#anyway. yes. love those squids

[theminecraftbee]

can i request three somehow forced into a fake dating situation

Three stares directly into Martyn’s eyes. They are blue and of an average size. It feels as though maybe this should be against the rules, but according to the book it had read, this was… normal. A normal thing to do on a date. Look deeply into someone’s eyes. It would not be suspicious at all, even though Three isn’t really sure how to look more or less deeply into anyone’s eyes at all. Eyes are not flat, but even when Three Looks, it isn’t as though there is anything interesting in there.

Martyn is sweating somewhat. He looks away first.

Three’s pretty sure this counts as a victory, especially given Martyn can’t see Three’s face behind the mask anyway. It is good Three has now won the game of ‘staring lovingly into its date’s eyes’, because that had been a strange, threatening mortal ritual. It would rather not do that again.

“Haha, thanks again for agreeing to this date,” Martyn says, very suspiciously looking around the small cafe in a bustling semi-private Origins server. “It’s been so long since we’ve gotten to hang out like this. Gods, do I sound stupid.”

“You do,” Three says.

“You don’t have to answer those,” Martyn says.

“Will comply,” Three says.

“Oh, for the love of—we’re on a date. A date!” Here, Martyn winks obnoxiously. “It’s not a mission.” He winks obnoxiously again. “Besides, you should lighten up!”

“Will comply,” Three says.

“You know, I had forgotten how obnoxious that was,” Martyn says cheerfully. “Anyway, I should order us some drinks! Have some conversation! Keep an eye out around us, yeah, for our waiter?”

“You are not very subtle,” Three says.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Martyn says. “Besides, honestly? I am really glad to just hang out with you. Because we’re dating! On this server for fancy couples. Yep.”

The problem is, of course, that a fancy origins server is a great place for the strangest of people to hide.

When Martyn had asked a favor, Three had been… uncertain. This was not because Three doesn’t care for Martyn—it does, greatly—or because Three didn’t want to see Martyn—they’d met up a few times before now, tentative and quiet and frustrated and all the things that were hard to explain, and then in all the ways they were okay again—but because Martyn, for all Three cares for him, is still an idiot.

Three is its own handler, now. It does not have to follow handlers that are morons. It had told Martyn this. When Martyn had stopped wheezing, he’d explained that it’d be fun. Not Listener business, he promised; he still hadn’t quite gotten out, but he wouldn’t drag Three in, Scout’s honor.

(Three believes him. It’s never been that Three doesn’t trust him.)

It was a friend of Martyn’s that had gone missing. Apparently, on some fancy modded server? And now, Martyn wanted Three to come help him do some recon because, quote, “Jimmy laughed at me until he cried and that hurt me a little bit, not going to lie, and I’ve used up the favors Ren owes me, and Oli was busy. Have you met Oli? You’d like Oli.”

(Three did not like Oli.)

Three agreed, despite its better judgement. The reason it thought this may be a poor plan was because—

“Ah, the lovely Valentines,” the waiter says. He gives them a plate of lovely heart-shaped calamari. Three wonders if they had belonged to heart-shaped squid. “It’s a lovely evening, isn’t it?”

“Yes, it’s wonderful here with my beloved!” Martyn says.

The waiter and Martyn both look at Three. Three doesn’t say anything and sits perfectly still.

“Um,” the waiter says.

“It’s for a health condition,” Martyn says, which technically isn’t a lie.

“Very well, sirs, although it may get in the way of the kissing competition!”

Martyn, who had just started sipping some wine, chokes on it.

“I will win the kissing competition,” Three says.

Martyn chokes harder.

“I will see you to it!” the waiter says. “And of course, our patented species comparability exam is the highlight of the evening.”

“Oh. I am not sure I can produce viable offspring,” Three says.

The waiter stares at Three. Three stares back, although not into the waiter’s eyes, as to not cause any confusion. The mask somewhat prevents that from working, though.

“Very well then,” the waiter says. “I suppose just—do you need help?”

“It knows what it’s doing,” Martyn hisses.

“I did do research before coming here,” Three says.

“I’ll just head on,” the waiter says, in a tone that suggests to Three that maybe it did not do enough research before agreeing to help Martyn.

Oh well.

At least the mask means it doesn’t have to keep a straight face as it picks Martyn off the ground and, completely flat in tone, says: “Do not die. I would be sad if you died of something as stupid as choking on wine.”

“I asked for this,” Martyn says.

“Yes,” Three says. “You did. That is why I am here.”

(Beneath the table, it grabs Martyn’s hand. Martyn squeezes Three’s hand back. It had missed him, though. For all they do not see each other often—)

(Well. It had missed him, though.)

[ll-but-its-random]

Penthouse Incorrect Quotes:

Also Adam is there 'cause they were gonna get him anyway

Marina: Hey, is anyone here d- Ella: Deprived of sleep? John: Depressed? Nine: Down for murder? Marina: -doing some training. Jesus, you guys. --- Store Worker: Can Maren Elizabeth please come to the front? Six: *Comes to the desk* what's wrong. Store Worker: *Points to Sam and Eight* I believe these are yours. Sam and Eight: We got lost :( Six: I didn't even bring you guys here. --- Eight: hey, Five. Why did the chicken cross the road? Five: To get to the other side? Eight: You're supposed to say "I dunno. Why?" Five: Uh... fine. I dunno, why? Eight: To get to the idiot's house. Five: Okay... Nine: hey, Five. Knock knock. Five: No. Nine: You're supposed to say "who's there?" Five: Fine, let's get this over with. Who's there? Nine: The chicken. Five: Nine: Eight: Five: Listen here, you little shits- --- Sarah: Wait, you like Six? Sam: Wha- pfft, no. Sarah: Then why did you write S+S in hearts everywhere? Sam: It stands for suffering and sorrow. --- Nine: Anything can be a murder weapon if you use it correctly. Six: Coffee mugs. Five: Chicken Wings. Adam: Documents. Eight: Overcooked bread. Nine: are you guys countering my argument or suggesting murder weapons? --- Eight: I love you. Marina: I love you more. Eight: You're shorter than me, therefore, your love capacity is smaller. It is physically impossible for you to love me more. --- John: I swear, I'm the most sane and mature guy in this group. Sam: Your hand is stuck in the vending machine. John: I paid for my mars bar, I'm getting my mars bar. --- Malcolm: Just go to sleep. if you don't, you're gonna hate yourself in the morning. The Garde: Joke's on you, I'm gonna hate myself in the morning REGARDLESS. --- John: Well, what's Juliet without Romeo. Adam: Alive??? --- Marina: Did you hear? Some idiot tried to fight a squid at the aquarium. Nine: *Covered in ink* well maybe that squid was being a dick. --- Adam: Hey, do you have a bag I can borrow? Five: The only bags I have are the ones under my eyes and they're specifically designed to carry the burden of my existance Adam: Five: Adam: Same. --- *Microwaving food* Eight: How long do you think it will take? Ella: I don't know, three or four. Eight: Three or four what? Days? Weeks? Months? Ella: Yes, maybe five. Eight: Five what??? --- John: Wait. Where's Nine? I thought he loves Dungeons and Dragons. Marina: I thought you invited him. John: Uh, I thought Sarah invited him. Sarah: I thought Five invited him. Five: I never invite him. --- Marina, at Eight: You're my significant other. Eight: Yeah I am! Marina, at Ella: You're my child. Ella: Yes boss. Marina, at Six: You're my bitch. Six: Yeah I am- wait, what? Marina, at Sarah: My bestie. Sarah: Naturally. Marina, at Nine: And you're just... gay. Nine: You couldn't be more right. --- Sarah: John is too tall for me to kiss him on the lips. What should I do? Six: Punch him in the stomach. Then, when he doubles over in pain, kiss him. Eight: Tackle him! Nine: Dump him. Adam: Kick him in the shin. John: No to all of those! Just ask me to lean down!! --- Six: Between Five, Marina, Ella, and Sam -- if you had to -- who would you punch? Eight: No one! They're my friends. I wouldn't punch any of them. Six: Five? Eight: Yeah, but I don't know why.

[concernedbrownbread]

Hi I read your This Unbearable Tragedy and I’m having a blast! And yes please I would like to hear your thoughts on your fic

OMG thanks for asking!! Sorry for the late reply. I had so much to say that I wrote wayyy too much and then had to cut it down, lol.

(Also for those reading the fic rn, Chapter 3 is delayed to next weekend.)

So, the main things that I immediately thought of when I started planning a fix-it was "there's not enough Ben in s4" and "why would they set Allison and Reginald up to parallel each other and not follow through?" and also "that is NOT where I saw these characters going". In essence, I thought that s3 was setting up a certain narrative with all of this and then was like ???? when they went (haha) off the rails. So I'll talk about those three points below. SPOILERS for the fic and s4. It's a long post!

Before I start: one of the major points of this fic (and s4 ig) is that timelines are spilling into each other. That doesn't just mean artifacts. It means people. The Keepers get memories of other timelines. Why shouldn't Ben and Reginald?

Character Arcs

Yeah ... I think the general consensus was that the characters weren't themselves in s4. I actually had no problems with the set-up in ep 1-2, but then ... Five and Lila happened. And the narrative seemed to hate Diego, reduce Luther to a himbo and not much else, and for some reason try very hard to make Reginald a dad to Viktor. Klaus, Allison and Claire had a kind of nice sideplot but I didn't love it. It tortured Klaus for no real reason and made Allison his saviour? And for what?

Anyway, for my fic, I start off the characters the same with some subtle differences.

We don't see Diego at his job. His job is to be a dad. That's his whole thing, that's the best part of him. He's a brother and he's a father, and the narrative will reward him for that

Lila starts by screaming. Can you tell she's NOT okay? She deserves a break and a breakdown, and she'll get both I swear. She is NOT a house wife because she simply wouldn't be. She loves working. I did almost make Diego a househusband though

Side note on Lila's parents: they don't exist because why on earth would Allison think of that and not think of bringing Sissy back? It's clear her fantasy timeline is selfish.

Luther is a stripper still but again, his job is a side note. His first scenes is with Klaus (which, again, was a relationship set up in s3 and never explored??). He's trying damn hard to keep his family together and I want people to appreciate that!!

Allison's first scene is still the studio, but I wanted to expand it to include Klaus. Her story is still of love.

Also Klaus has his own place because he has goddamn agency in this narrative. He and Luther deserve to have a home of their own, and they'd make hilarious roomates imo.

Ray of course, exists

Five is interesting to me because while it makes sense for him to be in the CIA, I can't see him staying with the CIA. This will be explored in ch5. I have a really cool piece written for him.

Viktor my beloved <3 I have no notes, I just want to say I love him. I will of course not let him near Reginald unless to beat Reginald up.

Anyway, I'm going to write a whole separate post for the characters. You opened the Pandora's box anon!

Ben (and Klaus)

I gotta say ... I tried, I really tried, to like Jennifer. She's just such a non-character. We know very little about her, her trauma barely gets explored, the Squid is stupid because all it does is exist and then Ben is like "hehe I have tentacles too! Means we're connected" WHAT?

I was excited for Jennifer. Curious about the Jennifer Incident. Very vindicated when I learned Reginald killed them because lets face it, that's super in-character. But I just ... couldn't get behind Jennifer. So I scrapped her.

Look, if there was anyone that Ben was going to be soulmates with, it was Klaus (platonically).

I mean, isn't that what we learned over two seasons? That Ben and Klaus are inseparable?

(I also don't get the whole Durango thing. TUA has never been all that science-y but at least they tried, but this season they didn't care at all. They really just threw in matter/dark-matter and pretended it was something.)

Anyway, I also don't understand why the fact that Ben was DEAD in another timeline is never bought up properly. In fact, Ben is barely bought up by the siblings? After they discuss his death, they all go off on their own. Viktor's the only one who seems to care (which is fine, I love Viktor and seeing him try to reach out to Ben was nice). Five and Diego are fighting each other during their fight against Ben??? Doesn't make sense - Five saves Ben in s3, Diego hugs Ben so tightly in s2, WHERE. IS. THE. PAYOFF.

(I think that is really what I hated about s4. There is no payoff to all that was built in s1-3. They bring in whole new narrative points without concluding the old ones, and then everyone dies. The end. UGH.)

Anyway, MY BEN needs his Klaus. His memories are a little janky, because timelines, but there has always been one constant. There has always been Klaus. I think even in childhood, they were close (and I'll try to explore that more in the memories). More than that though, Ben needs his FAMILY.

And he might deny that they are his family, but they are. And they will do so much to help him. Including, but not limited to, BEATING REGINALDS ASS (/j)

Allison and Reginald's choice

Okay, the final scene in s3 where we see Allison & Ray and Reginald & Abigail made me think that s4 was going to take this further. Allison and Reginald both made a selfish choice - not in resetting the timeline, but in directly going against the wishes of the loved ones they magicked into the timeline. Ray in s3 is very clear that though he loves her, and will always love her, his place is in Dallas 1963, where he has people he cares about. A life he cares about. Abigail is a bit more subtle, but I remember thinking that it was clear that she wanted to die/was content with dying. I was a pretty casual fan then so I don't know if this was true, but that was the vibes I got from s1, and I was pretty happy that s3 confirmed it just ... not in the way I wanted? I don't mind she destroyed the world because she wanted to die - it's clear Abigail and Reginald think themselves above human lives. I just wish they explored it more.

And again, this parallel was something I got from just the ending of s3. It wasn't a deepdive or anything. I feel like it was such an obvious choice for s4 to go "What happens if you can't let go of the person you love?" And then ... they don't even mention Ray properly. Damn.

I just don't understand why they didn't do it? They set it up so perfectly. UGHHHH.

