#and funnily enough even in the world they are fated enemies

[profoundmakerdreamerss-blog]

Guys, this is Tomarry to me; and you can't say otherwise because I can't hear you LALALALA —

[loser-jpg]

HIHI OK SO LOSER. HERE ME OUT PLS. GIGGLES!!!

IF REQUESTS ARE OPEN WOULD YOU MIND. SPINNING A LIL ENEMIES TO LOVERS/FRIENDS DIDDY FOR IDIA SHROUD AND A GN READER. I WILL KISS THE GROUND YOU WALK ON I SWEAR THIS IDEA HASNT LEFT ME ALONE SINCE I STARTED LIKING HIM. ITS OK IF NOT THOUGH OBVI!! MAKE SURE U TAKE UR TIME BESTIE AND TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF <333

this is the silliest reader ive ever written

The most annoying thing about attending a prestigious academy is without a doubt, pride. The deadly sin curses every individual at NRC, all of them having been told that they are destined for greatness, fate being on their side.

This obviously leads to some of the most egotistical bastards this side of the Shaftlands being cooped up all together in the same space. Also at the age where the dumbest decisions of maintaining self confidence are made.

To you, one of the many young adults cursed with being a general annoyance was Idia Shroud. You also happened to be sat right next to him.

Funnily enough Ortho was able to convince his older brother to begin attending his classes in person, a thoughtful gesture to his brother, but not to you!

Now you had to spend every day face to face with one of the most bothersome people at the school. You made your annoyance of him very clear, too. He was an anti-social shut in who somehow still thought himself better than everyone else despite being so pathetic he couldn't speak to someone face to face. How in the world was he supposed to be a talented mage?!

The most annoying part of it all was ever since he had started going out of his comfort zone he had also seemingly started to become slightly less of an ass. It was unfair. People aren't allowed to just change out of nowhere when you hate them, you're supposed to hate them!

It didn't matter anyway, Idia Shroud hated you so you were allowed to hate him, even if you suddenly started to see that he was a troubled man, untrusting because the world had wronged him before. It didn't matter if he was simply confident because of his talent that was truly better than others, he was rude anyway.

Idia Shroud hated you, so you hated hi-

"Um, hey?" A soft voice came from your left.

"Hm?" You were so caught up in your annoyance you hadn't noticed your surroundings at all. The rest of the class had already left. And Trein too for some reason? "Crap I was not paying attention for the end of the lecture."

You had said it to yourself, but the firey haired boy with his hood pulled over his head responded anyway. "Ah, I uh... I could share my notes with you...?"

What.

"...Uh, yeah sure, thanks. That'd...that'd be helpful."

You stood up from your chair, still dazed at the peculiar situation you found yourself in. Idia tapped on his tablet a bit before your phone pinged in your pocket, a notification of a shared document bright on the screen. Since when did Idia Shroud have your number? And since when did he help out others for no reason?!

You opened the document to skim through it quickly when something near the bottom caught your eye. A small footnote about a project. A group project. A group project without pre assigned partners.

Ah, that's it.

Once again you were proven right, Idia Shroud being his typical self. He didn't speak to anyone in the class so it's inevitable he had no one to do the project with, and was sharing his notes to try and guilt you into doing it with him by making you feel in his debt-

"The uh, the project at the bottom is groups of two. I think some of the people in the row who sit behind us don't have partners yet." Idia held his tablet close to him, glancing at the door.

"You already have a partner?" Impossible, he was probably just saying that to make you to be the one to ask to be in his group, to safe himself the embarrassment of having to ask.

"Yeah, Cater had already asked me to join his group. He said Trey had grouped up before he could ask him. Well, uhm, I have to go. Uh- you- you can message me if you have questions about the notes!" Idia ran out the door before you could say anything.

...

WHAT.

Something about that made your blood boil. It wasn't jealousy though, it couldn't be. No, no it was disrespect! He said that to be condescending, to brag! To shove it in your face that even a shut in like him could join a group before you. That was his plan all along! To share his notes to get you to ask about the project just to laugh at you for trying to ask to join his group. Well the joke was on him, you'd never be his partner, group project or otherwise!

---

You weren't able to join a group. Stupid Idia Shroud neglected to tell you that those 'people in the row who sit behind us who have partners' joined up outside of class time. And then he had the gall to apologize about you not joining a group as if he hadn't totally 100% planned this.

Suffering was endless and you were ready to give up. That was until Cater Diamond came waltzing up to your row, passing by you to talk to Idia.

"Change of plans, sorry Idia, Trey's partner joined a different group so I'm gonna work with him now. Good luck on the project!"

"Huh?! Wha-?! Cater, wait-!" Idia stared in dumbfounded shock as Cater skipped away leaving both you and Idia groupless. Well at least Idia was just as pathetic as you now.

Idia turned toward you after a moment. "Uh, did you want to be group partners...? Since...since neither of us have anyone to work with?"

Not on your life, Shroud.

"Yeah, sure."

FU-

Truthfully this was the best situation with the cards you had been dealt, likely you could get him to do any of the work you didn't want to, and you'd get a good grade with him as your partner. Doesn't mean you liked the situation, but still.

"Ah, there's a relatively new cafe nearby we could work at? It- it could be better than working in any of the dorms. If you want." Idia shifted a bit, and you couldn't tell what his goal with this was. Was he planning to force you to pay or something? Suggesting leaving and going anywhere was very unlike him. Something had to be up.

---

Eventually the two of you did go to the cafe to work on your project, and when you insisted on not getting anything and just focusing on working Idia bought you a drink anyway.

"I said I didn't want anything?" You pushed the cup away an inch, the drink was colorful, fading from a deep blue at the top to a light pink at the bottom. You weren't sure what flavor it could be.

Idia drank out of his own cup, a bright red drink that looked fizzier than your own. He added something to your project on his tablet at the same time. "I know but I, uhm, I felt uncomfortable being the only one with a drink. You don't have to drink it, just keep it in front of you." Idia paused a moment before adding a rushed "please" at the end.

So you did. For maybe a minute before you couldn't help taking a sip. It was fruitier tasting than you expected, but not citrus or sour. You pulled the cup toward you to move the straw from the pink section to the blue, noticing that the darker color tasted more like some berry you couldn't pinpoint than the pink had. Overall it tasted good. So good, in fact, you drank almost half of it before you remembered you were supposed to be working.

You glanced up at Idia to see if he had noticed you absolutely chugging whatever drink it was he had gotten you, but either he was pretending he hadn't, or he was really into this project. You noticed only a small amount had been drank from Idia's cup.

You were about to say something until you decided that if Idia wanted to waste his own drink, and his own money, than so be it. And with that you stuck your head back down to finish up this project and finally be rid of having to converse with the shut in outside of class hours.

---

Sure enough your project raked in a well needed high grade, even going so far as to be personally complimented by Trein himself. You figured that'd be the end of having to talk to Idia Shroud but Seven forbid because the universe had other plans for you.

'Would you like to go see a movie'

That wasn't exactly the way he had said it, it was a lot more unconfident, and there were a few pauses halfway through, but in the end phrasing didn't matter because now you were walking down the street in the middle of a surprise spring heat spell returning from seeing a movie with your number one enemy ever. It was a good movie too which made you even more mad. Now you'd have to think of him every time you saw it which is not what you wanted to happen.

"I am about to pass out from this heat. I'm sitting down a moment." You quickly flopped down on the nearest bench, fanning yourself with your hand. "How in the world are you not burning up in that hood, Shroud?"

Idia shrugged, slowly stepping away from where you were sitting. "I'll get you a drink, wait here."

"Huh, wha?" Once again Idia had left you before you could argue. He had paid for you guys to go to the movie, refusing to accept you paying him back much to your annoyance. You didn't want to be any more in his debt than you already were. You looked down, attempting to form at least a small shadow over your face, at the price of your neck, when a cold cup lightly touched the side of your face.

You jumped a moment before realizing it was Idia, and took the cup with a small 'thank you'. Once you looked at the cup properly you recognized the blue and pink colors of the cold drink, which felt particularly nice in your hands. You hadn't realized the two of you were near that cafe again, much less that they made drinks to-go.

"You, uh, you seemed to like it last time so I figured it was better to get you something I knew you'd enjoy." Idia's fingers played with the sleeve of his sweatshirt, as he glanced in every direction except for you. You looked back down at the drink again, noticing a small resemblance between the light pink if the drink and a light pink dusting the ends of Idia's bright hair.

"Stop being nice, I'm supposed to hate you." You couldn't stop yourself before you blurted out words without thinking, but you quickly caught yourself just a moment too late, slapping a hand across your mouth in shock of your own harshness.

"Huh-! I- what!?" Idia looked just as confused and shocked as anyone would, which made you rethink if he ever actually disliked you as much as you had thought. He quickly shook off his surprised state and gave you probably the most sarcastic look you had seen from him in weeks. "If you hate me why did you agree to be here...?"

"Ah...I dunno." The both of you stared at each other, growing more confused by the second. You couldn't explain your strange decisions and thought process even to yourself, let alone another person.

Though through starring at his face, admitting your difficulty in keeping up your one sided rivalry, and being exposed to what you now could only see as genuine acts of generosity and kindness you were hit with a very quick, and very mind shattering realization.

You had feelings for Idia Shroud.

Romantic ones. You thought they were hatred but no, thinking now you found certain aspects of him so endearing it made you angry in cuteness aggression. This asshole actually had the capacity to be very nice and kind and helpful and it was so charming it made you want to smack your head into a wall from overstimulation of good feelings.

Wait-

You had just went to the movies with him, where he paid, and now he just got you a drink from a cafe the two of you had already went to together. Activities that required exiting Idia's comfort zone for extended periods of time.

You couldn't help yourself, you had to ask. "Is this a date?" You almost shouted the question at him upon considering the possibility, and you half believed Idia was about to run away with how loud and generally chaotic you were currently being in your extremely confused state.

"Huh!? A- a wha-!?" Idia was giving you the same look you were giving him now both of you more confused than ever. This was definitely quite the confrontation.

"A date! Is it!? I mean it feels like it!" You set your drink down on the bench to stand up. You hadn't even gotten to take a sip yet, but there were more pressing matters.

Idia stuttered a moment longer, before falling silent and seemingly considering your question. "Did, did you want it to be?"

Ah, a counter. You could play this game. "Did you? You're the one who asked me to go see a movie with you."

And a perfect follow up, from here there was no way for Idia to counter your counter of his counter of your attack. He would have to take the hit with at least 3 times the damage now.

And he definitely knew, his eyes squinted in slight annoyance as he considered his answer, finally admitting defeat with a sigh. "Uh," he looked away from you, "sort of? I mean. I'd like that, but...but I'm sure you wouldn't so it's fine, it's nothing."

You were hit with another wave of shock, despite prodding him with the question expecting this exact answer. You quickly responded before he could continue to convince himself you wouldn't return his feelings.

"I'd like it to be a date too!" You stepped forward, reaching to grab his hand before hesitating. He might have wanted to be on a date with you, but that didn't mean he'd be comfortable with you touching him.

"I- you- uh- I thought you hated me?"

"Did, past tense, also the possibility I didn't and was just angry because I liked you, the human mind is difficult to comprehend." You waved your hand as though you could physically wave away his doubts with more than just your roundabout answers to his very solid questions. Despite this you watched as he let out a small laugh, causing you to crack a grin yourself.

You picked up your drink, looking at the horizon as the sun started to set, painting the sky in pinks and oranges that made the street extremely pretty, and drew out the blue of Idias fiery hair, painted with more pink than earlier.

A silent invitation to continue heading back to campus, the two of you began to walk, before Idia hesitantly slipped his hand in your own, intertwining your fingers with his.

"Did- did you want to go on another date next week?" Idia couldn't keep a straight face, failing to hide an excited grin as he asked his question.

You responded with the most sure and prideful answer you had that day. "Yes, definitely."

[veliseraptor]

October Reading Recap

The Husky and His White Cat Shizun: vol. 3 by Rou Bao Bu Chi Rou. Still in the territory of a part of this book I remember fairly well, and while the whole underworld arc is good it's not my favorite part of the book and mostly I come away from it going "Rong Jiu has rights." which is true! and I do think Meatbun knows it actually but it still hurts how his arc goes here. Me: continually getting too wound up in the fates of side characters and distracted from what's going on with the mains.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to moving into the next parts of the book, which I don't remember as well. Though I know it's a while before it gets really painful, aka what I'm most excited to reread.

Dark Carnivals: Modern Horrors and the Origins of American Empire by W. Scott Poole. I was so frustrated by this book. I wanted it to be an analysis of horror films and their relationship to American imperialism; what I got was a lot of overwrought prose and repetition of the titular metaphor that was very light on the analysis of the actual texts and heavy on the scathing opinions about what is "good" (politically) horror and what is "bad" (politically) horror. Which, fine, my politics are technically the same as his politics, but it was annoying to read in a book that I thought was going to be more analytical. I had high hopes for this book and it failed them; makes me more hesitant to read his other book about horror and World War I, which I have had on my list for a while. But I liked his book on Lovecraft, funnily enough, so not totally sure what went wrong here.

Paradise-1 by David Wellington. I did not realize that this book was first in a series and I'm a little bit annoyed about it. It was decent horror but it doesn't need to be a series and the lack of resolution bugs me, because now if I want resolution I have to read the next book and I don't think I really want to read the next book. Space horror seems like it would be such a rich land full of possibility and yet I keep being disappointed by space horror. (If, in this case, less disappointed than I was by Dead Silence.)

Remnants of Filth: vol. 1 by Rou Bao Bu Chi Rou. She's done it again! It's a differently fucked up relationship, to be sure, but boy am I already here for it, despite feeling like I know very little about what's going on. Gu Mang is my jam as far as character type, and I really like the dynamic as its laid out as having been previously between him and Mo Xi, and also how it is now. Dedicated friends/lovers turned to bitter enemies turned to one of them fractured to a shadow of himself leaving the other bereft of resolution...mm, good stuff. Can't wait to find out more about what's going on under Gu Mang's surface. Looking forward to reading more of this one and glad that I already have the second volume to go to. (And the rest, technically, but I do like reading cnovels in print when I can more than reading on a computer.)

I, Robot by Isaac Asimov. Look at me! Reading classic sci-fi knowing only the bare minimum about it. I liked it more than I expected to, and was less bothered by the way the women were written than I expected to. I didn't realize that it was more a string of short stories tied together by a frame narrative than a novel, but it was really fine that I didn't know that going in - didn't affect my enjoyment, I don't think. And I did enjoy it! I might not have read it on my own, but I read it for a sci-fi book club and ended up liking both it and the book club. Not sure I'd give it, like, a strong recommendation, but I'm glad I finally read it. It'll be interesting seeing what echoes/traces of it I can now pick up in other robot/AI-related writing.

Monstress: vol. 5-7 by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda. This comic is so good you guys. So. Good. I don't really know what else to say here, except that she continues to step up her game even more with every volume, and I don't know how she's keeping all the balls in the air that she is with this story as deftly as she is. I have no idea where this story is going, either, and I can't wait to find out. I don't know. Themes of monstrosity and agency and lack of agency and how to be a good person (or try) in a terrible world. With a whole lot more than that. Also there's gay betrayal, if you're into that.

Ariadne by Jennifer Saint. Why do I continue to read Greek Mythology retellings when at best they end up making me go "eh, it was okay I guess"? Not sure. But this was okay, I guess. I liked the same author's Electra better.

