#and it's like... ah. she's just poorly socialized

[occamstfs]

What You Really Want

Milo mouths off about a man dating his long time crush before immediately learning the lesson that he should be less trusting of strange voices promising to fulfill his desires

Pretty standard straight to gay himbo/jockification! It will also be my final story for some time I believe, so I do hope you enjoy! -Occam

“It’s no fair that they literally have it all.” Like many a ‘nice guy’ Milo has spent an inordinate amount of time skulking social media and disparaging more physically gifted men as he stumbles across them. The root of his despair is not difficult to ascertain, his eyes burning with envy make quite clear the inner monologue of ‘girls always date assholes.’ He sneers as he comes across the most recent post of his friend and crush, Juliet. The jealous man of course knows next to nothing about the character of James, the jock-type now dating her, but judging by the gleaming smirk and the bulky arms of a killer hanging from his shoulders, the judgemental dweeb has more than enough evidence to speculate.

Delving into his memories, Milo’s face burns with embarrassment as he recalls mentioning his crush to Juliet, ‘Oh!’ her bright eyes shift uncomfortably and her cheeks begin to blush enough to match the pink tint she threw on this morning. Milo’s fist clenches as she almost giggles in her discomfort, ‘sorry Milo I guess- Well, I guess I just thought you were gay?’ After this Milo played it cool, he thinks. Hand scratching the back of his head as he asserts his straight identity and the two go on to have a meal far more quiet and awkward than usual. When new-boyfriend James comes to pick up Juliet, Milo forces a smile before staring daggers at his back as the pair walk away. 

This brings us to the present hate scrolling session in which Milo is more than absorbed. Lips curl into a sneer as he traces the impossible to ignore curves of this must-be dullard’s defined body. Milo scoffs as he sees the litany of women that must make up the man’s dating history. “Bet they won’t even last a week, ha! I mean judging by how much the douche spends in the gym I bet he’s just using her as a beard anyway.”

With this final rather homophobic assertion, the nerd’s phone flashes before going dark, “What the-” before he has to determine whatever caused this, he goes stiff as a strange voice resounds through his head. ‘Tired of all the big boys getting what they want, hmm?’ Immediately concerned he’s lost his mind, Milo gets to powering back on his phone to call for help. ‘Now now, Milo. Do not worry your little head. I am here to help. Would you not like the chance to be just like them?’ Just like them. Envy burns through his veins greater than anything. Sensing this immediately, whatever this voice is seizes upon his clearly fragile psyche, its laughter steely and alien, ‘Ah ha ha. I thought so.’

Dropping his phone once more, Milo tries to drill the voice, “Wh- what are you exactly. Are you a dem- hm, an angel?” The voice answers almost before he even finishes the thought, ‘It matters not what I am. All that matters are your desires. Now. Do you wish to be all you desire, all this James embodies? All that he is in your head.” Miles gulps and almost starts drooling at the idea, just like James. Women at his fingertips whenever he wants, a body sculpted by the gods while keeping a far better mind than that oaf could ever afford. With next to no hesitation or forethought, Milo nods and the world goes dark.

When he awakens the poorly mannered man finds it’s the next day. His phone rests in his hand and when opened he finds it zoomed in on a picture of James’ meaty bicep. Milo rolls his eyes and tosses his phone aside before going to stand. Making it halfway up he grunts in pain as he only then discovers morning wood more pressing and turgid than he’s ever encountered. Falling back down he clutches at the pain in his crotch from his cock being forcibly yanked by his underwear. Hands now grasping it he gasps as he finds it filling them far more than it has any right to. 

Well now, while they’re already down there he might as well have some fun right? After briefly struggling to get his waistband over his swollen package his mouth falls open in shock as he’s finally able to appraise the almost unrecognizable cock hanging from his crotch. It’s like none he’s seen before, not that he generally observes dicks of course. Far more impressive than he imagined a dick could be. His fingertips can scarcely meet his palm when he tries to grasp it, and as he begins rubbing it it feels leagues more sensitive than it has before now, as if nerve endings are multiplying. Looking to his awaiting phone he sees the photo of James and what’s her name as he begins masturbating outright.

Seeing a bulge in James’ strained pants he grunts as he returns to stare at his own suddenly substantial cock. More like him. The already thicker rod strains as he reflexively humps into his hand, forcing his grip wider as it expands to simply need more room. The new veins painting the length of his nascent ten inch dick surge higher up its length as he swears he can see them pulse and bulge with each racing heartbeat. Beneath his thrusting hands, bouncing as his hips continue to forcefully thrust with more strength than he has, his balls similarly grow heavier, larger as they send hormones flowing through him enough to metamorphosize and, more immediately, cause pre to stream and coat his fingers. 

Milo leans his head back as he is bursting with a need for release greater than he can understand. He shifts his jaw as it twinges with the pleasure of growth, widening and strengthening into one fit for titan. Below his newly defined chin, his neck thickens and moans grow deeper as an Adam's apple bulges out of his throat. Hearing his voice echo deeper throughout his bedroom, his heady pleasure comes to a head as he is struck with the bizarre urge to lick the pre off his fingers. Before he’s able to acquire or express shock and disgust, his eyes blast open and he is again staring at the image of James, more like- and he blows his load.

The moment of release may as well have shut him down once more, pleasure overloads him like a flashbang as every inch of his body feels at once. Drool drips from his plumper lips as his mind is fried and his hips continue to thrust without any input or awareness, sending stains across his wall and splattering into his darker hair as it begins to pull shorter and tint darker. Eyebrows thicken and cover more of his forehead as his brow hangs lower over his eyes staining brown and growing duller.

His whole form tenses as he finally achieves release, staring at the image of his, uh, competition. Arms flex as his hands crack wider, fingers stretch longer, skin grows rougher. For the first time in his life definition appears on his arms, biceps and triceps compete for which can increase faster, which can catch more eyes, which can rival those alluring arms of James. Beneath shoulders packing on weight are pits that darken with curls now thicker, a deeper brown nearing black as the forest strives to prevent any light from breaking the canopy. Similarly they moisten with the masculine heady musk that they are perfectly designed to disseminate, powerful enough to allure any twink towards his dick, or uh, huh.

Milo moans as this seemingly intrusive thought makes itself at home in his morphing psyche. Barely returning to sentience enough to realize the stray gay thought, he arches his back and stretches as if he were waking up. Mindlessly he wipes the cum staining his larger hands on the new dark treasure trail as it itches and slowly inches up from pubes unshaved. Feeling the hint of an Adonis belt he sits up with a shock, the feeling of something he has long envied bringing back his awareness.

Despite the obvious differences it takes far too long for him to be aware of, to truly notice what has become of him. He struggles to make sense of the effort it takes to move his new larger limbs. He grabs at his new hair and sucks drool through his teeth as he tries to understand how it’s changed texture and color so totally, did he dye it and forget or what? The gears in his mind slowly turn as his fingers move to scratch an itch under his arms, struggling through the dank jungle of curls. Thoughtlessly he brings his sweat-wet fingers to his nose and grimaces. “Fuck man, I smell like an, uh, like a, unnh-” he moans quietly as he’s unable to even finish the sentence, instead an image of James forces its way to the front of his mind and two now-malnourished brain cells spark together and strain to form a thought.

“Oh fuck I’m turning into a imbe-, an uh imbekle? Ugh, an uh- a dumb jock.” Milo bites his lips and flexes an arm to try and assuage his nerves, to get his attention focused on anything but his anxieties. Fortunately to this end, seeing his bulging biceps he feels his larger cock begin to stir. Some semblance of rationality knows ceding to his wanting package is probably what led to this encroaching fog over his mind. His skin begins to prickle as all-around it grows more sensitive. Beyond these skin deep sensations it also seems as if darker hairs are beginning to spread out wherever his follicles will allow.

Seeing hair beginning to prickle his chest and blanket his legs his mind produces images of hairy men he has leered at through the years. His neck twitches as whatever dregs of the pathetic skirtchaser he once was rise up and try to combat his new predilections. He’s straight, he’s always been straight. Right? His mouth goes dry as he tries to remember ever having dated a woman in the past. Barring that, only just able to recall that something is happening to him, only just able to remember that he is transforming into some alien self, Milo tries to produce an image of what he used to look like. And he cannot.

His mouth falls open as it often does whenever he struggles to produce a thought, making it almost his default state. Mouth-breathing mouth ajar he fully experiences the thick air of his bedroom as it fills with his new musk. The room around him begins to dissolve and reform into surroundings that reinforce who he is now, that prove this is who he has always been. Clean pressed laundry dirty and shift into unwashed gym clothes that help cloud the room with his stink. Posters of whatever movies and video games he enjoys corrupt into images celebrating the impressive male form, all distinctly stained from the years of hanging on Milo’s bedroom walls. He hears clanking outside of his bedroom as bookshelves collapse and reform into weights heavier than he would be able to lift.

Milo stumbles to his larger feet and ignores the hefty weight of his balls and cock bobbing in the air as he drags himself out of his bedroom to find a mirror. He leaves sweaty footprints larger than any shoes he owns on the tile of the bathroom as he bumbles in. Leaning over the sink his lips quiver as he sees a razor clogged with hair darker than he feels he should have. Sooner than the doubts arrive they vacate as a thick, stubbled beard rapidly bursts onto his face. Looking up he smirks as he sees a thick mustache surges over his upper lip, looking just like the ones he appreciates,  just like he has always been into. His eye twitches and he grunts as his hair retracts once more into something far more intentional and stylish. At the same time pecs suddenly bulge larger and hang lower as Milo leans heavier over the bathroom sink. 

His eyes glaze over as complex thoughts once more become too elusive in the face of his rising lusts. Muscles bulge larger as his back and legs creak, stretching him taller as thighs and shoulders widen and continue putting on mass. Feet spread like fins on the floor as his hands widen and sweatily slide on the ceramic sink. His mouth continues to water as he inspects all these increasingly masculine changes and his cock continues to throb. Milo bites his lip as new sensations arise from his cock once more, this time the change is apparent as his foreskin regrows, making his cock look even thicker as its head grows hooded and he struggles not to immediately break into masturbation at the powerful image of his own seductive form.

Milo’s barely functioning mind struggles to argue for any reason to not just return to the immeasurable delights of gratifying his all-encompassing urges. He stays his hands for a moment before the greatest horror yet rears its head. A monologue begins in his mind that is not his own, that cannot be his own. Dull laughter echoes through his increasingly vacant mind as a voice even slower and deeper than that which sounds from his new vocal chords, “Yooo broo come onnnnn. Give up, give in. This is what you wanted, ‘s what we wanted huhuhuh.”

He feels a pressure in his balls as they almost churn with the otherworldly need that seemingly always flows through him. He can’t help but imagine the men he’s going to bed with his new endowment, how many cocks he’s going to take in his new powerful ass. Drool trickles from his lips through the dense black stubble that coats his face denser with each second, with each breath. Spit continues down the length of his more defined face before dripping onto weighty, similarly furred pecs. His heavier hands slowly creep towards the hardening cock standing tall and long from the jungle of pubes. Before he’s able to assist his thrusting hips however, his lusty haze is interrupted by his phone chiming. His mind immediately thinks it must be James which fills him with conflicting emotions of rage and giddiness. “Ohh bro maybe he’s inviting us over. It’s been toooo long since we fucked huhuh-”

Milo pointedly tries to ignore his hairier, bulkier reflection as he stumbles out of the bathroom to check his phone. Unfortunately he catches a glimpse which makes it all the more difficult to ignore the throbbing weight dripping, almost pouring, pre onto the floor. Despite it all he stands strong, quieting this other voice as it urgently tries to convince him to give in before he’s able to pick up his phone. In a final act of resistance, or perhaps impotence, he has the lofty idea of calling for help before his mind goes completely blank and, seeing the notification, he instinctually goes to his messages to find who texted him. It’s Juliet! 

First his heart flutters before he’s absolutely confused at the sensation. She’s just his bestie? Weird. He shakes off whatever that was and gets on to reading the message, “heyy girlie- which of these do you want me to post? Oh ya and lmao, are you and james cool if I do the last one?” At the mention of James his pulse again races and there are butterflies in his stomach far more powerful than whatever bizarre feelings he had but moments ago. No time to dwell, Milo starts swiping through the images sent. They’re a photoset of their little group outing to a halloween party last week, the trio, Milo, James and Jules dressed up as a group, as X-men! Respectively dressed as Wolverine, Cyclops and Jean Grey.

