#as someone who watched skins AND submarine this show was wild

[holly-mckenzie]

Hi. Hi. Sorry. I seem to have set the cat spray thing to… to jet stream or something. Oh, did you? I hadn't noticed. So… So. So, Veggie's back then? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It doesn't mean that, uh… I actually just don't know what anything really means right now. Yeah. Yeah. Why did you come? I wanted to say… whatever happens, I'll be here. You came all the way here just to tell me that? Well… I, uh… Yeah. Okay. Bye, Lisa. Bye, Danny.

Still Up (2023 - ) ┃ Ep. 8 “The Wedding” directed by John Addis

[mac-kd8]

                                                 Law x pregnant readers

Waking up, (Name) only felt tired as if she hadn't slept in months.  She  just blamed it from the late nights of working and nothing else. Not even realizing when she woke up it was already in the afternoon and the Heart Pirates were currently eating in the galley.

With a loud groan (Name) took off her Pj's and walked into the shower, she gasped slightly when the water presser felt a little more sensitive on her chest than usual.

(Name) shrugged it off, thinking it was because she was still healing from the last battle she took part of, so she didn't think much about it. Propping herself next to her captain like she always does, she quietly ate her late lunch while trying to keep her eyes open. Law being the observant man he is, grew quite worried about his beloved wife acting so fatigue. "Are you alright?" Law asked, trying to act he wasn't concerned. She only nodded before face-planting into her food with a loud smack. No one panicked or thought it was something to worry about, guessing (Name) was just having a narcoleptic attack.

Later that day, (Name) was currently laying on her bed while reading a book. Feeling like she was about to throw up, she put down her book next to her and quickly opened the bathroom door. She then puke out all of her lunch and maybe last night dinner as well into the toilet. Wipeing her mouth, (Name) then headed toward the sink to splash some cold water on her face.

Feeling a familiar presence, (Name) then turned her head to where Law was currently standing with a worried expression on his face. "Are you okay?" He asked.

"Yeah, I guess it's just a little food poisoning." (Name) said while scratching the back of her head.

"Alright but let me know when it gets worse."Law stated as he exited the bathroom.

(Name's) heart almost escaped from her chest when the submarine started shaking and yellow lights started flashing. Running onto the deck she could already see a battle taking place with men in white and blue uniforms on one side and men in colorful hats and white overalls on the other side. Unsheathing her twin katanas, (Name) then started cutting one marine after another but for some strange reason she already felt like she was out of energy. 20 minutes into the battle, with a large pant for air she finishes off the last of the marines before wobbling back to the submarine's doors.

"Damn why am I already out of breath, those marines were just small fries. My training methods haven't changed one bit, why do I feel so weak. "(Name) muttered to herself in annoyance.

(Name) only pushed her food around on the plate, hardly nibbling then she looked around the room. Everyone was so cheerful and she couldn't help but smile.

"Not eating much I see." Law commented, leaning over to whisper in her ear. Not like he needs to, over the usually loud noise that the Heart Pirates made at each meal.

"I'm just not hungry." She responded.

"Strange and I thought for someone who was out of breath just by fighting a few marines would be starving." Law stated in a matter-of-factly tone.

"Is it not to your liking, (Name)?" The head chef asked, catching sight of Law's actions.

"It's good. I'm just not hungry right now"(Name) said as she pushed back the plate.

"I'll put it in the fridge until you feel like eating again,"The chef said as he scooped up her plate of uneaten food.

"Do you need to lie down again?" Law asked her again for the third time today.

"I'm okay."

"Could I get some orange juice though?"(Name) sweetly asked the cook.

Then immediately , the crew got back to their usual antics paying no mind to (Name's) odd behavior.

She got to her feet while squeezing Law's shoulder gently. "I'm going to read a book." She said before taking a sip of the juice.

She was hoping that it was simply a case of stomach flu and not something alot more serious.

(Name) was once again in the bathroom and vomiting all of what she ate yesterday, which was not that much. (Name) felt terrible , as would anyone in these types of situations would, however, she still didn't want to bring the matter up. Luckily, Law hasn't woken up from his deep slumber , which made her sigh in relief. Slipping back into bed, she then let her eyelids close as she slept all the way through the afternoon again.

Then that cycle of having no appetite and vomiting lasted for this day as well, which made Law start to worry even more about his wife.

"(Name)!" She picked up her head by the ship's railing in surprise as she heard her name being called by Penguin. Her stomach hadn't seemed to settle, and now she is throwing up into the sea.

She then turned her head to the mechanic, trying her best not to look sick.

Penguin walked up to (Name) getting rather closer, causing (Name) to become nervous.

"You look pale." Penguin commented.

"I haven't been feeling well the last few days Penguin. So I'm probably a bit pale." (Name) stated .

"You're sick (Name)?" questioned Shachi. (Name) nodded her head, however quickly realized what she had brought up.

"I'm only slightly sick, just a little headache. Really."

"You sure (Name)?" Law asked as he walked up to the swordswoman, worried about her health.

She then gave a reassuring thumbs up to everyone to show that she was okay. Though internally, she was kicking herself for lying to the crew, even more so to her trusting and loving husband. The crew soon believed the lie as they continued with their day, however, Penguin, Shachi, and Law didn't seem to be convinced, so they kept an eye on her.

"Damn it, damn it, damn it." (Name) thought as she ran to the bathroom for the third time this week. She still was getting lucky with Law having once again already left their room or sleeping, but she knew that it was only a matter of time before they really began to be suspicious.

"This will pass. This will pass."(Name) kept telling herself furiously as she finished with her recent vomiting episode. She picked herself up, taking in deep breaths trying to settle her stomach. As she looked into the mirror, she noticed that she is even paler than yesterday.

Putting on a brave face, she then walked out of the bathroom and went onto the deck.

"Land ahoy!" Shachi shouted as he pointed at the piece of land.

All of the Heart Pirates gather around the railing in a disorderly long line, and lean over it, while watching the island they were about to dock. They had docked at a unique island well-known in the areas as vicious wild blood thirsty animals live there.

"Yahoo, a new adventure!" (Name) said happily before walking off the submarine's plank. As she got closer and closer onto the island, she felt someone grabbing her shoulder.

"I think it's for the best if you stay back in your current state."Law stated with a worried look on his face.

She only shrugged his hand off. "I'm fine, I feel a lot better today."

Before Law could protest, (Name) had already made her way onto the island.

And then she left, not running, but walking kinda in a slow pace into the forests.

After some time had passed, both Penguin and Shachi had returned after a troublesome adventure with some saber-tooth monkeys. Law was starting to get a little worry since (Name) wasn't back yet, so he went the same direction she walked in.

As Law walked deeper and deeper into the forest he finally made eye contact with the swordswoman. "Help!" (Name) called out as she was kneeling onto the tall grass while clenching her slightly bleeding shoulder.

Law was surprised, (Name) never called for help unless it's something really serious or life-threatening .

Activating his Room he switches places with (Name) while killing the beast in the process.

While Law was carrying (Name) through the forest, she leaned away from his chest so she wouldn't get vomit onto his clothes

-x-

"I'm going to take a blood sample." (Name) nodded as she rolled up her sleeve allowing Law to apply the alcohol onto her skin then inserting the needle. Only taking a tiny amount, Law removed the needle and quickly placed a band-aid on where he poke her. "You can leave, I will give you your results as soon as possible."

She only nodded before leaving the infirmary room.

Law stood there from where he was sitting in shock, not knowing how to feel after reviewing the results of her blood test. It was a mix of happiness, relief, fear and mostly parental love. It took all of his strength not to jump down like a crazy man who just won the lottery, because it was the middle of the night and he didn't want to wake up his crew. When he finally made it to the doors of his room, he put on a calm face and slowly and quietly opened the door. "Hi Captain, so did my blood test turn out good?" (Name) asked casually.

"Yep, it seems that both of you are fine." Law said with a big goofy smile on his usually calm and serious face. (Name) looked at her captain in surprise and in slight confusion, even already knowing the answer. "W-what do you mean the b-both of us?" (Name) managed to stutter out.

"I mean our baby. You're 9 weeks pregnant."

He was in love with (Name), and the idea of her having his baby was ideal to him, but it was still a shock, they'd never even spoken or brought up the subject. He wanted a family, but the idea still scares him. All the memories of his mother and father, and his little sister Lami all stuck to him. Then, the struggles and problems of them being famous pirates with both of them having large bounties on their heads. And all of the struggles that their child will face as well, everything he, (Name) and his unborn child, everything they will face together suddenly hit him in one go.

"Law I'm sorry, I should have been more careful." (Name) said while sobbing.

Law quickly, but carefully picks her up and sits her onto his lap while stroking the spot where their child was growing.

"Sorry for what? Making this the happiest day of my life." Law said before kissing her still flat stomach.

(Name) began to cry more but it wasn't tears of sadness, they were tears of joy. "We're going to be parents. I'm going to be a mom."

"And I'm going to be a dad. " Law said while showering her with even more kisses. (Name) squeaked when Law gently swooped her off her feet and began sprinting across the metal halls.

"What the... Law?!"

"Your shoulder, your shoulder was wounded. You're staying overnight, no, 3 nights in the infirmary. What if the baby got hurt. What if the baby got killed?"Law started listing off the things that could happen to their unborn child.

-x-

"Everyone, we have an announcement!" Law shouted loudly to get everyone's attention who was on the deck.

"We're getting a new crew member." (Name) said while trying to hold back her giggles.

"Oh, that's nice, when can we meet them?" Penguin asked.

"Less than 9 months." Law answered which made everyone go completely silent.

"We're having a baby!" Both (Name) and Law shouted cheerfully.

They were all staring at the expected couple, completely dumbfounded.

Astounded, flabbergasted, shock whichever word to describe their expressions and the tense atmosphere. Law's hand started to turn purple just by how hard (Name) was squeezing his hand.

"CONGRATULATIONS," Penguin and Shachi shouted in perfect unison.

"This is amazing, this calls for a party!" A Heart Pirate exclaimed.

"No alcohol for the pregnant woman though," Bepo smiled warmly at her from Law's side.

"(Name), don't cry, " Law said, reaching around her shoulders to comfort her.

"I know, it has to be the unbalanced hormones. I'm just so happy, this is a new chapter of my life." (Name) said as she cried into Law's chest.

Throughout the day everyone was partying while congratulating the new parents-to-be.

"So who will be the godparents?" Bepo asked.

"We have already decided that Ikkaku and you will be the godparents of our child."(Name) answered. Bepo then lifted both (Name) and Law off their feet and gave them a big hug while crying tears of joy. "Thank you, I'll be the best godfather ever." Bepo said, which made everyone in the Heart Pirates stare in jealousy, especially Penguin and Shachi.

"You guys will make great uncles." (Name)said with a big smile while hugging both of them in her arms.

"Lucky bear." Shachi muttered.

The 2 mechanics' faces turned a deep shade of red when (Name) kissed both of them on the cheek. "Don't worry, there is enough love to go around."

Then out of nowhere, a large explosion could be heard across the deck.

"Heart Pirates, Give up now or prepare to die."A marine holding a megaphone demanded.

(Name) smirked before unsheathing her twin katanas as she got into a fighting stance.

"Do your worst.''She retorted before Law used his devil fruit ability to transport her back into the sub.

Law shut the metal doors, ignoring the loud banging noises that were coming from the other side.

"Law, you ass, I want to fight too. Let me out, let me out." (Name) demanded as she kept on banging her fist onto the metal door.

"No, as your captain and doctor I order you to stay back and let us handle this. You're pregnant, you need to take it easy for now on."Law stated, which made (Name) slump down in disappointment. She hated being useless, she wanted to fight, she wanted to help, she wanted to do something besides laying down and doing nothing.

"Oh great, 7 more months of being totally useless." (Name) muttered under her breath while sighing.

