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wrestlersownmyheart · 2 years

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Secrets and Stakes Ch. 1 (Damian Priest x Female Reader)

Pairing: Damian Priest X Female Reader Summary: Damian Priest holds a secret. A secret that not nobody knows the truth about. The WWE is full of vampires. AEW is full of Werewolves. When the two companies clash and his lifemate becomes a pawn, he must protect her with his life.

Disclaimers: I own nothing or anyone associated or affiliated with WWE. I own only the original characters. This is just a fictional story that came from my imagination.

Content/Trigger Warnings: Violence and blood

Note: I will be including some scenes from the May 30th 2022 episode of RAW in this chapter, but I’m not doing it verbatim. So bear with me please LOL.

Also, this story will be mostly done in Y/N’s POV, but once in a while like if she’s unconscious or something like that there will be parts that are in Damian’s POV.

Hopefully this will be enjoyed. I'm not entirely sure where it's going yet, but it'll be fun to see! It is a bit different from stuff I’ve normally written (the way it is written anyway), so bear with me please!

Chapter 1

Reader’s POV:

My name is Y/N. And this will either be a really long story or a really short story. I’m not sure yet. It just depends on how long it takes me to tell it.

I own my own little boutique in L.A. and have been so blessed to have it. I love helping someone find “just the right dress” for a first date, or even things like a baby’s outfit for its first portrait. Seeing the contented smiles on my customers’ faces makes everything I’ve gone through to get to now, worth it.

As for hobbies, I love music and movies, and I’m a huge wrestling fan. I’ve watched since 2003 when I was about fifteen. Mom and dad hated it though because I came from a Christian family and our beliefs were that that was just too worldly to bother with. But for some reason, I couldn’t help myself. I watched it in secret till I was eighteen and legally able to watch what I wanted. But please, don’t think badly of my parents. They only wanted what was best for me, I know. But wrestling? It wasn’t hurting anyone by watching it. Well, except for maybe the wrestlers that put on the matches. I imagine a chairshot never feels good.

Sadly, my parents passed away when I was twenty. They were killed in a car accident. It was needless to say… very traumatizing. And it took me years to get through my grief. I loved them so much. I’ve been on my own ever since because I had no other family.

Wrestling was what kept me sane, really. I never missed an episode of Monday Night RAW, or Smackdown, or even AEW Dynamite and AEW’s other shows as well. I inhaled it basically. I went through a spell of watching TNA as well, but after a few years my favorites went on to bigger and better things, and I lost interest in the company.

That all being said, I was ecstatic when I’d gotten my WWE RAW tickets ordered online. It would be my first wrestling show ever and I was beyond excited. I was a workaholic so I’d never had time to go to a show. But I was taking a vacation, and now had the time to go. I’d picked the tickets up later that week and guarded them with my life.

And tonight was the night.

I could hardly contain my excitement as I brushed through my hair and began getting ready for the show. I pulled on my clothes–a pair of low-rise jeans and a red RAW t-shirt since I couldn’t decide on a single wrestler’s to wear. Then I began on my minimal makeup. Within an hour, I was completely ready and heading out to my Chevy Blazer so I could get to the Crypto.com Arena.

Traffic was terrible, and I was running a bit late. Late enough to miss the opening dark match. Which didn’t break my heart exactly. It would have been nice to see the entire show, but my favorites were seldom booked for a dark match anyway.

I finally reached the parking garage and parked my Chevy Blazer in its spot, and then climbed out and headed for the elevator. Once I hit the main floor I got out of the elevator and headed for the arena.

I could hear the throngs of people even before reaching the doors. But first, I wanted a soda before heading into the stadium, so I stopped off at the concession stand and bought a diet one.

Minutes later I was in the arena on the second row from the floor, seated next to a blond guy, who looked a little like Logan Paul, with a Brock Lesnar shirt on. Great, I thought, fighting off the urge to roll my eyes. One of those.

“Hey, you here to see Brock Lesnar too?” He asked, leering at me a bit too long.

“I think you’ll be sorely disappointed,” I replied blandly. “Lesnar is never where he should be.”

“Ooo, sass…I like it,” the guy tried pathetically to flirt. And there was something about him that gave me the creeps. So I scootched away from him as far as my seat would allow.

“Listen, I’m here to see wrestling,” I tried to be polite so as not to piss him off and make myself a target, but I really wanted to see the matches.

The guy seemed to flush a bit, and I took that as a sign that I’d embarrassed him. Maybe he’ll leave me alone now, I thought to myself.

Seated to my other side, was a little girl of about six years, I’d guess. She was adorable and wore a New Day t-shirt. I smiled at the mother sitting next to her and turned my gaze on the ring. Almost instantly, pyro began going off and the show was beginning. I sat my drink down at my feet and began cheering along with everyone else.

Becky Lynch’s theme began then and she strutted down to the ring, climbing in between the ropes. She got a microphone from the time keeper and began addressing us and the viewers at home.

“Welcome to the big time! To Monday Night RAW,” Becky said. “It’s been a while since I’ve welcomed you all, but truth be told, I’ve not felt up to it without my title.” Becky went on in her spiel about how she’d literally handed Asuka her title on a silver platter and that it was a mistake because now Asuka thought everything should be handed to her.

Bianca Bel Air came out then and began chewing them both up and spitting them out, so to speak.

Suddenly, the blond guy next to me–he’d left his seat for a few moments–came back and offered me a cup of beer.

“No, thank you. I don’t drink alcohol.” I told him.

“But I just bought it for you.” He nearly argued.

“I’m sorry but I didn’t ask you to,” I replied. “Drink it for yourself.”

Oddly enough, he sat the drink down at his feet and all but ignored it. He was beginning to look pissed.

Great, I thought, for the second time that night.

I turned my attention back on the show and noticed that Bianca and Asuka were having a match while Becky watched from the commentary table. I couldn’t hear what she was saying but I could tell she was most definitely talking smack about Bianca and Asuka. And was most likely talking about how she was going to win at the pay-per-view on Sunday.

I switched my gaze from commentary to the actual match and watched as Asuka and Bianca took turns having the upper hand. Finally, Bianca nailed the Kiss of Death on Asuka and rolled her up for the pin.

The crowd counted off the referee’s taps to the canvas.

“1!…2!…3!”

Ding-Ding-Ding!

I watched as Becky made her way back into the ring and attacked Bianca from behind. She quickly hit her with an Exploder Suplex and dumped her out of the ring.

Well, that will make for an interesting match on Sunday, I thought to myself. I watched then as the arena went black.

Completely black.

Out came Edge on his throne and Damian Priest was by his side with Rhea Ripley on the other side of the throne. The throne itself seemed to sort of glide toward the ramp and then down it a ways. The three climbed into the ring and awaited Liv Morgan for hers and Rhea’s match.

Liv came out next, but not alone. She was quickly joined by both AJ Styles and Finn Bálor. I watched the three climb into the ring as well, to pander to us in the crowd.

Edge and Damian and AJ and Finn all four stepped out of the ring then so that Liva and Rhea could get on with their match.

It was strange then. I reached down to take a big few gulps of my diet soda–I was thirsty all of a sudden–when some people began running out to the ring from the barricades.

They were wearing AEW hoodies.

Sounds of confusion waved through the crowd at first and then people began to realize what was happening. AEW was invading.

I watched as hoods came down and the AEW wrestlers were revealed.

Jericho ran at AJ and began beating on him. Nyla Rose grappled with Rhea and Liv together. It seemed that the storylines were forgotten. Edge, Damian and Rhea had allied with Finn, AJ and Liv. They were watching each other’s backs. It was now officially WWE versus AEW.

“YEAH!”

Everyone was screaming around me going nuts because some forbidden door had been revealed.

“Yeah BABY!” The blond guy next to me used the distraction as an excuse to flirt with me again. “It’s finally happening!!” He grabbed me up and proceeded to grope me.

To this my reply was to slap him. “Let go of me, scumbag!”

That may or may not have been my wisest move. He grabbed me by the hair then and growled in my face. “I’ve just about had it with your rudeness. I was nice to you. I bought you a beer, and now you slap me?”

Suddenly, a security guard dressed in a black polo shirt hurried up to us. “Folks, I’m going to have to ask you to leave. You just put your hands on each other and I have to enforce our rules. So you both need to come with me.”

“You’re kidding, right?” I asked. “He was groping me!”

“I’m not kidding. You should have flagged down a guard instead of taking matters into your own hands,” He said over all the noise.

“He was holding on to me, how could I have-”

“Maam, I don’t have time to argue. As you can see I’m actually needed down there.” He motioned with his head to the ring where AEW and WWE were still fighting. Other wrestlers had come out of the locker rooms to join in the fight and even up the odds.

“You’re actually going to kick me out of the arena, when I did nothing wrong?”

“Follow me. We’re done here.”

The guard motioned for you both to get in front of him and start heading up the steps to the exit.

“I can’t believe because of you I’m getting kicked out of a WWE event,” I growled at the guy as I began to stomp my way up the steps. Tears of anger burned my eyes. I was mortified, but I was also upset that I’d miss this event. Not to mention, I had no idea how this whole ordeal with AEW was going to work out.

“Maybe if you weren’t such a-”

“Quiet. Both of you. I want you both to shut up…”

Strangely enough, everything seemed to move in slow motion from there. I grasped hold of the banister to keep from falling into anyone as I walked up the stairs. I shook my head trying to clear it but that didn’t work. My head was becoming cloudy and it occurred to me that I had possibly been drugged.

The blond man. He had the opportunity to drug my drink when the lights had all gone out. I was so stupid for drinking from that cup!

I had enough gumption to pretend everything was fine so the guy wouldn’t suspect anything. If he knew I was feeling the effects of the drug I’d be a sitting duck. However, there was only so “fine” I could portray.

We headed out of the arena and through the lobby to the elevator. Within minutes we’d reached the garage.

“Now, get in your car and go home. You’re lucky I didn't call the police for a domestic dispute.”

In my muddled state, I realized that the guard thought we were a fighting couple. “Uh… no…” I slurred out, despite my best attempts to speak normally. “I… We’re not…”

The guard had already disappeared onto the elevator and the doors closed before I could utter anything else. I turned and saw the look of malice mixed with lust on the blond creep’s face. “Looks like it’s just you and me, babe,” he murmured.

I could tell the way he was looking at me, he knew I was high on whatever drug he’d given me.

“Leave me alone,” I said, weakly, and turned to run to my car.

And fell on my face.

“Oopsie Daisy,” he singsonged, and pulled me up by my hair. “Glad that useless guard left. Now we can get to know each other better.”

“Let go of me,” I cried, fighting to stay coherent. I reached up and tried to free my hair from his grasp. When that didn’t work, I decided to try a headbutt. It connected with his mouth and I felt a tooth dig into the skin near my hairline. Wet warmth instantly began dripping down my temple.

He released me in order to hold his mouth and I took that opportunity to flee. I hurried for my car the best I could, the adrenaline flow clearing my head just enough to realize I needed to put my all into getting away.

“Help me,” I tried to scream but my voice wouldn’t work properly. Most likely whatever was in the drug was affecting my breathing and my ability to verbalize loudly. “Help!” I tried again, as my Blazer came into view. I reached it and immediately dug into my jeans pocket for my keys.

However, I must’ve not been moving as quickly as I thought I was because in the next instant, a pair of hands latched onto my shoulders and flung me around to face my bloody-mouthed assailant.

“Now… You’re gonna pay!” He growled in my face. He grabbed my keys from me and opened up the hatchback, shoved me down into the cargo space and straddled my hips.

Before I could respond, he reached down with his hands and ripped my t-shirt open all the way down the front of it.

“Stop it!” I cried, grabbing for his wrists to hold him off. But he simply slapped me across the face. The force of the slap sent my head reeling to the side. Fire bloomed up my cheek.

I reached up and raked my nails down his face, fragments and small chunks of skin collected underneath my fingernails and I took satisfaction in that as he howled in pain. If I ended up dead his DNA would be on me and he’d hopefully be caught so he couldn’t do this to another woman.

“YOU’RE SO DEAD!” He drew his fist back and punched me on the jawline.

Dazed, I momentarily went limp against the floor of my car. I felt him begin working on the button of my jeans then and I managed to begin struggling again. “Why do you keep fighting me,” He demanded. “You were practically asking for this the whole time!”