He smirks as he starts chubbing up again thinking of how easily he was able to pass as the hairy beast. His eyes then return to see James’ bubble butt in trademark spandex, which only makes it harder to not lose control then and there, moaning as he imagines playing with that ass. Holding to whatever well of willpower remains within him Milo holds strong and keeps his hands above waist level. Finally he gets to the specific image Juliet mentioned, one of him and James messily making out on the dance floor. James yanks at the hairy Milo’s hair, visor half hanging off as Milo reciprocates by shoving his hand into James’ pants. Fuck that’s hot.

Without even touching his needy cock, without any pleading from the new voice in his head, without a single chance to hold back. Simply from seeing the steamy image of him and James, Milo’s mind is overrun with memories and desires of the new man he is. The man he ever was and always will be. And for the second time today, but not the last, he loses control. Cum splatters against his phone as his mind goes blank anew with rushing pleasure. Painting himself once more with his most-used utensil he laughs dumbly as he realizes how swiftly he just came. Almost with pathetic haste, though now he’s quite unfamiliar with any sense of shame. The voice that only just wormed its way into his head spills from his mouth as it fully and forevermore wrests control as the true Milo.

“Huhuhuh guess I should work on my hair trigger,” He grunts as he looks at his phone and texts back some variation of ‘girl that’s porn you can’t post that!!!’ he turns his mind where it goes more often than anywhere in his new life. He wonders what James is doing and immediately texts him. Waiting for a reply Milo heads off to the gym to get a pump in before presumably going to meet him, not worrying about cleaning up or covering his scent. The gym’s for smelling like a man right? He certainly wouldn’t mind if everyone else followed his lead huhuh. Milo bites his lip trying to ignore his hardening cock as he makes his way out of the apartment clad in too-tight, stained gym clothes. 

Before he even makes it out the complex he gets a text from James and promptly changes course. Immediately Milo’s racing down the street to his lover’s apartment. Cock already snaking down his shorts and creating a stain at its nadir, Milo hopes he can keep his needy cock at bay until he makes it. Thinking of the alternative work out he’s to enjoy in bed with James, Milo struggles to not moan obscenely as he waddles as quickly as he can into the lobby of James’ building. Heart racing with excitement he can’t wait to see James in person. Jittery with nerves, it feels like he’s going to meet the man for the first time. Hah! Milo promptly ignores the idea and starts to get some stretching in before their session. Trying to practice mindfulness with a mind thicker than mud he quickly finds himself possessed with memories of their countless times fucking in the past. Easy enough as the pair have been doing so for years. Still nerves assail him as his cock continues to strain his shorts. As the elevator doors click open he smirks as he was able to make it this far without blowing his third load of the day. His cock throbs with anticipation for its release soon to come, and impatiently awaits each and every similar session to follow.

[meridasblog]

The White Rabbit's promise

Realizing there aren't many stories about this villain from a poorly told tale, I decided to write my own. However, this story goes much further back, before this man became one of the most feared demonic terrorists. It's the story of that man who once had only one mission: to give his family, the Makains, a better place to call home.

But...what if this White Rabbit... had been followed by his own Alice to the land of demons?

Chapter 1

Long ago, in an already well-known world, lived two children—a boy and a girl—whose lives, once painted in shades of gray, slowly began to take color.

The girl's name, when spoken aloud, always carried the warmth of a sunrise. The boy’s name… remains unknown to our ears, or at least, it’s not one we can pronounce without pain. They found a home in a land that wasn’t theirs. And though it wasn't quite like their favorite tale, it surely was a place of wonder. There were no mad hatters or smiling cats that could disappear… there was a rabbit. A White Rabbit. One who ran not because he was late, but because he had already lost everything that mattered.

But I’m getting ahead of myself; let’s go back to the time before we fell down the rabbit hole.

New York, 1980

As the sun rises once more, another day awakens in the Big Apple. The car horns tangled in Fifth Avenue's morning traffic serve as music to the ears of New Yorkers. Times Square, with its modern lack of corporate personality, glitters with hollow grandeur. Central Park, fragrant with wet grass and kissed by sunlight, becomes the perfect place for wandering thoughts. People move through the streets, slipping into yet another chapter of their monotonous lives.

Sitting by a window in a condominium near the Empire State Building is a little girl with a lost look —one of those that give you the understanding that she is not in this world right now. Her wine-red hair, tied loosely in a side braid, moves gently in the warm caress of the wind. Her eyes, dark as coffee beans, scan the streets of the neighborhood, capturing them in her notebook. She wears a blue dress adorned with delicate silver floral patterns, a light cream-white vest, and black strap shoes.

She runs her pencil over the paper with the gentleness of a mother's touch. Humming softly, she focuses on what is yet another drawing for her collection. But the moment is ruined when a loud crash startles her, causing the pencil to fly and scratch the paper.

Her brow furrows in frustration; her once-peaceful expression is now one of annoyance. She sets the notebook aside and goes to confront the source of the noise. When she opens the door, she finds her bothersome brothers fighting—again.

"Hey! I was drawing, you idiots!" she shouts, fists clenched in frustration, but they ignore her completely. The girl sighs, resigned. No matter how much she tries to talk to them, it's like speaking to a wall. Such are her days since she arrived at this supposed home.

“Ah… why do I even bother?" she thinks, sadly, walking downstairs.

Just then, the doorbell rings. “Must be the mail,” she thinks disinterestedly. But it rings again, and that makes her pause. The mailman usually doesn't ring twice. Curiosity piqued, she crouches down and peers through the wooden bars of the staircase.

Her parents answer the door. Her eyes scan the man: overweight, pale-skinned, with thinning hair and a thin, curly mustache. What catches her attention are the papers he's carrying. When her “mom” takes them, she recognizes the stamp

"A social worker? That means—" that's when she sees the other one. A boy with his eyes fixed to the ground; his hair black as a raven's plumage; his skin tanned yet pale; his clothes, baggy and somewhat formal, though a bit sloppy. When he looks up, she catches sight of his eyes— dark gray like storm clouds or slate stones. She frowns slightly, not from distrust but from a strange curiosity and interest.

Their eyes meet for a second. In those sad eyes, she sees a faint gleam. But the moment is broken when her brothers crash into the scene, one choking the other. The boy glances at them, and his face tightens with fear.

She watches him with concern. She knows now he'll be staying with them… and what that will mean. The only thing that she does is look away and climbs back upstairs. She no longer even remembers what she had come down for in the first place.

Minutes later

The sound of a toilet flushing echoes from the bathroom. The door opens, and the girl steps out, drying her hands. Distracted, she walks toward her room, still hearing the absurd bickering of her siblings.

Just a few steps away, she notices a shadow pass across the floor in her room. She frowns—surely one of them have invaded her space again. She speeds up and reaches the doorway.

"Hey, I told you to not—!"

The shout startles the intruder, who drops the book he is holding and bumps into her desk, knocking some pages to the ground. Her frown softens as she realizes it's the newcomer.

"I-I'm sorry, I-I didn't mean to barge in." The boy stammers nervously.

"No, no, you forgive me instead. I thought you were one of those... those redneck Carson kids." Her tone shifts from embarrassment to irritation.

"Y-you mean your brothers?"

"Please, they're more closely related to apes than to me."

"But you're not their…."

"Sister?"

The boy nods; she just looks down.

"I don't even come close to being part of this family."

She walks past him and grabs her sketchbook from the window sill. She rips out the ruined drawing, tosses it in the trash, and quietly closes the notebook.

"Believe me when I say I'm not." She adds as she begins picking up the scattered pages—only to spot the book he dropped. She picks it up and examines the cover.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

Her eyes wander over to the cover, and she runs her fingers gently across it. She turns to him, who looks nervous and ashamed, clearly expecting mockery. But instead, she offers his book back to him with a warm smile. He hesitates, then takes it. She walks to the desk and shows him one of her pages.

"This is my favorite character. Of course, I've always loved white rabbits—they're so cute." She says it with a smile. "Look, here I have a drawing of Alice and Cheshire."

She hurries to find the drawing but stops when she sees his still-surprised expression, tinged with shyness.

"Hey, I don't bite," she says, amused. She pulls out a worn notebook from her drawer. Inside, there are sketches of characters and scenes from the book, and even some that blend the city with Wonderland.

"It'd be great to live among wonders, don't you think?"

She smiles at him. He looks at her, and again she sees that same glimmer in his eyes. He smiles faintly.

She extends her hand.

"My name is Y/N. What's yours?"

Draw made by: https://www.deviantart.com/heroika/art/Conejo-Blanco-144697529

[jinxificada]

something to relax

dealer!jinx x fem!reader

summary: you deserve a rest, so you turn to the infamous jinx for help.

cw! substance usage (alcohol, nicotine & weed) (inaccurate) drug dealing risky sex dubcon/power imbalance cunnilingus (j!receiving) fingering (both!receiving)

men dni. 4k wc.

"i'm telling you, you're insanely overworking yourself. i don't even understand where'd you get all the time to do everything you do." your friend scolds you jokingly, though you can tell she's honestly worried for you.

"nonsense." you roll your eyes in denial, "i'm alright, we take the same classes."

"i'm not in any club doing extracurricular stuff, nor am i tutoring any dumb kid." she discusses, walking with you through the crowded hallway towards your next class.

"well i don't really have a choice, it's for the-"

"the scholarship, i know." she sighs, finally arriving. "just... please take a moment to relax."

you both take your seats almost in the middle of the classroom, by the windows. she always sat in front of you, so she would turn around and chat whenever she wanted without you being able to ignore her.

"how about we go to that party on saturday?" she proposes and you already bite your lip with an hesitant expression, "please! we don't have to stay the whole time, just an hour or two."

"i don't know... i don't have a car and it’ll be too late to take the bus." you poorly excuse, not wanting to fully reject her.

"i can drive you! or you can just stay at mine." she happily resolves and you just nod with a sigh.

it's not that you didn't like hanging out with your friend, nor she's always so insistent. she usually is very understanding and gives you space. but the exams were getting close and you needed to higher your grades in a couple of classes, so you've been paying extra attention in classes, speaking with a couple of teachers on how to improve your grades and busying yourself with the usual assignments, the extra assignments, and tutoring this one kid below your year for some extra money.

unlike most of the students here, your family isn't able to properly pay for your education. you've done your previous years in the public school your small town, your teachers were so amazed with your capabilities that they recommended your parents to send you somewhere... better. they all collaborated on writing a recommendation letter for your acceptance. and you got the full scholarship! congrats, now you have to work harder than your classmates in order to keep it.

it wasn't fair, and your friend knew it. she felt so bad that she couldn't help you with money or your studies, but she can help you to ease your mind a bit.

so, you could only frown while making a mental list of all the valuable things you could be doing instead of this, standing in a big kitchen full of intoxicated teenagers. your friend was trying to talk with you while mixing alcohol in disposable cups for each one of you.

"and tomy was sticking his tongue inside of mary's mouth in front of her father, ew! you should've seen their faces when they realized, her father was burning red, i don't know if from embarrasment or anger." she rambled with a loud laugh.

you chuckle, mostly because her laugh was contagious. "who was tomy, again?"

"shh, he's coming." she suddenly leans in to whisper before pulling back wearing her social smile, "tomyy!"

a rather scrawny tall boy comes from behind you saying your friend's name in the same way, "fancy seeing you here!" ah, he had a high pitched voice.

"i didn't want you to miss me!" she quickly jokes, "nice party!"

"i'm guessing you're having a good time." he chuckles. at this point he's set himself right next to you and still hadn't acknoledge you. "have you already found jinx?" he asks curiously with a supposedly mischeavous smile.

"damn, she's here already?"

"yeah, just bought from her in the second garden."

'what the hell is a second garden?' you thought with a weirded out glance.

they chat a bit more and you think you know the kitchen from memory after rolling your eyes around as they talked. the boy soon moves to another guest and your friend turns back to you.

"the funniest thing is that they were sent to the principal's office was for sucking their faces off in the middle of class." she continues the conversation she was having with you as if you've never been interrupted, it was a talent of hers.

'is this what she thinks of a relaxing night...?' you mentally complained. you had your friend talk you ear off 5 days a week, but that didn't seem enough for her. at some point you muted her voice from your head and only listened to the loud pop music and different people talking over each other. your eyes were fixed on the next room through the kitchen's door, the flashing lights barely illuminated the crowd. blondes, brunettes and redheads, they all stay in the background when a blue head pushes through them to your way.

you physically react with a quiet sigh when you can see her face. a pretty girl, with the softest features you've ever seen, decorated with a messy dark makeup and intense eyes. curious to see how her full style looked like your gaze lowers on her body, she was wearing a white laced corset gripping her chest for life and low wasted black denim shorts, along with the biggest boots you've ever seen.

the girl who caught your eye walked into the room with loud, confident steps. people quickle recognized her, some greeted, some lowered their eyes to the floor. she only smiled briefly before grabbing two closed bottles of vodka like she owned the place and left.