The main reason Ray exists in my fic is because Allison has to reckon with the fact that she really did pull Ray out of his time, out of his life. And I want her to realise how awful a choice that was. At the same time, I want Reginald to face the exact same thing and choose to do the opposite - hold onto Abigail tighter. Chapter 3 is going to explore a bit more of Allison and Ray, while further down the line we'll see more and more of Abigail.

(ALSO OMG!!! Abigail and Five parallel each other in wayyy more interesting ways than Reginald and Five. I cannot WAIT to write that. But this is more a headcanon hehehehe.)

Other Notes

I think s1-3 set up a lot of things that I assumed was going to be explored and wasn't. I'm going to try and touch upon all of them

the Jennifer Incident felt lacking. s1-2 really were so good because there was a slight mystery to it all, and when there wasn't, there was a ton of dramatic irony - ofc we knew Viktor was the bomb, but it was interesting to see the family figure out that mystery. In the same way, ofc we know Ben is the bomb, but I really though s4 would allow the family to actively search for why and how to stop him. I'm more of a angst & fluff writer but I shall try to write some semblance of mystery here.

Marigold. I will explore. I have Thoughts. chapter 3 will answer more on why it was found by Ben in particular.

Relationships that were set up in s1 will be revisited because as the "last season" I expected it to be. Ofc, Klaus and Ben is the big one, but also Klaus-Diego, Viktor-Allison, Allison-Luther, Five-Viktor, etc. Some new ones will be there, especially with Ben who had little interactions (on account of him being a ghost) and with Lila.

Five continues to be old man on this side of crazy. Sometimes he has good advice. Other times his ideas are unhinged. Early chapters he's mellow because life is normal now but when things go to shit ... oh boy let's NOT forget how paranoid this guy is.

Lila is also a little crazy. Good for her.

Commission!Five is explained more than just a throwaway line in the Five Deli. Five Deli and the Subway is explored more too ofc.

DOLORES MENTIONED BECAUSE SHE IS GODDAMN IMPORTANT TO UNDERSTANDING FIVE. Not even as a "love story" (Five's love story is his familial one), just as a part of his psyche. She is mentioned in EVERY season. She deserves to be mentioned here.

Pogo. I will not say more.

Reginald. Is Reginald.

Anyway, I have a lot more to say but I'll stop here. Sorry this is so long! Thanks for the ask <3

[carmenized-onions]

NEW CHAPTER, 14, new recap (can you believe the first one i recapped was chapter 5 oh my) lets rip some coke and goooo

“I thought it was a good bit!” “Cause I’m a piece of shit?” - IVE MISSED THISS

CHARMIN SOUNDS LIKE CHARMING 🥹🥹🥹

the deer in headlights bit is v funny, you’ll see when you see the memes (which i made before the chapter, i am nostradamus)

she is fruity for sure

nodding like i understand food talk (tf is a3)

unrelated but the same therapist thing reminded me about something i keep forgetting to bring up - RICHIE IS HR. so when you mentioned the bear needs an HR, well they do. and as long as carmy treats chip right i think he’ll accept the co-worker relationship (anything to be able to work with chippy)

THE CAT. he is those cute curly kitties. the shat, iykyk

the fact carmen wants to say ‘i love you’ this early (something he struggled a lot to say to his family) IS SOOOOOOOOO

OMG CHIPPY GOING TO WORK FOR THEM FOR REAL????:333333333

This has been Carmichael Burrowski, folks! Don’t call no one— — DNEKRKRIOELEKDKFODNEKE CARMICHAEL BURROWSKI

Ugh, boyfriend? What kind of word is ‘boyfriend’? That's fucked. - THEYRE SO SIMILAR AND PERFECT TOGETHER

And you cannot say you love him because that would be weird. - OH SHUT UP THEYRE SO

“I’m going to kiss you.” “Yeah, okay.” - THAT IS SO FUNNY SJDJFJKF

He’s fine with the touch of hair pulling, on your part— Possibly more than fine. — *giggles in meme*

“You’re so pretty.” You tell him anyway, speaking into his half open mouth.  Whatever thought he had, it’s dead now.“—Jesus fucking Christ.” - i need them to know how much i love them jesus fucking christ

“I’m not a fucking virgin.” - LMFAOEKRKKEOEKEKRNRKRKRKEKEKEKE

“It was a recent development, okay?” “Darn. Sorry I was late.” - 🥺🥺🥺 imagine -

“I want you in every sentence.” - FUCKING KILL ME WHY DONT YOU CARA MIA😭

to bite you like a cannibal - this man and his hickeys🤭🤭🤭

“Fak is still outside, I’m pretty sure.” - CHIP??1?2?2?3kr3kr3kr3kr838484kr4&4&4

“Wait— Are they?” Oh, so Richie’s here, too? Good. - oh great everyone’s here, bet squid is there too

NUZZLING NOSES

her old cat, her old pu-

Nuzzling your face into Syd’s cheek - squidink as she’s holding carm’s hand?? wild

“First of all, wrong placement.” - ofc it is

When shit happens, you call me - 🥺🥺🥺 bestie!!!

“Get your weird little hands off my Chip, you perv—” - LMFAOOOW DJEJEJDJDJ I LOVE HIM SO

and syd’s reply sidjdifi

“Y’know how going to a different barber is like cheating—?” - SJDJDJ GET HIS ASS CHIP. they swapped her for fucking ted fak???

“You’re still— We’re still sharing, right?” - SYD SHENJEHEJE

I’m sexually normal - very normal thing to say, it me tho

OMFG IF CHIP RECOGNIZES DONNA AND PETE FROM OUTSIDE THE RESTAURANT

“Baby’s do traditionally experience time, yeah.” “You n’ that smart mou—” - their dynamic is unmatched

You have to respect the power in that. “Damn.” - that reminded me of marcus

“Oooh, Charmin gets his first paycheck suddenly he’s all that—” “You wanna come up to my room or not?” - i was gonna comment on the charmin thing but HELLO1??1?23)kr3:kr

THEY CAN HANG. SURE BRO

THEYRE WATCHING RATATOUILLE OMGGGGG

Sleeveless black turtleneck? Maybe black palazzo pants - HOT

Please say yes to the white apron. Please say yes to his team. He'll get your initials monogrammed and everything. - *passes out*

the wonderful rat chef

ON GOD

“Yeah. I’ll answer.” - bc 🥺😭

“You’re fucking Carmen!” - GOODBYEEEE. not carmen outing them YET AGAIN

“So fuck you, actually.” - 🫶🏼🫶🏼🫶🏼

“Fuck off! I’m already coming to fucking Time Square with you, don’t be whiny.”  - this is giving when dwight was like ‘of course i’ll get that stuff for you so just shut up’

“I nominate Carmen.” “I second the nom.” - tag-team<33

Don’t fuck in a fuckin’ Holiday Inn Chip’s worth mo - he’s so sweet and yet so???

HE CALLED CHIP BABY I REPEAT

It's absolutely going in Carmen's top five favourite expressions of yours. - 🕊️🕊️🕊️

“Syd said she will be knocking violently if I’m not back at midnight on the dot, yeah.” - SQUID GIVING HER GF A CURFEW

THE BERF SHIRT

“God, it’s over—” - squidink is so over rn😔

“Baby, just say you’re happy for me.” - BABY. THEYRE SO BACK

squid can stab men, a little, as a treat

You hand her your water bottle when you spot her looking at it. - 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈

her instinct is to call chip, oh OH oh

“I didn’t ask you to be great.” Syd says it before she thinks it, and it’s enough to make your eyes water - MINE ARE RUNNING TOO ACTUALLY

God you’re dehydrated - *careless whisper plays* i mean what I SAID NOTHING

squid out🦑🦑

“It’s so crazy that you think that’s gonna happen—” - I LOVEEE SHEEE

Your shoulders touch as you both stare at the ceiling. - CUTIES

She hums, pointing to the popcorn tiles - namedrop! jk…unless?

“Oh my fucking God it’s that bad—”- GET THEIR ASSES SQUID

In front of everyone, accidentally while saying goodbye, off-handedly while hanging up, over text, and so on and so forth. - all of those are cute actually

“Now it’s three.” “Fuck, it’s gaining interest?!” - WE’RE SO BACK!!!!

“Wait, what the fuck, Syd, say it back!” - REAL!!

this was so cute!! just them and their adventures

LETS. GET. ROLLLINNGGGG!!!! (papers!!!) (we both can do drug jokes in this house!!!) (there will be a wip under all this as a treat I promise)

I’m honestly shocked Charmin isn’t a canon nickname (yet!!), cause like. IT DOES SOUND LIKE CARMEN!!! AND THE TOILET PAPER BEARS!!! AND THE TOILET PAPER BEARS ARE BLUE NOW TOO!!! WHAT THE HELL!!!

You are frfr an oracle with your memes, occasionally I look at em like hmmmmm,,,, this is gonnna be a lot funnier after the next one. My comedic Nostradamus genius. (the secrets of the universe ARE in the popcorn ceiling!! U!!)

The benefit about writing about food for people who did not come for food is that I also don’t have to fully understand what I’m saying. Had to look at a wagyu chart and make a lot of assumptions. I am not going to make steak with pop rocks to find out if it’s any good.

OKAY WHAT THE FUCK I S RICHIE’S JOB I’M BEING SO FR I DO NOT !!! Carmen’s Exec, Syd’s CDC/Head, Richie is… HR/Co-Manager/Host??? No wonder he can afford fuckin eras tour tickets bro is getting THREE DIFFERENT PAYCHECKS WHAT!!! But this does make sense. Bro IS THEE Human Resource.

Had to look up photos of sheep cats. Yeah that’s him. That’s Carmen but a Cat for sure.

RAHH. The held back I love yous are very. Very rah. Theres a lot of thought behind them for me but I shant share because I feel like that may give too much away I fear?

Carmichael burrowski is brought to you by seeing Carmichael company vans a lot and Mae Burrowski from Night in the Woods. Thank u both for ur service.

I completely forgot about the ‘that’s fucked’ convo with Fak until I saw a gifset and went OH YEAH…. It IS fucked. They are so stupid. They are also both unable to say I love you because that would be WEIRD!!!!!!!

I am so happy with the incredibly funny smooch because it was very much to mimic Carmen’s —

I think funny kisses are the way to go. There is something very charming (CHARMIN!) to me about awkwardly expressed consent.

YOU DIDN’T PUT THE RATATOULLIE MEME IN THIS ONE FOR THE PUBLIC TO ENJOY AND FOR THAT!!! YOU’VE DEPRIVED OUR PEOPLE!! i knew if I was gonna make him watch ratatouille and have him relate, he’d have to relate to more than just remy.

I’ll call them and let them know you love them, promise. Whenever they get out of the bathroom.

Carmen 30-Year Old Virgin Berzatto— Or 28-29, time line is UNCLEAR!! Regardless, I couldn’t take away my man’s one W. He fumbles most people, I had to let him have the one he canonically got. And also it was too fun to consider him absolutely STEWING as Tony recounts her emotional relationship with Mikey, just thinking in the background “I need to tell her I am in fact. NOT . a virgin!” I hate this man.

I WANT YOU IN EVERY SENTENCEEE RRAAAWHWHWHEHE!!! Loved that. Loved writing that paragraph. Love love. Love wanting to have someone so intrinsically in your life that in order for someone to know you they have to know them. WOOOOOO!!!!!!!! Carmen give her a hickey before we have to confront the emotional implications, GET HER BOY!!

Well how much did you bet on syd being there because now I owe you

CHIPS GOT TWO HANDS FOR A REASON BABY!!! I’m kidding the triangle would never work. But they should try anyways.

Whole Richie scene makes me :)) it’s fun to navigate these two going through like, so many internal emotions obviously over Chip’s trauma dump, and deciding what Richie would actually take a moment to comment on. And I think it absolutely has to be the ‘imagine your friends are dead’, bro 100% HAD TO BE HELD BACK FROM RAMMING THE DOOR DOWN TRULY TRULY. Don’t imagine I’m fuckin dead cousin!!!!!! I’m not a fuckin ghost!!! Call me!!!!!!!!! I am literally your guy!!!!!

Watching season 3 and seeing half of the season unnecessarily focusing on a Handyman (Ted) really had me clutching my pearls like. Bro. where’s my baby. Who the fuck does this guy think he is. This is CHIP TURF!!

BIG SHOUT OUT TO SYDNEY ‘THE SQUID’ ‘SEXUALLY NORMAL’ ADAMU!~

Donna!! Donna!! Finally semi-time that I have to face my white whale of writing,,, da mom… I’m still mentally tackling how to write her, but we’ll get there when we get there…. (truly thought she was gonna fucking die this season I didn’t think I was gonna have to DEAL WITH IT!!)

Everyone simultaneously did a record scratch at ‘do you want to come up to my room’ and I think that’s beautiful. I think that’s everything I wanted and more. They can hang bro. and watch ratatouille. Like hang out and be normal and fantasize about easily removable aprons with monogramming done.

Carmen is a certified shoe in his mouth yapper. Sugar, hand the crown to your brother, you may step off your throne; because this fucker has gotten caught like three separate times simply by being himself.

VERY DWIGHT Very like, sibling texting ‘fuck you I hate you what do you want from mcdonalds im omw home’. That’s the Richip dynamic to me. And then they kill carm.

Chip baby!!! This is not a drill he finally called her a pet name!! men, to your stations! And she didn’t even have the brain to COMPUTE IT, alas.

The post squid scene was so tough I was like, ‘do I cut this and just end on carmen?’ but then I knew, I’d never write this scene, cause spoiler alert, we’re doing a very slight time skip. So like. I just wanted Squidink to have their actual last beat to their sad no contact era because!!! So many feelings to be had over not contacting your boy in forever!!! But god its so OVER!