Pathogenesis: A History of the World in Eight Plagues by Jonathan Kennedy. More of a "history of the western world categorized by periods of time in which there were various diseases" which...was not quite what I was hoping for, but it was still a good, solid book about epidemiology and the impact of disease on history. A lot of it was familiar to me (how disease enabled the Spanish conquest of the Aztecs and Incas, for instance, but also British colonization in North America), but I did learn some new things, particularly in the sections about Paleolithic/Neolithic diseases. All in all a book I read because I'm particularly interested in the subject but not probably one I'd recommend as the one book that they'd have to read about it.

The Hollow Kind by Andy Davidson. I made it a goal in October to read some spooky books and ended up only reading three, but this was easily my favorite of those - and my favorite non-Darcy Coates horror I've read in a while, too. I wasn't totally sure what to expect from this one, and the slow reveal in the first two thirds particularly was very well done. I found myself slightly more compelled by the portions set in the past than by the present storyline, but not so much as to ding the whole book for it. And I liked that the monster was left pretty vague and undefined, too; that's always my preference. Some very gross descriptions and body horror, as a caveat for those who might be interested but are sensitive about such things.

Die: vol. 1-3 by Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans. I'm finally rereading (and finishing) this series and...I forgot how much I like it. Not only because the art is gorgeous (and the art is gorgeous) but Kieron Gillen's writing remains as sharp as ever, and the way he is playing with fantasy as a genre is very fun for me as a fantasy nerd. My favorite issue remains the one about The Lord of the Rings, though. I don't know that this one is quite as good as The Wicked and the Divine as a whole, but I'll have to reread that one taken as a whole, too, before making that determination.

And the art really is gorgeous. Stephanie Hans remains a fave.

Homegrown: Timothy McVeigh and the Rise of Right-Wing Extremism by Jeffrey Toobin. A decent narrative about the Oklahoma City bombing, certainly competently written, but he interrupted himself a little too often drawing parallels to January 6th, in my opinion, and I don't feel like I took anything particularly new or fresh away from this. Which is maybe an artifact of the fact that I've read a number of better books about the rise of right-wing extremism in the 90s, and this one wasn't one of them, but I'm going to go ahead and damn with faint praise when I say "it was fine."

currently I'm rereading Banewreaker by Jacqueline Carey which is a fascinating text in ways that I'm going to need to chew on for a bit, so that I can finally read the sequel. but then a bunch of stuff came in for me at the library, so I'm next probably going to be reading Silver Nitrate by Sylvia Moreno-Garcia, and then Godslayer by Jacqueline Carey, and then The Art of Prophecy by Wesley Chu, and then Children of Memory by Adrian Tchaikovsky, and then Our Share of Night by Mariana Enriquez. or that's the plan, anyway. we'll see how fast it gets derailed.

also somewhere in there planning on reading more Female General and Eldest Princess and most likely the second volume of Remnants of Filth. I'm trying to spend less time on the internet in general (you absolutely could not tell I am sure) so let's make it a busy reading month instead.

[zorosdimples]

i really appreciate you holding on for the wild ride, it ended up being much more of a word vomit than i anticipated 😅 this is also gonna be long to explain it all but:

okay so my OC, calrik, is from an original fantasy fiction work i have tentatively called ‘homeward bound’; it’s been a passion project for like idk 10+ years and the characters in it are like the original 4 OCs for me lol. he (funnily enough) resembles laios physically (blonde, 6’4, a guard so Fit, brown eyes) but also has freckles and is a wolf shapeshifter (simply put, but it’s more complicated than that) (which is probably that’s why I love laios, your honor). premise of that WIP’s world is an empress (ilantha) of celestial blood and her three closest and highest ranked guards (saelihn, merric, and calrik) (none of which start out in those positions except the empress) up being divinely intertwined in changing the course of the empires’ history. fated love, fated loss, coronations and galas and sneaking away to not get caught, fae and wolf shapeshifters, personified celestial bodies and primordial / ancient spirits, heinous war crimes, children with trauma responsible for way too much, not a parent in sight lmfao. that being said, the kidnapping was happening from the Big Baddie™️ in that world and calrik busted in.

with the SW AU, it’s an AU of my own work (lmfao). calrik is an inquisitor, brother to merric (supreme leader); sae is a force sensitive rebel (not proper Jedi) and tasked with transporting / protecting ilantha (actual Jedi, Princess of Alderaan). the girls get captured, put on star killer base, and interrogated by the guys. of course they pair bc where else would the enemies to lovers come in. cal interrogates sae, and she’s restrained. since sabers turn on, they have an activation mechanism hums. so while he’s interrogating her, choking her, calling her pet and telling her to speak up, he traces the humming, vibrating end of the saber—while ignited—along her body until its against her thrumming cunt. hence: a lightsaber vibrator as means of an interrogation method.

now Laios…… holy shit yeah. that’s exactly what im thinking about!!!! an aphrodisiac that the longer the body doesn’t register you’re breeding (aka using it), the worse it gets. teaching him how to touch you, and he ends up being exactly the touch you’ve always imagined having. its so innocently perfect, and before he’s even had his turn, a glob of cum has stained his pants. he’s panting, pupils swollen; at one point you have to remind him to take the armor off because he’s so into you, enraptured. now imagine you’re the monster that hit him with the pollen……………….. like a fae dryad or somethin………. holy shit yeah.

thank you for indulging me 🙂‍↕️ im so sorry this is a damn novel lol

putting this under the cut since i rambled A LOT!

sav what the FUCK that world you’ve built sounds so incredible and well thought out; i LOVE fantasy but it’s daunting to write/create fantastical worlds because there are so many elements you must consider and balance. effective world building is a feat—and you have so many interesting characters that you’ve also created to boot! i’m obsessed with how similar cal is to laios ooohuuhgghhhhhh i will lose my mind (go insanely horny) over him.

AND THE STAR WARS AU???????? okay first of all: brilliant, show-stopping, incredible. putting your own ocs from an original story into a pre-existing fictional universe is so big brained of you i don’t even know what to say. and enemies to lovers…my favorite flavor, truly. can i just say i wanna be in sae’s place because oh my god? i’m seeing the vibrating lightsaber vision and i want to experience it so desperately it’s not even funny.

finally LAIOS, MY LOVE! i have a bit of a reputation on my blog for being a virgin killer because there’s nothing more sexy and delicious to me than teaching someone inexperienced how to touch you; molding their concept of sexuality, exploring their interests, and leaving a lasting impression on them (even if you don’t stay together because they will never, never forget their first). and laios is the perfect virgin in my mind because he’s eager to please and he’s utterly shameless. he will lick your armpits and spit on your clit and suck on your tongue without a second thought because it feels and tastes so good; he has a one-track mind and it makes sex with him almost a religious experience. the sex pollen trope on top of that makes him feral for you…i don’t even know what to say about the idea of you being the monster—like…UGH. he gives you a run for your money!

anyway thank you for sharing with me; i’m kissing you and your gorgeous brain <3

[pushspacetocontinue]

So here's a challenge for you. What is a song you feel fits all four of your lads across your two roleplaying blogs at once? Either individually or together?

((Funnily enough, I have this given this some thought before, and even though it's essentially a Ratchet and Clank fan song, I feel Fragments by The Stupendium is a song that actually fits all my lads really well. Be mindful of flashing imagery.))

The lyrics too, with the themes of change, of choosing your own fate, of your life being what you make it. Also the reminder of not being alone, which is what my lads try to remind each other of, and others outside of their circle. I've bolded the ones I feel particularly fit well.

So things seem stable It's beginning to all make sense But on the periodic table Equilibrium ain't that dense

So you're top of every playbill? You've been living as the main event Live a life on red carpets You can't be surprised when you ask where the rug went

When it's pulled out from under your feet Fronting parades to confronting defeat Dumped in the rain, unfamiliar streets But there's nothing to gain by admitting you're beat

(Maybe it ain't quite as grim as it seems) Don't get to choose the loose screws you inherit (That's more than a face in the mirror you're seeing) Together you've got the tools to repair it

Might just be a Lombax with a wrench I was sat on the bench, now I'm back with a vengeance Smashed my dimensions, so Ratchet's suggestion? Mechanical emperors should cash their pensions (ha)

Graduate from the school of harder knocks Than the grade A plates of my Carbonox When I take straight aim with my blaster shots The reports say rain with some parts of bots

When realities collide, it's appealing to think There's green on the other side, well, you're wielding the Sprinkler The world's what you make it, your fate's not ingrained Every crack in the paint's still a piece of the picture Every crack in the paint's still a piece of the picture

Look past the pieces and you'll see there's more adventure to seize Don't believe it? Then you're thinking one-dimensionally So this world is not the one that you intended to be? Well, a Rivet's what you need when things might tear at the seams

It's your turn to revolt in every turn of the bolt Take the world on your shoulders, then turn it to gold When you've crashed into fragments of all that you know Well, you're far from alone We're just a rift apart A rift apart We're just a rift apart A rift apart

So, it seems your outlook can be warped (wow) Whole schemes cut off like some jean shorts (yeah) Keep tracking 'em down and the heat source Leads you to keen sword swings at machine sorts (hey)

Keep breathing, it's all gonna pass in a season (yeah) Believe it, and call it a flash in the pan And release it, let a thought stop with a dash You'll leave it all looking real small in the past

A shatterbomb to your artwork (uh) Can make it feel like your heart burst (ha) It's hard to know what to start first Each step becomes a departure (let's go)

And you may feel like a drifter (uh-huh) Resist a place in the mixture (oh) Is this a crack in the rift or (just) Another piece of the picture? Another piece of the picture?

Look past the pieces and you'll see there's more adventure to seize Don't believe it? Then you're thinking one-dimensionally So this world is not the one that you intended to be? Well, a Rivet's what you need when things might tear at the seams

It's your turn to revolt in every turn of the bolt Take the world on your shoulders, then turn it to gold When you've crashed into fragments of all that you know Well, you're far from alone We're just a rift apart A rift apart We're just a rift apart A rift apart

There's one thing rarer than Raritanium (ha) That's a fate that don't seem alien No matter how long you've been on that grind Life soon finds ways of derailing

Any Infobot will say the same again (the truth) If a legacy's planting seeds You'd better believe I'm leaving these Enemies in leaves and geraniums

And though chance may choose our canvas Only we can paint the hues (haha) But your flaws don't mean you're broken They're just deeper shades of you

Combination of Sagan and Bob Ross No mistakes when repainting the cosmos If things seem grey, it's the start of a gradient Can't make hay without raking the compost

Where dimensions fragment and the shards reconnect You'll find you're not defined by the past they reflect Leaving one world behind can be hard to expect But you'll work out in time a new path in the next

When your reality cracks, it can feel like forever Trapped in the gaps as the pieces are severed If you feel you could lapse, all you need is a tether To that team at your back, you can keep it together

Look past the pieces and you'll see there's more adventure to seize Don't believe it? Then you're thinking one-dimensionally So your world is on the brink of some Nefarious scheme? Well, a Rivet's what you need when things might tear at the seams

It's your turn to revolt in every turn of the bolt Take the world on your shoulders, then turn it to gold When you've crashed into fragments of all that you know Well, you're far from alone We're just a rift apart A rift apart We're just a rift apart A rift apart

And with every new world that unfurls you will find There is more to your life than the one you designed There is far more to fight for than what you are leaving behind (A rift apart)

[aci32]

WACKEN OPEN AIR PART II!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Picking up where I left off, after Hammerfall it was time for "Enemy of God, Purity and Innocence is killed" who? "Got a master plan, Genocide, Can't understand, People of the Lie" what? "Pleasure to Kill" KREATOR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This was my 11th time seeing Kreator, first time in a decade of seeing them more than once in the same year as I saw them blow Sepultura off the stage in Toronto, and 2nd time seeing them play Wacken as I last saw them at Wacken Open Air 9 years ago, except I had the Wacken flu on the last day and Kreator were the last band I saw at that time, plus 2014 Wacken was bone dry weather. This time I see them on muddy ground as funnily enough last time they played Wacken was also on muddy ground, except I missed their set at that time as I was busy catching their compatriots Tankard. Even though I was near the Faster stage waiting for Helloween, Kreator still delivered the goods live like they always do. Before Flag of Hate Mille had commended the people at the front for being loud but felt that the people in the back weren't loud enough, eventually the people in the back got loud enough to impress Mille. Here's their setlist:

Run to the Hills(Iron Maiden song)Play Video

Sergio Corbucci Is DeadPlay Video

Hate Über AllesPlay Video

People of the LiePlay Video

Awakening of the Gods(Intro only)Play Video

Enemy of GodPlay Video

BetrayerPlay Video

Midnight Sun(with Sofia Portanet)Play Video

Satan Is RealPlay Video

Hordes of Chaos (A Necrologue for the Elite)Play Video

666 - World DividedPlay Video

Mars MantraPlay Video

Phantom AntichristPlay Video

Hail to the HordesPlay Video

Strongest of the StrongPlay Video

Extreme AggressionsPlay Video

Song played from tapeThe PatriarchPlay Video

Violent RevolutionPlay Video

Flag of HatePlay Video

Pleasure to KillPlay Video

Apocalypticon

After Kreator, it was time for "Come with me, Future World" who? "Eagle Fly Free, Let People See" what? "I Want Out, Leave Me Be, I Want Out" one more time? HELLOWEEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This was my 6th time seeing Helloween, 3rd time seeing them with Kai Hansen and Michael Kiske, first time in a decade seeing them more than once in a year, and 2nd time seeing them at Wacken as I saw them 5 years ago at Wacken with the current lineup. I will say biggest difference this time compared to 5 years ago is seeing Helloween on muddy ground, whereas 5 years ago it was one dusty ground. Seeing them at Wacken for me is truly a great experience since I'm seeing them live in their home country. It was also funny to see Andi Deris and Kiske bantering before Forever and One (Neverland). Here's what Helloween's setlist looked like:

Orbit

Play Video

Skyfall

Play Video

Eagle Fly Free

Play Video

Mass Pollution

Play Video

Future World

Play Video

Power

Play Video

Save Us

Play Video

Walls of Jericho

Play Video

Metal Invaders / Victim of Fate / Gorgar / Ride the Sky

Play Video

Heavy Metal (Is the Law)

Play Video

Forever and One (Neverland)

Play Video

Guitar Solo

(Sascha Gerstner)

Play Video

Best Time

Play Video

Dr. Stein

Play Video

Drum Solo

(Dani Löble)

Play Video

How Many Tears

Play Video

Encore:

Perfect Gentleman

Play Video

Keeper of the Seven Keys

Play Video

Encore 2:

Invitation

Play Video

I Want Out

Play Video

For the Love of a Princess

(James Horner song)

After Helloween finished, I then grabbed a bite to eat and made my way back to camp and went to sleep.

Friday August 4th: I once again got out of my tent early in the afternoon and met up with Jess, in which it was great to see her again even after 13 months. We both had an in depth conversation to the point of getting emotional, but it felt good to let the tears flow, even with all the booze.