"who was that?" you breath out, realizing you've been holding it the whole time.

"jinx," your friend shrugged, "local dealer, mental problems and rich daddy." she summarized, fixing her lipstick and soon changing the topic.

the night ended up being a boomer. your friend got a stoner to share his blunt with you both and that, mixed with the alcohol you had been drinking since the night started, made you both pretty tired and sleepy. luckily, your friend's house was about two streets down from the party, allowing you to arrive sound and safe while intoxicated.

you couldn't deny that you slept like a baby.

but the week started again a day after, along with your responsabilities. and it seemed that it's gonna be a shitty one.

for your extracurricular activity, you had the job to take decent pictures for the school's paper. they were all rejected by the president in charge. you scored a negative B in a practically easy test because you were too distracted noticing that the so named jinx was in the same class as you. 'she looks very pretty in the dark blue uniform.' was your constant thought. and the cherry on top, you didn't have your extra money of the week because the parents of your student were late with the payment.

they were showered in wealth, why won't they give you your 50 dollars? now they’ll have to pay $100 next week.

but for now… you had to survive with the remaining money you had left for the rest of the week. and it was only monday.

you thought you could handle this particularly difficult week, but all this tension build up only to blow up on your face. and the face of the teacher who was telling you why you had to rewrite the essay you just submitted.

you were use to cry over stress, you thought it was a healthy way of letting it out. just not in the public eye.

tears and sobs were comming out of you as you walked down the halls, feeling like millions of eyes were judging you. how embarrasing, right? but that was only your mind playing you, the only person who looked at you twice was tomy who recognized you but couldn't recall from where.

it was friday and the classes already ended, the club was about to start in ten minutes but you were debating whether test your luck and see if it can all get shittier or just call it a day and go home.

but a loud yell of your name from behind you interrupted this final decision, your friend throted her way up to you and worriedly wiped your tears.

"are you okay? what happened?"

"i'm fucked up! i'm gonna fail all my exams and get kicked out from this stupid school!" you dramatically cried in the comfort of your friend's arms. you knew she was fighting demons to not roll her eyes and say 'i told you'.

she listened to your whines for a couple more minutes until she had an idea.

"okay stop, shush." you frowned but stayed quiet anyways, "listen, i know jinx stays in club hours to sell, she must be in that shitty bathroom from the second floor. why don't you go buy some weed and relax this weekend?"

your frown deepened and even a light blush appeared on your wet cheeks, "uhm, i don't know... why don't you just stay at my house to hangout, please?"

"oh hun, i would love to but my parents are taking me to visit my grandma." who lived far far away, you nodded. "just, try what i'm telling you, okay?"

"okay..." you hesitantly say, your friend seemed in a rush because just when you were about to ask her how much it would probably cost and how many grams you should buy, she pecked both of your cheeks in goodbye and left you standing in an almost empty hallway.

you were on your own now, hoping the 15 dollars you had left from this long week would be enough, but you doubted it.

you hesitantly pushed the door of the supposedly shitty bathroom (it didn't have a mirror, nor the renovated cubicle doors the other's had, though it was perfectly functional). welcomed by the sight of jinx sitting on top of the counter sink, ciggarette in hand and an amused smile on her face while she talked with another girl.

they quickly shut up at your presence. you purse your lips awkwardly at them, you were about to greet them when this other girl just scoffed as if you ruined something and leaned to whisper in the bluehaired's ear. jinx only chuckled in what you thought was a very flirty manner and the girl left, leaving you alone with her.

it was a good moment to say something, jinx was looking at you expectantly but you were too busy checking her out.

the school uniform itself is rather conservative, but it was usual for students to fix it to their liking as long as it isn't too inappropiate. jinx seemed to be an exception, because you didn't know how was she allowed to move around with the skirt so short. you weren't complaining, not at all. with the way she crossed her legs you could easily appreciate her pale legs, noticing a few marks and bruises which fed your curiosity.

she cleared her throat, "so? you came all the way here to stare at me?"

"no- no, sorry." you quickly apologized and presented yourself, taking a few steps closer, your voices echoing in the bathroom,

"right… what can i offer you?"

though her words were friendly enough, her tone was playful and given that you had a breakdown just minutes ago, you couldn't help but feel like she was mocking you. she probably was.

"i, uh, i was wondering what's your cheapest relaxing item?" you hesitantly ask, seeing the corner of her lips rising the slightest bit in a smirk.

"are you familiar with drugs?"

"no... not really."

"then i have the perfect discount for you!" jinx smiles brightly and you get even more closer, interested. "weed is ideal for begginers, and i can give you 15g for 100 bucks, whatcha say?"

"oh." you instantly gloom. "and... h-how much for 2 or 3g?"

"3 grams? you can barely make a blunt with that." she mocks raising an eyebrow, studying you for a second before smirking again. it was hard to read her, but you could sense she had something in mind as it seemed rather mischeavous. "for 3g... 20 bucks."

you sighed, looking away in embarrasment. you heard that her prices were high, but this... what did she need so much money for, anyways?

"okay, um... i don't have enough money with me right now. thank you." you sheepeshly said, ready to turn around and go back home to keep crying.

"wait!" she suddenly says, decrossing her legs to shift in her spot, "don't give up so easily... we can arrange something..."

"arrange...?" you repeated, confused. jinx motioned with her fingers to approach her and you did, mantaining a respectable distance before she could reach your arm and pull you even closer, caresing the lenght of it along with your hand. you were stunned, feeling your ears and chest warm up. "how come?" you murmured, trying to grasp on the situation.

"i'm feelin' nice..." she hummed, "i can give you 5g... if you give me head."

"e-excuse me?" that was your first reaction, pulling the hand she was holding away and to your chest, "what...? are you serious?"

"oh don't be such a prude!" she chuckles, giving you a knowing look, "d'ya think i'm dumb? i've seen you staring, i know you want me."

her bluntness made you blush, damn, her mere presence made you blush. she was exposing you while offering her body in change of some weed. you've never been in this kind of situation before, your mouth opening and closing as you tried to think of something to say.

she kept distracting you though, with that pretty smirk of hers. since you didn't instantly ran away, jinx knew her guess was correct. reaching for your hand again and rounding your hips with her long legs to pull you closer, till your body hit the counter she was sitting on.

"i know you want me." she repeated in a low tone, "and i know you need it, toots." you unconsciously lean into her touch as she caress your cheek, right where the dried tears rested on.

"i don't want to t-take advantage of you..." you dumbly say, jinx almost pouted at how adorable you were. you thought it was you who was taking advantage of this?

"you're not, silly!" she giggled raspily, "this is business."

"i'm- i don't.... i'm not sure..." you rambled, and before you could make a point -if you were ever going to make it-, jinx pulled you into her for a kiss. a hungry, intense kiss.

and you instantly melted, your hands traveled to hug her waist as you reciprocated. she tasted like that ciggarette she was smoking a moment ago, mixed with the flavour of some candy.

you thought it was hot.

her body shifted closer, sitting by the edge of the counter to easily push her hips into you. the heated make-out was interrupted by her own heavy breaths.

"see, toots?" she rasped, "you can do it."

"okay." you hummed, leaning in to kiss her again. it was ridiculous really, how easily you gave in. specially after she dodged your attempt with an evil smirk.

"uh-uh." she pushed you by the shoulders, "i asked you to eat me out."

you almost scoffed in complain, before realizing that maybe… this was even better.

"but i have a condition." jinx called for your attention with an amused chuckle. "you have to make me squirt."

"fuck." you sighed, "really...? are you-?"

"i know i can, yeah." she nods, spreading her legs for you, "but it won't be easy..."

you certainly wouldn't mind trying, you weren't exactly up close to her pussy and you could already feel the smell of her arousal, inviting you to taste her. jinx lifted up her skirt to expose her lingerie, a furious pink with a wet spot on her center that watered your mouth.

soon enough you were kneeling down, it was a bit uncomfortable given the height of the sink. hesitantly, you licked your lips and looked up at her, in search of confirmation. in response, jinx flashed you a playful smile, leaning back to rest her weight on her hands.

satisfied, you concentrated on her pussy, carefully pressing down your thumb as if testing the waters. her hips twitched at the contact, moving towards your hand. you let out a hum, 'sensitive?'. experimentally, you sticked your tongue out to lap over her underwear, the wet spot growing as it mixed with your saliva. you were contently taking things slow, against jinx own desires.

she aggresively gripped your hair to push your head into her pussy, "don't tease me, nerd." she husked.

and you couldn't bring yourself to mind, rushing to move her panties to the side to finally taste her. you wanted to impress her, you wanted her to like you, and give her the best head she'd ever have. your lips hugged her clit, quickly working on her pussy, sucking and lapping. you were rewarded with quiet sighs and trembling legs, occasionally a moan. but it seemed that jinx was trying not to crumble, silencing her sounds by pressing her lips together, though it barely did the job. you didn't mind, not when you were making out with her pussy so fervently.

your hands gripped her plushy thighs as you put them on your shoulders, helping her to stay still. her hips twitched towards you every now and then, when you would suck particularly hard on her throbbing clit. and you? you were having the time of your life.

as busy as you always were, it’s been quite long since you had some fun like this.

jinx looked down at you with furrowed eyebrows and flushed cheeks, meowing softly as she felt herself coming undone at your enthusiastic work on her pussy. her hand pulled at your hair and you opened your eyes to meet hers, but her head was thrown back in pleasure. you didn’t stop, instead you moved your hand to furiously rub her center until she looked at you again, biting her lower lip to muffle her moan. she came against your mouth, rocking her hips lazily against you.

you licked her clean a few times before realizing you didn't accomplished your task, she didn't squirt.

"well well, toots," she said accompanied with a breathless and amused chuckle, "i told you it would be- mhm!" her mocking words were interrupted by your actions, you decided that you'll just try harder.

you went back at it, this time focusing more on her unattended hole. when your tongue explored a little more inside, your nose hit her clit sending shivers through her back as she arched. her initial surprise was overpowered with pleasure, she didn't care anymore about not showing how much she was enjoying herself.

after the previous stimulation, this time she reached her limit much quicker. you really wanted to make her squirt, so you put all your effort on your fingers, which you carefully put inside her. jinx cursed above you, letting you do whatever you wanted with your body as everything felt just so good for her.

and the reward came along her relief, her cum fell all over your lower face, though you shamelessly tried to drink all you could.

"mkay, stop-" jinx whined lowly as you kept your mouth attached to her pussy, against her own words her legs squeezed your head tightly.

you pulled back a few seconds later, wiping your chin with the back of your hand only to smudge all her fluids to your cheek, making her giggle. she motioned at you to get closer, opening the flush of water on the sink by her side.

"thanks." you smiled quietly as she cleaned your face with water, "your thighs..." you pointed out at the wet mess on her inner thighs.

"i know."

jinx took a deep breath before making an effort to get down the counter, barely struggling to make her way inside a cubicle. you shyly stayed put, fixing your hair looking to anywhere else to give her some privacy as she cleaned herself up.

"i didn't know you were that stubborn." the bluehaired girl mocked you, suddenly she was by your side again. this time cornering you.

"you- you asked me to do it."

"yeah..."

there was something so mesmerizing in her blushed cheeks, her darkened blue eyes. your breath got caught in your throat when you felt her slim fingers sneaking under your skirt uniform to playfully pull on the edge of your underwear.

you only looked at her with little hesitance before you tried to lean in and kiss her. she dodge your attempt for the second time, not letting you time to react when she forcefully turned you around, pushing her chest on your back.

"i can give you the 15g, if you let me play a little bit." she whispered against your ear, nibbling at the earring you were wearing, "hmm? will ya let me?"

"yeah," you quickly agreed with a pleading voice, hitching up your own skirt and resting your hand on top of hers while pushing your hips, your movements were hurried and desperate, there was a pulsing desiring waiting to be attended. jinx was overly amused, rubbing your center over your underwear. "yes..." you sighed, throwing your head back to her side, leaving you neck exposed for her to keep her lips busy with.

breathless moans left your mouth, relaxing your body against her touch when loud steps startled you. it was impossible for you to ignore them because there was a chance that someone could caught you both. though jinx didn't seem to care, mindlessly biting your skin.

"did you hear that?" you mumbled, your body tensed in anticipation.

"yeah," she giggled in response, capturing your attention by getting her hands under you panties which got a squeak sound out of you. "imagine if they find us here."

"not funny-" you grumbled, unable to push her away but your eyes fixed on the closed door.

"c'mon baby, must be the janitor. he's not allowed to come here." she reassured, her other hand moving your head to her, kissing your lips messily.

you gave in, sighing into her as she pump her fingers in and out of you. you already felt so stimulated that a few minutes later you were already cumming on her hand. she doesn't stops till you ride out of your high.

jinx loudly pecks your cheek, pulling her fingers out and up to her mouth, sucking off your cum.