‘Didn’t ask you to be great’ is SUCH a punch to the gut, esp for a people pleaser like Chip (or me, man). Like. Fuckin. GOD. It’s the same sentiment Richie had in Just Dropped with ‘I’d love you even if you weren’t useful’, but like, this side of it is pre-useful. Like. Not only would I love you if you weren’t useful, I would never ASK you to be useful. HELL.

All of those I love yous are cute you say? Well I will have to up my game in coming up with something truly mortifying, then.

Shout out to me, directing on set, and demanding that my crew says it back when I say I love you. Genuinely my ‘Heard’ is a reciprocated ‘I love you’. No one call Richie/HR.

also the memes. immaculate as always. AND THE AUTHOR/CHIP COMPARISON,,, ART IMITATES LIFE, what can i say? if carmen/chip manage to live together at a point i really can't imagine him denying anything she wants. i think he would only have opinions on the kitchen and maybe efficiency of moving through spaces. (WE NEED TO PUSH THE COFFEE TABLE BACK!!! SIDLING AGAINST IT TO GET TO THE COUCH IS CAUSING A 3.4 SECOND DELAY IN MOVIE TIME!!!!) psycho.

Anyways. As always, a pweasure to hear your thoughts. I am hoping next weekend will finally be the fucking weekend I put something out. It’s hard slugging through this next chapter because it’s basically our so much fucking dialogue chapter, and navigating action and meaning AROUND that has been a nightmare. I think I’m probably over thinking the fuck out of it, to be fair. I feel so bad making y’all wait, so here is a juicer snippet.

THANK YOU LOVE YOU APPRECIATE ALL UR PATIENCE AND ALL UR THOUGHTS I LOVE TO HEAR FROM YALL!!

[kellanved-ammanas]

TF2 Drabbles: TentaSpyDad - An Octopus

Summary: you say "monster AUs" and the word "TentaSpyDad" is beamed into my head. Scout probably takes more after his mother, perfectly human, so finding out his father is... That. would be a shock (but also explain some things, in hindsight)

~

Just when Scout had thought he’d rooted out all of Spy’s secrets – all the ones that were relevant to him anyway as there was likely no one other than Spy himself who knew all his secrets – he was confronted with another one. He’d heard of mermaids who could leave the water to walk on ostensibly human legs for a time before needing to go back to the water. Presumably this was the same sort of magic but instead of a mermaid Spy was…

“An octopus, you’re a fucking octopus. How the hell are you a freaking octopus of all things?”

Spy floating in the private pool he’d apparently had in his room this whole time, his arms crossed on the edge of it frowned up at him. “I’m not an octopus or a squid before you accuse me of that next. The proper term is ‘cecaelia’. And no, before you ask, we’re not related to mermaids. We’re entirely separate species who just happen to share similar traits.”

That had been what Scout had been planning to ask next even if it was the least important of all the questions brought up by this revelation. With it out of the way came a more important one. “How are you my dad and a cecaelia or whatever at the same time? Like, as far as I know, I’m perfectly human. I don’t got a even a single tentacle on me.” Disappointingly because now that he knew tentacles were an option, he’d have loved to have some.

“I’m not sure. I didn’t think I could reproduce with humans even whilst in my human form. Which was why I was less careful than I should’ve been.”

With the initial shock worn off, Scout carefully lowered himself to sit by the pool to get a closer look Spy. The water was clear enough to easily make out the swirl of tentacles that made up his lower body, seemingly starting at the waist. His torso still looked perfectly human. “Are you sure you’re really my dad then?”

“Yes. I believe your mother on that and when you were a baby, I did a DNA test to make sure. You are without a doubt my offspring.” How he felt about that was as hard to tell as ever. Even though he’d taken off the mask before sliding into the pool to reveal his true form to Scout, his expression was still purposefully guarded.

Scout had only known Spy was had dad for maybe a month now and had mostly come to terms with it until this. This was a whole other thing on top of that, making it weirder. Though finding out Spy was a slimy creature from the sea with even more secrets than one would suspect wasn’t too surprising. Speaking of that though… “Why would you tell me about this? I mean you seemed to have no intention of ever telling me you were my dad on your own. So why reveal this so easily?”

Spy took a breath to answer but hesitated as he averted his gaze before finally speak in a voice barely above a whisper. “Because… I want to be more honest with you. And you asked me why I left, this is why. Your mother doesn’t know. I tried for a while but… she would’ve found out eventually if I had stayed and I wasn’t sure how she would take the fact I’d essentially lied to. My kind aren’t exactly well known among humans and not particularly well liked by those who do know. I was worried about what would happen when she found out, both about what might happen to me as well as to you so… I left.”

“Meaning you didn’t leave ‘cause of me?” That’s what Scout had always assumed, that his father had left because he didn’t want anything to do with him. Even after finding out Spy was his dad, he’d felt that way. Spy didn’t seem the type to enjoy being around children so even if he was okay with Scout now, that might not have always been the case.

“Yes. It wasn’t because of you but because I’m a liar. But now you know the truth so do with that what you will.”

Perhaps Scout should thank him for the honesty but considering how long it had taken, he didn’t particularly feel like it. Instead he stood and brushed himself. “All right. I guess I got some more stuff to think about then.” And perhaps some experiments in the water to see if he could get himself to grow a tentacle or two. “See you around, Dad.”

[charlieconwayy]

Top 5 Freela moments?

this is truly like choosing a favorite child

i HAVE to go with the ending of TWOF, but rly did you expect anything less? just the most satisfying moment i have ever experienced in my tv viewing experience. the set up, the execution - fry literally walking into the frame and leela's face when he hands her the flower. aside from it being their first legit kiss (that i count anyway), it's SO important to their development. leela realizing that success/status/someone looking great on paper does not make someone the ideal partner, but what does is the feeling of relief you get when you see them and the way they make you feel special. i love how fry doesn't even remember nibbler saying he'll help him out w leela, so this was truly just a genuine moment of him being thoughtful. also fry's "yes!" when they fade to black is so sweet

okay i thought for a while about the number two slot and i think i have to pick "no matter what happens, you'll always be leela, the woman i love." fry was so frickin immature and lowkey sexist at the start of the series, which we see a ton of in i was a crustacean in love specifically or even in amazon women in the mood ("is she hot?" "she is all knowing" "in other words, no") and we've gradually seen him mature (my fav "zapp's not the only one becoming marriage material" "you're getting there" <3). leela's biggest fear w fry has always been his commitment issues and him getting bored of her. we've also seen her insecurities ab the way she looks throughout the show, so for him to confirm to her (when she's like entirely squid, mind you) that no matter how she looks, he will always love her is so special. it was the culmination of 7 seasons of development for both fry and their relationship, and i love leela's reaction (and her tentacles doing the princess diaries foot pop when they kiss lol).

i could just put moments from s4 on here and this entire list would be complete tbh....the best season, nothing is ever topping it. the sting is just a special moment and i can't even imagine watching it when it first aired. while we'd gotten little hints here and there that leela had feelings for fry, this episode just confirms the extent of those feelings. we know fry would rather die than be without leela, but this ep confirms that leela would rather die than be without fry. the whole ending segment is great, w leela trying to unalive herself so that she can "feel alright with him" and fry talking her out of it (first real "i love you" :') ) but GOD the feeling when they show the hospital room. the details that we see from all the things fry said to leela in her dream. amy's "they said you'd never wake up, fry never left your side for a second." leela holding her heart when she realizes that him talking to her is what inspired her to wake up!! the hug <3 it's so crazy to me that an animated show can show the intimacy and physicality between them so perfectly.

"dear fry, our time together was short but it was the best time of my life. - leela." for similar reasons to the one above, i love an ep that does a deep dive into leela's love for fry. this one, man. this one. leela marrying CUBERT just bc he resembles fry says it all. "i used to think there was someone for me." just her rage at fry and heartbreak that she will never see him again, while managing to create the successful future she had always wanted but ultimately realizing it's pointless without someone to share it with. that video card hits me so deeply when he says i love you the look on her face actually destroys me.....but what gets me most out of everything is the cavern on the green. leela has no idea where fry is. he could be in the past for all that she knows. but leela knows in her heart that if she leaves a message, somehow, somewhere, fry will see it and he will know how she feels. and he does. that to me is so beautiful, their love is fated no matter what universe or timeline that they're in.

this is a relatively new fav scene for me but "you're lonely and i'm lonely, but together, we're lonely together." freela had kind of just been bickering besties up until this episode, but this was the first time we'd really seen them connect on an intimate level since 102. fry is upset ab spending xmas alone for the first time, leela is upset ab spending her life alone. he's alone in the year 3000 and leela has spent a lifetime alone. we see fry so upset that he hurt leela, that he goes out of his way to buy her a gift and apologize (massive development in fry's emotional intelligence, esp if you compare this to 103 w bender) but leela ends up being okay. she holds his hand and tells him that they can be lonely together and it's such a gamechanging moment, you can just see the chemistry and the connection between the two of them.

[arson-09]

this is just yapping about my very indulgent fanfic feel free to ignore⭐️

.

Tamlin hits me as a very gift giving person, i feel that would easily be one of his main love languages but he always get SO flustered when someone gifts him something back so he does get a little teary eyed when Catrin (oc) gifts him a special tunic she embroidered with little items to represent their friendship and the friendship with their group as a whole (other ocs- Squid, Rosetta, and lucien ofc) ((because i think embroidery is really cool and something i want to learn more about anyway))

AND the oc i made for the fic to be the driving force is so silly and i love her dearly and one of my favorite random things i gave to her is she loves baths. You know all those fancy soaps, body washes, salts, etc (do they have bathbombs in the acotar world?) she LOVES them and she just loves a nice hot relaxing bath so one year for winter solstice Tamlin gifts her some specialty bath products from Day court. Shes ecstatic and cant wait to use them for her next bath

Friendship and platonic love is such an important thing to me and something im focusing really hard on in this fic. In my personal experience my dear friends honestly always help the most when im struggling and they may not even know it. Just their presence and love can help me so much and i just know thats such a major thing Tamlin would benefit from. anyway friendship IS magic and the spring court is basically healed by it. Yes im making this shit post to procrastinate writing chapters for said fic. enjoy

[t00nyah]

so. i was very bored. and on character ai there's an alternate timeline ai that can come up with things that could happen and such. so i was like. okay let's go wild let's make an au were octarians won the great turf war. so there it is, an au created with ai deciding what would change in characters' lives, what would they end up doing, and, of course, me finilazing it with my headcanons and adding some flavour to some of ideas.

so. yep. octarians won, and, just like in original series, the losing side, inklings, are living in the domes. in my head they still have the great zapfish, while octarians go into a more sci-fi direction and make their own power sources. inklings are...kind of almost erased from their history. i don't know why it clicked in my head, it just did, maybe there's a better way to implement things, okay. x)

onto the characters...

callie and marie didn't form a duet without contest and end up having the most ordinary jobs. i know, right?

callie is a teacher and marie is a journalist! i personally really loved callie as a teacher and i'm just. yeah. marie. you know. marie had me suffering.

i would have design notes here but there's not much to tell so if there's something catching your eye that you think might mean something - it probably does. idk.

i took pearl's money. that's right. now she's forced to work as barista. by me. i want you to know that it was VERY hard to decide what would pearl do now that i stole her money but holy fuck coffee shop aus got to me. (i'm also very proud of the logo i came up with hehe)

alright. so. there's a hard one. and by that i mean in my headcanons three's family is ... one of those traditional families ... you know what i mean. so... here goes kaori, using she/her and having a big identity crisis she's not really able to solve. a little hard when you're not so sure what to make out of it and don't know if you can tell anyone how you feel. kaori does not like when adults make the distinction between girl things and boy things, she's not that into skirts honestly, she's just wearing it to please her parents. kaori is studying to become a scientist to work on improving life in the domes. that's good, right?

speaking of scientists, of course there's an extraordinary - marina ida. we all know marina, she's too smart for all of us. she's helping in multiple researches and is very widely known. (and also gets lots of MONEY for that). *re-reads ai's entry on marina and looks away* UMM okay i totally forgot that part where she's also a professor in university. WELL NOW I KNOW the context to something else. maybe.

so, eight... nana in this au *looks at coroika*, is a student (idk, highschool maybe...i dunno i dunno i think i messed up) who got a bit carried away with a project. and started her research on inklings, because there's a theory going among the historians that the inklings still do exist... so nana, as a very passionate when she has interest octoling, goes to explore on her own! she gets into the domes and meets kaori eventually, who's...got a good eye on weird features and recognises nana as an octoling. not exactly friendly at first, but what can a squid like her do anyways?

eventually they kinda get stuck along because nana wants to KNOW. kaori just desides to go against her better judgement and give her a tour. and leads her to the best coffee shop she knows. they bond with each other eventually and become friends :) and nana works hard to get heard and get inklings to surface somehow maybe, though it doesn't seem like they want it THAT much? i mean, they're established their society already, why would they? they be chillin'. (but yes kaori gets to see the surface FOR SURE.)

i REALLY didn't want to leave four alone on her introductory pic poor lonely squid</3 so there she is! surume, that one school student who's drawing on each lesson(me). she's also *looks at ai's statement* is popular on social media for her art.

she doesn't really meet kaori that often, but when their class goes to see a college where kaori studies, you know, to show their possibilities, where they could go after school or something like that, so they sort of...know of each other? very awkwardly and formally have met each other? kaori will probably die of embarassment when sees surume again because thinks she made a bad impression? lol!

if you follow me you may have noticed that i'm projecting my gender crisis on three hard and usually the one they're consulting with is four... and it stays true to this au, i really want kaori to talk things out and, ay, it's way easier to open up to a stranger sometimes. so yeah. i think it will happen in my au. surume explaining kaori all the stuff about gender identity and sexuality because there's a little more of society pressure in this au... they'll get there eventually.

bonus: ref for marina in her regular clothing! she's so pretty...

another bonus: marina meeting a pretty barista...

so yeah. yeah. marina gets into the domes because nana has caught her interest with her project, so she meets pearl. because if pearlina doesn't happen the universe will explode and we all know that.

also there were doodles i made on our first wbf that you now know the context for :]

thank you for reading this far! it was... a long one... yep. i also really want to thank everyone who's following me fr fr i'm very happy to get feedback and to know that you enjoy my art! love ya'll<3 /p

separate versions under cut

[writeshite]

Arthur Curry deserves more love, so in the spirit of that I have a request for him lol-

Male!Reader is an Atlantean with siren-like abilities, who mostly uses them to charm people into giving them pretty things. Reader gets hired to steal Arthur's Trident, but sees Arthur for the first time and is immediately "yes I want all of that". He steals the Trident anyway, but only so Arthur will chase him to a more secluded area, where Reader starts seducing him.