After bantering away, I made my way to the infield and before Maiden took the stage it was time for "Peace Sells...But who's Buying?" who? "À tout le monde, À tout mes amis, Je vous aim, Je dois partir" what? "Possibly I've seen too much, Hangar 18 I know too much" one more time? MEGADETH!!!!!! This was my 5th time seeing them and first time in 11 years I've seen them live as I last saw them at Gigantour 2012 in Hamilton, Canada with Motörhead, Volbeat and Lacuna Coil, then afterwards Dave Mustaine started going off the rails amd making a fool of himself in the process, which made me lose interest in them at that time. This was probably the 2nd best I've enjoyed Megadeth live just behind when they played Rust in Peace in it's entirety 13 years ago because Marty Friedman got to join Megadeth for a few songs, which was the closest to seeing the classic Rust in Peace line-up. Would've further been cool to see Ellefson present but of course he made a fool of himself 2 years ago and got terminated. Also I broke down crying during À tout le monde since I was thinking of both Elouise and Walter. Here's what their setlist looked like:

Prince of Darkness

Play Video

Hangar 18

Play Video

Wake Up Dead

Play Video

In My Darkest Hour

(without intro)

Play Video

Dystopia

Play Video

We'll Be Back

Play Video

Dread and the Fugitive Mind

Play Video

Sweating Bullets

Play Video

Angry Again

Play Video

A tout le monde

Play Video

Trust

(with Marty Friedman)

Play Video

Tornado of Souls

(with Marty Friedman)

Play Video

Symphony of Destruction

(with Marty Friedman)

Play Video

Mechanix

Play Video

Peace Sells

Play Video

Encore:

Holy Wars... The Punishment Due

(with Marty Friedman)

Play Video

Silent Scorn

Play Video

My Way

(Claude François song) (Sid Vicious version)

Play Video

Shadow of Deth

After Megadeth, it was time for "Caught Somewhere in Time" who? "Stranger in a Strange Land, Land of ice and snow" what? "You take my life, But I'll take yours too" one more time? IRON MAIDEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This was my 9th time seeing these guys as I saw them 10 months ago, 3 days before my 33rd birthday and they always put on a great live show. I'll also point out this was my 2nd time seeing them play Wacken as I saw them at Wacken 7 years ago. Bruce Dickinson is a character especially when he was riding the camera wheel and as well at one point saying to Eddie "This is a fucking gun" and as well his banters calling all 50,000 of us "The never surrender people. We didn't know this was going to be the first green car free festival" which was funny "And obviously replenishing the water supply for most of Germany for the last week or so". Bruce also said "I don't know if the ground is soft or is it hard? Hard is good, soft is not so good, unless you're an egg. If you try and jump, just go *blows air out* up up up up up it's whack-a-mole, look at that, 40,000 whack-a-mole" that was his funniest banter. Bruce then also asked "Where are the fuckin Irish... in the pub? There must be somebody from Ireland? OHH THERE'S ONE! Are you the only survivor of the celtic race? There's more of you and we played in Dublin and there's 15,000 of you" Bruce would then go on to say that "You can't kill language, you can't kill culture, you can't kill songs, art, and family" he would end his 2+ minute tangent with "This song is called Death of the Celts... but not quite". Bruce had also expressed his craving for a German sausage since he could smell them being grilled. Also at the end of Maiden's set their logo was lit up in drones and same with Eddie being in samurai Armour. Here's what their setlist looked like:

Doctor Doctor(UFO song)Play Video

Blade Runner (End Titles)(Vangelis song)Play Video

Caught Somewhere in TimePlay Video

Stranger in a Strange LandPlay Video

The Writing on the WallPlay Video

Days of Future PastPlay Video

The Time MachinePlay Video

The PrisonerPlay Video

Death of the CeltsPlay Video

Can I Play With MadnessPlay Video

Heaven Can WaitPlay Video

Alexander the GreatPlay Video

Fear of the DarkPlay Video

Iron MaidenPlay Video

Encore:

Hell on EarthPlay Video

The TrooperPlay Video

Wasted YearsPlay Video

Always Look on the Bright Side of Life(Monty Python song)

After Maiden it was time for WARDRUNA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This was my 2nd time seeing them as I saw them 10 months ago in Toronto 5 days after I turned 33 and I remember they were great live. Seeing Wardruna is more than seeing a band, it's a whole experience, like a crossover between concert and theatre. At one point there were two English lads talking during their performance and one of the locals put them in their place, which was great as they were getting annoying. At one point during their 3rd song Solringen, the speakers cut out for at least a couple minutes and the crowd began clapping, when they came back on, the crowd erupted with approval. Einer Selvik had said before Helvingen and during his banter he said "My culture over your culture bullshit, doesn't apply" which earned resounding applause as it's true. Here's what their setlist looked like:

KvitravnPlay Video

SkuggePlay Video

SolringenPlay Video

Heimta ThursPlay Video

Kvit hjortPlay Video

LyfjabergPlay Video

Voluspá (Skaldic Version)Play Video

TyrPlay Video

IsaPlay Video

GráPlay Video

RunaljodPlay Video

Rotlaust tre fellPlay Video

FehuPlay Video

Helvegen

That's all for Part II stay tuned for Bloodbath, Ensiferum, Biohazard, Possessed, and Voivod.

[kairiscorner]

Okay, so prepare yourself for an absolute mess of a character I had since I was like 12 lmao

So her name is Belladonna Majors (affectionately called Rose by everyone), she was a caretaker of the local botanical garden where they had a rehab wing for plants that are used for testing at the joined university, and that's where she found her fated spider hiding among one of the mutated rose bushes. Unlike some of her spider people counterparts, she actively approached the spider to try and move it to a different plant so it wouldn't be sprayed with the pesticide, and that was when it bit her (Out of fear and panic). Obviously Rose didn't know about the spider being irradiated, but she took it in stride, only having a handful of panic attacks as she found herself becoming that Earth's spider hero dubbed SpiderRose.

One of the things that Rose came to learn was that her webs, though a bit stronger compared to other spider folks', were heavily flammable and she had to learn how to protect them from fires. So while she produced the webs naturally, she still needed a web shooter that could saturate the webs and keep them from lighting up. Funnily enough, that gave her the advantage of occasionally having flaming webs that she could use as a defense when fighting enemies near any sort of flame.

While Rose was getting used to her life as a spider person, an outbreak at the gardens set her on another course. Her introduction to symbiotes (cause no spider world is complete without their venom stand in). Her symbiote, though, came in the form of what she thought was an invasive weed. Come to find out, after it attached itself to her, it was more along the lines of a flytrap when. And it wasn't as aggressive as she expected, instead settling rather peacefully with her after it explained that it was there to hide from it's more murderous brethren. Seeing as they were an almost perfect match, and the symbiote wasn't a new villain, Rose agreed to play host and affectionately named the new companion Audrey (Yes after little shop of horror, I was and still am a musical nerd)

Now, the most important part of SpiderRose, her aesthetic. Her suit is pastel green and yellow ombre with white detailing, pearlesant eyes on her mask, and white ballet slippers. Her webbing takes on a green tint because of the anti-flame coating, and with Audrey's help can have thorn like additions. Speaking of, when she lets Audrey take the reigns, her coloring actually stays about identical, even down to her pearlesant eyes. The only difference being her dark purple lips and mouth, and iconic long tongue.

I am so sorry I rambled this much, I was just so excited to finally tell someone about her lmao who knows, maybe some day I'll actually make a blog or story about her in depth

Anyways, thanks for letting me go on like that 🧡 ~🍄

WOAH i'm loving her already TEEHEE and i love how she gave her venom in this universe a name, AND I DOUBLY LOVE HOW GOOD THEY WORK TOGETHER !! as someone who loves plants, this is a pure joy to read :> SHE SEEMS LIKE SUCH A SWEETHEART !!!!!

what's her canon event

[ihatechosingnames]

Honkai Star Rail Lore and Spoilers?

So, this is actually the second attempt. The first got lost.

Kafka, even as an enemy, is exceptionally helpful in terms of lore. And with the Data Banks, we can fill a lot of plot holes, maybe left on purpose.

So, we capture Kafka and interrogate her, first with the Diviner, then alone. People leave us alone with Kafka, even when they don't trust Kafka to not pull some kind of brainwashing and even when they see a strange connection between Stelle (the female MC) and Kafka herself.

So, Elio, her boss, has already foreseen everything, even our questions, and that make Kafka tell us everything she knows, which is only a tiny part of what Elio knows. I can't wait to actually meet him. So, they lead us with tiny crumbs to do what they want, in this case, ally ourselves with Xianzhou because in the future we are going to fight Nanook the Destruction.

She actually says "in the best and the worst cases", so if we stay on a neutral case there is a tiny chance that we are not going to fight an Aeon. But I don't think we are going to have that much of a choice: Kafka telling all of that could mean two things:

1 we can fight against this prophecy, which can end up as a self-driven prophecy or we can avoid altogether this scenario

2 we do nothing and the prophecy can or not happen.

Since the Stellarion hunters are working so hard to give us all the help we may need, it's possible that we cannot avoid fighting Nanook. This may be the reason why we have a Stellarion inside our body. And the cutscene ends with Kafka telling us that even Aeons can die, and soon after our point of view changes to Dan Heng and his side of the adventure. Basically in this world, Dan Heng is a protagonist just as much as Stelle, I'm going to analyze it later.

Back to Kafka, Stelle, LORE, and juicy information.

So, in the game, up to this moment, 5 Aeons are already dead, killed, or disappeared. The names are Long the Permanence, Idrila the Beauty, Ena the Order, Tayzzyronth the Propagation, and Akivili the Trailblaze.

Kafka is giving so much information that she also tells us how two of these five died:

So, that explains why we don't have any information about Ena in the Data Bank, they were assimilated by another Aeon. But how does Kafka know it?

From the Data Bank, Tayzzyronth duplicated himself "a torrent of infinite propagation. [...] fluttered across the worlds until their advances were halted by fate in some way."

Funnily enough, Dan Heng's side starts with Luocha talking about the Propagation and the mortality of Aeons.

But nobody says which Aeon did the deed. Could it be it was the Hunt while he was searching for the Abundance? After all, their names share a similitude:

Propagation: 1. the breeding of specimens of a plant or animal by natural processes from the parent stock

Abundance: 1. a very large quantity of something.

It may be a theory since the Abundance's symbol is wheat and in the game is associated with plants, such as the Big Tree.

Theory number 1: Lan the Hunt killed the Propagation while pursuing the Abundance.

Back to Kafka, Stelle asks about Akivili's fate:

Nobody knows. In the Data Bank: "Akivili's destiny was abruptly ended due to an accident", which tells nothing. Curiously, even Idrila the Beauty disappeared with no one knowing a thing: "The Aeon of Beauty suddenly vanished one day. It was just as mysterious as when they first appeared." So Akivili disappeared one day and it was not something decided by fate; Idrila disappeared, probably in the same way they appeared.

Of the five Aeons, three were discussed by Kafka and two by Dan Heng's party. And color me surprised, they talked about Long the Permanence.

So a specie that lives in Xianzhou is a descendant of an Aeon, Long the Permanence. And they are related to dragons. Since Sushang is someone who doesn't like school, it's Dan Heng, Mr "I can't set foot on Xianzhou for multiple reasons regarding my backstory", which tells us what we need.

And say, Dan Heng, how do you know all of this? It's more than what normal people should know, more like inside knowledge.

Theory number 2: Dan Heng, since his nickname is Cold Dragon Young, is a Vidyadhara and he was banished because he messed up a serious and important rite regarding Blade. But from the character story, it looks like he ran away and changed his name and face (maybe he reincarnated like they said about the Vidyadhara, even though it's said they have draconic features) to avoid detection and he is scared of someone (Blade, if we connect the dots with the Light Cone "Nowhere to Run") who has a killing intent against him, bad enough to follow him and destroy every single ship he (Dan Heng) was on. Dan Heng possibly is one of the rare descendants that inherit the trait to become a dragon. Whatever it means.

Side note: Am I the only one to see that Luocha and Dan Heng have similar clothing? Luocha is hella sus with a huge casket, his knowledge, the fact he was on the port after the blockade, his Path being the Abundance... This all leads to him being a kind of enemy, but it's such a huge red flag that is natural to put the focus on him.

The wiki also says "Luocha, also known as Rakshasa, are a type of evil spirit in Buddhist mythology who eat human flesh". Great way to name a character who is a healer, Hoyoverse. It's like they are trying to shout "LOOK AT HIM AND HIS HUGE RED FLAG".

[aminiatureworld]

Hiraeth

From the prompt to celebrate 900 followers.

Word Count: 1,314; Kazuha x gn!reader

It was so hard to think of Inazuma; it was so easy to remember Inazuma.

The claws of nostalgia were waiting in every budding tree in the spring, and in every golden leaf in autumn. Every breeze that brought with it a scent that was unplaceable and yet so familiar, every drop of rain that fell, unforgiving and unstoppable, every piece of slightly burnt fish cooked after a long, cold day at sea. These things were a beautiful sort of torture, keeping a memory alive, cruelly tormenting the exile with things he could no longer touch.

It was hard not to grieve, and Kazuha knew there was a great deal to grieve about. A friend gone forever, a land that had turned its back on him, friends, family, enemies, archons, people Kazuha would never meet again. Sometimes anger rose at these images; anger and spite which threatened to consume Kazuha from the inside. On those days he dreamt of plans to sneak back into Inazuma and find whatever resistance was active at the time. He would rush into battle, regardless of risk, he would find the Raiden Shogun and challenge her to a duel, he would avenge his friend’s death. Other days there would be grief, a waterfall of it. Tears, regrets, sadness, it would come rushing over the cliffs of Kazuha’s memories and then the exile would find himself wishing none of it had happened, wishing that he could’ve lived in blissful ignorance, in the land of his birth. Kazuha didn’t know which of these two mindsets was the most damaging.

It drove a wedge between him and the outside world, and Kazuha knew that. Still, it was difficult to find the energy to break that wall down, to cross the every widening gulf. What did it matter if he was alone. He was an exile after all, was that not to be his fate? Why should he continue to get hurt, continue to hide his sorrow, when he could just as much sit in the crow’s nest, the wind in his face, pretending like he was the only living person in the world. It was rather freeing to be alone after all. You could trust loneliness, it never changed after all.

So why was it then, despite all these promises, these wishes, these cynical proclamations, that people had still managed to worm their way into his heart? First it had been Beidou, that indefatigable captain who laughed despite it all and who never failed to read Kazuha, despite his cryptic poetry and his attempts to eat at the table farthest from the other sailors. Then it had been the sailors themselves, then the traveler, then the traders at whose ports Beidou did business. Slowly, surely, Kazuha began to find something to ease the longing, something to make the pain bearable.

And then he had met you.

How Kazuha loved you, loved with the sort of recklessness that only some sort of intimacy could create. You were a friend, you were more than a friend, you were something even more than that. You were the soulmate that young romantics liked to imagine right before they went to sleep, hoping their perfect half would somehow appear in their dreams. You were the person with whom Kazuha could have utter, total trust, the kind of platonic soulmate that was so few and far between. Yet his love for you also burned in different ways, as if his feelings for you couldn’t concentrate themselves in one aspect, one facet of love. Kazuha loved you utterly. Regardless of flaw, or temper, or good or bad, he loved you.

However if real love is supposed to fix every problem, then perhaps real love is simply overrated. For as much as Kazuha loved you, he could not stop the ache in his heart, the pieces of him that cried out for his homeland. Inazuma, there was always Inazuma. You never begrudged him his moments of loneliness, the fact that he couldn’t simply leave behind the only place that was his true home. You merely sat next to him, hand on his, breath tickling his hair as Kazuha leaned on your shoulder, mourning the homeland he’d surely lost.

It seemed selfish, to dwell so much on something in the past. Like he was dragging you and everyone else down, bringing something up that you surely didn’t care about that much. There were only so many platitudes a person could say after all, until it all became unbearable. Yet the days that he told himself he should no longer complain, the days that he promised to himself he’d keep it all locked away inside, you still managed to coax all the grief out of him. If Kazuha was unfailing in his longing, then you were unfailing in your kindness, your determination to listen, to tell him that he wasn’t being a nuisance. And slowly, things began to feel a little better.

