like a hawk. This leads to KC exploring on his own and running into Glamrock Freddy. He panics a little and pretends to be Moon. A parallel of their canon talk happens and oh would you look at that, KC’s accidentally Dad-ed his way into a redemption arc of his own! (No dead Bloodmoon means Sun doesn’t McFreaking Lose It, which means Lunar doesn’t move out and get killed, and also means the magic circle isn’t destroyed, which means Moon doesn’t get stuck in his head and get his memories wiped! :D Huzzah!) (Sun is still in desperate need of therapy though)

Eclipse is, of course, rather indignant at this turn of events. He never like the Blood Twins or KC, but seriously? Just like that?! It’s almost insulting. Not to mention it screws up his plan (not that he’d had a chance to flesh out said plan yet anyway). He continues regardless, taking over Solar Flare’s body to... do something. I’ll admit, I haven’t exactly figured out what his new course of action would be. Regardless, he ends up making his own body and ditches Solar Flare without a second thought. Solar Flare, alone and deeply disturbed over having their body hijacked so easily, is at a loss for what to do when they stumble upon Earth! Or more accurately, she stumbles upon them. She comforts them and they go with her to the Daycare. (I also don’t know if Earth would have already joined the DCA crew or if she just shows up fashionably late with Starbucks Solar Flare. Both are funny; either she shows up as a stranger with another stranger like “yes hello I’m your new sister, also I decided to bring this vaguely traumatised stranger along with me, hope you don’t mind :)” or she goes for a walk and comes back with this stranger like “can we keep them? *puppy eyes*”) Thus, Solar Flare joins the family!

Honestly... despite everyone else getting redeemed/joining the family, I think it’s funniest if Eclipse stays a bad guy. Everyone else is learning about themselves and growing as individuals/family, meanwhile Eclipse is over there being a stubborn, petty, lonely bastard and refusing to acknowledge that the reason he is miserable everywhere he goes is because every time he goes somewhere, he is there. Also he creates the conflict needed for further plot to happen. Also also I don’t think he’d take the option of redemption if it was handed to him on a silver platter accompanied by a ten-page essay on why it’s the best choice for everyone, especially him. (But who knows! I guess it is possible, it would just be a lot of work. He’d have to really want to be better and put the work in. Even then, I imagine he’d probably end up going his own way. It’d be for the best after all the trauma he’s inflicted.)

The FUNNIEST pat of all of this is when Glamrock Freddy visits the Daycare to talk to Sun and Moon about something only to see Sun yelling and chasing Bloodmoon, who’s knocking over and destroying EVERYTHING, Lunar running after them playing the Benny Hill theme, Solar Flare robotically restacking the barrels one pile at a time (seemingly oblivious to the fact that Bloodmoon knocks them over again as soon as they turn their back, creating an endless cycle they don’t seem to question), Earth calling out for everyone to please not hurt themselves, and Moon just... sitting there, rubbing his temples. “... Hey Freddy,” Moon says, not looking up. “... What the heck is going on?” “Family bonding.” “Family- where the heck did all these people even come from?!” “It’s a long story.”

If you’ve read all this, thank you so much for hearing me out <3 I’ll admit, most of my thought processes behind this boil down to “I just think it’s neat” and “because I think it’s funny”. This is supposed to be just for fun, after all. Please tell me what you think! There’s SO MUCH more to this, from evolving family dynamics to specific character development and even Monty, this post is all just the basic set-up of how the gang got to where they are. I have SO MANY more thoughts about this setting, it’s a disaster and a half and I’d love to discuss it please give me an excuse to ramble more 

[pandacatxd]

Finished watching "so I'm a spider, so what?" And there's definitely time shenanigans going on right? Like I'm not the only one confused about timelines? Like, baby Sophia and adult Sophia and pre-vamp Menosophagus or whatever his name is - Sophia's butler - and that odd clone version of him who is definitely not human are the same people right??? Not to mention, White and MC are probably the same? Could have sworn Shun exclaimed in recognition at one point near the end when White came in to help Sophia. Ngl, when MC got lvl 10 on Taboo skill, I thought Ariel was the older version of MC who had travelled back in time to become Demon Lord and fix things. That was quickly debunked when Ariel popped up and no hesitation attempted to obliterate her.

Other than confusion and theorising over potential time loops and whatnot, it was alright. Got sad our MC wasn't really talking much with her parallel minds towards the end of the series :( I missed their bickering (and rip Body Mind).