Arthur's somewhat baffled at first because that isn't where he thought this encounter was going (he was kinda expecting a brawl) but he rolls with it, realising he might have a thing for sexy thieves-

Siren's Song

Summary:

“That’s mine,” he simply states. “Let go, and you can swim away.” You chuckle, “Oh, I don’t think so; we’ve barely had any fun,” you say, “Let go.”

Pairings:

Arthur Curry x Male Reader

Tags:

Atlantean Reader | Reader Has Siren-Like Abilities | Thief Reader | Minor Flirting

Words: 1593

Author's Note:

It is my belief, that we as a society would benefit more from Arthur Curry fanfic.

Atlanteans swam by, eyes glazing over you as they would shadow; your silent whispers drifted through the waters; around you, they wove a bubble - shrouding you from the common fishfolk. A few people turned to follow your calm voice, hands held out ready to give, but you waved them away, leaving a few stunted in the currents. Others actively avoid you as well, instincts no doubt screaming of your unseen threat passing by - the crowds in Atlantis were dense, annoying for now, but later on, would serve an advantage. The palace guards were easy to sneak by, but the sharks that accompanied them nearly gave you away, heads swiveling when you snuck by.

Your garb of clothing shifted with the tide, light bouncing off to mimic the colors around you; a dark sash held the thieving accessories to your person as a hood lay over your head. No insignia, no allegiance.

Once inside the palace, your whispers became low hums, easier to maintain as they became background noise to the palace staff. A rhyme you’d heard the surface dwellers often sing to their children, it had the same effect, calming, lulling those around you into a state of indifference - with the high halls of the palace, it echoed. Still, entering the throne room, hidden behind others, you switched tactics. The throne room was brightly lit, with nowhere to hide; any sudden movements would break the spell, and your target - the royal trident stood out in its golden glory, you turned to survey the king, and your humming cut off momentarily.

The monarchy had never been of any interest to you, but you’d love to spark an interest in them now. The king sat on his throne, head, on one hand, legs spread as the other hand lay on the throne’s arm. The trident was set by him, leaning against the throne, as he listened to the merfolk who spoke before him. You swam carefully, strokes slow; the Xebel princess, Mera, was beside him; her gaze would drift ever so often, and you’d still, voice dropping low to conceal yourself further. The closer you got, the slower your movements became; you briefly turned to the top of the room, and a carving looked down at you; its features of it were hollow, big enough for you to squeeze through if you timed your exit right. While the founding of Atlantis looked wonderful, you’d admire it later - you stopped once in arm’s reach of the trident. The left of your sash held a chain of glass orbs, dark like squid ink; they were cold to the touch; you unlinked them, releasing each one carefully. Free, the ink inside began to change, the dark shade giving way to other colors; like a tilefish, it stood out, drawing attention, colors flashing rapidly before the glass broke—shards spinning through the current and color shrouding the room. You held your breath as the others in the room coughed, the ink slid off you, and you grabbed the trident; the king turned in time to see you, surprised he was, you winked and sped off. 

You push off the roof outside, falling into the crowd; they part at the sight of the trident, you hear the palace doors slam open and a cry, your pursuers follow, but you throw more of your traps at them. Glass smashes into one of the guards, and he topples, knocking others and slowing them down, once past the city, you descend beneath the bridge, once past the gate to Atlantis, it’s a free ocean. 

“Shame the king won’t see me off,” you jest to yourself. Perhaps too soon, as a voice calls out, you look back, and there he is; you grin. Though he doesn’t return the gesture, you find the chase entertaining. Some paces behind him are guards, the fish that accompany them swim faster, and you spiral around them when they pass you. They turn and swim back, you point the trident ahead, and they swim away, nothing happens, but they are careful not to risk it. The open ocean melds into a kelp forest; past that is the old shipwreck - your shipwreck - you move down. The bottom of the kelp forest is far easier to navigate, and having done so multiple times, it’s easier for you. 

You strap the trident to your back and fish through your pockets, sharpened coral in your hands; you throw them, pulling them back by the string on the ends. They curve in an arc around you, causing the pursuers to back off; you allow an opening for the king, he takes it, and you grin. “My, my, persistent,” you remark.

He reaches out his hand; the trident comes to life; you feel the pull and grab it before it can fly back to him. It doesn’t stop moving, and you tut, “That’s cheating.”

“That’s mine,” he simply states. “Let go, and you can swim away.”

You chuckle, “Oh, I don’t think so; we’ve barely had any fun,” you say, “Let go.” He freezes, hand lowering hesitantly. Although temporary, you turn away; the forest gives way to the shipwreck.

The shipwreck is massive; in no man’s lands, no kingdom would claim it; the stories of curses and the wrath of Poseidon keep your hideout safe. Although you hope the king hasn’t had the time to learn of the ocean’s tales, it’d be a shame for this to end so soon.

Arthur’s hair is soaked in the weird shit that had burst in the palace; he hadn’t even known what was happening until Mera had yelled, “Intruder.”

He’d turned and seen the water part, a hooded face, and a wink; then, his trident was gone. The thief swam fast towards the top; he’d followed suit, the guards that hadn’t been affected by the distraction behind him. You’d dove into the crowd; trident held close; Arthur hesitated to summon it back to his side; with the people around you, he feared hurting them, so he resorted to waiting. The palace doors slam open, and more guards join, though it’s no use as you throw more glass at them, waters now decorated in color. Not even the bridge deters you - your indignity is impressive.

“Hey!”

You turn back to him, face now uncovered, and a broad smile on your face. Nothing seems to halt you; you use the trident to deter any fish that he commands. The open ocean doesn’t last long; the kelp forest that emerges is grand - stretching across miles, you swim unbothered by it. The weapon you use pushes him back; it grazes his cheek, almost drawing blood - Arthur is tired of the games, so he forgoes any hesitation; if the trident gets caught in the kelp, then so be it; he’ll still get it back. You are persistent in keeping it, though, “That’s cheating,” you tut.

Arthur tries not to roll his eyes, “That’s mine,” he pulls at it again, and you struggle to haul it back. “Let go, and you can swim away,” he offers.

When you speak again, it’s different. All at once, the water grows cold, and his mind goes numb, “Let go.” He doesn’t want to; he attempts to shake his head, but nothing happens, and his hand lowers slowly, following the order. “That’s it.” You coo, eyes shining like pearls in the ocean, “Let go.”

You turn away, and he watches. When the trance falls, his mind is adrift, and he shakes his head, clearing his thoughts. An enormous shipwreck greets him at the edge of the kelp forest; some look old, others new, but regardless of age, they sit on the ocean floor, alone, devoid of sea life. The golden glint of his trident fades into the torn hull of a ship. It’s massive, grey paint rusting, and metal peeling away - a laugh echoes, “Don’t be shy.”

The guards, having caught up, stop beside him; they hesitate, holding a hand to prevent him from going forward. “That’s Poseidon’s Wreck, sire,” one says. When Arthur just looks at him, he elaborates, “only the desperate swim these waters.”

“My trident —”

“ —May be lost; we should return; wait until a smuggler bargains back for it.”

Arthur scoffs, pushing the guard aside, “You can head back if you want; I’m not leaving without my trident.” And seeing the thief up close, he doesn’t say. He dives into the wreck; there’s a shift in the atmosphere; he can barely hear whatever the guards say to him; the water feels thick, and the current is still. The creaks are loud, bouncing off each other, and the laugh sounds again. It drags him in, pulling at his mind.

Your eyes shine in the darkness of the ship, colors swirling in them; you call out to him. The darkness swallows him, and he reaches out, not for the trident - his mind buzzes too much for that - his hand brushes against something, your hand, he thinks. The trident's glow is little but enough for him to see you; you hold one of his hands, your other hand brushing against his cheek. “Foolish king,” you say, “following me into the wreck.”

He blinks, and your face is closer, “Oh, you really are lost, aren’t you?”

He nods, then his hands are wrapped around something, his trident is familiar in his hands, “Wait….”

You’d turned around, but Arthur wasn’t ready to leave. “Sshh,” you place a finger on his lips, his eyes droop, he blinks, and he’s by the kelp forest again, the fading sound of your laughter around him.

End Note:

No thoughts, only Arthur. Stay Hydrated.

[sentienttoastah]

Someone mentioned in the reblogs of the last post about their preferred interpretation of Moby Dick and after seeing that I had a little personal thought discussion of my own in my brain and like ahahsjsjs it made me so happy

I just love looking at this book in a more serious way than I usually do so thank you to whoever that was :)

And speaking of, I think from now on I’ll give actual (only occasional!) literary commentary on Moby Dick for these Daily Dick posts because I cannot discuss this book with anyone else except the internet so yes. But for the sake of those who only want to see funky whale drawings I will keep them under the post’s cuts!!

Plus if I didn’t the post would be ungodly long.

Today, I tried to draw a bit of the crew but then I remembered I suck at drawing humans so even more extremely and unnecessarily green shaded Moby instead. Didn’t have much time so I just gave that fella the Outlast camcorder filter treatment. Dw, the cameraman is fine. Don’t like how this turned out though :(

I want to draw whale skeletons tomorrow :D

Anyways, delusional whale ranting time. Be warned this is way longer than my last one and will contain spoilers for those who haven’t finished the book!

So the reblog tag I saw went along the lines of interpreting Moby Dick as not a god but to have the reader doubt that fact throughout the book until the end because of the descriptions we get of him and honestly, yes. I absolutely agree on that for the original novel. It gives us dread while reading!!

Although I will say that if we were to add/accept some kind of mysticism to Moby Dick and see him as not only a whale and as something else, he still wouldn’t be a “god”. Yet at the same time he isn’t exactly a whale either. Or at least not a normal one (that much is clearly obvious I suppose). Like if that’s not a god then what is a god? And if that’s not a whale what is it? It’s all vague!!

One of the many messages or themes in Moby Dick is humanity’s constant struggle against the unknown and the uncertain. We all fear the unknown in one way or another whether we realise it or not. Why else do we dread our future? Or what will happen tomorrow? Or what will happen after death? Because we don’t know.

With Moby Dick we understand that he’s described as a massive white whale who is known to wreak havoc among sailors. But aside from that what else do we actually know about Moby? The only information we get about him all come from 3rd party sources (such as that other whaling crew they met at chapter 54) and then through Ishmael as our narrator. Like Ishmael himself has only encountered Moby Dick once. How do we know if the information he got from others is true?

And even if it was true it still doesn’t tell us a lot about Moby Dick. We don’t understand why he attacks ships, was he angry? Was he in pain? Was it his own form of revenge? Or was he genuinely just trying to mind his own business? We don’t understand how he became so intelligent, or whether it really was Moby Dick that they saw in the apparitions of chapter 51 or was it just a squid like we see in a later chapter? If it was Moby why was he following them?

The vagueness of Moby Dick’s position in being either whale or something else makes him haunting. So in my own interpretation I’d say to keep the final verdict completely undecided. He appears, then disappears. As only one of the many horrors of the deep. Moby Dick isn’t a horror book by any means but it is about the ocean, the ocean just so happens to be scary because we haven’t truly discovered everything it has to offer. Who knows what’s down there?

Also, not only the fear or mystery he gives to us as the readers but to the crew in the story as well. Moby Dick took victory from doing what other whales the crew have hunted never do. He was “unpredictable” as described. That wraps back to the beginning where I mentioned humanity’s struggles against the unknown and uncertain. But yet, even when we fear what we don’t know we are constantly challenging it still. We’re intrigued by it. Ishmael does so by wanting to learn more about whales and go off on more voyages despite his experience the first time around, and the pequod crew or most notably Ahab does so by challenging Moby Dick.

Speaking of Ahab, he himself can also be compared to Moby Dick’s unpredictability. He might not be vaguely god-like as Moby is, but there’s definitely something about him. Ishmael even quotes something about a mad man, a man who has let go of all rationality and morality, to be more dangerous than any beast. Why? Because he will become an unpredictable man. A man who will do anything to get what he desires even at the cost of others. Which is exactly what Ahab does. Humans are already dangerous enough when we understand them but when we don’t understand them? Even more dangerous no doubt.

That’s why his crew feared him after all. They didn’t know and nor did they want to know what would happen if they disobeyed him. Even Ahab doesn’t understand himself as he mentioned in the chapter with Starbuck. Why does he do the things he do? For revenge? For glory? For gold? He doesn’t understand except the fact he knows (or feels?) he has to. And it’s tragic.

In conclusion; aside from accepting differences, democracy, and the dangers of unhealthy obsession or copious amounts of whale anatomy, Moby Dick is also about the unknown and the uncertain. There’s a lot of other instances like Starbuck’s hesitation and Fedallah’s entire existence but I don’t want to drag out the rant for too long and obviously I’m not the first person to come up with this.