A few weeks later-

(Name) felt like she was already going crazy. She wasn't allowed to do anything and she meant she couldn't do anything. First, the large weights she and Jean Bart can usually lift with ease have been replaced with 5 pound weights and she wasn't even allowed to use them for more than 5 minutes. Law had also forbidden( name) in certain places in the submarine as well, which was almost one half of the metal vessel that was off limits for her.

(Name) also swears, Law has super hearing because when she decides to get out of her bed, Law uses his devil fruit abilities to teleport himself right next to his wife's side.

"Law, go back to work. I'm just getting a snack."(Name) protested.

"Then ask me or someone else from the crew to get it for you. You're still in your first trimester of pregnancy, there is still a possible chance of miscarriages or physical deformities or all sources of possible medical stated as he called forth his room again then instantly a jar of peanuts appeared in his hand.

"Here, take these and go back to our room." Was all Law said as he pointed the direction of where their room was located, as if she was completely clueless of where she had been living for most of her life.

Rolling eyes (Name) went back to her room while munching down on the jar of peanuts on the way.

-x-

When the Heart Pirates docked onto an island, (Name) thought she could get some alone time to herself while getting the necessary items for the future stages of her pregnancy. And it was a good thing too since her pants and shirt had been feeling tight lately. "Bye Captain, I'm going to do a little shopping." (Name) said before she jumped off the submarine's front deck.

"Room, Shambles." Law now had (Name) in his arms.

"What the hell Law?" (Name) questioned.

"I'm coming with you, " Law stated as he tightly held her hand.

"Law, I'll be just fine. It's just a little shopping, I'm barely showing." (Name) retorted while trying to slip her hand from Law's strong grip.

"Nope, as long as you're carrying my child you're stuck with me." Law said, securitly wrapping around his arm onto her waist.

After 5 medical and clothes stores later, Law's arms were both covered in shopping bags while (Name) just carried a single bag with a small bottle of medicine inside of it.

"Law, let me carry that for you. You know I can lift 1000 times my own body weight." (Name) Stated with an annoyed frown.

"I got this, I don't want you to lift even one eight of your body weight. Your-" (Name) then cut off Law before he could finish the rest of this statement. "Yeah, Yeah, I know I'm pregnant and pregnant women shouldn't be exerting themselves."

Smirking devilishly, (Name) came up with a small plan to get away from her overbearing husband.

"Hey honey, I really need to use the bathroom."(Name) said as she pretended her bladder was about to burst.

"Very well."He responded, then they headed to the closest bathroom.

Reaching down in her left sock, (Name) grabbed a screwdriver and began unscrewing the bathroom's top window.

When (Name) was finally outside of the building, she began to grin like she has been in prison for 20 years and just now escaped. She was free, she could do whatever she wanted without worrying about Law dragging her back to their room and making her stay there until the next day.

In a swift motion, (Name) unsheathed her twin katanas and blocked an attack from a familiar mask man.

"Yo... it's been a while, when was the last time we fought together."(Name)greeted, enjoying the weight and feel of her swords when fighting. "Too long and this time I will become victorious." Killer responded.

Killer and (name) have been rivals ever since their crew had first met. The 2 of them will always break into fights everytime when they see one another. But so far they're about even, most of the time their fights usually ended up in draws.

The fight soon stopped when Killer stepped away and put back his scythe blades into its case. "Hey what gives, why are you chickening out now! The fight was just about to get better." (Name) shouted.

"I'm not fighting a pregnant woman, I want to kick your ass at your best."Killer stated while pointing to her slightly rounded stomach. "Damn, I knew I should have put on more baggy clothing."(Name) thought to herself as she tried to cover her baby bump.

"You're a pirate, why should you even care? Pirates do whatever they want."(Name) exclaimed while pouting slightly.

"I may be a pirate but I'm still a man who doesn't like fighting weak women." Was all he said before walking away.

"I'm not weak...fight me, please! Law won't even let me hold a fork. Please, I'm only on my 16 week."(Name)whined as she tugged onto Killer's shirt.

"No, and you look alot more further along than that."Killer retorted which made (Name) gasp loudly of being called fat.

Before Killer had any time to dodge, (Name) kicked him square in the balls which made him groan in pain.

"Meanie!" (Name) spat out before taking off into the forest nearby with small tears running down her face.

"Ouch!"He groaned loudly, laying on the ground while holding his sore nuts.

-x-

Law was pissed. But mostly Law was extremely worried. He couldn't find his wife anywhere, but what really worries him is that the Kid Pirate's ship has been spotted as well.

What if the Kid Pirates took advantage of his wife's current state or even worse killed her on the spot.

No matter how much observation Haki Law uses, he didn't have any lead on where his wife is.

"Captain, we know where she is." Penguin reported.

"Yeah, Killer from the Kid Pirates told us she kicked him in the nuts and went into the forest,"Shachi added.

"And why did she kick him in the nuts, (Name) doesn't usually use low blows?"Law stated with a raised eyebrow.

"Well,"Penguin started off while scratching the back of his head.

"He kinda called her fat." Shachi answered.

In a blink of an eye, Law called forth his room and teleported himself into the forest. Without even trying, Law hears small whimpers coming from the top of a tree so he looks up and sees the person he was looking for all day.

"(Name!)Law called out his wife's name.

"Go away!" She screamed then resumed crying again.

"No, I know I've been a little too clingy lately, but it's only because I want the best for you and our future kid as well. And to be fair, I don't really blame you for running away from me, so that is why I promise you I will try my best to give you your space."Law promised as he kneeled down.

(Name) stopped crying and looked at her husband.

"Okay, I'm coming down now."(Name) responded as she started climbing down onto one branch after another.

She gasps when one branch snaps from her weight and she begins to fall, face first into a painfull fall, and Law swears his heart stops for 5 seconds as his throat hitchs.

"Room, shambles!"

When his wife's stomach was only inches away from hitting the hard ground, she instantly appeared in Law's arms.

"Law, I'm sorr-"(Name) whispered her husband's name.

"That was way too close." He then looked and touched her baby bump gently.

"You're never ever leaving my sight until that baby is out of you. That's an order." Was all he said as he started walking back to the sub with his wife in his arms.

-x-

(Name) found herself laying flat on her back in the medical bay as Law prepared the new ultrasound equipment.

"Damn, that's cold." She hissed when the clear gel made contact with her stomach.

"Sorry," he apologised half-heartedly.

"Usually I would just use my scanning ability, but I think it would be a lot more useful to check in like this."Law stated then he turned on the monitor. He moved the device around her stomach slowly with his eyes on the screen, instantly stopped when he saw a gray blob in the middle.

"There's our child."He pointed to the blob.

As (Name) looked closer at the screen, she cock an eyebrow when another blob had suddenly appeared out of nowhere. "Honey, why are there 2 of them?"(Name) stated while pointing where the 2 blobs were located.

"You're just seeing things, there is no-"Law stopped himself when indeed there were more than 1 blob. "We're having twins."Law whispered so softly that (Name) had to ask him to repeat himself.

"We're having twins. Yes,! Now you don't have to get pregnant again."Law said again as his wife just stood there in shock, not knowing how to process the new information.

"Wait, you're not satisfied with one kid." (Name) yelled at her husband in which he only nodded.

"Great. I already get smothered enough with one baby, I'm sure it's gonna get worse."

"It's now double," his lips formed into a smirk. "For now you're going to have daily instead of weekly check ups. And you're no longer allowed to practice swordsmanship with real swords anymore."

"Excuse me? No way, I've been holding swords since I was only 5 years old, you can't do that." She sat up sharply.

"You lost all of your rights when you started carrying precious cargo. Now you must be twice careful with our little ones." He brushed his fingers against her stomach before kissing it gently.

The more (Name-s) belly got bigger and bigger, the more cautious everyone, especially Law became. In only her 30 weeks of pregnancy, (Name) already looks like she could give birth any day now.

The Heart Pirates were currently docked on a winter island while (Name) only watched from a sideline.

"But Law, I want to play in the snow like everyone else. Please, I've been cooped up in this submarine for far too long."(Name) begged while giving Law the puppy eye look.

"Fine, but you need to bundle up."Law exclaimed.

6 layers of thick clothing later, (Name) walked off the Polar tang's deck with Law right next to her side.

Working on her snow fort for about 30 minutes, (Name) started to feel a sneeze coming along and tried her best to hold it in.

"Achoo!" She then covered her mouth, in hopes Law didn't hear it.

She sighs and doesn't even put up a fight when Law's room incases her, and teleports her into his arms.

"You're going back to the sub, I knew it was a bad idea to let you play in the snow."Law stated flatly.

And once again (Name) was laying flat on her back as she watched Law move the ultrasound equipment around her stomach for the fourth time this week.

"Is this really necessary?"(Name) questioned while pouting.

"Yes, unless you don't want our babies to be healthy. You're now forbidden to leave our bed until your cold has subsided. If you break any of those rules then I will bind you to the bed until your pregnancy has ended. Do I make myself clear?" Law questioned which only made (name) stick out her tongue.

"You 2 need to get out of mommy soon because I can't take another minute with your daddy."(Name) talk and rub to her rounded stomach when Law left the room.

-x-

2 weeks later and (Name) Was finally on her last trimester of pregnancy. "Law!" (Name) shouted his name loudly.

"Yes my darling, is there something you need." Law responded as he headed toward where his wife was currently sitting down.

"The babies are kicking, they're kicking again."(Name) said excitedly then grab's Law's hand to guide him where the kicking was happening.

Then the day when his children would be born.

(Name) woke up in the middle of the night when she felt a warm wet substance in between her legs and soon realized her water just broke.

"Law...Law." She shakes her husband awake.

"Yeah, what is it?" He muttered as he tried to rub away the sleep from his eyes.

"My water just broke."She then yelled in agony after she felt a contraction.

"Shit?!" Law then quickly moves to her side to help her into the wheelchair he had laying by for this day. "Bepo, round up the medical squad, it's time." Law shouted through a den den mushi.

"Whatt, I thought she wasn't due for at least another couple weeks." Bepo shouted.

"Well, the kids have decided to come now!" Law stated.

12 hours of shouting and a lot of pushing later, the first one came out.

"She's a beautiful girl!" Law said before handing the bundle of joy to Bepo.

"Come on just one more push." Law said then he could see the head of the baby.

"It's a handsome boy," Law said before handing the other baby to Penguin's arms.

"Law, what should we name them?"(Name) asked as she panted for air.

"Rosey for our baby girl and Corazon for our baby boy." Law answered, then placed a sweet and tender kiss on his wife's forehead.

"You need rest now, I will take care of them in the meantime."

[izzy-b-hands]

Snowed In On The Moon

Hadn’t written a fic for the free space on my DL server Bingo Card...and I’m struggling to get myself out of this depression hole and write again, so maybe this little thing will do it. 

Synopsis: Set during the 1976 A Night At The Opera USA Tour. Round the dates in the Midwest in February.  The boys are snowed in at a shitty motel, and that isn’t the worst thing ever, but isn’t it though? 

My love to all who read/like/reblog.

“There are worse places we could be stuck,” Brian reminds Roger. 

Roger grumbles, and glares out the window of the motel at the quickly, thickly falling snow. “Really? Name them for me.” 

Brian chuckles, watching as Roger turns from the window and drops onto the other bed.

“I wasn’t fucking joking,” Roger scoffs. “Are you going to name them, or not?” 

“You’re in a lovely mood, aren’t you?” 

Roger lets out something that sounds like a growl. 

“Alright, I will. Under the ocean-” 

“Don’t be ridiculous! I thought you meant places we could actually be.” 

Brian nods. “If we were in a submarine, we could be stuck there.” 

Roger sighs and drapes a hand over his eyes as he lays on his back on the bed, still wrapped in his fur coat, a leftover from the clothing stall he and Freddie used to run. 