But the part i like about Isekai series is the thinking out of the box and grinding levels to become OP 🤣🤣 so I wasn't as appreciative of the plot as I could have been, I just wanted to see more of MC go bonkers on other monsters and level up and think of clever ways to survive. I was so sad she went and killed that earth dragon though. He was glorious.

[ggsworldstory]

Pilot

At the wall

A young boy wearing a red top hat that had a gold crown at its brim sits in his cell, with a look of hopelessness on his face.

“Ok, maybe not a good place to start with, you’re probably wondering how I got here.”

“First’s things first, my name is George, but my friends, er one friend calls me, GG. What does it stand for? … I don’t know, I can’t really contact the person who gave it to me.” “As for how I got here, if this little thing on my head isn’t any indication, I'm a member of the Toppat clan, for my whole life, in fact”

“Yep, you heard me, I was born to THE toppat clan…….’s submarine division, not many people care about it compared to the big guys, like airship, but at least we don’t have to worry as much about the government going after us.”

“As for how I like it personally? Eh. sure I couldn’t really go anywhere myself, and the view of the ocean got old, FAST.” “but I got 3 meals a day, a stylish hat and both my parents are alive, heh, not gonna lie, I definitely miss them.”

 “They always celebrated the small things: First steps, first words, first eye glow, first piece of metal melted.” “My family has a history of these weird elemental powers, My mom wields electricity while my dad wields fire, so naturally, I get both.”

 I got pretty excited when they promised to “bring out my full potential” but it just amounted to constantly being told, “burn through this” and “short circuit that” I couldn’t even do it right most of the time.” “It's especially discouraging when I hear about all the cool stuff my parents use their powers for,the massive flame blasts, the blackouts,can’t help but feel a little inadequate…”

 “Anyways, this all started earlier today, I was in my room, practicing mario 64 speedrun tricks, when I heard my parents come in.”As he walked in, dad uttered,

“So, how are you doing, son?” sounding slightly nervous.

”Ok, what’s the bad news?”

 “Wait, wha-?” 

“You say that everytime you’re about to tell me or mom bad news, and I should know, because I do it too.”

 mom then replied, attempting to de-escalate the situation “I wouldn’t say it’s bad news, quite the opposite, you’re finally going on your first solo-heist!”

 I felt my heart damn near jump clean outta my ribcage “Wait?! WHAT?! I can barely melt a crowbar or power a lightbulb, and now you expect me to do a heist all on my own?!” I panickedly spoke. Desperately trying to calm me down, mom said, “well that may be true, but we figured you could use some field experience before we head to the orbital statio-” “it’s the captain’s orders, we don’t have a choice” dad Interrupted “Sweety! not so blunt!” mom shouted

“Ugh captain Sharkbite, not fond of that guy at all,it gets annoying having my parents get orders barked at them more often than my feet touch the floor, very annoying, and when they’re not doing that, they’re always blabbering off about fish, boasting their razor sharp teeth, or being jealous of some guy with a train and a big gun.”

 Dad then tried to reassure me saying, “I know this is a tad sudden, but we do believe in you” he said before giving him a hug. “Ok, I feel better”

“Great!” Mom replied “be at the front of the submarine in 1 hour.” I simply gave a thumbs up as the two left.

From there, I'd say I reacted rationall…y by screaming hysterically. “I DON'T FEEL BETTER AT ALL! AAAAAHHHH!”

 Enter, Jessica, my best friend. She had long orange hair, a blue hat, cyan neckerchief, orange and blue eyes and orange shoes. She even has elemental powers as well (water and earth to be specific) not sure how exactly she got em though. As much as I love my parents, sometimes it seems like she does a better job at keeping me from doing stupid crap than they do. Even if we’re definitely prone to more than our fair share of shenanigans and mischief, she can be a bit in over her head at times, but she’s always so supportive of me, she even gave me my nickname, and this cool crown and.... What was I talking about again? Oh, right” 

“Something on your mind?” she asked “I then explained the whole situation, and like any good friend would, she offered me a helping hand” “what if I went with ya?” she suggested “then it wouldn’t be much of a solo heist” I questioned. She then relayed to me her plan in more detail. It sounded pretty good to me, so I agreed

One hour later

I walked up to the front of the submarine, where the captain greeted me, handed me an earpiece and described the goal to me, “yer task is simple, get in, get out with so much as a single coin, get to the nearest body of water and press the red button on yer earpiece and you’ll officially be part of the clan, be careful however, no toppat has actually set foot in this place, but it’s the last place for you to be able to steal from before we head to the orbital station, good luck lad.”