But what do you think? And thank you to anyone who actually read all my crap frfr 🙏🐟

[becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys]

Doctor Who, but Chronologically: 36

It's such a treat to get sensible two-parters, look

And we're back! The cliffhanger is resolved by the Doctor sternly telling the gas mask zombies to go to their room because he's very cross, and they meekly do. This is actually a very clever way to get out of it, I think. It's nice when Moffat manages a genuinely clever twist.

Also, it means right before the opening credits roll, the Doctor breaks the tension by saying "I'm glad that worked, those would have been terrible last words." Eighteen years ago, in a student house in Rhoath, we shat ourselves we laughed so hard. Still a great line.

Anyway, fuck, this is SUCH a good episode. The plot is actually relatively brief (it turns out that ambulance Jack crashed here was full of medical nanogenes, and the first thing they found was a now-dead child still in a gas mask. But they'd never seen a human before, so they 'healed' him to a zombie creature. Now they're trying to heal all humans. The reason they're asking for their mam is because it's Nancy! Not his sister after all.) But, the episode contains multiple repeated creepy scenes to fill in for the lack of plot, and they're all bangers and all undercut with just the right amount of humour to be a foil. Love the Doctor replacing Jack's gun with a banana. Love the line "Rose, I'm trying to resonate concrete." Love Rose discovering that the future of the human race is to fuck its way across the stars and that Jack has probably fucked a space squid. All great

It's just a shame about all the cringeworthy sex and romance talk disguised as a dancing metaphor. That made me wince two decades ago and time has not made it better. Even editing doesn't give Moffat the ability to write anything romantic that doesn't feel like unsettling wet noodles. Sometimes, being synaesthetic is a curse.

Ultimately Nancy tells the Bluetooth zombie that she's his Mam and the nanogenes realise her DNA is the correct one. This means there's an absolutely delightful bit where Christopher Eccleston throws his whole pussy into yelling "Just this once, Rose, everybody lives!" and the day is utterly saved. It's true, that is rare. I am still haunted by Horror of Fang Rock. What an awful story. Never forget poor Vince.

This means Richard Wilson lives!

"Uh, all your patients will in fact be fully healed," the Doctor says. "Just quietly take credit and send them along."

"Doctor!" says a random woman. "My leg's grown back! When I came to hospital I only had one!"

"Well, there is a war on," says Richard Wilson, with devastating comedic delivery. "Is it possible you miscounted?"

And then Rose and the Doctor rescue Jack before his ship blows up, and then the episode ends EXACTLY ONE SECOND after Jack enters the TARDIS, yes that's right, there is NO MORE OF THE EPISODE. They most certainly did not ruin this incredible story with one of the most nauseating and awful scenes in televisual history that still gives me bone-creaking second-hand embarrassment. Nope. It ends when Jack walks in. He says "It's bigger on the inside" and we all just... move on. We're done. The end. Tidy.

Anyway!!! Only one new plot thread, I think - Jack reveals at one point that he used to be a Time Agent, but they stole two years of his memories. Exciting!!! That has also happened to the Doctor. I wonder if it's related?

“She” (an unknown person) is returning (perhaps River returned as Missy. Maybe Me? Maybe Clara???!)

There is something on Donna’s back

An entire planet, Pyrovilia, just… disappeared, somehow. (Maybe because the TARDIS is exploding??? Saturnine was also lost, and that WAS because of the TARDIS exploding. The lion man’s planet was also lost but he was a bit of a knob about it if I’m honest.)

Amy is maybe dead (she’s not)

The Doctor has been cubed (he’s out, but how?)

River is possibly blown up  (unless she’s Missy. NEW INFO: she is definitely not blown up)

The TARDIS has blown up  (It’s fine now. Except it’s sort of melting now because it’s corrupted, but it’s fine again)

The universe appears to have ended  (the universe is back again)

The Doctor has employed(?) Nardole

(And Nardole was “reassembled???” Nardole had glass nipples and invisible hair?? WHAT THE FUCK IS HE)

There’s a vault in the TARDIS and it contains Missy but we don’t know why (sometimes she knocks for the bants)

There’s an immortal Viking girl now. Her name is Me and she’s now looking after the people the Doctor abandons

Why was Rory entirely unconcerned by the entire world suddenly going silent when that is Not Normal and should have been, at the very least, extremely disconcerting?

What did the Doctor do to Queen Lizzie One?

Why is Amy seeing a one-eyed woman in a vanishing window? (She’s with the Silents, but we don’t know why Amy saw her)

Why is Amy’s pregancy inconclusive? (Maybe because the baby had Time Lord DNA?)

Who is Sarah-Jane Smith?

How is the Doctor Bill’s teacher and why/where does he have an office?

What is going on with the Cyber War and the Cyberium???

What happened with the Other Cyber War?

What happened with the Third War that deleted the void?

Why does Rose seem particularly important?

What order do these Doctors go in? (Eccleston, Tennant, uncertain, Smith, Capaldi, Whittaker)

Which companion just… forgot the Doctor, and how?

Yaz and Vinder are about to die as Mori/Mwri/Muuri

There is a Lupari shield around Earth.

What’s a Time War?

What’s the Rift?

What’s Bad Wolf?

In which war did the Doctor become a war criminal, and how?

Who is the Master?

Why has Amy forgotten Rory?

Is Rory plastic or not?

Why is the Doctor sulking on a cloud?

How exactly does the Doctor have a cloud?

What exactly happened with Strax to, uh, tame him?

Which friend killed Strax?

Which friend brought Strax back?

Where did this lesbian lizard and human couple come from?

What happened with Clara as Souffle Girl and the Daleks?

How does Clara actually join?

Why so many Claras?

Why is Missy apparently in robo-heaven?

Why is probably!Missy pushing Clara and the Doctor together?

What is Trensilor and what happened there?

Who is Handles?

The Doctor is about to be dissolved by a beautiful geode man

The universe is being crushed by the Flux

Will the Doctor open the fobwatch?

Sontarans are invading Earth again

Who is Kate?

Who is Osgood? Another name of Clara’s again?

The fuck is the deal with the Grand Serpent

Does Martha get to go to an ice cream planet with 12-fingered massage aliens?

How did the Doctor forget Clara?

Who is Bill’s puddle girlfriend Heather?

How did Nardole die?

When does Bill get Cyberman-ed and die?

When does the Doctor shrink and enter a Dalek called Rusty?

Whittaker is falling to her death rn

Was that ring relevant?

Does anyone know the Doctor’s name?

When did Yaz talk to Dan about fancying the Doctor?

When did Dan talk to the Doctor about fancying Yaz?

What’s happening with the bees?

What happened with Donna’s ex and a giant spider?

What war wiped out the Daleks, and is it one of the ones already mentioned?

What did the Doctor mean when he said “The (Daleks) always live, while I lose everything?”

If Dalek Caan is the last Dalek left why are there more now?

How did the rest of the Time Lords die?

How and why did Amy melt?

What’s the question that will make silence fall?

Why do the Silents… want silence to fall?

How and why are Silents at war with the Doctor when he… hasn’t even heard of them?

How does Hitler get out of the cupboard?

What’s the significance of fish fingers and custard?

Why does the Doctor feel guilt about Rose, Martha and Donna?

What happened with the space whale?

When does Rory defend Amy for 2000 years?

How does the Doctor survive River

How does he erase himself from history

Did Captain Jack lose his memories to the same people as the Doctor? What did he lose?

[kimyoonmiauthor]

The worst recipe for Kimchi I've ever seen.

So I'm a food nerd, if the love of Anthropology of food isn't self-evident enough in the 50 page doc on the history of food and food Anthropology based on Subsistence. lol

And I'm a super food nerd when it comes to kimchi. I've tried almost all the varieties of vegetables one can kimchi and learned their mush points. And this, by far is one of the worst recipes of kimchi I've ever, ever read. And being a food nerd, I'll break it down for you.

Don't worry, it's not made by a Korean--it's made by someone white, but I am Korean. And before someone chases me down, "You're an adoptee" I grew up in Korea for the first 5 years and have been tracking down Eomma's kimchi recipe after I semi-remembered the flavor. TT Covid stopped me from going overseas to test it out.

I know when you think of kimchi, you most likely think of the spicy cabbage variety, but I'll inform you that I've made a lot of types of kimchi. I made the Dae Jang Geum Kimchi after a lot of research and digging around. I made kimchi in plastic that never turned out well. I've taken out ingredients and put them back in. I've made kimchi out of different vegetables, and I famously got cited by my own city for making Eomma's kimchi, which BTW, has raw clams and mussels in it.

I've made monk Kimchi too, and gave those tips off to Maangchi.

I'm like kimchi geek over here. I can tell you all different facets of kimchi. Maybe because I tend to hyper focus on things, and I definitely hyperfocused on kimchi.

So I definitely can say the above is not kimchi.

Let's define Kimchi:

Kimchi is an aerobic lacto-fermetation process that is usually balanced with a protein in order to preserve mainly vegetables/vegetation, but sometimes seafood or other seafood matter.

Why is this not a kimchi?

1 Chinese cabbage

3 garlic cloves, crushed

2.5cm/1in piece ginger, grated

2 tbsp fish sauce (optional)

2 tbsp sriracha chilli sauce or chilli paste (see below)

1 tbsp golden caster sugar

3 tbsp rice vinegar

8 radishes, coarsely grated

2 carrots, cut into matchsticks or coarsely grated

4 spring onions, finely shredded

Chinese cabbage is not the same as napa. Chinese cabbage is longer than napa. Does it look similar, yes. Have I attempted to make kimchi out of it yes. Did it have the same properties? No.

But forgive the white person for not knowing that. Chinese cabbage has more water content than your average large head of Napa.

3 Garlic cloves is laughable. It won't preserve for a year like kimchi is supposed to.

1 thumb of ginger? No. No. No. That's not enough.

The fish sauce is not optional. You need that to even out the lactobacilli. If you're not going to use fish sauce, then up the protein content with barley. I really do swear after messing up kimchi on purpose the fish sauce does have a FUNCTION not just a taste.

BTW, more than fish sauce goes into kimchi, though. Usually depending on the region you might get shrimp paste, mussels, clams, crab, octopus, squid, oysters. These pretty much ceviche in the liquid over time.

My favorite is Eomma's recipe with katuggi. ^^;; But I suppose that would anger both my parents. Hers I'm fairly sure had mussels, clams and maybe crab? And yellow corvina fish sauce.

Anyway... Sriracha is made up of red jalapenos, which do not belong in kimchi. Kochu is special. BTW, this already has sugar in it. Kochu is designed to stain on purpose. See the slurry portion below.

golden caster sugar isn't something that came about until industrialization.

rice vinegar is a totally different process of fermentation than kimchi. It won't render the same results.

European radishes don't belong in kimchi. Have I tried it? Yes. Did I regret it? 100%. TT There isn't really a substitute for Mu. Daikon is a distant second. European radishes are when you're dying in a desert and there is a gun to your head to make the kimchi with them and you have no other choice. Get this: Koreans who moved to Brazil, rather cut out the radish component completely, use European cabbages than use European radish. It's just nasty to bite into as a kimchi. Mu has less water content and is far denser than your average daikon and definitely over European radish. I'd choose watermelon radish over European radishes. (Have I made that into kimchi? Yes.)

Carrots do sometimes go into kimchi, but I don't think that's why it's there. This is more a Jeolla thing though.

You're not supposed to shred green onion for any dish I know... and I'm thinking of things like pajeon and green onion soup. Where is the slurry? ALL Korean Kimchi has a slurry, if it has sweet rice flour, whole wheat flour or Barley flour. It has to have a slurry. The slurry has a function. It's there to make sure the ingredients distribute evenly.

Lactobacilli aren't going to act in ONE day. This brings the health benefits of kimchi.

The food science:

Since the majority of Korean fermentation lives on the wild side and likes things like air and sun, often the "weird" ingredients in kimchi that foreigners hate are there to MAKE SURE YOU DON'T DIE when you eat it. Stop trying to cut it out without understanding its function.

Got it? Now stop doing this crap and actually understand the food science of things like the anti-bacterial properties of garlic. How lacto fermentation is good for you, so you don't leave it out for only one day.

Koreans boast their heads off about the health benefits of kimchi as passed down from our ancestors for thousands of years. Why mess with a good thing without understanding why our ancestors made it that way?

[profoundbondfanfic]

Could you recommend some tentacle fics?

You're in luck because we have some self-proclaimed tentacle fic connoisseurs on this blog😂 Here are some favs.

An Unfamiliar Sea by anonymousEDward [Explicit, 108k words]

When a massive hunt drops into Sam and Dean's laps, they go in guns blazing - but what Dean discovers in the basement ends up changing his life for the better.

Alien Cas by MalMuses [Explicit, 111k words]

Dean is an astronaut, and he definitely chose the career so that he could help move humanity forward, not just because he didn't want to sit in an office, thank-you-very-much. Becoming the first human to set foot on Mars was never part of his five-year plan, but he loved his job and couldn't say no when the opportunity arose. He had spent plenty of time thinking about what he was risking never seeing again if something went wrong; his brother, brother-in-law, and the adorable kid they were adopting, not to mention his friends, his car, and pie. What he hadn't considered was what, or who, he might find when he actually got there.

Halflings by Unforth  [Explicit, 103k words]

Ever since his wife Lisa died, Dean Winchester has been willing to do anything for his son Ben. When Ben decided he wanted to adopt a halfling, Dean said yes without hesitation - provided they did so the right way, by giving whichever half-human they decided to bring home the respect and dignity it deserved. Half-octopi Castiel isn't exactly what they were looking for in a pet, but, then, they aren't exactly what Castiel was expecting for owners, either.

My Little Sea Treasure by Hiyochi [Mature, 63k words]

Exotic creatures weren’t really anything new to the world, animals all over the world, undiscovered that are coming about, being tamed to become pets. Only those who were rich or famous had these creatures, the more you had, the higher status. Somehow, Dean Winchester, a simple man, has stumbled across one.