“Fine. Sure. Us, and our fucking yellow submarine. Where else would be worse than the American Midwest in a blizzard, then?” 

Brian ponders for a moment. “The moon, if we didn’t have the right equipment.” 

“Someone has some awfully big dreams,” Roger smirks. “Going to be the first man to do a fifteen minute guitar solo on the moon, Bri?” 

“Only if you’re up there to do the first twenty minute drum solo.” 

Brian dodges the pillow Roger tosses with a shout. “Don’t! We’ve no idea where those have been, if they’ve been cleaned...” 

“People clean in America,” Roger laughs, then hesitates. “I mean, they must.” 

They both pause the conversation long enough to create a ‘blanket’ over their beds made up of clothes too dirty to be worn again (that will be cleaned, eventually. When they find a laundromat, they swear.) 

Roger shivers as they settle back onto their beds. “Never worried about bed bugs until right this moment, you know? And whatever else Americans have in their beds.” 

“You presume they have different insects here?” 

“At least some,” Roger replies. “You don’t feel all...I don’t know, like your skin is crawling, sitting here?” 

Brian nods. “A bit. But where else are we going to go?” 

Outside, the wind howls, and flakes seem to smack the glass of the window, as if upset to be falling. 

“You’re the one with a list of worse places we could be,” Roger shrugs. “Make up a list of better places, and let’s go to one of those.” 

“Home?” 

“Not bad,” Roger remarks, wincing at a stain on the shirt he’s using as a pillow. “But somewhere exciting would be nice.” 

“Home can be exciting!” 

“Yeah, but you know I didn’t mean home,” Roger says. 

Brian sighs. “Unfortunately, Rog, I can’t get us much further away from here. For a few reasons, but you know that.” 

“I know,” Roger murmurs. “Still like hearing you talk about us being elsewhere though.” 

“Even if it’s the moon, or under the ocean?” 

A balled up shirt is the projectile this time, but that Brian bats away with a practiced hand. 

“There is somewhere we could go,” Brian offers. “But it’s not going to be fun.” 

“Ooh, really sell it to me,” Roger grins and bounces up off of his bed. “Where?” 

“There’s a vending machine outside near the front of the motel, and I have...I don’t actually know how much American money I have, I haven’t really counted it, but we could go get something sugary and disgusting...” 

“That’s outside,” Roger muses. “In the snow.” 

“Astute observation,” Brian giggles. “Do we dare attempt it?” 

“In a moment,” Roger says, and rifles through his bag of slightly-less-worn clothing. “Here.” 

“Oh, Rog...” Brian hesitantly takes the old fur coat from him. “You brought more than one...” 

“Case anyone else needed one, here in the frozen fucking tundra,” Roger says. “Might leave your wrists exposed, but we’ll get a decent portion of your torso covered, at least.” 

Outside, they’re both grateful for the furs, as the wind whips snow and ice into their faces, against any bare skin. Anything less thick than the furs leaves them feeling naked and shivering. 

It’s a slow walk, on incredibly icy concrete, to the front of the motel. 

“Can machines freeze, do you think?” Roger ponders as they go, occasionally pausing to hold one another up as they slip on the worst patches of ice. “In something like this?” 

“You mean you think we’ll get to it, and it’ll be so cold it won’t work?” 

“I’m just saying, my end goals here were to get out of the room, and to get something to eat that’s objectively terrible for me,” Roger replies, snagging Brian’s arm as he slips yet again. “You and those fucking clogs; they aren’t made for this weather!” 

“And yours are?” Brian laughs as Roger goes down onto his ass, sparkly pink Converse out from under him. 

A moment later he’s down too, grateful that at least it was a slow set of falls. Nothing bruised but their asses and their pride. 

“We should get up,” Brian prompts. The snow is cold under them, and he can feel it soaking into his trousers and curls. The fur, grotesque as it is, does an admittedly good job of keeping at least part of him dry and somewhat warm. 

“I don’t know,” Roger sighs. “What’s there to go back to? The room, or the vending machine, and what else? Nothing.” 

“Little dramatic,” Brian smiles. “I think there’s more than that, we just have to get through the night here.” 

“Oh!” Freddie nearly trips over them, skidding to an awkward halt on the ice, somehow staying upright. “Are you two alright?” 

“Afflicted by a need to be elsewhere, snacks, and the human condition,” Brian replies. “But otherwise, fine. You?” 

“Was going for food for myself and Deaky,” Freddie says slowly. “How long have you two been out here?” 

“Time isn’t real; who can say?” Roger mutters with all the emotion of an unsupervised theater major student in their first show, flopping sideways in the snow. 

“The watch on your wrist could,” Freddie remarks wryly. “Shall I help you up, or leave you both here to freeze until the spring thaw?” 

Brian takes the offered hand from Freddie, extending his own to Roger to create a chain, and in another moment, they’re standing again. 

“I can’t feel my face,” Roger mumbles. 

“Nor can I,” Freddie sighs. “What a lovely, absolutely horrible place this is, hm? People live here! All the time! By choice, even! Wild.” 

“What in the fuck is ta-” is all Deaky manages to get out before going ass over teakettle into the snow as he storms out of his and Freddie’s room. 

“Oh, Deaky,” Freddie tsks. “Let me help you, hang on.” 

Freddie seems to have the best approach to the ice, sliding across the biggest patches in his platforms as if it’s the only way to cross them. 

“What are you out here for?” Freddie asks as he helps John up. 

“Wanted to see what all the noise was about; why you were taking so long just to get snacks,” John says. “What are these two out for?” 

“Rude,” Roger scoffs. “Like we’ve been let out of prison or something.” 

“Is that not what you would call this place?” Brian muses.

Roger nods. “Fair point. Still, manners, Deaky.” 

“Manners,” John scoffs. “It’s fucking freezing out here, why are you lot standing around?” 

“Excellent question!” Freddie says. “I can’t feel my face, hands, or co-” 

“Fred,” Brian interrupts. “We may as well make it a group trip now.” 

So it is, with Freddie as the oddly unaffected by ice centering piece, helping to hold the rest up as the slip and stumble. 

“I fucking knew it,” Roger scoffs and slaps a cold hand on the vending machine, only to yank it away with a hiss. “Fucking metal burns to touch; what sort of fucking cold can do that?” 

The machine in question did have snacks in it, when they had arrived a day earlier. It was only two nights at the motel, then on to the next city. In that time, someone has: A. broken the glass of the machine, B. stolen all the food, and C. the storm has filled it up with snow and ice, it being out in the elements rather than in an actual building. 

There’s an unofficial moment of silence for their wasted trip, snow and ice coating hair and fur coats and leaving skin raw. 

“We should get back,” Brian finally sighs. 

“I’d like to try the moon instead,” Roger whimpers. 

“What?” Freddie and Deaky ask in one voice. 

The motel across from theirs isn’t visible any longer. Nor is the road, or most of the parking lot, for that matter. 

There’s a sinking feeling in Brian’s gut that they won’t be leaving tomorrow. 

“Me too, Rog,” he mutters. “Me too.” 

Instead, they shuffle back to their rooms, bidding Freddie and Deaky good-bye, only to join them an hour later when the heat in their room ceases to work (not that it’s working in Freddie and Deaky’s room either, but they can accumulate more body heat with all four in one room.) 

Outside, the snow falls and flies and piles outside the door until there’s no leaving for anything, let alone a trip to the broken vending machine or the moon. 

[tracybirds]

Scott’s turn!! What a week!! My entry for the FABFiveFeb this week :D (it’s the last day of Feb!!! I’m sad!! But excited for March!!)

Prompts by @gumnut-logic​ - I used “What do you mean?” 

Apparently I enjoy the speaking prompts I think I’ve used them every time so far ahaha :DD

More from FAB Five Feb: [Alan] | [Gordon] | [Virgil 1] | [Virgil 2] | [John] | [Jeff]

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

The aftermath of the 2040 Global Conflict reached much further into the future than any at the time could have predicted, and Scott angrily cursed the short sightedness of those who, desperate for control and power, had laid traps around the globe.

Traps that were the result of a paranoia that forced hundreds of millions to give up their right to privacy, to give up their right to safe passage across the continents, and to turn their back on their neighbours and friends. Traps that were set as governments prepared in secret for attacks that would never come, traps that were intended to protect a shoreline before it was overwhelmed by armed forces. Traps that had been lost in the resulting destruction of security technology, traps of which there was no complete record, and traps that were deadly to all who stumbled upon then, even now two decades in the future. Traps that had been sprung as Gordon explored the ocean floor, traps that had launched three acoustic homing torpedoes, locked onto the advanced, foreign, threatening technology that was Thunderbird Four.

“I’ll have to ditch her,” said Gordon grimly as he eyed the sonar map displayed on Four’s control panel. “There’s no way I can evade these things forever.”

Scott swore, knowing Gordon was right. He flinched as one of the torpedo slammed into the side of the seamount Gordon had been poring over for the past week – a neat little vacation, as he’d cheerfully pitched it to Scott.

Some vacation.

“How do we know that they won’t follow you instead of Four?”

“They’re locked on to Four’s engine noise,” said John. “They’re using passive sonar, you should be fine.”

Scott looked up at his little brother, hands flying across holoscreens as he tried to override the torpedoes’ code. “I have access to their network now, I can see the commands they’re following. Just give me five minutes.”

“It’s not going to be enough, John,” said Gordon’s tense voice. “My telemetry shows impact in two minutes, d’you got a miracle for me?”

John said nothing and Scott watched him as his brow furrowed, heart in his throat. The seconds ticked by, precious seconds that Gordon could use to get clear of the force of impact, but still he waited on John, his faith in his brothers as strong as ever.

“Recommend immediate evacuation procedures,” he finally pronounced.

Gordon was out of his seat, helmet securely fastened, before John had finished speaking.

“Someone’s gonna come pick me up, right?” he asked with false cheer, as he pulled himself into one of the pressurised dry tube.

“Claustrophobia, is it?” asked John, the sarcasm rolling easily from his tongue. “Unusual for a submarine pilot.”

“Never been one to follow the crowd, Johnny.”

“Are you two finished? Homing missiles? Eminent explosion?”

“Fair point,” said Gordon, busying himself with the final preparations. He took a deep, steadying breath. “See you on the other side.”

Scott watched anxiously as the dry tube was deployed, his brother rising rapidly as the missiles slammed into his precious ‘bird beneath him.

There was silence in the room as the two men solemnly witnessed her passing in the stead of her pilot. There was no sound of the explosion, just a pressure wave that built and built until Thunderbird Five lost communication with her sister.

There was a slight shift in the atmosphere as John straightened, leaning forwards with his brow wrinkling into familiar creases. He made no sound but Scott could feel the change instantly, anticipation and dread prickling over his skin like an old friend.

“I’ve lost his signal.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, I don’t have eyes on him Scott. It was probably knocked out by the surge the collision created.”

Scott nodded numbly, unable to shake the fear that was settling deep in his bones.

“That’s probably it,” he said in agreement, his voice distant and echoing as he stared at the mark where his brother had been.

“Scott?”

“John?”

“What do you want me to do?”

There’d already been so many close calls with Gordon. There was only one thing to do.

“Call Alan and Virgil.”

“They’re not going to be able to help, Scott.”

Distantly, Scott knew this. He also knew that Virgil would never forgive him if they found that something had gone desperately, dreadfully wrong, and he hadn’t been given any updates on the situation. He knew too that Alan shouldn’t know about the dark fears that were running through his head, knew that Alan had a penchant for overactive imaginings that would become too real and too overwhelming for him to focus on his own mission five hundred million miles from home.

He knew there was always a chance for Alan’s waking nightmares to come true. But he had to give them some warning, right here, right now, before the moment passed by and he was having to speak about his brother in the past tense.

“No speculation, John,” he said. He wet his lips, trying to force his anxieties from his mind. “Tell them about the missiles, the evac. Let them know I’m flying out now to pick him up.”