The first time you had to go on a trip for a long period of time was a shock to Kazuha’s system. Who knew that something that looked so close on a map could be so far away? Mondstadt, as much as it shared a land border with Liyue, felt as far away as the moon. Every day was a trial, every night desolate. He missed your presence, your smiles, your warmth, your even breath as the two of you drifted off to sleep together. Kazuha hadn’t expected this to happen, and for two weeks he waited in bated breath, his every thought consumed by your absence, by the strange feeling of having an integral part of one’s life missing. He wondered if you felt the same way, if you lay awake at night in a Mondstadt in, wishing that he were besides you. He wondered if you needed him as much as he needed you.

The day that you came back Kazuha spent in tears. They started the moment your silhouette was spotted on the docks, mixing with the surprised embarrassment, the wonder of whether it was too much to run to greet you. It was as if he was newly in love again, and Kazuha didn’t know whether he relished the feeling or whether it made him uncomfortable. Ultimately he met you halfway, walking slowly, a dopey smile plastered on his face.

“Welcome back,” he declared. Then there was an embrace that no one could sure of who initiated, as the world fell into place again.

“I realized something while you were gone,” he revealed. It was the evening now, and the two of you were cuddling together in bed, relishing the feeling of limbs once more entangled.

“What is that?” There was something in your voice, a sort of excitement that hadn’t faded throughout the entire day.

“I realized that Inazuma isn’t the only place that I long for.”

“Oh?”

“When you were gone, it was like I was grieving two homes. The home that was long gone, and the home that I had just found.”

“That’s very poetic,” you giggled softly. Kazuha could sense the slight shift in your expression, as you continued. “But funnily enough. I also felt that way. I knew you were important to me darling, but I didn’t realize how important.”

“Despite all my, complaining? Despite how self-centered I can be sometimes?”

“Grief isn’t self-centered Kazuha. And you aren’t complaining by talking about it. I’d rather you cry in front of me every day than keep it to yourself. Okay?”

“Are you sure?” Kazuha couldn’t help the question.

“Of course I’m sure! Believe me, I know my feelings about you very well.”

“And they are?” Slowly the confidence, the candidness that Kazuha felt around you was coming back.

“Love, of course.” You leaned over towards Kazuha, kissing his gently on the lips.

There was very little conversation after that for a while.

[dragon-ball-meta]

So, did people just wholesale miss that Future Bulma lied to Trunks about his dad to give the kid someone positive to look up to in a very dark and doomed world? I mean I have seen so many interpretations right down to the belief that Vegeta is so different in the other timeline that he WAS some kind of caring husbando or whatever, and yet the idea that Bulma just thought “hey, maybe this kid growing up surrounded by loss and death doesn’t need to know his dad was an uncaring jerk who wanted nothing to do with him?” and told what she felt was a harmless lie to give that kid something happy and positive in his life never seems to come up. I mean, this is why Trunks was mortified to see him let them nearly fall to their deaths, and why he called Bulma Vegeta’s wife and was shocked to hear him say that was ridiculous and he had no use for that kind of sentiment. Trunks, in that moment, realized that he and his father were both bastards, in very different senses of the word, and that the man his mother had sold to him, the man he’d expected to meet, was not who his father truly was. Heck, it’s part of why Bulma actually seemed shocked when he returned home and told her that Vegeta kinda went insane and even attacked Cell, an enemy he had no chance of beating, over Trunks’ death.

Bear in mind, throughout this series, Vegeta’s MO upon realizing he can’t win a fight, including against Cell, had always been to just kinda give up and accept his fate. That was the first time he didn’t. And ironically, it was actually due both in part to the realization he had a son, an “heir” as it were, and the fact that the kid had the spine to even outright attack him to accomplish his goal. So, funnily enough, Trunks is what started to change Vegeta into the man he’d always heard about and looked up to. This also ties into what I think a lot of the VegeBul stans out there even miss about Bulma and Vegeta’s relationship, how it developed, and why the actual relationship is so much better and more interesting than the weirdly romanticized one they espouse, but that’s best left for another post.

[mae-gi-writes]

- kpop masterlist.

🔥- suggestive/nsfw   ☔- angst   ☁️ - fluff   💘- personal favourites .｡.

☆.｡.:*ENHYPEN ☆.｡.:*

SUNGHOON

➵  MISTLETOE: Your friends play a little Christmas prank on you and Sunghoon.

➵ROYAL ENTANGLEMENTS: in the face of an upcoming war, your brother has no other choice but to appoint you a bodyguard for your safety. What happens when feelings blossom between you and this said soldier? 

JAY 

➵  BY CHANCE: You surprise your LDR boyfriend after months apart. But when things go amiss the handsome stranger on the train ride helps you out.

➵  DISTRACTED: Jay has to go to work. Except, he keeps getting distracted by you ( bestfriends to lovers au) 

☆.｡.:*BTS ☆.｡.:*

JUNGKOOK

➵ IT’S (JUST SO) AWKWARD: You and Jungkook are too different to be together. He’s all black and white. You’re full of colour. And yet. ☁️💘☔ PART ONE | PART TWO | PART THREE | PART FOUR

➵Tattoos (fluff, tattoo artist au)

➵ Petrichor (fluff

JIMIN

➵ Massage after a long day

➵Parallel Lines (scifi, fantasy, angst)

➵Quiet Mornings (fluff)

JUNG HOSEOK

➵ All About Timing (Fluff)

➵ Your Way Back Home (angst/fluff)

SUGA

➵ THE KING’S ORDERS (royal kingdom au, fluff)

➵ OF SMOKE RINGS AND CIGARETTES (completed): Yoongi was a merciless killer working for one of the mafia gangs in town. Danah was a waitress that had to support her two younger siblings. When she accidentally witnesses one of Yoongi’s murders, he makes sure to blackmail her into silence. What he hadn’t considered was, in fact, the strangest possibility that this particular girl could make him see the world differently. ONE | TWO | THREE | FOUR | FIVE | SIX (FINAL)

TAEHYUNG

➵ Kiss Me Slowly (fluff)

☆.｡.:*THE BOYZ☆.｡.:*

➵ DEOBI PLAYLIST:  The Boyz x Hospital Playlist inspired drabble series. 💘☁️ EP 1 | EP 2 | EP 3 | EP 4 | EP 5 | EP 6 | EP 7 | EP 8 | EP 9 | EP 10 | EP 11 | EP 12 | EP 13 

➵ WAYS TO LOVE Sangyeon | Jacob | Younghoon | Hyunjae | Juyeon  | Kevin | Changmin | Chanhee | Haknyeon |Sunwoo | Eric 

➵ JOIE DE NOEL SERIES Sangyeon | Jacob | Younghoon | Hyunjae | Juyeon | Kevin | Changmin | Chanhee | Haknyeon | Sunwoo | Eric

KEVIN

➵ MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE series (inspired by Kevin Moon) Once they loved. They dated. They broke up. But funnily enough, fate seems to follow Kevin and Jaeha even after 7 long years, when they come face to face right in front of a Divorce Lawyer's Office

➵ MOONLIGHT SONATA: A girl forms an unlikely bond with her neighbour; a young violinist who seems to understand her sad songs.☔ Part One | Part Two

➵ WHEN KEVIN DISTRACTS YOU ☁️ ➵ IT’S OKAY NOT TO BE OKAY ☁️☔

➵ BEHIND THE CROWN: Prince Kevin Moon is to be married to the princess of the neighbouring city. So why is his heart veering towards his second-in-command at the last minute? ☁️💘 Part One | Part Two ➵ SOMEBODY LOVES YOU: Kevin spends so much time pining after his ex-girlfriend that he doesn’t see the love you hold for him. Until it’s too late. ☔ ➵LET IT BE ME (soulmate au, badboy au, fluff, angst) ☔ Part One ➵ PLUS ONE (around the world collab): Your boyfriend breaks up with you right before you’re supposed to attend your cousin’s wedding and on impulse, Kevin decides to replace him as your Plus One. (9k) 💘☁️ ➵ KEVIN AND CUDDLES☁️ ➵ WHERE THE SEA BIRDS SLEEP☁️ ➵ JEALOUS☁️🔥💘

➵ FROM NOW ON☔☁️ ➵ IF YOU’LL HAVE ME: You’re Kevin’s mate. But you also happen to be his best friend (werewolf au) ☁️🔥 PART ONE | PART TWO 

Timestamps ➵ [15:23 p.m} ➵ [18:34 p.m]

Q / CHANGMIN

➵ WEAK SPOT: Changmin’s feelings suddenly come to light when enemies threaten to take over your Royal Kingdom. ☁️

➵ AND YOU SHOULD LIVE  Part One | Part Two 

➵  TWILIGHT (fluff, soft bf Changmin) ☁️

➵ CAN’T HELP IT (fluff drabble, friends to lovers au) ☁️

➵  Timestamps [11:45 a.m]

SUNWOO

➵  CATCHING FIRE (Royal Kingdom AU)

➵   BURNING FLAME (Catching Fire Pt. 2) (royal kingdom au)

➵  INSECURE (supportive bf! Sunwoo)

➵ TAKE ME BACK (angst, enemies to lovers)

➵ SOONER (noona au, ceo sunwoo)

➵ YUGEN (fluff, artist! reader, volleyball player Sunwoo!)

➵ THE GIRL I HAVEN’T MET (angst)

➵ Timestamps [04:05 a.m]

HYUNJAE

➵  IN THE RAIN (angst, fluff)

➵ LOVE LETTER (royal au)

➵ ONLY FOR YOU (insecure reader! fluff)

➵ SORE LOSER (fluff, gamer au)

➵ SAFE WITH ME (angst, protective bf!)

➵ ALL THE CUDDLES   Part One | Part Two (fluff, sick reader!)

➵ WHEN YOU GET JEALOUS (fluff, jealous! reader)

➵ TINGLES  (fluff, asmr)

➵ THRILL RIDE  (fluff, summer au)

➵ DRIVER’S LICENSE (fluff) 

➵ SWEET LIKE NECTAR ☁️☔ : In which you and Hyunjae only have 24 hours to enjoy life before it's time to grow up and go your separate ways.  part one | part two 

➵ Timestamps:       [10:13 p.m.}

JACOB

➵ COMING HOME  (airport au, long distance relationship drabble

➵ HALLOWEEN ESCAPADE (director Jacob, fluff)

➵ Timestamps [11:54.p.m.]

JUYEON

➵  DOCTOR’S TOUCH  (Part One) | (Part Two)

➵ THE FINE LINE (royal au! fluff) 

 ➵CALLING ...( LDR relationship, angst)

HAKNYEON

➵ FOR NOW (angst)

SANGYEON

➵ BETROTHED (royal au, arranged marriage, fluff)

➵ MATCH POINT (friends to lovers au)

➵ Timestamps [17:47p.m.] 

ERIC

➵  LAST MINUTE LOVE  (airport au, friends to lovers)

➵ [8:44.a.m.] 

.｡. ☆.｡.:*STRAY KIDS ☆.｡.:*

BANG CHAN

➵ BRUISED BUT NOT DEAD (sci-fi) ☁️☔

➵ [07:19.a.m.]

➵ GROWN UPS ☁️☔

➵ A TURN OF PRIORITIES ☁️☔🔥 What happens when you and Bang Chan decide to fake a relationship for the sake of making your ex-boyfriend jealous? A turn of priorities, that's what. PART ONE | PART TWO | PART THREE

➵ NOT THE FIRST, BUT THE LAST ☁️☔  you ask Chan why he’s with you. 

SEO CHANGBIN

➵ MY HEART BEATS (hanahaki au) )☁️☔

.｡.

☆.｡.:*ATEEZ ☆.｡.:*

MINGI 

➵ Awkwardly In Love (fluff)

➵ Purpose of Hearts (part of timecaspule collab, angst, fluff, slice of life)

HONGJOONG

➵ You Don’t Have to be A Star (angst/slight fluff)

.｡.

☆.｡.:*EXO ☆.｡.:*

Baekhyun: 

➵ WRONG NUMBER In which Hwang Jinae insistently leaves voice messages to her boyfriend every night since he’s gone to Veterinary College, only to discover that she has been confessing all her struggles and hardships to the wrong number. More specifically; to his roommate Byun Baekhyun. 

ONE | TWO | THREE | FOUR | FIVE

.｡.

☆.｡.:*SEVENTEEN ☆.｡.:*

HOSHI

➵ THE BOY WHO WALKED ON SUNSHINE ☔

WONWOO

➵ DIAL 199 ☔ In which you think you’re past saving, but the person on the other end of the line manages to pull you out of your dark waters. 

VERNON

➵ OUTSIDE BOUNDARIES🔥☁️ what happens when ball of sunshine meets Mr. Grumpy? When you make the sacrificial decision of shadowing Dr. Hanson Chwe to scramble for your TA hours, nothing could’ve prepared you for the way in which this grumpy ass charms his way into your heart. PART ONE | PART TWO 

MINGYU 

➵ EVERYTHING THAT I’LL NEVER BE ☔☁️ You'll never be his first and that bothers you, that she had his heart before you ever did. 

.｡.

[amazingphanisnotonfire-imagines]

Camila//this is our place, we make the rules

Request: Camila mendes x reader where they get Madeleine (readers sister) with Vanessa mad they have a double movie date at their house and when r and mads fall asleep V and cami talk about how much they really fell for them

hey! i hope you like this! its gay, fun and fluffy!! also, i don’t know if anybody knows but i l o v e taylor swift, so a good portion of requests will be named after lyrics from her songs, sorry, i don’t make the rules. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ this one is from ‘lover’ by the way (i was heavily influenced by the song and i was feeling soft). anyway, have a good day/night! stay safe, be gay! 

The universe works in mysterious ways. Everyone knows that, its like the universes’s thing. Some people are funny, some people are smart, and some people like to control life every aspect of life in weird ways. When they are actually people, they’re sociopaths, but when its all of space and time, its just one of its cute little quirks. 

People can be connected by something as small as a name, but it can lead to something so big. An invisible tether connecting you to these people, and its something that you don’t even know about until years later when you’re talking about that funny story from ages ago and the other person is like ‘oh, i used to go there all the time’ or ‘how weird, my aunt lives right around the corner of your childhood home and we never met once’. 

And it doesn’t have to be that type of connection. A serious of fortunate (or unfortunate) events can lead you to a whole load of new people. You could walk into the wrong classroom in a new school and meet your best friend, or find a new coffee shop after your usual is closed for the day and meet the love of your life. 

There’s so many ways that you can be connected to people, you never know when you’re going to meet a friend, and enemy, or something more. 

Its both magical and terrifying at the same time. A story waiting to be told, you just have to stand on the right butterfly or tempt just the right amount of fate. 

For you and your sister, Madelaine, you both did exactly that. And thankfully the universe seemed to be on your side. 

One day, she gets a job on the CW’s newest show, and then a few years later, both of you end up with girlfriends from the same show. And while you and Camila may have been fast to get together (within a few months of actually meeting), it took a little longer (and a lot of sisterly teasing) to get Madelaine to admit that she was head over heels for her on-screen girlfriend. 

It was a long and sometimes tedious road for all four of you. Madelaine complaining to you, Vanessa complaining to Camila and then the two of you complaining to each other. You eventually locked them in a room together, something you haven’t done since you were a teenager, and they thankfully got together. 

While Madelaine and Vanessa were playing ‘will they, won’t they?’, you had your own things going on. You and Camila had finally made the step to move in together. And after months of searching for the right house (and one that you could afford), you finally found it. A cute little place tucked into a side street of LA. 

“I think thats everything.” You smile and look around the large living room. Its been a long few months. But they’ve been fun though. When you were younger, you never thought you would actually be here, buying a home with a girl you loved more than anything and who loved you back. 