Only a Salt Kiss Remains by InvictaAnimi [Explicit, 28k words]

Castiel is a brilliant cellist who plays by the seaside every day. Lately, though, he’s felt uncomfortable during his practice. His hair stands up on the back of his neck and he catches movement out of the corner of his eye. Of course, when he turns his head, nothing is there. He’s half convinced himself that his loneliness is causing him to go mad, when his admirer finally shows himself. Or itself. Being taken and held hostage against his will by a creature that shouldn’t exist might sound tragic to most people, but not to Castiel. Not in hindsight, anyway. It turns out, the most terrifying and unlikely of circumstances can bring unimaginable joy.

Research Specimen 14652 by Unforth [Explicit, 6k words]

Or: "Cas' just a scientist, Dean's just an octopus, can I make it any more obvious?" sung to the tune of Sk8ter Boi. Or: five times Dean hurt Cas without consent, and one time Cas' consent was enthusiastic. Or: yet another fic unforth has no idea how to accurately tag.

skin deep aquarium by sharkfish [Explicit, 3k words]

Cas moves closer, the end of a tentacle wrapping around Dean’s ankle as his hands tilt Dean’s chin up. “There are things I’m not supposed to tell you.” "I know,” Dean says. “The biology of our genders is different, as is our social behavior surrounding it.” “I know, Cas.” Cas tugs at Dean’s ankle and kisses him like it was hurting him not to. “I’m an alpha,” Cas says.

Squidding around by zation [Explicit, 92k words]

The Yellow-Eyed demon is dead. Vengeance extracted, Sam and Dean decide to try and get out of the hunting business and settle down. So Sam goes back to Stanford, Dean buys a beach house along the Californian coast, and things are simple for a while. Until it isn’t. Or, The one where the supernatural insists on finding Dean and where Dean doesn’t mind all that much. Not when the supernatural has tentacles, bluer than blue eyes, and is called Castiel.

Sweet Prince Castiel Meets the Tentacles of Pleasure by everandanon [Explicit, 98k words]

Imprisoned by his brother and doomed to be married on his twenty-first birthday, Prince Castiel manages to escape his quarters and flee to the magical Looking Glass Lake. There, he makes a wish to meet his truemate, his only hope at changing his fate — and to his surprise, his wish is granted. There’s just one problem. Or rather — there’s eight of them.

Tentacle Husbands by tiamatv [Explicit, 23k words]

“Dammit, Cas, stop it!” Dean complains, laughing. “Okay, seriously, how would the kingdom of Lebanon react if it knew their beloved Prince Castiel has a thing for feet?” Cas gives him a very wry look down the bridge of his nose, and gestures at the swirl of the eight octopus arms moving in the water underneath him. “I’m pretty sure the kingdom, if it were aware, would be much more offput by other things than my enjoying your toes, Dean.”

The Seraph by Hywar [Explicit, 135k words]

Ever since the seraph were discovered, there's been one rule society has had to adapt to: stay out of open water. Powerful, determined and aggressive, the octopus-human creatures are in a league of their own and have no qualms with taking what they want and attacking what they don't. Now, children learn to swim in man-made lakes and beaches are deserted save for researches and the fool-hearted. Dean Winchester is neither of those things. But a hunt has brought him and Sam, his brother, to one of the many abandoned beaches, where Dean is left with no choice but to take refuge in the water. He should be safe, he thinks, he doesn't go too deep - just deep enough to hide himself and to deter his pursuer. He forgot just how fast the damn things could be, and how determined they were once they had their eyes on something.

The Siren and the Sea Monster by Ltleflrt [Explicit, 15k words]

When Cain moves to Washington State, Dean decides to follow him so that he can keep his job as Cain's apprentice. The small town near the sea is Cain's home town, and he has a small beach house that he rents to Dean for dirt cheap, with only a warning to beware of strange neighbors.

What Has Eight Tentacles and Isn’t Allowed to Eat Pie? by Annie D [Teen, 16k words]

Dean watched an anime porn about this once, but real life turns out to be way less interesting. Or, the one where Dean gets turned into an octopus.

[uyuforu]

Is there a Korea food not many know about that you enjoyed eating?

omg yes!! so many!!

There is the Korean sashimi (회), very expensive but omg the spicy sauce with it, im so in love.

Also, 물냉면 (mul naegmyeon) & 비빔냉면 (bibim naegmeyon)! The first one is not spicy, and it's cold noodles. The second one is spicy (I like it veryyy spicy until I don't feel my lips anymore lmao) and it's cold noodles too! I used to eat so much of those two during summer time!! Always with my watermelon juice lol!

Of course 짜장면 (jjajangmyeon) one of my all time favorite! Chicken too (with beer always).

Where I lived, there were a restaurant I used to go often because the food was amazing. I don't remember the name of the food, I'll post pictures anyway! I always used to take mandu (만두) with it!

I also learned that dried squid was the best with alcohol!! It's crazy!

Here are some pictures of what I ate there :)

- uyu

[angelasscribbles]

DWAW Visuals

This is for Day 7 of Drake Walker Appreciation Week by @drake-walker-appreciation.

I have so many visuals to share! Some of them I made myself (the simple things lol) but many were made by others. I have been super blessed and always surprised when someone shares their talent with me in this way. I am super excited to share of all these amazing visuals with all of you!

I'm not going to repost the visuals from the pairings post, you can find those here.

My Drake Boards:

The first one I had. The next two I made for this event:

Extras for Series:

Visuals for The Agreement made by @secretaryunpaid

These gifs made by @secretaryunpaid for Star Crossed:

Drake's Extra Curriculars:

There's the band, Squid Whiskey: (Okay, Okay, you can't see his face, but that's Drake on the drums!) Credit to @nestledonthaveone for helping with finding pictures, especially the center one! And to @harleybeaumont for putting the band's name on it for me! Also @nestledonthaveone for convincing me to bring this band into existence in the first place and keeping me supplied with "drummer Drake" songs!

There's Hot Yoga: (A Three Weeks in Ramsford One-Shot)

And there is Baseball: credit to @nestledonthaveone for putting his name on the shirt.

More Baseball photos

Moodboards for Series:

I'm not going to post every moodboard that has him in it, I might crash Tumblr haha. But here are a few of my favorites!

From Fall(ing) in Love credit to @peonierose for a couple of those fall photos.

Lavender and Crimson:

Star Crossed:

Bad Romance:

Yes, Bad Romance gets it's own category because it's Bad Romance!

I'm starting with this edit by @harleybeaumont

and this meme, also by @harleybeaumont

So the murder gloves became a whole thing. So much so that when I won an art commission from @rosefuckinggenius I had to include them! I posted both the sketch and the final product because I love them both in different ways! I don't see the sketch as unfinished, it's almost like how sometimes you prefer full color and sometimes black and white.

The finished product is below. Both are amazing and so is @rosefuckinggenius, I seriously cannot recommend her enough and have commissioned another piece from her.

And finally, this piece which is also by @rosefuckinggenius. It got its own post since it's brand new, but I'm including it again here anyway because my visuals post wouldn't be complete without it.

This could work for any series I've written but I had Bad Romance, Star Crossed, and Savage Love in mind specifically. Again, I'm including both the line art and the full-color piece:

Tagging everyone:

All Things TRR:

@nestledonthaveone  @karahalloway  @tessa-liam  @belencha77 @lovingchoices14

@21-wishes @secretaryunpaid @lunaseasblog  @princessleac1 @bebepac

@emersyn-in-cordonia @walkerdrakewalker @73geenalove  @sillydg @twinkle-320

@queen-arabella-of-cordonia @tinkie1973 @differenttyphoonwerewolf @jared2612 @mainstreetreader

@amandablink @harleybeaumont  @xpandass420x @ladyangel70 @twinkleallnight

@dcbbw  @indiacater @queenmiarys @phoenixrising0308 @gabesmommie1130

@kingliam2019 @3pawandme @bascmve01 @hollygirl1269  @ohmyeightpastlives

[dumdumsun]

To Nightfall

A/N: A sad chapter, my loves. There's one paragraph that could be particularly triggering, so I have it marked with bold arrows for those who don't want to read it to skip.

Warnings: ⚠️suicide⚠️, blood and gore, character death, alcohol, mentions of alcohol, blood and death/dying

Word Count: 6817

—————————————

Chapter 15: Wedding at the End of the World

It was a cataclysmic disaster of ember-turned homes and buildings, the survival rate of zero percent resulting in the extinction of man-kind for a third time. Outside the Hotel Obsidian, that is.

While everything and everyone was being sucked into the radiated black hole outside, the twelve survivors within the hotel were unaffected by the demolition. It was currently the only building left completely intact in the entire world. The Umbrella Academy and what was left of the Sparrow Academy sat together within one of the lounge rooms, quietly awaiting an answer or possibly an end to them as well.

“So,” Allison started. “How is it that we’re still here, but the whole of the universe is going down the cosmic shitter?”

Viktor shrugged from the chair he sat in. “Maybe we’re the last of it flushed.”

“Wasn’t talking to you.”

He rolled his eyes before Luther spoke up from where he sat cuddled up beside Sloane. “Hey, has anyone seen Klaus?”

Sloane looked up at him in realization. “Or Dad?”

“They’ll be here.” Diego answered.

“Really? Did they… hit traffic?” Ben sarcastically shrugged. “Look, people, we’re alive because we’re special, right? We’re the only ones who can save the universe.”

Allison raised her hand. “Uh, question.”

“Yes.”

“Didn’t we just try that and fail miserably?”

“Yeah, because his plan was stupid.” Diego cut in. “I got a better one.”

Ben rolled his eyes. “‘Course you do.”

“We go with the large hard-on particle accelerator. You guys do some science, and…” He clicked his tongue and mimicked the swing of a baseball bat. “...we launch the Kugelblitz into outer space. Didn’t think I knew that, did ya? It’s in Switzerland.”

“It’s ‘hadron’, not ‘hard-on’, ya moron!”

Lila turned herself around from her upside down position on her chair to look at Ben. “Oi! At least he’s trying, you shitty little squid. What have you contributed?”

“Actually,” Diego pointed at him. “He did blow up half his family.”

“Oh, you wanna talk about family problems?” He moved up to Diego. “You know what should have blown up is your face on that neck!”

“I wish I had a cake to hit you with it in your face!”

They switched to the Korean and Spanish language to continue arguing before Five cut them off out of irritation. “Hey!” He shouted. “You guys done? The universe is disappearing outside. So, you can keep rearranging the deck chairs of the Titanic if it makes you feel better. But the fact remains that we are too late.”

Everyone in the room scoffed at his words. Never had they ever heard of Five giving up on the end of the world. He always had some sort of solution to a dead-end, to a life-threatening situation. The sound of him accepting their fate didn’t sit well with any of them.

“Five, come on.” Luther chuckled, hoping his brother was joking.

“It’s over, Luther. We failed.”

Viktor sat up. “Come on. It can’t be over over.”

“Yeah, come on, Five. We gotta figure this out, man.” Diego agreed.

“Okay.” He nodded. “How about we take a step back? Look at the big picture here. Most of us have spent the last twenty-eight days trying to stop the world from ending. What exactly have we accomplished?”

They all looked down, vocals unnecessary for the true answer, though Luther saw fit to try anyway. “Well,” He smiled down at Sloane. “We made some friends along the way.”

“Incorrect! You know what we’ve done? Nothing. We made things worse every single time. It was exactly what (Y/N) was trying to tell me and I didn’t listen to her.” He sighed, shaking his head. “Look, when I went to the Commission, I had a conversation with my hundred-year-old self. And my last words were, ‘Don’t save the world’.”

“‘Don’t save the world’?”

“‘Don’t save the world’.”

Diego waved his hand in dismissal. “That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.”

“Is it?” Luther narrowed his eyes. “Well, whatever we’re doing’s not working. All we ever do is save the world for a day, pat ourselves on the back, and then everything goes to shit again.”

“Yeah, maybe we’re the problem.” Viktor shrugged.

“Oh, yeah,” Allison scoffed. “Us.”

“So, wait.” Lila looked up at Five. “Your big plan is… no plan?”

Five pointed at her. “Exactly. Conscientious objection. Why the hell not? We’ve tried everything else.” His eyes roamed over everyone’s dreadful faces. “Look, maybe this is just what the universe needs. I say, embrace the apocalypse. See what’s on the other side.”

“What if it’s… nothing?” Sloane quietly asked.

“Then it’s been nice knowing you all. Whatever’s on your bucket list, I recommend you do that now.”

Five gulped, a terrible feeling in his gut. He didn’t truly want to believe that this would be one of the last moments with his family. He spent almost his entire life trying to save them and now it proved itself to be fruitless. Five finally solved his life-time equation he had been pondering. The likelihood of saving any and everyone was less to none. With a defeated sigh, he sat down. Luther and Sloane silently shared a smile before the former spoke up.

“Well, on that… super happy note, we’ve um…” He glanced at Sloane for a moment before they giddily laughed and stood. “Oh, what the hell. We’ve, uh, got a little announcement to make.”

“We’re engaged!” They cheered in unison, Sloane holding up a hand where a ring sat on her finger.

“Kill me, Jesus…”

“Idiots…”

“Now?”

Luther held a hand up to get them to hear him out. “Yeah. Look, we realize the timing is less than ideal. But obviously, it’s now or never. Am I right, Five?”

“Don’t drag me into this, please.”

His smile fell as Sloane spoke up. “What… Whatever time we have left, we wanna spend it with all of you. So, we’re super pumped if you would join us in the banquet hall at six p.m. for a celebration of our love, and the official union of what’s left of our two great families.”