Looking back on the ordeal, I realized he couldn’t have meant I literally asked for it, because nothing could be further from the truth. But at that moment, my head wasn’t working right and all I could do was sob out a pathetic, weak “No”.

Suddenly, the creep was dragged off me by a blur of a force. I weakly raised up to find a man, beating on the blond man and cursing him for “treating a woman that way”. The beating was so rapid and severe that the creep didn’t even manage to lift a finger. It wasn’t a fair fight, to be honest, but I didn’t care.

Another moment later, my assailant was lying limp on the concrete.

I shakily managed to stand to my feet, and turned toward my car, my hand sliding over the floor in search of my keys. I needed to get out of there. Fast.

“Your keys…” a very bass-pitched voice spoke from behind me. “If they’re what you’re searching for–are here.” I heard the jingling of said keys and turned around to face who I hoped had just saved my life.

I looked up at my rescuer, and took an initial step back.

I knew who he was.

Damian Priest. The wrestler. Standing right in front of me. He was still dressed in his all black vest and pants. His long black hair was in a disarray either from the fight here or in the ring, I wasn’t sure which. Maybe both.

I gasped and took another step back, colliding with the back of my Blazer.

“Don’t be afraid,” he uttered, his already onyx-colored eyes going darker. “I won’t hurt you.” He held my keys out to me, “Here… But, please. You’re in no condition to drive. Let me get you home where you’ll be safe.”

“I…” My lip trembled, and I bit it to make it stop. I looked down at my attacker. He hadn’t moved. “Is he dead?”

His lips twitched slightly as if fighting off a smile. He glanced down at the man for only a second and then turned his gaze back on me as if I was the only thing that mattered at that point. “No, but I imagine he’ll wish he was when he wakes up.”

The shock of my attack and the effects of the drug was still weighing heavily on me. “I’m afraid,” I managed to slur out.

“You don’t have to be afraid of me, cariña. I promise.” His hand stayed out, reaching toward me, my keys still within his fingers.

Could I trust him?

I reached out slowly. Took his hand and my keys simultaneously.

And the second I touched his skin, what felt like a powerful bolt of lightning went through me, and everything went black…

}i{}i{}i{}i{}i{

Damian’s POV

Once the AEW wrestler’s were cleared out of the ring and banned from the arena, the show went on as if nothing had happened. Rhea had her match with Liv, and Edge and I watched to make sure everything went as planned.

Only it didn’t. Still ruffled from the AEW attack, I”m sure, Rhea got pinned after several minutes and after eating an ObLIVion. Frustrated, Edge, and Rhea went back to the locker rooms to get their things and head back to the hotel. Mine were already left in my room at the hotel so I began making my way to the lobby so I could hit the elevator.

Before I’d even pushed the call button, I heard the sound of a distressed female coming from the garage. I also…smelled blood.

“Screw the elevator,” I mumbled, and ran for the stairs. I hurried down three flights of steps when the smell of blood grew even stronger. I knew I was on the right level. I ran through the garage and followed the sounds of soft cries and an unmistakable slap. A second later, I heard, “YOU’RE SO DEAD!” and then “Why do you keep fighting me? You were practically asking for this the whole time!”

Hearing enough I followed the sound of the male voice till I found a man straddling a woman in the back of an SUV. Instantly, I charged at him and yanked him off her.

There was no contest, I had the man unconscious with the first punch, but I gave him several more hits just for the sake of my own satisfaction. Expletives flew from my mouth as I beat him. “You don’t treat women that way!” I growled. He fell limp to the concrete when I finished with him.

I heard a flurry of movement behind me and turned to see the woman scurrying about looking for something. My eyes fell on her keys in her attacker’s hand and I snatched them up. “Your keys… If they’re what you’re searching for–are here.” I spoke as softly as possible so as not to frighten her worse. She jolted and faced me. She was stunning despite the blood running down the side of her face. I guess I’d failed at not scaring her. She took a step back and held onto her car to stay upright. Something was off. I could smell a drug on her. Something told me it wasn’t a drug she’d willingly taken either.

“Don’t be afraid. I won’t hurt you.” I said. I held her keys out to her. “Here… But please, you’re in no condition to drive. Let me get you home where you’ll be safe.”

“I…” Her chin trembled, and I could see she was having trouble deciding whether she could trust me or not. She looked down at her attacker. “Is he dead?”

I tried not to smile as I too glanced down at the lowlife. “No, but I imagine he’ll wish he was when he wakes up.”

“I’m afraid,” she slurred out.

She looked as if she was ready to drop. I had to get her to safety. Soon.

“You don’t have to be afraid of me, cariña. I promise.” I kept my hand out hoping against hope that the beautiful young woman would believe me and take my hand.

She slowly reached out and took her keys and touched my fingers at the same time.

What happened next, neither of us was expecting.

Fire went through me and sent me to my knees. I couldn’t help but notice the woman went unconscious and fell toward the concrete. Somehow overcoming the powersurge, I lunged forward and caught her, turning so I was the one to hit the pavement. I cradled her head to protect it and laid against the concrete for a moment.

I’ve found my lifemate, I thought. The “powersurge”–as we vampires had come to call it–was proof of that. And I didn’t even know her name.

I turned my attention back to her. “Cariña? Sweetheart?” I jostled her gently trying to rouse her.

Her eyes were closed and she’d gone pale. She was out cold.

The shock of what she’d gone through paired with the effects of the powersurge had taken their toll on her.

Resign up to a sitting position, I gently laid her aside till I could climb to my feet and lift her up. I cradled her against my chest and carried her limp frame to my rental where I gently deposited her onto the backseat. Then I was climbing into the driver’s seat and speeding for my hotel. I didn’t know where else to take her. And all I knew was that I was not letting her out of my sight. I’d gone a hundred years…. Thinking that I was a lone wolf, so to speak. Well no more.

Any desires I’d had for other women were gone. The need for a one-night-stand–sometimes with multiple women–was gone.

I had my lifemate now. Whether she liked it or not.

She was mine.

If you want on my tag list just ask! :-)

Tagging:

@oreillystolemyheart@lookalivesunshine-x @shortyiceheart @vebner37 @thiccc-rider-mcintyre @kalliravenne @swamptrashwithasideofsass @chasingeverybreakingwave @bamakakechick @emisrose @sweetpea-1970 @sassymox @writertoo18 @roman-the-rat @pikapuff316 @heavymetalgirl420 @bigpsychicbagelauthor @darktammy @waywardwrestlewritingwaif @sultryfandoms @blondekel77 @reignsirish @demonqueen29 @amariemoore @letsgivethisonemoreshot @thelastemzy @cuzimacomedian @springgirlwaiting4summer @vampirepixi @wwenhlimagines @baybay-boom @louisianalady @swthrt890 @librathepheonix13 @justanerdwholikestoread

#damian priest #damian priest x reader #damian priest imagine #damian priest fan fic #damian priest fan fiction

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aurumacadicus · 2 years

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If you're still doing the ask meme: IronBat and "Wings of Fire"?

Y'all come at me with such good titles and I'm here staring at my AO3 page like :|

Wings of Fire

Bruce had a band on his arm.

Immediately the ballroom was filled with whispers. He was only carrying one drink, so clearly his beau wasn't there yet, but it was the first season he'd worn anything claiming he had one.

"I'm going to ask you something. Please don't be offended," Clark said.

"Don't tell me what to do," Bruce replied, which was basically an 'okay.'

Clark squinted at him, unsure. Luckily, Lois seemed to realize it was just him pulling Clark's leg (mostly because it was easy). "Is the band because you have a prospective mate, or because you're tired of women throwing themselves at your feet?"

"Lois, I wasn't going to say it like that!" Clark exclaimed.

Bruce stared at Clark for a moment, absolutely stunned at even his accidental admittance that that was what he was thinking. Clark was usually polite. This might have been because he'd learned by watching that there was a fifty-fifty chance that Bruce would react to nosy questions by laughing them off or beating the shit out of the asker, depending on who they were and what their intentions were.

Lois wasn't someone he wanted to beat up, and technically Clark wasn't, either. It was nice that Clark didn't know, though. It was always nice keeping Clark on his toes. "Yeah,” he answered simply.

“What,” Clark asked, whipping back toward him.

Bruce fluttered his glossy bat wings and turned to walk away. “I think I see rum punch at the snack table.”

“I can’t believe you are being mean to me when I am the only person here that is honestly delighted you finally found a mate,” Clark said, knowing Bruce’s sensitive ears would catch it.

“I can’t believe you expected anything less,” Bruce replied, knowing he’d hear it as well. Their friendship, when he allowed himself to call it that, was built on mutual bullying. They just had different definitions for the term.

He was just putting together a horrendously large plate of hors d'oeuvres when he heard people begin talking excitedly. Someone was approaching. They were going to come through the open skylight. Very few people showed off like that these days, mostly because so many previous people had gotten injured. The skylight was small, so people had to press their wings in close to get through it, and to be going at a speed that was impressive, it meant that wings had to extend immediately after passing through or risk slamming into the ground at high speeds. Most people couldn’t get their wings out fast enough. After the third ambulance a few years ago, most people had given it up. Only the few flyers who were actually built for dives and abrupt pullouts did it anymore, and only as a treat.

This wasn’t one of those flyers.

Bruce turned just as a pair of red-bottomed shoes appeared through the skylight.

Tony burst down through the skylight with all the grace of an owl, wings pressed back together as he dropped feet-first into the room. His wings were already beginning to spread open before they cleared the ceiling, flashing bright red-orange-yellow-gold in the light of the chandeliers. He immediately heard bursts of whispers breaking out throughout the room--“A phoenix! Here! In Gotham!”

Tony circled the ballroom once, twice, before his eyes finally caught Bruce and he maneuvered over to land lightly on his feet in front of him. He brushed some imaginary dust from his somehow-immaculate suit, then turned a beaming smile on Bruce, hands reaching up to push his hair out of his face. “Sorry I’m late!”

“You’re not,” Bruce said, handing him the plate. He pulled the arm band with his family crest from his pocket. “You like making scenes. You like being the center of attention.”

“I wore my best suit,” Tony said, which was basically agreeing with him without giving him the satisfaction of it. He immediately shoved an entire crab puff into his mouth.

Bruce heard more whispers as he carefully tied the band around Tony’s arm. ‘A phoenix? And a bat?’ ‘How gauche!’ ‘What would Bruce’s poor parents say?’ ‘What would Stark’s parents say?’

He pretended it didn’t hurt. It mostly didn’t, except he also wondered what his parents might say sometimes. Alfred had told him they would be happy he was happy. But his family had only married other bats for generations.

He didn’t like bringing it up with Tony, though. Tony’s parents, and he by extension, had already been through it. The Carbonells had been phoenixes for centuries. Then the war had happened. Maria Carbonell and Howard Stark had holed up in the same place during a bombing at the same time. Maria had taken one look at Howard’s broad, bland wings and said, “Well. They’re certainly broad, aren’t they.” And then they’d eloped, to her family’s fury, to the point that they wouldn’t care for their orphaned family member after his parents had died.

Tony’s wings flew up, feathers flashing a warning, and it was only then that Bruce realized people were trying to approach them. Tony was looking at him, frowning. Bruce let his hands drop from the band he’d wrapped around Tony’s shoulder to show that he was his beau.

“I will literally sink my teeth into anyone who is mean to you, you know,” Tony said quietly.

Bruce closed his eyes and sighed, exhausted down to his bones, even as he tried not to feel touched. “Tony, you can’t go around biting Gotham’s elite.”

“Fucking watch me, what are they gonna do, bite me back? I hope they do. I hope they’re ready to get absolutely clobbered,” Tony began, incensed.

Clark and Lois swept in as the other guests quickly backed off in terrified confusion. “Why is Tony biting someone?” Lois asked. She looked excited, like maybe it would be a good news story.

“The same reason he always bites people,” Bruce deadpanned. “They never expect it.”

“They don’t, they expect me to wing-bash them, but like, I accidentally broke a guy’s ribs, and Alfred isn’t even my butler but he still gave me a mean look that made my balls shrivel up inside me,” Tony agreed, complaining.

Lois stared at him, speechless. Bruce had to admit that it was nice not to be on the receiving end of the stare for once.

Clark rolled his eyes. “Anyway, Tony, it’s nice to see that you and Bruce are together. I think you’ll be good for each other.”