You and Madelaine would spend hours talking about how you would decorate your own houses. They would be right next door to each other (much to her dismay), with a gate in the back garden so you could come and see each other anytime (again...dismay). Your house would be bright, filled with things you’d collected over the years, flowers and plants would decorate every room, pictures on every wall, and right in the centre, you...with her. 

At the time you had no idea who she was. You just knew she would be there. You would be happy and in love and you wouldn’t care who knew. You wouldn’t be scared, or try to hide. You’d just be you, she’d be her, and the two of you would be together. 

And thats exactly what you got. Funnily enough though, when you think back you’re pretty sure whoever she was, kinda looked a bit like Camila. 

Madelaine’s house is a little different from how she planned when she was 13. Yes, she had the large house and the dogs. But instead of the man, she got the woman instead (much better in your opinion). Which is something it took her a while to get her head around. 

She watched you grow up, figure yourself out and then come out to the world. She saw your struggles and your victories. She wiped your tears when someone was mean, and laughed with you at your first pride together. 

She watched as Camila went through the same struggle after meeting you. She listened to her while she went through every possible scenario that could happen if people found out.

And she watched Vanessa play this badass bisexual on screen, but struggle with the possibility of liking girls behind closed doors. 

Three of her favourite women in all the world, all going through the same experiences. Having the same fears. And then she did the same. Thankfully, all four of you came out the other end stronger and a lot happier. 

You and Camila got together five months after the first time meeting and that was almost three years ago. Madelaine finally admitted how much she really liked Vanessa, due to the looming threat of you telling her yourself if she didn’t, and today marks their six month anniversary. 

That, mixed with your new home is the reason all four of you are hanging out tonight. Its a double movie date, that will definitely end in all of you falling asleep in the living room, slightly drunk. 

“No more boxes?” Camila asks and wraps an arm around your waist. You lean into her touch, wrapping an arm around her and pulling her close. 

“I think so. I think we’ve officially unpacked everything.” You grin and her expression mirrors yours. She stares at your for a few seconds, just taking everything in, before letting out a content sigh. 

“So we’ve officially moved in?” 

“Yep...we’re home owners.” You press a soft kiss to her lips and the world blurs around you for a few seconds. Thats until the doorbell rings and you have to reluctantly pull yourself away from her. 

“If I’m to go into crippling debt with anybody, its always going to be.” She says sweetly and you giggle before opening the door. 

“Y/N!!” Madelaine shouts and hugs you tightly. You groan, but it just makes her grip tighten as you struggle against her. 

“Hi V.” Camila appears behind you, completely ignoring you and Madelaine, she learnt the day she met you, don’t get in the middle of a Petsch argument...it won’t end well. 

So she starts talking to Vanessa, the two of them having a small catch up, while you struggle away from Madelaine. You huff loudly and straighten your clothes out while she sends you a sarcastic smile. 

“I feel like we haven’t seen each other in weeks.” She says, pushing past you and into the living room. Vanessa passes you, whispering a ‘sorry’ as she follows her girlfriend. 

“Thats not accidental.” You send her a sweet smile and she rolls her eyes at you. 

“Here.” Vanessa interrupts and hands you a small gift bag. “Its a housewarming gift.” 

“Aww.” Camila makes her way over to where you’re stood and the two of you quickly open the bag, revealing a picture of the two of you from the first day you met. You’re stood next to each other, shy smiles and soft blushes barely noticeable to anybody else. But you see them and they make you smile brightly at each other. 

“Thank you.” Camila says and the four of you hug. 

“So.” Madelaine is the first to pull away, now looking around. “My baby sister actually has her own house. Have you drawn all over the walls yet.” She teases and you shove her. 

“Everybody knows it was you that drew on the walls and then you would blame me.” 

“And mom and dad still believe me!” She smiles triumphantly. 

“Yet, I’m still the favourite.” 

“Who knows why, I was definitely the cutest.” She argues. 

“You keep telling yourself that...potato face.” You reply and she sends you a scowl in return. 

“At least I didn’t look like a ham when I was a baby.” She huffs, crossing her arms over her chest and she looks exactly the same as she did when you would steal her toys. 

“At least I don’t look like a ham now.” You retort and she gasps, offended. You send her a small smile, happy that you’ve won this round and she continues to glare at you. 

“Aw, its just so nice watching how they love each other isn’t it?” Camila whispers to Vanessa and she stifles a laugh as the two of them watch you insult each other. 

“Tell me about it.” She groans. 

“Do you want a drink?” She asks, motioning to the kitchen. Vanessa looks at the two of you, now actually physically fighting before taking a deep breath and turning back to Camila. 

“...please.” 

----

“Mads! When you’re finished snooping, the movie’s about to start!” You shout into the kitchen. 

You and Cami are cuddled together on one of the sofa’s, while Vanessa waits for Madelaine to come back with the snacks on the other. The empty take out cartons are scattered on the coffee table, and the three of you wait in anticipation for whatever Madelaine brings back, all of you chatting about work. 

“Please tell me someone other than you has chosen it.” Madelaine asks as she walks in. Her hands full of food and drinks and Vanessa quickly stands to help carry them. 

“Cami chose it.” You reply and smile at your girlfriend, reaching out to hold her hand and she gives it a light squeeze, the two of you momentarily forgetting that you have company. You’ve both been dreaming of this night for months, the first proper night in your finished home and now its here you can’t quite believe it. 

“Oh, thank god. You have an atrocious taste in films.” Madelaine says and you’re moment is gone. Your soft expression reserved only for Cami, has now turned into a scowl as you stare at you sister. 

“Well, I watch everything with you in so maybe thats more on you than me.” You say casually and a grin takes over her appearance as she sits down beside Vanessa. 

“Aw, you watch the movies I’m in?” 

“Yeah, the very few that there is.” You snide and she looks at you offended. 

“How many movies are you in?” 

“How many CW shows that are well written are you in?” You reply and its followed by a chorus of offended ‘heys!’ 

“Sorry babe, and V.” 

“And?” Madelaine asks impatiently. You look at her confused for a few seconds before she tuts and looks at the tv. “Why couldn’t mom and dad have just gotten a dog?” She mutters making Vanessa laugh softly. 

“I’m sure they thought the same thing when they found out about you.” You reply. “A dog would certainly have been a lot cuter, and well behaved...and maybe a little more talented to-OW!” 

You’re interrupted by a cushion smacking you square in the face, followed by loud laughter from Madelaine and Vanessa. Cami stifles a laugh beside you and you pout at her for a few seconds. 

“Its a good job you’re cute.” You mumble and cross your arms over your chest, still pouting at Cami and she presses a gentle kiss to your cheek. You reach for the cushion thats fallen on the floor, but before you can throw it at a now distracted Madelaine, Cami grabs it from you and throws it gently to V who puts it back. 

“Don’t even think about it. Those pillows are new.” She scolds. 

“Is everyone ready?” Vanessa asks and you all hum in reply. 

“Wait!” Madelaine shouts. 

“Play the damn movie V.” You say before she has the chance to say anything else. 

“Happily.” She laughs while Madelaine pouts beside her.

Silence settles over the room as the opening titles start. You and Cami cuddle even closer than before and a content sigh slips past your lips. She presses a soft kiss to your forehead while her fingers draw lazy patterns on an exposed part of your arm. 

“Can we always be this close?” She whispers and a blush settles on your cheeks. 

“Forever.” 

“Get a room!” Madelaine groans and Cami throws a pillow at her. 

“I didn’t think it was possible for me to love you more but I do.” You grin and kiss her quickly while Madelaine complains. 

“I thought these were new.” She mocks and the two of you roll your eyes. 

“They are, but this is our house so we make the rules.” 

“And our first rule is for you to shut up.” 

“Thats not a rule, thats an order.” She grumbles to herself and Vanessa pats her shoulder sympathetically. 

“Its okay babe. When we get a house together our first rule can be that they’re not allowed inside.” She mumbles making a small smile appear on her lips. 

----

“Cami.” Vanessa whispers, stretching to kick her gently. She pulls her gaze away from the tv, now nearing the end of the movie, to look at her friend. Vanessa doesn’t say anything, just gestures to Madelaine and then over to you, both of you fast asleep and curled up in exactly the same positions. 

“As much as they annoy the hell out of each, they are literally exact the same.” She laughs as the two of you snore softly. 

“Does Y/n refuse to believe she snores too.” 

“God yes.” Cami snorts a laugh and the two of you stir slightly. Vanessa and Cami continue to laugh as quietly as possible at the two of you, your snoring seemingly getting louder with each breath and it sounds like the two of you are competing with each other. 

“The first time Mads stayed the night, I thought someone was doing road works outside.” Vanessa whispers making Cami wheeze with laughter. 

“Stop it.” She waves an arm around while holding her stomach with the other one. “I’m gonna pee.” 

“Don’t get me started on the peeing. I swear she gets up about three times a night to go. And she turns-” 

“Every single light on!” Camila adds and the two of them laugh loudly again. 

“Yes!” 

“I wake up at 2am thinking its early afternoon because its that bright.” 

“We really fell for them though didn’t we?” Vanessa asks, her tone a lot softer as she glances at her sleeping girlfriend. 

“Yeah...I suppose we did.” Camila replies, brushing a piece of hair from your face. 

“Life works in weird ways doesn’t it?” 

“Definitely.” She nods. “If you’d have told me four years that I’d be a homeowner at 26 with my girlfriend of three years...I honestly would have cried.” She admits making Vanessa frown. “Not for that reason...obviously.” She glances at you. “Its just, I never thought I could be this happy with somebody. But I am. I’m so, unbelievably happy that sometimes I have to pinch myself to make sure I’m not dreaming.” 

“If she was awake I don’t know if she would say ‘aw’ or ‘ew’.” Vanessa laughs. 

“Probably a mix of both.” 

“I forgot to ask earlier.” Vanessa starts and Cami reluctantly pulls her gaze away from you. “Does this place feel like a home yet?” 

“Anywhere with her is my home.” 

[omigiry]

“𝐦𝐚𝐲𝐛𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞”

synopsis: Reincarnation AU. Oikawa Tooru still has memories of his past life, falling in love with the same girl every timeline.

POV: Third Person

ry’s notes: I honestly don’t know if this is considered angst, but it is sad. kind off?? Anyways,,, thank you for reading!

“Oikawa!” (Name) waved enthusiastically at him. She was waiting by the school gate so they could go to class together. They knew each other since middle school and became close friends and she would always support him at everything he does. Now at their last year of high school, Oikawa wanted to tell her how he feels. It’s been so long, maybe this time everything will go according to his plan. 

He recalls everything that went wrong, why isn’t the best time, or the time he just hesitated. Hoping this time it’ll be different from all those wasted moments.

The time when he first saw her, during an ancient period, were imperials still rule over the countries and different dynasties trying to overpower one another. He met (Name) one summer day, there she was going around town, buying papers and cloth. He approached her first and they became closer. He would listen to every story she had to tell, and her aspiration of being a writer. From the random scenes that came into her mind, to the problems she was facing. She was also there for him too, she would always know when something is wrong and she would do everything to cheer him up. He fell in love, and when he was about to confess but then he saw her with someone else. A guy kneeling on one knee and putting a ring on her finger. With a sad smile, he walked away.

He woke up again, in a different era. During the war, the first son in the family is obliged to be part of the military. Oikawa was assigned to the west area of their town. Funnily enough, as he grows up in this era the memories of his past life still lingers. He thought that he wouldn’t see (Name) in this era, maybe her soul really rested at the happy ending she had. He was wrong. He saw her, on the day the bombing began in their area. He thought that she remembers him like he did, but she didn’t. Her face was all the same, even her name, it’s just that she has no memories of her past life. He escorted her towards the shelter along with her little brother. She was the last one to escape in that area when they were doing rounds to make sure everyone was safe. (Name) thanked him profusely for making sure that she and her brother were safe. How could he not, when she was someone dear to him. Like before, he fell in love with her again. Promising to himself that once the war is over, he would court her. That didn’t end well too, he was moved to the front line because of how many deaths had occurred. He was given training how to properly use a gun and to attack along with other inexperienced guys. Then that cruel day came, he got shot as their squad got ambushed by the enemy and everyone of them were left dead. As he took his last breath, all he could remember was (Name)’s face before his world became dark.

Then today, was the third time he met her. Everything was normal, technologies advanced greatly and he was able to cope with the new things despite having all his past memories, after all he also grew up in this era. The only good thing that those past memories he had is that he aces history class. When he met her again in this life, he was mocking the works of fate. It’s like a blessing and curse at the same time. He was glad that he had met her again, but a curse since she still couldn’t remember him. If fate was an actual being, maybe he was the favorite character to play with. 

Oikawa still couldn’t help wishing that this was his chance. That maybe this time is where he would get his happy ending with the girl he loved his entire lifetime. Fate was cruel enough for the past two lives he lived. 

Please, just this time. I want to be by her side all the time. To be the one hugging her, to see her smile every waking moment, to spend the rest of my life in this era with her. 

“Hey, you look kinda off today. Are you sick?” She asked and inspected his face closer. 

“No, I’m just worried if I'll ace the history quiz today.” 

At his reply (Name) glared at him. “You always ace history. So don’t give that excuse.”

“I’m fine, I just didn’t get enough sleep.” 

Maybe I shouldn’t be greedy, maybe this would be enough. He would always think of that thought that makes him hesitant whether to confess or not, but he would be restless if he didn’t. 

“Didn’t get enough beauty sleep, I see.” She teased. “Your fans would be devastated to see you all tired.”

“I don’t care, I always look good.”

“Shut up, you narcissist.” 

“It’s not being a narcissist, when you have good looks like me you should be confident.”

“Whatever.” She rolled her eyes at him and he chuckled at the reaction. Throughout the years her personality didn’t change as well. He could remember the first time he met her, she would also joke with him like this. Having a playful banter at every given moment. She was always grateful to others, like the second time he met her; just by a simple gesture she would be thankful towards that person. Even if his moments with her may be short or not, he cherishes those moments. 

“Tooru.” (Name) whined. It was break time and (Name) was slumped on the table. Hand stretched out as she fiddles with the letter she found in her locker.

“What is it?” He asked, raising an eyebrow at her. 

“Someone dropped another letter at my locker.” Oikawa sighed at her problem. She would always receive a letter or two every week, she was smart and beautiful. It’s not a surprise that there’s also a handful of guys fawning over her. 

She would always tell him about it, and every time he did he was holding his breath as he waited for her response. When she tells him that she rejected every guy that asked her out, he let out a sigh of relief. He still had a chance, she remained single up until now. 

“I’m tired of it. It’s troublesome for me to reject them.” She pouted.

“If you weren’t a whole package, you wouldn’t worry about things like this.” 

“How do you even put up with this kind of thing?” She asked him. She knows that he also receives letters, more than her. Sometimes someone would give him cookies or chocolates and they would always eat it together. At first She doesn’t want to, but he insists that it doesn’t matter.

“They aren’t serious.” Oikawa shrugged.

“Wow, that’s why a lot of them come crying to me when you ignore them.” She eyed him in disbelief. “As if my problem wasn’t enough, then those girls come running to me.” 

“Well, I’m sorry.” Truth is, my heart is only reserved for you. I hope you noticed that. I never looked at anyone else because you’re the only girl I have ever loved and laid eyes on. He wished he could tell it to her, but it wasn’t the right time yet. 

“I’m just glad that this would be our last year, and I wouldn’t have to deal with this in college.” 

“Who says it’ll stop at high school?” 

“Wow.” She again looked at him in disbelief. “The attention is getting through your head.” 

They ate lunch as they talked about their plans for college. They talked about the university they want or dream of going to. Whether they want to study abroad or not, or move to the city. Their last day of high school was only a month away after all. 