John was quiet, eyes large and worried as he looked down at his brother. Scott knew what he was asking John to do, just like he knew Virgil would see past the façade into John’s uneasy gaze. He knew he was asking John to do the one thing he was never very good at.

“Keep me updated,” he instructed, and then strode from the room before John could reason his way out of the mess Scott was putting him in.

He made one last call before firing up Thunderbird One’s rockets.

“Gordon, I’m coming for you. This is the last time I pick you up from one of your wild parties.”

At least if his brother could hear him, he’d be able to have a laugh.

[thenixkat]

Animorphs notes: 18

Book 18

Narrated by Aximili

Again I really wish something had come of the andalite traitors thing

Ax’s audience is other andalites

Leera’s like the only planet besides Earth to get an actual name in this joint

Andalites don’t use money

Ax is tryin g to work to get money to buy food

Ax needs to stop dicking around in human morph b;c he’s gonna getsomeone in trouble, possibly killed

This manager is actually a nice person

So Marco caught Ax

They are retelling the event at Cassie’s barn]

They are waiting for news from Erek

So was Ax? Alone at the damn mall? I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again there are rocks smarter than these kids

Erik has hidden chee with him

Of course Tobias fucking spots them all, its not like the chee could make themselves invisible

Hewlett Aldershot the Third, that’s a serious name

Yeerks wanna infest im for reasons and had Iness hit him with a car

Is this the same yeerk infested hospital from an earlier book? I guess boiling a bunch of folks alive and a minor wildlife rampage didn’t do shit.

Marco’s snippy when bored

So, either Visser 3 knows how to morph regular clothes or isn’t hamped by them at all and no one feels the need to mention them ripping through some while morphiong

Yeerks can’t do anything with a comatose host. 

Either the head of the secret service is a lady or the president is

That’s not really how wings work forget it

People have to be seeing this 6 winged bird thing chasing a seagull

Also apparently the kafit is some kinda bird of prey

Ax’s seagull morph has talons apparently

Visser 3 is scared of getting into a tail fight

Visser 3 thinks a teenager can beat him.

They’re right b/c they are shit at fighting

Stand face to face for even more opportunity to injure yerself and give yer opponent a better shot at yer head

Visser 3 nopes out of the fight, breaking a leg in the fall, but morphing human fast

Too much protein keeps Aximili awake

Dinnier at Cassie’s ment a lot for Ax

Ax races around as he wrestles with his thoughts and goes to Tobias to talk about feeliongs

Yeerks infultrating the andalite homeworld was an interesting idea and the writers are cowards

Shut up Cassie

Cassie you liar

If they could aquire from say blood alone, then why don’t they just try acquiring from parts of animals like ever?

Rachel is concerned about blood borne diseases and doesn’t know how most of those are contracted

Ax that sounds like bullshit. 

Ax you just hang with little squeemish bitches

Andalites have weak slow baby hands

How exactly do they plan to acquire blood that they ate as a mosquito? If they eat it it starts to break down from digestion and would be decently degraded by the time they vomit it back up and try to acquire from it.

A random sick kid has seen Ax and now knows his name

More humans have seen Ax

And like what reason with the yeerks have to let witnesses go like? Good job at getting more folks enslaved Ax

Ax thinks about collateral damage for once

...that’s a false surrender. Good job Ax! Not no one on yer side can ever actually surrender! Also a war crime.

Ax jumps out a window and morphs mosquito

That’s still not how compound eyes work

Pop

And now in the imaginary place

Huh, Ax and the animorphs get to see themselves in a 4 dimensional? view

Like tesseracts made of meat

Neat

Why, exactly would Tobias., who is in morph in ya know the shape of a bird not appear as a human jigsaw as well in this place?

They got dragged into Z space by a passing ship

And resqued by an andalite crew

The animorphs and Ax made a scientific breakthrough

.7 Andalite years stuck on Earth

I havent gotten to thhat book on my re read but everything you just said was wrong Ax

So there are multiple pool ships and such

Aximili doesnt actually have to stay with you all

He can fight yeerks where ever he pleases and really kinda needs to see others of his own kind every now and then

That grass probably tastes good as fuck tho after almost a year in Earth grass

Andalites being speciest

“May your great god Cha-Ma-Mib smile on you this day.” religious space frogs

“The continent loomed larger and larger. Most of it was lush and green, primarily jungle. Green like Earth's forests and jungles, but with wide swaths of some brilliant yellow vegetation, too. The northern end of the continent was less fertile, more barren, probably colder.”

Leera

The captian is a traitor

Also it is apparently pretty damn easy to take out andalites if you have even the slightest amount of drop on them

Visser 3 and Visser 4 are friends

That tailless dick fortified and used a weapon

The animorphs decided not to stick around in just listening to orders

Gonna blow the kids out an airlock and hope they survive

None of these fucks think to get in a damn fighter craft or emergency escape and attempt to survive

Just, welp folks we’re fucked time for some suicide!

Also the captain wasn’t even a controller, just willingly on the yeerk’s side

On the one hand Ax did abandon them. On the other the animorphs are not entitled to his service

Also this just isn’t the right time to pick on Ax

This is reallt not the right fucking time, Marco and Rachel are either trying to get themselves or someone else killed with their bullshit

Tobias u fucking chose to live in the woods as a wild animal, Aximili didn’t choose to be marroned on an alien world

You feathery asshole

Tobias vanished

Adi-fuckin-os

The yeerk forces are doing well on ground battle

Ax, the animorphs, the andalites, and the writers have failed ecology

Rachel vanished

The writers just really fucking hate sharks

“The water was perfectly, utterly clear. We were swimming in water that was forty feet deep, and we could see every detail on the ocean floor.

 And what detail! Huge, billowing creatures like white and yellow sails, triangular with biological propellers at each corner. Brilliant, electric-blue worms or snakes, each seventy feet long, swimming in wild schools. A bizarre creature that rose and fell through the water by blowing air into a bladder so thin it was almost transparent. A wonderful sort of fish in the shape of a screw that rotated its way through the water.

 And these creatures weren't scattered here and there, but everywhere. The Leeran ocean was a madhouse of life-forms.

 Spread around across the ocean were bubbling chimneys of rock and soil, encrusted with squirming, writhing creatures, small and less small. My shark senses could feel the electrical discharge from these chimneys, and the intense warmth. As I watched, a massive school of the brilliant blue worms came swirling around one of the chimneys. It swirled and my shark senses could feel the energy flow from the chimney into the worms.”

There would still be fucking predators u nits

“They were mostly yellow. They had skin that was slimy, as if covered with ooze, yet rough in texture, like gravel. They had large, webbed back legs. For arms they had four tentacles arrayed around their plump, barrel-shaped bodies.  The head was quite large, with a bulge at the back. It sat right on the shoulders. There was no neck. The face bulged outward and seemed to have just two features. A huge, wide, almost ridiculous mouth. And big, bulging eyes of a green that seemed almost to be lit from inside.

 There were four Leerans. They were riding on water jets. The water jets were long, narrow tubes, flared in front to make a sort of wing, flared again in back to give extra

maneuverability. Arrayed along the back wing were clusters of very narrow tubes pointed forward.”

Leerans

The crew free some leerans (granted they were going to kill them) b/c the leerans showed them how to get the yeerks out of them

The team morph leerans and are uncomfortable with knowing eachother’s thoughts

Oh what normal space ships arent good enough for crushing ocean pressures now? Gotta have actual submarines?

A lot of these high ranking andalites are quick to yelling and threats of violence aint they

That is a very iffy plan not the least being the yeerks with their mostly terrestrial shock troops would have likely set up camp there anyway it seems. But if u wanna throw away lives who cares

Marco vanished

Talking to scientists and shit

Actually Jake, if all of you vanish b4 u carry out the mission it will be too late for a back up

A world with no predators my ass

Cassie vanishes

Ah, so yeah bats aint flying with torn to shit wings. They’s ded

Jake vanished

How exactly did the andalites get the shit in there in the first place?

Hah, the hork hosts have rocket boosters

Aximili is saved by vanishing

So why were they snapped back in mosquito morph and not just flund full force back into their real bodies

And why snap them all back to the same moment and not staggared into different moments in time

How the fuck did this man feel a damn mosquito bite? A notible aspect of mosquitoes as that we don’t really feel them biting

Genral yeerk panicking over management

End with scene at mall

[musicprincess655]

Kazuya tapped anxiously at his leg. He wasn’t usually so fidgety, but tonight had a lot of extenuating circumstances. He didn’t even have the option for action. All he could do was wait for Ryou to meet him.

Bludhaven had always set him on edge. It was lawless in a way that not even Gotham could be, wild, and it drove his heart to beating faster. The shadows around him, in an abandoned factory by the water, only made it worse.

A rattling let him know he wasn’t alone anymore.

“Nightwing?” he asked cautiously, standing to his full height and reaching for his bow, feeling uncomfortably naked without Sawamura to watch his back.

“Not quite.” The figure stepping out of the shadows coalesced into Seto Takuma, his eyes set and focused. Okumura trailed behind him, clearly poised for a fight.

“Your ears aren’t as sharp as they should be.” Ryou stepped into sight on Kazuya’s left, Nori beside him. And behind them was…

“Hey Katsuko,” Kazuya sighed, lowering his bow. Now that everyone was here, he felt a lot less tension. Everyone was calm, which meant they’d probably made it here without any tails. They were safe.

“‘Sup?” She sounded nonchalant. Kazuya didn’t believe her.

“I guess our ruse was successful,” Seto said.

“You three were almost too convincing,” Ryou said. “Especially you, Nori. That was some quality acting you did.”

“I pretended to die,” Katsuko pointed out. “That wasn’t easy, either. And that coma really sucked.”

“You couldn’t have snuck past Furuya without your heart stopping,” Seto pointed out. “His ears are too sharp.”

“So everyone bought it?” Nori asked. “No one suspects anything?”

“They bought it enough that all the teams are in mourning,” Ryou said. “Pretty impressive, considering Katsuko isn’t actually on any of them.”

“The real question is whether the League or any of the teams will forgive any of you after this,” Okumura cut in. “This is a big secret.”

“If you want Seto to come back alive from deep cover with Black Manta, this secret will stay between the six of us,” Ryou said. “I wouldn’t have changed the mission at all, but with Black Manta allying with the Light and talks of a new partner in the mix, Seto can’t be in there alone anymore. If anyone can handle undercover, it’s Tigress of the Outlaws.”

“You flatter me,” Katsuko said.

“This worked out in our favor,” Seto added. “My biological father is moving me up the ladder. He’s inducting me into the Light, and since I killed a former teammate, he thinks my loyalty is beyond question now. I can find out who their new partner is.”

“Still, this didn’t come without a cost,” Ryou sighed. “The comm sat wasn’t supposed to be destroyed.”

“That wasn’t entirely my fault,” Seto said. “I thought we were in the clear after all the missiles were destroyed. I even made a show of firing something I knew Katsuko could stop. But my father planted some altitude-triggered bombs on the rocket. He wanted to see if I would take credit for a success that wasn’t mine, some kind of test.”

“The more I learn about your father, the more I want to kill him,” Okumura told him.

“I could say the same for yours,” Seto replied with a significant glance at the gem set in the center of Okumura’s forehead.

“Yes, yes, everyone here but me had daddy issues, we can form a support group later,” Ryou waved them all back to attention. Kazuya rolled his eyes. He didn’t have daddy issues. He had abandonment issues. They were different. “It’s time for phase two.”

He held out a necklace to Katsuko.

“Classy,” she said, picking it up. “Right in front of my boyfriend.”

“It’s a glamour charm,” Ryou said. “Courtesy of Takako. It’ll change your appearance. It’s some kind of physiomorphic spell. As much as I trust you undercover, if anyone even suspects your identity, both of you are dead.”