“We won’t,” Bruce said, at the same time Tony scoffed.

“...Anyway, I’m gonna go let the kiddos pluck me like a goose,” Tony added, turning to head toward the children’s table.

“Tony,” Bruce barked, stomping after him. “Do not!”

Collecting a phoenix feather was considered good luck. Normally, people just rushed to collect one when they hit the ground. Tony, however, had no problem letting children just fucking take one from his wings, the maniac. He apparently thought ‘they grow back immediately in a little puff of flame!’ was a good argument. Bruce was going to hopefully shake the stupid right out of him. It hadn’t worked yet, but the day would come when it did, he was sure of it.

#aurumacadicus answers #ask meme #fic title meme #ironbat

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terrence-silver · 1 year

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This is going to be a bit of a rant but I don’t think s6 of ck is going to be that good or at least to me. Maybe it’s just me focusing on the bad parts of the show and im wrong but the writing is just so bad and not logical because of the double standards. Like when terry got arrested for assault and probably witness tampering but Johnny, chozen, and mike who basically broke in and trespassed on private property didn’t face any legal repercussions or even a misdemeanor. Also when Daniel and the students who broke into the dojo and a fight was started and caused property damage, nothing happens. Even Daniel’s house got broken into by kids and again there’s destroyed property and it’s just brushed off like there’s been 3 break-ins and nothing happens. Also im not that familiar with the law especially because it differentiates in states and I never been to CA but I think terry would have the right to defend himself if they started an altercation because he protecting himself and property. I might be recounting the events in the show wrong I don’t really remember who started what so if I’m wrong I do apologize. But honestly, I’m lowkey surprised by how high the ratings are because I feel like half of the scenes are again bad, like all the love triangles or the making out scenes, also putting the few women in the show against each other like it’s just so unnecessary 💀

And i don’t wanna seem like I’m hating on shit just for the fun of it because i do genuinely enjoy the John/terry and Daniel/johnny duo and johnny’s character and even the scene of terry teaching Kenny the one move the silver bullet I think? but i understand why some people don’t like the show.

But idk maybe terry would filed charges against them because he’s mad or something, terry might even go to jail or just spend time overnight in a cell or idk just get bailed out. There still could be some potential. Sorry for the rant

No, you're right. And you should say it.

And in fact, it should be said constantly.

Precisely because the show has such high ratings and literally no critique against it.

Daniel Larusso and co. have an unrealistic amount of plotshield guarding them to the point it just takes you out of the show if you leave your brain on for too long, rendering the story into something that lacks any actual stakes even in an homage to soapy 80's nostalgia kind of show, because you know for a fact that everything questionable or outright bad the heroes do will be overlooked, either by the law in the story's universe, or the narrative itself or even other characters, rendering the protagonists fairly unlikeable, if we're honest, because at this point, no, I don't think Daniel's dojo's, Johnny's dojo or anyone else's dojo have any more right to 'take over the Valley' than Terry's. The Valley doesn't belong to Daniel and it isn't his backyard, no. And why should it be? Honestly, why? Everyone in this story is wrong in their own way. One gets the impression that morality is whatever the show wants it to be depending of which character it is bent on justifying.

As for the women, don't even get me started.

Entire needless discourse wars have been fought over female characters (and love triangles) that would've been considered underdeveloped, vapid and badly written even by 80's standards.

#no it is okay to rant #cobra kai has a hundred percent on rotten tomatoes #ranting in such cases is not only recommended but healthy #also i am the queen of the ck negativity tag so have at it #cobra kai #ck negativity

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stilemawillow · 1 year

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I’m curious as to what happens in the future for levi and reader . Would reader love someone else? And what would levi’s reaction be knowing that reader is already in love with somebody who is not him? Djskskdjsksjsnsjs

well. first, i apologise for taking soooo long to answer this. and second, prepare for a big af rant.

we can explore two timelines: a healthy one or a satisfactory one.

in the healthy timeline, the last scene in the fanfic crushes completely the idolised image reader has of levi. they take a bit of a break, so to say, and she never looks at him the same because yada yada yada - psyche stuff. important part is - they could sit down and discuss their feelings openly. and if reader's mature enough, she'll realise she's been worshipping him like a flawless deity which he isn't, very slowly snap out of it and probably go on to attempt to look at other men as romantic partners. i can't say how long that would take but she might get a boyfriend in college/uni and see the truthfulness of levi's arguments when she reflects on her feelings for him vs those for her bf in a more grown-up mindset with experience. and levi will be happy for her if she falls in love with sb else but also... twice as lonely because he knows he's the adult and has to be responsible for her mentality and relationships developing in a healthy manner but he can't help thinking he would've buckled if she'd given him a bit more time and maybe he would've been happy with her. he constantly reminds himself a guy her age is more suited for her but does sometimes go out of his way to think "what if?". hates himself for thinking it and never lets her see it out of fear it'll make her relapse into loving him again (sorry for referring to it like it's a disease lol). basically, a happy ending for her and a 50/50 for him.

in the satisfactory timeline, however, things look very different. same demolished idolised image during the last scene and same break but she thinks about it a lot before coming to the conclusion that she's loved him way too long to lose that. she decides to be mature about it and accept the fact he's human. it takes her time. she refrains from confessing and instead takes to asking him all kinds of questions so she can get to actually know him. it might take her a year or maybe two. it might be sth really trivial that makes her decide: this is it, i do love him, not the hero i made for myself when i was seven. she goes ahead and tells him. and when he tries to argue, she's the one who's having an adult talk with him. and when he sees that she's serious and mature about this, he buckles. he wants to have farlan and her mother's blessing before anything happens. both aren't opposed to it. so they try it out - one, two, three dates, they're easing into a schedule where they grow to see each other as humans, become even better friends and officially enter a relationship on her 21st birthday because she asks for it as a present. they might struggle a bit because he's still a working adult with more experience and he has his insecure moments but she's always there to reassure so the bumps along the road don't, ultimately, prevent the ride. i think in this timeline, i could see them never splitting up because both of them know how much they've sacrificed to make this love proper.

it depends entirely on you which option you pick and again, i'm sorry for the rant. i hope this satisfies your curiosity to some extent and thank you so much for asking.

#writing shitpost #kind ppl be like: this anon #anon ask #also kudos to anybody who actually goes through the whole thing - u do be patient #levi x reader

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space-writes · 11 months

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hi space! for the zodiac asks: cancer, capricorn, aquarius, pisces!

fox that is so many zodiacs. <3 (for this ask game)

cancer: how do you write emotional scenes? do you ever feel what the characters feel?

i don’t think i’ve ever fully ‘felt’ what a character is feeling, but I do try and put myself into their headspace as much as I can. when it’s a first draft, it’s entirely vibes, but when I’m editing emotional beats, I’m thinking ‘okay, so what physical things show this emotion? what metaphors or other narrative tools can I use to show what they’re feeling?’ and that’s really really fun to me. it’s a lil emotions puzzle!

i do give myself feels on occasion. or i start yelling at the characters. usually when i’m editing obedience and the boys are being The Boys™

capricorn: what does your writing schedule look like? how often does it take you to write a chapter?

my schedule usually matches my work schedule atm, because i have the kind of job that, whilst it pays like ass, lets me basically write on the job a lot. also during my commute. generally, at work or otherwise, I can usually write for about 30-40 minutes, then i gotta take a break, clear my brain, before coming back to it. if i’m at home and I get in the zone, though, sometimes i look up and oops where did my evening go?

so, my chapters shake out around 5k, ish (depending on the project), and it probably takes me 2-3 days of writing sessions to get a draft done, unless I have a massive chunk of free time. I do find if I rush to do it in a single day, though, it’s not as useful - I start trying to just get it done, instead of actually writing it.

redrafting usually takes like 1-3 writing days per chapter, and then the rest of the editing...that takes as long as it takes. It needs more breaks, so I actually focus, and it needs a lot more brainpower than drafting.

aquarius: what is the most unique thing about your current wip?

oh, I’m always gonna say the infernii. my precious babies.

pisces: how do you visualize scenes? do you see it like a movie in your head, or do the words just flow?

I have lowkey aphantasia, and find it really hard to visualise things in my head. It takes so much effort to conjure a full scene that’s not hazy and half just words. It’s full word flow when I’m writing, there’s not really images.

yes this is a fun trait for a visual artist and writer to have it definitely doesn’t make creating things harder (:

i kid, mostly. that’s what reference images and pinterest deep dives are for!

#ty for the ask!#ask games #zodiac ask game #space has thoughts

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khaleesiofalicante · 2 years

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How did you manage to make me cry again...?

You should know that I've been reading fanfiction for over 10 years and I can count the fanfics that have actually made me cry on one hand! So the same fanfic making me cry multiple times in quite an achievement...

Because of your warning, I actually got through the first two timelines without falling apart. While I was horrified when Alec almost send that mail and also when he received Magnus' letter in the second timeline, I was still an emotionally functioning human being. And then the third timeline started out so well with Izzy and Alec's conversation that I was expecting the scene where Shinyun reassures Alec of Magnus' love... so I was expecting something happy or at least hopeful. And then everything that happened afterwards just hit me out of the blue and I broke.

I can still only think: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Why did Alec have to see the kiss? I thought he would only see them in the papers, but in real life? When he just thought about kissing Magnus himself?! That is horrific! When he kept on throwing up, my heart just shattered.... I was so hopeful like 2 minutes earlier that they would finally get their shit together and that Alec would finally try to work on them as a family.. and then... I can't believe you would torture us like that!

And if that wasn't enough, then came one - if not The - most heart-breaking scene in the entire story! How dare you confront Max with literally his worst nightmare?! I just wanted to hug the shit out of Max and let him know that it's not his fault! I could just feel Max' desperation.. and I still can't... And then Max lost David.... how could you destroy both Magnus&Alec and Max&David in the same chapter?! That is just so cruel! I feel like my soul just left my body... I am devastated!

And Rafe feeling abandoned (at least that's what I am assuming is going on)... Don't you DARE go near him and Anjali! I NEED them to be still happy! They're my only life line for the third timeline...

I can't wait for you to break my heart again on Friday xD

P.S.: In case it didn't become obvious: this chapter was amazing(ly painful) and you really didn't promise too much!

P.P.S.: My snippet ask for this chapter depends on what kind of genre you want to write:

if you want something happy: third timeline Magnus thinking/day dreaming about kissing Alec again (basically the equivalent to Alec's thoughts when he thought that he might be able to kiss Magnus again)

if you want to write something devastating: David's POV of the last scene

The door slams shut with a thud.

Max, very slowly, sits back on his heels.

David just stands there, his heart thudding in his chest, for a whole different reason now.

He has been waiting for this for a while.

Well. Not this! But something like this.

He had known that it was only a matter of time until Miss Fairchild or Mr. Lightwood found out and…and everything went to hell.

He had thought Mr. Lightwood would be angry.

But he didn’t look angry though.

Shocked. Definitely. And rightly so.

But he looked…he had looked a little broken.

It wasn’t the face of a man who was thinking “how dare you do this?” as David had thought.

It was a face that said “please don’t do this to me”.

Max gets off the bed and pulls on a pair of discarded shorts. He looks at David. “I’m gonna go downstairs and handle this.”

Then he tries to walk away. David grabs his arm and pulls him back.

He shakes his head.

He doesn’t want Max to go.

He fears if Max leaves, then he might not come back.

Not in the same way that he left.

“David,” Max says gently. “I’ll be right back. Okay?”

David shakes his head again.

“Hey,” the other boy whispers. “What’s wrong?”

“I’m scared,” David whispers back.

Max smiles at that. He leans over the bed and pulls one of the blankets and wraps it around David.

“Stay like this,” Max kisses his forehead softly. “Nothing can hurt Blanket David.”

“Max,” David whispers.

“I’m going to talk to Dad. He’ll understand,” Max tells him. “I promise. You don’t have to worry about him, okay?”

Then he kisses David softly and walks out of the door.

“It’s not him I’m worried about,” David whispers to the empty room.

#i'll always pick the devastating option thank you very much!#tlnd

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amyisherenowitsokay · 1 year

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*stares very aggressively , I’m foaming from the mouth.*

Howdy-hey! I’m here to pester you abt your works! So I reread “From your memory” and I was like wowza and then I wondered…

What was your inspiration? That concept was just entirely new to me and in the good old year of 2011 I was practically ascending bc I was so invested in the story and it was actually the first fic I ever read from you. (and I fell in love teehee) So what made you write that or inspired yo to do so? Did you have an original storyline that was scrapped, and or changed ?