Luther held his smiling fiance tight as he nodded. “Dress code is creative black tie.”

Meanwhile in a hotel room a floor above them all, Umbrella (Y/N), now dressed in a grey button up tucked into a pair of black cargo shorts, hurried inside with a glass of water in her hand. She walked up to Sparrow (Y/N), now dressed in a black crop top with buckle straps and black cargo pants, and held the glass out to her.

“Here. You need to drink this.”

“No, I-” The woman clutched her head in her hands and shut her eyes. “No, I can’t right now.”

“(Y/N), you’ve been hyperventilating in intervals for the past two hours. You’re dehydrated. Drink this water.”

At that, the Sparrow quickly turned to her and took the glass from her, mechanically gulping the entire thing down without a second to lose. Once she’d drained it, she blinked rapidly and twisted her bracelet on her wrist. Umbrella (Y/N) frowned and took the glass back as she watched her idly stand there, as if she wasn’t having a panic attack just a second ago.

“(Y/N)?”

“Y-Yes?”

“What is your obsession with that bracelet?”

Sparrow (Y/N) snapped her head up, brows raised and eyes wide. “Bracelet?” She quickly let go of it. “This old thing? I don’t have an obsession with it. W-What are you… No, stop it!!!” She screamed and backed away when the girl reached out for the accessory. Umbrella (Y/N) her hands up in defense.

“Okay… I’m sorry. I just don’t understand. Why do you care so much about it? It’s just a bracelet.”

“No, i-it’s my…” She cradled her wrist. “It’s my lifesource.”

The young girl’s shoulders slumped at that. “(Y/N), come on…”

“It’s true!”

“That thing is not your ‘lifesource’. You know what that is?” She inched closer to her. “That is yet another crazy thought implanted in your mind by your abusive siblings. You can’t keep letting them have this hold over you, (Y/N).”

The Sparrow sniffled. “You don’t understand… All of my siblings are dying a-and nothing makes sense right now. But this is the only thing that does. This- This bracelet, I’ve always had it. I’ve never taken it off. If I do, I die.”

“Well, what about it is keeping you alive?”

She shook her head frantically. “I don’t- I don’t know…”

“That’s the problem, (Y/N). They didn’t even bother to tell you why exactly you need to wear that thing all the time. Removing that bracelet is one step closer to healing yourself.” She softly smiled. “I promise.”

Hesitantly, Sparrow (Y/N) slipped her white beaded bracelet off of her wrist, her shaking hand setting it into her double’s palm. Umbrella (Y/N) smiled down at it and closed her hand around it. “See? And nothing happ… ened…”

Her words trailed off when she looked up, finding the light in the Sparrow’s eyes snuffed out. Her gaze was far away now, staring at the empty space before her. Her limbs that were once trembling were now stiff and unmoving. She looked like a soldier, like a…

“Clone…” Umbrella (Y/N) whispered as her head spun. “You’re a clone.”

Sparrow (Y/N) straightened, her face crumpling at those words. She looked to be in complete anguish as her shaking hands slowly reached up towards her abdomen. As soon as her nails sunk into her skin, her knees buckled and Umbrella (Y/N) rushed to catch her. She carefully lowered herself until she was sitting on the floor, her double resting between her legs with her head against her thigh. She was self-destructing.

“O-Oh, god…” The Sparrow sniveled as her blood dribbled down her skin. “I-I…”

“No.” The Umbrella sobbed. “N-No, don’t talk. Please… Please, j-just-”

“I-Is this gonna hurt, (Y/N)?” She cried. “Am I gonna die? I-Is it gonna hurt…?”

“I’m so sorry… I’m sorry, I’m sorry! I didn’t know, I’m so sorry…”

The Sparrow grunted as her flesh tore, blood oozing and collecting in both of their clothes. More blood seeped from her mouth as she threw her head back and looked up at her younger self, who was bawling her eyes out. “Hey… it’s okay. Don’t- Aah! D-Don’t worry about me, you little shit…” She smiled. “(Y/N), I need you to listen to me.”

Umbrella (Y/N) cried even harder as she watched the woman rip her stomach open even more.

“Listen to me. Are- A-Are you listening?”

“I’m listening…” She croaked out.

“Find me. The real me. Find her, okay? Y-You nee- need to pro-o- promise me.”

“I-I promise…”

Sparrow (Y/N) smiled just a tad wider and reached a bloody hand up, gently caressing the girl’s face with it. “I love you, little sister.” She choked as tears fell down her face. “You were the best part of me.”

The Umbrella nodded her head and tearfully smiled as well. “I love you, too…”

The hand on her face slowly slid away, leaving a handprint on her cheek before it traveled back down to the Sparrow’s body. She cried out in pain as she unwillingly tore her skin apart, blood splattering all throughout the room. (Y/N)’s body shook with screamed sobs as she held her close, petting her hair as she slowly died in her arms.

She tried to think of better times. Their shopping spree, their ice cream date. She thought of getting their nails done together and the way they freed each other through a simple haircut. She thought of exploring different parts of her, not the (Y/N) who bowed to her siblings’ every command, but the passionate and witty one who she learned to love. A part of her she didn’t know she needed until coming face-to-face with her.

(Y/N) had learned not only a different kind of love from her, but a different kind of loss.

When the screams decrescendoed to silence, she slowly opened her eyes, bile rushing to her throat at the mess of blood and organs that was left of such an amazing person. Her face was mangled beyond recognition and her blood stained (Y/N)’s hair and skin and clothes. For a long while, she could do nothing but stare in silent horror at the remains of what she had just witnessed.

Her glossy eyes stay trained on the shadow the remains had formed into, the black mass slinking its way out of the room. It was going to its source.

Quickly standing, (Y/N) stumbled down the halls, following the shadow as it practically flew across the floor. Soon, she didn’t need to follow it, for her sudden itchiness and sweats grew the closer she got to her destination. She viciously scratched at the itch on her shoulder as she entered the room her symptoms worsened in.

In the corner of her and Five’s room sat a huddled figure. They were in all black attire, knees pulled to their chest and arms covering their head. (Y/N) clenched her teeth against the sudden urge to punch this person in their mouth and slowly approached them. “Hey,” She tried to soothe the growl in her voice. “Are you okay?”

The true Sparrow (Y/N) snapped her head up, tears falling from her frightened (e/c) eyes. Every part of her body was trembling and her lip quivered with her frown. As soon as she set her sights on Umbrella (Y/N), her gaze turned venomous against her will. “It’s you…”

“Yeah,” The girl crouched beside her, wincing at the force she used to fight against her symptoms. “You- You might be feeling really weird right now, and it’s hard to explain. You might feel the need to kill me right now.”

“I-I do, actually.”

“And I’m asking that you don’t. Look, I wanna help you, okay? But in order for me to do that, we have to be nice to each other. No matter how crazy we feel right now.”

Sparrow (Y/N) sniffled, tears welling up in her eyes. Her eyes that were sunken in with dark circles underneath. Whatever energy she once had seemed to be drained from her body because she looked too weak to move. Her current position resembled a wounded animal in need of rescue. The way her eyes darted everywhere in the room as if she were looking for a quick exit told it all.

“I just… I don’t wanna be here.” She quietly cried, wiping away the sweat on her forehead.

Umbrella (Y/N) got to her feet and reached a hand out to her. “Okay, well… Where do you wanna go?”

The Sparrow looked up at her with big eyes, hesitancy clear on her face. Nevertheless, she took hold of the girl’s hand and wobbly stood. Wordlessly, she let go and slogged out of the room, slamming into a wall. She could hardly hold herself up.

The Umbrella hurried out of the room and let the woman lean her weight against her. As Sparrow (Y/N) led them through halls, the two silently endured their worsening symptoms. The flatulence was slightly embarrassing for the both of them, but they continued on anyway. Neither voiced it, but they were utterly parched, unable to produce any saliva to hold them over for now. And neither of them said it, but they were drowning in paranoid thoughts.

Was this a trap? What if she was leading her to some sort of torture chamber? What if she truly were trying to murder her? Would she be able to fight her off? No one would find her dead body, would they?

Why was there a tiny version of her? What did she want? Was she going to kill her? She couldn’t let that happen. She better think of a plan to take her down before she gets to her.

They both tried their best to push away these thoughts, but every time they popped a bubble, a new one would form, obscuring their vision from any common sense. It was the influence of the paradox psychosis, and they couldn’t give into the fiery rage they felt towards each other.

Umbrella (Y/N) looked up when she noticed they were heading straight for a certain room at the end of the hall. The White Buffalo Suite. She started to wonder what was so important to the Sparrow about this room, but right as they reached the door, the woman sharply turned to the wall beside the room. With a sniffle, Sparrow (Y/N) pressed her palm into the wall, a door forming and opening.

“What the hell is this?” The Umbrella asked as the Sparrow leaned away from her.

“A panic room.” She whispered.

“Why, though?”

“In case I… woke up.”

“I don’t understand-” Before she could go after her, Sparrow (Y/N) darted into the room and slammed the door shut. Umbrella (Y/N) pushed on the knobless door to force her way in, but it wouldn’t budge. “(Y/N)! What’s going on?”

She received no answer, so she pressed her back against the wall and slid to the floor. In silence, she waited for her double to exit the room. Everything in the past fifteen minutes had been such a blur and yet she remembered it so clearly. (Y/N) watched herself die in the most gruesome way possible.

What was the point of her true Sparrow self projecting her consciousness into a clone for so long? Was it something she decided to start doing? Was it against her will? Did she even know what she was doing? She would have to undergo much questioning in order to sort this all out.

(Y/N) flinched at the sound of a muffled bang and thud, and quickly turned to the hidden door. “(Y/N)?” She called out, knocking on the door. “You okay in there?”

No answer.

“(Y/N)...?”

At another knock, the door opened, granting her access. Stepping inside, she noticed that the room was devoid of any furniture aside from a table in the middle along with a chair. She quickly cupped her hand over her mouth to hold back the bile rapidly shooting up her throat at the sight before her.

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Sparrow (Y/N) was sat at the table, her body slumped over with her head resting against it. Her arm was lying on the table as well, a handgun in her limp grasp. Her eyes were still wide open as blood leaked from the wound in her head, trailing down her face and pooling onto the table beside her head.

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

(Y/N) tried to shake herself out of the state of horror she was in as she slowly approached the body, a shaky hand reaching out and taking the gun. When she checked it, she saw that there were no more bullets. She wondered whether or not it was always like that, if it was meant to be like that. (Y/N) couldn’t imagine what this woman went through. To constantly project herself into something that wasn’t entirely her. She knew what that was like.

Whenever she operated behind the eyes of her clones, she never truly felt herself. It was like working in a box, a box where you could never see quite right or hear the same. Even food tasted off. But to do it without a moment to take a step back into her own mind could have driven her to insanity.

Maybe that was what triggered this. She had been torturing herself for so long. And for what? What was the purpose of this? It didn’t make any sense and frankly, it pissed (Y/N) off. Because she knew that no version of herself would ever do this to their own mind. She had to have been forced to do this.

And (Y/N) only had one idea of who it could have been.

She needed to tell her family. She needed to tell Ben and Sloane. With a shaky inhale, she gently closed her double’s eyelids and left the room, the door closing behind her. (Y/N) shut her eyes to force her tears back, the quiet sob escaping through her lips failing her. At this point, she was barely holding herself together. What she had witnessed back-to-back in such a short amount of time had her head reeling and her body stumbling into walls as she hurried to the elevator.

When the doors opened, (Y/N) slowly stepped out. In the room before her, she saw her family all talking to each other. Sloane and Luther looked to be passing around something, everyone staring at the items in curiosity once they got one. She had a fleeting thought that wondered what it was, but it went away as soon as she set her sights on the person standing beside Klaus in the room.

Sir Reginald Hargreeves.

“You!”

Everyone turned to the source of the scream, their eyes widening at their sister, covered in blood and rushing up to them with a savage look in her eyes, the fire within them crackling and snapping the closer she got. Sloane held out whatever item she had to the girl, but she ignored it and headed straight for Reginald. Before anyone could do or say anything, (Y/N) landed a blinding right hook to his face. Gasps rang throughout the room as he stumbled, Klaus holding him upright.

Five wrapped both arms around her middle as he pulled her back. She didn’t even budge as her eyes glued themselves to the man who called himself her father, holding his cheek as he stared at her in complete and utter shock.

“HOW COULD YOU?!” She wildly thrashed against Five’s hold. “HOW COULD YOU?!”

Diego ran up to her and helped his brother hold her back when she almost freed herself. “(Y/N). (Y/N), calm down-”

“YOU TORTURED YOUR FUCKING DAUGHTER?! YOU FUCK- YOU FUCKING LOCKED HER UP?!” She continued to holler her lungs out as Reginald straightened himself. “YOU FORCED HER TO PROJECT CLONE AFTER CLONE AFTER CLONE?!”

“(Y/N)-”

“YOU BUILT HER A FUCKING PANIC ROOM TO KILL HERSELF IN?! WHAT THE FUCK?!”

Reginald slowly shook his head and reached a hand out. “You must understand, my child. She was severely-”

“I’M GONNA FUCKING KILL YOU!”

(Y/N) broke out of their hold and rushed up to him. Her hand swiped at him and she managed to slash her manicured fingernails across his cheek before Diego and Five grabbed her again, forcing her to the ground.

“No!!! Let me go! Let me go!!!”

Diego snapped his head up. “Klaus, get him out of here!”

“Right.” Klaus nodded and grabbed hold of Reginald’s arm, dragging him out of the room. “Luther, Sloane. Oh, my god. I’m beyond thrilled. You guys are gorgeous. Amazing. Send me your registry!”

As soon as they were gone, Diego and Five let go of (Y/N), allowing her to slump over, her brows touching the floor as she tried to bring herself back. She was losing it. She was slipping, she could feel it. Her grief and her anger were boiling over and she couldn’t keep up with it all.