 They then pressed a button, causing part of the ceiling to lower and the entrance to the sub’s cannon to be revealed. I've seen plenty of others get launched out of it to their heists, I was definitely not excited to learn how it feels myself. I got in, taking deep breaths every step, as the door closed I could hear dad yell out “Give one of the guards a big smack for me!” Unbeknownst to the others, Jessica was waiting in the surprisingly spacious cannon, which she entered through the roof after the back door closed. It was comforting having her along with me for this. “3…2...1” I hear the captain announce, before slamming a button, “Launch!” They shouted, and we were off

Truth be told, I don’t remember much from the flight, I just recall a loud bang, screaming, and a nasty earache.

It’s almost like our division has no goddamn idea how to spend the little portion of the budget we’re given.

Anyway, I woke up to Jessica who said, “you ok?” I told her I was and she replied, “good,cause it looks like we’re here” 

Thinking about that sight still sends shivers down my spine, before me stood the largest casino I’d ever seen, the building was large, blindingly bright, lacked windows, was plastered with all kinds of card and luck based imagery, and at the center there were three golden letters, “MOC” with a small banner reading “Mansion of cards below it”

I gulped, took a deep breath and nervously muttered, “well, here we go” and tried to step inside, but jessica quickly stopped me, exclaiming “woah, woah, you don’t just waltz into a place you’re about to heist from!” before leading me to the less, glowing side of the building, examined it a bit, then let out an “A-ha! An unguarded vent! Amateurs.” She then used a large rock  to break the vent door, and we began to make our way through the tunnel.

As we were crawling, I talked a bit more about what I was going through, “Jess, ya ever wonder if there's more to life than just getting shot out of a cannon, taking crap, then leaving?” sounding concerned, she responded with, “I dunno, but what’s making you think so hard about it now? Usually you seem content making the most out of your life on the submarine. “'Well, yeah, but it’s just a lot of pressure thinking about the whole, ‘this is the rest of my life’ thing, especially when I'm no good at it.” I said back.

She took a moment to think, before telling me “I get you’re feeling boxed in, but who knows? Maybe a curveball’s coming your way that’ll let you pick a new path in this crazy life, and whatever it is, i’m sure you’ll find a way to enjoy it, like you always have!” I’ll admit, that definitely helped me feel better at the time.

After some time, we finally made it to the main vault and I was mesmerized. Not just by all the money, but also the feeling of doing something right for once, albeit with some help. I think Jess was trying to explain something about what to do next, but I was too distracted by the feeling of sheer awe I was in.

That, was when I made the biggest mistake of my life

I picked up a coin from the massive money mountain before me to get a closer look.

Then an alarm went off.

I was immediately taken out of that previous feeling of awe and in its place was sheer fear and panic, I turned to Jess. She was trying to tell me something and was waving her arms in a signaling motion. I think she wanted me to calm down but I couldn’t hear her over the booming siren and the constant stomping of the approaching security.

So I did the first thing that came to mind in my flight-or-flight instincts, I ran, I ran, ran and ran like hell.

As I was panickedly sprinting, I remember a strange sensation in my legs, as if some kind of energy was sparking out of them, making me run faster.

But I didn’t have time to focus on that, I only had one thing in mind: Getting the fuck out of dodge.

The guards began rushing towards me, I felt my eyes widen with fear, and as before my instincts were at the helm and I tried to swipe them away as they approached. I recall a similarly strange feeling, but it was more so as if something was burning and I could swear I saw my very hand engulfed in flames.

But as before,I didn’t have time to dwell on these anomalies, I could only keep running, faster and faster, as the barrage of bullets as well as other weaponry grew louder and louder.

I’m not sure how far I ran, but I got a good distance outside the casino. And by the end of it all, I was exhausted.

My arms and legs were in intense pain, I was coughing and wheezing, my head felt incredibly light, eventually I could barely stand, and eventually collapsed on the ground.

When I woke up, my earpiece was gone, so I couldn’t talk to the captain or anyone else, and I found myself here.