You don’t have to answer any of this if you don’t want to btw :)

I answer all my asks (eventually lmao) fish! Especially yours!

Long answer under the cut because I'm incapable of giving a short answer. Information about my own fics are constantly on the tip of my tongue ready to be spilled out at their first opportunity, and I'm incapable of resisting.

From Your Memory was actually genuinely inspired by the song mention in the A/N of the first chapter, which is Paramore's Ignorance. This is also where the title comes from.

"I'm not the same kid from your memory Well now I can fend for myself"

I listened to the original and acoustic version on loop. Basically what happened in teenage me's brain did was have an animatic in my head about how this song could figuratively apply to a fanfiction, developed the premise, and went from there.

This is gonna be really funny to explain because there's like legitimate scenes developed around individual lyrics in this song.

Ignorance sounds and sounded a lot to me like a dialogue. It sounded, to me, like one person was saying some parts, and one person was replying in a sort of escalating argument, but at least one party was 'ignorant' (huehuehuehue) of all the details about why they were even fighting in the first place. Based on that premise, the song will (hopefully) make more sense. I'm going to write the lyrics 'assigning' lyrics between two people, and tag them (1) or (2), depending on who I am is talking/replying, with 1 being Zim, and 2 being Gaz. I vividly imagined two people interrupting one another while fighting, hence a lot of the weird breaks.

This is gonna be so convoluted and I'm sorry ahead of time lmao.

Lyric Breakdown

(1) If I'm a bad person— (2) You don't like me (1) Well, I guess I'll make my own way (1) It's a circle, a mean cycle (1) I can't excite you anymore

Just on that dialogue, it's basically like. Zim starts off the story blaming himself for not being there when Gaz was injured, and wars between doing the easiest thing for Gaz, which is to shut up and pretend not to know her, or what he wants, which is to tell her the truth and re-involve himself in her life. Gaz is meanwhile obviously oblivious to his turmoil and is like "why are you even talking to me, you hate me." Zim of course originally chooses to aid her from the sidelines, but he's not happy about it. He essentially is "not allowed" to involve himself in her life anymore.

(1) Where's your gavel? Your jury? (2) What's my offense this time? (1) You're not a judge, but if you're gonna judge me (1) Well, sentence me to another life

Zim's resentment about the situation continues, especially with Dib being irritated about Zim choosing to keep secrets and forcing him to go along with it. Gaz is still like "dude what the fuck is your problem??" while Zim continues to be extra pissy, wishing things were different.

(1) Don't wanna hear your sad songs (1) I don't wanna feel your pain (1) When you swear it's all my fault (1) 'Cause you know we're not the same (no) (2) We're not the same (no) (2) Oh, we're not the same (1) Yeah, the friends who stuck together (1) We wrote our names in blood (1) But I guess you can't accept that the change is good (hey) (2) It's good (hey), it's good

At this point, Zim's dealing with being incapable of helping, desperately wanting to help Gaz, but not actually able to do so. He's just constantly watching her suffer without ever being able to help ease her pain.

Mentally, this was also just more arguing, but with Zim being forced to swallow the fact the meaningful friendship and borderline-relationship he and Gaz had developed is gone, and she's not interested in developing a new one the way he is. Things are different now. They simply aren't friends. He's done nothing for weeks but try to save her life, has had her literal blood on his hands, and now it doesn't even matter. He's got to move on, and he's got to continue to convince Dib that their situation has changed, and his idea is for the better. Lacking context, Gaz meanwhile is like dude take your angst and fuck off. She's also trying to convince herself that whatever is clearly happening behind the scenes, it doesn't matter, and she's better off keeping her head down.

(1) Well, you treat me just like another stranger (1) Well, it's nice to meet you, sir (1) I guess I'll go (1) I'd best be on my way out (2) You treat me just like another stranger (2) Well, it's nice to meet you, sir (2) I guess I'll go (2) I'd best be on my way out

(1) Ignorance is your new best friend (x2)

This is also another parallel back and forth, with Zim still coming to terms with Gaz genuinely not knowing their formerly intense, meaningful relationship. It's more resentment about what he lost. It's meant really sarcastically and snidely. Gaz, for her part, means it really literally. She doesn't have any relationship with Zim aside from 'that guy my brother hates,' and blows him off.

And of course, "ignorance is your new best friend" is pretty straightforward in its meaning. Gaz isn't Zim's best friend anymore, and all she has to keep her company is her new amnesia.

For this next part, queue Membrane (3). The really fun part is after this analysis, if you wanna go back and listen to this song nearly entirely from a Gaz vs Membrane perspective, it also can fit! From a Membrane-centric perspective, if you think of Membrane as he sees himself (aka not in the wrong), needing praise from the public, shrugging off criticism since it's "for the greater good," etc with Gaz (and Dib) shoving back at his preconceptions, it's easy to hear the dialogue. But continuing on, this part was mentally Membrane for me:

(3) This is the best thing that could have happened (3) Any longer and I wouldn't have made it (3) It's not a war, no, it's not a rapture (2) I'm just a person, but you can't take it (2) The same tricks that, that once fooled me (2) They won't get you anywhere (2) I'm not the same kid from your memory (2) Well, now I can fend for myself

This was more later in the story and/or right before Gaz lost her memory during her confrontation with Membrane, where Gaz knows what's going on, and Membrane's trying to convince her to cooperate anyways. Membrane is convinced this isn't something that needs to be difficult, while Gaz is warning him that she's dangerous now, has backup, and isn't going just hand over her independence at his whim.

Further Development

From that context, you can see that the story just kind of happened from there. I filled in the gaps. Why was Zim so mad at Gaz, and why wouldn't she know why he was mad at her? Originally, I wasn't sure who the (3)rd person in the lyrics was that Gaz was fighting with, but to me, it sounded like an authority figure. There's not a lot of those in the IZ universe, let alone one that Gaz would legitimately be threatened by, and eventually, it started to sound like an argument with someone gloating, and then someone who didn't even notice their gloating was actually cruel. They'd also have to be someone who Gaz knew since she was little. Someone she was invested in. Someone exactly like Professor Membrane. But then what would Gaz be arguing with dumb, well-meaning Professor Membrane about?

And thus, a metamorphosis occurred:

This is a meme I made awhile ago for my Discord friends when we discussing From Your Memory. It also makes me laugh every time I see it because it's really spot on to the vibes.

I started to consider the angle that Membrane was actually the bad guy, which, when you consider how many times 'evil mad scientist who think they're in the right' was fed to kids as a trope (and still is, tbh), it was an easy jump. And THAT was when the story really started kicking in.

This was around the time I started to hear the 'Dib is a clone' theories. If Dib was a clone, why couldn't Gaz be? If you were a scientist whose entire life was dedicated to advancement for the betterment of mankind, why would that just be relegated to advancement in technology? Why wouldn't someone just a liiiiiiittle off find themselves stumbling right into advancing the evolution of mankind as a species, too?

So then Gaz and Dib became experiments. And if you were going to make a boy and a girl, you could argue it'd just be the typical white picket fence dream of having a son and a daughter. But if you're me, and grew up in a religious environment, the creation of a man and woman as a pair sound less like siblings and more like Adam and Eve. And that's where the whole 'Gaz is an angel with wings' things came from.

The origin of evil!Professor Membrane was mostly that I thought that no one would ever see that twist coming, but reading back through it, I can definitely see small-me taking digs at my own super-scientist parent lmao.

Evil Membrane is also so incredibly fun just in and of itself. Professor Membrane is the guy above all guys in Invader Zim. He's respected, well-loved, commanding, imperial in so many ways.

I simultaneously started formulating this idea that Gaz had amnesia to keep her from being too OP and dunking on everyone. So the story pretty much fell into place after that. Obviously, the amnesia had to be caused by Membrane, to reset his 'experiment.' Dib and Gaz, as his own form of Adam and Eve, were abominations. Abominations tend to be malformed in some way, meaning they were imperfect creations. Dib was first, and therefore more of a prototype. It'd explain why he lacked Gaz's powers, why she tended to be smarter, stronger, etc in the show.

I also deeply loved the idea of Zim being in love with Gaz, while Gaz is completely indifferent in a way that was atypical than usual ZAGR stories (including MHNY). Zim wasn't fantasizing for a relationship that could be, but pining for a relationship that had been. It made their will-they-won't-they dynamic painful instead of lovey-dovey-ooey-gooey-sentimental, and ya bitch is always down to mix a good dollop of pain into my stories lmao.

Changes Down the Line

This one I'm gonna preface with to anyone reading this: don't go digging through my reviews. I'm too old and my bones are too tired to stir up shit, or incite drama.

I lost focus/desire to finish this story somewhere around I think when Gaz got kidnapped the first time (ch 19ish). I had a whole (now lost to time/deleted) chapter of her being in a warehouse, losing her shit, and breaking free via her powers.

ORIGINALLY, in a world where that version of the story happened instead of what's published, this was going to lead to Gaz being an actual, active threat to humanity incapable of controlling her powers. There was going to be a scene where Dib has to really debate on killing his own sister, or let her destroy the world in a fit of grief. Zim and Dib turned against one another because of it, with Zim fully willing to let her destroy as much of the Earth as he needs to as long as she stays alive.

It was undecided whether or not I was going to make Gaz kill Membrane, or just get really close. Most of the end of From Your Memory was me winging it and losing steam, so I was going back and forth on it.

However, I did know Dib would eventually manage to get close enough for the 'moment of truth,' so to speak, but find himself unable to actually kill his little sister. That moment of humanity would snap her back to cognizance. She'd realize just how much both Zim and Dib care for her in their individual ways, and sort of collapse. They'd eventually disappear, and the rest of story would play out pretty similarly to the published ending (assuming Membrane didn't die).

This all was scrapped legitimately because of one singular review.

Someone, and I genuinely do not remember who but I vaguely remember getting into it in my A/N's with them a few times, wrote this really rude review about how predictable the story was getting, and wrote out basically that it was obvious that Gaz was about to have a power freakout, how played out that was, blah blah blah. In 2011/2012 however, I was like 15, so instead of rolling my eyes and/or patting myself on the back for leaving enough narrative hints that the entirety of my story could be devised from what was already published, I got really mad lmao.

So in an effort to not be 'predictable' and prove that person 'wrong,' I deleted the entire chapter and rewrote it to what's now ch 20. That whole storyline was gone just cause one review really rubbed me the wrong way on the right day lmao. I think there's even an A/N even at the end of 20 that mentions offhand the scrapped rewrite.

As a reminder, this fic was finished over 10 years ago. I am not interested and would in fact be really irritated by anyone digging up the review to go harass someone who probably isn't even active on fanfiction anymore (I mean god, is anyone? Lmao). But that is what happened, and it is relevant to the question, so there.

Additionally, I was debating on writing out a few prequel chapters and inserting them somewhere in the story. Maybe 1 - 3(?) chapters written out, with a beginning, middle, and end of how Zim and Gaz's relationship developed. Like a lot of small, detailed flashbacks of when Zim first started treating Gaz, some middle bits when they stared falling for one another and really began to allow themselves to lean on one another, and then the final kiss scene, just before Gaz lost her memories.

I don't know quite remember where I intended to put that. I had vague ideas of Gaz being knocked out, those 1 - 3 chapters of flashback, and then her 'waking up' right after she slips into a coma, back in the present. These chapters were never written, partially because I couldn't figure out where to put them, and then by the time I got to scenes that could work for that kind of transition, I was really burning out with the story and just wanted to be done with it.

I think that's everything! Hopefully somewhere in this mess was a cohesive answer that answered your question! If I missed anything specific you were looking for, please let me know, and I'll be happy to answer! <3

#ravenfollower13 #zagr #zim #invader zim #iz #fanfiction #amyisherenowansweringyou #gaz #from your memory

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leecherish · 2 years

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1, 2, 3, 6, 9, 10, 12 15, 17, 20 from the deep writer asks <3

1. what's the fic youre most proud of?

hmm, right now? might be "the price of growth", it went through a lot of iterations, and i'm really satisfied with the end result! the entire fugo zine was such a nice and pleasant experience, i think i gained a lot from it <3

2. what's a fic that took you to an emotional/dark/hard place?