The day has finally come. It was now or never for Oikawa. After high school, they would go to different universities and Oikawa still wanted to be part of her life even if they don’t see each other often like they used to. 

It was their graduation day, Oikawa and her were roaming around the school after the ceremony to savor their last moment. 

“(Name).” Oikawa called out. They were in their classroom and she sat at her table while he leaned on the chair in front of her. 

“Tooru.” She said back with a smile. 

“There’s something I have to say.” He started out. He was definitely nervous, it was his first time doing it. Centuries of waiting, finally led to this time. (Name) gestured for him to go on.

“I like you. More than what we have now. I’ve always liked you.” He confessed. 

Her smile never faltered, but there was a change in her eyes. And how she smiled also changed. “Tooru. You’re a great guy.” At that statement, Oikawa knew the response. Her tone was apologetic and he could only close his eyes and bow his head as he waited for her to finish. “Any girl would be lucky to have you, but for now I want to focus on my studies first and my career.”

“I understand.” It wasn’t in this time too. 

“Thank you for being there for me since middle school. Good luck in college, Tooru.” She said. Though she rejected him, she didn’t leave him alone. They just sat there in silence as Oikawa tried to get his composure back. 

“Good luck in college too, I hope we’ll meet again soon.” He said after a few minutes and told her that she can go ahead, he will be here for a while more. 

Fate sure is cruel. For the third time, it wasn’t meant to be. I was part of every narrative, but I wasn’t the lead.

[cynthiaandsamus]

Custom Toonami Block Week 73 Rundown

Code Geass: Lelouch and co. are still stuck in China and Xingke’s flipping out because the Chinese assholes are gonna kill the Empress and go with someone less problematic for their political marriage to Britannia’s creepily overaged prince. However Lelouch pulls out a Knightmare that’s basically the Twink version of the Gawain and busts everyone up as well as pulling a Father Cornello on them and letting the people know they’re all elitst 1% assholes that don’t care about them, which I suspect all countries probably know about their leaders but it sucks to hear it in a recording so riots show up all over China and CC Geass Flashes Anya to take her out so Britannia has to back out because the Chinese Hierarchy are now the least popular people in the world. So Xingke gets to be with his Empress and joins the Black Knights but Dietard wants the Empress to marry someone on their side so they can basically do the asshole move Britannia just tried to do but for them. All the girls are like ‘hey no’ and Lelouch is like “Oh hey Tamaki buddy, let’s go talk and get me the fuck out of here” so before Lelouch actually has to give Tamaki more lines and elevate him beyond the Black Knight’s Yamacha Shirley calls and Lelouch just straight up asks Shirley about love in a weirdly forced series of circumstance. But Shirley’s like “Yeah don’t fuck with love, don’t you love anyone?” and Lelouch is like “Yeah I do, Nunally!” and I don’t think that’s at all what Shirley meant but it does mean Lelouch sees that fighting for something beyond politics is powerful and agrees to not marry off the twelve year old girl, so that’s good. Lelouch decides to return home while they hunt down the Geass cult which is in China for some reason despite that being one of the like two places on earth Britannia doesn’t control and the Geass Cult largely being a Britannian affair. Meanwhile Sayoko is basically a Lelouch Vtuber at this point with her insanely accurate Lupin III mask of Lelouch and kisses Shirley so Shirley’s a little bit more gay than she was before and is not sure how to feel about that. When she’s about to tell the real Lelouch he kisses like a girl, Anya and Gino show up because we’re retreading the whole ‘sleeping with the enemy at school’ thing from the first season except with way less interesting enemies. Also the preview for the next episode is Lelouch dramatically talking about enemies finding out he’s Zero overtop footage of Shirley and Milly absolutely naked in a batthouse scene so I think we know what kind of episode that’ll be.

Inuyasha: The Panther Demon filler concludes with everyone meeting at the site where the Panther Master is being revived behind a strong barrier, if only someone just got a barrier upgrade to their sword, oh wait. But yeah everyone manages to free the hostages so even though Kagome’s jewel shards revives the Panther Master he’s still a zombie without a sacrifice which is weird since Naraku managed to completely revive the Band of Seven with one jewel shard each from skeletons and the Panther Lord has three shards so idk the rules here but yeah he steals the souls of his own men to revive and is Wind Scar Proof because he just is. It’s pretty cool to see him shooting his claws and lightning and shit but he’s too big and slow for it to be much of an interesting fight. Sesshomaru’s about to go full demon which would be interesting since we haven’t seen his full demon form since he lost his arm but in a neat bit of character development, Tenseiga calms his rage and tells him to use it instead. You get the feeling Sesshomaru only goes full demon when he flies off the handle and forgets about speed and strategy so him opting to not repeat the mistake he made against Inuyasha is pretty cool. Anyway Tenseiga heals the souls of the Panther Demons and drains their energy from the lord so he’s back to Zombie Cat Man which Inuyasha can Wind Scar because that’s what happens to villains on this show, all Wind Scars all the time. The Panthers don’t wanna fight anymore since their boss just killed them and tell Inuyasha to tell Sesshomaru the feud is over and they’re going back to the West. Honestly this is basically the same backstory they gave Kirinmaru in Yashahime so it’s funny for them to say they’re going back to the same place Kirinmaru is from, wonder if it’ll ever come up in Yashahime since most filler seems canon there.

Yu Yu Hakusho: Yusuke and Kuwabara continue the assault on Tarukane’s compound and basically plow through the lower demons easy since they’ve been fighting minor deities up to this point. It’s always pretty cool in Shonen to just have a few rounds to show how much power creep the heroes have had where certain things just don’t bother them anymore. Toguro murders a Chimera which has an oddly similar backstory to Nina from FMA and he seems really bummed about it but he’s like “Hey we’re both monsters made by humans telling us to do shit, so sorry for killing you bro”. And Tarukane basically sees Toguro is the next boss and is like “Yup time to scam some people off of this” and he sets up a betting ring for how far Yusuke and Co will get into his compound. This is kinda neat because it puts Tarukane in the weird position of betting against his own guards and hoping Yusuke will make it all the way to Toguro and then lose after everyone else has seen how awesome Yusuke is and bets on him. And funnily enough Sakyo’s in on the betting and he’s watched anime before so he knows to bet on the plucky teenagers with weird powers. So yeah Yusuke and Kuwabara finish plowing through the demons while Hiei kinda stalks them and remembers getting his eye surgery and wanting to help his sister but it’s kind of against spirit world rules for demons to just go plow through humans even if they’re scumbag humans so now Yusuke and Kuwabara have to go fight the Triad of boss demons Toguro has under him before Hiei busts in and just murders everyone for kidnapping his bird-loving jewel-crying little flower of a sister.

Fate Zero: So Kiritsugu can break Kayneth’s Terminator 2 Gaara defenses with rib bullets that just say ‘no’ to using magic and fucks his arrogant ass up. Saber and Lancer do some combo shenanigans to stab Caster right in the book and disrupt all his hentai tentacle demons but the book heals so idk why he can’t just make more. Kirei fucks up Maiya and Iris but didn’t double tap Maiya and DID double tap iris but she’s got Saber’s bullshit healing scabbard on her which no one knows about so Saber’s like “uhhh why are you healing” and Iris can’t tell her so she’s basically “Uhh internet?” Lancer comes in to save Kayneth’s worthless ass and tells Kiritsugu to stop being a dick to Saber because she’s pretty dope. But as usual for an early Fate encounter, no one dies and nothing of terrible consequence happens despite it being teased a couple times. I’ve noticed a trend with Fate that it really doesn’t like killing characters early so you’re basically guaranteed to have the first 2-3 major battles have a zero net gain/loss. Rider in UBW was probably the subversion to that since it happened crazy fast and anticlimactic but even that wasn’t till like ten episodes in.

Konosuba: So we finally meet Wiz the big booby Lich and Kazuma learns a new skill, both fun things. Also the gang gets a house to stay in after escapades with an army of haunted dolls and the most “I need to pee” in a horror setting since Corpse Party. But yeah, good progress this time honestly, the living in a stable gag was getting kind of old so Kazuma’s a bit stronger now and they have a home base so that’s pretty cool. Also Wiz is a Demon General or some shit but no one cares cause there ain’t no money in murdering busty zombie waifus.

Sailor Moon Crystal: So turns out Minako is Princess Serenity, except everyone who knows anything about Sailor Moon or indeed plot structure knows Sailor Moon is Princess Serenity, that’s like the Luke I Am Your Father of this series. But still turns out Minako has been guiding everyone with the power of video games but also thinks the power of friendship sucks and she’s gotta go do everything alone. This makes things super awkward because Mamoru’s pretty sure he was in love with the Princess but likes Usagi, now instead of running with this interesting thread of a reincarnation falling in love with someone new we’re gonna do the reveal that Usagi’s the princess and the whole ‘till death do us part’ part of marriage was just a metaphor and you’re stuck with one person no matter how many times you reincarnate. But yeah, Minako fights the bad guy on top of the tower but he has Naraku’s Barrier now and Minako doesn’t have the Red Tessaiga upgrade yet so she needs the power of friendship but this barrier is friendship-proof and this fight is basically a bunch of kids on the playground making up increasingly stupid powers that negate the other powers the other guy just made up. Anyway Tuxedo Mask shows up and is like “Holy shit Sailor Moon I love when you kiss me and kick ass, go get em sweetie I’ll hold your flower” and they kiss and Usagi has learned that if she just pretends she got this the power of her confidence will beat the bad guy. Unfortunately she does not got this and Tuxedo Mask has to pull a Piccolo and throw himself in front of the blast.

Durarara!!:  So now that we’ve had our climax for the arc we have a six month timeskip and everyone’s just kinda living life, Mika and Seiji are being clinically insane together, there’s cops harassing Celty to the point of mental breakdown (normal cop stuff) Shinra’s dad’s in town, Namie’s become Izaya’s secretary for blackmail shit, you know, normal stuff. Also there’s a katana-wielding maniac going around slashing people and Anri’s being bullied and sexually harassed to the point of mental collapse, normal stuff.

[wonderfulworldofmichaelford]

Psycho Analysis: Halloween Special Villains

(WARNING! This analysis contains SPOILERS!)

Ah, Halloween, that magical, spooky time of year where ghosts and goblins come out to play and children dress up in the hopes of getting some delicious Halloween candy. But what about all of us who are trapped at home on the night of this pagan costume and candy festival? What do we have to keep us entertained?

Why, Halloween specials of course!

If there’s one thing Halloween delivers on almost as well as Christmas does, it’s spooky Halloween-themed episodes of cartoons, where the show is allowed to get darker and more disturbing than it usually does in some cases. And what is any special without a special one-shot villain? Gotta have someone stirring up some Halloween trouble on this spooky night. And since these characters are usually one and done with little in the way to go super in-depth about, I’d figure we’d look at five of them at once! They are:

Jack O’Lantern from The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy

Pumpkinator from The Fairly OddParents

Bun-Bun from Underfist

Fright Night from Danny Phantom

Ron Tompkins from Toy Story of Terror!

I’m sure some of you feel there are some glaring omissions. Where’s the Flying Dutchman? Where’s Stickybeard? Well, I decided that this time around I’d go with characters whose major appearances and debuts are Halloween episodes; both those guys had major roles in non-Halloween episodes as well, so I’ll be saving them for full reviews at a later date. Also of note: I am aware the story of Toy Story of Terror! does not take place on Halloween, but it is aired as a Halloween special, so I’m counting it.

Actor: So if there’s one thing these guys aren’t lacking in, it’s the actor department, and this isn’t a huge shock since when you’ve got a holiday special you want to splurge a bit, you know?

Jack has one of my favorite actors ever, the always-awesome Wayne Knight. Knight just has that sort of voice that’s perfect for smug jerk characters like Mr. Blik or Dennis Nedry, so really it’s pretty fitting for a pranking trickster like Jack, though I will say that it’s hard to match Knight’s voice to the human version of Jack when you see him in a flashback.

Ron Tompkins isn’t too far behind in the impressive VA department, being voiced by none other than Stephen Tobolowsky, who you may remember as the overbearing Ned Ryerson from GroundHog Day (and how can you forget him? You see him repeating the same scene about thirty times). He does a great job at making Tompkins cartoonishly evil and mostly enjoyable, a tall order for a character who steals toys from children to sell online.

And if you thought the list of awesome actors was done, boy were you wrong! Star Trek’s very own Michael Dorn voices the Fright Knight, and Dorn’s voice is absolutely perfect for a cool, evil, undead knight.

Bun-Bun is voiced by Dave Wittenberg who is an insanely prolific VA, playing characters such as Henry Wong from Digimon Tamers (AKA the beast season of Digimon) to none other than Kakashi from Naruto. I think it goes without saying a VA this versatile manages to make the role work.

And finally, we have the Pumpkinator, who is played by Dee Bradley Baker, and if I sat here listing all the notable roles this man has played we’d be here all night. But here’s a small sample: Appa, Momo, Squilliam Fancyson and Bubble Bass, Klaus the goldfish, Cow and Chicken’s dad, Cinderblock and Plasmus, the Alien and Predator in Mortal Kombat, Lion and Frybo, Numbah 4 and the Toilenator, Remy Buxaplenty, most of the animals in The Legend of Korra… you get the picture. This guy’s a legend. He’ll do any sort of role, big or small, so even if he’s not playing the most complex character here, he’s at least giving it a unique spin with his voice because man, this guy has RANGE.

Motivation/Goals: Jack has a rather simple motivation: revenge. You see, ages ago he managed to steal Grim’s scythe when he was about to be reaped, and bartered for the scythe’s return, asking to be made immortal. Grim reluctantly gave him this, but, as Grim is not someone who likes being tricked, also cut his head off. As anything cut off with Grim’s scythe is permanently cut off, Jack had to replace his head with a pumpkin (of course). This lead to him being shunned as a freak, which just made jis desire for vengeance even stronger; I mean, wouldn’t you want revenge if you could only go to the ding-dong grocery store to get pudding once a year?

If you want to get even simpler, the Pumpkinator is your guy! He exists simply to blow up planets. Tat’s it. He’s very much just an obstacle Timmy needs to overcome so that he can undo his wish for every Halloween costume to be “real and scary” before the consequences end up destroying the world.

Bun-Bun is rather simple as well: he just seems to be a jerk. But they don’t just make him a simple jerk, no, this is a Billly & Mandy spinoff so things have to be taken to their ridiculous extreme. Bun-Bun turns out to be behind numerous extremely petty actions that affected the lives of the main heroes, having haunted Hoss as a child and made him afraid of monsters, made Billy afraid of spiders which estranged him from his son Jeff, and, uh, sawed off Fred Fredburger’s tusks. The fiend! As you might guess, there’s no real rhyme or reason to this, it’s just goofy absurdist over-the-top sort of thing you’d expect from Maxwell Atoms.

Ron has a relatively simple motivation, but frankly it might be the most evil out of all of these: the man steals toys from the children who stay at his motel to sell them for monetary gain. Yes, this is more evil than attempting to blow up the planet, you heard me. I have no idea how sick and twisted you have to be to think that stealing toys from children is acceptable. Funnily enough, this is the same sort of motivation Al (who was played by Wayne Knight, funnily enough) from Toy Story 2 had, though Ron takes it above and beyond.

And finally that brings us to Fright Knight, Much like most of the ghosts on the show, Fright Knight seems to just want to cause a ruckus after he’s released, attempting to take over Amity Park when Danny foolishly releases him. Later in the show he is freed to serve Pariah Dark, and after Dark is beaten he joins up with Vlad. In his final appearance of any consequence he is seen serving the Ultimate Enemy in the bad future. Basically the guy is just a really cool overhyped henchman.