“Noted,” Katsuko said, moving her hair to put the charm on.

“How did you get something so specific from Takako without telling her what’s going on?” Kazuya asked, genuinely curious.

“Technically, Wakana got the charm from her,” Ryou said. “She’s easier to manipulate if you know what buttons to press. Now she just thinks I’ve taken a very different approach to covert missions.”

Kazuya smirked before he could control his face. He had a pretty good idea of how Ryou had tricked Wakana into doing his dirty work for him.

“Whoa, seriously?” Katsuko had put on the glamour charm, and if Kazuya hadn’t known she was still standing next to Nori, he would have suspected a stranger had joined their group. “Blonde?”

“Like I said, no one can even suspect that you’re Miyuki Katsuko, or Tigress,” Ryou said. “This approach does its job. But we don’t have much time. If you have goodbyes to say, say them now.”

Rather than focus on his best friend and his adopted sister kissing, Kazuya chose instead to look at Seto and Okumura.

“They’re gonna call me a traitor,” Seto said softly, gripping Okumura’s hands. “They’re gonna call me that, and worse, and you can’t defend me.” Okumura pouted, and Seto stepped closer. “I’m serious! The fewer people who know about this, the safer I am. You have to let them say what they want about me.”

“Okay.” Okumura didn’t look happy about it. Kazuya didn’t blame him.

“Hey.” Kazuya turned back to Katsuko. She really did look different blonde. Add in green eyes and pale skin, and no one would ever suspect who she really was. Not even her expressions immediately gave her away, and those would probably be hidden under a mask anyway. “You’ll take care of Toku-san, right?”

“Yeah. Should be easy.” Kazuya laughed humorlessly. “Last time he lost someone, he started dressing all in leather and shooting people with arrows. I’m sure he’ll take this well.”

“I’m sorry to dump it all on you,” Katsuko said. “You have the hardest part, you and Nori. I know pretending I’m dead is asking a lot.”

“All for the mission, right?” Kazuya was sure his sarcasm didn’t land. “Don’t actually die while you’re down there. I can’t keep Otousan together if you’re really dead.”

“What’s the worst that could happen?” Katsuko asked wryly.

“I wish you wouldn’t keep asking that,” Nori sighed. “Last time you meant it, you fell off a roof.”

“And I got better.” It wasn’t entirely reassuring, but it was also the best they had.

Kazuya, Ryou, Nori, and Okumura retreated to the roof to watch Seto and Katsuko enter a submarine and descend into the depths of the ocean.

“The hard part is over,” Ryou said. “They’re in.”

“Seriously?” Kazuya asked. “You know it only gets more dangerous from here.”

“We have to trust them,” Ryou said. “They’re on their own. Even I won’t be able to contact them much. It’s too risky. But they’re both quick on their feet, and they know what they got themselves into.”

“The real question is if they can get themselves back out of it,” Okumura muttered.

“I think the real question is how the team will ever forgive us for keeping such a big secret from them,” Kazuya countered with a pointed look at Ryou.

“This isn’t like last time,” Ryou said, voice a little sharp. “We’re not keeping it a secret because I don’t feel up for sharing. Every new person that knows puts them at risk. Everyone who knows, knows because they’re essential to making the ruse succeed. Anyone else would only make it even more dangerous.”

He was right. Kazuya knew he was right. He wouldn’t have agreed to this plan if he didn’t think it was right.

“I hope this pays off,” Nori said. “We have no clue how long they’ll be in deep cover, right?”

“Hopefully it won’t be that long,” Ryou said. “I’ve already told them both to pull out the second they think they’re in danger, and if they can find out who the Light’s new partner is, that’s probably more than enough for us. It won’t be more than a few more months.”

“Taku has already been there for a year,” Okumura said. “He’s taking the biggest risk.”

“I’m well aware,” Ryou said drily. “Scatter. Miyuki, Nori, this would be a great time to make yourselves scarce and play the grieving brother and boyfriend.”

Which meant Kazuya had nowhere else to go but back to his dad’s house. He hoped that maybe his dad was out, working through his pain or possibly telling it all to Black Canary, but he was out of luck.

His dad was waiting up for him.

“Is it true?” he asked. “I heard from the team, and from the Justice League, but…”

Kazuya didn’t trust himself to speak, so he just nodded. His dad stepped forward, wrapping him in a surprise hug. Kazuya couldn’t even react. He couldn’t remember the last time his dad had hugged him.

“Dammit,” his dad cursed. “I just...she was just…”

Kazuya hugged his dad back, feeling the guilt settle heavily on his shoulders. Forget getting the team to forgive him. Kazuya just wanted to know how he was ever going to look his father in the eye when this was all over.

[ginnyzero]

Booktober 2020 Week 4: Classic & Myth

Welcome back to booktober! Booktober is the month I talk about books; in particular I’m talking about horror and paranormal books. Okay, so Booktober isn’t a thing but we can make it a thing. Anyone is welcome to join me in booktober at any time. Just use the hashtag booktober and if you at me, ginnyzero, on social media I’ll reblog your post. 

This week it’s time to delve into the past, classic and historical horror and paranormal. Fun fact about Ginny, I was born on November 8th. Who else was born on November 8th? Bram Stoker, the writer of Dracula. This could partially explain my early obsession with vampires and my necrophobia; the fear and fascination with death.

Dracula, the story itself, is one of those stories that’s been so regurgitated by popular culture that the basics of the story are known by about everyone. The book itself is written in an expository way and so if you like that type of reading, then you’ll like the book. I like watching or reading different remakes of the idea rather than the book itself. Hellsing, Van Helsing, NBC’s 2013 Dracula, and so on and so forth.

My favorite classical horror story is from Edgar Allen Poe, and is ironically rather appropriate for these telling times as it is the Mask of the Red Death. And in the Mask of the Red Death, plague haunts the land killing everyone, so the nobles lock themselves away in a castle with a beautiful and fancy imperial suite and they determine to party the plague away. Until the man in the mask of the red death comes and they all fall down.

It’s a beautifully written and chilling story that I’ve enjoyed since high school. You can’t run away from pandemics and death.

Poe enjoyed drawing on real historical stories for his works, such as the black plague in the Mask of the Red Death. But he also drew upon one of the stories in Glamis Castle, considered one of the most haunted castles in Scotland. Glamis is popular enough to show up in a lot of horror books because of the different tales in it are so outrageous ranging from secret rooms a la the folktale Bluebeard, to the devil coming to play cards, and horrifically, a group of men or a family being bricked up inside the walls until they had to commit cannibalism.

Castle ghosts are some of absolute favorite real life paranormal phenomena because they come with such rich stories behind them. Most of the paranormal phenomena in castles are audial. Hearing voices, such as the Lord of Glamis and the Devil playing dice and laughing at Glamis. Or even hearing pipers, such as the doomed Piper of Duntrune Castle who played his pipes to warn his clan of the Campbell Clan’s treachery, and they cut off his hands and buried him under the flagstones of the courtyard. (And yes, they did find a skeleton without hands buried within the castle grounds of one castle with a piper ghost.) There is an entire phenomena called grey or green ladies, these are ghosts of women who protect castles and castle ruins. Many of them were young women who fell in love with the wrong man and committed suicide when their families wouldn’t let them marry them. Very common theme.

The United States doesn’t have many castles. Not ones with the history of Europe, we do have a lot of penitentiaries and insane asylums that are haunted by the inmates, residents, and employees that look like castles. And if you watch the Dead Files, there are places in the states the land is bad. There’s no other word for it, people should not be living on the land. I think the most detrimental thing Protestantism has done is convince people spiritual and paranormal phenomena aren’t real. Catholicism has a heavy focus on mysticism and the influence of the devil.

If you watch the Dead Files, there are so many interesting things going on with ‘normal’ homes in the states from homes being situated on pathways for the dead, to bad land, to malevolent earth spirits, to even portals to alien dimensions that can’t be closed. That one was freaky because the spiritual alien entity was scratching the side of the house. And the worst thing that can happen is when someone doesn’t believe in it. 9 times out of 10 it makes things worse.

The one phenomena I’ve had some personal experience with is one of our naval ships, called the USS The Sullivans. Now, the USS The Sullivans is named after 5 Sullivan brothers who died at sea during World War Two after their ship was sank by a Japanese submarine. The Sullivan brothers became the reason for the important policy of not putting family on the same ship. They built a Fletcher Class destroyer, a small destroyer, in their honor and it was sponsored by their mother. The ship served in World War 2 and the Korean War and ended as a training ship in the 6th fleet before being designated as a museum ship and eventually stationed in Buffalo.

Sometime after being commissioned and being docked at the Naval Museum, the spirits of the Sullivan Brothers found their way to the ship named after them. Employees have reported lights turning on and off, they’ve seen the brothers, they have come upon locked doors that should be unlocked and vice versa. I think they’ve also heard voices and footsteps when it was supposed to be empty at the end of the day. Pretty typical stuff for a haunted ship and haunted places in general.

I have been to the naval museum. And I got through the tiny submarine the Croaker, and walked through the larger destroyer the USS Little Rock and everything was fine, lovely day, until I got to the ramp of the Sullivans. I didn’t know the ship was haunted at the time. They don’t warn you about this. As soon as I got to the ramp, something felt off. You could not pay me to go on that ship. No way. Absolutely not. I decided having seen the Little Rock and being reassured by my dad, the Sullivans was more of the same, I would not risk my skin and go on board the Sullivans. I stand by this decision.

I love my dad, but I’m not sure how spiritually sensitive he is to these type of phenomena.

Now, I have been on board the Aircraft carrier in New York City and felt a little weirded out on the electronic section because of the heat and static in the air but never since have I felt that sense of dread I did at the end of the ramp of the Sullivans.

Horror has been going on from the very beginning of storytelling and it’s older than dirt at this point with tales such as Beowulf and stories sanitized by the Grimm Brothers as they translated them from oral tradition for the Victorians. My personal favorite which how horrifying it is depends on your point of view and interpretation of the story is Hades and Persephone.

Now, the basic gist of the myth is grim Hades wants a wife and he decides on his niece Persephone asking Zeus, her father, for her hand. Zeus goes to Demeter. Demeter says absolutely not. Zeus goes back to Hades and is like “well, bro, her mom says no, but um, you’ve got my blessing to carry her off in traditional Greek style and marry her.” This was completely legit in Greek culture as long as dad’s permission was granted. (Great time to be a woman, not.)

Hades does so and well, we all know what happens is Demeter gets angry and causes a famine. Zeus panics and goes “hey, bro, we need Persephone back, my wife is going to kill all of us.” Since, you know most of Olympus’ problems are created by Zeus. And Hades is like “Fine, she can come back, as long as she hasn’t ate anything.” And Persephone, had ate 3 to 6 pomegranate seeds and they ended up compromising where Persephone lived with Hades part time as his cold queen, and the rest of her time with her mother, as the personification of spring.

So, the horror comes in on if Persephone was actually involved in this or not. Did she know anything? Was this a surprise? Was she looking to escape her overbearing mother? Did she love Hades? Was she in on the plan and ate the pomegranate seeds on purpose? Were they actually pomegranate seeds? Your interpretation may vary, so the horror could be having to go back to the overbearing mother or her being taken away without her consent to the grim Underworld.

It all seemed to work out in the end. There seems to be only one myth Hades cheated on Persephone and she turned that woman in to mint. (Don’t mess with Persephone.) But otherwise, Hades was faithful to Persephone and they had a lot of children included the personification of nightmares.

Obviously, my favorite folklore creature is the werewolf. Now, I’m talking about the werewolf in the context of folklore only. I’m not talking about the werewolf as presented by Universal Studios or any of the movies after 1935. The folklore werewolf was not considered evil or associated with the devil until the later Witch Hunts of the late 1500s to the 1700s. Before this, the werewolf was considered mostly benign and quite possibly someone who had been cursed by the church itself for punishment of perceived misdeeds.