"a brand new doomsday" is a fairly old fic by now, but it was a very mentally exhausting process to write that one. i needed to dissect my own relationship with grief pretty thoroughly, which is why it remains probably my rawest fic (even though i'm not that proud of it anymore). more recently probably "if not in this life then maybe in the next", although i would rather phrase it as me writing it as a result of being in a dark place emotionally. same with "the eyes deceive". there's a lot of unspoken parts of myself in those ones haha.

3. what fic are you emotionally attached to?

oh, all of them! but if i had to pick just one, it would probably be "the eyes deceive". like i just mentioned, i wrote that after the hardest winter of my life, and it can be seen on a lot of its aspects. ofc it's still a fanfiction, not a vent post, but let's just say bruno's "i want to escape from this body... or at least make it my own" came from. a Place

6. what's the hardest part of the writing process for you?

editing hell. i've become pretty proficient at banging out loose first, second and third drafts, but the process of making it consistent and flow well is always a lot of painful and hard work >_< i need to somehow improve myself when it comes to this, because right now, the aspect of having to edit anything over 10k just feels... literally impossible haha.

9. what's your writing process like?

that’s a difficult question to answer. it really depends on various things, such as my mental state, how much time i have, etc... but if i had to simplify and generalize it as much as possible:

get the idea for a fic

write a loose draft of what i want it to contain, maybe some scene fragments or pieces of dialogue that appeared in my head

sleep on it, sit down to refine it, continously adding new details. minimizing the research at this stage, as well as looking for the perfect synonyms. that can come at the editing phase

connect the standalone scenes one way or another. finish draft,

enter editing hell. put on a three-hour piano/post-rock/lofi hip-hop/whatever helps me focus in that moment. suffer. take breaks.

once finished, bask in the euphoria then sleep on it.

proofread it one last time then if i decide to post it, forward it to my beta and then post it to ao3. experience the greatest high of life.

idk if this is useful for anyone sgdshdg if you have any specific questions about my writing process then idk. shoot

10. how has writing positively impacted your mental health or overall mood?

oh, it’s a great outlet for various things! it helps me to express things i struggled expressing, gives me a place to put the emotions that are difficult to deal with. in other words, it’s cathartic, even if i don’t end up posting it. and most of all, it’s connecting with people. knowing that people read my fics and get something out of it, be that a smile or perhaps even a tear, it’s unimaginable and insanely flattering, not to mention getting comments or fanart! it really made me feel like i left some sort of mark on the fandom and in this world, as sappy as it sounds.

12. What’s your perfect environment to create/write?

hmm i can write basically anywhere tbh. but i do really like having a hot drink nearby at all times!

15. How do you think your writing as improved over time?

hard to say! but i think my unsage of the language improves with every piece i write. i think i particularly improved a lot when it comes to descriptive text and metaphors, i used to be shy with those. and i think i’m better with pacing lately too, although that part is always difficult to estimate!

17. What’s the best engagement/interaction/feedback you’ve received from someone who’s read your work?

WHEW how could i mention just one. receiving fanart blows my mind every time, it’s like, you mean the words i wrote, projected an image into your head??? AND you drew it?? it’s bonkers!! same with people writing comments, i don’t get a lot of them (i doubt any writer my scale does), but i save all of them and occasionally reread them when i need a little pick-me-up <3 but the most memorable interactions i possibly had is when one time i would mention a fic of mine on twitter, and people would go “YOU WROTE THAT??”. it really made me feel like i have reached the people i wanted to reach, and that is such a precious feeling!

20. What’s the greatest gift you’ve gotten from your writing?

believe it or not, i can actually feel my writing abilities paying off whenever i’m writing assignments for school LOL. i just do the same thing as i would do with a fic, first i bang out the draft, and then continously refine it... i’m grateful for all the experience i accumulated thanks to writing, it really helps me out in these cases! but most of all, like i mentioned before, it’s the connection that i establish with it, with my friends and everyone who reads my fics. it’s a teeny-tiny community of its own! posting my fics online and having people read them makes me feel heard and understood, and most of all, accepted. sappy again i know, but i wasn’t always given these things during some of my life stages! but it was good to learn that those never last, and ultimately, all of us deserve to make their voice heard etc. cheese cheese cheese

#[booming voice] it's oversharing time #thank you for the asks <3 #my writing #<- idk feels right to put it into this tag. might change my mind abt it tho #if you see any mistakes here no you don't.#<- burnt out and exhausted and kinda beyond caring abt grammar and english isnt a real language anyway

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vadertyrannus · 2 years

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Watts won’t be doing any superhero movies he pulled out of fantastic four for that reason he said no way home was his last one I don’t think they will bring him back if he said he’s done. Plus wouldn’t make sense to bring back Jacob or Z after the last movie in the 4th would beat the purpose of the way it ended they’d have to make an appearance in the ending credit scene to lead to number 5 if that’s the direction Sony goes it. Right now they are going in the sinister six comics and that brings Spider-Man’s other love interests

You’re wrong on multiple different levels. Zendaya is most certainly gonna be in Spider-Man 4 (if the movie happens), and Jon Watts and Jacob Batalon are likely returning too.

Jon Watts did not leave Spider-Man 4. He also did not say No Way Home was his last movie. This is what he said after leaving Fantastic Four:

"Making three Spider-Man films was an incredible and life-changing experience for me. I’m eternally grateful to have been a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe for seven years. I’m hopeful we’ll work together again and I can’t wait to see the amazing vision for Fantastic Four brought to life.”

The studio also still expects him to return:

Sony and its Spider-Man producers have made it clear they expect to reunite Watts with Holland and Zendaya to continue the series. Watts hasn’t officially dropped out of that franchise, but if it were to happen, it does sound like it would be down the road.

Here’s one of two things that confirms that the studio plans on bringing Jon Watts, Zendaya, and Jacob Batalon back. This was reinforced in another interview directly with Tom Rothman, head of Sony, less then a month later.

ROTHMAN: We hope to get working on the next Spider-Man movie.

DEADLINE: With Jon Watts, Tom Holland and Zendaya returning?

ROTHMAN: That whole group, we hope.

The studio has already decided that they want both actors back, they’ve made up their mind creatively, so at this point really all it depends on is them signing on. And Tom Holland and Zendaya are likely gonna sign back on (as I will elaborate further on below). I mean, all three actors obviously want a break from Spider-Man, but they’re likely coming back. Spider-Man 4 isn’t gonna happen until down the line anyway.

Sony has said twice that the entire group is gonna return. MJ and Ned were never gonna be gone. You just misunderstood the purpose of the ending.

Zendaya's MJ and Jacob Batalon's Ned returning does not beat the purpose of the end of No Way Home. MJ and Ned were always gonna come back. They’re very important characters in the MCU Spider-Man movies. MJ especially. Michelle Jones is MCU Peter Parker’s main love interest. MJ remembering Peter is literally foreshadowed in the movie and this is corroborated by the script.

The movie makes sure to hold on MJ having a look of recognition on her face and the script puts in the effort to emphasize this. If this was their final scene together and her final appearance, this scene would have much more finality to it. The scene wouldn’t end holding on a shot of MJ, but rather with Peter leaving. Watts wouldn’t tell Zendaya to have MJ look as if she recognizes him and this moment wouldn’t exist in the script. This is basic cinematic language.

The final shot of a scene is very important, it’s the one the director wants you to remember the most. In MJ’s final scene in Homecoming, they foreshadow the romance plot in Far From Home, blatantly showing MJ staring at Peter, reinforcing that she has a huge crush on him. These two shots are very similar in nature.

The fact that they intentionally make an effort to foreshadow MJ remembering Peter shows that MJ will eventually remember Peter and they will eventually get back together. This was obviously never meant to be the final departure for the character if you interpret the scenes the way the director and writers intended for you to. The scene doesn’t have enough finality to it, there’s too many loose ends, and too many hints purposely put there by the filmmakers. And that’s by design. They want you to pick up on these things.

There are also other hints in that scene that this is not the end of their story:

MJ still has the black dahlia necklace Peter gave her in Far From Home.

The way MJ looks at and acts around Peter in the scene. She has that same glimmer in her eyes that she always has when she looks at Peter. The way she smiles, brushes her hair, is somewhat nervous around him while at the same time open with him alludes to MJ naturally being comfortable with him and maybe even having a crush on him.

MJ has a deja-vu moment when Peter finishes her sentence about expecting disappointment.

Michelle Jones is literally Peter’s true love. This is shown throughout Far From Home and No Way Home. They’re perfectly compatible with one-another, have unparalleled chemistry, make each other so happy, love each other to no bounds, and support each other every step of the way. I mean, MJ literally brings a mace to help Peter fight against drones in Far From Home and refuses to leave his side in No Way Home. It’s pretty blatant.

These particular things reinforce that MJ’s coming back:

The scene in which MJ comforts Peter, telling him they’re gonna make it through together. Upon seeing this, Andrew’s Peter reflects on whether he’ll ever find love again, after which Tobey responds that he and his Mary Jane worked out. This clearly subtextually frames MCU Peter Parker and Michelle Jones as endgame, while at the same time telling us that Andrew’s Peter will eventually meet his Mary Jane Watson (which was the plan, if TASM 3 was made).

“If you don’t, I’ll just figure it out. I did it before, I’ll do it again.” This is clearly alluding to MJ finding out his identity again, reinforced by the final shot. If their love story was actually over, this also wouldn’t have been left open.

MJ makes Peter wait to tell her that he loves her until after they see each other again. This has yet to happen, leaving this thread open. Open threads are the opposite of a concluded story.

The framing of their kiss very much conveys the imagery of two true lovers, with the way their bodies form a sort of heart shape and the way it’s contrasted by a sunset in the background.

Of course she’s coming back. She’s the Mary Jane Watson of this universe Her name is literally MJ Watson. Michelle Jones-Watson, but MJ Watson nonetheless).

Tom Holland and Zendaya’s chemistry is unparalleled. They’re literally together and in love in real life. They’re not gonna replace her as the main love interest.

Peter’s likely gonna have an arc in the 4th movie where he learns to open up to having relationships again, realize he can’t be alone and that he’s allowed to have a personal life too. He’s gonna realize that not telling them the truth was a mistake. Because Peter has to grow, in the movie. He can’t just be the same at the end of the movie that he is at the beginning.

There’s a ton of other proof that comes from interviews with the actors. In an interview in February 2021, Tom Holland stated that something he’d need to sign a new contract is:

“We’d need to keep the same core team. The director, Jon Watts, is as much Spider-Man as I am. Zendaya, Jacob Batalon.”

Tom states himself: Jon Watts, Zendaya, and Jacob Batalon are as much of a part of the MCU Spider-Man films as himself.

A month later, he also stated:

“We were all treating No Way Home as the end of a franchise, let's say. I think if we were lucky enough to dive into these characters again, you'd be seeing a very different version. It would no longer be the Homecoming trilogy. We would give it some time and try to build something different and tonally change the films. Whether that happens or not, I don't know. But we were definitely treating No Way Home like it was coming to an end, and it felt like it."

I think it’s important that he mentions these characters. As in, plural. Not just him, but also the other MCU Spider-Man characters, meaning MJ and Ned. While he did say that No Way Home is meant to have a finality to it, that’s it’s meant to end the trilogy, he doesn’t say that the two supporting actors would be gone, he states the contrary.

These statements from Holland are pretty consistently pointing to the same narrative, that all three actors would return if they continued the series.

This is also reinforced by this statement by Zendaya during the press tour.

ZENDAYA: “Well, we have no idea what the future of us or this Spider-Man franchise is or will be. I think both of us are very grateful for what it has been. And, if there’s a world where we continue and grow with the characters, that would be beautiful. If it’s a world where someone takes over, I think we’d be grateful and excited for whoever that iteration becomes. I think the possibilities are endless and we’re kind of okay with that. I feel like. I don’t know I don’t mean to speak for you but-”

TOM: “Yeah you said that perfectly.”

They’re talking as a pair, as if returning would mean both of them. I also think the body language and facial expressions of the two as she talks as well as her tone of voice reveals a lot about their feelings on the matter. You can hear Zendaya’s voice and eyes kinda brighten up when she talks about returning, Tom looks directly at her as she’s talking about returning whereas most of the time he’s looking down at the ground, and Zendaya also directly looks at Tom after saying that continuing the series and both of their characters would be beautiful. If she’s looking at her boyfriend, the person she loves most in the world, directly in the eyes as she’s saying something then it’s probably true, that’s just kinda basic psychology.