(Y/N) felt all eyes on her as a hand rubbed her back. She quietly sobbed into her hands, a crumpled mess on the ground as they all glanced at each other, wondering what to do. None of them had ever seen her go off like that. She was always the calm and collected one. No one could have angered her to such a degree.

Five reached down and tilted her head up, cradling her bloodied face in his hands. His thumbs swiped her tears away, smearing some blood along with it, but he couldn’t stand to see her cry. Her eyes were so distant, stuck in whatever moment it was that broke her. Her shoulders shook with the force of the sobs building up in her.

“Come on,” He whispered, helping his wife to her feet. “Let’s get you cleaned up.”

(Y/N) dragged her feet across the carpet as she let Five lead her out of the room. She couldn’t bear the looks she received. Her family looked so frightened of her. She had never done anything like this, she had never gotten that angry. Now that she finally did and now that everyone saw it, she felt even worse for not biting her tongue.

She turned her head to Sloane, who was still frozen in her spot, the item she was trying to give her still in her hand. (Y/N) gently took it from her, her hand gently cradling the small jar in her palm. It was beautifully decorated with some kind of stuffing inside. Behind the small tissue paper bows was beautiful calligraphy inviting her to a wedding. A wedding for Sloane and Luther.

She was so happy for them.

“Congratulations.” She cried before walking away with Five.

-------------------------------------------------

“Am I gonna die?”

(Y/N) shut her eyes tighter, wanting to squint the image out of her head.

“I-Is it gonna hurt…?”

Her heart slammed in her chest with the hammering beats.

“I love you, little sister.”

A voice above called to her. “Come back now.”

“You were the best part of me.”

“Come back up, (Y/N).”

Two hands assisted her out of the water and in an upright position in the tub. The water she sat in was red with the blood washed away from her skin, but she didn’t mind. She was glad to have it off of her. She didn’t speak for awhile as she let Five continue to scrub her skin in the otherwise silent spa. No one else was in there since everyone else on earth had been wiped out. Five had forbidden anyone from entering while he was taking care of her.

“You wanna talk about it?” He asked, slicking her hair back.

She shook her head.

“Okay,” He nodded and went back to cleaning her. “That was some shot you took at Dad. I think you’re the first out of all of us to do something like that.”

“He deserved it,” She rasped, eyes remaining on the sloshing water. “He forced her into insanity. She was… She was living her life through something that looked like her, but would never truly be her. And when she was back, she didn’t even wanna be here. As soon as I gave her the chance, she-”

Five stopped and leaned his head against hers and she broke out into sobs, gently running his hand up and down her bare back. He let her air out her emotions for a while as he placed gentle kisses to her shoulder. Other than that, he didn’t know what else to do. He wished he could just snap his fingers and fix everything, but he knew more than anyone that it took more than wishful thinking to fix a broken soul.

“I know… I know.” He whispered into her ear. “I know it sounds off-putting, but you need to let yourself relax. You’ve been through a lot in a short amount of time. Maybe the wedding will… take your mind off of it. Just for a bit.”

He was trying to find a silver lining. She always did it for him, it was the very least he could do for her. As Five began washing her hair in order to get all the blood out, his heart broke at her quiet cries. (Y/N) didn’t deserve any of this, and he wanted nothing more than to take all of her problems away. She just needed someone to talk to. He knew she was no good on her own in a time of distress.

“Maybe I should stay with you until the wedding.”

“No, no.” She looked up, gently wrapping a hand around his wrist. “Go to the bachelor party. Luther needs support.”

“Are you sure? You’ll be okay?”

She nodded. “I can even go and help Sloane. I know how nerve-wracking a wedding can be for the bride, and she doesn’t have any of her sisters. She needs someone with her.”

Five gently kissed her cheek, in awe at her kindness to others even in her worst moments. He constantly questioned himself with how he got so lucky. Once she was all clean, he carefully stood her up and wrapped one of the hotel’s robes around her body, leading her out of the spa.

-------------------------------------------------

Within another room sat Sloane in a silk robe, quietly sewing up her wedding dress. She didn’t mind the solitude, it was what she was used to growing up. Though, she had wished she could share this moment with her sisters. It was what any other bride would do. But there weren’t any other brides left in the world, one of the many things that made her different from the rest of them.

Suddenly, Ben walked into the room, heading straight for the sink in the corner. “So, it’s official. My ears are broken, and the idiot with the knives really can’t sing.”

“Diego. You know his name is Diego.”

“Oh, whatever.” He sighed and walked about the room as Sloane continued with her task.

“Maybe you should try and bce nice to him and the others.”

“And why would I do that?”

She looked up at him. “As much as I’d love to work out your anger issues right now, I have to get back to this. The wedding is in an hour.”

Ben narrowed his eyes at her. “Fei is dead.”

“Yeah. I know. And so are the others.”

“Oh, so that’s it? What about (Y/N), huh? What about her?!”

Sloane’s heart shattered at the crack in Ben’s voice and at the mention of her sister. In all honesty, that was all she had been thinking about besides the wedding. “I loved (Y/N), Ben. Just as much as you did. Just as much as you still do.”

“It doesn’t look like it. You’re turning your back on the Sparrow Academy. I mean, you heard Dad. We have training to do. Something big is about to go down.”

“I wish you were talking about my wedding.”

Ben sharply inhaled and walked up to his sister, sitting down across from her. “Sloane, listen to me-”

“No,” She placed both her hands over his. “You listen to me. I’m sorry they didn’t invite you to the bachelor party.”

He scoffed and shook his head. “I don’t… I don’t care about that.”

“Yes, you do.” She spoke a little softer. “You care more about being invited to the bachelor party than you do Fei or the others. Maybe not more than (Y/N), but more than saving the world.”

Ben nervously chuckled as he tried to form a lie out of his mouth, a lie that would convince both her and himself. “That… That’s… That’s crazy.”

“Is it? You and I, we’ve never been alone. It’s always been the eight of us. Now it’s just you. So, congratulations, Ben. You’re finally Number One… of one.”

His eyes didn’t stray away from the chair she stood from, making her way over to the vanity on the other side of the room. “I’m a Sparrow, and so are you.”

“Not anymore.”

At that, he stood. “What’s so damn special about them, anyway?”

She turned to him. “They’re a real family. They don’t exist to sell action figures and tote bags.”

“We were more than that.”

“Were we?” She watched as his face fell. “Why is it so important for you to be a Sparrow?”

Ben turned and walked out of the room, but just before he was gone, he muttered something Sloane almost missed.

“Because I have nothing else.”

Once again, she was left alone to contemplate. Now she really wished someone were here with her. As if on cue, there was a very quiet knock on the door followed by an equally quiet voice. “Delivery for the bride.”

“You can come in.”

(Y/N) stepped inside, still in her robe, but with a small stereo in one hand and two wine glasses in the other, a bottle of wine tucked into her arm. When Sloane turned to her, she smiled in appreciation and fondness. “Uh- The guys are having a party, so why can’t the girls, right?” She tried a smile.

Sloane nodded with a giggle and went to help her, taking the glasses and stereo from her. After setting everything down, (Y/N) turned the stereo on to play jazz music. She quietly filled their glasses and handed one to Sloane, who gladly accepted it. A sort of awkward silence settled between them as (Y/N) watched Sloane work on her dress. She was trying. She was trying to keep it together, trying to keep herself busy so she wouldn’t have to think about-

“Thank you for being with her… when it happened…”

(Y/N) cringed inwardly and nodded. “I… I wish I knew it was going to happen. So, I could’ve saved her.”

Sloane looked away. “How… did it all happen?”

She shut her eyes.

“I’m sorry. You don’t have to talk about it.”

She shook her head. “N-No, I need to. Plus, you deserve to know,” She opened her eyes, noticing that Sloane was having a bit of trouble with the needle, so she reached over and took it into her hand, fixing it for her as she thought of what to say. Mentioning the gruesome death of the clone was unnecessary, so she skipped over that entire ordeal. “She was scared. She didn’t understand anything. All she’s known is a… a trance, and an occasional meal. She wanted out.”

Sloane sniffled at the thought of her sister in such a whiplash state of mind. She felt so guilty, even in her last moments, they weren’t there for her like they should’ve been. Just as a tear fell from her eye, (Y/N) reached out and wiped it away with a soft smile.

“Hey… I know what it’s like to lose a sibling. I lost my Ben in my timeline and… we all blamed ourselves for so long. Luckily for me, I had a seance of a brother and was able to talk to him, but it was never the same. He always told me that it wasn’t my fault, that he was just happy to see me. I’m sure, if we could see her right now, she’d just be happy to see you.”

“You really think so? After everything?”

“Of course, Sloane. She loved all of you so much… She’d do anything for you. She’d be in this seat, drinking wine and listening to slow jazz with you before your wedding. And she’d be so proud of you.”

Sloane smiled and giggled with a smile, more tears rushing down her face. “I hope she forgave me. I love her so much…”

“She loves you, too. I promise,” (Y/N) leaned away and let Sloane continue as she lifted her glass to her lips. “You know, I was married before Five. My wedding day was so special to me… I’m happy you get to feel this, too.”

With a grin, Sloane took a sip of her wine. “It’s been one hell of a ride to get here.”

“Tell me about it. I still can’t believe this is happening to Luther.” (Y/N) chuckled. “You know, growing up, I wasn’t the biggest fan of him.”

“Really?”

“Oh, yeah. Couldn’t stand him. I mean, he was One and I was Eight. We were raised to compete against each other the most. Then it followed us into adulthood.”

“I’m so sorry…”

(Y/N) waved it off. “It’s alright. We’re much better now. We went through too much to let bullshit parenting affect us. I’d take a blade to the chest for him, no hesitation, which is something I’d never say as a kid… Anyway, I’m proud of him for finding someone like you. You guys deserve each other.”

Sloane stood from her seat and pulled (Y/N) with her, bringing her into a tight hug. She reciprocated the affection, her heart warming. As Sloane got dressed, (Y/N) put her bouquet together. It wasn’t anything grand, but they didn’t need grand. They were making the best of what they had.

An idea sparking, she let her fingers graze the stem of the flower, pulling up another one from it. Thank you, (Y/N), she thought as she continued the process with every other flower until there was a much bigger bouquet to put together. Finishing up, she set the beautiful and bountiful bouquet back down before getting ready herself.

She found it ironic that her dress was red. She had just rid herself of the dreadful color from her skin and her hair. The dress was the only one she could find on short notice that was her size and fit their “creative black tie” dress code. It was beautiful, nonetheless, velvet and tea length with a v-neckline and no sleeves. Something to make her feel gorgeous without pulling out all the stops. After applying a bit of makeup, she picked up the flowers and walked up to Sloane.

“You look amazing.” The girl softly smiled. Sloane grinned and turned to her. It was true, Sloane looked stunning. Her dress was nothing grand, but she still managed to look like an angel in it.

“Thank you. And you look beautiful,” She tilted her head. “Is that… her bracelet?”

(Y/N) placed a hand over the white beaded bracelet she had kept and handed the bouquet to Sloane. “Y-Yeah… It has no effect on me, and it’s the only thing of her I have left.”

At Sloane’s sorrowful smile, (Y/N) pulled a duplicate from the bracelet and gently put it on the woman’s wrist. “There. So we can both have a piece of her.”

The two of them clasped hands, smiling warmly at each other. Sloane’s heart was so full. This (Y/N) reminded her so much of her own in ways that she hadn’t even thought of. Past all her sister’s flaws was just someone who loved her family. A family that would never admit they loved her as well. That was one of the differences between the two (Y/N)s. One was loved and the other wasn’t. It was how they turned out to be completely different people, but the parts that mattered were the constant in her.

“Thank you for everything, (Y/N).” She whispered with teary eyes. “You’ve done more than I could have ever asked you for. I know it’s last minute, but I would be… so honored… if you would stand with me as my maid of honor.”

(Y/N)’s smile widened as she nodded. “I would be honored to be your maid of honor.”

-------------------------------------------------

The elevator doors opened, revealing the decorated banquet hall. The tables and chairs set up were enough to seat a much larger wedding, the lights gave the room a lively glow and the chandeliers above were such an odd contrast to the disco ball hanging above the dancefloor the tables surrounded. Everyone stepped into the room, some in awe and some indifferent, but all in very nice attire.

“Not sure this place is gonna be big enough.” Klaus sarcastically spoke.

“This better be an open bar.” Allison sighed out.

Lila encouragingly smiled at her. “Hey, come on. It’s for Luther. Let’s perk up.” She turned to get a better look at the room, voicing her astonishment. The ding of the elevator sounded, Luther and Viktor walking out, the former fretting over his appearance.

“I don’t know. Normally, my tush looks good.”

“No, it’s-”

“Ah,” Allison’s tone dripped with sarcasm as soon as Viktor neared her vicinity. “I see you’ve gone for the oversized button-down. Original.”

Viktor was quick to retort. “You do realize there’s no paparazzi here, right?”

“What? Dang it.”

Luther shushed them, interrupting their small argument. “Listen to me, you two. This is my day, alright? So, if you two can just get along for a couple of hours, you can consider that my wedding gift.”

“Well, he started it, so-”

“You literally just started it-”

“Bah, bah, bah!” He shushed them again. “My day. Two hours. Do you think you can manage that?”

Just as they agreed, the elevator dinged again, the doors opening to reveal Sloane, arm-in-arm with (Y/N). All eyes were on the bride, staring in amazement, Luther’s stare full of every ingredient for an unconditional love. The only one looking at (Y/N) was Five, matching his brother’s love-sick expression. Ben rolled his eyes at the scene.

“Let’s get this over with before I die of cringe.”

—————————————

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