"god." your voice trembled at the sight.

she only smirked at you, walking to her bag which was laying on the floor. your eyes were closed while you fixed yourself again, anxious to get home and change your dirty underwear as you can uncomfortably feel the stickness.

when you opened them, jinx left on the counter a small ziploc bag.

"a deal is a deal." she shrugs, "enjoy."

you slowly reached to the bag, a bit conflicted by how the situation was ending.

“i- i’m not even sure i needed it now.”

jinx raised her eyebrows at your murmur, you came to her with those desperate and anxious eyes, only for you to not accept it?

but she knew better, with her signature mischievous smirk she approached you once again, puts the bag in your hands and let her fingers linger a bit more on top of them.

“how about this? take ‘em home, use it tonight and touch yourself thinking ‘bout me.”

your eyes open slightly, and you blush like you didn’t just fuck her a couple of minutes ago. either she always caught you out of guard, or you’re simply not used to being… so vulgar.

“so? will you do that f’me?” she stares at you expectantly with those big blue eyes, amused by your reactions.

“y-yeah, yes i’ll do it.”

“cute.” she sighs, leaning to peck your cheek once again before going to grab her bag and walk towards the exit. “i want proof! text me later!” she chuckles loudly by the door and just as loudly smacks it closed.

[chaosherald]

Writing Challenge Weekend

This is for @thedissonantverses writing challenge: HERE

(It has been a long time since I've written anything. ^⁠_⁠^ Post finishing Veilguard I now have multiple works in progress. Thank you for the inspiration!)

Rook was trapped.

Dish duty was usually, well, not fun exactly, but congenial. Most of the group lingered after dinner. Socializing, debriefing on the events of the day, planning next moves, drifting to their individual hobbies while staying in the warm orange firelit circle of the dining hall - a family cobbled together from shared hope and grief and the affection that came from standing shoulder to shoulder against unspeakable horrors.

Tonight, however, the evening's conversation had focused on everyone's actual families. Harding had compared dessert to her Ma’s pie, then Taash hesitantly started talking about meals with Shathann and soon everyone was jumping into the conversation. Even Lucanis - who barely remembered his parents and Neve - who was notoriously close lipped about most of her family - had added to the conversation.

And Rook was trapped. Standing at the wash basin in the corner of the room, with the happy gathering between her and the door. So far no one had commented on her lack of contribution to the conversation, but it was only a matter of time. Rook considered her options. Maybe she could slip into the pantry, pretend to take inventory. Or fade step to the landing above her head and slip out the side door. Or -

Bellara's voice, light with laughter, interrupted Rook's escape plans. “What about you, Rook? What were your parents like?”

The pot in Rook's hands slipped, catching the edge of the basin and landing with a thud on the floor. Rook was almost sorry it missed her foot. That would have gotten her out of the conversation. Grabbing a towel, Rook focused on retrieving the runaway pot, wiping down the trail of water it had left on the floor, keeping her eyes focused away from the group at the table. This was going to ruin the pleasant mood and Rook hated to be the cause.

“I, ah, I don't know. No one knows who they were, so…”

The silence was deafening. Rook focused on drying the already dry floor.

Emmrich spoke up. “Of course. I am sorry, my friend. I should have remembered. Rook was a foundling in the Necropolis” he told the others. “Though there must have been some records from when you were found. We Watchers do pride ourselves on our record keeping.”

Rook stood, carefully laying out the towel on the edge of the basin, trying to keep her voice steady. “There was a book. The log of the Watcher who was first alerted to my presence by the skeletons who found me. A blanket. Nothing terribly useful.” Rook remembered seeing the items when she was old enough to ask where she came from. The blanket was wholly unremarkable. The notes about her discovery just a footnote, a sentence in the midst of copious notes on the experiments the old necromancer had been focused on. Upon first seeing how poorly documented her founding was, how little information the Watch had, Rook had decided to leave the Necropolis. An angry child with no idea what she was running from or running to.

Old wounds. Healed over and reopened so many times that she really didn't notice them anymore. Or so Rook told herself. If there were tears blurring her view of the dishes, well, it had been a long day.

Arms grabbed her, pulling her into a hug as something else barreled into her legs. Bellara, apologizing and Assan, sent over by Davrin. Lucanis slipped past them, grabbing the kettle, quietly asking what kind of tea she wanted. Neve was already grilling Emmrich on how the Watch documented something like a child found in the Necropolis, both of them theorizing possible approaches to trying to track down more information. Taash bumped her shoulder as they walked up to the sink, commenting that it was all Vashedan and telling her they’d finish the dishes.

Rook let herself be led to the table, trying not to trip over the enthusiastic Griffin, Bellara still gripping her arm. Harding pushed out a chair, handing her a handkerchief. “Well, good thing you have this family now” she said.

Her younger self hadn't really known what she was running to. What she was looking for. Sitting down, watching her friends - her family - Rook wondered if she had found it.

"Yeah. Good thing I do."

[bugbyte]

Ah, so once again our SNAP benefits have been turned off for mystery reasons, and of course Monday is a holiday so of course nothing can get done about it until Tuesday at the earliest.

The social services worker assigned to our case is either inept or contemptuous and I cannot tell which, maybe both, but this is a years long saga where she gets our paperwork (which we spend the gas money to hand deliver, it’s a hike to get there) and then she just doesn’t deal with it. And everything gets shut off.

I think we have enough to get through these few days and a tiny bit of cash if it goes sideways, but if you ever believed that getting any kind of assistance is easy or lazy, it’s not. I am regularly doing secretarial work for people getting paid by the state because they don’t keep copies, or notes, or remember to look at things.

Anyway I love, love, love this twice a year nonsense that is an immensely stressful struggle for no reason. What a well functioning system. Have I mentioned that stress makes my pain flare up? Stress makes my pain flare up. My right arm and leg have been on fire for days and also feel like they’re full of broken glass. I have been sleeping very poorly.

Good times!!!

I cannot wait for some ambiguous point in the future where I can afford like, a chest freezer, and somehow stock some food ahead that isn’t just non-perishable stuff. We have an ordinary freezer but it’s very tiny. The idea of being able to grab frozen ingredients or even pre-prepped dinner or leftovers seems like such a luxury. The dream.

[lyngracetalksnwritesnstuff]

Writecamp Day Two

Thanks to @agirlandherquill for hosting this event/writing challenge! I'm super excited to be participating!

Day Two Prompts are here, and enrollment is here

I chose "Every wise woman knows never to show up for a ball without a weapon. Only a fool comes for dancing."

Her Royal Highness, Princess Isolda of Levinney, swirled her wine glass, a sparkling image of the aloof, dignified lady she had worked very hard to be. Her younger sister, Ellianne, was around here somewhere, probably staring broodily into the distance as she always did when she was forced to attend these things.

She did not understand the privilege she had to be allowed to dislike royal balls as she did.

"Might I have a dance?" A young man approached her apprehensively, holding his hand out in an invitation. It was refreshing to see such respect and deference in a young man, as so many simply grabbed her hand and demanded a turn with the crown princess under the thin guise of false innocence.

In response to his polite offer, Isolda deigned him with a nod and took his hand as he led her onto the dance floor.

"It is a lovely evening tonight, is it not?" The young man asked nervously, obviously intimidated by her stony expression.

"Hm," she agreed noncommittally. In Ellianne's defense, Isolda supposed she rather dislikes the parties her family would hold as well. They were alright when she had a specific job to do, like entertaining a few young lords and princes to fortify their national relations, or socializing with other young ladies to ensure the provinces' cooperation and incline the governors to give her parents more support for a movement or bill.

Occasionally, her parents would throw these events simply for fun or to showcase wealth and prosperity, and give her no particular job other than "have fun."

"Excuse me, Your Highness," The young man started, biting his lip. "Have I done anything to offend you? You've barely spoken. Are you well?"

Isolda pursed her lips as she shook her head in response. Why did everyone think that? Was it so wrong or rude to just not feel like talking? She didn't believe in wasted breath on idle chatter, and didn't generally enjoy talking in social situations unless she was tasked with it to secure an alliance or support for her parents.

"Might I steal Her Highness from you?" A familiar voice asked from behind Isolda.

"Ah, sure," The young man answered, letting Isolda go to her new partner awkwardly.

"He seemed nicer than your usual dance partners," Ayleth commented, effortlessly mirroring Isolda's steps.

"Unusually so," Isolda agreed, the first full words she'd said all evening. "Are you armed?"

"Right to business, I see," Ayleth smirked. "Every wise woman knows never to show up for a ball without a weapon. Only fools come for dancing."

"Then we all must be fools," Isolda commented, raising an eyebrow.

Ayleth laughed. "Don't be absurd. That girl over there," She pointed to a golden-haired woman in a dusty rose gown. "She has a dagger strapped to her leg. And that young lady," she motioned to a girl wearing intricate braids and a cream-gold dress. "Has a sword under all those skirts."

"Even you, Izzy," Ayleth said, her eyes dancing with mirth. "Have several knives hidden in your dress, along with three Eythian Needles inside your sleeves."

"If I didn't know better, I'd say you were impressed," She teased after Isolda stayed silent.

"But you do know better," A very impressed Isolda responded dryly. "Why are you here?"

"Ah, yes, why has the heretical Red Sorceress, master of the dark arts, and devourer of small children and rabbits graced the royal palace with her presence?" Ayleth said dramatically, avoiding the question.

"Ayleth." Isolda was Not Amused.

"Alright, fine. Someone is trying to kill you." Ayleth answered, rolling her eyes at the stop to her theatrics.

"An assassin. Who?" Isolda frowned. It'd been a while since the last try, a poorly planned attempt at poisoning.

"That's what I'm trying to determine," Ayleth said, eying the room. "Whoever they are, they're good. Good enough to escape even my scrutiny."

That wasn't good. As she's demonstrated earlier, Ayleth was possibly the best in all Levinney at determining people's intentions and who was a threat. It was why she'd been sentenced to death and hunted across kingdoms in the first place. If someone could outsmart even her, it wasn't looking good for Isolda.

That reminded her. "Are you safe here? Did anyone see you?" Isolda asked.

Ayleth scoffed. "What kind of amateur do you think I am? This headpiece does more than make me look unnecessarily fancy, you know."

Isolda examined the headpiece, a cluster of delicate flowers made of gold, with small red jewels placed throughout it, for any sign of an enchantment. All she noticed was how it set off Ayleth's amber eyes and red gown that hugged her body before flaring out at the knees, a cascade of blood-red fabric and gold filigree.

Ayleth smirked, seemingly smug that Isolda couldn't find any sign of her enchantment.

"How are we going to expose the plot then?" Isolda asked, turning her focus back to important matters.

"I have a plan," Ayleth assured her.

"I hate your plans." Isolda reminded her as she led their dance away from an older man who had spotted them and was most certainly going to ask one of them to dance with him.

"I know. But they always work," Ayleth singsonged, taking them closer to the East Wing entrance.

"Where are you taking me?" Isolda demanded.

"Somewhere private." Ayleth winked, grinning when Isolda felt her face flame.

"Imprudent," Isolda hissed at her, still following her into the dimly lit wing. Guests weren't supposed to come this way, but some did anyway because it offered privacy for... certain activities.

"What now?" She asked, freeing her hands from Ayleth's.

"Now I need to leave for the library on the second floor." She said.

Isolda's brow wrinkled as she took in what Ayleth was saying. "The library on the second floor" was their code for "I'm going to hide nearby," as there was no library on the second floor, but no guest would know that. Ayleth thought someone was listening.

"Okay. Get what you need. I'll wait here." Isolda nodded, trying to make it sound like they were preparing for... scandalous ventures.

Ayleth took her hand and pressed a reverent kiss to it, making Isolda's pulse skip a beat. It was all for the act, she reminded herself. Ayleth probably wants to make it seem like I'm alone, so the assassin will be more likely to try to kill me.

Taking a deep breath, Isolda allowed herself a nervous tic and clutched the skirt of her azure dress she had paired with dangling silver jewelry and a cerulean hair ribbon to weave into her many braids that tied up half of her dark curly hair.

"Are you alright, Your Highness?" The young man who'd danced with her appeared in the doorway.

Isolda nodded tersely. He needed to leave so as not to scare off the assassin, but she couldn't think of a polite way to shoo him.

"Ah, good. I thought you might've been hiding from someone." He looked relieved, but his words were odd.

"Why would I be hiding from anyone?" Isolda asked, confused by how he'd phrased that.

"Ah—I just know how the other men here can be." The young man scratched the back of his neck awkwardly.