Another pretty telling quote also comes from Zendaya. After making the Time100 list for 2022, Zendaya in her interview stated about No Way Home:

“The perfect way to, maybe I don’t know end our trilogy, there’s people that are more in charge then I am so I don’t know what the future holds so I’m just saying.”

The way she says this is as if returning is something that she would be up for doing and that it’s ultimately up to the people making it. The fact that she says “our” is also another one of the thousands of instances where someone involved implies or says that if they were gonna continue the series all three of the main actors would return. She does say “our trilogy” but I think she misspoke here, because whether they make a 4th movie or not it’d still be the end of the trilogy. She wouldn’t be talking with uncertainty if she actually meant trilogy. Since she immediately started talking about how they might continue I think she likely meant to say series, and I think the fact that she says it’s “ours”, as in her and Tom and Jacob’s, is pretty telling. It’s not just Tom’s series, it’s hers too.

Therefore, Zendaya likely wants to return as much as Tom Holland does. I mean, she did say in another interview that she wanted the movie to end with Peter and MJ to go to college together, so of course she’d want to wrap up the story. And Sony has already made up their mind creatively: they want Zendaya back.

All of these things in the film, in the script, and with all of these statements by both the actors and the producers reveals that the plan is to bring Zendaya as MJ and Jacob Batalon as Ned. The fact that they said the same thing before, during, and after the release of the film is basically proof that it was never the plan to erase the two supporting characters.

I don't know where you're getting the idea that they’re doing the Sinister Six. They kinda did a "Sinister Five" of sorts in No Way Home. Feige has said they’re not gonna do another Doctor Octopus and Green Goblin because he doesn’t think anybody could outdo Alfred Molina and Willem Dafoe respectively, which is why they did the crossover. We can safely assume they’re not gonna do an MCU Electro, Sandman, or Lizard either. And they already did Mysterio. These are literally all the essential Sinister Six members. Sinister Six isn’t gonna happen.

And once again, there’s nothing that’s been confirmed about Spider-Man getting a new love interest. That’s just fan speculation. They might do another love interest but MJ is Peter’s main and will return.

In conclusion, MJ’s coming back and I can’t fucking wait. Spideychelle for the win!

#spider-man #spider-man no way home #peter parker #michelle jones #mj #michelle jones-watson #jon watts #tom holland #zendaya #mcu spider-man #jacob batalon #ned leeds #mcu #marvel #marvel cinematic universe

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quickdeaths · 2 years

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TEN Q’S:

1. When are you usually online? I am terminally online and on Tumblr in general like, all the time, but this isn’t my “main” blog so I only pop in two or three times a day just to skim and check notifications. Generally evening on weekdays and afternoons on weekends, Pacific time, is the best bet though.

2. What verses are you involved in outside of this page? I have a (dusty, kinda inactive) Dragon Ball blog, as well as a few fantasy blogs that are basically D&D + Fire Emblem things. I do have a couple hyper-specific AUs with my partner on discord as well, one featuring an entirely too complex otome game setup, and that is themed around Vampire the Masquerade.

3. What is your biggest RP pet peeve? Poor communication. I know I’m not perfect at this either, but in my very long history of doing RP, I’ve seen too many instances (both involving me and not involving me) of friendships break down because someone was upset about something but never said anything. I would much rather someone say “hey, I don’t like this thing/this thing you said hurt my feelings/whatever” than just go on thinking everything’s fine until they hit a breaking point.

4. Are you drawn to specific types of muses? Hmmm I’m not sure? I’m not sure if it’s a specific thing as much as it is “is there something I can do with this character?” The hook for me can be a lot of things, but there does need to be something that can hook me.

5. Are there recurring themes in your writing that people might not notice? Haha I doubt it. At most, I think you could say that I like putting characters in situations that they’re not fully prepared for, or veering them off course. I used to joke that my D&D character creation process was to write a background for a character with a class in mind, and then find a way to explain how they ended up in a wildly different class, like my priestess who ended up being melee fighter, or my thief who ended up gaining eldritch magic after nearly being sacrificed to a great old one.

6. What are your favorite RP trends? I don’t know anything about trends haha. I like dash memes like this one that let people talk about whatever for a while. I guess I’d say that I like the more recent trend of more relaxed aesthetics. I’m always impressed by a blog with a really pretty theme and a cool banner and custom icons and stuff, but I’m glad that that seems to be seen as a bonus rather than a requirement these days. I used to stress about making a new blog because it felt like I needed to spend a dozen hours or more pouring over themes, editing the code, finding icons, and painstakingly cultivating a specific image before I could start. I think it’s so cool that some people are into that thing, but it seems like the barrier to entry is a lot lower, and for me, I’m glad to just be able to jump in and write.

7. What is your process for starting a new story with someone? I’m a light plotter, generally. The thing I didn’t anticipate about being a multimuse was how much harder it would feel to approach people. I’ve got like 15ish characters, and unless people have filled out my interest tracker, I have no idea if there’s a specific character they like or dislike, or who they want to write with. This makes me a little nervous about sending memes, because I wouldn’t want to spring on someone a character that they weren’t at all interested in. Plotting helps, even for just simple scene set-ups like “the characters are at X event” or “they meet at Y place doing Z activity.” My experience is also that the light plotting communication usually helps communication down the road too? Like follow-up threads or memes or whatever, but for me, I prefer talking a little bit and then writing a starter as opposed to sending someone an ask out of the blue.

8. How do you feel about duplicates? As a mostly-OC RPer, I don’t run into too many. For my canon characters though, it depends on the muse I guess. For the muses like Hana and Hela who are pretty “sometimes-characters” for me, I don’t mind them at all, and I’d be happy to write my other characters opposite them. For Maki and Jason, though, I don’t think that I’d follow a single-muse blog, and while I would follow a multi-muse that wrote either of them, I probably wouldn’t write my characters with those two specifically. I'm always glad to see people loving them and appreciating them, but I guess I feel like I have a particular take on those characters and don’t want to compare myself or be compared, or have my portrayal accidentally influenced.

9. How long have you been involved in roleplaying? I started out doing RP on this old forum in... 2005 maybe? 2006? I did some stuff on Livejournal around that point as well, and then migrated to Tumblr RP maybe in 2011 or 2012. I fizzled out for a while and came back in 2015 and have been more-or-less here since then. Kind of side-by-side with all of that, though, was doing Dungeons and Dragons off-and-on from middle school through college, and now I’ve been doing two games a week for almost six years.