I’ve never been to the wall, but I've heard more than enough about the immense cold, depressing gray ‘aesthetics’ and the view of the massive drop to the sea from the windows. I guess word got around about my attempted robbery pretty quickly, or I was out for a long time. I also remember the many warnings about this place I got from other toppats, about it’s infamously high security

Either way, that’s basically my story. I fucked up, got stuck here in this notoriously inescapable hellhole, and now, I can’t help but wonder; is this the end?

At that moment, a mysteriously enthusiastic yet simultaneously threatening voice cried out to the seemingly hopeless Toppat, “Or is it just the beginning?”

GG looked around, confused, before noticing, a crack steadily growing on the cell’s ceiling  before it broke.

After the dust settled from his landing, the mysterious figure revealed himself, a tall man with yellow and purple eyes, sporting a dark purple and yellow jester hat, and a big, ominous smile.

After the mysterious figure made his landing, GG could only sit there for a few seconds before asking “Who the hell are you?”

“The name’s Lown, K.Lown! Entertainer, extraordinaire!” The jester exclaimed

“...ok, but why are you here exactly?”

“Is that a serious question? Any performer worth their salt knows where to find a frown to turn upside down!” K.Lown yelped as he began to play a goofy tune on a kazoo he pulled from his hat. 

GG simply stared at the jester as he questioned what the hell was even happening. Before eventually speaking, “Uhhh, thanks for, whatever this is…? But I don’t see why you’re going outta your way to do some party tricks for some guy stuck in the wall.”

“Ah, impatient aren't ya? I always save my big disappearance for last!”

“Wait, really? how are ya getting me outta here?” GG stated, sounding slightly annoyed

“Hmmm. I hadn’t quite thought that far, hmmm, how about this!?”

He yelled out as he grabbed GG’s arm and jumped out the window. At this moment however K.lown began to show his true acrobatic prowess as he leaped to the rock wall adjacent to the window before bouncing back to the side of the wall, repeatedly doing so, gaining height until he reached the roof of the complex. “How’s that for a big disappearance?”K.Lown proudly shouted, GG didn’t say anything, as he was in a large amount of shock, still trying to process what he just went through. 

Unfortunately for the two, the wall’s security quickly caught on two their escape attempt and soon enough, a large group of guards had them at gunpoint.

K.lown simply chuckled, Chucked GG high up in the sky, before roaring out, “Can I get a volunteer from the audience?!”

 As the gunfire rushed towards him, the clown somersaulted through the volley and right into the fray, pushing the crowd of armed guards,who were now left confused and at risk of shooting their own through the chaos.

All of a sudden, one of the guards noticed their assault rifle was missing from their hand. All of a sudden the group hears a whistle from behind them, they turn around to find…

K.lown holding one of their assault rifles, with a big, crazed, clownish smile. He laughed maniacally as he unloaded the hoard’s own ammunition against them, while quickly maneuvering to avoid the shots coming to him as well.

When all was said and done, K.lown jumped down from the roof and onto the front of the wall, which was a mostly empty field of snow, he then raised his hands into the air for GG to land perfectly on them, which he did... For a brief second before plopping face first onto the ground, at this point he was knocked out cold, so jester simply dragged him into the back of one of the wall’s trucks that was conveniently nearby and drove off.

Several hours later…

GG woke up in the dark back of the truck, greeted by a brief silence, before it was abruptly intruded By the clown’s booming, “Ta-da!”

“So we’re really out?” GG Skeptically inquired.

“Believe it”

“Truth be told, I don’t remember much after you… jumped out that window…”

“Eh, nevermind that, we’re outta that winter wasteland, now just sit tight and I’ll get ya where ya need to be.”

While he was thankful for being busted out of the wall, GG was still overall confused by everything that was happening and figured he might as well try to get some answers, “if you don’t mind me asking, are you sure  you know where you’re going, Lown, was it?

“Why of course, why wouldn’t I?”

“Well I never saw or heard about you back home and I wanted to know how exactly you knew the Toppats.”

“Oh Toppats, schmoppats! Do you really wanna spend all your time in some sticky space resort, surrounded by lunatics?”

“Sure I’m not good at stealing and such, but it’s my home, my family, they’re probably worried sick right now…”

“Don’t you worry my heterochromatic friend, everything will be alright once we reach our destination, and whadya know, we’re here!”