The culture of the middle ages didn’t view being able to turn into an animal as bad or even evil. In fact, the church itself, most likely relying on the story of Nebuchadnezzar in the Old Testament, was thought to be able to curse people into take the shapes of wolves. The fear of curses and poxes had real power back then. It wasn’t shameful to be a werewolf, it was shameful to act like an animal without thought or reason.

Conclusion: You could be an animal, as long as you spoke with reason and didn’t attack people indiscriminately. Go ahead, be wild. Just don’t act like you aren’t civilized.

The Werewolves of Ossory in Ireland meld most of the ideas of middle age werewolves into several stories. They were warriors who would take on animalistic traits while fighting similar to Norse berserkers, or were able to transform into actual wolves using a wolf pelt much like a selkie or a swan maiden have pelts and capes, or they projected their souls from the bodies to be wolves. They were looking to make up for past misdeeds. Some stories say they were forced to change every seven years. Cursing men into wolves is a common trick of St. Patrick apparently. Or if you angered your wife by cheating on her for instance, she could curse into being a werewolf.

There were other ways to be turned into a werewolf. Some people were considered born as werewolves. You could drink water from the paw print of a wolf. Or as an adult, pass under a birch arch entwined with a wild rose briar three times. Or even by sleeping out under the full moon for three nights. The Yule werewolves, would like to come out during the holiday of yule and party drinking and dancing.

There were “cures” for werewolfism, mostly the use of wolfsbane or even exorcism and some torture because the Spanish Inquisition. But most werewolves lived peaceably with their neighbors and outside of what you might consider the “uglification” of the ‘savage’ before being converted to Christianity, no one noticed until they went on a wolf hunt and hurt the wolf or hurt the body of a soul traveling wolf and it was converted into an injury on the human.

Like Middle Ages witchcraft, unless it involved heresy, werewolfism was ignored and in some places such as Norway, female werewolves were even venerated. There were even laws instituted about to protect them unless it involved blasphemy and heresy.

Folklore and legends are extremely interesting because the way they changed over time and even by location and the way they were written about in Christian sources of the time, which outside of some written down oral tradition and actual laws are the only way we know about these creatures.

Next week is personal week! Time to talk about personal paranormal and horror things related to my writing and what I’d like to see in the future and just go wild. If anyone wants to join me in promoting themselves this last week of October, here is a handy dandy image!

[ezatluba]

The tags are loaded with detectors that record the sounds of the orcas: their breathes, clicks, buzzes and calls. They can track the direction and speed of their movement in the dark to see how they dive, roll and sprint. They even film their social interactions as they swim, play and hunt, share food and touch.

Southern residents struggle

The northern and southern resident orcas are the same animal. But they differ in their primary foraging range. And that, it seems, has made a crucial difference. The northern residents live in cleaner, quieter water with access to a greater variety of fish. They are far more abundant than the southern residents, with 310 northern residents counted in 2019. The northerns also have been steadily increasing for decades, while the southern residents are battling extinction.

There are only 73 southern residents left, counting the newest baby, born to Tahlequah, or J35, on Sept. 4. That birth in particular was a ray of hope for a mother whale who raised worldwide concern when her last calf died after living only one half-hour in the summer of 2018. She refused to let the calf go, traveling for 17 days and more than 1,000 miles with the dead calf.

The new calf is healthy so far, and is the third born to the southern residents since 2019. The scientific consensus, however, is that the southern residents remain at acute risk of extinction due to at least three main threats: pollution, vessel noise and disturbance, and lack of readily available quality food.

That last bit is what Trites and the team want to test. They seek to learn if there are differences in the feeding efficiency of the two populations.

“Hostile Waters” exposes the plight of Puget Sound’s southern resident killer whales, among our region’s most enduring symbols and most endangered animals. The Seattle Times examines the role humans have played in their decline, what can be done about it and why it matters.

“We may find what people suspect, or we may find there is no difference (between the two populations), or that the southern residents have an easier time, which would be a real surprise,” Trites said. “But the point is to find out, by gathering data and not just assume that food, and in particular food at this time of year in this region, is the problem.”

The stakes are high, with extinction stalking the southern residents. “It would be tragic if we let them go extinct because we were blinded by our convictions, and were not looking for the problem in the right spot,” he said.

New research method: “Orca-cam”

Even these experienced killer whale observers have been astounded at the underwater world that has unfolded as the whales carry a camera on their skin for hours or even days. The tag is designed to pop off and float to the surface, where scientists retrieve it.

The team is posting their daily activity on Facebook, and has already shared remarkable videos and photos for the public to enjoy. They’ve dubbed the tag the “orca-cam.”

It’s tricky work. Finding the orcas is the first problem. Getting a tag on a wild orca is the next one. It takes strength and dexterity to extend a 25-foot-long carbon-fiber pole from a bouncing skiff to tap the 2-pound tag onto a swimming killer whale, aiming for the area right below the dorsal fin. So far the team has been able to tag two southern residents, L87 and L88, and nine northern residents.

Recording the whales on the high seas with a flying camera isn’t easy either — especially when it is time to catch the whizzing drone from the deck of a bouncing boat.

The tags allow researchers to come along for the kill, as orcas prowl the deep. “It is really quite exciting, they are in the deep, dark water, it sounds like a submarine, ping, ping, ping,” Trites said, describing the orcas’ echolocation clicks. “Faster and faster, it turns into a buzz and you know the kill moment is coming.” Then comes a satisfying crunch.

“It is quite thrilling, you feel like you are part of the hunt.”

The orcas are unrelenting predators.

“They are extremely efficient, they are eating on the run,” Trites said. “They don’t miss a beat. They catch a fish, rip it up, someone else gets a chunk, and they are moving all the time.”

Watching the orcas in action has dispelled any notion for the researchers that these are fragile animals.

“You see how tough these animals are, they are built to survive,” Trites said. “They are covered in battle scars, I feel like I am seeing them in a way I have never understood. They have been traveling together for decade after decade, it reframes a new impression of their lives, instead of just seeing them from the surface, from a boat.”

Scientists only have first impressions now from what they have seen while at sea. It will take analysis of the data they have gathered to begin to put the story together.

Another piece of the research involves tracking salmon along with the whales. The vessel is outfitted with sophisticated fish finders that depict the bottom to a depth of more than 1,600 feet, and show where the fish are, and even the species.

One surprise may turn out to be that even in summer the orcas are taking bottom-feeding halibut in their hunts. That would explain why the team saw an orca with its dorsal laid down on the sea floor where halibut are regularly caught by fishermen. Was it flushing and chasing the fish?

Also in the mix is tagging data gathered this summer by another team, which is catching chinook at Port Renfrew and releasing the salmon to determine where they go.

The Gikumi team has a new respect for the orcas built from basically trying to be a killer whale, following the pods and salmon constantly on the move. Southern residents in particular travel huge distances, researchers learned. Swimming more than 150 miles over the span of two days is nothing for them.

“They don’t park in one spot. They are constantly intercepting fish in different locations; it appears to be a much better strategy to run a trap line than to wait for the fish to come,” Trites said.

Yet even while on the move, the orcas are constantly touching: bumping into one another, sliding alongside one another, and the little ones snugging up to their mother’s flipper for a belly rub. It’s how they stay in touch in a vast ocean, and constantly renew their bonds.

The team got their first glimpses of the whales’ continual touching and play with drone footage last year; it took their breath away.

Imperiled pods in hostile waters

The team’s work coincided with massive fires all over the West Coast, and the smoke sometimes was so thick on the water, the researchers could only track the orcas by listening for their breath. They never did see Tahlequah and her calf.

They were saddened by the pall of smoke, and wondered how it affected the whales. They were also concerned by the amount of boat traffic in busy shipping lanes in the southern residents’ core habitat on the west side of San Juan Island, in addition to private recreation boats.

One day they counted at least 100 fishing boats off San Juan Island, more than one for every southern resident orca. They also, early in their cruise, were shocked to see a northern resident with a flasher used to catch salmon dangling from the gear embedded in its mouth.

As their vessel followed the whales off the coast of the city of Vancouver, B.C., the team also grappled with the realization of all that the southern residents deal with.

“What struck us was how much the world has changed for them, we almost felt suffocated, quite oppressed, when we came into the city again,” Trites said. “We felt shocked to know the southern residents come so close to Vancouver. People think this is a problem somewhere else. No. This is right off the beach, that is part of their range and an important feeding area for them. People have not appreciated that before.”

Trites hopes that what the team has seen and heard this summer will help not only answer scientific questions, but also show the public a little more of the remarkable lives of Orcinus orca, the top predator in every ocean of the world.

“They are supreme athletes, they have this incredible ability to survive, track down fish, surface, breach, leap, spy hop, stay in touch with each other constantly,” Trites said. “It is really remarkable to have this chance to follow them, although we do a lousy job of keeping up, I must say.”

He was struck by the similarities of orca and human society, in the strong family bonds he witnessed, at how no orca would ever let another in the family go without food. And struck, also, when observing the southern residents, that this is an animal far too tough to count out.

“They are battle hardened, and battle ready. And they have a will to survive. They are not going down without a fight,” he said.

“It is up to us to do our part to ensure we don’t get in the way.”

[rontufox]

I completed this way too long of meme thing

1: My name? Brian! 2: Do I have any nicknames? Rontu!

3: Zodiac sign? Sagittarius!! 4: Video game I play to chill, not to win? Breath of the Wild.... if I owned it 5: Book/series I reread? Island of the Blue Dolphins lol 6: Aliens or ghosts? neither, ugh 7: Writer I trust enough to read whatever they write? Furudate 8: Favourite radio station? I haven’t listened to the radio in like... 3 years 9: Favourite flavour of anything? how the heck am I supposed to answer this? 10: The word that I use all the time to describe something great? SO COOL 11: Favourite song? Aru Machi no Gunjou by Asian Kung-Fu Generation 12: The question you ask new friends to get to know them better? I don’t make friends 13: Favourite word? bro