It was then Isolda realized she'd never gotten his name. Well, it would be polite to ask, but she didn't really care.

"Where is your friend from earlier?" He asked, seemingly intent on starting a conversation with her. Great.

"She is away," Isolda responded tightly. Why wouldn't he leave? She had made it clear as politely as possible that he wasn't welcome.

"Ah," Was all the young man responded with. He shifted his feet awkwardly before shuffling off. Finally.

After about ten minutes of waiting, Isolda began to get nervous. Her parents would certainly notice she was missing and come to find her, which would put them at risk of being assassinated as collateral damage as well.

She jolted as a thud and a muffled scream came from above her. Quickly making her way into the bedroom, she opened the secret door that led to the hidden room above her. She supposed Ayleth planned to jump down from above when the assassin showed, as there was a trapdoor that allowed one to fall down into the corridor where she had been waiting.

She burst into the room, only to find the awkward young man from earlier holding Ayleth against him, her neck pressed against a sharp dagger.

Isolda let out a gasp. How had he found this room? And why was he—oh.

"You're the assassin Ayleth warned me about." She stated, managing to keep her composure.

"First name basis with the Red Sorceress? That's damning." The young man was timid and nervous no more, having shed that identity to make room for his calm confidence.

"I am ashamed I was sloppy to let her hear about my plans, but no one's perfect, and it worked out okay, I suppose." He mused as if he were talking about an art project that could be better.

"I ask that you let her go, and I will hear your demands." Isolda requested. Her spine was straight, her hands folded in front of her, her face showing no emotion; it was just like a negotiation, she told herself.

The young man laughed. "Oh. No. I deeply apologize, but I will not be letting this one go. She tried to put me to sleep with her wicked inventions before I subdued her, so she will be staying right here."

Isolda felt rage surge inside her as the young man referred to Ayleth as if she were a pet or a naughty child.

Taking a calming breath, Isolda continued. "What do you want?" In a negotiation, it was best to start with one question at a time so the other person couldn't dodge a question by answering another and moving on.

"I want the royal family gone." The young man growled. "Your soldiers razed my city to the ground."

Isolda couldn't help letting out a startled gasp. "What?" She asked, certain he was either insane or she was hearing things.

"They came into my town and demanded an unreasonable amount of tax money. We refused, obviously, and then they took retribution and burned everything. There are only about a dozen of us left." His voice cracked, and for a moment, he looked like a grieving son and sibling instead of a murderous assassin.

"I assure you, we had nothing to do with that. They're must be a corrupted faction in the military, but rest assured, I will do my best to remedy this horrible act of treason." Isolda felt her stone mask crack, splinter, and fall to the ground as she absorbed the implication of his words.

The young man only growled and pressed his blade harder against Ayleth's neck, drawing out a bead of blood.

"I swear!" Isolda felt herself become desperate to convince the young man that she hadn't been responsible for the deaths of so many civilians. "In fact, I think I even know who it might've been! There are a number of nobles I suspect may be corrupt, who might be the ones behind this. Please, we can work this out! I'll introduce you as a new courtier, and we can investigate this, okay?"

The young man seemed to consider this. "Fine. But if I find out that you and your family were behind this, consider yourselves the last of the Levin bloodline." He let go of Ayleth, and I caught her as she stumbled away.

"What's your name?" Isolda asked as he perched on the window.

"Dacian." He responded shortly, jumping out the window. Isolda watched as his arms extended into dark wings, soaring unnoticed into the night.

Wyvern.

"Are you alright?" Isolda asked Ayleth, who was standing on her own now.

"Yeah, thanks for coming to my rescue. I feel kinda bad, cause I was supposed to be the one coming to the rescue." Ayletch said, fidgeting.

Isolda frowned. "No need for thanks. You did me a great service."

Ayleth groaned. "Again with the formalities? Come oooon. I've known you forever."

Isolda scowled at her. Ayleth thankfully looked unharmed besides the shallow cut on her throat. Her sun-tanned skin was smooth and unblemished, and her dark waves had come unbound in the scuffle. Isolda unconsciously moved closer to tuck a piece of hair behind Ayleth's ear.

Ayleth looked up at her, her eyes wide as Isolda moved closer.

"Um," Isolda whispered. They were a hair's width apart, and Isolda could feel Ayleth's quickened breaths. "May I...?"

Ayleth moved forward, capturing Isolda's mouth in a kiss. It was quick and innocent, but left them both flushed and breathless.

"I..." Isolda trailed off, not quite knowing how to properly express her feelings for Ayleth.

"I really care for you," Ayleth said, following her train of thought. "I admire and adore you. I would be honored if you would be willing to court me?"

"Yes," Isolda breathed. "Yes. We will find whoever is killing the civilians and clear your name. Together."

"Together," Ayleth agreed.

Wowwww, that took a lot longer than I thought it would. It also ended up being much, much longer than I thought it would, oopsies. Hope you enjoyed this tibit!

[genshingorlsrevengeance]

(GFL Short Fic) AN-94 attempts romance

AN-94 has no idea how to approach romance, given her lack of social skills and knowledge about humans in general.

But she would do her best to let her feelings be known!

AN-94 sat in her dorm dressed in her casual uniform, that being a black t-shirt and pants. Her gaze was focused on the wall, but she was fighting a mental battle.

She had learned that she quite enjoyed spending time with one of the human personnel, who seemed to feel the same. But it was...strange. It wasn't quite the same nature of how she felt for the rest of DEFY.

According to (Y/N), she seemed to smile around them and acted differently. What did humans call two people that were always together again?

(AN-94) "...A couple?"

That's right, they were called 'couples' according to the internet searches she had conducted in her head. But how did one become a couple? As far as she could tell, they were just friends. If that internet definition was even right, anyway.

(AK-12's Voice) "Thinking about (Y/N) again?"

(AN-94) "Ah, yes. Do you know how couples are made, AK-12?"

AK-12's Advice

(AK-12) "Hm, I'm not entirely sure. But why bother asking me when you could do so yourself? Come on, go out there and be yourself! I'm sure it'll be fine!"

AN-94 nodded.

(AN-94) "Understood. Commencing mission."

She left the dorm with a determined walk, AK-15 and RPK-16 looking outwards after her.

(AK-15) "...You realize this will end poorly, correct?"

(AK-12) "Probably. But better to learn from failure, eh?"

(RPK-16) "Agreed."

...

(Y/N) "So, what brings you by today, 94? Need something?"

(AN-94) "I am just being myself."

(Y/N) "...I-Is that right?"

(AN-94) "Is that a problem?"

(Y/N) "Hah, no. I don't mind a bit. I'm just gonna be organizing some paperwork for the commander, I can't imagine it's exactly exciting."

(AN-94) "Then allow me to help."

(Y/N) "Sure, that'd be great! Thanks again!"

AN-94 helped (Y/N) with the paperwork. True to her mission, she remained herself, not mentioning a single thing about her feelings towards (Y/N) and remaining almost silent the entire time.

For (Y/N), it was quite a comfortable silence. For AN-94, she was even more confused. She had changed nothing, why was (Y/N) not mentioning they were in love yet?

RPK-16's Advice

(RPK-16) "So, they didn't have a reaction?"

(AN-94) "Negative. I am unsure what I did wrong."

(RPK-16) "Hm, well you do have the sort of air to just be seen through..."

AN-94 slightly frowned at the comment until RPK-16 excitedly put her hands together.

(RPK-16) "How about physical contact? Humans are quite like rabbits where they desperately crave it!"

(AN-94) "Physical contact?...I see, that may work."

...

(Y/N) was suddenly confused as to why AN-94 was suddenly in their quarters. Not to mention she was completely still, her face literally in their chest.

It also didn't help they were also on their bed. She remained unmoving like a statue, and she was acting as if there was nothing wrong.

(Y/N) "U-Um...!"

(AN-94) "Does this bother you?"

Her voice was muffled in their shirt.

(Y/N) "A-A little. It's almost midnight, why are you just-"

(AN-94) "Then this method is not working. Please, excuse me."

Quickly removing herself from their upper torso, she stood back up and left the room without saying anything else, leaving an extremely confused (Y/N).

Commander's Advice

(AN-94) "...And that explains my situation, sir."

(Commander) "...Now, I know I have an open door policy, but why did you come to me about this?"

(AN-94) "Are you unversed in romance, sir?"

The commander awkwardly coughed into his hand, adjusting his jacket's collar and trying to ignore the fact AN-94 had just called him out for being single.

(Commander) "I'm just saying there are probably others who's far better at reading these kinds of emotions. Plus, that probably confused the hell out of poor (Y/N)..."

(AN-94) "They did seem quite perplexed as to why I was so close to them."

(Commander) "...Oh, I know who could help!"

He said, snapping his finger. He quickly reached for a nearby intercom and called out the T-Doll's name.

Springfield's Advice

Springfield brought out a small tray containing four muffins she had baked, giving AN-94 a warm smile.

(Springfield) "You know what they say! The quickest way to a person's heart is their stomach!"

AN-94 contemplated that for a moment before Springfield cleared her throat.

(Springfield) "It's a metaphor dear. Before you tear out their internal organs, it means that they'll get your message of love a lot faster if you give them good food!"

AN-94 nodded and stared at the muffins.

(AN-94) "But...these are made by you. Would (Y/N) not love you instead of me?"

Springfield couldn't help but giggle at her innocence. AN-94 tilted her head.

(Springfield) "I'm sorry, that wasn't meant to offend, sweetie. Well, you do have a good point, it would mean a bit more if it came from you, but-"

(AN-94) "May I borrow your kitchen? I would like to make some muffins."

(Springfield) "Be my guest!"

...

(Y/N) "Mmm! These muffins are so good! Thank you so much for bringing them here! Springfield always knows how to bake them just right."

For some reason AN-94 was flustered, unable to look them in the eye. Maybe it was because of that whole planking incident a few days ago? (Y/N) was confused, they weren't angry at her to begin with.

(Y/N) "Would you like some? There's more than enough for the two of us!"

(AN-94) "...T-Thank you."

Seeing her smile got (Y/N) to smile now as well, something she immediately took notice of. AN-94 made sure not to tell them of the fires that broke out in the attempts of her trying to cook for them.

Instead she had to use Springfield's muffins in the end.

...

AK-15's Advice

AN-94 sat back in DEFY's dorm, looking dejected as she laid in her bed. Every attempt had failed spectacularly. If only romance was like the battlefield, then she could complete this mission with no problems. She could hear AK-15 sigh as she approached her bed, crossing her arms.

(AK-15) "So, have you tried telling (Y/N) you liked them directly?"

(AN-94) "...What?"

(AK-15) "There's no use of beating around the bush. Tell them how you feel so you can avoid any further misconceptions, and get results that way."

That...made sense, actually.

(AN-94) "Thank you, AK-15."

Springing up from her bed, she immediately dashed out and made way towards (Y/N)'s quarters once again.

(AK-15) "...Human etiquette is so inefficient..."

...

(Y/N) "You...like me?"

(AN-94) "I do, (Y/N). I...I only hope that I am irreplaceable in your heart."

(Y/N) began laughing, which made AN-94 confused again. Before she could voice it, they stepped closer to her, grabbing both her hands gently.

(Y/N) "Is this what those last few days have been about? Why didn't you just tell me?"

(AN-94) "I...I wanted to try things a human would."

Seeing her flustered reaction made (Y/N) embrace her tightly, laughing gently and making her comfortable.

(Y/N) "Fair enough. I...I like you too, AN-94. And you've always been irreplaceable to me."

AN-94 smiled back and sunk deeper into their embrace, the two of them remaining silent.

AK-12 was listening in around the corner, nodding to herself in satisfaction. Walking off, she came across RPK-16 and AK-15 who were also nearby.

(AK-15) "You could have just told her to do that from the beginning and saved her the headache."

(RPK-16) "Oh come now, it's about the experience as well as the end result. Not everything has to be so direct, you know!~"

AK-15 simply grunted. AK-12 couldn't agree more. She'd have to pay (Y/N) a visit later, and make sure they'd be the best partner AN-94 could have outside the battlefield.

[echo-has-queries]

I'm pretty sure I remember all the other ones but while the title rings multiple bells I need to know more about Ines is Invisible

So valid! XD Rediscovering this outline I am actually kind of conflicted about it now.

Ines Is Invisible is about seventeen-year-old Ines who - you'll never guess this - turns invisible at fifteen. Her parents take it poorly and she spens two years basically haunting a campground until that gets shut down for renovation and she has to go elsewhere. She breaks into a house for food and is promptly adopted by the socialworker who lives there.