Personality: So let’s get the easy one out of the way first: The Pumpkinator doesn’t exactly have a personality, because it is a big generic doomsday villain meant to act as an obstacle for Timmy to overcome. However, when it returned later in the episode where Timmy goes to Unwish Island, it did have one notable personality trait: an undying hatred for Timmy Turner, It’s a pretty relatable trait the more into the series you watch.

Bun-Bun is also rather evil and simple. He’s just a petty jerk, as can be seen by his crimes listed up under motivation. There’s not much else to him, same with Fright Knight who, again, is mostly just an overhyped henchman who acts as the hardcore badass serving whatever big bad of the week is out to get Danny (or he would have, but more on that later).

Out of all of these, Ron and Jack have the most personality. Jack is an unrepentant prankster who, at least when alive, was heavily implied to just not get he was taking it too far with his pranks (“too far” in this case being tricking people off of cliffs, at the least), and simply morphed into a bitter, jaded, vengeance-seeking supernatural entity after hundreds of years of rejection by society and isolation. Jack’s honestly pretty tragic in that regard, though it obviously doesn’t excuse his actions.

Ron is just a straight-up jerk, putting up a facade of being a charming, friendly motel owner while stealing toys from under his guest’s noses. As the truth comes out about him, he becomes more cartoonish and hammy, which really doesn’t help his case at all, and in his final scene he actually does something so cartoonish he almost feels like he doesn’t belong in the Toy Story universe.

Final Fate: Funnily enough, Pumpkinator actually gets the happiest ending out of anyone here: after being unwished by Timmy, he goes to Unwish Island and, after Timmy eventually journeys there, gets to have fun tormenting Timmy clones for the rest of time.

Ron probably has the second happiest ending, for a given definition of “happy.” Bonnie’s mother calls the cops on him for his theft, and when they show up, he somehow manages to trick them, run away, steal their car, crash it into a telephone pole when backing up, and then run off before they even move a muscle. It’s ridiculously cartoonish, and there’s no way this guy is gonna be getting off easy after that little display.

Onto Bun-Bun. Bun-Bun made one simple mistake: he put any trust at all int Skarr. For those not in the know, Skarr was the “Starscream” to Hector Con Carne, always hoping to overthrow him and take over his world domination schemes for himself before he ended up retiring from that life and becoming a reoccurring character on Billy & Mandy. So, when he joins up with the villain by betraying Underfist, what do you think he does? He betrays the villain, pushing Bun-Bun into hot cocoa and melting him, using his power of treachery and backstabbing to help his team save the world. It’s pretty amusing in that classic Billy & Mandy way.

Good ol’ Jack ends up getting sent to the underworld this time since Grim wasn’t putting up with his crap anymore, and it seems Jack still hasn’t learned his lesson about pranking. When last we see him, he’s now tormenting demons, who all start moving in on him while he laughs at his dumb pranks. The screen cuts to black and we hear a squishing noise. It’s safe to say he won’t have to worry about that pumpkin head causing him problems anymore.

Fright Night is easily the most tricky one to talk about because his entire intended purpose in the show got aborted. After he was brought back to serve Pariah, he ended up under Vlad’s control by episode’s end, but for some reason, nothing ever came of this and it was never mentioned again – well, except in the “Ultimate Enemy” special, in which the Fright Knight cameos at the beginning, acting as something of the hype man for Dan Phantom, softening up Amity Park for Dan’s attack. After that, though, he’s basically out of the series, save for a couple of brief cameos here and there.

Best Scene: Jack has the flashback to his origins, because not only is it perfectly dark for a show’s Halloween episode, you have to give props to anyone who managed to outwit Grim, even if he did end up paying a steep price for it.

Ron has his aforementioned escape from the police. I do think it’s a bit too cartoonish and silly for Toy Story, but I’ll be damned if it isn’t pretty hilarious either way.

The Fright Knight has the aforementioned scene where he mentions he’s serving The evil future Danny. Considering that’s his last real role in the series, at least he got to go out on a high note, though it still sucks nothing ever came of the plotlines set up for him.

Bun-Bun’s best scene is when he revealed that he was the architect of most of the protagonist’s woes. Again, it’s just classic over-the-top Billy & Mandy silliness, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

The Pumpkinator… just doesn’t have one. Sorry.

Best Quote: While most of these guys aren’t exactly a goldmine of quotes, Jack has one of my favorite quotes from anything, ever, and I even already referenced it above: “Three hundred and sixty-four days a year, I can't even go the the ding-dong grocery store to buy pudding! And do you know why?" The why, obviously, is the fact he has a pumpkin for a head.

Final Thoughts & Score: Frankly, this batch of Halloween hooligans is a very mixed bag. We didn’t fare quite as bad as Charlie Brown did on Halloween, but we only got one King Size candy bar out of this lot.

I guess let’s just start with the black licorice of the bunch: Fright Knight. God, I wish I could love Fright Knight, I really do, but considering the overwhelming quality of most of Danny’s rogues gallery and just the fact this guy was totally shafted and everything set up for him was ignored there’s just no excusing how lame this guy looks, Michael Dorn or no. He has a great design and a cool concept, and the ideas for interesting stories with him were there, but he ends up being a 3/10, saved only by his cool first outing, great voice work, and awesome design.

Worse still is the pile of weirdly flavored candy corn that is the Pumpkinator. He has a cool design, but he’s not much of an antagonist to be honest. He’s just a cool-looking robot who wants to blow up the planet. That’s about it. There’s really not much to say about this guy, and his only other appearance doesn’t really add much. I suppose he serves his purpose, but I have to wonder, why even bring him back if he wasn’t going to do anything remotely interesting? I don’t like generic doomsday villains at the best of times, but if you’re gonna bring one back, at least try and do something interesting with them to justify their existence, otherwise they’re just gonna end up getting a 2/10.

Finally, we get into the good candy! Let’s start off with the tasty marshmallow bunny we got, Bun-Bun (isn’t that more of an Easter candy? Weird). Bun—Bun is a funy, goofy, cartoonish villain, perfect for the first (and sadly, only) outing for Underfist. The fact they went above and beyond to cement him as this ludicrous mastermind who just screwed with everyone’s lives for no apparent reason other than the fact he’s a jerk is pretty funny. I don’t think he’s gonna win any Villain of the Year awards, but I think a 6/10 is good enough for this above average nuisance.

Oho, what’s this? A… candycane? Well, it’s a bit out of season, but it’s still tasty! And that’s kind of where Ron is. I do like just how unabashedly scummy he is, and there is precedent for people like him in the Toy Story universe, but I feel he takes things to a cartoonish extreme. For crying out loud, the guy has a trained iguana that acts like a dog! He feels like he belongs in a different series than this one, but again, I don’t really think that’s a bad thing, because at the very least he is funny. He gets a 7/10, a bit higher than usual just because I love how ridiculously nasty his whole scheme is. Stealing from kids, what the actual hell.

YES! A King Size candy bar! Just what I was looking for! It’s just a generic Hershey bar, but hey, that’s a lot of chocolate, so who’s complaining? And that’s Jack, he is simply put a perfect Halloween special antagonist. Most of this comes from his voice work, since Wayne Knight is a national treasure, but his backstory and concept are worth praising too. His origin story is something of a twist on the old legend of “Stingy Jack,” the origin story of the Jack-O’-Lantern appropriately enough. While obviously there are liberties, such as substituting Grim for the devil, it’s a mostly accurate retelling, something that would go over most people’s heads unless they’re really into classical folklore. Jack’s a lot of fun as a character, earning himself a nice big 8/10, only being held back from a higher score because despite being rightfully beloved by audiences, he never really had a major role again, getting a minor shout out in Big Boogey Adventure and… that’s it. I think Jack could have been a really entertaining reoccurring antagonist in the same vein as fwllow ensemble darkhorse Eris, but alas, it was not to be. Maybe if Underfist had been picked up he could have been brought back for that, but the fact is it just didn’t happen. Oh well, might as well appreciate what we got.

And that’s it for this batch of Halloween goodies. Halloween specials seem a lot less prevalent than Christmas specials, but they’re no less important or fun, and as you can see, they do produce at least mildly interesting villains, sometimes. If only they could produce a villain so devilishly Halloweenie that he could perfectly embody the spirit of the holiday…

Hey, what’s that at the bottom of the bag…

Wait… is that…

OH NO.

[greyskywrites]

Wolf’s Price

[First] [Previous] [AO3] [ko-fi]

XVIII. Remade

5.2k

I hadn’t written to anyone since winter set in and we stopped sending couriers. Whatever was going to happen to us in the spring, I decided that it was time to write to my sister.

I had three brothers, two older and one younger, and a sister on either side of me. Eva was the older, born just a little over two years before me. She told me I was stupid, when I enlisted. “You don’t know when to shut your mouth. If you’re captured, the Sarenns will cut your tongue out before the day is over.”

I made some joke then, about how I’d rather lose my tongue than my head. She punched me in the arm, then, left me with a bruise for near a week. “Don’t joke about that! You know what Sarenns are like—they worship wolf devils and leave unwanted babies out in the snow as sacrifices. If they get your hands on you, they’ll probably cut your throat over an altar and sacrifice you to one of their animal gods.”

“I’ll be careful then,” I told her. “After all, all I have to do is be smarter than a Sarenn, right?”

“It’ll be a challenge for you, I know.”

I had written to Eva a little bit about Lya, not sharing any of Muras’ suspicions with her, of course. Eva hadn’t thought much of either of us, bringing some unknown Sarenn woman into our home when she was a near total stranger to us. She didn’t think much of the fact that she had previously lived with Heita, either. I’m sure even you don’t think it’s entirely a good idea to pick up a new mistress from Emiran’s old lover.

I didn’t know, when I sat down, what I wanted to say to Eva, but I supposed if there was a possibility that I was going to die, she would at least want to know why.

I imagine that by the time you get this, I wrote, I’ll already have been declared a traitor. Once I started it was hard to stop. I had never cared much for keeping secrets, and whether or not Eva would be sympathetic when she read my letter didn’t matter. Like as not, I would never see her again. It would hit our father quite hard, I supposed, and no doubt my brothers would be quick to distance themselves from me. I didn’t know what our mother would do.

I knew at least that, if nothing else, Eva would read the letter to the end.

We were sent here to be killed, so I can’t say I feel much remorse about actually committing the treason that the prince is so afraid of. Kressos has always been very good at making its own enemies.

I spent a long time writing that letter. Cutting whole sections from it, rewriting them. Muras was always a better writer than I was, but then, I’d never poured the kind of effort into it that he did.

Lya was out most of the day with Veland, and she must have washed his hair, because she came back to the room to comb through his hair in front of the fire until it was dry, singing quietly to him in Sarenn. Veland was picking up on it, singing parts with her, and mumble-mouthing others. Lya parted his hair and began to braid it, smooth and tight.

I watched them for a while, because it was easier than staring at my unfinished letter. When she was done, Lya kissed the top of his head, and Veland ran off to play with the other children. Lya rubbed her belly, and stretched her feet out in front of the fire with a sigh.

“How are you feeling?” I asked.

“Tired.” She let her head fall back on her shoulders. “Little one was kicking my ribs all night.” She closed her eyes. “What are you writing?”

“A letter to my sister.”

“Are you close?”

“Used to be closer.” I gazed at her another moment, the weariness in her shoulders. “Why did you come to Kressos, after all that?”

Lya opened her eyes slowly. “If you were looking for the woman that I was,” she said, “would you ever think to look for her in a Kressosi household?”

“Not as a maid,” I admitted, “not as Kaspar Heita’s clerk, that’s for damn sure.”

Lya nodded, and looked back to the fire. “Nor would anyone think to look for her in the bed of the man who killed her king.” She rubbed her belly again. “Every choice I’ve ever made since I left this place had a reason.” She laughed softly, shook her head. “If I’d known then that Kaspar knew the both of you…”

“He knows Muras. He tolerates me.” I shuffled the pages of my letter together, turned them over on the desk. I scrubbed over my face with both hands, put my elbows on the desk. “You know I love you, don’t you?”

Lya was quiet a long time. “I love you, too,” she murmured. “It would be so gods-damned much easier if I didn’t.”

She pulled herself up out of the chair, and came over to the desk. She put her hand on the back of my neck, and kissed my temple. I wrapped an arm around her, and pressed a hand over her middle. “I’m sorry I’m not a better man.”

I half expected Lya to ask what had got into me, that I was so morose, but she didn’t. She just ran her fingers over my hair, and let me lean into her side.

“I have to go,” she murmured, “I have things I need to do in town today.”

“Keep warm,” I said, “and keep safe.”

“I’ll do my best.” She tied a scarf over her head, over her ears. She touched my arm as she left, and whatever unspoken thing passed between us, I knew one thing for sure. She meant to leave us soon, and I didn’t know to where, or what end.

#

I thought hot water might clear my head, or at least make me better at pretending I was the same as ever. I took my time scrubbing from head to toe, and wiping a mirror clear enough that I could shave. It was a tempting thought, to let my hair grow long and a beard start on my face, just so I wouldn’t stand out so damned much whenever I walked through the town. I was one of the only Kressosi men not in a uniform, and among the first words of Sarenn I had learned was beardless. Not a kind word, that.

I had asked Lya about it once, why the beards were so important. She had scoffed and said, “Growing a beard is important because Kressosi men shave them off as much as it is any other reason.” The hair seemed to be the really important thing, as she had explained it to me. A braid told anyone who looked at you just how important you were. The higher it began on the head, the more complex it was—the greater the wealth and power of the person wearing it.

I had seen enough of that when we took Morhall. The princesses with their hair braided as intricately as lace, with colored ribbons and wire and glass beads, the braid beginning just behind their hairlines. All the servants had worn their braids at the nape of their necks, much simpler plaits with only one ribbon, or beads that were made of bone. A code of status that was only unfamiliar to us because it was in their hair, not just their clothes.

Some Sarenn lords had started to shave their beards, since the war had ended—but I knew of not a single one who had cut his hair. That, I supposed, was much too sacred.

I wasn’t sure I really understood what ‘sacred’ meant. I had never been the pious type, and if I’m honest, I was even less so after my brother became a priest. To me, worship always represented something I couldn’t feel, some other way in which I had failed my parents.

But I had seen ghosts. I had seen Lya call up wolves with a horn.

The Sarenn believed in fate, and if there was anything to it, I supposed there must have been a reason for us to all come north again. There was a reason that Lya had found her way to us, that we had been the ones to bring her back here. What it was, I couldn’t have pretended I knew.

I dressed warmly, and decided to go for a ride. I was growing used to elk, and their particular ways. The cow I took was a good tempered creature, not giving me any trouble in putting on blanket and saddle. She snuffled at my pockets, looking for grain.

The wind was bitter cold, but there was something else: it was snowing again. Funnily enough, the return of the snow signaled the coming spring, that the worst of winter was over. Before that, the air was too cold and dry for snow to fall. Snow falling again after midwinter meant that the world was beginning to warm.

I made my way out of town, down along the fields. I didn’t dare go out to the trees alone, not even in the middle of the day. The trees hid wolves and snow lions and bear dens, and I wanted to be able to see all of those things coming.

I remembered why I didn’t like spending much time alone as I rode. It gave me far too much room to think, to wonder and to worry. I stopped the elk under a fringe of old maples, listening to the quiet as the snow fell around us both. The cow’s breath steamed on the air.

“Have a busy mind, don’t you?”

I jerked the reins in surprise, and the cow snorted and shifted. I hadn’t seen the beggar who now stood under the trees, his back against the biggest and oldest. His feet were bare in the snow, and he leaned heavily on a staff to keep his weight from a club foot.