14: The last person who hurt me, did I forgive them? yeah 15: Last song I listened to? T.O.P. (the second ending song in Sonic X.... lol) 16: TV show I always recommend? HAIKYUU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 17: Pirates or ninjas? *groans* 18: Movie I watch when I'm feeling down? hm.... I only watch movies when I’m happy 19: Song that I always start my shuffle with/wake-up song/always-on-a-loop song? just...... tons of cheerful chiptune by Malmen 20: Favourite video games? platformers 21: What am I most afraid of? yes I’ll totally tell you 22: A good quality of mine? strong, optimistic 23: A bad quality of mine? distrustful lol 24: Cats or dogs? both 25: Actor/actress you trust enough to watch whatever they're in? NONE 26: Favourite season? WINTER!!!!!!!!!! 27: Am I in a relationship? I give and get so much love ✌🏼✌🏼✌🏼 28: Something I miss? Angel’s Landing, I really wanna hike it 29: My best friend? my bro 30: Eye colour? BROWN!! 31: Hair colour? brown 32: Someone I love? my bro 33: Someone I trust? my bro 34: Someone I always think about? MIGHTY THE ARMADILLO 35: Am I excited about anything? my wonderful life 36: My current obsession? my Sonic fic 37: Favourite TV shows as a child? Power Rangers, Sonic SatAM, Rocko’s Modern Life, Powerpuff Girls, DBZ were my most fav 38: Do I have someone of the opposite sex that I can tell everything to? I have no idea what that is 39: Am I superstitious? no. 40: What do I think about most? how lucky I am 41: Do I have any strange phobias? fans.  I thought it was just ceiling fans, but at some stupid camping retreat I was forced to go to, there was a rotating fan whose sound kept making me feel like I was gonna die??  I was terrified man idek 42: Do I prefer to be in front of the camera or behind it? both are cool 43: Favourite hobbies? drawing and writing 44: Last book I read? Island of the Blue Dolphins 45: Last film I watched? Interstellar 46: Do I play any instruments? nope 47: Favourite animal? FOX 48: Top 5 blog on Tumblr that I follow? I don’t like doing ones like this 49: Superpower I wish I could have? cliche but I wanna fly 50: How do I destress? listening to music, writing, and hanging with my bro 51: Do I like confrontation? no. 52: When do I feel most at peace? when I’m alone 53: What makes me smile? Mighty............ 54: Do I sleep with the lights on or off? off 55: Play any sports? I love soccer 56: What is my song of the week? gosh I don’t know 57: Favourite drink? almond milk tea now 58: When did I last send a handwritten letter to somebody? oh shoot... uh... like a year ago? 59: Afraid of heights? NO.  I love them 60: Pet peeve? you know what.  I hate when people are like “knock on wood” or like “you jinxed it by saying something!”  my gosh, shut up, can anyone ever say anything without people doing that?? 61: What was the last concert I went to see? my gosh this is boring 62: Am I vegetarian/vegan/pescatarian? no 63: What occupation did I want to do when I was younger? I wanted to work with animals 64: Have I ever had a friend turn enemy? yeah you wouldn’t believe the horrible stuff 2 people did to me in highschool/college 65: What fictional universe would I like to be a part of? idk 66: Something I worry about? I used to always worry I’d leave the house without a shirt on without realizing it.  I haven’t worried about that since my surgery LOL 67: Scared of the dark? no 68: Who are my best friends? mind your gosh dang business, but, you already asked this 69: What do I admire most about others? kindness 70: Can I sing? no but it’s fun 71: Something I wish I could do? hmmmm.... fly still lol 72: If I won the lottery, what would I do? idk it’s so boring to think about cuz it’d never happen 73: Have I ever skipped school? I guess?  by faking being sick 74: Favourite place on the planet? myself 75: Where do I want to live? Colorado 76: Do I have any pets? a cat named Sarai 77: What is my current desktop picture? a flowery place with pine trees and snowy mountains in the distance 78: Early bird or night owl? early 79: Sunsets or sunrise? gosh these are in EVERY meme thing 80: Can I drive? yup and I love to sing when I drive 81: Story behind my last kiss? I kissed me cat on the head 82: Earphones or headphones? earphones I guess 83: Have I ever had braces? gosh yes 84: Story behind one of my scars? my top surgery scar is where I got top surgery 85: Favourite genre of music? idk I love chiptune and r&b 86: Who is my hero? NISHINOYA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HERO HERO 87: Favourite comic book character? I kinda hate comic books 88: What makes me really angry? when characters be mean to Mighty 89: Kindle or real book? I.D.C.

90: Favourite sporty activity? hiking 91: What is one thing that isn’t tight in schools that should be? you think there should be MORE rules?

92: What was my favourite subject at school? science 93: Siblings? got a little sister 94: What was the last thing I bought? dinner for me and my sister 95: How tall am I? 5′1 !!!!!!!!!!!!!! 96: Can I cook? NO.  I AM INEPT 97: Can I bake? have never tried 98: 3 things I love? I love my life I love my friends I love myself 99: 3 things I hate? idk cilantro, loud sounds, uh people who waste my time 100: Do I have more girl friends or boy friends? I don’t know what those are 101: Who do I get on with better, girls or boys? ugh 102: Where was I born? NOSEY 103: Sexual orientation? ACE✧ 104: Where do I currently live? ...........get away from me 105: Last person I texted? my cousin 106: Last time I cried? a few days ago I guess 107: Guilty pleasure? making fun of stuff I hate with my bro 108: Favourite Youtuber? I really like Diabetus from Retsuprae 109: A photo of myself. *lazy* 110: Do I like selfies? tons, people prolly hate it 111: Favourite game app? I guess snapchat doesn’t count but I don’t have any game apps 112: My relationship with my parents? blunt 113: Favourite accents? idk 114: A place I have not been but wish to visit? idk 115: Favourite number? FIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 116: Can I juggle? pff, no 117: Am I religious? no 118: Do I like space? yeah~ 119: Do I like the deep ocean? it’s okay I guess 120: Am I much of a daredevil? I used to be 121: Am I allergic to anything? my skin’s kinda allergic to water? 122: Can I curl my tongue? yeah 123: Can I wiggle my ears? sometimes 124: Do I like clowns? gosh I DONT” CARE 125: The Beatles or Elvis? anyway 126: My current project? my Sonic fic 127: Am I a bad loser? I’m not competitive so 128: Do I admit when I wrong? yeah I try to be proactive 129: Forest or beach? FOREST 130: Favourite piece of advice? "If....for SOME reason, someone thinks you're lame, they're wrong.” 131: Am I a good liar? LOL NO 132: Hogwarts house / Divergent faction / Hunger Games district? BORING 133: Do I talk to myself? I sing to myself 134: Am I very social? LOL NO 135: Do I like gossip? no it’s usually stupid 136: Do I keep a journal/diary? no 137: Have I ever hopelessly failed a test? I don’t think so 138: Do I believe in second chances? lolllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll no 139: If I found a wallet full of cash on the ground, what would I do? I’d give it to whoever’s in charge or whatever 140: Do I believe people are capable of change? it’s rare 141: Have I ever been underweight? always 142: Am I ticklish? my gosh this question makes me wanna slap it 143: Have I ever been in a submarine? no 144: Have I ever been on a plane? way too many times 145: In a film about my life, who would I cast as myself, friends and family? this would never happen, no one could be as short and handsome as me 146: Have I ever been overweight? no 147: Do I have any piercings? no 148: Which fictional character do I wish was real? I don’t 149: Do I have any tattoos? no 150: What is the best decision I have made in life so far? just keep trying to improve man 151: Do I believe in Karma? no 152: Do I wear glasses or contacts? I wear reading/computer glasses 153: What was my first car? why would I remember that boring piece of information 154: Do I want children? no 155: Who is the most intelligent person I know? ME 156: My most embarrassing memory? idk sorry I’m too lazy to think 157: What makes me nostalgic? Sonic 158: Have I ever pulled an all-nighter? yes it was horrible 159: Which do I value more in others, brains or beauty? those aren’t what I value 160: What colour mostly dominates my wardrobe? gray? 161: Have I ever had a paranormal experience? no 162: What do I hate most about myself? how I can’t hear or talk very well 163: What do I love most about myself? how I’m ace and loving and optimistic 164: Do I like adventure? yeah!

165: Do I believe in fate? my GOSH.  NO 166: Favourite animal? you........... already asked this......... 167: Have I ever been on radio? no 168: Have I ever been on TV? yeah 169: How old am I? 29! 170: One of my favourite quotes? idk does it look like I can be bothered to do that right now 171: Do I hold grudges? yes 172: Do I trust easily? LOL 173: Have I learnt from my mistakes? yup 174: Best gift I’ve ever received? reciprocation 175: Do I dream? y-yeah? 176: Have I ever had a night terror? I’m not really sure what that is 177: Do I remember my dreams, and what is one that comes to mind? sometimes, once I had a dream that I flew up into the clouds, they were pink, and on the other side collected on top of a cloud was a big wide, crystal clear lake 178: An experience that has made me stronger? honestly just all the younger people in my life and seeing how I can help 179: If I were immortal, what would I do? not die 180: Do I like shopping? it’s fun if you’re with someone 181: If I could get away with a crime, what would I choose to do? get a particular person killed 182: What does “family” mean to me? friends who love 183: What is my spirit animal? shut up 184: How do I want to be remembered? idk....... I hope people tell me what they think of me while I’m still alive 185: If I could master one skill, what would I choose? identifying rocks 186: What is my greatest failure? trying to become an art teacher I guess lol 187: What is my greatest achievement? me~ 188: Love or money? would you stop 189: Love or career? anyway 190: If I could time travel, where and when would I want to go? idk........ that’s too big a question 191: What makes me the happiest? me 192: What is “home” to me? *shrug* 193: What motivates me? ME 194: If I could choose my last words, what would they be? this is really dramatic 195: Would I ever want to encounter aliens? no. 196: A movie that scared me as a child? Jurassic Park when the t-rex had the kids pinned under the car 197: Something I hated as a child that I like now? onions?  I have no idea 198: Zombies or vampires? I hate both 199: Live in the city or suburbs? IDK 200: Dragons or wizards? I hate stuff like this 201: A nightmare that has stayed with me? gosh when I was a kid I’d always have this nightmare that was mostly a smell...... and a weird feeling/pain... my gosh 202: How do I define love? it’s wonderful and kind 203: Do I judge a book by its cover? idek if you’re talking literally or figuratively either way BORING 204: Have I ever had my heart broken? yeah 205: Do I like my handwriting? yup 206: Sweet or savoury? savory 207: Worst job I’ve had? the one I had before we got a new CEO where basically I did everyone’s jobs 208: Do I collect anything? not really 209: Item of clothing or jewellery you’ll never see me without? underwear I guess 210: What is on my bucket list? fjdksl 211: How do I handle anger? I leave til I’ve calmed down 212: Was I named after anyone? no 213: Do I use sarcasm a lot? not that much 214: What TV character am I most like? idk 215: What is the weirdest talent I have? I can burp very loud and long on command 216: Favourite fictional character? MIGHTY THE ARMADILLO

[directorscutandsomeotherstuff]

Lord of the Flies: The Unknown Chapter??

(Welcome to Director’s Cut, the segment where we check our page after a while, find a bunch of new followers, and then learn, to our chagrin, that they’re all porn advertisement blogs. Good times. Let’s talk classic literature, shall we?)

(”Lord of the Flies” is not my favorite classic book, but luckily for me, nobody ever writes fanfiction for “The Man Who Was Thursday.” That sucker is sacrosanct, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. That being said, Lord of the Flies was an okay book. It’s a prime example of something your teacher would want to have you read in English class, since it does a bunch of boring, important stuff like teach you lessons about mankind’s indelible cruelty to man and the dangers of tribalism in trying circumstances. It’s really good, and as someone who read it *without* a teacher breathing down his neck, I can say that with complete confidence.)

(Which of course brings us nicely to the subject of our next little adventure, Neko-chan. Neko-chan apparently read this book in high school, and after carefully digesting all of its horrors and insights, decided that it could be vastly improved with every ounce of symbolism and nuance stripped out of it. Good stuff. Good stuff. But hey, at least he didn’t write a scene in which the red-headed choir boy almost kisses Piggy on the mouth. You gotta appreciate the little things.)

Hello, everyone! This is my first time writing a fic about Lord of the Flies. I had to read the story for English Honors, and I was really frustrated at how the story ended! (You mean, the ending in which the trappings of civilization is dangled over the head of boys who had committed atrocities, in the form of a polished Navy commander, as a cruel reminder of what they were before they descended into barbarism and madness? You’re right. That ending was just so lame.) So...I decided to write my OWN ending! Hope ya like it, though people tell me it's disturbing...O.O...I went really in-depth into human nature, and I wanted to show people how they really are. (Look, this is Tumblr, so I feel like it’s easy to be mistaken for hostility when I say this, but honestly, there’s something adorable about a high school student about to teach *me* about human nature. It’s like watching a baby trying to walk in their dad’s shoes, but with only marginally better syntax and grammar.) How they react to problems and what happens afterward. I also wanted to show how important revenge is to many people. So, I hope ya like it! Read and review, PUH-LEEZ!!!

Disclaimer: I don't own Lord of the Flies, and I only wrote this fic so that way I can have some closure on the book.

Chapter 13

Finally, when Ralph and the boys stopped crying, the British officer turned back to them and gave them a wise, but still naive, look. (It was also smart, and at the same time dumb. Perceptive, yet also careless. It was a complex look.) He tipped his hat at them, and his eyes crinkled at the corners as he lifted his lips into a genuine smile. For all of his experience of warfare, for all of his worldliness, he still couldn't understand why the children had done the things they did. (The man had survived the Normandy Landings, but somehow violence was a completely foreign concept to him. Lieutenant Ross was actually the world’s dumbest sailor.)