10. Is there a muse or verse you wish you could write in, but haven’t? I wouldn’t say that, exactly, since I feel like I have relative freedom on this multimuse to write whoever or whatever I want. There are some characters that I’ve thought about adding at various points, but just haven’t necessarily had the final push to yet. I do have my Genshin verse for some of the OCs, and it’d be nice to be able to explore that a little more, but thankfully I get to write some of it with my partner on Discord.

~~~~

TAGGED BY: @inxtricabilis (thanks!)

TAGGING: @chibitantei @cherryblossomdreamings @thuganomxcs @dilffactory @healingbrews @ssrdraw @ultimaterealmofchaos and the RPer reading this

#dash memes #thanks for tagging me!

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ginga-snappd-offical · 4 months

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Do you have any tips for practicing facial expressions? I always seems to struggle with em and can never quite get the expression I’m visualizing down on paper.

Okay so:

Let's break this down based on stylizations. Before anything else, you need to keep in mind what style you're drawing in. If you are doing something rendered, realistic, or a cartoon style that's more realistic like a lot of the DC cartoons, then you need to use references, and break things down by facial muscles and bone structure. Where as if you're doing something more simplistic, exaggerated, or shape based, you want to turn up those rules to an 11 and really lean into the rules of squashing, stretching, and follow through.

Let's start with realistic styles.

Let's use an example. Here's Mrs. Stock Image.

We want to draw a character with a similar facial structure to Mrs. Stock Image. We want to start with a Red Lining, to break down her facial features into it's core shapes, to help us as we look over our reference. I've blocked out the core shapes, and drawn arrows that help show me how the face squashes and stretches into her smile. I've also blocked off the hairline a little bit.

Now that we have a breakdown of Mrs. Stock Image's face, we can use that as a baseline for other expressions. I've done some explorations of how her face could potentially contort or change based on this information. Some things I keep in mind- when a character's mouth opens, their jaw opens so that needs to stretch every time, even if it's just a little bit. Eyebrows communicate a majority of major emotions. A person can smile when they're crying or frown when they're happy, so the eyebrows usually communicate a majority of emotional intent.

It's also important that the irises sit inside of the eyeball rather than on top of it. This helps with believable dimensions and perspective.

this is correct.^^

this is incorrect (for a realistic style) ^^^

There's a lot more that goes into realistic styles- dramatic lighting and shading can also help shape a character's expression and intent. Let's use Mr. CSP Head.

This is a completely neutral looking guy.

BUT WAIT!

Now he looks like he's emerging out of the darkness! What sinister intentions does he have?!

Oh wait.

now the lighting is soft, coming from below. Like he's being illuminated by a soft candle light. Look at how serene he looks now.

Lighting and Shadow can have a big impact on the tone, which is why a lot of cartoons will omit strong shadows up until very intense moments. There's plenty more I could say about realism, but we'll put a pin in that for today and stick to the simple basics for now.

Let's move onto cartoony styles. Since you asked me this question specifically, I'm guessing you're asking about the styles I tend to draw in. So I'll cover those for the most part.

I balance realism with exaggeration. Here's some of the exaggerations I tend to use a lot:

For simpler emotions, I tend not to exaggerate too much. There's still obvious emotions here, but it's not STRONG emotions. These would be expressions used during conversations that are pretty neutral. However, if the scene was more intense, then I'd exaggerate the emotions even MORE, like so:

The teeth are more exposed, the facial muscles are contorting more, even in this more exaggerated art style I'm still relying on the rules of reality as a jumping off point. Something else that I do that's more of a stylization choice is the inclusion or exclusion of eye shines to indicate emotions as well.

I usually use eye shines when a character is feeling a stronger emotion, and omit them entirely when a character is tired, depressed, or too empathetic to feel anything at all, like below.

Something else to keep in mind is that the iris should always be touching one of the eye lids, unless you're trying to make the character look inhuman, unhinged, or caught off guard by something shocking.

You can also play with how much you want to exaggerate an expression depending on how much energy you want to put into the character's face.

Hope this was helpful!

#art tips #art tutorials #drawings #facial expressions

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no-psi-nan · 2 years

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The Disastrous Life of Saiki K: Extra Stories of Psychics, Volume 1

Light Novel Translated by: Corredor1230 – Juan Pablo Corredor

(Link to masterlist)

Chapter 5: Avoid it! The Worst Ending

Warning: Angst

My name is Saiki Kusuo. I’m an esper.

I’m sure some of you are tired of me doing the same introduction every single chapter, but I’d like you to just accept it. I have to do it so you’ll be contextualized. Especially now that we have no images.

Well then, like I was saying, I can do basically anything with my powers. I’m as close as you can get to invincible.

For example, I can avoid being ran over by a car with ease, and I can just erase virus from my body before I get infected. Even in the worst case scenario where a meteorite falls on Earth, I can just stop it and throw it back to space. And in an even worse case scenario where an editor decides to take us off the Shonen Jump, I can just come back to haunt him as an after image, and give him a smack from behind the scenes.

Well, I can’t really do that last one. At least I have to publicly say that we won’t meet afterwards.

In any case, it’s almost impossible to hurt me. As long as I have clairvoyance and psychokinesis, I can pretty much react to any incident that comes my way.

To summarize, it’s a great benefit to my own health that I’m an esper. However, I have one big problem.

It will become really troublesome if it keeps going like that.

This morning, I remembered when I looked at the calendar.

I’m going to have to take a day off.

At least that’s what I’m thinking.

I try my best not to stand out in school. Which is why I try to avoid being early or late. Mostly because it attracts negative attention. However, if I’m a perfect record student that always gets there on time, that also becomes a problem.

That’s because of the perfect record award.

It’s an award given to a student that’s never late, never skips school and never leaves early. The award is given publicly. Awards like that are probably done differently depending on region and school, but at PK Academy, the award is very strictly only given to students who never miss a day of school.

Therefore, getting the award means getting noticed by a lot of people, which is the exact thing I want to avoid. Actually, I’m not even sure it would be a lot of people, but even being noticed by one single person would be annoying. Besides, the award ceremony is carried out in front of the entire school. Being called by the principal at the gym and having to reply, stand up and walk in front of everyone else sounds awful. There’s no way I’d ever do something like that. Besides, sometimes even parents show up at those ceremonies in PK Academy. Please give me a break.

My objective is to avoid being excellent or deficient.

I try to place third in five-people races. That’s my position. Coming in first is out of the question, and second is no good either. I don’t want people to cheer on me, but I also don’t want them to make fun of me. I just want to do everything without standing out and live a quiet life. Being known as a lazy student is also inconvenient, and being known as a prodigy student is troublesome as well.

This might be an exaggeration on my part, but I also try to avoid standing out for being too normal. So I’m skipping school today to avoid getting the perfect record award.

I take a quick glance at today’s schedule. I have no important homework for today, no quizzes, and I’m not on cleaning duty either.

Alright, today’s the perfect day.

The best days for me to take a break are days when nothing specially good or bad is going to happen.

Pyrokinesis: in other words, the ability to control fire. It’s a power that could even get strong enough to make flames appear from your hand. Of course, a certain Dark Wings I know would be thrilled to have it, but I’m going to use it for something different.

Using my powers, I can raise my own temperature and make it seem like I’ve caught a cold. It’s kind of hard to control, but after a while I eventually find the perfect temperature. I can’t openly admit that I’m not going to school only to avoid receiving the award. I’m sure my mom would get mad at me for that.

Being able to skip school without any consequences, I just lie in my bed, looking at the same old ceiling as always. First period has probably already started.

I’m going to stay at home all day, so that I can properly pretend that I got sick.

It’s so quiet. Quieter than when I’m walking around the city, or than when I’m at school.

I take a deep breath, and close my eyes.

The amount of thoughts that I can hear at home is a lot smaller than at school. There’s no limit to how many people’s thoughts I can hear daily with my telepathy. But at home all I can hear is the sound of cars passing by every now and then. Since I can’t turn it on or off, this is truly peaceful and perfect for taking a break.

(Agh! I stepped on some poop!)

Well, I can hear the thoughts of pedestrians outside and some of my neighbors every now and then.

(Eh?! I stepped on another one! Damn it, one with each foot!)

This guy seems to be having the worst luck ever today.

“Those damned owners! At least take the time to pick your pet’s feces! Damn it!”

I hear his actual voice coming from outside the window. Good grief… how annoying. I move my sight to the window, still half asleep, and look at the curtains being moved by the breeze.

Oh, the window was open?

I opened it to let some air flow into the house, but forgot to close it later.

I close the window and lock it, just in case. I can do all this still lying in bed, just like I can turn off the lights as well.

It’s still a big upside, even though I have to hear people think about stepping on poop and whatnot.

Thinking about that, I start dozing off.

“Heat up! Come on, do it! Burn, burn!!”

I was dreaming. For some reason I couldn’t see his face well because of the light, but Hairo was there, too. Maybe it’s because I’m feeling guilty for skipping school, but it was a strange dream where Hairo was waving a tennis racket, for some reason.

I open my eyes, feeling warm, and having some trouble breathing. For some reason the room looks brighter than usual… No, that’s not it. This is—

I jump out of the bed. One side of the room is burning.

My bookshelf has completely collapsed because of the fire, and the floor and walls are on fire as well. Even the bed is starting to get burnt. This is bad. I try running out of the room, but I can’t breathe. I can’t see anything. I try to move forward anyways, and eventually I reach the door. I gasp for air after touching the doorknob. It seems like it got hot because of the fire, and now I don’t know whether my mind has gone numb, or whether that feeling right now was pain. Did I just burn myself? This is the first time I’ve ever suffered a burn before. I somehow manage to bring the door down with my body, as it falls on the floor, which is also on fire, just like the stairs and the first floor. Everything’s on fire.

I try to keep my body as low as possible, trying not to breathe in any smoke.

I can’t breathe. I need to go outside!

I get ready to teleport myself outside, but—

I can’t use my powers?!

I’m surrounded by the floor’s smoke and fire again.

Why? Why can’t I use them now? Come to think of it, I can’t hear the thoughts of people outside anymore either. I can’t hear anyone’s thoughts. Even after trying to take out the fire with a swift movement of my hand, nothing happens. I try using my x-ray vision, or my clairvoyance, but I can’t see anything. I’m all alone in the middle of a raging fire. I can’t hear anyone’s thoughts, even though I should, and I can’t see anyone’s face no matter how hard I try. I’m struck by a terrible feeling of solitude. Almost as if I were the only person left in the entire world. I’m surrounded by the fire. I need to survive. I always thought superpowers weren’t that big of a deal. But losing them at a moment like this…

Am I going to die here?

Am I going to die without ever getting my powers back?

No, that’s not it. This is a dream.

I open my eyes, startled.

I sit on the bed and look around the room. Of course, there’s no fire anywhere. Nothing at all has changed since last time. My bookshelf’s still there, just like always, my television, and my plants, and of course cleft chin Nendo Riki and Dark Wings Kaido Shun as well…

Why are you here?!

“Eh? Finally woke up, partner? We heard that you caught a cold.”

“Are you okay, Saiki?”

For some reason the two of them are inside my room.

Nendo and Kaido… when did you get here? How did you come in? Through the ventilation ducts, through the pipelines, through the window? Was it the window? I’m sure I locked it earlier…

I’m sure I’m making a pained expression. Nendo looks at me and answers.

“If you’re confused, your mom invited us in. She told us to come to your room.”

Why did she do that?

“Also, she told us to look after you since she was going shopping.”

Why did she do that?

So basically, we’re the only ones inside this house. And I’m supposed to pretend that I’ve caught a cold and that I was sleeping. This is the worst. It’s even worse than those Mayan predictions about the world coming to an end.

I unconsciously screw my face as I feel a throbbing pain in my head.

“You should get some rest.” says Kaido, while I remember the dream I just had.

My head hurts. Did I predict the future?

Whenever I sleep and then immediately get a headache, it means that I’ve just used my clairvoyance. Just like with other powers, I can’t just turn my clairvoyance on and off. And it’s not like I can just pick any moment in the future and know what will happen. Clairvoyance suddenly comes at random and shows me events that will happen. It’s usually completely useless stuff, but this time it seems like something serious.

In my vision, I didn’t suddenly lose my powers, but I was always like that. If that were to become reality, then we might as well rename the manga to “The Disastrous Life of Powerless Saiki K”, without the ᴪ, which was just a very geeky idea by the author, that I’ve just had to learn to deal with week after week when we’re published on Shonen Jump. What a scary thought, though. I think we’d have to change the genre to psychological horror.

However, the real problem isn’t that, and neither is it the fact that I saw Hairo in my dream, but that this place is going to catch fire. There’s no doubt that a fire that size would burn the entire house to the ground.

My dream predictions are always 100% correct. This house will burn in the near future. However, I could only see what happens afterward, so I don’t know the cause. Well, I do see two potential causes right in front of me, considering Nendo is just an idiot, and Dark Wings Kaido is obsessed with things that catch on fire. Though since they obviously didn’t just come here to set things on fire, it’s still impossible to know what the cause will be. I can change the future slightly. All I have to do is find the fire while it’s still contained, and put it out before it goes out of control.

Good grief… what a bother.

“Eh? Right, we brought you something,” says Nendo as he brings out something. What?! Don’t tell me this is the cause of the fire! I carefully look at Nendo’s hands.

However, unlike what I expected, it’s just a manga volume.

“You’re free anyways, right? It’s the first volume of Shinseiki.”

“Shinseiki”? I had never heard of it.

I take it and look at its long title “Shinseiki Idol Densetsu: Kanata Seven Change”. I see. I definitely had never even heard of this manga. Well, I kind of get the feeling that someone I know bought it at some point. Also, Nendo said “first volume” but this is more like the “only volume”. Who’s the author? I see. Okay, well, I guess I’ll try reading it eventually.

In any case, this doesn’t have anything to do with the fire.

But now Kaido pulls something out of his pocket.

“Saiki, want to play a game? I’m sure you’re free, anyways, so I brought this to you!”

Kaido had a memory card in his hands.

“It’s loaded with a copy of Wonder Adventure’s Plasma Warrior. You can even enter the hidden dungeons.”

That’s a game that I’ve never heard of, but I still take his useless present. Well, I still thank him for the memory card. I might be able to use it eventually.

But this is still not it.

I closely examine the memory card time and time again. There’s nothing special about it, other than data. How will the house burn down, then? I don’t have this Wonder whatever device at home. But it also doesn’t feel like anything will explode if the three of us try to play it together. I hope not, at least.

I keep thinking about the possible cause of the fire.