As the truck stopped, GG excitedly walked to the back of the truck, K.lown then opened the doors to reveal…

The same casino that he had just come back from robbing and barely escaping

“Well, come on in!” K.lown said as he casually walked towards the building

“You coming or what?”

It was at this moment, GG began to question the motives of his new friend(?) He knew he needed to get out of this somehow, but he also knew that K.lown was quite the powerful individual, considering all the acrobatics he pulled off while getting him out of the wall (even if he wasn’t conscious through most of it). GG tried to back away in silence, but the clown soon interrupted with, “Don’t tell me ya got stage fright!”

“No, o-of course not, I just think… uhh, maybe it’ll be harder for the wall to find us if we split up..?” GG nervously retorted, as he turned around and began walking faster.

The jester let out a slight chuckle before responding, “Don’t try to make me laugh, YOU PIECE OF SHIT!” he then springed towards GG. His shout however, put GG into full panic mode and he began to run for his life, unfortunately he kept on bumping into buildings, statues, as well as other of the city’s setpieces that kept him from going at top speed as the jester chased him down.

After some time, GG ran into a dark alleyway to hopefully hide and catch his breath, at that time he could only stand there and hope the demented entertainer wouldn’t find him. But he did notice, as he snuck up from behind, and punched right on the back of GG’s head, leaving him unconscious once again

“Talk about playing your cards wrong, you shity screw up.” K.lown smugly quipped, before dragging GG to the casino.

When he woke up, GG’s arms were stuck to shackles in the ceiling of a small, dark room, filled with strange devices and a glass door was in front of him. Soon enough, GG noticed a man approach the glass door, while he couldn’t quite see well in the darkness he knew it wasn’t K.lown, the man was wearing a dark blue top hat with a red stripe at the bottom, had some short, brown hair and black shoes, before long he spoke in a low stoic tone, “So, you’re finally awake, allow me to introduce myself. My name Is Dice. H. Roller I am the owner of the casino you and your partner have foolishly intruded upon.”

GG’s eyes widened realizing that Jessica could be here as well. “What did you do to her?!” He quickly bellowed, Dice was indifferent to his reaction however. Simply giving a, “hmph, such insolence.” before continuing his monologue, much to GG’s frustration.

I assume you’ve already met my second in command, you may be wondering why I sent him to get you out of the wall just to put you in another jail, are you not? Well it’s quite simple; I believe stealing from someone like me is a serious crime, and the wall’s idea of punishment is… inadequate.” he said as he reached for a remote control in his pocket and pushed one of it’s buttons. Suddenly the once nearly pitch black cell, glowed with the many instruments of torture surrounding GG “When those are done warming up, you’ll be experiencing the kind of pain that hell only wishes it could put one through, don’t fret, child. It was only a matter of time before those insatiable toppats would try to get their hands on my fortune, and thus, it was equally inevitable they'd lose some of their members trying to grasp such an unattainable treasure, at least they’re losing clear deadweight like you, you can keep that speck by the way, think of it as a reminder of how much of a failure you are.”

 GG then noticed that even after everything,he still had the single coin he originally took in his pocket. Dice chortled and walked away.

GG then noticed a countdown near the top of his cell, presumably for how long the torture device needed to warm up, he could only stay there, watching it slowly countdown to zero and reflect on how things got to this point “well, I fucked up,Couldn’t do a heist on my own, couldn’t stop myself from raising an alarm, couldn’t stay out of the wall, Couldn’t tell that clown wasn’t trustworthy when I had the chance and I couldn’t even do anything right with or without Jess’ help”

 As he continued to look around his cell, he noticed on his left, a window into the cell next to him, and he couldn’t believe his eyes when he realized, it was Jessica! She was was knocked out at the time, given how she had already gone through a round of torture while GG was gone. Without hesitation, GG immediately tried to get her attention, “Jess, Jess! Wake up, it’s me!”

Soon enough, she awoke, “huh…? GG? Oh no, oh fuck no, you’re here too?”

“Sadly, look, I’m so sorry, I left you behind back there, I can’t do anything right can I?”

“I-it’s ok, you panicked, but there’s no time to dwell on that. Especially with that ticking down”

The timer was only at one minute until the machinery had finished warming up

“So, do you have a plan?” GG promptly asked

“I think… even through all of that hell I might have a bit of power left in me”

Even though he was suspended in the air, GG could feel the ground faintly shaking beneath him, then a hole formed under him, it wasn’t particularly large but it looked like he could fit inside it.