Turning away from his dark thoughts, the officer looked the children up and down, particularly Ralph, and said, "Come with me, and we'll take you aboard my ship. There, you can get fresh clothes and clean up. Once you've rested, you can tell me all about your little 'war game.' (”I’m especially interested in the whole ‘setting fire to the island and trying to kill each other’ game you seem to have going on. Looks like a jolly good time, what?”) Then, once we've reached Britain, we'll find your mums and das, and all of you young un's will be reunited with your families."

The smaller ones, the youngest of Jack and Roger's tribe, gave a joyful shout, and they ran towards the British officer. The older ones, Ralph included, stayed further back, distancing themselves from the Naval officers. The British officer gestured for them to come closer; and little by little, the older boys walked closer to the sea shore, away from the cover of the trees. (No older boy could resist the gesture of a British Naval Officer. Little known fact; the Spanish Armada was defeated not by superior tactics or firepower, but by clever use of gestures.)

All except for Ralph. He stayed where he was, and when the officer told him to come into the boat, to go to the larger Navy war ship, he replied, "I'll be there in a minute. Let me just get something first."

The officer tipped his hat again, and replied, "You may go, but be quick about it. My crew and I will take the others to the ship, and we'll return for you. Be back here in thirty minutes. (”I’m sure you’ll be just fine, on your own, on an island that’s actively on fire. Just remember to keep a stiff upper lip, and all that rubbish.”)"

Ralph nodded his agreement, and quickly ran back into the dense undergrowth of the forest; which, in some areas on the island, was alight with fire. Ralph ran and ran, his breath coming in hard pants. He tripped over a thick vine, and he skinned his knee. But he just picked himself up again and continued to run. Finally, after several minutes of running, Ralph came to the place where the pig's skull had stood. That is, until he had broken it into two pieces and had taken the sharpened stick which it had rested on.

After a few moments of searching, Ralph finally found what he was looking for. One of the two pieces of the pig's skull. Ralph picked it up and brushed the sand from the snow-white surface. The bone had been bleached by the sun, and the wind carrying small particles of sand had smoothed out any rough areas which had been there before. He caressed the smooth white bone, and a cruel smile flitted across his face. (The Ralph got an idea. An *awful* idea. The Ralph got a wonderful... *awful* idea!) He looked up from the skull, and the look in his eyes was wild, untamable. Insane. One could say . . . .savage. (Neko-chan stopped writing at this point, to shake a fist up at the sky. “You hear that, William Golding?” she cried. “That’s how you write human nature. None of this symbolism, breaking-a-pig-skull-in-half bullcrap, just *tell* the audience that people are going savage. Maybe if you did *that,* your stuff’d be read by more than just kids in high school, you boring old dead guy!”)

Realizing that his time was almost up, Ralph quickly hid the half of the skull into the sack the officer had given him before he had left. Then he ran back to the meeting place as fast as his legs could carry him. And he made it--barely. (There, he found Lieutenant Ross, nervously explaining to his CO that it was perfectly all right to let Ralph run off on his own into a wildfire. After all, he gave Ralph a sack. That makes it okay.)

~ * * * ~ 

Once the group of boys were cleaner, the Naval officers began to interrogate them. And they were shocked at what had transpired on the island when there had been no adults to look after the group of boys. The awful way in which Simon had died, his body washed away so that there could never be a funeral. And the horrid way in which Piggy had died, his brains dashed upon the rocks, trying to keep order, even while the 'hunting tribe' had started to shove at the rock. (And that thing with the paratrooper, and all the other things that happened that you just spent twelve chapters reading about, that we’re going to repeat without any of the emotional impact or presentation...) The smaller ones started to cry as they told their story. It was slowly beginning to dawn on them how cruel some of the things they did were. But through it all, Jack, Ralph, and Roger didn't cry. Their eyes remained clear, and no sign of wetness showed. (Eyes had a tendency to turn transparent and bone dry as a common symptom of PTSD. Trust me, I’m an expert on human nature.) But all three of them had edged away from the light, hiding in the shadows, not allowing the British officers to see what they were feeling.

Until Jack finally stepped forward and said, "This . . . . .all of this was my fault. It was my fault that Piggy and Simon died. My fault. All my fault."

And then Roger stepped forward. "It was my fault, too. I was one of the leaders. I'm to blame as much as Jack. All the things that happened . . . . .everything is my fault too."

And finally, finally, the British officers could see what Roger and Jack felt as they came into the light. Remorse at what they had done. Horror, certainly. And regret. So much regret. (So much characterization, completely undone. Regret. Regret and horror.)

But Ralph, he stayed in the shadows, still refusing to come into the light provided by the kerosene lamps. His innocence had been stolen from him, and he was no longer naive to human nature, as many of the Naval officers still were. (Officers like Lieutenant Ross, who at that very moment was actually suggesting that that Stalin fellow “seemed like a nice chap.”) And so he hid in the shadows; one with the darkness. 

* * *

After several weeks at sea, the medium-sized British Navy ship came to the boys's original home: England. (Damn. I was hoping the medium-sized British Navy ship was going to take them home to Redwall. I wanted to see these boys hunting animals that could fight back with fucking swords! That would have been awesome!) Most of the boys were on deck, watching as London harbor came closer and closer. They 'oohed' and 'aahed' over all the different types of ships, all of them Allies to Britain. (Except, of course, for all the ships that were just British industrial vessels. You know, the ones hauling steel and stuff. Well, they were little boys, so they probably thought those were cool, too.) They even saw one or two American submarines, which they had never seen before.

But all of the boys, except for Ralph, knew that their happiness would be short-lived. The Naval officers had told them that they would be sent to Bedlam, the famous English insane asylum, at least for several years. (Lieutenant Ross assured them that was totally standard procedure, when he wasn’t being forced to swab the deck and prepare for his court-martial for severe incompetence.) Jack, Roger, and the small tribe of hunters knew this, and accepted this. For, as they had spent more and more time on the ship, surrounded by civilized people, their savageness had seemed to melt away, returning them to the boys they were before their Academy plane had ever went down. And it was then that they realized the true extent of their actions on the island. How savage they had been, the deaths and suffering they had caused.

Everything. And so, they accepted their fate without one word of protest. (You know, like people who suffered trauma totally always do all the time without exception. Can you say any different? Are *you* an expert on human nature, like I am?)

Ralph watched England come closer and closer from his vantage point in the doorway.

He watched the boys he had once considered friends, and thought. Ralph's thoughts were as dark as the murky water beneath the powerful war ship, and equally dangerous. (Harbor water is notoriously dangerous; Ralph’s thoughts were as deadly as a resting horseshoe crab on the bottom of the shallow end.) For, even as he stood in the light, his eyes were still shadowed. (Ralph’s anguish had finally given birth to the Sharingan. He would avenge his entire clan, one day.)

Four Years Later . . . . . .

Ralph smiled at the receptionist, his grin happy and carefree. She smiled back, totally charmed at the mask he showed her. "Sure, Ralph, go on in. You haven't been coming here for a couple weeks now, and the group misses you. Oh, and since they've been behaving lately, you can take them outside for a bit. But remember," she warned as she waggled a finger at him, "don't let them get too close to the forest. They might decide to get away, and they haven't finished their time here. The boys still have to stay here for one more year."

(Darcy made it a point to give every visitor to Bedlam a detailed history of their visiting habits and relationship to the other patients. It caused no end of annoyance, but the doctors kept her around anyway because she was a total hottie.)

Ralph gave the woman another bright, cheerful, false smile and reassured her: "Don't worry, Darcy. I won't let any of my friends to get close to the forest edge. I've watched after them before, and nothing has happened." 

Darcy smiled again, and waved him deeper into the insane asylum.

Ralph walked deeper and deeper into the building, (as opposed to walking into the building and somehow coming out the way he came, proving once and for all that Bedlam did, indeed, conform to basic Euclidean geometry,) until he came to a set of rooms that he knew very well. The rooms where his 'friends' had lived for the past four years, ever since they had come back from the small island.

He walked through the doors, and they smiled up at him. Jack, Roger, Sam, Eric, they were all there. Except for Piggy and Simon, Ralph thought, and his smile dimmed a little. (He supposed they decided not to keep Piggy and Simon’s corpses just lying around, anymore. Granted, it probably didn’t do the recovery effort any wonders, but even so...) Looking at the group, he said, "Hey, guys, guess what? Darcy said that we can go outside today; but we have to make sure not to get too close to the forest."

Their grins broadened, and they jumped up. It had been too long since they had last been allowed outside, and they were sick of being cooped up. Then the group, with Ralph in the lead, walked deeper into the building, until they reached a door leading to outside.

(They passed by Orderly Ross, who had to find a new job after being dishonorably discharged from the Navy. He waved to them as they left, saying to himself “Well, there goes a bunch of recovering trauma patients who were complicit in several murders, but they’re walking with that kid I gave a sack, once, so I’m sure they’re all going to be fine.” He then went back to scrubbing out bedpans.)

Once they were far enough away from the building, Ralph called the group over to him, saying that he had something to show them. The small group crowded around him, anxious to see what Ralph had.

He reached into the sack that he had been carrying and brought out an object wrapped in soft blue cotton. Painstakingly, he unwrapped it. And brought out the half of the pig's skull that he had taken from the island so long ago.

Once he had unwrapped it, he threw it down at the group's feet. They looked at it, then up at Ralph. And they were terrified at the look they saw in his eyes. Insane. Savage. Cruel. (His transparent, dry eyes only enhanced the effect.)

Then . . . . .the group ran from him, as fast as they could; deeper and deeper into the woods, desperate to get away from him.

Ralph smiled, a cruel, excited smile, and he reached into his sack again. He brought out a container of colored clay and marked his face with it. Then he reached into the sack one more time. But this time, he drew out a hunting knife, identical to the one that Jack had shown him when they-the small group of Academy boys--had first arrived at the island. (He reached into his sack again, and produced a whetstone to sharpen the knife. He reached into his sack again, bringing out a tin of cheese and crackers. “Can’t hunt murderers on an empty stomach.” He reached into his sack again...)

"Time to go hunting," Ralph whispered as a savage smile flitted across his face. And then he began to stalk his prey, hunting the boys as they had hunted him. 

My paragraph:

I know that my Chapter 13 for Lord of the Flies may seem disturbing to most people, but I wanted to go further in depth into the topics that the author brought up. The main one being human nature. Jack and the hunting tribe were able to go back to the way they were (The way they were, of course, being inmates in an insane asylum.) because they were not totally affected by their change. They did things, but they didn't have things done to them. (And as we all know, trauma only ever happens when somebody does something to you, personally.) Ralph was affected mainly because he had something done to him; he was hunted by Jack's tribe. (Nothing else qualified as being traumatic. The plane crash, the degradation of his friends, watching a kid get his head dashed open on some rocks...) Because of this, Ralph was able to fully see human nature; "survival of the fittest."

He was affected by this, and he went insane. (I understand human nature, which is why I think insanity is just a thing that happens to somebody who had a stressful situation.)  And also, another reason why I chose this ending for the chapter was because I wanted Ralph to have revenge.

Isn't that part of human nature? Returning wrongs done to you? And so Ralph returned the wrong that was done to him--by killing Jack and his hunting tribe. To make it seem ironic, I had Ralph hunt the tribe, just as they had hunted him on the day that the British officer arrived. With this chapter, I wanted to show the brutality of human nature, and what people become capable of when they are pushed to their limits. (Gaaawd! This is like watching cat videos for me! Listening to literary analysis from a person who just so totally gets it! I fucking love this blog, you guys.)