Now here is what I'm conflicted about: The original outline takes this story into an X-Men type action story of children with superpowers fighting a shady organisation to not get experimented on for their powers. However, leading up to this is just like... half a book worth of slice-of-life type things of Ines learning how to live a normal life while also being invisible, making friends, trying to date etc. And by now I'm thinking that maybe just focusing on that might be a lot nicer, because there is a lot there to be explored. Then again, adding other powers and conflict is also neat... ah well. WIP.

Actually written out so far I just have the beginning of the social worker and her wife meeting and inviting Ines to stay at their house, which is both emotional and fun. Ines has a lot of trauma and the adults have a lot of questions.

Here is a lovely little snippet:

“Who’s there?”, she said.

I wasn’t sure what to do. She didn’t seem mean enough to call the cops on me. Or shady government scientists. She didn’t even look like she would know shady government types. She looked like a schoolteacher.

“Do I get to finish the sandwich if I answer honestly?”

The woman blinked, looked around. Her forehead creased. “Where... are you?”, she asked after another pregnant pause.

There were probably several clever answers to this. Witty answers that would have made Odysseus proud.

“I’m just... I’m gonna keep eating the sandwich.”

In my defense: I was very hungry.

It felt very uncomfortable to be scrutinized like this – heck to be acknowledged at all felt curiously dangerous to me – but I wasn’t about to pass up this chance, so I picked up the sandwich without sitting down and kept eating.

I knew from copious amounts of staring at mirrors and doing weird tests of this condition back when I was still at home, that the food disappeared the moment my lips closed around it. It was a neat trick that let me hide small objects in my fist or mouth, though I had no scientific explanation that made any sense. Not that being invisible made sense in the first place. But due to this fact, what the woman was watching with strained eyes was more related to a kid's show's comedy bit than to a horror films gross-out effect.

A few bites further in, the woman regained the power of speech.

“So, you’re invisible.”

I finished chewing before saying: “Yes.”

There was another pause after which she asked: “You haven’t answered my question.”

I thought about it. The sandwich was ambrosia on my tongue. “You asked me a question?”

The woman, apparently finally broken out of the spell of discovering my existence, smiled and rolled her eyes, like hungry invisible people forgetting her questions was a common occurrence for her.

“I asked who you are.”

“Ah”, I said, followed up with some chewing and then: “My names is Ines Fahner. I’m seventeen years old. I turned invisible two-ish years ago. No, I don’t know how or why.”

The woman nodded, a serious expression on her face. “And I’m guessing you’re homeless.”

I stopped chewing. Homeless.

The woman picked up on the fact that the sandwich had stopped moving and rushed to amend: “Oh I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you… I mean… embarrassed? Uncomfortable? Sad? I’m sorry, I can’t tell how you’re feeling. But it’s okay. I mean, I don’t mean to assume, but you did break into my house in order to eat a sandwich – and I’m… I’m glad you did.”

The woman’s apologetic look was almost comical, kind of adorable in how much she apparently cared. Why did she care though?

“Are you going to hand me over to scientists to do experiments on me?”

“What!?” The woman was aghast. “No! I…” she blinked a few times, collecting herself, took a step closer. I almost took a step back.

“My name’s Magdalen Strider. I’m a social worker. I... I want to help you.”

I finished the sandwich.

“Thank you for the food, but I can’t be helped.”

[lonelybiscuits]

Ah yes, here are the head canons no one asked for, but Im hyper fixated on these four so here we go!

Backstories:

Ogron; [I actually had a dream that he had a boyfriend and I accidentally aliven’t him so we’re working with that] I believe that long before magic was erased earth had its own version of red fountain, specifically because other beings tended to look down on earth creatures. I believe in his youth, his father replaced his mother with a cruel fairy, who ended up killing his mother,. Though he couldn’t prove it was her. She treated him poorly, and as soon as he could escape he did. He then met his lover, and him and his boyfriend both attended this red fountain knock off school, but somewhere along the way a few rogue/evil fairies attacked the school and his bf was caught in the cross fire. Losing his mother and lover to fairies, Ogron hatred solidified and his hunt began.

Gantlos; Gantlos was actually also a victim of rogue fairies, but he was too young to witness the destruction itself, and only grew up in the aftermath. He lived in a very cold region where winter was long and harsh, and slowly watched his mother freeze/starve to death along with his siblings. He had tried to keep everyone alive after his mother’s demise, but the young ones just weren’t strong enough. This led to a magical awakening of sorts and he ended up causing miles of destruction in his grief. A fairy who was the daughter of one of the ones that destroyed his home town found him and took him in. Everything was starting to warm up, until he overheard a meeting in which his home’s destruction was mentioned. He immediately confronted the fairies, and though the young fairy tried to save him the anguish, he found out the truth and in a fit of rage decimated them all.

Anagan; Anagan has a much more mild backstory. He grew up in a town where nature was the center of everything. It was practically worshipped, so nature magic was looked up upon. He wasn’t exactly an outcast, but his lack of ability in the natural magic made him fall short of his social status. One night he was walking the trail of the forest when he heard a few people scheming in the woods to destroy an ancient magical tree and attempt to harvest its magic. He tried to intervene himself but wasn’t quick enough. The tree was destroyed, in order to prevent the bandits from doing anymore damage, he quickly absorbed the magic himself. By the time the people of town found out it was too late, he tried to tell everyone what happened but the nature fairies blamed him, and this the whole town. No matter how much he tried to explain, the evidence was against him. He was run out of town by the fairies. He resented them for not believing him, and that’s where it started for him, though the actual taking of wings didn’t start until after meeting the others

Duman: his powers are rare and desirable. Most shapeshifters are reclusive and try not to blend with other magic species for fear of exploitation. When he was young he ventured too far out towards a neighboring village. His mother caught up with him, scolding him for going so far out alone. They were heading back when a fairy stopped them. She attacked his mother and while distracted, Duman was taken. He was sold to a rich sisterhood of fairies who mistreated him frequently and displayed him like a circus animal, he was frequently forced to overuse his transformation abilities, and beaten if he couldn’t comply. They publicly humiliated him and paraded him around. One night , Ogron was at a gala, he was there looking for fairies he felt were unworthy of their wings. When the fairies arrived with Duman and began their gaudy display of him, Ogron knew he had to save him. He followed them home and once all had turned in for the night, he began destroying them one by one. He found Duman locked in a cage in a basement, after releasing him, they searched for the fairy that had attacked his mother, and Duman destroyed her.

[nellie-elizabeth]

January 2025 - Reading & Media Logging

Thought I'd try and get some thoughts down about what I read/watch/listen to each month! We'll see if I keep it up throughout the year... thoughts under the cut!

What I Read:

This was a pretty light reading month, honestly. I've been so swamped with work and just feeling pretty overwhelmed and anxious in general, and it's had a negative impact on my reading time. I'm pretty far into 3 or 4 books right now so I think early February will have a lot of finished volumes, hopefully!

Maurice by EM Forster: Finished this on New Year's Day I think, so it counts! Really glad I read this, it was a surprisingly moving emotional experience, especially given when it was written and its publication history.

Paladin's Hope by T. Kingfisher: Well, nobody can say I didn't give this series a fair shake. I tried three books, but unfortunately it's time for me to bow out now. It's a bummer because I do like the world-building of this series, like I think the setting is intriguing and I would love to spend more time in the world, but... the characters are just too stick-figure-y for me, they just don't feel like real people at all, and the romances are very... tepid and don't give me any feels? If I'm reading romance I need the feels lol. I actually had the thought that I'd rather read like, mystery novels or straight-up fantasy adventure without the romance being the focus, in this setting. Because then the characters being pretty 2-dimensional and same-y wouldn't matter as much, because their emotional centers wouldn't be like... the purported main purpose of the text, as it has to be if it's romance. I also think they're just poorly written enough that it's hard for me to overlook other sins. Ah well.

Go Tell it On the Mountain by James Baldwin: obviously Baldwin is a genius and his stuff is always really moving! I hadn't read what is probably his most known work before, and it was an interesting experience - it felt kind of dense and impenetrable in some ways, but also really affecting in others. I feel like I can tell it's an earlier novel from him, where he's really working out some of his foundational thoughts socially and politically. Definitely glad I finally got around to reading it.

The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens: Only recommend if you're a big ol' Dickens fan and you want to check out everything he's written - it's definitely not strong as a novel, it's very episodic and repetitive. But there's that quote about Dickens, that he has bad architecture but good gargoyles, and that was definitely true here. Sam Weller in particular stands out as an all-time Dickens character for me, I love love loved him. I legitimately wonder if Samwise Gamgee is based on him at all.

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson: completed my re-read of this trilogy! These books are oddly compelling for a reason I can't quite quantify, I think for this one it was just super satisfying to see the good guys successfully dismantle all these evil conspiracies, they got that fantasy of being able to pull a fast one over the villains and totally drop the mic on them lol. Plus I love how just... unapologetically queer these books are in certain ways? Berger and her husband and their non-monogamous bisexual BDSM stuff, and then Lisbeth and Miriam... it's just cool how casually integrated that stuff is.

Blood of Empire by Brian McClellan: A straight over the plate, nothing fancy, nothing to write home about but nothing to complain about fantasy series! I really enjoyed making my way through this sequel trilogy. Not a ton to say, but I think for this last book the highlight is Bo and Nila slutting it up with all of Vlora's soldiers while she's having a mental breakdown. Great stuff, no notes.

What I Watched:

Outlander season 7 started back last year but the last couple episodes aired in January! I've already written reviews that are posted here going into detail, but broadly speaking I'd say that this show has had a gradual dip in quality over the years, I think partly in response to the books getting bigger and more meander-y and just less coherent as novels? So. Can't blame the show too much for that. All the stuff that makes me like Outlander for the messy, juicy, melodrama that it is, were still present this season though. I got fed WELL with all the John Grey material, lemme tell ya.

Critical Role, Bells Hells: Obviously I'm always watching whatever CR is putting out, but I wanted to do a shout-out on Bells Hells because the campaign finale episode is airing NEXT WEEK! This campaign has been far more controversial than the first two, it seems, and I'll just toss my two cents in and say that I really love it. I've seen some of the fandom criticism and it's an interesting experience for me because I can't exactly disagree with most of the points people are making, but for me most of the issues people have been listing, are features, not bugs, to my mind? Idk, I won't get into the weeds with it but I guess this experience has taught me that what I'm looking for from CR is not the same thing a lot of other people are. I love that these campaigns break the rules of narrative structure in ways that can sometimes feel uncomfortable or alienating. I think almost everything that's being said about BH could be said about M9, tbh, and there was far less of a backlash against it. Ah, well. Point is, I'm still having a great time and I'm SUPER looking forward to seeing the epic 8.5 hour finale episode next week.

Dropout Content: I've been having such a bad mental health month and work has been crazy and my brain has been having more trouble than usual processing new content, so I've been revisiting a lot of Dropout stuff, rewatching eps of Make Some Noise and Game Changer, and enjoying the new shows like Gastronauts and Nobody Asked. This has become quintessential comfort TV for me, I'll watch pretty much whatever these people decide to make. I've gotta get back to watching Dimension 20 though, I go through feasts and droughts with my binging of seasons. I was part way through Mice and Murder but I fell off of it... maybe I'll hop back on in February!

What I Listened To:

Epic: The Musical. Okay. So. One of the other reasons why I think my reading time was down this month is that my brain was eaten by worms and my whole personality was turned into Epic: The Musical? I am not that which I once was. I've been listening through this entire 2 hour and 20 minute album like... daily. For weeks. I cannot stop. I have been doing a lot of thinking about why this grabbed me the way it did, because I'm always fascinated in why certain things grab my attention and activate a hyperfixation, when others don't. Honestly, for the most part it's inexplicable; the stars have to be aligned or whatever. I needed something to listen to, to just buckle down and get through this huge amount of work at both my jobs, and this was what accompanied me through a couple of really bad weeks. Here's my pitch for why it's a good musical: catchy songs, complex and really well-constructed as a work of musical composition, awesome production quality, and a voice cast that's honestly so fucking stellar it blows the mind? If you're just like "yeah, I like listening to fun songs sung by people who are very good at singing" then like... I recommend it for that alone. But as for why I think this musical is not just good, but truly great, at least for my interests? Well, I think it's three big things:

This is an adaptation of a source material from nearly 3,000 years ago. I am fascinated by adaptations of ancient texts or even just like... "pretty old" texts - what concerns did the text grapple with in its original context, and what does this adaptation choose to focus on, how are different threads pulled depending on who's adapting it and when. It's the closest thing I have in my life to a truly spiritual practice, thinking about humans who lived so long ago that they could never have imagined the world today, sharing the same story I'm sharing today. Thinking about listening to this musical, and having this emotionally cathartic response to Odysseus reuniting with his wife Penelope after 20 years of separation, and knowing that millennia ago, ostensibly people sat and listened to this same story told in song, and had an emotionally cathartic experience about the same thing. It feels very special to me. Plus, like, I had a Greek mythology phase as a kid like I think a lot of us did, and this musical totally awakened that slumbering fascination, which is fun.