He raised a hand to the elk. “Easy,” he murmured. “You know who I am.”

The cow pressed her nose against his palm, and I felt her relax.

“Who the hell are you?” I demanded.

The beggar was old, scarred. His beard was scraggly and almost to his waist, and he wore a hood over his braid. He gave me a smirk that I didn’t like in the slightest. “Some say that winter is the season of death,” he said, “but men like you know that it’s spring that’s the season for war.” He reached under his old and worn coat, producing a flask. He took a drink, and offered it to me. I stared back at him until he shrugged and put it away. “You Kressosi aren’t much for hospitality, are you?”

“Who are you?” I demanded again.

“An old friend of the she-wolf you sleep beside,” he said, leaning on his staff. “You know what’s coming, don’t you? The inevitable, the caged wild animal having enough and finally going for the killing bite.”

Everything in me rebelled at this old man’s proximity, the kind of fear that’s beaten out of you in soldier’s training. Even if my eyes couldn’t see what was so dangerous about him, something else in me knew. I pulled the elk away, drawing distant. The old beggar smiled. He patted a hand on the gnarled old trunk of the maple. “The corpses of men were once hung in these trees before a war,” he said. “As sacrifice. A great many years ago, when there was no Saren, and its people fought each other. Then your folk came along, and such hangings moved south, and they only happened once a war had already begun.”

I had seen the trees he spoke of, once. Kressosi soldiers beaten to death and strung up to rot. I had seen, too, the swaying of cut ropes when the Sarenn had known we were coming, and cut down the dead before we could find them. I heard it said that they chose maple trees because the maples were too benevolent to allow the ghosts of the dead men to haunt them afterward. Their souls would be kept at bay by the same branches that had held their corpses. The same maples that were tapped for syrup at the earliest blush of spring. I had always wondered if they had a story for that, too—this tree that bled for them, that they fed with blood.

“You’ve a fighter’s spirit, I can smell it on you,” the old man said. “You’re not the kind to lay down and die.”

“What do you want?” I asked, scanning the trees for anyone else I might not have seen, regretting that I had come alone, and with only a pistol.

“I want the fight,” the old beggar said, “I want the blood. Deep down in your gut, you want it, too. You know there’s no honor in a quiet murder.”

I stared at him, said nothing. The old beggar smiled, and nodded his head, raising his flask to me as if in a toast. “Every wolf needs its pack. You could content yourself with being a dog, or you could grow into your teeth. The decision is yours.” He began to whistle a tune to himself, and limped off along the edge of the fields, dragging his club foot behind him.

“What’s your name?” I called after him.

“I have many,” he called back. “Ask the she-wolf.”

#

There was a brawl at a tavern, in which a young Sarenn man was killed. Muras found the soldiers who had been there, and lashed them all, regardless of whether or not they had started the fight. He didn’t care, and he told them so. Peace was a fragile thing, and they could not rely on might to maintain it. He had them lashed publicly, to settle the Sarenn discontent, and after that, no soldier was allowed outside of Morhall after dark.

The men resented the curfew, but it helped me breathe a little easier. I knew Lya still went out at night. I knew that Muras hadn’t asked her to stop.

We were waiting up for her, when she came back to our rooms after midnight. She looked at us a moment, and took the scarf from her hair. There were beads in her hair that I hadn’t seen her wear before, I was reasonably confident they were made from ivory or bone. “You didn’t have to stay up on my account,” she said, beginning to take off her coat.

Muras couldn’t bring himself to look at her, and I watched the wariness grow on her face. “I need to tell you something,” Muras said, staring at the fire.

Lya held onto her coat, as if it might be a shield. “Tell me what?”

Muras drew in and let out a breath. “When I first saw you in Jasos,” he said, “I thought—I’ve seen her before.”

Lya was still, did not move.

“I wasn’t sure where, at first,” Muras said. “But I knew I’d seen your face. You were too familiar. I wondered if maybe it was just that I had been in Kaspar’s circles, once, but you said you had only come to Jasos a few years before, so I knew it couldn’t be that.”

Lya looked at me, and I looked away. I couldn’t face her either, knowing that we had kept this from her for so long.

“As I talked to you, as you told me a little about where you were from—I started to piece it together.”

“Stop,” Lya said, her voice tight.

“I knew I had to keep you close, until I was sure,” Muras said. “I couldn’t take the chance that I was just imagining things—”

Lya took a step back and stood against the door. Her voice was deathly quiet. “You knew.”

Muras was quiet, not looking at her.

“You knew. This whole time.” Lya moved before either of us could react, grabbing her wolf mask off the wall and throwing it at him. “You son of a bitch, you knew!”

The mask struck Muras in the shoulder as he tried to move away, hitting the floor with a thud. Lya shook with rage. “The entire time you knew and you let me hide it from you! You let me be afraid!” She looked to me, and grabbed the next thing she could reach—my sword in its sheath. She hit me with it, hard enough to bruise. “You let me think he didn’t know! That you didn’t know!”

“Lya—” I started.

“Shut up!” Her face was flush with rage. “You bastard! You—” She let out a stream of Sarenn obscenities that I understood maybe a quarter of, hitting me again and again with the sheathed sword until I wrestled it out of her hands. Muras tried to intervene and she slapped him, her nails scratching an arc across his face. Red blood welled up in dark beads. “You let me bring my son here,” she snarled. “And you knew.”

Muras held onto her wrist, gazing back at her. “He is Corasin’s son, isn’t he?” Muras asked, soft.

Lya spit in his face, and called him a Sarenn word that I was pretty sure impugned more than just his honor. “He is my son,” Lya said, “he has no father but the Wolf.” She jerked free of Muras’ grip, and gave us that same burned-eyed look I had seen in her before. “You knew what I was, and you made me come back to this place. To this tomb.”

“Lya,” I said, drawing her furious gaze. “I’m sorry.”

She looked like she wanted to kill me for saying it. “It is far too late for that.”

I reached for her, and she slapped my hand away. “Don’t touch me.”

“I want to help you,” I said, “you have to get away from this place.”

“Yes,” she said. “I do.” She took her coat, and the scarf, and fled.

#

I couldn’t find Lya anywhere that I looked for her, nor Veland. It was difficult to search without raising the alarm—though I knew she could not have gone far, as Bili was still in the stables.

Muras had not said anything since she left, but I could see in his eyes that he was maybe a breath away from panic. “I’ll check the lodge,” I said, “if she’s gone into town, that’s where she’ll be.” I knew even then it probably wasn’t a good idea to be going about alone at night, but I was more concerned about Lya and Veland. Perhaps I really was the fool that Eva made me out to be.

I took the same cow elk I had ridden when I encountered the strange old beggar. The snow was falling heavily, fat flakes that muffled everything. I scanned every head in the street, looking for the red flash of Lya’s scarf. Something felt off, as I drew nearer to the lodge. It took me a moment, as I tied the elk to the post. There was no smoke coming from the chimneys.

I opened the door to an empty hall. Dark, still. I stared at the empty lodge, uncomprehending. I knew they had been there the day before—the lodgekeepers, the sick, the dying. Where the hell could that many people have gone?

The ashes in the hearths were cold. Where had Lya been all night, if not here?

“You won’t find her here, pup.”

I whirled, hand on my pistol. The beggar from before stood in the door, but he was—different. Younger, somehow. “If you know where she is,” I said, “tell me.”

The beggar shook his head, shrugged. “She doesn’t want to be found. She’s gotten very good at passing unseen.”

“It’s too dangerous for her to be on her own.”

“Who said she was alone?” the beggar asked. “And who said being with you was safer?” He laughed, picking under his nails with the point of his knife. “You’ll have to run quick if you mean to catch up to her.”

“If you know where she’s going—” I started

“You already know, pup,” the beggar said. “She already told you.”

Home. She was going to Arborhall. It wasn’t spring yet, but what did that matter to her? She had left this place through a snowstorm that should have killed her. Why should she have to wait for the thaw?

I raced back to Morhall, the elk flinging up snow behind us. The stablemaster swore up and down that no one had been out since I left, even when I put a pistol under his chin. “Are you drunk or blind?” I demanded. “That goddamn bull is gone!” 

#

Bili was gone from the stables, as was another elk. Lya’s things were missing, and Tyna’s room had been stripped bare. No one had seen them leave.

I didn’t understand. Couldn’t understand. How could they vanish, just like that? Two women, one of them heavily pregnant, a seven year old boy, an entire lodge full of people—gone.

She had to have been planning this. Since she spoke to Spider, if not earlier. How long had she been planning to disappear on us?

Muras stood over the fire, staring into the coals. “Gone to Arborhall… how long, do you think, it will take her to get there?”

“Here’s a better question,” I said, “how long do you think it will take us to get there?”

“That’s madness,” Muras said.

“What about this winter hasn’t been mad?” I demanded. “What about us finding Lya like we did wasn’t mad?” I threw his coat at him, tired of taking no for an answer. “If you don’t get up,” I said, “you’re never going to know if you have a son or a daughter.”

Muras held his coat a moment, and said, “I can only die once.”

“What?”

“Something Tyna said,” he murmured. “For all the deaths we caused here, I can only die once. That it’s a pittance.” He looked at me, a new light in his eyes, or rather an old one that I had missed, and stood. “Everyone knows she’s missing, so it will look odd if only we go out looking for her. But we can’t have a party with us, either.”

I almost smiled with relief. This was the Muras I knew, his mind turning over a puzzle, the Muras who knew that he was lucky. “We can send a party off on a wild goose chase, with a promise to join them later, cutting out the way we mean to go.”

Muras nodded, and said, “We can only take so much supplies.”

“If anyone can get the two of us out of here alive, it’s you.”

“Yes, well, we’re damned lucky you’re a good hunter.” Muras pulled on his coat. “We’ll send them into the forest to look. Some rumor about the wolf cult headed that way, with orders to camp when night falls, and that we’ll join them then. At sundown, we’ll take our elk, and when it’s too dark for us to be seen from here, we’ll turn south.”

And hope that our rifles were enough to keep wolves and snow lions away from us until we found a place to sleep. The sky had been a moody dark grey that promised snow. If we were lucky, if there was snow falling when we left, it would hide our trail from anyone who might try to track us.

Muras picked up his sword, held it a moment in his hands, the polished dark sheath gleaming in the low light. “We’ll never know anything but war, will we?” “I don’t know,” I said, “maybe when they make you a soldier, that’s the only way you can look at the world.”

Muras shook his head. “I can’t accept that.” He looked at me, let out a breath. “We will live long enough to see peace,” he said, “long enough that we’ll no longer be soldiers.”

I laughed a little, and Muras looked at me curiously. “Nothing,” I said, “it’s just good to have you back.”

#

We orchestrated it like theater, pulling together search parties. The commander’s pregnant mistress and child had gone missing, along with his personal physician, it was natural that Morhall would be in an uproar over it. Muras spun a beautiful tale about believing that the wolf worshipers had spirited them away into the woods, sending three groups in different directions. We would meet up with those headed northeast by sundown, he told them, once he had put someone in place to keep Morhall running in the meantime.

Muras was no fool there, either. There was an ambitious young major who we both knew was aching for a command post like this one. Muras sent him out searching, and found instead the near-incompetent young man we both knew was only there because his uncle was quite wealthy. Such a young man could be trusted to survive until spring, when someone came looking for us and found us long since missing, but wasn’t useful for much else. He certainly would have no idea what to do when we didn’t return, except carry on as acting commander.

We put together enough food to carry us a few days, no more, so as not to risk suspicion from the kitchens. After that, we would have to be damned lucky to get out of the north alive.

I left my letter to Eva deep in the pile of letters that would go out in the spring. I saw that Muras had written several to Tomlin. I wondered if any of them were like mine, explaining the choice we were about to make.

Two young and fit gelding elk would have to carry us. I didn’t dare load them heavy—we needed to be swift, and we couldn’t be seen taking all of our worldly possessions, either. So, I was careful in what I chose. Our warmest clothes, our best boots. A few things that I believed we could not do without or could not bear to leave behind. Everything else, we could afford to lose.

Theater, all of it, and the best damn show we ever put on.

Muras poured over a map, trying to guess which way Lya would have gone, and where we might catch up to her. She had told us enough of Hasi routes, and they would be on their way northward now, following the thawing plains. Reaching the Hasi would give her a chance to hide among their numbers for a time, even as she headed in the opposite direction. She spoke their trade language, she knew them as friends who had helped her before. Through Veland, they were a sort of kin to her.

Our biggest obstacle would be convincing any Hasi we encountered that we were friendly.

In the stables, I watched Muras secure a particular pouch in his saddlebags that I knew well. The one gift his mother ever gave him. He noticed me, and paused. “I suppose it seems foolish,” he said, “after all these years.”

“No,” I said, “it doesn’t. Not after everything we’ve survived.” Maybe his mother was a witch, maybe it was all in his head, I didn’t know—but I wasn’t about to go questioning whatever had kept him alive all this time. I had too many questions about everything else to worry too much about that.

The sun was going down as we set out, though you could hardly tell, the clouds were so dense. We started out north, carrying our lanterns, and as the city grew smaller behind us, snow began to fall.

I threw my lantern into the snow, to prove to whoever came looking that we had set out in that direction, and we arced southwest, swinging wide around the city. Our tracks would be gone by morning, leaving no trace of what direction we had gone. Muras and I rode close together, a rope thrown between us, so we could not lose the other. It reminded me of that march, being out in the dark and the snow. The wind picked up at our backs as we rode, pushing us south. No one would be able to look for us until morning, and even then, only if the weather allowed.

Across the dark fields, past the maples where I had met the old beggar, down the sloping hills and along, only Muras’ lantern to light the way, a fragile flame protected by a pane of glass he had to wipe the snow from every few minutes. I don’t know how long we rode, the wind at our backs, but I knew we were both thinking the same thing—that to stop in the open was to invite the cold to steal our breaths.

We found the beginnings of trees, a few blown down. Muras paused, scanning the dark landscape. The wind was sharp and cold, and I could hear it howling in the distance. Really, I couldn’t be sure if it was the wind, or a pack of wolves, but I wanted it to be the wind, so that was the only possibility I allowed.

We found the first edges of forest, and hunkered down behind an old log big enough to shelter both us and our elk, which we huddled against to sleep. We couldn’t have built a fire even if we dared to, so I wrapped a blanket around me and Muras both, my chin tucked against his shoulder. Muras let out a breath, listening to the wind over us. “Strange,” he said, “it doesn’t feel as monumental as I thought it would.”

“What doesn’t?”

“The leaving. Becoming a traitor.” Muras shifted, touching my arm. “It didn’t feel monumental when I killed Corasin, either, but I thought that was just—the context of everything else. How could I celebrate when we had done what we did?” He paused, sighed. “But maybe it’s just that the stuff that makes the story of one’s life never feels momentous when you’re doing it.”

The elk grunted quietly and stirred, one of the geldings bringing his head around to rest on my back. “Of course it doesn’t. When you’re doing it, it’s just the choice you made to stay alive. It only becomes significant later, when you have to fit it in with everything that’s happened since.” I closed my eyes, held Muras close. “I’m glad you chose this.”

Muras ran his fingers across my sleeve, head resting on the side of the elk. “I’m sorry it took me so long.” He was quiet a while, long enough for me to almost fall asleep. “What if we’ve lost her? If this time, she stays hidden?”

I shifted, and thought of the beggar with his club foot. I want the fight. “I don’t think she will.” I watched the snow piling up around us. “I think she’s just looking for a good place to dig her heels in, call home again.” I pulled the blanket higher over us. “Seems to me our priority—after surviving, of course—is figuring out what it’ll take to make us Sarenn.”