“What’s wrong Saiki? Are you still sick?” Kaido asks with a grimace. This is bad, I don’t think I can examine this memory card anymore.

“That’s it! I also brought something useful. Here’s a mask, considering you caught a cold.”

Kaido looks in his bag for a while and takes the mask out.

“Here it is. The ‘Monster Destroyer’ mask that I saw at the pharmacy.”

Here’s the face mask that’s completely useless for my current situation.

I’m sure they were selling it as a party item, anyways. It’s just like those horse masks that were popular a few years ago.

Good grief, what a useless item. Who would ever wear this?

I closely look at the mask Kaido gave me. It’s the kind of product you buy only once in your life.

“Pretty cool, huh? I bought it to match mine.”

Kaido’s eyes shine with excitement as he takes out a similar but different colored mask from his bag. Seems like I found the guy that will buy more than one of these.

This is also completely unrelated to the fire.

I hold the mask as I keep thinking. My prediction will come true no matter what. And it has to happen in the near future. Most likely today. However, I really can’t see what the cause could possibly be.

“Eh? This is amazing!”

Nendo takes the mask away from me, and before I realize it, he’s already wearing it. Good grief, it really is dangerous having him around without knowing what he’s thinking.

“Hey, you bastard, I bought that for Saiki!”

Kaido extends his hand and demands that Nendo return the mask. Nendo just holds it up high so he won’t reach. Then, almost as if laughing at Kaido for being short, Nendo puts the mask on.

“Give it back! Ugh… I can’t reach!”

“Eh? It’s pretty dark and calm in here!”

Nendo is pretty buff, so he really does look like a minotaur with this horse-like monster mask on. Upon a closer look at it, the mask is actually pretty similar to Nendo’s regular face. Maybe it’s because the mask is very well crafted, or simply because Nendo’s real face already looks pretty close to a Monster Destroyer. It’s bizarrely close to his real face.

I look at him, and eventually we look at each other. Or did we? In any case, the horse-like monster face is looking at me.

“Hey, partner. Aren’t you hungry?”

Okay, seems like he’s back to this already. And now that he mentions it, I realize I am indeed hungry. Come to think of it, I haven’t eaten any proper food all day. I’ve just been sleeping.

“Alright, then wait here, partner! I’ll go prepare some good ramen for you! You can’t get better if you don’t eat!”

The bizarre creature with Nendo’s body and the Monster Destroyer head dashes out of the room. Kaido follows him.

“W-Wait! The mask… Saiki, I’ll go help Nendo. I’ll make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid, so you just rest. Sleeping is key when recovering from a cold.”

Sorry for all this trouble, Kaido.

I appreciate Kaido’s good intentions, but there’s no way I can sleep in this situation. Oh well… looks like the cause was you guys after all. I just confirmed the dream I had.

I use my x-ray vision to look at Nendo and Kaido in the kitchen.

It doesn’t mean I can’t do anything just because I’m supposed to be in bed. If I let these two do as they please, I’ll be enjoying their delicious ramen in heaven tomorrow. I need to control them somehow.

In the kitchen, they’re getting everything ready.

Kaido is taking some bowls, and Nendo takes out some prepackaged ramen from his bag.

“Alright, time to prepare some good ramen!”

Nendo is getting fired up. I can’t help but feel worried. More importantly, that mask on his face makes him look like a complete monster. No, that’s not quite right. It makes him look like a complete Monster Destroyer. However, just one look at Nendo’s huge hands makes me think that he must be awful at cooking.

Ignoring my concerns, Nendo rinses the pot with water, and then fills it up to start boiling it. Can he even see what’s in front of him with that mask on?

I look at the stove turn on, and then call it.

This must be what causes the fire. Nendo starts reading the instructions on the back of the package while the water boils. Can he even read what’s in front of him with that mask on? I’m worried.

He mutters something from inside the mask.

“I can just do this by feeling, right? Eh?”

This is bad! Nendo is definitely not suited for cooking!

Kaido, who’s much more careful and delicate than Nendo, should be the one taking care of this. Please, Kaido. Don’t let Nendo cook.

I plead for Kaido’s help. But Kaido is just making funny faces while looking at his reflection in the knife he’s holding.

This is bad! Kaido is also incompetent in his own way!

“Ha! Ha! Ha! It’s been a long time since I’ve fought some small fries like you!” he says while he flimsily holds some uncut onions in his other hand. He starts spinning the onions around, and lightly rubs his finger against the kitchen knife’s blade. The entire scene is far too dangerous, and I can’t watch.

Maybe he’s a master of the knife?

Kaido finishes cutting the onions, and just as expected, they’re a complete mess, still attached in several parts.

“You’re not cutting them, eh?”

“When you reach my mastery level, just cutting them regularly is not enough.”

What are you even talking about?

He then clumsily starts throwing the onions into the water, and Nendo complains.

“Those onions won’t work like that!”

His voice coming out of the mask. He then forcibly takes the onions from Kaido’s hand. Destroy Onion Monster… for some reason that phrase comes to mind.

“Damn it. Cut them properly…”

He starts muttering, while his mask’s expression remains completely unchanged, and then begins cutting the onions. Looking useless, Kaido also begins muttering some complaints under his breath, and looks for something else to do.

“Alright then… in that case, I’ll take care of the eggs. Eggs are nutritious and delicious. Oh… the shell… No way… The shell fell in…?! Is this what they call fate…?!”

Please, Kaido, give fate a break.

I wearily watch the shell get mixed with the egg white.

“The shell’s still there! Damn it, do it properly…”

Once again, Nendo takes the plate and the eggs from Kaido, and starts separating the egg and the shell with some chopsticks.

I take a look at the nightmarish sight of a horse-like Monster Destroyer standing in my kitchen, the mask dangling all over the place, as he starts taking care of all the cooking.

“Eh? Seems like it’s finally boiling!”

Nendo starts mixing the noodles with his chopsticks, and stirring them around the bowl, looking clearly satisfied with himself. He then throws the egg inside. Then, for some reason, he starts throwing every single condiment he can find in there, one after the other.

What are you doing, Nendo? Kaido, stop that self-proclaimed professional chef! Hey, wait! Why are you adding curry as well? What are you trying to prepare here?! Are you really preparing ramen?

After adding as many condiments as were humanly possible, Nendo takes off the mask, and wipes off the sweat. He then carelessly leaves the mask right next to the fire.

“Whew… It’s hot… Eh? I can finally see in front of me!”

So you weren’t seeing anything…

Now that you can see, at least take a look at what you dare call ramen right in front of you… Though I guess it’s too late to even call it that anymore.

“Eh? What the hell is this?! Smoke is coming from the mask!”

“You idiot! What did you do?! What’s with this smoke?! Ugh! My eyes!”

The mask Nendo took off has caught on fire. Smoke keeps towering over the mask and raising towards the ceiling. Nendo and Kaido start crying in pain, as smoke enters their eyes and surrounds them. I see, so this is how it starts.

This is the moment that my clairvoyance predicted.

Here it is. This is the cause of the fire.

I open my eyes wide. In an instant, I find myself in front of the fire that was rapidly spreading slows down and extinguish it. Now I should turn on the extraction fan. I reach the switch with my finger and turn it on. Fortunately, the two were panicking so they didn’t see me doing any of that.

Once the smoke is out of the kitchen, the two finally calm down, and pick up the mask.

“How lucky. It only burnt a little.”

“That was dangerous. Today is windy, so we have to be careful with fire.”

Though you were the one that started it in the first place.

In any case, with this, I’ve finally cleared that prediction.

I managed to change the future. It should be fine now.

I look at Kaido and Nendo getting back to cooking with my x-ray vision and predict yet another ominous scenario.

And a few moments later—

I hear a knock on the door, and my prediction becomes reality. The… ramen-like thing that Nendo and Kaido prepared is placed in front of me.

“Eat up, partner! It’s delicious!”

You at least tried it, right?

“Saiki, you might not be hungry, but you have to at least force yourself to eat something, or you won’t get better!”

Kaido… actually I am hungry. I am, but…

I take the chopsticks in my hand and take a careful look at the bowl in front of me.

It looks surprisingly normal, though. It’s served in a neat, little bowl that’s actually quite charming. However, its appearance in contrast with their displayed cooking skills just gives it an eerie feeling. I might actually fall sick if I end up eating this. That’s a consequence that even a non-esper would easily predict. They say that food will generally taste as good as it looks. But if I eat this, then I might end up dying and fulfilling the prophecy I saw in my dream.

I can’t eat this…

I look at it, and my face instinctively reacts.

Nendo and Kaido are looking at me, expectant. They tried their best. Even though they just had to prepare a simple instant ramen, the onions, the egg, and then the fire all caused them a lot of trouble.

They don’t know it, but I saw it all with my x-ray vision.

Ugh… There’s no other way…!

I brace myself and take a tiny sip.

My heart is racing as I put the spoon in my mouth, and then eat it. Nendo and Kaido look at each other relieved that I’ve started eating.

The chopsticks in my hand immediately start trembling.

“What do you think, partner? Pretty good, huh?”

“What’s wrong, Saiki? Does it taste bad?”

My entire body is shaking. And it’s not shaking because the ramen tastes bad, or because there’s some raw meat mixed in with it.

It’s just…

No way…

It actually tastes pretty average. The ramen in front of me tastes just like it looks: average.

Nendo… can you actually really cook?

I shudder as I realize the shocking truth.

I never imagined that at least Nendo’s tongue wasn’t completely stupid. I always just assumed all of him was stupid, but this is a nice surprise.

Come to think of it… the one who messed up the onions and the egg was Kaido. In comparison, Nendo was actually considerably competent.

I’m even more shocked than I was by the fire.

I think about it as I keep eating. And yet, I’m struck by a strange feeling.

Wait a minute… this is strange. For some reason I can’t calm down.

I keep drinking the soup.

I predicted the fire in my dreams.

My predictions are absolute, and we averted the crisis earlier… Then, why…? Why do I still feel uneasy? Was that really enough to fulfill the prediction? Can I just assume that Monster Destroyer mask was enough?

Maybe I haven’t reached the moment where the fire actually starts.

I look at the ramen, deep in thought.

Does this mean there’s still something else…?

“Eh, partner. There’s plenty more for seconds, so eat up.”

So there’s still some ramen left…

Seems like I was completely underestimating Nendo’s abilities. I never thought he would even prepare enough for seconds. However, if it really is true that we haven’t reached the fire yet, then I can’t let Kaido and Nendo stay here any longer.

Nendo will definitely try to carry me to safety, and probably Kaido as well, recklessly trying to save us all. It doesn’t take any clairvoyance to assume that’s how it will go down.

As for Kaido, he always forgets to stay in character in moments like that. And I’m sure that he would put my safety over his if something happened. It’s precisely because Kaido is a good guy, that situations like these are particularly dangerous.

That’s why I can’t get them involved any further.

Making them stay would be wrong.

I feel kind of bad saying it after they’ve prepared me a meal, but I need them to leave.

I leave my chopsticks to the side and get ready to tell them to go. I can deal with a fire no problem, if I’m by myself.

If only I could get them to leave before that…

But would that be okay, though? Am I really okay with that?

Ugh…

I feel another throbbing pain in my head. And then in an instant, I see countless images flash in front of my eyes.

I see, so that’s how it is. I never imagined this was the way to prevent the fire.

I take my chopsticks in my hand again and keep eating.

I may have eaten too much.

I stay in place, feeling completely stuffed. I kept eating one ramen bowl after the other, until I couldn’t even move anymore.

This is bad… I’m feeling genuinely sick.

I’m lying down in bed.

“Eh? Partner? What’s wrong?”

“I’m sure he’s just tired. We’ve helped enough. I think it’s time we go home.”

Kaido places a blanket over my motionless body and puts the mask that Nendo had been wearing until just recently over my face.

Why am I getting tortured?

“See you tomorrow at school, partner!”

“Saiki! Get well soon!”

The two say, as they shut the door slowly and leave my room.

I can hear them walking on the floor as I turn around and feel slightly relieved. I take the Monster Destroyer mask off my face and sigh quietly.

Good grief… finally some peace.

Still…

I never expected Nendo and Kaido to show up. No one from elementary school or middle school ever visited me.

I hear the front door open and then close. They went home.

Then I hear Nendo’s ridiculously loud voice coming from just outside the window.

“Eh? Did I just step on something?”

I also never expected that eating up all the ramen was the way to avert the fire.

I lie in my dark bedroom as I listen to Nendo’s conversation with kaido.

“Is that a cigarette butt? Who would throw one out in a place like this?”

“We can’t just pretend it’s not there… maybe we should look for a trash can and throw it out.”

And so, they walk away.

The cause of the fire was the cigarette butt that Nendo just stepped on all along. If Nendo hadn’t stepped on it, then my house would’ve caught on fire.

You might think that’s a stupid cause, but that’s how easy it is to change the future. By eating up all the ramen they prepared, Nendo would take a little longer to leave. And then, by chance, he’d end up stepping on the cigarette butt. A cigarette butt that, otherwise, would’ve been blown by the wind into my house and eventually create a fire. Now there won’t be any fire. I’ve avoided a terrible future.

Despite being always so unpredictable, Nendo managed to behave exactly as planned this time.

Their two voices start sounding distant, and then I hear complete silence.

I look at the empty bowl inside the room. The sound of the clock that I’m used to sounds a lot louder than usual for some reason. Maybe it’s because Nendo and Kaido were here just moments ago, but my room now seems incredibly quiet and spacious. Maybe even a little chilly.

No, wait a minute.

What’s this? Don’t tell me I’m actually feeling lonely? No, there’s no way. Absolutely no way. I’m happy that those noisy idiots finally left. In fact, I’m thrilled to finally get to have some peace and quiet. That’s how I’ve always been. When I was in elementary school and in middle school, I always preferred peace and quiet. That’s how I chose to be. On my own accord.

However, here’s a pretty interesting thought.

It might sound strange, but just the fact of letting Kaido and Nendo stay for a little longer, having them cook for me, and then go home, managed to change the entire future.

The future really does change massively even with the smallest changes. Then that must mean that just meeting Kaido and Nendo has also changed my future dramatically. And it will keep changing from now on…

If I hadn’t been placed in the same class as those two, then we would’ve never met, and they wouldn’t have visited today.

I think about it and start feeling uneasy yet again. Why am I feeling uneasy? I’m sure I managed to avert the fire, but I’m still not calm at all. What am I feeling? This is something different.

I keep coming up with different words to describe it as I lie in my dark room, but I can’t find anything convincing.

Damn it, the only one I can think of is that I feel lonely. I feel lonely.

I turn around over the bed over and over as I mull it over. But no matter how many times I turn around, I still feel uneasy.

Good grief… I know I said how not being able to turn my telepathy on and off can get annoying, but at least it does help me organize my own thoughts better.

When I think about that, I realize that I wouldn’t want anyone hearing what I’m thinking right now out of pure embarrassment. And especially if Nendo and Kaido heard this, I think I’d get so embarrassed I could die.

I’m really glad no one can hear my thoughts.

Huh? What? A reader?

Come to think of it, you’ve been reading this entire text all this time.

But that’s okay.

Even readers can’t really know what I’m thinking. I’m sure you don’t know what this uneasy feeling I’m referring to is. There’s no way for you to tell what I’m feeling, when I don’t even know what it is. There’s absolutely no way.

Those of you reading this aren’t espers, after all.

I point my finger towards the switch, and turn the light on, just in case.

I’m an esper. There’s no doubt about it. It’s going to get dark soon.

I start reading a manga in my quiet room.

#extra stories of psychics #saiki k #saiki no psi nan #the disastrous life of saiki k.#sknpn

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