The compositional complexity of the text as a concept album. Jorge Rivera-Herrans is a young guy, he's in his mid-twenties and he started this project 4-ish years ago I believe. It makes me so hyped to think of the long life of creating art he has ahead of him, because this is... some good, good shit. Not just good for someone his age. It's good, period. The musical serves as something of a puzzle-box for those people who are interested in dissecting leitmotif and musical themes. This is one of the most intricately woven works of music I've ever encountered as a musical theatre fan, if I'm being honest. I'm still catching new threads every time I listen; the care with which it was constructed makes it feel truly worthy of closer attention and study. There's a pleasurable effort in unraveling all the ways the songs interact with one another. It works on the level of just being fun songs to listen to, but if you like it enough to want to slow down and pay attention, there's a whole world waiting there for you to notice.

The manner of how it was produced - a TikTok-y musical for the kids these days... basically, Jorge marketed this musical through social media. He released it in chunks over time, he released snippets of songs, demos of himself singing, he auditioned the vast majority of the cast by asking them to duet his TikToks and thus found the right voices for each character. He released videos explaining his process of composing, and going into the hidden motifs and connections. It was a brilliant bit of marketing, but it also hits on one of the most special parts of the musical and the fandom surrounding it: you get to see the creative process and the final product side by side. It's kind of the same thing I like about TTRPG shows, where you watch the art being made, and the art, all at once. Being able to go back and see Jorge singing a demo of a song in 2021, and then seeing his video asking people to audition, and then hearing the final release, and then getting a behind-the-scene video where he picks apart the choices he made in composition, it's like getting to see inside the machinery of construction. It's iterative and it's community-focused and it's the best of what social media can do, a reminder that it's not actually ALL bad. Plus, all the fan-made animatics are so cool... there are enough of them that you can actually "watch" this concept album from start to finish with visuals created by a whole host of talented artists.

So... yeah, I knew I'd talk about Epic for too long but that's where my brain is at right now. I'll be curious if by the end of February this hyper-fixation has started to fade, or if there's anything else that comes along to replace it!

This was fun, to reflect on what I've been watching and reading this month!

[authorofthemoon]

Alright I wanna catalogue all my thoughts on Persona 3 Reload but it's gonna start with an info dump. I rescued Fuuka and about halfway though the revenge website arc. So first done teammate thoughts.

I think the protagonist is pretty boring I just feels like he's less present than Yu and Ren. All his answers are either boring, polite, or really mean. Not a lot of opportunities to be a silly goose at least so far. I get the feeling he's meant to be a little emo and possibly apathetic to others due to the game's themes.

Junpei is cool, really silly goofy guy. Sucks he falls victim to Persona idiot guy syndrome and is kinda treated poorly by everyone and is kinda perverted. It's not insane but it's their.

Honestly love Takebe so much. She is such a normal person and it's so refreshing. And I mean normal normal like she is trying her fucking best even though she's kinda lame (affectionate) at times. Like the Ace Defective line made me laugh solely because of her pause beforehand like she tried so hard. And her random beef with Kirijo is so good. It's probably explained later but day one she did not get a good vibe from her and is constantly like 'Idk she gives me the ick' is so funny to me.

Speaking of Kirijo. Love her. Queen shit. Mother. Actual group mom. She's trying her best and again she's so funny. Her thinking that someone broke into Junpei's room when he's simply a slob is peak to me. She is THE Empress.

Akihiko. We love a good gym bro himbo. Him and Shinji have messy exes energy. Not much to him yet honestly but I'm excited to know more.

Same with Fuuka she seems really cool. Normal shy girl character but I'm sure we get a lot more depth with her social link.

Speaking of which social link rundown.

Kenji had me questioning my sanity bc why am I so supportive of this guy getting groomed? I can say it's a bad idea to ask out your teacher but I can never be like 'hey, she's a pedo.' I literally have been speed running his link bc I need to know if she's a creep or if he's delusional. I'm at 9 so it seems to be delusional.

I took one look at Odagiri and went 'ah yes, he's a little bit fucked up.' only halfway through so curious where it goes.

Would die for the elderly couple I need to advance their link.

Miyamoto, go to a fucking doctor do you not know how injuries work?

Chihiro I would kill for you. Not that far into her link but her dad can catch these hands.

Maya is cool. Not that engaging of a link tbh.

Hiraga is very cute and sweet so I wanna advance his link I'm only a couple in.

Yuko is cool I'm only at 4 with her. She's funny and quick witted.

I will fucking kill Maiko's parents and adopt her myself. I'm only at 5. The moment I saw she was hanged arcana I was worried for her.

Pharos is cool idk how to advance his link I assume it'd natural.

Haven't done much with Bebe. Will at some point.

I just started the monk. He's interesting.

Suemitsu my sweet summer child go to fucking therapy. About halfway through and the tea is piping hot. Bro is literally like eating himself to death or something. I do think he's very sweet though.

That's about it loving the game despite a few nitpicks bc it's Atlus and my grudge against then is eternal.

[quibbs126]

Heck I don’t actually remember if Pure Vanilla/Dark Cacao was a request or if it was something I just planned to do on my own. I know it started out as my own idea, but sometimes that happens and then before I get to doing it, someone requests it and I just make it a request, and I don’t remember if that happened here

But regardless, this was a drawing I made of the idea for a purecacao fankid on it’s own, and I’m posting it as such

Now you’ll notice that this isn’t my usual format. This is because this isn’t her official design, it’s just that last night, I had this idea for a design of her as a young child with Dark Cacaoian clothing, and so I just wanted to make a quick doodle to show you

It was just going to be that picture in the middle, as it’s more sketchy and rough, and clearly not how I usually do these fankid requests. However when I finished, I realized that I made her too small. See, if I may explain some things, for my poorly drawn comics and other things that use that particular brush (it’s the Narinder Pencil if you want to know), and I don’t like enlarging pictures drawn with it because the lines get all blurry and it loses its texture. Prior to the Charcoal Cheese comic, for my poorly drawn comics I tended to enlarge the sketch to fit the screen, and then I’d completely redraw the lines. But here, I had already colored the whole thing, plus it was multiple layers to redraw, so I didn’t want to. But I couldn’t just crop down the canvas to fit it because my square canvases are already 500x500 pixels, they’re very small (and also I think the small size might account for why they may not show up in the best quality, but I’ve been using this size for over 2 years and I’m set with it, and I feel like changing would be too much effort). And I feel like making it even smaller would just tank the quality even more

Though to be honest, I’m glad I made a second version with my proper sketching process, as I was better able to figure out her colors and design

Speaking of her design, yeah this is sort of what I’m thinking for her look, at least in terms of hair, dough and eye color. She’s not gonna keep the braid though, that’s just a kid thing

I feel like maybe I should give her streaks, but I’m not sure where to put them or what color

Also I realize that I forgot to put KitKats on her design. I wasn’t planning to originally since this is a little kid’s outfit, but also in some of the artbook drawings, young Dark Choco had small Oreo shoulderpads, so maybe she should have something similar. I had an idea for her wearing tiny KitKat shoulderpads, but I forgot them. Ah well

Hmm, does she look like a purecacao kid? I’m looking at her and I feel like she looks more like her own character than related to them. Maybe it’s the lack of streaks

Oh yeah, and one more thing I want to add, I’ve decided she’s a post-canon kid, as in Pure Vanilla and Dark Cacao got together after the events of the Dark Flour War and canon in general. The story in my head goes that Dark Cacao developed feelings for Pure Vanilla, but was hesitant to tell him about it, maybe because he’s socially awkward and wasn’t sure how to, maybe because Pure Vanilla and White Lily had something going on and he didn’t want to stir up drama between them. But regardless, Dark Cacao felt that it wasn’t so much of a big deal since they were immortal, he could tell him when he felt it was right. But then the Dark Flour War happened and Pure Vanilla seemingly died, with Dark Cacao never telling him how he felt. But then years later, Pure Vanilla came back, and while Dark Cacao was of course overjoyed, it also caused him to realize that even being immortal, they don’t have all the time in the world, and he needed to tell Pure Vanilla how he felt, and so during the events of Odyssey, he confessed to Pure Vanilla, and then likely sometime after Dark Enchantress’s defeat, they got together, and later had this girl

Also this means she has a (probably) 30+ year older brother in Dark Choco, but it’s all good

I feel bad just keeping her unnamed, but I don’t know what to call her. *sigh*

Any suggestions?

But yeah, I just wanted to show y’all this idea. Don’t know when I’ll be finishing her, but I’ll draw her officially at some point

[demystifiedstardust]

Dream log 2

Okay, to be fair, I've been taunting fate on this one for a while. The fact that it took literally over 3 years to happen is a little weird, though. Bumping this up the queue because dream log.

Readmore for length and possibly disturbing dreamlike situations.

The start of the dream was me as Aether exploring an abstract Khaenri'ah-ish realm (not unlike the final layer of Nahida I quest dream but featuring deep blues and magentas). I was with Mona, Arle, and Klee. It's an unusual combination and I honestly think this posse was just grabbed randomly from my subconscious, because this layer was very definitely not real. It had a dreamlike aura about it that was gradually stripped away as the dream progressed. We found a form-fitting bracelet-ring at some point. I instinctively gave it to Klee, although I shouldn't have according to the others. I had picked up its pair previously before the dream started. I think my logic was the other two could protect themselves, but they seemed to work like a signaling device and I wanted a beacon to her in case she needed help. The other two argued the rings' properties were poorly understood, but it wouldn't come off, so that was that.

We found a portal at one point and collectively understood it to be a great trial to be undertaken alone. From that point on, every time the scene shifted it would become more and more "real". It's ah, hard to explain. The portal spat me out in the house of a man. He lived alone and seemed happy to take care of me (I had become a child), but it eventually became apparent that this was a Toriel-situation where I had to escape if I was to complete the trial. I stole his car, but he had a motorcycle unbeknownst to me and would rubber-band to me and take me back when he caught up. Not sure if it was cheekiness or frustration, but after a few loops of this I simply crashed the car into the snowy mountain this guy lived by and killed myself.

I honestly expected the loop to reset normally after that, but it didn't. Now Lumine was in the place of where I was, and I was... incorporeal? I could do frustratingly little to make her realize that this was only a trial. The most I could do was move certain "set pieces" around and cause the man to scramble around to try and fix it before she put the pieces together. This incorporeality wasn't particularly distressing as this is how my dreams often are, but Lumine being the one I needed to help did make it stressful. She eventually figured it out and also left, albeit in a more sneaky manner than I, and with her trial complete, the scene changed again.

It was the past. We were together. We were pulling together pieces of the world that belonged together, creating reunions in star-crossed reincarnated lovers, and more worldly changes along those lines, and it was beautiful. But there was a faction of powers that be that did not appreciate our meddling in their perfectly ordered world (which very much wasn't from my (our, I assume) point of view. It was sterile and full of setting up everything in little isolated boxes (metaphorically speaking, not invoking the unknown god here) where people and things that should meet never would. It was painless, but also devoid of all positive emotions as well. But I digress).

They would try to catch us, and we would have to get sneakier. Hiding the chaos within the order. Like (metaphorically) an elaborate set of dominos that would require but a push for everything to change, and we would be long into hiding before we got to enjoy the conclusion, but that was okay. This domino effect also included a lot of death, so um, in retrospect I can see that there was a lot of pain along with the joy we brought. Although we couldn't resist hiding nearby at a vantage point sometimes to observe our handiwork, and that's how we were eventually caught.

The scene shifted and we were no longer wearing a social "skin" to remain in the ordered world, but were instead stripped away into our pure forms. If you have played or seen Omori, it was a little like Something. An amorphous void of shifting color that multiplied into itself to form a mass quite dark at the core and colorful around the edges, that stretched along and strung out somewhat as we moved. We each had a single eye.

The "ordered" retained their worldly forms, however, and there were three different classes of them with different abilities that worked in tandem to catch us, restrain us, and change us into a neutered threat.

We were sewn together by order into a gold plush-like form, sort of pokey like a many-tailed fox or starfish. I was chosen arbitrarily to be sewn into the 'eye' lobe and became the only one who could "see". Lumine was sewn into the 'core' lobe. She was capable of thinking and moving, but could only see me. Order also sewed a third part, a golden, ordered "skin" to bind us together that also had a personality separate from either of us.