“That tunnel should take you right outside of this city, after I take care of your shackles, I want you to go through, run for the hills, and never look back.”

“And you’ll follow after, right?

“...”

“Right…?”

“GG,you’re not a ‘screw up’ sure, you sometimes act without thinking, but you’ve always been there for me, you’ve always inspired me with how you always roll with the punches, treating all the struggles in your life as challenges to overcome and never giving up no matter what shit gets thrown at you. Promise me you’ll keep doing that.”

“I’ll try” GG said as he used his elbow to wipe tears from his eyes

“Good, even with all the shit that’ll happen to me here, it’ll be a bit more bearable knowing you’re still out there”

“Jess…” GG muttered before Jessica used a stream of water to slip his hands through the shackles, consequentially making him tumble through the tunnel before ending up at the Las pay-gas border “wait, wait!” He shouted, but Jessica had already closed the tunnel behind him to make sure no one else would go through it and find him.

Despite the feelings of gloom he was going through, GG took his friend’s words to heart, and was determined to not let her down. And he dashed off into the night, and into a new life.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~End of Pilot~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Next

[torakosama]

Hello and welcome to my reading log for The Easy Life in Kamusari by Shion Miura! (Log #1)

So my rental for Discworld lapsed (oops), and I've been busy job hunting but I forgot I had this book, The Easy Life in Kamusari by Shion Miura, in my possession. Being a weeb, naturally it grabbed me. Funny enough, I accidentally picked up the sequel first, and as neurotic as I am, I had to get the first in the series. And thus, we're here.

I've already gotten a good way into the book and it's shaping up to be a bildungsroman (this is a new word for me, so I hope I'm applying it correctly). Yuki, our protagonist, reminds me a lot of me in some ways; he's not interested in doing anything, and is just kind of meandering. One day, his mom signed him up for a forestry job without his knowledge or consent. He feels ready to flee the first chance he gets, and I can empathize. And among the first things that happens is that he realizes he's in the boonies and can't leave. He's learning to love the trees and the forest and the little mountain village of Kamusari, but he's still pretty naive. I've finished chapters 1 and 2 (I'm already about 40% through the book) and so far, it seems like there's more going on than just a freeter learns to like trees.

Characters of note:

Yuki: protag. Doesn't like Kamusari at first but is writing a diary about his days there.

Yoki: big logger man who loves his job. Has a wife named Miho but he cheats on her with girls in the city.

Old Man Saburo: can't quite pin down his character yet but he's safely one of the oldheads in the village. Definitely a wellspring of knowledge.

Iwao: I'm not sure about his character either but he's younger than Saburo. If this were a family, Saburo would be something like a granddad and Iwao would be the dad while Yoki is the uncle.

Seiichi: the owner of the coop that Yuki is working at. Very cool demeanor and down to earth. The ideal business owner that actually gets his hands dirty from time to time. If we continued with thr family analogy, I say he'd be the family friend who's an honorary uncle.

Santa: not like Kris Kringle, his name's kinda something like "mountain man. (I have trouble reading his name as you would in Japanese, but I got used to it.) Seiichi's kid. Sweet boy, very cute.

Nao: so far, she's just a wild child love interest.

Granny Shige: I just like her. Sassy grandma.

Spoilers ahead!!

So, already, Yuki is falling for Nao, potentially has seen a god and Santa has been spirited away (he comes back). The people of Kamusari are religious and superstitious in some ways. I can't help but feel like there's more to it than just Yuki living as a lumberjack in the mountains. He claims to have seen a mystery woman while up on a tree and after that, one of the village children, son of the big boss, is missing and found way out there in a place he couldn't have gotten to without help. Yuki, Saburo, Seiichi, Iwao and Saburo don some ceremonial clothes and as they climb the mountain, they bang gongs and shout for Santa, who does turn up. Santa claims to have been following two mysterious ladies and after a few days, everyone just moved on from that.

Spoilers over.

So, that's life so far in Kamusari. Very full of log cutting, Yuki becoming one with nature and apparently god shenanigans. I'm gonna finish up the next chapter or two before moving on. Really digging this so far!

Please pick this one up. It seems that it's not particularly popular, but it is fairly new to the English-speaking audience. Thanks for reading!

[strawberri-draws]

My prediction for s3