And then I woke up. Now I'm back and I feel like I peeled back a layer of the universe's skin and got a peek at underneath before being shunted back into the waking world. Took a while to readjust. Would you believe me if I said I don't do drugs? Please believe me 😭

Illustration available on request but idk if I feel like posting it publicly right now.

[magmacannon]

3-7 for Yarrow, Reach, Dee, and Lanza :3c

yes... my Excellent Guys

Gonna do my best to make this understandable pff

3. Ask them to describe their love interest.

Yarrow - "Ohh well since we don't have all day, I'll just give you a little something. My dearheart is every bit the cliche 'knight in shining armor' with a nice fun streak of petty violence down the middle. He's got that distinguished sort of handsomeness about him whether he's in armor or lazing around in a nightgown that makes bothering him irresistible - he does like it, I promise! He knows me better than anyone else at this point; we've seen eachother through some extreme lows and have come out the other side stronger for it. I'm still a little amazed he's so genuinely enchanted with me - all of me, even when I'm doing pretty poorly! He makes me blush with how sweet he can be, which i can assure you is a feat at my age. Plus he's got fantastic big-dick energy and it's well-earned - wait where are you going? Too much? Ah well-"

Reach - "...I'd rather not say. He and I are on... uncertain terms. I'm trying to make things right. Somehow. I really don't know if it's possible. He's just... I need to repay him for all he's done for me, and I did the opposite of that, but. I'll do it or die trying."

Dehiscence - "Nelly? I don't have the words for that. She's perfect and kind. When she travels she brings me little cloth scraps and things to hold. She gets flustered easily. She hates blood even though there's so much of it in every person, including herself. I'd do anything for her."

Lanza - "Well thank you for ah, flattering me. I've got too much on my plate to be tied down right now, you see? I'm busy, come back in ten years or so and ask me again, capiche?"

4. Do they look good in red?

Yarrow - absolutely! Yarrow has the fashion sense and the time to make most any look work well, but red is one of the colors he prefers to wear (matches his eyes). It can be a little eye-searing at times, though.

Reach - He'd probably look really nice in some darker maroon-reds, but I don't think he has access to much red (or at least doesn't have it in his wardrobe??) I think he'd consider it too flashy.

Dee - Absolutely 100%, both when they have a red-toned mushroom growth and later when it's more brown/orange tones. I do think they'd prefer it as accents or (at most) a tank top - not too overwhelming

Lanza - out of all of these I think she'd have the most difficult time with making it work as she's got blue tones in her skin/hair.

5. Speech! Speech! Speech! Speech! Will they give one, and what about?

Yarrow - 99 times out of 100, Yarrow is prepared to give a short and effective speech at a party or some other social event. His ability to be Aware of the situation and vibe around him in those settings in nearly uncanny, so he very rarely has issues with these landing incorrectly! (when they don't go well it's a spectacular fumble)

Reach - He would NOT give one. Reach (especially in his older age) is extremely reserved and not really an orator. Unless he was in a small group of friends (genuinely at max 3 or 4 other people) he'd be too uncomfortable to speak - if the group was small though, he'd give a short two sentences about staying strong through cooperation or something similar to that.

Dee - You couldn't make Dee give a speech at their own wedding! Dee would write something thought-provoking but if someone tried to get them to say it they'd just Stare until the person left kfhfjdk

Lanza - At MOST Lanza would give a 5-word 'speech' in celebration or frustration with whatever event was happening. She has the confidence to roast someone if they keep pushing, too.

6. Who will they take advice from, no matter what it is? Who won’t they take advice from, no matter what it is?

Yarrow - Up until extremely recently, Yarrow would have answered this first question as "no one" - with a half-exception for therapists. Nowadays he's extremely wildly likely to listen to Kiro's advice, unless it relates to a few things that Yarrow thinks he handles better. Yarrow wouldn't take advice from anyone under 40 years old simply because they Do Not Know Enough, in his opinion. Also any paladin in his current city couldn't give him advice that he'd follow literally to save his life.

Reach - Without question, Reach would take advice from his higher-ups and from Sumet, his hunting partner and partner in all things (up until recently). Reach wouldn't ignore the advice of anyone, as he was trained to be big on cooperation and has a terrible need for answers in his current stage of life.

Dee - They're a very interesting case for this question because I think the only person they'd take advice from without question is Nelly's uncle, who has a very strong understanding of the issues Nelly is going through in regards to not following her family's traditional monster hunting job and who, while loved, is a bit of an outsider because (?) he took the same path. Other than that, Dee tens to weigh any opinion or advice against their own internal thoughts before acting on anything. They also tend to not take other people's advice at all unless they're someone they trust immensely.

Lanza - She's pretty strong-willed about a lot of things, so Lanza doesn't tend to trust anyone's advice implicitly! If they're an expert in something (personal or professional) that she doesn't know much about then she's likely, but not guaranteed, to listen to what they say. In her old setting I would have said she'd never follow the advice of her parents bc she was going through a 'rebel against old people' phase but honestly I don't think she's like that in other settings! She's just pretty headstrong still lol.

7. Describe them in three words. Now let them describe themself in three words.

Yarrow - I'd describe him as sharp, uncanny, and horny whereas he'd describe himself as "smart, gorgeous, and horny" or something along those lines pff

Reach - "Stubborn, misguided, and tired" are mine, Reach would likely call himself "worn, lost, and desperate". A younger Reach would have called himself sure, strong, and knowledgeable, though.

Dee - I'd say they're touch-starved, eerie, and like.... almost chivalrous??? perhaps like a loyal dog?? whereas they would describe themselves (if forced) as "reserved, tenacious, and steady".

Lanza - I get the privilege to call her a "fre-willed Italian butch(?)" whereas she'd call herself "free, skilled, and well-dressed"

[beckkeep]

Zinc Plays Let’s Go Pikachu!

Episode 1: I AM NOT IN CONTROL OF MY LIFE PLEASE HELP

Alright, so I know what some of you are thinking.

"He’s doing this again? Why bother?”

That’s a fair question.

Anyway.

My name is Riley Zinc and I’m a college dropout and genuine disappointment.

I hope you enjoy as I flounder through the land of Pokemon and yearn for real, intimate relationships in my actual life.

Oh. Uh. I overshared again, didn’t I? Didn’t even wait for you to ask.

Ah, thank you. He annoys me already and I can’t explain why.

I understand now. Carry on.

I hope it doesn’t land me in crippling debt in the end!

So am I playing a game, or is this a game within a game? Or was that introduction a game and now I’m out of the game in the—

Nevermind.

That’s just my face.

Ooh, the outdoors. Haven’t been out here in... months. It’s so cheery, it makes it hard to wallow in my own self-pity.

I suppose I should speak with the professor first, right? Or am I wrong? Am I making the right choice?

I see I chose poorly.

Ditching Flint, I wandered to the north to find Professor Oak, practicing his Snow White lines for the yearly Pallet Town Play.

He always gets to be the main star. I’m usually a shrub.

I’m not bitter.

: o

Is it really that strange? The Viridian Forest isn’t too far away. Wait, it’s not stalking me, is it?

Just to be safe, allow me to stuff it into this tiny, magical container.

Has a human being ever been caught in a Pokeball? Did the person come back out intact, or were its bones and organs crushed into a little sphere?

You know this is a video game and not the real Flint because doesn’t give me mocking nicknames. I kind of prefer this Flint now.

What are you plotting? Why would you smile at me as if you were happy?

This Pikachu is about to regret wanting to come with me. ... Though I suppose a cute nickname wouldn’t hurt, right?

"So cute!” said Flint, “No one will suspect it if I taught this tiny bastard Covet and stole their shit!”

Um. Thanks? I threw a ball at it. Do you lack depth perception?

Am I being insensitive?

Please don’t ask us to scatter your ashes across Kanto. That’s... awkward.

Have you ever heard of Bulbapedia?

Oh. Did I... just negate your life’s work?

I’m so sorry please pretend I didn’t say that.

Are you ready to be let down, Chupin?

"Through some mysterious force”? It’s native to Kanto.

I have a mom who’s not dead?!

Wait! Please, don’t go...!

She locked the door.

Alright.

Hello?

Oh god, what happens when you mow the lawn and it’s in the ground?

May as well give it an appropriate name for this run.

For having an entire musical number about traveling to Viridian City, it’s not all that hard to get to.

The mart man then gave me a package to give to Professor Oak because I can’t say no without wilting.

Hm. I’m pretty sure I already got a sunburn just from being outside for ten minutes. It’s not great.

No.

I know you taught that thing to pickpocket! I don’t want to see it!

Uh, electrocute it, I suppose.

Chupin doesn’t have pockets to pick.

Yes, I felt that second-hand embarrassment. You don’t have to bring it up.

I think Chupin enjoyed that Eevee touching his butt.

I knew it.

Your head is so large. How do you pull your shirt over it?

Hm. What to do?

Yes, that’s a good idea.

Wait WAIT I DON’T WANT TO MUG THE CHILD. CAN I GIVE THE MONEY BACK?

No one can find out we mugged that child. Speak of this to no one.

How is this even a certified gym if it’s always closed? Isn’t a gym leader’s job to stand there and take challengers? What kind of business would someone like this be involved in that would take them away from this responsibility?

Nevermind. Let’s just go to the next gym.

Is that a weed?

No, but it is phallic. Shouldn’t take too long to defeat, at least.

Is it... going to do anything...? Um.

When in doubt, sprint away from socially awkward situations and hope you will never face that person again during your lifetime!

[freeflowhighway]

Gonna do a thing and add some previews from my other works, check it out if y'like Dragon Ball and/or Naruto.

In this scene, it's a few years before their Academy days, and Hinata has snuck away from home after a grueling training session with her father. Wanting nothing more than to just escape, she finds one through an unlikely ally.

Hinata Hyūga steps out on her own away from her estate. Her bruised cheek is a silent symbol of weakness as she has yet again underperformed in her training as the Hyūga Heir. She tries to find solace somewhere, but people treat her suspiciously well or incredibly poorly. If they are not lying, they are derisive, and it is lonesome. She lowers her head knowing that these thoughts of weakness are not ideal for someone of her status, but those are the words of the elders, of her father. It is what she feels and that cannot be denied. It is pathetic.

"Ah-!"

She stumbles back from bumping into someone. Her blood runs cold when she finds Goku, dressed in training clothes as opposed to his rags, grinning ear to ear at her. He leans close almost shouting at her.

She stumbles back from bumping into someone. Her blood runs cold when she finds Goku, dressed in training clothes as opposed to his rags, grinning ear to ear at her. He leans close almost shouting at her.

"You're the girl Hizashi looks after! Do you know where he is? I wanna fight him!"

Fighting. She hates it. She hates pain, dealing with pain, giving, and receiving, just thinking about it sends her into a deeper misery.

"I don't know... He is on a mission... He isn't here..."

"That sucks! Who's gonna protect you then? The others are too weak compared to him."

He stands straight scratching his cheek before shrugging.

"Your dad is the only one that's on his level, but he's busy. Guess I'll do my part then. Where do you wanna go? I'll keep you safe!"

Hinata stalls. Her mind caught in a web of confusion as they stare at each other, the longest she made eye contact with anyone outside her immediate family. He speaks up again due to her silence.

"You hungry? There's this ramen place you'll love! Do you like ramen? It's really easy to eat! It's this way!"

He points the way. She stands reluctant to answer.

"Why are you so insistent on pursuing my uncle? Why do you not like him?"

Goku tilts his head seemingly offended by her question.

"I thought he'd tell you by now. I like fighting him because I like him! It's hard to say it without you not getting it, but uh... It's like learning how people work! He's a good guy that cares a lot about his family! I like that about him! I want to be like that, so I fight him, so I can learn how to be like that!"

That only muddied things for her more. She could not hope to comprehend this monster's mind. She should do as her father says and avoid him. Command him to leave her be. Yet, as she watches the crowd around them, she must admit that he makes the perfect repellent for social interactions.

More importantly, as highly as Goku speaks of her uncle, so too did Hizashi subtly mourn the boy's curse. He speaks of Goku as an unfortunate child incapable of knowing how to be human, but admires his attempts, finds inspiration in the boy's actions and bizarre reasoning. Speaking with him, hearing him try to explain himself, slowly she starts to understand why Hizashi entertains him even at the threat of the elders activating his seal.

The Main House loathe Goku. They fear him, immensely. The Branch House follows the whims of the Main Family. However, Hizashi alone has disobeyed their rule regarding Goku. She heard of their initial encounter, how the monkey bastard shamed their clan in mocking their greatest Taijutsu Masters of the time, until Hizashi forced him into a stalemate and attacked an elder who punished Hizashi for not securing a victory.

She should fear him as her father instructed. Hizashi taught her that he is nothing to be afraid of. She steps forward, looking to the ground, glancing up at him.

"Lead the way, please."